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.

Feature Films from the Spierig Brothers, Rolf De Heer and Greg Mclean greenlit

Film, Latest News, , , , ,

Screen Australia today announced $5.5 million investment in three new feature
projects triggering over $17 million in production.

Predestination is a new film noir, science fiction, crime thriller from writer/director
brothers Michael and Peter Spierig (Daybreakers) about the life of a temporal agent
who has to recruit his younger self to pursue the one criminal who has for a lifetime
eluded him. Produced by Paddy McDonald and Tim McGahan, the film is based on
the short story by revered sci-fi author Robert A Heinlein.

Veteran Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer’s Charlie’s Country has also been
approved for investment. Rolf de Heer will once again collaborate with one of
Australia’s greatest actors David Gulpilil (The Tracker). Produced by Nils Erik
Nielsen and Peter Djigirr, the film is an uplifting tragi-comic portrait of one man’s
struggle to define himself as an Aboriginal in modern Australia.

Screen Australia also confirmed its commitment to the horror feature Wolf Creek 2
from director Greg McLean. The film is written by McLean and Aaron Sterns and
produced by Helen Leake, Greg McLean and Steve Topic.

“These three diverse feature projects supported by Screen Australia today come from
some of the most exciting filmmaking teams in Australia,” said Screen Australia’s
Chief Executive Ruth Harley.

“Predestination is a strong script which will be executed by a proven and talented
team passionate about the sci-fi genre.

“Charlie’s Country continues a tradition of Rolf de Heer’s previous films The Tracker
and Ten Canoes which combines cultural significance with commercial and critical
potential.

“The long-awaited return of the mad killer Mick Taylor in the sequel to Wolf Creek
comes from an experienced team which can take advantage of the significant pre-
existing market awareness both in Australia and overseas,” concluded Dr Harley.

CHARLIE’S COUNTRY

Vertigo Productions Pty Ltd
Producers Nils Erik Nielsen, Peter Djigirr
Writer/Director Rolf de Heer
International Sales Fandango Portobello
Australian Distributor Hopscotch
Cast David Gulpilil
Synopsis Rolf de Heer and David Gulpilil collaborate to create a tragi-comic
portrait of Charlie’s struggle to understand how he should define himself as an
Aboriginal in modern Australia.

PREDESTINATION

Wolfhound Pictures/Blacklab Entertainment
Producers Paddy McDonald, Tim McGahan
Writer/Directors Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
International Sales Arclight Films
Australian Distributor Pinnacle Films
Synopsis Chronicles the life of a temporal agent who on his final assignment must
recruit his younger self, while pursuing the one criminal that has eluded him
throughout time.

WOLF CREEK 2

Emu Creek Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer/Writer/Director Greg McLean
Producers Helen Leake, Steve Topic
Writer Aaron Sterns
International Sales Arclight Films
Australian Distributor Roadshow Films
Synopsis The outback once again becomes a place of mind-bending horror, action
and suspense as another unwitting backpacker becomes prey for crazed, serial-killing
pig-shooter, Mick Taylor.

Screen Australia: Thursday 6 September 2012

Aaddendum:

He terrified audiences with his depraved take on Ivan Milat-style serial killer Mick
Taylor back in 2005. Now, after one false start and a funding fall-out, Aussie actor
John Jarratt is finally set to reprise the role that helped make Wolf Creek one of
Australia’s most successful horror flicks, reports the Daily Telegraph. So far, Jarratt
is the only actor cast in the sequel and the actor told Confidential yesterday he is
ready to transform back into his blood-thirsty alter ego, saying the script penned by
writer director Greg McLean is “just as scary” as the original. “It’s the sort of stuff
horror buffs really want,” said Jarratt, who had recently wrapped a small part in
Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained.

Jenni Tosi’s keynote speech, Open Channel Generation Next

Film, Latest News, Television, ,

Thanks Jennie, and good morning all.

This event is being held on the traditional lands of the people of the Kulin nation, and I wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners.

I would also like to pay my respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be here today.

Thanks to everyone for being here today. Film Victoria is delighted to support Open Channel to deliver this event and we congratulate Jennie Hughes and Catherine Nebauer for assembling such a stellar group of speakers who will share their insights today and tomorrow.

Thanks also to all of the panellists and moderators who’ve given up their time to help make this event such a success. This gesture – of giving back to our industry – is worthy of acknowledgement. We all benefit when people share their experience and knowledge, and it’s vital to strengthening our industry.

Over the next two days the aim is to illuminate for you, our next generation of content creators, the many considerations that come into play when developing and producing narrative content for television.

There’s a reason this conference is about Drama and Comedy for Television. Television is the format that presents the greatest opportunities for you as practitioners to develop and hone your craft skills.  Whilst many of you may harbour a desire, to one day reach the holy grail of making a feature film that finds box office and critical success, as a career choice this is a long and tough road – and one that has become even more challenging in recent years.

Post GFC, traditional financing sources have collapsed, distribution methods and windows have changed, piracy is eroding revenue streams, and the cost of production, particularly in Australia,  has increased – partly driven by demand for cast names to be attached and the need for big marketing dollars to help a feature film find attention in a crowded market. All have contributed to a very different landscape.

However I think most significant of all, is how much harder it now is to seduce audiences from the comfort of their homes into the cinema.  And why is this? Partly because going to the movies is no longer the cheap entertainment choice it once was. The cost of the ticket, the popcorn and coke, parking, maybe a bite to eat afterwards – it’s easily a $50-$100 exercise for two people, and imagine the cost if you’re taking a family of four!

So a feature film has to offer big value and a big experience for people, especially if you want them to tell their friends about it. And of course that’s assuming they’ve chosen to go see a movie over the raft of other leisure and entertainment choices on offer on any given night or weekend.

Getting back to creating the film in the first place, as I said it’s a long and tough road. The average script is in development for 5 – 7 years, and it spends another 2-3 years being financed and produced before it’s ready for release. That’s 10 years a filmmaker has aged, waiting for their feature to be realised and their desire to be fulfilled.

I recently read an interview with Tony Gilroy, the Director of Michael Clayton, Duplicity and the Bourne Legacy. Since 1992 he has written a mere 16 produced screenplays including Michael Clayton, Duplicity and all 4 scripts for The Bourne Franchise Films.

He was quoted as saying, “I thought, Oh I know exactly what my life will be: I’ll write for dough, I’ll write to pay the rent, and every couple of years I’ll go and make Crimes and Misdemeanours.  It’ll be a really cool and interesting life; but that just disappeared out from under me and for everybody else.  It doesn’t exist anymore. The middle has gone and you can see right where it went.”

In saying “the middle has gone” he was referring to the market for smart, medium budget films for adults. This once-strong niche aspect of the feature film market that worked so well in the English-speaking US, UK and Australian markets, and in Europe, has all but evaporated.  Dominating the landscape now are big budget, high action studio films with big marketing budgets to match.

But what I found most interesting was what he said next. To quote: “American television right now is probably the best entertainment that’s ever been on the planet. It’s f..king extraordinary.  I mean it’s really exciting and that’s where the business has gone.”

And I can only concur with this view.

Great TV viewing has become the audience preference and why not!  For one, it’s convenient – you can watch it at home on a big screen TV, a computer, an ipad, an iphone, an xbox, you can watch it on the train, on holidays, in the toilet, anywhere you please.  You can watch it small chunks or you can binge over a weekend.

