All posts by Mark

About Mark

Mark Poole is a writer and director of both drama and documentary. His most recent film Fearless about 92 year old playwright Julia Britton recently screened on ABC1. His career began when the feature film he wrote, A Single Life, won an AFI Award in 1987. Since then he has written more than 20 hours of broadcast television drama, won a directing award for the short film Basically Speaking at the St Kilda Film Festival, and was honoured with a major AWGIE, the Richard Lane Award in 2008.

Update on Underground screening

Film, Latest News

by Mark Poole, 18/3/13

The screening of Underground: The Julian Assange Story at the Nova in Carlton this Sunday evening (17 March 2013) was a sell-out and an entertainiing experience. Director and writer Robert Connolly introduced the film and afterwards Julian Assange’s mother Christine took to the podium with Connolly and Alex Williams, the lead actor who played Julian in the film. Alex’s performance is a knockout and so the film boasts a strong cast, with Laura Wheelwright also excellent as Electra, Assange’s girlfriend, Rachel Griffiths playing Christine Assange and Anthony LaPaglia as Detective Ken Roberts. The hacker friends of Julian’s were also great.

The packed discussion afterwards centred on Assange, with Christine delivering a passionate defence of her son, accusing the Federal Government of abandoning this Australian citizen and failing to support him in any way at all. Also present was one of the organisers of Assange’s forthcoming tilt at getting into the Senate.

Despite originally being made for television, this version of Underground allowed more space for political content and stands up as a feature film. It is taut, well-paced and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats until the end. You can’t say that about many of our recent output.

Speaking to the audience after the film was shown, Connolly said he had been fascinated by the early Assange story which took place before the World Wide Web had been invented. He described how he acquired an antique Commodore 64 computer of the type used by Julian Assange to connect to a US Military site. He gave it to Alex Williams during the rehearsal period, and discovered that after an hour Williams had been unable to work out how to turn it on. However by the end of the rehearsals Alex was programming.

Alex Williams is clearly headed for a big future. He has already gained a Hollywood agent, apparently, after graduating from WAPA. As soon as Connolly screen tested him he was hired for the job of portraying Julian Assange. On the stage, his mother Christine complimented Alex for getting right a lot of the subtleties in how her son behaves, creating an uncanny likeness.

The screening kicked off the CinemaPlus initiative, launched by Robert Connolly and Footprint Films. Under the CinemPlus banner a number of films will be released over the coming months, including The Turning,  described as a bold cinematic event based on Tim Winton’s best-selling collection of short stories. In a landscape where the distribution of Australian films clearly needs a major shakeup, this initiative is welcomed particularly by local filmmakers. And as Robert says, in an era where anyone can pirate anything on their home computer, they have to offer something extra to entice an audience into the cinema.

Connolly told me that the project began when director Mark Davis of Dateline fame brought the book upon which it is based by Suelette Dreyfus of the same name to Matchbox Pictures, who asked him to take a look. Davis himself had interviewed Julian Assange a number of times, and he is included in one of the clips about the film on the take-home DVD provided to the audience at the screenings.

After the Melbourne season, Underground will screen in Sydney, Byron Bay, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth over the next few months. The screenings will feature ‘value-added’ events such as Q and A sessions, and attendees are given a copy of a DVD with special features including the screenplay of the film, and a QR code which can trigger the director’s commentary which can be heard along with the film.

For more information visit www.undergroundthemovie.com.au.

The Press Kit is here. Underground – Press Kit

Further screenings:

  • Tuesday 19 to Friday 22 March Cinema Nova, Melbourne: 6.45pm
  • Sunday 24 March Palace Brighton Bay, Melbourne: 4.00pm
  • Wednesday 27 March Palace Chauvel, Sydney: 7.00pm
  • Thursday 4 April Palace Electric, Canberra: 7.00pm
  • Friday 5 April Palace Byron Bay: 7.00pm
  • Sunday 7 April   Palace Centro Brisbane: 4.00pm
  • Thursday 11 April Palace Nova Eastend Adelaide: 7.00pm
  • Friday 12 April Luna Leederville Perth: 6.45 pm

MARK POOLE

CinemaPlus: a game changer for indie films?

Film, Latest News, , ,

Underground: The Julian Assange Story is the prototype of a new form of
distribution and exhibition.

Don Groves / 15 March 2013 / SBS FILM

Filmmaker-distributor Robert Connolly aims to create a new paradigm for releasing
Australian films that don’t warrant a wide cinema release and playing up to six
sessions a day. Opening in Melbourne on March 17, Matchbox Pictures’
Underground: The Julian Assange Story is the first release from Connolly’s
CinemaPlus initiative, which entails a select number of special event screenings
around the nation.

