Housing NZ

Our people, our journey

The Housing New Zealand Corporation (Housing NZ) is the biggest landlord in New Zealand owning or managing more than 63,000 properties with over 180,000 tenants. Their role is to provide healthy, comfortable and fit-for-purpose housing to people in need. Governments have been providing social housing for over 100 years. Re-development is occuring around the country as the portfolio of properties is updated to reflect changing demand in size and location of houses, and in Canterbury houses were replaced due to earthquakes and red-zoning. Housing New Zealand successfully completed its Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Programme in 2016 and is continuing to modernise its state housing stock with approximately 100 new homes being built each year.

Visit the Website

Our Role

We were invited to make a video based upon the ‘Our Story’ publication that outlines what Housing NZ does every day to provide houses for people and families who need them. The publication introduces staff, outlines the tenancy services provided, discusses the property maintenance and redevelopment programme and the Canterbury earthquake rebuild. The video entitled ‘Our people, our journey’ would tell a story about people and their housing needs and how Housing NZ was working to meet those needs. When completed the video was used on the Housing NZ website as a general introduction, used in presentations and for recruitment.

What We Did

We started by working with our client to write a script based upon the content, language and tone of the ‘Our Story’ and other Housing NZ publications to ensure consistency of messaging. The script and storyboard was written in eight distinct chapters so the video could be easily updated, and also re-edited for different audiences. We filmed a range of images, including tenancy staff visiting tenants, new and older housing along with construction crews at work in Christchurch and Auckland. We shot aerial imagery of existing houses and new developments at multiple locations in Christchurch and Auckland. In post-production we created computer-animations for the video. Our work included:

  • developing the script and storyboard for the 9-minute video with our client
  • working with our client to determine the people and locations needed for filming
  • filming people and properties (including aerial/drone operation) over several days at multiple locations in Auckland and Christchurch
  • recording the voice-over
  • editing and creating the computer-animated graphics for the video

The Outcome

‘Our people, our journey’ has been well received. As intended, re-edited versions have been made for different audiences, and it has been updated twice to reflect the evolving development of the portfolio, for example progress with the Canterbury earthquake recovery.