But there’s more going on than just convenience.  TV drama offers the audience a return experience.  As a viewer you get to know the characters, identify with them, love them, hate them, but most importantly you can come back for more, see what they do next, episode after episode, season after season. There’s no waiting for 2 years, like for a movie sequel. For about $30 – assuming you pay for it and don’t Bit Torrent – you can get a 6 – 12 hour experience, which you can turn on and off to suit yourself. Now that’s value!

Add a strong idea, a fresh approach and some great cast and you’re really packing a punch for the audience. If it’s good they’ll tell their friends, if it’s great they’ll be back for Seasons, 2, 3, 4 and beyond. For the TV audience, the ‘hooked factor’ is a big one. It’s not hard to understand why the change in the feature film landscape has been so dramatic.

And what’s really exciting is that TV drama keeps getting better and better. The craft of storytelling and screenwriting has become more sophisticated and clever, with complex characters and plots. If you think back to 1999 when The Sopranos and The West Wing first graced our screens, it was the quality of these shows that got people watching and talking. As a result, those series ran for 6 and 7 seasons respectively. Even today these shows are on many people’s must-see, catch-up lists.

What then followed was Six Feet Under in 2001, along with some classy procedural dramas like CSI & NCIS. 2004 gave us Deadwood and Entourage. Then in 2006 and 2007 Dexter savaged us and Mad Men seduced us. Brothers and Sisters gave us sibling rivalry and Glen Close Damaged us.

2008 put us in the world of Vampires with True Blood and my favourite 21st century new odd couple, Walt & Jessie, cooking up a storm with chrystal meth in Breaking Bad. There were cops and drug pushers you could barely understand in The Wire and Laura Linney dealing with the Big C. Meanwhile, from the UK we’ve had The Lakes, The Sins, State of Play, House of Cards, Rome, Spooks and The Office. Denmark has chipped in with The Killing and The Eagle.

Audiences are spoilt for choice. With so many shows with calibre actors, great writing, high production values and lots of surprises, it’s no wonder we can’t find our way out the front door to the cinema.

Most of the shows I’ve mentioned have been driven by US subscription TV channels who understand their audience very well. They know that to keep their subscriber base growing they have to distinguish themselves, and they do this by offering dramas that are unique, that take risks and break the mould.

In Australia we’ve been the beneficiaries of this trend, with a huge selection of programs to watch. But importantly, the success of these shows has encouraged our own Free To Air and Subscription television networks to reinvest in locally produced drama.

In 2008, audiences flocked to Packed to the Rafters  and Underbelly- it was these shows which seemed to reignite Broadcaster confidence.  Underbelly, is now about to head into its sixth series,and has also spawned 3 telemovies. We’ve had four series of Rush, three series of Tangle & East West 101, the beautifully realised Cloudstreet and much-lauded The Slap.

Conspiracy 365 – 12 one-hour episodes of family TV is screening monthly across 2012, a bold and successful programming approach. Along with three series of Dance Academy, and Slide these shows have struck a chord with younger audiences; while Offspring has filled a gap for females aged15-40, with seasons 4 and 5 on their way. New off the block is Puberty Blues and House Husbands, Mr & Mrs Murder coming later this year, and a raft of telemovies including Mysteries of the Handsome Cab, Deadly Remedies, Cliffy and Underground, a story which charts the dramatic years of Julian Assange’s early life here in Melbourne and has been selected to screen at the Toronto Film Festival.

Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War has screened over two weekends to audiences above 2 million, a great outcome. And congrats to Lachy Hulme for his terrific performance by the way. Many of these dramas have strong comedic elements too. And then of course there are the pure comedies: Shows like Laid, Lowdown, Wilfred, Twentysomething and Summer Heights High.

There are many other Australian shows I haven’t mentioned that are equally worthy. And I’m really pleased that many of the shows I have named were created or produced here in Victoria, which is a testament to the talent and creativity that emanates from this state.

So hopefully you’re starting to get the picture and agree that Television is indeed an exciting medium to be working in. For me it’s clearly the dominating format and it’s hard to see this changing too much in the next 3 – 5 years. The technology on which we view it will continue to improve, when we see it and how much we’re prepared to pay for it might change, but I suspect the demand for great TV content will continue to grow.

In Australia much of this growth will be driven by the ABC who, thanks to a much needed boost in funding, are back to producing 70 hours of drama per year and aiming for more. And we’re all hoping the Federal Government will be supportive of an increase to SBS’s triennial funding in next year’s budget, which will provide further demand and increased diversity. Our Subscription TV event, held in July, confirmed that the many channels operating under and alongside Foxtel want to increase their drama output and are looking for strong ideas to service their market share.  And should the recommendations from the convergence review be adopted, particularly an increase in the producer offset to 40% for premium television drama and an increase in Australian content quotas for both Free to Air and Subscription TV, the need and desire for more content will further increase.

All this should be exciting for you, our next gen practitioners. Why? Because it means plenty of opportunity and demand for new stories to find their way to the screen, and you could be the creator, the producer, the writer or director of one of these shows.

Even more importantly – as storytellers, television is the medium that allows you to really hone your craft skills.  The number of hours television demands to feed its very hungry appetite means that whether you’re a writer, a producer or a director, if your skills are good enough, you’ll end up employed for many more hours, across a greater diversity of genres and styles, and this will help you become much better in your area of expertise. 10 years of regular work across television is much more likely to help you become a master craftsman in high demand, than producing one feature film across that same time period.

I know, the challenge for many of you is finding out what and who you need to know to get a gig in this medium. And that’s what these two days are all about. Some of the best and brightest in our industry are going to share information that will set you on the path to success.

Of course there are other things you’ll need to reach your goal, and a colleague suggested I share with you my top ten tips based on my own 30 years in the industry, much of which was spent working on television drama and comedy. So here goes:

My first big tip: Persevere. Don’t let the knock-backs throw you off course, because trust me, there’ll be a few of them!  Desperate to get a foot in the door, the first job I applied for in this industry, was quite complex– it involved putting the film cans from the ‘Sunday Night Movie’ into boxes, taping them up, and labelling them for despatch by road from Channel 9 to Win TV in Ballarat – a really difficult job for an 18 y o you’ll agree, with a lofty title of despatch clerk!. Following my interview I was told they were very impressed with my application, and I was their number 2 choice. Why not number 1? Well they’d never had a girl do that job before. Clearly it was a big risk! Maybe guys had neater writing or were better with packing tape. Go figure!

I didn’t get the job, but I didn’t dwell on it for too long. I continued to look for other jobs, even though the “we like you but you’ve got no experience’ statement was a common theme. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it too – so how can you get experience when no-one will give you a job?

Which leads me to Tip Number 2: There’s always a way around any problem.  For me it was fluking my way into the then new Media Studies course at RMIT, which I figured would at least get me using cameras and editing equipment. It was a good strategy on my part, because oddly enough it did lead to me working on corporate videos, some short films and a really low budget feature film all for free, and through which I got some very basic experience. It was this experience, plus my perseverance, that saw me knocking on the doors of Crawford Productions, then the biggest TV drama production house in the country, who were producing 4 drama series at any one time.  It didn’t matter that they offered to put me in the typing pool, and that being the only girl at high school who didn’t want to be a secretary, I’d never learnt to type. More perseverance and problem solving skills – A quick trip to Dandenong market for a 2nd hand typewriter and a ‘how to type’ book, plus 2 days banging the keys, plus another phone call to the personnel officer, with a passionate request to spend some days on the set of The Sullivans observing in my own time. Eventually Crawfords trained me as a script supervisor and gave me a paying job.  Luck and timing also played a part.