That will be followed later this year by The Turning, the omnibus film based on a
Tim Winton novel, and Michael Kantor’s The Boy Castaways, a rock
musical/drama that stars You am I’s Tim Rogers, cabaret performer Paul Capsis and
ARIA Award-winner Megan Washington. Continue reading CinemaPlus: a game changer for indie films? →

It’s just not cricket when a local film flops and no one knows why

Film, Latest News

Karl Quinn

Karl Quinn

National Film Editor for Fairfax Media

Did women stay away in droves or do we just not like sports films? Pondering why Save Your Legs! opened so poorly at the Australian box office despite so many positives.
Still sfrom the motion picture Save Your Legs. Brendan Cowell, Simon Curry and director Boyd Hicklin.Brendan Cowell and Simon Curry in Save Your Legs!

As anyone who follows the Australian film industry knows by now, cricketing comedy Save Your Legs! did about as well in its first week at the local box office as the boys in baggy green did in Hyderabad – that is, it stank. It took just $250,860 in its first week, at an average of $1292 per screen, about one-sixth of the result its distributor would have hoped for.

The question is, why?

Why didn’t they turn up? Maybe the girls had the say last weekend.

Unlike many Australian films, Save Your Legs! had high visibility, thanks to an estimated $1 million spent on P&A (prints and advertising), a substantial investment for a film that reportedly cost about $5 million. It went wide, as they say in the trade, released on 176 screens. There was a social media campaign featuring video ”extensions”, a YouTube page that has had more than 80,000 views, ads on TV and trailers in the cinema. There was a friendly TV partner in the Nine network, powerful commercial partners (including the Commonwealth Bank), and extensive coverage in the media (including this paper). In short, people knew it was out there.

The reviews, while mixed, ran the gamut from ”don’t bother” to ”don’t miss it”. At any rate, as a self-deprecating mid-market comedy with likeable stars (Stephen Curry, Damon Gameau and Brendan Cowell), it should have been relatively critic-proof. So what happened?

Continue reading It’s just not cricket when a local film flops and no one knows why →

Warning to Hollywood: Chinese Hackers Want Your Secrets

Film, Latest News, Online Media

A top cybersecurity lawyer says the Chinese are after any edge they can get, from
financial details that help with negotiations to reading scripts.

3/7/2013 by Stewart Baker, who practices cybersecurity law at Steptoe & Johnson in
Washington. He has been a top official concerned with cybersecurity policy at the
Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency – THR

Hollywood should be on notice: It’s not just the Pentagon and CIA that are victims of
hackers. They’re targeting more and more private companies. A recent report from

American cybersecurity firm Mandiant linked the Chinese government’s People’s
Liberation Army to massive, sustained intrusions into corporate networks.

The report, which traced many attacks to the PLA’s Shanghai-based Unit 61398, was
devoured in Washington and Silicon Valley. But Hollywood mostly has shrugged off
Chinese cyberspying as someone else’s problem. Continue reading Warning to Hollywood: Chinese Hackers Want Your Secrets →

Hollywood Targeted by Chinese Hackers

Film, Latest News, Online Media, , ,

At least one Burbank studio has been hacked, experts say, and piracy is rampant in
“a culture of copying.”

6:00 AM PST 3/7/2013 by Tim Appelo – THR

Have Chinese hackers invaded Hollywood’s computers, as they have the systems of
Facebook, Apple, The New York Times and more than 100 other major Western
entities? While some studio sources say no, cybersecurity experts tell THR another
story.

“Yes, absolutely,” says cyber-espionage expert Dmitri Alperovitch, former vp threat
research at McAfee and co-founder of CrowdStrike. “I know of major Hollywood
studios that have worked on distribution rights and other negotiations with Chinese
companies and have been hacked before those negotiations had been completed
because the Chinese wanted their negotiation playbook. The other side knows exactly
what they’re planning to do and will cheat and get their way in the negotiation.” Continue reading Hollywood Targeted by Chinese Hackers →

Latest News, Television,

The 50 most influential people in Australian television

SMH

Michael Idato

Actress Asher KeddieClout: Asher Keddie is smart and bankable. Photo: James Geer

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/the-50-most-influential-people-20130228-2f9a5.html#ixzz2Mp6Cb3SL

Our expert panel reveals who wields the power in Australian television.

The Oxford dictionary defines ”influence” as the capacity to have an affect on the character, development or behaviour of someone or something. In television, that translates into only one thing: having a hand in the most successful programs.

Yet influence is more complex than mere power. Chief executives have power by virtue of their office. Programmers have it by virtue of their control over the schedule.

The Guide canvassed a panel of experts – critics, executives and industry insiders – to compile the list of the 50 Most Influential People in Television.

Executive producer of The Voice, Julie Ward.She speaks, they listen: Julie Ward, executive producer of The Voice. Photo: Marco Del Grande

This draws together the power partnerships, the deal-makers behind the deals and the new generation of rising stars.

 

US TV’s Midseason Ratings Catastrophe

Latest News, Television, ,

10:00 AM PST 3/6/2013 by Michael O’Connell – THR

With record-low debuts across the broadcast networks — unless you’ve got Kevin
Bacon in “The Following” — execs are rethinking one of the calendar’s biggest launch
pads.

