Ruth Harley, CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission, has some specific thoughts on why her country is suddenly the film capital of the universe. In the spirit of Stephen Covey, she lists seven habits of highly effective governments in attracting movie-makers:
- Patience
- Money
- Creative Freedom
- National Identity
- Entrepreneurial Spirit
- Thinking Globally
- Backing from the Top
The occassion for her debriefing, of course, was the New-Zealand-palooza of the Academy Awards, where Lord of the Rings cleaned house, and other films with a New Zealand connection were in the mix (Whale Rider, The Last Samurai, etc.).
I always love such lists because they attribute cause so readily, and connect those causes to success, rather than just success in this particular case for reasons we probably can’t begin to understand. You rarely see the same lists when the very same principals were applied with little to no results.
The Latin for such a fallacy (for those Latin scholars out there, or watchers of West Wing) is post hoc ergo propter hoc, or roughly translated to ‘after this therefore because of this.’ Logicians call this thinking error coincidental correlation. Management consultants call them ‘best practices,’ neglecting to mention that they are usually quite useless.
In the case of the ‘New Zealand seven,’ there are at least two elements that don’t make the list which might be argued to trump the list altogether: real estate and Peter Jackson.
If you’re going to make a sweeping epic film, with astounding, pristine backdrops, and separated from current reality by history (Samurai) or by fantasy (Rings), you need lots of undeveloped land with great visual beauty. And when you’re choosing among the few available options for such vistas, it helps to have a patriotic countryman, such as Peter Jackson, making the final choice. Jackson decided to base production in New Zealand, and made it work by force of will (and clear support and cooperation, of course). In the process, he forged the infrastructure for other film-makers to choose New Zealand, as well.
Of course, we could argue forever about the causes for New Zealand’s rise as a film destination. The fallacy comes when we pick a few variables after the fact, and suggest them as the general tools for success for others hoping for the same results. Think here of any trendy management consulting book, or any ‘six steps to successful [fill in the blank],’ or the bulk of studies prepared about healthy cultural communities, or the bullet lists of best practices markered onto flip-charts at most national conference workshops.
Policy and management choices have an essential role to play, but they are less about hubris (we made this reality) than finesse (we recognized an opportunity and made room for it).
As a matter of policy, New Zealand had no immediate control over the primary asset at work (vast and beautiful undeveloped land). Their real genius was that they saw an opportunity and got out of its way — making a few good choices about how to feed its fire with new capital opportunities, entrepreneurial incentives, and considered public policy. When you think about it, applying the same responses to a different stimulus would actually reduce your chances for success, even by New Zealand’s example.