Tip Number 3: Be prepared to work for nothing and do any related job you can. Runner, props, lackey, caterer, take whatever you can get and do it well. This will get you rungs on the board, and along the way you’ll gather experience and some handy contacts for the future. Sooner or later it will lead to something, and you’ll end up with the gig you’re aiming for.

Tip Number 4: Be entrepreneurial. If you can’t find someone who’ll give you a go, create an opportunity for yourself. The technology is so easy to access. Grab your friends and family to help you, raise your funds, shoot on weekends and nights. Whatever it takes!  It’s all experience and I’ve always found being proactive is more productive than being reactive.

Tip Number 5: Play to your strengths and value collaboration. There are very few of us who can excel at writing producing and directing. And even if you are one of those rare geniuses, these are big jobs. Be the best at the one you love the most, and find some like minded bodies to share the rest of the load. It’s much more fun and likely to be a better product because you embraced the chance to collaborate.

Tip Number 6: Use any opportunity to hone your skills, whatever your craft. Whether it’s on training and corporate videos, commercials, music videos, docos, drama, short form, long form, for broadcast or online – in essence these are all forms of storytelling. Every project is a new experience with its own challenges, and each time you create something – no matter the form – you will learn from the process and improve your skills and sensibilities.

Tip Number 7: Television is all about story. You need to hook the audience in and keep them there, you need great proactive characters driving strong plots. Keep working on your idea until it’s well crafted, make it the best it can be, whether you’re the creator or collaborator. It needs the ‘wow factor’ or it won’t cut through the hundreds of other ideas out there. It has to be fresh, but it can be and usually is a highly original take on an old idea. After all they do say there are really only seven stories to be told.

Tip Number 8: Develop and use your sense of humour. It works well in stories and getting you out of tricky situations, whether on the page or in life. Humour is one of the best tools bestowed on humans beings, so use it to your advantage.

Tip Number 9: Don’t try to generate all your story ideas based on your own personal experiences. Look around you for sources of inspiration. Dramatic and funny stories are everywhere – in newspapers and books, on the tram, on the street, overheard conversations, when your friends tell you about something that happened to them. You’ll find inspiration in real life, juxtaposing the ordinary with the extraordinary, which is where your imagination comes in!

Finally Number 10: Be patient. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to get that first paying job in your preferred discipline.  You’ll likely just get annoyed, frustrated, maybe even disheartened. Accept upfront that it might take between 3 – 5 years, even longer, and that so much will depend on luck and timing. A lot of it is out of your control. But things do come to those who wait, and sometimes when you least expect it.  I should also add here, that equally sometimes you need to recognise when it’s time to let go, or try a new approach or idea, particularly if it’s a passion project that’s getting no traction.

In the meantime, enjoy every day as it comes, seize every opportunity you can and remember why you love this crazy industry in the first place.

And you can start on this journey now, by enjoying and absorbing what you discover here over the next two days.  I hope you all leave this event feeling inspired, confident and determined, and I am really looking forward to seeing the stories you, our next generation of storytellers, will bring to our screens.

Thanks and have a fantastic conference.

06.09.2012

New ABC TV drama The Strange Calls

Film, Latest News, Television, , ,

The Strange Calls is a six-part TV drama series written and directed by
Queenslander Daley Pearson and produced by Tracey Robertson and co-produced by
Leigh McGrath for Hoodlum and the ABC.

Bumbling city cop Toby Banks (Toby Truslove) is demoted to night duty in the sleepy
beachside village of Coolum. Working out of a run-down caravan on the outskirts of
town, he meets Gregor (Barry Crocker), town cleaner, board game collector and
paranormal authority. They team up to investigate The Strange Calls – bizarre late-
night phone calls that expose the paranormal mysteries haunting the sleepy town. A
place where men turn into chickens, mermaids fall in love with locals and cats return
from the grave.

We shot The Strange Calls using a single ARRI ALEXA camera from Cameraquip.
Primarily just two lens were used – the light weight Optimo Zooms 15-40mm and
28-76mm. Our camera package and crew were kept as small as practical. The large
bulk of the shooting was serviced by two grips (Sean Aston and Damien Kwockson)
and two electrics (Glen Jones and Chris Walsingham). The lean camera crew was
headed up by 1st AC Matt Floyd assisted by Luke Jeffery and Dan Shelton. There
were a few times when a larger crew was required (night exteriors) but generally it
was a pretty lean streamlined team.

Second unit footage was shot by Ben Zaugg and Luke Jeffery and consisted mainly of
atmospheric time lapse establishers of mount Coolum and CU insert shots. This
footage, shot with a Canon 5D, cut seamlessly with the main unit ALEXA footage.
The schedule was tight – a four-week shoot to capture the 6 x 30min episodes. A very
steep learning curve for our young, keen and talented first time director Daley
Pearson.

It certainly helped that all the key camera crew, grips and electrics had worked
together on numerous productions before. Daley did a wonderful job keeping us all
enthused and excited about the project. This enthusiasm was infectious. It certainly
helped that the script was very funny and the cast were a delight to work with.

I would describe the visual style of The Strange Calls as traditional or classic
filmmaking. We drew heavily on the 80s era masterpieces such as The X-Files, Twin
Peaks and Northern Exposure.

There was no hand-held shooting. The camera generally remained mounted on a
dolly, slider or tripod. With simple elegant coverage being the order of the day. We
stayed well clear of the now conventional modern Australian style of quick jump-
cutting with multiple cameras and long lens. For Daley and myself, the overriding
mantra was to capture the wonderful comic performances of our cast and to tell their

stories in a simple and straight forward manner. The camera and lighting style was
very understated and naturalistic. Yet The Strange Calls retains a strong sense of
style through the careful choice of lens, camera placement and movement, colour,
depth of field and source lighting.

We used lots of wide shots and at the same time minimised the use of singles and
close ups. Scenes often played out as looser two-shots. The wider lens allowed
Coolum to feature strongly as an additional character in the story. I tried to avoid any
excessively long or wide lens. Generally staying in the 25mm – 75mm range, with the
32mm being the most commonly used focal length. CUs were always shot by moving
the camera closer and using a 50mm lens. This gave The Strange Calls a feature film
sensibility, not the usual TV practice of simply zooming in from the same camera
position. It did however restrict us to an average of 30 set ups per day. Quite a
challenge.

The bulk of The Strange Calls takes place in two sets designed and built by
production designer Matt Putland in a disused fish co-op in Sandgate. Various streets
and houses around Brisbane’s northern bayside suburbs filled in for Coolum. Coolum
itself mainly provided the seaside vistas and the ominous mystical presence of Mount
Coolum itself.

Matt built two matching caravan interiors, one in the studio and one in an exterior
caravan set. This allowed us to make the most of the natural shoot-off through the
caravan windows. The dual sets also allowed the cast to enter and exit the caravan in
shot, instead of having to cut between exterior and interior sets as in traditional TV
productions. He also built a police station interior in the co-op’s disused offices.

