Category Archives: Film

Film news with a particular orientation towards Australia.

Sophie Hyde: Getting Closer

Directing, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

by Dov Kornits FilmInk August 16, 2022

“This is the only project I’ve ever done which Closer isn’t producer of,” Sophie Hyde tells us during the promotional junket for her latest directorial effort Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, an entirely UK production.

Closer Productions is the Adelaide based company that has brought us formally and thematically progressive works such as feature films 52 Tuesdays and Animals, documentaries In My Blood it Runs, Life in Movement, Sam Klemke’s Time Machine and The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone, and series Fucking Adelaide and Aftertaste.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lSaOJ9J7GO4%3Fwmode%3Dtransparent

Hyde is co-owner and one of the directors at Closer, and says that it’s “sometimes nice to go and do something else,” with regards to Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, starring Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack.

“Australia should be producing things like this. This is the only film I’ve ever done that I’m not a producer of… Silly me,” Hyde says about the film, which is getting a big push around the world.

“I think this is exactly the kind of thing we can be producing out of Australia. As producers, we don’t look at the international world. It’s a real tight balance because Australian audiences in the cinema for Australian films are not necessarily the same… We seem to have films that are successful in Australia in cinema, and then not as successful overseas. Or they’re successful overseas and not as successful in the cinema here. I don’t know why. I don’t know how to grapple with that. I just know that I make films that feel like they’re international, but they feel Australian to me too. I hope that we open up and want to see more kinds of stories. That’s always the thing, more different stories … for everybody.”

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is certainly a different kind of story. Essentially a two-hander set in a hotel room, the film stars Emma Thompson as a former schoolteacher of religion, a recent widow who hires an escort, played by Daryl McCormack, so that she can experience delights of the body that she has repressed for so long.

Written by comedic performer Katy Brand, and with Emma Thompson attached, Hyde was sent the script off the back of her work on Animals.

“It was a very early draft of the script, a very short draft. I had a meeting with them and said what I wanted to do with it. Then we worked on the script for 11 drafts quite quickly.

“Katy had sat down and written a story about these two characters. She’d written a script where they met three times, and she knew it was an early draft. She knew she wanted to go further with it, but it was short at 70 pages. It was dialogue. And then we expanded it to be the fourth meeting and changed a bunch of the story.”

When we bring up the fact that the story could have equally lent itself to the stage, Hyde is quick to point out her reasoning for the cinematic approach.

“For me, we’re looking at intimacy between two people and two bodies,” says Hyde. “That never feels like a play because that’s not my art form. All I see is movie, especially when it’s as intimate as this. I think that’s much more the pleasure of a movie where you can be close to someone, you can feel with them as opposed to looking at a distance. These kinds of films are the ones that I think of as the most cinematic in some ways. I never felt like I wanted to make it bigger. There was always a sense of emotional terrain, and the landscapes of their faces and their bodies was enough.”

Speaking of intimacy, did Hyde work with an intimacy coordinator on the film? No, though I think that it’s such a good advent in film. There’s been so many instances where actors have been really mistreated. I think as a director, in the most part, it means you can push harder for what you want because you know you are safe in the boundaries.

“With this though, Emma and Daryl and I talked about it a lot, and we were just really comfortable with the idea that we had each other. And another voice felt like too much for this. I think I work in some of the same ways that an intimacy coordinator does, which is very much about continual, constant, enthusiastic consent. That’s something that is present all the time in the shoot, and in the way that I work with actors. But on something bigger, where I’m not just dealing with two people, I would bring someone in.”

Working on such a contained project, shot in 19 days with a minimal crew, also allowed Hyde to work at her best. “I had a monitor, and I was offset a lot, just outside the hotel room. As a director, I have to have direct line to my actors, even if I’m a long way from them, because I go to them a lot. If anyone stands in front of me and the actors, I get really annoyed. It’s one of the only things that annoys me on a set, actually. That’s really important to me, that direct line to them and the sense that I can get to them fast, as soon as they cut.”

Even though this was not technically a Closer production, Sophie Hyde certainly had the support of her team, including her partner Bryan Mason [above, with Sophie on set], who was cinematographer and editor on Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. “We spend so much time together developing, and he’s there from the very start,” Hyde says. “I had really strong ideas about this film, about the way that light would be in each shot and the way that it would look, the neutrality of the space. And so we just had to build the set with the production designer, and to make sure that we could get those kind of shots. It wasn’t storyboarded, but we knew exactly how we wanted it to look all the time.

“A lot of our [Closer] team helped in the development of the script too. And post is a lot of the same team, so you still have the same DNA in a project like this.”

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is in cinemas August 18, 2022

NOORA NIASARI’S FEATURE FILM DEBUT SHAYDA ANNOUNCED

Directing, Diversity, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

Sceen Australia May 2022

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Writer/director Noora Niasari (Photo credit: Sherwin Akbarzadeh)

From a unique and authentic voice comes the highly anticipated feature debut Shayda, by writer and director Noora Niasari, starring Iranian actress Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Tehran Taboo, Morgen sind wir frei) with major production investment from Screen Australia.

Melbourne-based Niasari is well known for her award-winning short films including Waterfall which screened at the 66th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) where it was nominated for best short film, Tâm and feature documentary Casa Antúnez. HanWay Films has come on board to handle international sales and distribution, UTA Independent Film Group is representing the U.S. sale.

