Mission
We seek to empower Aotearoa’s emerging leaders across the screen sector – storytellers, game designers, world builders – to realise their creative ambition and contribute to the growth and international reputation of New Zealand’s thriving screen industry.
About the academy
The National Academy of Screen Arts is located within the heart of Wellington’s creative industries precinct. It is home to world-class screen arts education and training, cutting edge facilities and in-demand screen technologies, independent content creators and producers, as well as a range of industry partners.
Bringing together world-leading screen arts educators, students, industry, and entrepreneurs, the academy empowers New Zealand creative talent to realise their vision, voice, technical skills and entrepreneurial ambition, at the nexus of technology, innovation, and storytelling.
Study with us
Our qualifications are developed and taught by award-winning industry professionals and academics, including former staff of Wētā FX, Wētā Workshop, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Universal Studios, Park Road Post, TVNZ, SKY, Mediaworks, TV3 and the BBC.
Use our state-of-the-art facilities and learn from industry-leading lecturers who’ve worked on projects including Avatar, The Hobbit, Iron Man 3, Planet of the Apes, Babe, Ocean Girl, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Black Sheep, Ms Information, Rugrats, Daffodils, Lord of the Rings and Avengers.
Experience Days
Our Experience Days give Year 12 and Year 13 students the chance to come to the Wellington campus for a one-day workshop.
Open Day
At our Open Day you can listen to students and staff talk about our qualifications and take a look behind the scenes.
Tours
You can tour our campus in Wellington, including the National Academy of Screen Arts facilities.
Bachelor of Screen Arts with Honours – BSA(Hons)
Preparing you for an exciting career in the fast-evolving world of the screen arts industry.
Postgraduate Diploma in Screen Arts – PGDipScreenArts
Master of Screen Arts – MSA
Pursue screen arts research pathways, supported through connections and partnerships with industry and the sector. Our Master of Screen Arts (MSA) spans many fields; animation, film production, factual production, game development, immersive media, emerging technology and visual effects.
Screen and live technologies
The National Academy of Screen Arts offers access to a range of state-of-the-art technologies which are at the forefront of screen and live production and research.
Virtual production volume
Massey has Aotearoa’s largest turnkey virtual production volume onsite. Enabling students and industry to create projects using backgrounds generated by game engines (3D) and pre-recorded footage (2D), representing the cutting edge of screen production.
Arri Alexa and Red cameras
Used on films such as Air, Orphan Black and Priscilla. A new era in digital cinematography Arri Alexa S35 are industry standard for feature film making. Also available at the school are Red Scarlett, Black Magic Pocket, Canon C100, C200, and C300 cameras.
Motion capture stage
Used as a key workflow for VFX and games, the Motion Capture stage utilises a 20-camera Vicon system with Vicon’s propriety Shogun software.
Industry standard software
Software for VFX includes, Houdini, Maya, ZBrush, Substance, Nuke, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve Fusion. Renderers include Arnold, Cycles, Eevee, Mantra, Karma, Renderman, all rendering to a 42-node render farm. We use Unreal and Unity for games, Pro Tools for audio, and Da Vinci Resolve and Adobe Premier Pro for editing.
DaVinci Resolve colour grading
Colour grading workflow is provided by Blackmagic Da Vinci Resolve, with 4 colour grade suites and a colour grade computer lab.
Professional lighting kits
Onsite lighting facilities include a broad range of lighting solutions, including Arri, Aputure, Stand and Dracasti fixtures. Lighting supports both in-studio and on-location production for film and factual.
Facilities and venues
The academy hosts a wide range of first-class facilities and venues for screen production and events. To enquire about hiring our facilities and venues contact James Coyle at J.Coyle@massey.ac.nz
The Great Hall
750m2 film soundstage and multipurpose events venue with 9m grid. The Great Hall can be used as a film studio with Virtual Production Volume, host up to 1000 people for events, and can be integrated with our Ahumairangi recording studio and broadcast studio for live capture.