The sets were lit naturalistically with built in practical lamps and sunshine directed
through the strategically placed windows and sky lights. The caravan was always a
place of warmth and refuge. Very homely. The tones were kept golden and warm.
This also help give the film a sense of gentle nostalgia. I returned to my favorite
soft/FX filters from the early-90s to help smooth out the actor’s skin and again aid
our slightly understated nostalgic feel.

Night exteriors were pure ET – moonlit forests complete with ominous smoke. Glen’s
workhorse light source was a set of LED panels. Great for subtle fill light. Easy to
conceal and dim-able with adjustable colour temperature control. A great addition to
the modern lighting package. In general we made as much use as possible of the

ALEXA’s incredible sensitivity and dynamic range and tried to use as much natural
and available light as practical. Often the only artificial light was a LED panel to add
some fill light in the actor’s eyes and small HMI or tungsten sources placed in the
deep background.

I’ve found over the last few long form dramas I’ve shot with the ALEXA that it reacts
very well to the use of smoke. We used smoke quite extensively in The Strange
Calls which aided the slightly retro look of film and placed it squarely within our
visual reference point of classics such as ET and Close Encounters. Powerful grading
tools like Cutting Edge’s Baselight are superb at evening out mismatched smoke
levels (inevitable when using smoke at night).

The final grade was done by Justin McDonald at Cutting Edge. I like to achieve as
much as possible in-camera and don’t tend to change much in the colour correction.
The process is very much one of balancing up shots within the scenes and allow the
edit to run as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. I use the colour temperature
controls in-camera to warm and cool scenes and correct the excessive green or
magenta bias in the images common with most digital cameras. The grade then
becomes mainly an exercise in contrast control and detail enhancement.

I generally like to give the colourist a few days on their own to set the black levels
(contrast) and high lights before I make an appearance. This process allows me to be
a little more creative with fresh eyes and a cinematographer’s perspective. The grade
is a very important time for me creatively and I always insist on being present.

So far, of the 15 features films and TV shows I’ve shot, I’ve never missed a grade. I
also use the grade as an opportunity to fine tune compositions and reframe shots.
Justine and I also made extensive use of subtle vignettes to draw the viewer’s eye to
what we considered important at that stage of the story. I’m looking forward to the
introduction of ARRI’s new ALEXA PLUS 4:3 camera with its extra area at the top
and bottom of frame to play with, and extra detail of the ARRI RAW format. I also
hope it sees a return to more wide screen anamorphic productions.

The Strange Calls is a tightly-crafted comedy with a strong visual nod to the classics
of the 80s. A little Close Encounters and a lot of The X-Files. It was an absolute
pleasure to photograph.

By Robert Humphreys ACS – Australian Cinematographers Society

Trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPmGKiGMTTo

Links:

www.cinematographer.org.au
http://thestrangecalls.abc.net.au
www.facebook.com/TheStrangeCallsTV
www.hoodlum.com.au

The ABC and Australia’s new media landscape

Latest News, Online Media, Television, , ,

By the Hon James Spigelman AC QC, Chairman of the ABC – Address to Ripe@2012
Conference

THE digital revolution has undermined the business model of much traditional
media. Its effects are exemplified in recent dramatic announcements by Australia’s
two largest print media groups.

Broadcasters and pay-TV also face an uncertain future.

In such a context, we are now seeing more frequent expressions of anxiety about
public broadcasters competing with commercial interests. There is nothing new
about this. Public broadcasters have always had an adverse impact on such interests.

In 1933, when the ABC began an independent news service, the chief executive of one
of our major media groups was so concerned with the impact such a service could
have on his company’s print and commercial radio operations he called for a
reduction in the ABC’s revenue. That was Keith Murdoch, Rupert’s father. Some
things change very little over the decades.

It is perfectly understandable that commercial broadcasters and, in a converged
world, other media, should suggest the ABC refrain from providing services that are,
or might be, provided on a commercial basis. The first thing to say about such
arguments is that there has never been a time when the ABC was simply a market-
failure broadcaster, obliged to fill gaps in the commercial offering.

The ABC’s obligations are, and have always been, defined positively, not negatively.
Under current legislation, the ABC is directed to provide “comprehensive
broadcasting services” and to accept a “responsibility … to provide a balance between
broadcasting programs of wide appeal and specialised broadcasting programs”.
Unquestionably, a public broadcaster must program for minority audiences in a way
that commercial free-to-air broadcasters would never do.

Perhaps no better example exists than the ABC’s coverage of the Paralympics, with
which, it appears, advertisers would prefer to avoid any association – despite the
triumph of the human spirit that is continually on display.

However, the ABC must offer services to the community as a whole. One of the ABC’s
key roles is to ensure that all Australians have access to quality media services,
perhaps particularly reliable news and information about international, national,
regional and local matters.

We are seeing only the beginning of the impact of technological change on media.
New business models are being tried. While there are some confident assertions
about the prospects for these models, the truth is that no one knows where this is
going.

In such a context, the capacity of public broadcasters to ensure all Australians receive
a quality service with a breadth of content on all major platforms has become more
important than ever.

There is no public debate in Australia that seriously questions the continuation of
the ABC’s traditional services. There is, however, some limited commentary about its
expansion into online and mobile platform delivery. Computers, smartphones and
tablets are now so ubiquitous that delivery of a program, or cognate material, to such
devices is a form of broadcasting, in the natural meaning of the term. These
platforms are so available that they are becoming the same as traditional radio or
television sets.

Any suggestion that such delivery should be restricted because it is new is as dubious
as an argument would have been that radio programs should not be delivered to
transistor radios because they did not exist when radio broadcasting began.

That is not to say that the ABC’s determination to interact with its audiences in the
manner they prefer does not have adverse commercial consequences on existing or
potential service providers. It has always had such effects: whether use of public
funds constitutes competition that could be regarded as unfair is a matter on which
people can differ.

However, broadcasting encompasses delivery of programs to all platforms capable of
receiving them. This is how the ABC’s audiences see it and the ABC continues each
day to meet that public expectation.

One issue that has arisen in the present Australian debate is whether the public
broadcasters should be subject to exactly the same regime as that applicable to
commercial broadcasters. This has never been the case. Our entire 80-year history
has been based on ensuring that the ABC cannot be subject to pressure from its sole
shareholder.

One of the key recommendations of the Convergence Review is the establishment of
a new industry-led regulator to oversee journalistic standards on all platforms. The
review recommends that the ABC and SBS would not be subject to this new
regulator. This recommendation rejects the proposal of the prior report of the
Finkelstein inquiry for a statutory regulator. It was disappointing that this prior
inquiry, on which the Convergence Review was asked to report, had recommended
the ABC should be subject to the media standards regulator which that inquiry
proposed. This is particularly so because, when the earlier inquiry had sought the
assistance of the ABC, it expressly stated in writing that it was not investigating the
standards or behaviour of the ABC.

The rejection by the Convergence Review of the earlier proposal is consistent with a
similar rejection by the Australian Law Reform Commission. Any appeal to a so-
called “level playing field” with respect to media regulation, by subjecting the ABC to
the same regulation as is applicable to commercial broadcasters, is fundamentally
misconceived. The government response to these two reports is still awaited.