Shayda is produced by Vincent Sheehan (The Hunter, Jasper Jones, Animal Kingdom, Lore) through his new production venture Origma 45. Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini at Dirty Films (Apples, Carol, Little Fish) are executive producers. Shayda received major production investment from Screen Australia in association with The 51 Fund and financed with support from VicScreen and the MIFF Premiere Fund, while local distribution in Australia and New Zealand will be handled by Madman Entertainment. The 51 Fund (Cusp and the upcoming Shari & Lamb Chop) provides financing to feature films of any genre that are directed by women, with the goal of providing support to the most exciting female voices within the creative industry. Caitlin Gold, Lindsay Lanzillotta, Naomi McDougall Jones, Lois Scott, and Nivedita Kulkarni also serve as executive producers on behalf of 51. 

Heads of production will include Cinematographer and Niasari’s closest collaborator Sherwin Akbarzadeh (Stories From Oz). Osamah Sami (Ali’s Wedding), Leah Purcell (The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson), Mojean Aria (The Enforcer), Jillian Nguyen (Expired) and Rina Mousavi (Alexander) will star alongside Amir-Ebrahimi. Production will commence on 11 July in Australia.

A young Iranian mother (Amir-Ebrahimi) and her six-year-old daughter find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowrooz) which is celebrated as a time of renewal and re-birth. Aided by the strong community of women at the refuge they seek their freedom in this new world of possibilities, only to find themselves facing the violence they tried so hard to escape.

Vincent Sheehan commented, “Shayda is a powerful, timely and important story to be telling and Noora’s unique Iranian/Australian voice as a director will be a potent combination. I am thrilled to be working with such a quality stable of producers and market partners with a shared passion and commitment to backing Noora and her story.”

Screen Australia’s Head of Content Grainne Brunsdon said, “Rising talent Noora Niasari has created a well-crafted script, vibrant characters and an authentic world and Screen Australia is delighted to support her debut feature through development and into production. Shayda offers a unique perspective on a story with universal themes of survival and the cost of freedom.”

Dirty Films also noted, “We first encountered Noora’s talent watching her short films, The Phoenix and Tâm. We were blown away by her precise, emotionally-driven filmmaking and her capacity to draw out gripping performances. We are excited to be working alongside Vincent again to help Noora fulfil her bold and distinct vision for Shayda.”

HanWay Films MD Gabrielle Stewart said, “We are delighted to be part of an incredible team supporting Noora Niasari’s feature debut. Noora has written a beautiful piece that reflects much of her own experience of moving to Australia as a child. There is an intimacy to her storytelling that brings to life what it is to honour the traditions of the culture you have left behind as a mother raising her young child, whilst together bravely embracing a whole new one.”

“Writing Impenetrable Characters” Lenny Abrahamson on ‘Normal People’ and ‘Conversations with Friends’

Film, Latest News, Screenwriting, Television

“It kind of grew out of Normal People,” said Lenny Abrahamson about his new series Conversations with Friends. Both stories come from Irish author Sally Rooney. “It seemed very obvious having gone through the adaptation in episodic form. We learned how best to work with Sally’s material and we all felt like Conversations should be a series.”

The series are listed as Normal People premiering in 2020 and Conversations with Friends premiering in 2022, but the process was a little more overlapping for the writer/director. “We were cranking up with breaking the episodes while Normal People was still not out in the world.”

“I’ve been attending to other things on the slate, but I’ve been in Sally Rooney’s world since starting on Normal People,” joked Abrahamson.

TV Series Not Films

For both stories, it would appear longevity is a major player in what makes the stories work. You need to see a long rise and fall of the relationships to truly understand the joy and turmoil. “Partially it is that,” said Abrahamson. “It’s the amount of screen time.”Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Lenny Abrahamson. Photo by Molly Keane

“But, with Sally’s work, it also benefits from a quiet, close look. You need to draw people into the characters]and the details of their experiences. You need to have them pay close attention to the small changes and shifts going on in their lives.”

This feels like a luxury given today’s instant gratification audiences, but Abrahamson has earned some patience delivering projects like Room, Frank, and Normal People. “If you try to impose the stronger, more extreme arc of a feature film — the single rise of a traditional story — it doesn’t work for what is really an accumulative, slow build.”

“I think the short episodes mean they don’t feel like traditional TV drama with the plot and B-story. It’s not a traditional TV hour,” he said of the latest series. “You can work in a movie style but these short, intense bursts of story over 25 minutes allows you to be pure in this filmmaking style, but it doesn’t impose the feature length demand for a crescendo.”

In Conversations with Friends, the team had some difficulty building the episodes. “You’re juggling and trying to keep those balls in the air. You have this dynamic of Frances and Nick that changes everybody and pushes the story, but if you’re not careful, you lose the focus on Bobbi and Frances.”

With these two adjacent paths, the writers had to spend time moving back and forth, then re-examining lines from the book to make it all work on the screen. “We had to expand those short references into scenes so each episode had its own point, but also leaves you with something strong. But if you compress too much, you lose detail and the breath [the episode] needs.”

The Normal People Style

Abrahamson developed a very specific style with Normal People, which he wanted to push even further for Conversations with Friends. Some critics have described the style as “the intimate camera” which is needed for the intimate journey of the characters.

“We wanted to push that further. So if anything, it does make some strong demands of the audience, unless you lean in and let yourself be drawn into the characters, then that’s when it works.” He continued, “But if you just sort of tuning in and hoping for an easy ride through, then it’s not as satisfying I think. And I like that. It’s good to push yourself and challenge the audience.”

