The foundation has been formed to assist young and emerging New Zealand film-makers. The backstory to the foundation starts with Vista Group’s IPO in 2014. For some time, when we were a private company, we ran a Vista Staff Share Scheme (a way for staff to buy and sell shares in Vista). At the time of the IPO, there were shares in the scheme and some cash from dividends from those shares. Although technically the proceeds belonged to the four Vista founders, they felt that they didn’t really belong to anyone. Instead, we opted to do something charitable with them. And so the Vista Foundation was formed.

The foundation was officially launched at the 2015 Vista Customer Conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand in February. Rhys Darby of Flight of the Conchords fame (amongst other things) kicked off the function to celebrate the commencement of the foundation in his usual haphazard and hilarious manner in front of a host of New Zealand film identities.

Vista Foundation launch event coverage

Our first project is being carried out in conjunction with the New Zealand Film Commission, and is focused on assisting film-makers with the business side of film-making. The Film Commission is undertaking a series of classes focused on teaching disciplines such as audience positioning, marketing planning, distribution, and other business-related aspects required for getting a film to market. These areas are often overlooked, with many film-makers focused primarily on the creative side of film-making. But there is no point in making a film if no one gets to see it! And films need to make money so that producers have the confidence to invest and to make more films. We see the Film Commission’s classes helping our creatives to reach this goal.

The Vista Foundation is presently forming a board and creating a formal charter. It is also looking at the next project the foundation will undertake.