Sydney, September 5, 2012 – http://about.abc.net.au/speeches

Full text of the speech here:

The ABC and Australia’s new media landscape

Tom Stoppard: ‘Anna Karenina comes to grief because she has fallen in love for the first time’

Film, Latest News, Screenwriting, , ,

Tom Stoppard says his original approach to writing the screenplay for Joe Wright’s new film adaptation of Anna Karenina was for a fast, modern movie about being in lust. Then wiser counsels – including his own – prevailed

Tom Stoppard: ‘What Tolstoy is on about is that carnal love is not a good idea… [but] Russian society was not exactly a hotbed of chastity.’

The latest film adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina began in what Tom
Stoppard calls “a normal kind of way”, though it did not exactly have a normal outcome. Sitting in his penthouse flat in west London with his back to a stunning view of the Thames, he lights the first of the six cigarettes that will measure out this conversation.

“Somebody rang my agent, Anthony Jones,” he says, before adding: “It was to ask if I was up for adapting Anna Karenina for Joe Wright. It was Joe’s choice of movie.”

This is an ideal moment to talk to one of Britain’s leading contemporary playwrights. Stoppard is in that limbo that writers experience when the work is done and dusted, before the public has really caught up and cast its vote. Indeed, this late summer season is blessed with not one, but two, Stoppard screen adaptations. His version of Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall, which we’ll come to, is winning golden opinions on BBC2.

Speaking of his Anna Karenina, which stars Keira Knightley in the title role,
Stoppard says that Wright’s commission came at a good time. He’d finished the script of Parade’s End, and had no stage play in mind. Writing a screenplay, he says, is like writing left-handed: “It doesn’t feel like a continuation of my writing life. It’s an interruption, but a welcome one, especially if I haven’t got a play on.”

Perhaps only a dramatist of Stoppard’s stature and experience could welcome the invitation to turn Tolstoy’s masterpiece into cinema. It’s a daunting prospect: the novel is more than 800 pages in the excellent Penguin Classics translation, by the husband and wife team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. And still more demanding, the story of the beautiful married woman who falls hopelessly in love with the dashing cavalry officer but eventually throws herself under a train in despair has become as familiar to audiences as Hamlet or The Odyssey.

And that’s before you’ve begun to take on board the novel’s cinematic history. By the most casual inventory, there have been at least 12 screen versions, ranging from the Greta Garbo classic (1935), to the Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richardson version of 1948, an American silent movie, entitled Love, which somehow contrived a happy ending, and even an Egyptian version Nahr al-Hob (River of Love) made in 1960.

So where did he start? “I actually watched several Anna Kareninas,” he says. “At screenplay school, I’m sure they tell you not to watch the previous attempts. But I found it irresistible. Also, I’d never seen a Garbo film. Ever. I was fascinated by that. So I saw Garbo and I saw Vivien Leigh. And there was a BBC version, that was the best for me, because it was six hours.”

He also reread the novel, of course, for the first time in 30 or 40 years. “I felt quite …” he hesitates, “I don’t know what the word is, but I felt I was under
greater surveillance by Tolstoy compared to Ford Madox Ford. It’s a wonderful novel with some great set-pieces, like Vronsky’s steeplechase. The big question, for me, on getting to know the book again, was what to do with the second story, the Levin story.”

There’s the additional problem that the Levin chapters of the novel contain many long discussions about local government, and estate management. “It’s as though,” Stoppard jokes, “Tolstoy took the big essay at the end of War and Peace and said to himself, ‘I’d better spread this through the whole story next time.'”

But Levin (modelled on Tolstoy himself) is important. The parallel, shy relationship between Levin and Kitty (superbly played by Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander) is used by Tolstoy to counterpoint Anna’s affair. “For a while,” Stoppard continues, “I thought we should ignore everything and just go hell for leather, and into, and through, and out of, this relentless love affair. I was going to make it like a very fast modern movie, which was all about being in lust.” In the end, he says, “wiser counsels prevailed, including my own”. He delivered a script of about 130 pages – in movie terms, a film of about two-and-a-half hours.

The idea of the film, at this point, was, he says, “to deal seriously with the subject of love” as it applies to several pairs of characters, Anna and Vronsky (Keira Knightley and Aaron Johnson), Anna and her husband (played by Jude Law), Levin and Kitty. The word “love” was intended to chime through the script to indicate various kinds of loving, from adulterous infatuation to marital contentment.

So far, so normal. But here’s the thing: when Wright’s film opens, the audience finds itself pitched not into imperial Russia but into a stunning visual metaphor, a dilapidated 19th-century Russian theatre. The stalls, boxes, scene docks, dressing rooms and backstage theatrical clutter become the setting for all the Moscow and St Petersburg parts of the novel, a stark, and highly stylised, contrast with the more conventional and naturalistic scenes set on Levin’s estate (actually, Salisbury Plain).

So what happened?

After the preview, and in anticipation of this interview, I had imagined, at this point, Stoppard would confide that, as a man of the theatre, he had conceived the idea of framing his adaptation with a cinematic proscenium arch. But this, it turns out, is not the case. He seems still to be coming to terms with Wright’s directorial coup.

“No, I didn’t have this idea at any point,” he insists. “The script was done and Joe went off to location scout in Russia.” But, for various reasons, this recce was unsatisfactory, and Wright continued to look for locations in England, without much luck.

“He called me up, and said, ‘Can I see you urgently?’ He came round with a big file and exhibited his idea – essentially that the Moscow and St Petersburg scenes should take place in a 19th-century theatre – on my kitchen table.”

Was this to do with budget problems? Stoppard shakes his head. “Joe needed a concept to get excited about doing the novel as a movie. I think he talked to Keira about it – Pride and Prejudice had worked out really well for them – and this was what he came up with.”

Another cigarette. A pause. “It was a bit of a shock,” he continues, “but the shock was ameliorated by Joe’s wanting no changes in the script. He shot my script,” Stoppard concludes, with satisfaction.

Indeed he did. Wright’s version is a directorial tour de force propelled by Dario Marianelli’s headlong score. Every frame is stamped with an overwrought aesthetic sensibility that transforms what might have been a naturalistic costume drama into the mannered pirouette of a theatrical ensemble swept along in a classic Russian romance.

This Anna Karenina is probably not the film Stoppard envisaged, and he concedes to “various worries” about the decision to place the drama in a single location – basically, a Shepperton sound stage. However, he adds that: “My fundamental sense is that I’m much more interested by what Joe has done – and I’m not as worried as I might have been if I had been the screenwriter of the 47th immaculate costume drama [from the BBC], another classic, well-dressed, romantic drama.”

For that kind of satisfaction, the Stoppard fan must turn to Parade’s End, a labour of love to which Stoppard has devoted several years. He confesses now that “it feels too long since my last stage play [Rock’n’Roll, which premiered at the Royal Court in 2006]. Parade’s Endis the reason, but I don’t mind. I had delusions of proprietorship with those characters.” Compared to Anna Karenina, he says, “Parade’s End felt much more like my own work,” adding that, “I invented much more”.

That’s true enough. But Stoppard’s late fascination with the secret anatomy of love, a turning away from the argumentative verbal fireworks of plays such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Jumpers, is braided into every line of Anna Karenina. He says he wanted to examine what happens to a married woman, Anna, who discovers sex for the first time, a theme possibly of greater relevance today than might generally be admitted.