In many ways, this also helps with re-watchability as there’s always more to catch on a second viewing. “It is interesting. I think this style of work does pay to rewatch. I think there is a lot of stuff happening that you may enjoy in a different way or see in a rewatch. I never make something with that in mind, but I hope everything I make does pay re-watching because that’s a sign that there’s depth and density.”Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Connell (Paul Mescal) & Marianne’s (Daisy Edgar-Jones) Photo by (Photo by Enda Bowe/Hulu

All of this comes back to the novels. Abrahamson read Conversations with Friends as a fan, but didn’t see either as a series until he read Normal People. “For me, if I see pictures when I’m reading, if I can feel a tonal territory visually and in terms of screen storytelling, that’s the thing. I felt it quickly with Normal People. I think it has to do with the simplicity of her writing. There’s little in the way of literal pretension or purple prose.”

The writer/director added, “She writes in a very direct way, but she does bring you deeply into contact with the characters. I think the chimes with how I make films. I like my structure and scaffolding to be hidden and to just seem like you’re with people and hard to analyze or reverse engineer.”

Fully Developed Characters

Another aspect somewhat unique to these stories is that even though all of the characters are relatively young, they appear to be fully developed. This is quite different from many American teen soap opera narratives. “A lot of TV and movie depictions of people in their lives… it’s either soapy or dystopian or provocative,” joked Abrahamson. “Partially around young people sexuality. It’s intensely shocking and designed to be around dysfunction, where intimacy is a problem.”

In some ways, this is valid, as emotions can be heightened with young loves, but Abrahamson gives the author credit for being “unsentimental” while still “giving a portrait of the joy and healthfulness of love, intimacy, sex, conversation, and friendship.” These transformative years help make these stories work.

While working on the adaptation, he said it’s interesting that once you start to adapt, you see the new story in one light and start to forget aspects of the adaptation that didn’t transfer. “I’m re-reading the book and realizing we changed a lot. I didn’t think we had.”

“There are aspects we didn’t put in or aspects we had to embellish. Even things like the character of Melissa. She was an essayist, but she’s a writer now. There’s a bunch of story mechanics we didn’t use from the novel. That’s probably my own dislike of movies where the main character is a photographer where you end up with endless actors doing sexy clicking,” he joked.

“But I actually think, overall, the changes are small and everywhere. The emphases shift, but there’s not a massive part of the story we didn’t use.” Other parts were merely too internal to make it to the screen.

“I don’t believe in a formula for screenplays — those Syd Field books. I think that’s reductive, but the idea of what holds you, what moves you from one moment to the next, I think that’s been clarified for me by working on [adaptations] and that material that doesn’t have that pure shape. You find it on the screen.”

Writing Bad Screenplays

To elaborate on the idea of “sexy clicking,” Abrahamson said he avoids “sexy jobs” and other tropes in screenplays. “The other one is a Marine Biologist. Thrillers always have that. There’s a shorthand. It’s adjacent to real life, but it’s not [real life]. Just like everybody is way too attractive and apartments look great. I’m tough on scripts.”

“I’ve never done something that just came through the door,” he said about scripts arriving on his desk. “Partially because I like to be involved in the conception and execution right from the beginning, but also because I’m very critical of scripts. Part of this is because a lot of scripts are designed to be read by people who might fund them. That means, for very good reason, writers fill the pages with descriptions and color, to make the read vivid. As a Director, that irritates me. Shooting scripts for me are bare.“

This means the bulk of screenplays irritate Abrahamson. “Part of it is also the way people are educated to write screenplays. You’ll find the name of a character and then open brackets and five adjectives of who they really are. Then I think, ‘Well, I don’t need to investigate this.’ I’m interested in characters where there’s an impenetrability, where you don’t really understand them.”

“I don’t want to see 1. Here’s the person, 2. Here’s the problem. That’s now how life presents itself. Most people experience things as a slightly foggy vista where they don’t know where they’re going and they don’t know where they want to go. That’s more interesting to me.”

In some ways, Abrahamson wishes there were two drafts of the screenplay: one for the investors and one for the director. “In Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, I absolutely believed the characters, but I couldn’t reduce them to a… beaten down cop who finds himself in a dead end job when X happens.”

For those trying to break into the industry today, Abrahamson advises you to “start doing what you want to end up doing.” He clarified, “It’s hard to push through the studio system if your aim is to go somewhere else. The people who make the best studio movies are people who love studio movies. But if you want to make something more independent, you have to start by doing that.”

This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio version here (and learn more about Normal People in our first conversation here).  

“The Depth Of Comedy Characters” Judd Apatow on ‘George Carlin’s American Dream’ & Beyond

Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow

“When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was stand-up. I probably had some idea of being Eddie Murphy or Bill Murray, like we all did,” said Judd Apatow, “but I love the idea of doing stand-up. I did it for 7 years when I was in high school, took off a couple of decades and I’ve been doing it for 8 years since.”

Judd Apatow is perhaps best known for work in the film world, writing movies and television like The Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Freaks and Geeks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Funny People, and This is 40, among others. 

