Notlith · Napier
Video production company in Napier: archives, harvests and site access
Organisations in Napier often already hold the material a film needs: historic photographs, harvest footage, site images from the port or the industrial estates. What they need is a studio to shape it. Notlith is a hybrid video production company working remotely, with creative direction, script, AI-assisted imagery, editing, colour, music and sound.
Remote production · From your photos
Photographs from 1931 and their rights
The earthquake and the rebuild that followed are part of many Napier stories, from heritage businesses to community trusts. Historic photographs exist in family albums and in institutional collections such as those of MTG Hawke's Bay. Those images carry weight, and they deserve careful treatment in any film, especially when descendants of the people shown may watch it.
We use archive images only when the rights are clear and the source can be credited. We do not colourise them as if colour were fact, or generate scenes that could pass for historic records. A generated image can illustrate an idea, labelled as such, beside the real archive. Credits are written to the collection's requirements and placed where they are readable.
A harvest you cannot repeat
Grape harvest and apple picking happen once a year around Napier. If a film needs real people in the rows or fruit on the line, that moment must be captured when it happens, by a local camera operator or your own team. Weather and timing can shift the window by days, which makes advance planning essential.
We can brief that capture in advance with a shot list, then edit, grade and add sound to the footage. Where the material is thin, we fill with packshots or graphics rather than generated pickers. The result is honest about which images are real. That way the final film reflects the harvest you actually had, not an idealised one.
Sites behind the gate
Napier Port and the industrial areas of Pandora and Onekawa are working sites with inductions, safety rules and restricted zones. Filming there is rarely quick to arrange, and some areas cannot be shown at all. Access approvals can take longer than the production itself, and confidentiality around customers or cargo may limit what is shown.
We start from the photographs your health and safety team has already approved and build the film around them. Diagrams and animated maps explain flows that cannot be filmed. Equipment and signage are never generated to look like your site. Where a scene requires a live operation to be shown, we recommend arranging capture through your site team.
Consultations and community trusts
Napier City Council, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council and community trusts regularly explain proposals to residents, from coastal works to recovery projects. A video for a consultation has to be neutral, accurate and easy to follow, and it must not appear to argue for one option.
We build these films from your approved documents, maps and photographs, with plain narration and captions. Place names such as Ahuriri and Te Matau-a-Māui are spelled with macrons where they apply, checked with you and any iwi partners. Each option is given comparable time and visual treatment.
Fictional concept created with AI
In pictures
Catalog demonstration
See the production approach
English, adaptable to your language
Plan the details
Do you have a crew in Napier?
No. We work remotely. When a project needs live capture, we say so and can edit footage recorded by a local operator. A shot list can guide that recording.
Can you reuse our old videos?
Yes, if you hold the rights. We review them first and tell you what can be recut and what is out of date. Existing footage often only needs new titles and sound.
How do reviews work?
You receive a script, then a draft edit, with agreed rounds of comments. Changes are tracked against the script. Each round has a clear deadline agreed in advance.
Who owns the finished film?
Usage and ownership are set out in the quote before work starts, so there is no ambiguity later. Third-party material remains under its own licence.
Start with your images
Send a short brief, a link to the material you already hold and the date the film needs to be in use.