In quest of this, he gives Anna some wonderfully resonant lines. After her first
experience of love-making with Vronsky, she murmurs, “You have murdered my happiness”, a subtle and complicated sentiment that shortly becomes: “So this is love … This!”

Stoppard believes that “what Tolstoy is on about is that carnal love is not a good idea”. The script also takes him back into territory – infidelity – that he explored on stage in The Real Thing. Today, he is at pains to draw a clear distinction between St Petersburg in the 1870s and London in the 1980s. “Russian society was not exactly a hotbed of chastity,” he says, relishing the oxymoron. “Anna comes to grief because she has fallen in love for the first time.”

I wonder, en passant, if the Czech part of Tom Stoppard (born Tomas Straussler in 1937) responds to Tolstoy, the Slav, but this won’t fly. He shakes his head. “I don’t think falling in love in Slovakia is much different from falling in love in Tunbridge Wells,” he replies.

Speaking of romance, more generally, he admits that, as he grows older, “it’s not of less interest. If anything, I think, it becomes more important. My own progress has been from thinking that it was unimportant, that it was the play of minds that kept a play crackling.”

He has come to see that the heart is quite as dependable an engine of drama as the head. “In Rock’n’Roll, I was basically doing the Prague spring, the politics of 1968, but I came to understand that – for the audience – the play works as a love story. Now I tend to look for ways to introduce what you call ‘romance’ into what is ostensibly the ‘real’ topic, the politics, the ideas, or whatever.”

With a closing laugh, Stoppard stubs out his last cigarette. “Actually, if the ‘real’ topic is my only topic, I may be in trouble.” Does he have any explanation for this transition from the cerebral and argumentative play of ideas (Travesties; Arcadia) to something warmer and fuzzier? A sheepish look, after which we say goodbye. “The truth of the matter,” he replies, “is that I used to be much more – as it were – shy. Now I don’t care!”

Robert McCrum – The Observer, Sunday 2 September 2012

Queensland Literary Awards winners announced

Latest News, Screenwriting, ,

Five months to the day after Premier Campbell Newman axed the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the state’s writing community presented their own literature prizes, reports The Courier Mail.

More than 250 writers, editors, publishers and book retailers attended the inaugural Queensland Literary Awards held at State Library Queensland on Tuesday night.

The shortlist:

Television Script

Blake Ayshford for The Straits (episode 3 )
Brendan Cowell for The Slap (episode 3)
Liz Doran for Dance Academy (season 2, ep 24)
Anthony Mullins for Strange Calls (episode 3)
Sue Smith for Mabo WINNER 2012

Film Script

Louise Fox for Dead Europe WINNER 2012
Miro Bilbrough for Being Venice
Shayne Armstrong & Shane Krause for Rarer Monsters
Brendan Cowell for Save Your Legs

Can Indie Film Achieve a Network Effect?

Film, Latest News, Online Media, , ,

In a recent post entitled Networks And The Enterprise, Fred Wilson explains how his firm Union Square Ventures invests in networks. He included this line.

My uber goal of writing this post is to explain that the wired and mobile internet is a global network and it powers all sorts of smaller networks to get built on top of it.

These networks connect people with each other. Each network gains value as more users join and as each user contributes value to the network which in turn becomes available to every other user. As he points out with respect to one of their investments,

Every time a new participant in the ecosystem joins the Return Path data network, their systems and tools get smarter, making the service more valuable for everyone.

That’s a classic network effect and it is very powerful.

Achieving a network effect is the holy grail within the world of technology. The
network grows in size, power and value. Kickstarter, one of the companies funded by Union Square Ventures, is approaching this holy grail.

James Cooper has just published an ebook entitled Kickstarter for Filmmakers:
Prepare and Execute Your Next Crowd Funding Campaign:

www.kickstarterforfilmmakers.com

Every filmmaker who has thought even briefly about using Kickstarter or other
crowd funding platforms to raise money for a film should spend the $1.99 and read it immediately.

Cooper provides an overview of the state of crowd funding for film and then uses the crowd funding campaign from his own short film Elijah the Prophet to provide examples of what worked. He also takes the reader through the various stages of a crowd funding campaign and highlights keys to success.

What I find most remarkable is the level of detail he provides on his own campaign. He tells us which team member brought in how many dollars through their efforts and the number of people who contributed that no one on the team knew and how much these strangers contributed. In other words, he provides complete transparency into what his team did and how they did it.

It is worth noting that Cooper has done something that is really quite unusual within the film industry.

He actually provides real numbers. There are no approximations and no spin. He simply says here is the data and here are my conclusions from that data. And by doing so, he provides real value to all independent filmmakers.

Now I ask you to imagine, what if there was really a network of independent
filmmakers who did exactly what Cooper did and then did it repeatedly over all their projects?

I mean the kind of network that Fred Wilson suggests in his blog post. One where every participant provides knowledge to the network that every other participant can access.

This is a model from the technology world that needs to borrowed by the indie film world and used to transform the way indie film is created, financed, distributed and marketed. I would also argue further that it even needs to transform the way indie film is discussed.

Primarily indie film is viewed as if it is a disparate group of individuals who battle all odds and surmount great obstacles to finally get a shot at the brass ring. Each filmmaker is seen as the lone auteur who has climbed the mountain. At festivals each spin their tale of triumph as they court audiences. It makes for great copy (and is often true) but does it help move independent film forward? I am not sure. To me, it is not sufficient. Something more needs to be done.

Independent film needs a new metaphor.

Instead of a group of disparate individuals, indie film has to be seen as a network. One which is powered by the wired and mobile Internet. A network with participants who add value for each other participant. To paraphrase Fred Wilson, each participant in the ecosystem needs to help the services get smarter and therefore make it more valuable for everyone who is part of the ecosystem.

This requires transparency and the sharing of real details–by everyone.

James Cooper has created a model of how to begin. Others need to follow his example.

Then indie film might begin to achieve a very powerful network effect.

And every independent filmmaker will benefit.

About Chris Dorr: I consult with media and consumer electronic companies on digital media strategy and business development. Clients include Samsung, MTV Networks, Tribeca Film Festival, Shaw Media, Accedo Broadband, Beyond Oblivion and A3 Media Networks. I created the Future of Film blog for Tribeca. I have worked in the movie business for Disney Studios, Universal Pictures, Scott Free and in the digital media business for Intertainer, Sony and Nokia. Contact me at chris@digitaldorr.com or follow me at @chrisdorr

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Chris Dorr on his blog www.digitaldorr.com

Ten legacy: Mott years were bold, says industry

Latest News, Television, ,

When David Mott came to TEN in September 1996 it was a turbulent place, having endured 10 different programmers across 17 years. ‘Motty’ had spent 18 years with TVW 7 Perth. By mid 1997 he became Head of Programming at Ten after the departure of Ross Plapp. Andy McIntyre worked alongside Mott from 1996 to 2004, for the last five years as General Manager, Program Finance and Development. McIntrye recalls: “He had served an excellent apprenticeship at Seven, knew the keyinternational players. The advertising climate was improving and Ten was profitable. What it lacked was the prime time line up of domestic product that made Seven and Nine such ratings powerhouses.”