But he’s also known for mentoring rising stars, such as with Lena Dunham for Girls, Pete Holmes for Crashing, Amy Schumer for Trainwreck, and Pete Davidson for The King of Staten Island. Somehow, between all these projects, he’s also created documentaries about George Carlin, Garry Shandling, Darryl Strawberry, and The Avett Brothers, published books of interviews with famous comedians called Sick in the Head, and a follow-up Sicker in the Head. The thread through all of these avenues, however, is comedic storytelling.

“It’s like a tuning fork, where it’s fun, but it also services all of my other writing and all of my other projects,” he said about stand-up, specifically in regards to his 2017 special, The Return. “You really feel like you understand the audience and you’re taking in information on an unconscious level of how to be funny.”

Comedy Movies Today

Apatow referred to comedy movies today as a “hedged bet.” He said, “It’s a weird moment because before the pandemic, things were moving towards action and spectacle. A lot of that has to do with the fact that a comedy film doesn’t travel well. It’s not like your comedy is going to be gigantic in China. A lot of studios want that potential.”

Essentially, since many blockbuster films cost $200 million to make, studios will occasionally allow for a $20 or $30 million dollar comedy to be made as a hedged bet. If they make a handful of these, perhaps one will do well. Regardless, most recent comedies are action-comedies.Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Judd Apatow. Photo by Mark Seliger

“It’s an understandable business approach, but it does train the audience [to understand] there aren’t going to be that many comedies when there used to be a lot more. When the pandemic happened, people just thought, I should just get everything at home.”

Apatow and his peers are hoping things go back to a time when the theaters are full and safe. “When people have an experience of communal times where they’re laughing their asses off, hopefully they realize that’s something I want in my movie diet.”

Currently, Apatow is listed as a Producer on the R-rated comedy Bros, which is essentially the first gay rom-com. Billy Eichner is the star and writer. Nicholas Stoller is listed as the writer/director. “It’s riotously funny and a really well-made emotional movie, [but] it’s a test to see if people are going to leave their homes to go to the theaters [this September].”

Voice-Driven Comedies

“I like breaking new people. I like new ideas, new territories,” said the screenwriter about the types of films he wants to make. “I don’t want to be generic or hacky, so when someone has an idea I haven’t heard before or it comes from a community that’s underserved, I like to try to make films in those areas.”

The writer/director/producer said he’s been able to get a lot of films made, but there are just as many that the studios have refused to make. “Like Bros, there hasn’t been a mainstream comedy about the gay community. There’s some on streaming, but we wanted to take a big swing. This should be a When Harry Met Sally-type of movie.”

The initial tests performed well, so now the creators are excited to see how this original movie will hit audiences in the Fall. Across the board, it’s clear Apatow is interested in story, but also voice. “I’m very interested in the story, but as a fan of comedy, so much of it is the personality. You see John Belushi in Animal House or Bill Murray in Caddyshack.”

He continued, “My mind goes to people first, but there does need to be a story.” In another example, he mentioned Kristen Wiig wanting to do a movie about a maid of honor who can’t afford to do it, which became Bridesmaids. This started because he loved Kristen Wiig and wanted to help her find a vehicle to show off her talents on the big screen.Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Annie (Kirsten Wiig) in Bridesmaids

“I wish there was a movie that was all about her. As a fan, I want to see them, but they have to have a great idea or it ends there. I just always want to have something I’m working on that I’m deeply passionate about. I want each one to feel like it’s the first one or the last one.”

The Documentary Movement

While working on Funny People, Apatow hired a crew to do a documentary about the making of Funny People. “I think it’s equally as good as the movie. I think I was looking for a way to get closer to the documentary world.” A few years later, Apatow joined Lena Dunham for Sundance’s Iconoclasts in a conversation about comedy and officially got the documentary bug.

“I saw the cut and was really moved about how it was put together. Garry Shandling introduced me to Rick Rubin and Rubin said I should do something with The Avett Brothers. He said, ‘Life is better when you’re around them.’ They were working on a new album and he thought we could shoot some stuff.” Apatow decided to follow them around on his own dime. 

Through this unique path, he stepped into the documentarian world. Ironically, since the Avett Brothers didn’t really have any quarrels as a band, the creators realized there wasn’t drama. “I didn’t think there was a story because they were nice and nothing was happening, then we realized that’s what it’s about. It was a beautiful, musical poem about this love and this journey.”

Soon after, he worked on a 30 for 30 for ESPN about Dwight “Doc” Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. When making documentaries, Apatow is concerned with covering someone’s entire life so much as “what defined them.” In Doc & Darryl, the ball players had unique backgrounds that led to their careers in Major League Baseball. In the George Carlin documentary, the story was more about Carlin finding himself, discovering his voice, and being open to change and then redefining himself decade after decade as a stand-up.

“What happened to George Carlin that made him such a critical thinker and rebel? In documentaries, you can go deep. That’s what’s interesting to me. That’s what I do in movies too. What happened to Pete Davidson that led to his personality? Why aren’t Amy Schumer’s relationships working? There’s something similar about my interest in fiction and non-fiction.”

The 2022 book Sicker In The Head includes conversations with Cameron Crowe, David Letterman, John Mulaney, Kevin Hart, Margaret Cho, Whoopi Goldberg, and Will Ferrell, among others. By simply asking “how are you doing?” during the pandemic, Apatow felt he could grow as a creative and a person based on many of the responses from the interviews.

One particularly unique interview is between Apatow and Crowe, where both had unique upbringings around the icons they most admired. Apatow interviewed comedians for the school newspaper (stories which became the book Sick in the Head) and Crowe interviewed bands for Rolling Stone (stories which became the movie Almost Famous).

