Foreign television commercial production is being seen as one of the potential areas as far as our production industry is concerned.

The Attorney-General and Minister for Finance, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made these comments as Government handed out $0.49 million as tax rebate for a Canadian television commercial.

“It is very exciting because we have such a large company having their advertisement shot in Fiji and we are breaking into the Canadian market,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

“We have not had such a large production from Canada for a large advertisement. This is probably one of the untapped areas in terms of production where previously the mindset has just been on movies.

“I know we had one commercial shot previously but this is probably one of the biggest ones we have had in terms of rebates from advertising.”

Film Fiji chief executive, Dallas Foon, said: “We are always excited with new opportunities for the film industry in Fiji.

“The television commercial market is something which is for Fiji and we are talking about the big advertising brands which costs millions to produce.

“If we can be successful in getting some of those television commercials to shoot in Fiji, the exposure is tremendous.

“These are much bigger than feature films because these big brands release their advertisements all over the world and showcase Fiji.”

The commercial

Welcome (Fiji) Ltd executive producer Partner, Nick Leggett, said the commercial was shot over three days at the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa.

This campaign was for Aeroplan which is a frequent fliers programme.

Mr Leggett said it is tied up with Air Canada and is the largest frequent flier programme in North America in the Canada area and it is has been on air for a year now.

He confirmed they are already planning on rescheduling and doing another commercial campaign in Fiji.

“We hope and envisage we can bring in more television campaigns of this magnitude and into Fiji to create a production industry,” he said.

Taxi Film Production executive producer, Andrew Wareham, said they see this as a seed to something which will grow into something big.