If fall is the television season’s sink-or-swim deep end, then midseason is the kiddie
pool. Fewer launches, lower ratings expectations and softer competition often pave
the way for such slow-growing hits as Grey’s Anatomy, The Office and, most
recently, Scandal.

But nearly all of the 2012-13 midseason entries have drowned so far and, with the
exception of Fox’s renewed Kevin Bacon hit The Following, have done so in rather
gruesome fashion. Continue reading US TV’s Midseason Ratings Catastrophe →

What’s Behind the Dismal Winter at the US Box Office

Film, Latest News

What’s Behind the Dismal Winter at the US Box Office

5:00 AM PST 3/6/2013 by Pamela McClintock – THR

Theater stocks slide and grosses drop 15 percent as “Jack the Giant Slayer” leads a
season of discontent and a glut of grim action flops leaves few studios unscathed.

When Bryan Singer sat down at his computer in mid-January and read Internet
comments criticizing a new Warner Bros. poster for his big-budget epic Jack the
Giant Slayer, he fumed. He didn’t care for the cartoonish image of the film’s stars
brandishing swords and standing around a swirling beanstalk. So Singer complained
on Twitter. “Sorry for these crappy airbrushed images,” he wrote Jan. 16, irking
Warners’ powerful marketing head Sue Kroll. “They do the film no justice. I’m proud
of the film & our great test scores.” An insider confesses, “Bryan felt like he had to
apologize to his fans.”

The dust-up points to a long and fraught process culminating with the low $27.2
million North American debut of Jack the Giant Slayer during the March 1-to-3
weekend, the latest in a string of dismal 2013 domestic releases. Revenue and
attendance both are down a steep 15 percent from the same period in 2012, wiping
away gains made last year. Jack might have cost far more than any of the other
misses, but in assessing the carnage, there’s a collective sense that Hollywood is
misjudging the moviegoing audience and piling too many of the same types of movies
on top of one another. Continue reading What’s Behind the Dismal Winter at the US Box Office →

2012 box office figures in Australia

Film, Latest News,

From Screen Daily:

Australian box office up on 2011; down on 2010

28 January, 2013 | By

The people of Australia spent $1,173.2m (A$1,125.5m) on cinema tickets in 2012, a 2.8% increase on the previous year but about $7.6m (A$7.3m) less than they spent in a record-breaking 2010.

 It is the third consecutive year that annual revenues have exceeded $1bn.

The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) released the figures but, as usual, chose not to estimate admission numbers so early in the year.

It is likely that 85 to 90 million tickets were sold – the population is 22.9 million.

The five films that lead the pack in 2012 all grossed more than $30m:

  • The Avengers (Walt Disney);
  • Skyfall (Sony Pictures);
  • The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros);
  • Ted (Universal);
  • The Hunger Games (Roadshow).

The next five all exceeded $20m:

  • The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (Hoyts/StudioCanal);
  • Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (Fox);
  • Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (Paramount);
  • The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox);
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Roadshow).

“Clearly 2012 benefitted from a tremendous mix of commercial and highly entertaining movies and consumers continue to demonstrate strong support for the timeless and unique appeal of going to the cinema,” said Marc Wooldridge, chair of the MPDAA, in a statement.

The managing director at Twentieth Century Fox Australia also said that Australia boasts some of the best cinemas in the world and a night at the movies continues to provide “a tremendous, good value, out-of-home experience”.

Of the 548 films (421 were new releases) that earned some money in 2012:

  • 231 (42.2%) were from the US
  • 63 (11.5%) from the UK
  • 43 (7.8%) from Australia
  • 211 from other countries.

According to government agency Screen Australia, the amount spent on tickets to the 43 Australian films was $49.8m (A$47.9m), which represented 4.3% of the total gross, and a few million dollars more than the five-year average.

The annual domestic share has not been higher than 5% for the past 10 years and no higher than 10% for the past 25 years.

The top grossing Australian film, The Sapphires, grossed $15.1m (A$14.5m). The others in the top five were Happy Feet Two, Kimderella, A Few Best Men and Mental.

Australia has 1,995 cinema screens and the MPDAA estimates that 72% of them are now converted to digital. Of these, 57% are 3D capable.

Wooldridge also noted that Australian exhibitors lead the world, on a per capita basis, on the number of screens accessible to disabled audiences.

2nd AACTA AWARDS

Latest News,

The 2nd AACTA Awards kicked off today with a luncheon appropriately enough at the Star Casino in Sydney. The rain pelted down in weather blown down from the tornadoes in Queensland.
Producer Al Clark was presented with the prestigious Raymond Longford Award, also bestowed upon Pat Lovell producer of Gallipoli and Picture At Hanging Rock, who died last Saturday.
Clark was lauded by former employer Richard Branson and Stephan Elliott, director of the iconic Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which Mr Clark produced.
The highlight was MC Adam Elliot, who reminisced about winning an Oscar for Harvie Krumpet. He said that having ten seconds left in his acceptance speech, he gave a plug to its screening on SBS, which was known to the American audience as a Nederlands porn channel.