Cue images and sound

Post production companies are the engine room of the film and television industry. NZBusiness profiles one of the country’s most successful players.

Auckland-based Images & Sound has long been a stalwart of New Zealand’s local film and television post production world.

While you may not know the name, you will certainly recognise many of the programmes the company has worked on – such as Season 1 of Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog, the Netflix series Power Rangers, as well as a number of shows for international studios, such as NBCUniversal and the BBC, plus local productions Whina, Muru, My Life is Murder, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Outrageous Fortune to name just a few.

Launched in 1983 as Video Images, the business rebranded ten years later to Images Post, reflecting a shift in focus from adverts to feature films and television.

“Around this time Steve Finnigan and I became staff members at Images Post and its sister company Mandrill Audio, which eventually merged to become Images & Sound Complete Post Production,” recalls co-founder Grant Baker. “Steve and I were both prominent in our divisions as heads who knew how to run things, and we took over sole ownership in 2008.”

Fast forward 15 years and the business now occupies two adjoining buildings in Grafton Road, where 30 full-time staff and a number of regular freelancers pump out the work.

Each year that production volume has steadily increased, says Grant, requiring a rigorous upgrade program to allow the company to work across multiple projects simultaneously.

This is a business that has had to move with the technology times, one of the biggest being the move away from film to data cameras.

“Back in the day we needed Telecine chains worth millions of dollars to transfer film to videotape. Now we require servers worth millions of dollars to handle the masses of data from modern cameras,” explains Grant.

“We’ve also witnessed a large increase in the amount of international projects being shot in New Zealand. In the 1990s we saw several scripted TV series being shot here, putting New Zealand on the map as a filming destination, which has steadily grown over the years into a big part of the industry today.”

Grant says the major milestone in the company’s history was the building of its purpose-built facility that allowed clients to complete their entire post production in the one place. This was a game-changer for the producers of scripted, episodic TV series that have multiple episodes in various stages of completion.

“It introduced a lot of efficiencies for producers and directors,” he recalls.
 

Navigating the disruptions
When Covid-19 struck at the start of 2022 Images & Sound had to come up with a whole new way of operating virtually overnight. Production deadlines still had to be met.

“As business owners you constantly need to adapt to challenges as they present themselves and you can’t rely on doing things the same way you always have,” says Grant. “Thankfully our staff are on the same page with the business and had no issues shifting to a new way of working.

“Our clients were just pleased we could still meet delivery deadlines and ‘On Air’ requirements through the various lockdowns.”
Covid validated the shift in how Images & Sound now post produce content, he adds.

“Some of our artists had been working remotely prior to Covid anyway, but the lockdowns meant most needed to do just that. And all of our clients needed to be able to approve things remotely.

“While we had been doing this previously for our overseas-based clients, Covid meant our local clients needed to adopt this same method of approval, which has now become a more accepted and efficient way of signing off work.”
 

Hands-on managers
Having worked their way through the company, Grant and Steve are still very much hands on when it comes to management style, and across all aspects of the business’s daily operation.

“We are fortunate that most of the staff have been with us for a long time and need very little direct management,” says Grant. “We are a team with a range of individual creative specialisations that combine to create magic on screen.”

The post production industry is driven by creativity, attention to detail and deadlines, he explains. “And with schedules constantly changing but deadlines rarely moving it is often a juggle getting those planets to align.”
 

A busy year ahead
2023 is proving to be another busy year for Images & Sound. Grant says they are witnessing a slight slowdown in the global film and TV industry, but it’s not affecting them.

“As we’re at the end of the production process we are flat out working on a number of projects that were shot or commissioned last year and going into production this year.”

He believes the global slowdown means New Zealand must now promote itself as the preferred place to shoot and post produce international productions.

“In addition, local productions must continue to find an international audience that helps grow the local industry.”

The Auckland film screen industry has seen a ten percent growth in GDP every year for the past four years, and 13 percent growth in the post production sector in 2022.

Grant says this growth has fuelled creativity and created opportunities for Images & Sound to continue growing.

“We are incredibly proud of the calibre of projects we have been trusted to deliver and the opportunities we have been able to provide our staff to collaborate with some of the best in the business. And we look forward to that continuing to grow into the future. Every year we see the calibre of projects improve and 2023 is no different.”