For these types of interviews, he reads a handful of Q&As or listens to podcasts to prepare. He felt a deep connection with David Letterman, who revealed he appeared to be having fun but was actually a ball of nerves. Apatow often feels the same way on set.Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Judd Apatow. Photo by Mark Seliger

“When I was in film school, they were always talking about structure. I didn’t want to have any rules. I hated that they were trying to box me in. I even took a class with Syd Field where he basically read his book to us, but then I started writing spec scripts and I realized they were all correct,” he joked. “

Syd Field told him, “I know you don’t think you’re going to do this structure, but whatever you’re doing, you have to have this structure. The inciting event. The conclusion. I still use all of that today. I use the Syd Field paradigm.”

Audience Validation

Similar to stand-up, Apatow said you do feel the validation when an audience watches your movie, in terms of using the three-act structure or Chris Vogler’s examination of The Hero’s Journey. “It’s one of the best books you can buy on storytelling,” he said of Vogler’s book.

Based on Apatow’s response, he writes his own version of the story first, then re-examines The Writer’s Journey to see “which story” he’s doing or to help with missing plot points. “Even with weird things like You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, it is ironically a reluctant hero’s journey.”

Using these methods helps Apatow take risks in his career. “I think they’re all risks because in comedy, they’re all risks. You just never know if it’s going to work. Like, would someone watch a movie about a 40-Year-Old Virgin? Is that the worst idea you’ve ever heard in your life?” he joked. “Steve [Carell] and I said, well, let’s make it totally credible. He’s a normal sweet guy and [sex] just got past him.”Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Trish (Catherine Keener) & Andy (Steve Carell) in 40-Year Old Virgin

He continued, “Maybe it’s about relationships. He has to figure out how to have a relationship and that’s way more complicated than just sex. All of his friends are trying to have sex, but he finds love,” he said, adding that Garry Shandling helped with the overall theme.

Then, there are shifts within films in terms of risk. The King of Staten Island was meant to be more grounded where The Bubble was meant to be like a Mel Brooks-like satire about the pandemic. “Can you be funny about it? Can you talk about isolation and the weird feelings we have when we’re forced to be in isolation?”

In terms of advice for screenwriters, Apatow said “you can usually tell when someone has a voice.” He continued, “If someone is writing with some specificity and you feel the soul of someone in the writing, it’s clear when someone is generic and when someone is coming across to you.”

“I remember, a long time ago, some producer said you can open up to any page and tell if it’s worth reading and if that person knows what they’re doing. It sounds horrible, but it’s kinda true. I just always tell people to write about something you really care about. You can tell when people are writing to make money, but writing is always better when you’re offering something and giving yourself. You have to go all the way.” This interview has been condensed.

Listen to the full audio version here.Series Navigation<< “The Depth Of Comedy Characters” Judd Apatow on ‘George Carlin’s American Dream’ & Beyond

“It’s time to be very clear that Screen Australia is there for culture”: Sandy George

Film, Latest News, Television

by Sandy George IF magazine June 20, 2022

Sandy George.

Australian film and television is delivering less local cultural value to audiences, authentic dramas are fewer, and much of it now feels a lot less Australian – even unrecognisable as made in this country, according to veteran screen journalist Sandy George.

George argues if there is nothing recognisably Australian on the screen, it carries little cultural value. It is ‘Australianness’ that excites local viewers, and cultural value is the main reason why taxpayer funding underpins drama production.

The following is an extract from George’s New Platform Paper ‘Nobody talks about Australianness on our Screens‘, just published by Currency House, in which she argues Screen Australia must proactively cultivate film and television that is Australian in look and feel.

Screen Australia must make exceptional local cultural value the focus of everything.

Screen Australia needs to shout “What do we want? Cultural value! When do we want it? NOW!”

Senior executives say that local cultural value is a plank in their decision making and it is. But it is no longer enough for them to quietly consider the cultural value of individual projects or a group of projects in the same application round. The world has changed. It is time that they very seriously reviewed all programs and initiatives through the lens of cultural value, bearing in mind that ‘Australianness’ is the key to it.

The agency needs to put aside the notion that if an Australian production company is making content, then the content is Australian and automatically has cultural value. Just another cop show shouldn’t cut it. Screen Australia’s direct taxpayer funding must go to projects with exceptional potential local cultural value — and, yes, what that means exactly will have to be thrashed out, and it isn’t straightforward.

Creative freedom is implicit in the other kind of financial assistance available, the Producer Offset, and it is available to all eligible projects. A truck can be driven through the SAC [significant Australian content] test; no-one is exercising granular discretion. There is no cap on what individual projects can claim, and there is no cap on total annual claims. Plus the PO was recently held at 40 per cent for features and increased to 30 per cent for television (although there are fears that the networks will reduce their content contribution). The PO keeps pace with rising costs and rising production levels whereas the taxpayer funding through Screen Australian doesn’t. It’s time to be very clear that Screen Australia is there for culture.

Dare I say it, but I feel a bit sorry for Screen Australia at times because it is too relied upon, entitlement in the industry is rife, and it is often in a no-win situation because the supply of funding doesn’t meet demand for it. Some of its problems are of its own making, however. It has its fingers in too many pies. It needs to stop thinking it can and should control everything and decide what it can do best in service of the Australian public. Traditionally, there has been the notion that each FTA platform deserves some of Screen Australia’s money. Stop that. There should be just the one determinant.