Mott’s first commission was a bold idea that had been rejected by his predecessor. Boldness would come to define Ten’s style. “In the bottom drawer he found the pitch document for The Panel,” says Michael Hirsh from Working Dog. “That chance discovery resulted in hundreds and hundreds of hours of original television. In addition to The Panel, Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures, and Thank God You’re Here followed.”

In 1999 he signed Good News Week after its 3 year run on the ABC. A former Channel 31 host named Rove McManus was given a shot. Big Brother revolutionised Reality Television. The Big Brother deal with Southern Star also gave life to The Secret Life of Us, a burning, youthful soap from John Edwards and Amanda Higgs. Australian Idol was commissioned. Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation brought Shaun Micallef broad commercial success.

Other moves would lead the pack. Under Mott, TEN became the first network to ditch the Sunday Night Movie and replace it with series TV. Working with the Fennessy brothers at Crackerjack and FremantleMedia, he stripped a US format, The Biggest Loser, into a primetime nightly format.

Michael Cordell, from Cordell Jigsaw, says Mott took a big punt on Bondi Rescue in 2005. The show has gone on to reach seven seasons, five Logies and international sales. “Motty’s been one of the great champions of bold and innovative programming in Australia,” he says. Arguably his biggest gamble came in axing Big Brother for a cooking show into primetime. In its second year Masterchef’s finale was watched by 4.8m – still a record audience.

Ian Hogg CEO at FremantleMedia added, “David Mott’s legacy will be profound. He is an outstanding television executive, an outstanding father and husband and a great friend to so many people in the business who have learnt so much from him.”

Mott is understood to have left Ten with a 6 month non-compete clause.

More Here:

www.tvtonight.com.au/2012/08/ten-legacy-mott-years-were-bold-says-industry.html

By David Knox on August 29, 2012 – TVtonight.com.au

Twenty-Three Feature Projects To Receive Development Support

Film, Latest News,

Screen Australia today announced almost $700,000 in development support for 23 feature projects, enabling filmmakers to take their feature film script to the next level towards production readiness. Fifteen new projects have been added to Screen Australia’s development slate, while eight teams will receive continued support to develop their projects.

Two Australian filmmakers will also be supported to undertake overseas internships. Producer Ma’ara Bobby Romia will work for six months with Screentime Group in New Zealand and director Ariel Martin–Merrells will work under the mentorship of director James Foley in Los Angeles for five months.

Screen Australia’s Head of Development Martha Coleman said, “Following a now well-established tradition, the development slate announced today includes a diverse range of compelling stories from both established and emerging filmmakers. The high calibre of screenplays coming through our door backs up positive feedback we are getting from the domestic and international marketplace and I’m looking forward to seeing the best of these projects make their journey through to production over the next few years.”

The new projects to receive development support include a thriller script, Los Alamos, from writer Luke Davies (Candy) and Oscar®-winning producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (The King’s Speech). Berlin Syndrome is a new psychological thriller in development from writer Shaun Grant (Snowtown) with producer Polly Staniford and executive producer Angie Fielder. Shaun Grant will also be supported to develop Jasper Jones, a coming-of-age story based on the award- winning Australian novel by Craig Silvey with producers Vincent Sheehan and David Jowsey.

Writer Joan Sauers will be supported to develop the biopic Enemy Alien about mercurial classical violist, Richard Goldner, with producers Brian Rosen and Su Armstrong. The Canary Cottage is a black comedy script being developed by writer/director Heath Davis, producer Luke Graham and executive producer Jonathan Page and The Stockpicker is a romantic comedy script in development from writer Dave Warner and producer Phillip Bowman.

Writer Peter Ivan will be supported to develop his drama script, An Oddball Solution, with producers Steve Kearney and Richard Keddie, and writers Stephen Ramsey and Bob Ellis will be supported to develop their biopic script The News of the World.Emma Jensen will develop the biopic Mary Shelley about the life of the novelist who wrote Frankenstein. Matthew Dabner is on board as an executive producer.

Marauder is a true-crime story being supported for development by writer Lee Sellars and producer/director Marion Pilowsky about a rookie detective, a killer on the loose and a mother who never gave up hope.

David Williamson and Craig Monahan will be supported to develop crime drama The Removalists, a reimagining of David Williamson’s iconic play of the same name. Tait Brady and Craig Monahan are attached to the project as producers.

The Riders is a drama in development from Susie Brooks-Smith who is adapting for the screen the acclaimed novel of the same name by Tim Winton. Director Robert Connolly and producer Timothy White are attached to the project.

Writer/producer Trish Graham will receive development support for her new family/fantasy script Little Fur: The Legend Begins with executive producer Matt Carroll.

New projects to receive matched feature development funding include the drama script The Devil’s Staircase from writer Sergio Casci with director Ben C Lucas (Wasted on the Young), producer Marian Macgowan and UK producer Claire Mundell. Training Grounds is an action feature project in development from writers Oscar Redding and Jonathan auf der Heide with director Jeremy Sims, producer Ranko Markovic and executive producer Piers Morgan.

Writer/directors Patrick Sarell and Alister Lockhart will also receive financial support from the Director’s Acclaim Fund to strategically assist them towards the next stage in their career path.

Projects to receive continued feature development support are included in the project details listed below.

SINGLE-PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: FEATURE DEVELOPMENT THE ACTRESSES

Genre Comedy Producer Michael McMahon Writer Katherine Thomson Director Tony Ayres Synopsis Five actresses compete for the role of a lifetime – an ensemble comedy about women, friendship and competition.

BERLIN SYNDROME

Genre Psychological Thriller Producer Polly Staniford Executive Producer Angie Fielder Writer Shaun Grant

Synopsis A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship when an Australian photojournalist wakes one morning in a Berlin apartment and is unable to leave.

THE CANARY COTTAGE

Genre Black Comedy Producer Luke Graham Executive Producer Jonathan Page Writer/Director Heath Davis Synopsis A broken young man learns to live and love again when he moves into his mother’s nursing home.

CARTAGENA

Genre Drama Producers Naomi Wenck, Kristina Ceyton Writer Nam Le Synopsis A teenage assassin living in the slums of Columbia finds himself ordered to do a hit on his best friend. Choosing between loyalty to his friend, and the loyalty required of him by a merciless drug lord, Juan Pablo is a normal boy caught up in a ruthless world. Based on the best-selling novel by Nam Le.

DEFIANT

Genre Thriller Producers Bill Bennett, Anupam Sharma Writer/Director Bill Bennett Synopsis Two young lovers from different castes in India are marked for honour killings. Based on true events.

ENEMY ALIEN Genre Biopic Producers Brian Rosen, Su Armstrong Writer Joan Sauers Synopsis The true story of mercurial classical violist, Richard Goldner, who escapes Nazi-occupied Austria to settle in Australia where he’s faced with a different kind of tyranny before discovering his true calling and forming Musica Viva. Based on the book by Suzanne Baker.

GIN & TONIC

Genre Comedy Drama Producers Leah Churchill-Brown, Amanda Higgs Writer Alice Bell Director Hattie Dalton Synopsis A baby is abandoned on 14-year-old Ashlee’s doorstep, shining light on her broken family and her secret teenage life.

JASPER JONES

Genre Coming of Age Producers Vincent Sheehan, David Jowsey Writer Shaun Grant Synopsis Based on the award-winning Australian novel by Craig Silvey.

