Hawke’s Bay Is Open for Business: Introducing the New Screen Hawke’s Bay Production Guide
A new production guide is putting Hawke’s Bay on the map as one of Aotearoa’s most exciting emerging screen destinations showcasing the locations, people, infrastructure and regional relationships ready to support productions of all scales. There is a simple message behind the new Screen Hawke’s Bay Production Guide: Bring your next production to Hawke’s Bay.
DOWNLOAD: Screen Hawke’s Bay Production Guide
After months of work, conversations, photography, design and collaboration, Screen Hawke’s Bay is proud to launch a new guide designed specifically to show producers, directors, location managers and production companies what our region can offer. It is more than a collection of beautiful photographs. It is an invitation.
Hawke’s Bay has an extraordinary range of landscapes within a relatively compact region. From the rugged coastline of Māhia and Pōrangahau to the Heretaunga Plains, the Ruahine, Kaweka and Maungaharuru ranges, the region offers beaches, bush, rivers, mountains, farmland, orchards and vineyards. Add Napier’s internationally recognised Art Deco architecture, historic homesteads, rural townships, industrial environments and working ports, and producers have an enormous visual palette to work with.
The guide captures that diversity but also makes the case that Hawke’s Bay is practical for production. A production can move between dramatically different environments without losing significant shooting time to travel. That is a significant advantage.
One of the key messages of the Production Guide is that Hawke’s Bay is developing the infrastructure and relationships required to support screen production. Screen Hawke’s Bay works across the region with local authorities, iwi, landowners, suppliers and local talent, helping productions navigate the region and connect with the people they need.
The guide outlines the region’s five local government bodies Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Napier City Council, Hastings District Council, Central Hawke’s Bay District Council and Wairoa District Council — and highlights Screen Hawke’s Bay’s relationships with these authorities and the Department of Conservation to help manage filming permissions and relationships.
The Hawke’s Bay Screen Protocols are also an important part of that offering, creating a collaborative approach between local authorities, mana whenua and Screen Hawke’s Bay and helping provide a clear pathway through the permitting process. That is what being a regional Film Office is really about. Making it easier for productions to say yes to Hawke’s Bay.
The guide even highlights individual production-ready locations including Pukeora Estate, Mission Estate Winery, Napier Prison, Te Mata Estate, Church Road Winery, Elephant Hill, Craggy Range, Black Barn Winery, the National Distillery, Te Mata Peak and Waimarama Beach.
And these are just the starting points.
The Production Guide deliberately puts people alongside places.
“He tangata. He tangata. He tangata.”
Hawke’s Bay is home to Ngāti Kahungunu, one of Aotearoa’s largest iwi, with a rohe stretching from Wairoa through to the Wairarapa. The guide recognises the importance of engaging appropriately with iwi and mana whenua, particularly when productions are considering culturally significant locations. It also highlights the region’s wider creative community artists, musicians, poets, storytellers, performers and screen practitioners and the local knowledge and talent that can contribute to productions. That is an important part of our proposition.
We don’t want productions simply to come here and film. We want them to connect with the region.
The guide also demonstrates that Hawke’s Bay is capable of supporting productions beyond the location itself. There are local and national suppliers, vehicle and equipment hire companies, generators, forklifts, diggers, scissor lifts and other production requirements available in the region. Screen Hawke’s Bay can provide production teams with information on suppliers and advise on options for catering, cameras, lighting, grip and rigging.
Getting people and equipment here is also straightforward.
Hawke’s Bay Airport provides direct flights to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Gisborne, while Napier Port provides a gateway for larger infrastructure and equipment. Road connections provide relatively easy access from both Auckland and Wellington.
And when the day’s shooting is finished, Hawke’s Bay offers a remarkable range of accommodation and hospitality from practical crew accommodation to luxury retreats suitable for cast and key creatives.
The region has been used as a screen location for close to five decades, with productions including Solo, Utu, Te Rua, White Lies, Eternity, This Town, Siege and Far North, alongside a growing collection of short films, documentaries and television productions.
That history matters. But the guide is not about looking backwards. It is about saying: What could be next?
A project like this does not happen without a community behind it. Screen Hawke’s Bay would like to extend a very big thank you to all of the photographers who contributed their incredible work to help showcase our region.
We acknowledge and thank:
Thomas Burstyn, John Cowpland, Simon Cartwright, Mike Locke, Putanga Waitoa, Richard Brimmer, C. Wotton, Sally-Anne Louisson, Andre Ricnik, Dean Richards, C. Rudge, Tony Lin, Campbell McLean, Kirsten Simcox, Natalia Volna and Daniel Betty.
We would also like to acknowledge the organisations and agencies that supported the photography and gave access to imagery and locations, including:
Hastings District Council, Napier City Council, Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, Wairoa District Council, the Department of Conservation (DOC), Kahurangi Māori Dance Theatre Company, Aroha Helicopters and Hawke’s Bay Tourism.
Their contribution has helped us tell a much bigger story about the region.
And behind the guide itself…
A special thank you must go to Screen Hawke’s Bay Board members Daniel Betty, Yvonne Lorkin and Kate Powis, who worked together to develop and shape the content of the Production Guide.
And a huge thank you to Julia Jameson for bringing the guide together through her design work and creating a publication that we are incredibly proud to put in front of producers.
It has been a genuine team effort.
The Production Guide is ultimately a statement of intent. We are open for business.
We want producers to come and discover the region. We want location managers to get in touch. We want filmmakers to see Hawke’s Bay not simply as somewhere that can double for somewhere else, but as a place with its own distinctive visual identity, people, stories and production capability. And we want the industry to know that Screen Hawke’s Bay is here to help. Whether you are developing a feature film, television series, documentary, short film, commercial or another screen project, we want to start the conversation.
The new Production Guide is the beginning of that conversation.
The full guide is available through the Screen Hawke’s Bay website, alongside location information, screen protocols and other resources for productions considering Hawke’s Bay. The guide itself describes its purpose as a starting point for producers scouting locations, planning logistics or considering Hawke’s Bay as their next production home.