There are many matters to carefully consider, of course. For example, what attitude to adopt towards talent escalation; that is, what funding to provide for projects made by inexperienced filmmakers perceived as having talent. It would be a good audience-facing discipline for them to know that the only possibility of getting money is if their projects have the kind of Australianness that delivers exceptional cultural value. And history tells us that those kinds of projects flush out support for people who become Baz Luhrmanns and George Millers (Mad Max)—and more of them is good because more benefits flow from them making mega-budget productions in Australia than flows from non-Australians making them. Another approach is for the individual states to take more responsibility for new talent, given they are closer to the ground. States too have considerable resources. More understanding of how the federal-state relationships work would not go astray.

When Screen Australia overlooks Australianness it should make clear why in its communications – it always announces what projects are getting its funding. In recent years, Screen Australia executives drank the Kool-Aid of their old political bosses. The media release about the appearance of the 2020/21 drama report (which its research department does an exemplary job of publishing each year) demonstrates this. It trumpeted: ‘Aussie drama production reaches record-breaking $1.9 billion expenditure’. It’s misleading because it’s not Aussie drama production. It is Aussie drama produced in Australia plus foreign drama filmed in Australia. Economic value and cultural value, foreign and Australian, should be treated separately in such reports, and total expenditure certainly shouldn’t be talked about breathlessly for all the reasons this paper raises. Stop pretending everything is OK. Depending on economics to deliver cultural value is arse about.

Screen Australia is a highly influential body. Where it puts its development support is a thumbs-up signal that others heed: partners on the other side of the world, overseas broadcasters, state government agencies, and private investors. It never wholly funds major projects, but very often its decisions determine which dramas gets the green light. In 2020/21 it invested in about 40 per cent of all the Australian features that went into production, in just over 70 per cent of mini-series for the FTAs, in just under 70 per cent of dramas for the SVODs and in 30 per cent of all FTA series and serials. (Under Screen Australia’s rules it can’t continually back new seasons of existing series.)

Screen Australia often says it can only fund what comes across its desk. True. But just as it guides the media’s thinking, it also guides practitioners’ thinking. Filmmakers constantly try to second guess its priorities. A few well-chosen words about exceptional local cultural value being a priority would have a big impact on what the industry chooses to develop.

Public Film Funding at a Crossroads lists the values that public film agencies in Europe aim to safeguard: cultural/artistic idiosyncrasies with specific territorial references; film as an cultural/artistic form; diversity in all its senses; European ownership; independent production companies that own underlying IP rights, and have artistic freedom and creative control along with the filmmakers; IP rights handled territory by territory; and cinemas as a central place for shared experiences.

Australia take note: they lean more to the cultural than the economic – and they value the cinema experience. Everyone needs to work together to fortify the big screen experience for those times when an Australian film can justify the high cost and high risk of a cinema release.

Eliza Scanlen and Hunter-Page Lochard in ‘Fires’. (Photo: Ben King)

Drama should tackle topics of national importance

“Tony Ayres came to us, just after the fires happened, and said ‘We need to talk about this. The community needs a cathartic moment.’ And we said ‘yes’ straight away.”

This is ABC TV’s Sally Riley explaining how the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires gave rise to the six-part drama Fires. Ayres and Belinda Chayko created the show, which is available free on the streaming platform ABC iview.

The anthology series is cleverly conceived: the two young volunteer firefighters (Eliza Scanlen and Hunter Page-Lochard) at the core of the first episode, are linking characters across all episodes, each of which focusses on different people. In the second episode, only the most cold-hearted viewer would not feel grief and anger at the fate of dairy farmers Kath and Duncan (Miranda Otto and Richard Roxburgh). In the third, Mark Winter’s portrayal of a methadone addict reverses every prejudice a viewing public might have about drug addiction.

I had to see Fires for work and otherwise would not have done so because in horror and shock I had watched the Australian countryside burn over and over on the nightly news in 2019. Others felt the same way. Sure enough, it reawakened my feelings of despair. But the experience also left behind the sensation that I’d sat holding hands with the people who lived through the trauma, listening intently to them while they told their confronting stories.

Screen Australia can do almost anything under its enabling legislation, which suggests, among other things, making programs ‘that deal with matters of national interest or importance to Australians’. Shake things up! Ask filmmakers aged 14 to 35 years to pitch projects. The agency’s new head of content Grainne Brunsdon says the aim is to cater for this audience. Shake it up further by saying the pitches have to be comedy! Even further by asking in the public! Revel in what’s possible.

There is so much else that needs to be talked about

I worked at Screen Australia for three years part-time up to mid-2018 and felt crushed when the realisation hit that there was rarely talk of brilliant projects coming in the door. When I recently asked Screen Australia’s chief executive Graeme Mason publicly if enough good projects came in, he said ‘no’.

This raises so many questions.

Cultural value flows from shows that are great, so what can be done about getting better applications? What’s discouraging the truly talented? Do they not have the contacts to gain entry to the citadel? Should there be more digging for new talent, including in the tertiary environment? Are filmmakers born or bred? Why do the same production companies get repeat funding?

There are so many more matters that could be explored: the remarkable popularity of local films at festivals and what lessons can be learned there; the craving for Indigenous films among non-indigenous audiences, built from nothing over decades; how diversity and inclusion and addressing gender imbalance has done wonders for Australianness and there’s so much more of that to do. Maybe time limits should be imposed on Screen Australia jobs so different views of Australia cycle through the building and different networks gain access.