LITTLE FUR: THE LEGEND BEGINS

Genre Family/Fantasy Writer/Producer Trish Graham Executive Producer Matt Carroll Synopsis Little Fur is the story of how even a small creature – an elf-troll, no larger than a 4-year-old child – is able to find the courage to overcome her fears, to understand that there is good and bad in all of us, and decides to become a hero.

LOS ALAMOS

Genre Thriller Producers Iain Canning, Emile Sherman Writer Luke Davies Synopsis Spring, 1945. Michael Connolly, a disgraced intelligence operative, enters a labyrinth of secrets and espionage when he arrives at the high-security military base of Los Alamos. Sent to investigate a seemingly open-and-shut murder case, Connolly is thrown into the heart of the Manhattan Project and must navigate a path through military protocol, political intrigue and personal agendas in order to uncover the truth in the most secretive place in the world.

MARAUDER

Genre True Crime Director/Producer Marion Pilowsky Writer Lee Sellars Synopsis A rookie detective, a killer on the loose and a mother who never gave up hope. Based on a true story.

MARY SHELLEY

Genre Biopic Executive Producer Matthew Dabner Writer Emma Jensen Synopsis A young woman with a family legacy and a passion for writing goes on a quest to find a story which results in the groundbreaking novel Frankenstein. However, Mary learns that creativity and love can come at a high price when she embarks on a passionate and tumultuous love affair with the poet Percy Shelley.

MICHAEL H

Genre Biopic Producers Sue Murray, Richard Lowenstein

Executive Producer Domenico Procacci Writer/Director Richard Lowenstein Synopsis At the height of his internationally renowned career, a sudden blow to the head robs the famously sensual rock star of two of his most cherished senses. A series of personal battles follows ending tragically with his death at the age of 37, the night before embarking on a world tour.

THE NEWS OF THE WORLD

Genre Biopic Writers Stephen Ramsey, Bob Ellis

AN ODDBALL SOLUTION

Genre Drama Producers Steve Kearney, Richard Keddie Writer Peter Ivan

REMARKABLE CREATURES

Genre Drama Producers Heather Ogilvie, Mark Gooder Writer Jan Sardi Synopsis Together, one woman’s gift and another’s determination result in one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 19th century. A revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship, based on the acclaimed novel by Tracey Chevalier.

THE REMOVALISTS

Genre Crime Drama Producers Tait Brady, Craig Monahan Writers David Williamson, Craig Monahan Director Craig Monahan Synopsis A blackly comic exposé of unequal social relationships and abuse of authority – now and then. A reimagining of the iconic Australian play by David Williamson.

THE RIDERS

Genre Drama Producer Timothy White Writer Susie Brooks-Smith Director Robert Connolly Synopsis Scully takes his young daughter, Billie, across Europe on a search for his missing wife. Based on the acclaimed novel by Tim Winton.

SILENT DISCO Genre Coming of Age

Producer Tom M Jeffrey Writer Lachlan Philpott Synopsis Teens Tamara and Squid are in love, but their fragile relationship is broken by a betrayal of trust that puts their futures at risk.

SON OF A GUN

Genre Crime Producer Timothy White Writer/Director Julius Avery Script Editor John Collee Synopsis A young man is sent to prison where he becomes the perfect apprentice to ‘public enemy number one’, beating him at his own game.

THE STOCKPICKER

Genre Romantic Comedy Producer Phillip Bowman Writer Dave Warner Synopsis Dylan Gilbert, a back room guy dreaming of becoming a glamorous stock picker realises that one of his firm’s small-time clients has an amazing success rate and by copying their picks he can achieve his dream, but when Client 68745, Holly York, falls in love her picks begin to tank! Dylan decides he must break up the love match if he is to achieve his goal.

SINGLE-PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: FEATURE MATCHED FUNDING THE DEVIL’S STAIRCASE

Genre Drama Producer Marian Macgowan UK Producer Claire Mundell Writer Sergio Casci Director Ben C Lucas Synopsis An 18-year-old girl runs away from small-town Australia to London, hoping to overcome her justifiable yet incapacitating fear of death by moving into an abandoned London townhouse with several young travellers, but she discovers before long that death seems to have followed her.

TRAINING GROUNDS

Genre Action Producer Ranko Markovic Executive Producer Piers Morgan Writers Oscar Redding, Jonathan auf der Heide Director Jeremy Sims Synopsis A group of young Western travellers are traversing the Silk Road when a land slide leaves them stranded without their vehicles. As they search for the destroyed 4x4s they discover a cave that’s being used as an Al-Qaeda training

ground. The soldiers aren’t there, but plans for a new international terrorist plot and a dirty bomb are.

TALENT ESCLATOR PROGRAMS: INDUSTRY INTERNSHIPS MA’ARA BOBBY ROMIA INTERNSHIP

Producer Ma’ara Bobby Romia Synopsis Ma’ara will work with Screentime Group in New Zealand for six months across all facets of television concept development, writing and producing, production, post-production and marketing/distribution strategies.

ARIEL MARTIN-MERRELLS INTERNSHIP

Director Ariel Martin-Merrells Synopsis Ariel will work under the mentorship of director James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross, Fear, Perfect Stranger) in Los Angeles for five months during post- production on House of Cards and collaborate in the development of two upcoming feature films projects Winter Hill Gang and Recoil.

TALENT ESCLATOR PROGRAMS: SHORTS PROGRAMS: DIRECTOR’S ACCLAIM FUND

PATRICK SARELL & ALISTER LOCKHART ACCLAIM FUND Writer/Directors Patrick Sarell, Alister Lockhart

Screen Australia Media Release – Tuesday 28 August 2012

New Projects Confirm NSW As Australia’s Film Capital

Film, Latest News, ,

A number of new feature films are being produced in NSW, confirming the State as number one when it comes to creative projects, according to Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner.

Mr Stoner today announced that leading Australian actor turned writer Joel Edgerton, together with Rosemary Blight, producer of the smash hit film The Sapphires and the creative team behind the Academy Award nominated Australian film Animal Kingdom, will bring their new feature film projects to NSW.

The Blight/Edgerton feature film project The Felony and producer Liz Watts and director David Michod’s new film The Rover are some of the new screen productions to receive production finance from the NSW Government through Screen NSW.

“These screen productions, which include feature films, television series and documentaries, will bring more than $20 million in direct production expenditure to NSW, create more than 1000 jobs and ensure our State continues to be the engine of creative screen production in Australia,” Mr Stoner said.

Joel Edgerton is both the screenwriter and star of Felony, which will be produced by Goalpost Pictures Australia’s Rosemary Blight and directed by Matthew Saville (Cloudstreet).

Writer/director David Michod’s follow-up film to Animal Kingdom is The Rover, which he will produce with Liz Watts (Animal Kingdom, Lore, Dead Europe) and David Linde, partner in US independent production company Good Machine.

Linde’s credits include the international films Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Biutiful and Happiness.

The Great Gatsby and Animal Kingdom’s Joel Edgerton will write and star in a new film to be shot in NSW, Felony.Around the Block is a contemporary story of love, revenge and triumph set in Redfern, a first feature from writer/director Sarah Spillane.

“Felony and Around the Block will be filmed and post produced in NSW, bringing all of their substantial production budgets to the State, while The Rover will be post produced in NSW,” Mr Stoner said.

Screen NSW – Thursday 30 August 2012