Performance capture studio
Our Studio 2. 200m2 studio with 4m grid, 7x7 green screen and 20-camera motion capture rig.
Cinema
155-seat cinema with 4K Barco projection and certified Dolby Atmos sound system.
Broadcast studio
Professional production-ready broadcast studio with Ross Ultrix and Ross Carbonite Vision mixing, Expression Go graphics, and 3 x Panasonic 4K cameras on pedestals.
Post-production suites
11 dedicated post-production suites on site that are fully equipped and connected to a central storage server for online and offline post-production.
Orchestra recording studio
225m2 recording studio suitable for recording large ensembles up to a 65-piece orchestra, with SSL and Neve consoles and 5.1 Dynaudio monitoring.
Dubbing suites
Digital consoles for dubbing and surround 7.1 mixing with industry standard Dynaudio speakers and AVID S6 consoles.
ADR and Foley
Acoustically treated studios to suit ADR/dialogue recording and Foley sound effects recording.
3D Workshop
Students can access a number of workshops on campus, alongside technical staff who will introduce them to the equipment and assist them if required. The 3D Workshop has specialty spaces to explore materials, prototyping and manufacturing processes. This includes wood, plastics, engineering, resins/ casting, welding, sanding and spray booths, CNC (water jet cutter, laser cutters, mill, routers) through to wood and metal working machinery and hand tools.
Computer labs
To support creative technology and post-production, we have a 25-seat PC lab with RTX 3090 graphics cards and two 25-seat Mac Pro computer labs.
Partners
Our academy partners with many enterprises to foster growth and leadership in the screen industry, and to build strong connections with our students and content creators. We also partner to support the development of content utilising the technologies and facilities we have here at Massey. With the introduction of the new Screen Hub on the Pukeahu campus we are able to work alongside our industry peers and provide both permanent and project space to local productions.
New Zealand Youth Film Festival (NZYFF)
Our partnership with NZYFF aims to celebrate and empower the next generation of film creators and actors. NZYFF is Aotearoa’s largest and most comprehensive showcase for rangatahi filmmakers and screen arts from across the nation.
Admit One
Admit One have just moved into the Screen Hub where they run a successful entertainment, distribution and production company. Admit One are the creators of the Terror-fy Film Festival, and their partnership with Massey extends back to 2018 when students worked on client based projects and developed genre content for the festival.
Some of our other fabulous partners include:
Interested in partnering with us? We'd love to hear from you.
Engage with us
We would love to hear from you on how we can be involved in your project or initiative, ideas for industry short courses and to provide deeper connections with our qualifications. You can also contact us for facility hire for productions and events, and if you would like to be on campus with us in our creative village.
Dr Bridget Johnson
Bridget has worked in Te Rewa o Puanga from its inception and was heavily involved in the development phases for all programmes within the school.
She comes from a background of design and development of new technology for music and media projects. Her unique approach blends creative arts with technology development and engineering techniques.
Professor Karen Loop
Karen is a feature film producer. Her latest project is Universal Studio’s On The Basis of Sex where Felicity Jones portrays a young US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Before becoming an independent producer, she worked as a development executive at Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios. Her passion is enabling students to find their unique voices and become the authors of their time.
James Coyle
James contributed to the development of the screen and music facilities and equipment. He’s the contact person for commercial, partnership and enterprise projects, and helps clients to scope productions at Massey. He has also led Massey-driven content delivery partnership projects such as the Aotearoa Music Awards Artisan Awards (2018 – 2021), and the New Zealand Youth Film Festival awards (2023).
Contact us
Contact us if you are interested in studying or partnering with us, or to find out about hiring one of our amazing production facilities and venues.
National Academy of Screen Arts
- screenarts@massey.ac.nz
- Location
Physical address
Block 10 Tokomaru
Pukeahu Mount Cook
Wellington 6021Use our Wellington campus maps or find us on Google Maps.