Sandy George’s full New Platform Paper ‘Nobody talks about Australianness on our Screens‘ is available now free on www.currencyhouse.org.au. Following industry feedback, an updated hard copy will published by Currency House in December

Rhiannon Fish Returns For A Royal In Paradise

Directing, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

By FilmInk Staff June 16, 2022

Young Aussie actress Rhiannon Fish (Home And Away, The 100) returns to Australia for The Steve Jaggi Company’s new romantic comedy drama A Royal In Paradise.

“Having the opportunity to work in Australia again is a dream come true… especially on a project like this one,” says young Australian actress Rhiannon Fish. “[Director] Adrian Powers has found a very unique/modern way of telling a classic fairy tale.”

One of many, many young local talents to graduate from the long-running television drama Home And Away onto the international stage with a major role in the TV series The 100 (which was followed by a host of television films), Rhiannon Fish is back in Australia for the first time since 2018’s sci-fi actioner Occupation to take the lead role in A Royal In Paradise.

The latest effort from director Adrian Powers (Forbidden Ground), A Royal In Paradise follows New York writer Olivia Perkins (Rhiannon Fish), a successful author on deadline for her next romantic adventure novel. The recent breakup with her boyfriend, however, has left her with writers’ block and a failing belief in love. Keen to help, Olivia’s best friend Katie (Cara McCarthy) convinces her to take a trip to the tropical Haven Isles in the hope of reinspiring her.

On the other side of the world, Prince Alexander (Mitchell Bourke) is reminded by the Queen (Andrea Moor) of his upcoming duty to marry royalty. Needing some distance, Prince Alexander decides to attend a marine conservation fundraiser on Haven Isles. On arriving at the island, the Prince and Olivia meet and form a friendship, but Alexander keeps his identity a secret. Experiencing all the Island has to offer, Olivia and Alexander grow closer, until the Prince’s true identity is exposed by a royal spy.

Currently shooting in South East Queensland, A Royal In Paradise is the latest sweet-natured, commercially-minded release from The Steve Jaggi Company, the prolific outfit behind successful youth and romance titles like Swimming For Gold, Back Of The Net, Rip Tide, This Little Love Of Mine and Romance On The Menu. “We had a lot of fun writing the script for this royal romance that embraces some beloved fairy tale archetypes while also possessing a great, modern message,” says director Adrian Powers. “I’m delighted to be directing this film with my long-time creative collaborators at The Steve Jaggi Company. We have a strong team assembled and it’s fantastic to finally be underway with filming.”

For more on The Steve Jaggi Company, click here.

Australia’s Steve Jaggi Company Hatches Film and TV Slate Deal With Nicely Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)

Film, Latest News, Television

By Patrick Frater Variety 16 June 2022

Steve Jaggi Company and Nicely Entertainment
Steve Jaggi Company, Nicely Entertainment

Australia’s The Steve Jaggi Company and the Los Angeles-based Nicely Entertainment have hatched a pact to develop and produce a significant slate of film and TV series.

“A Royal in Paradise,” the third movie collaboration between the two partners and the first under the new deal, started production this week in Australia’s Queensland.

Previously, the two collaborated on young adult series “Dive Club” and romantic feature “This Little Love of Mine,” which claimed to be the first Australian film into production during the global pandemic. Both productions were sold to Netflix.

The new deal calls for them to develop a minimum of six new TV projects, including both dramas and YA series, and two to three new movies per year.

Lazy loaded image
Rhiannon FishSteve Jaggi Company

Starring Rhiannon Fish (“The 100,” “Home and Away”) and Mitchell Bourke (“The Family Law”), “A Royal in Paradise” is directed by Adrian Powers (“Forbidden Ground”) from a script by Powers and Caera Bradshaw (“Dive Club”).

The story involves a New York writer (Fish) and a prince (Bourke) finding friendship and more at a marine conservation fundraiser in Australia’s Haven Isles.

In addition to the new deal, Nicely Entertainment will also be handling global sales and distribution of the Giant Screen 8k HDR family friendly documentary “Beyond the Reef,” produced by The Steve Jaggi Company and In Three Production. The picture showcases Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and its biodiversity in a fun and pacy presentation aimed at tween audiences. It is hosted and narrated by actor and social media influencer Shuang Hu and will be released to the international market later this year.

“The Steve Jaggi Company has found its sweet spot working across both the young adult and romance genres, and it has been rewarding to see our projects reach Netflix’s top 10 in so many territories around the world,” said founder Stave Jaggi. “We are spoilt for choice here in Australia when it comes to talent and locations, and we’re looking forward to continuing our successful working relationship with the team at Nicely.”

Nicely was founded in 2020 and is headed by Vanessa Shapiro, previous president of worldwide TV distribution & co-productions at Gaumont. Her company brings to market more than 15 new movies each year and has delivered a dozen new movies on Lifetime, including “A Very Charming Christmas Town,” “Lonestar Christmas,” “The Christmas Listing” and “Christmas on the Menu.”

Nicely is also the worldwide distributor on a new 2022 Australian-made Netflix family series “Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance!,” created by Clay Glenn.

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NOORA NIASARI’S FEATURE FILM DEBUT SHAYDA ANNOUNCED

Directing, Diversity, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting
Image

Writer/director Noora Niasari (Photo credit: Sherwin Akbarzadeh)

From a unique and authentic voice comes the highly anticipated feature debut Shayda, by writer and director Noora Niasari, starring Iranian actress Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Tehran Taboo, Morgen sind wir frei) with major production investment from Screen Australia.

Melbourne-based Niasari is well known for her award-winning short films including Waterfall which screened at the 66th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) where it was nominated for best short film, Tâm and feature documentary Casa Antúnez. HanWay Films has come on board to handle international sales and distribution, UTA Independent Film Group is representing the U.S. sale.

Shayda is produced by Vincent Sheehan (The Hunter, Jasper Jones, Animal Kingdom, Lore) through his new production venture Origma 45. Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini at Dirty Films (Apples, Carol, Little Fish) are executive producers. Shayda received major production investment from Screen Australia in association with The 51 Fund and financed with support from VicScreen and the MIFF Premiere Fund, while local distribution in Australia and New Zealand will be handled by Madman Entertainment. The 51 Fund (Cusp and the upcoming Shari & Lamb Chop) provides financing to feature films of any genre that are directed by women, with the goal of providing support to the most exciting female voices within the creative industry. Caitlin Gold, Lindsay Lanzillotta, Naomi McDougall Jones, Lois Scott, and Nivedita Kulkarni also serve as executive producers on behalf of 51. 

Heads of production will include Cinematographer and Niasari’s closest collaborator Sherwin Akbarzadeh (Stories From Oz). Osamah Sami (Ali’s Wedding), Leah Purcell (The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson), Mojean Aria (The Enforcer), Jillian Nguyen (Expired) and Rina Mousavi (Alexander) will star alongside Amir-Ebrahimi. Production will commence on 11 July in Australia.

A young Iranian mother (Amir-Ebrahimi) and her six-year-old daughter find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowrooz) which is celebrated as a time of renewal and re-birth. Aided by the strong community of women at the refuge they seek their freedom in this new world of possibilities, only to find themselves facing the violence they tried so hard to escape.

Vincent Sheehan commented, “Shayda is a powerful, timely and important story to be telling and Noora’s unique Iranian/Australian voice as a director will be a potent combination. I am thrilled to be working with such a quality stable of producers and market partners with a shared passion and commitment to backing Noora and her story.”

Screen Australia’s Head of Content Grainne Brunsdon said, “Rising talent Noora Niasari has created a well-crafted script, vibrant characters and an authentic world and Screen Australia is delighted to support her debut feature through development and into production. Shayda offers a unique perspective on a story with universal themes of survival and the cost of freedom.”

Dirty Films also noted, “We first encountered Noora’s talent watching her short films, The Phoenix and Tâm. We were blown away by her precise, emotionally-driven filmmaking and her capacity to draw out gripping performances. We are excited to be working alongside Vincent again to help Noora fulfil her bold and distinct vision for Shayda.”

HanWay Films MD Gabrielle Stewart said, “We are delighted to be part of an incredible team supporting Noora Niasari’s feature debut. Noora has written a beautiful piece that reflects much of her own experience of moving to Australia as a child. There is an intimacy to her storytelling that brings to life what it is to honour the traditions of the culture you have left behind as a mother raising her young child, whilst together bravely embracing a whole new one.”

BO report: Satisfying start for ‘How To Please a Woman’ as ‘Doctor Strange 2’ remains on top

Directing, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

by Sean Slatter IF magazine May 24, 2022

Sally Phillips in ‘How To Please A Woman’. (Image: David Dare Parker)

Australian cinema made a welcome return to box office top three on the weekend as Madman’s Fremantle-shot How To Please a Woman came in behind Marvel juggernaut Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness and Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Leading the way again was Disney’s Doctor Strange sequel, which took in $3.9 million from its third frame for a gross total of $32.8 million, representing a decline of 47 per cent from the previous week. Universal’s latest Downton Abbey installment was a distant second, managing $578,991 from its fourth outing to track at $6.6 million. The film also had its release in the US, where it made a solid $16 million domestic debut.

It was closely followed by How To Please a Woman, which bowed to $501,064 from 294 screens at an average of $1,704 per session to build on a positive initial response from festival screenings in Perth and on the Gold Coast.

Renée Webster’s feature directorial debut stars British comedian and actor Sally Phillips as Gina, a 50-something who has lost her job and is stuck in a passionless marriage.

While Gina has always lived life on the sidelines, she is met with a business opportunity to convert team of well-built moving guys into housecleaners. Clientele soon demand something more – sex, or better yet, pleasure. Gina and her team launch an enterprise that is all about getting intimacy right between people, but she soon has to acknowledge her own appetite in order to make a new life for herself.

Starring alongside Phillips are Erik Thomson, Alexander England, Caroline Brazier, Tasma Walton, Roz Hammond, Cameron Daddo and New Zealander Josh Thomson.

Village Cinemas national programming manager Geoff Chard told IF the film’s opening was comparable to that of fellow Australian releases June Again and Swinging Safari.

“Overall the box office was a little softer than hoped for, with How To Please A Woman being the highest-ranked new opener at just over $500,000 nationally,” he said.

“This is similar to the recent Australian films June Again and Swinging Safari. The location-specific results were quite varied, with some sites (in particular our regional locations) much higher in the rankings, with the majority our suburban multiplexes further down the list.”

Wallis Cinema programming manager David Simpson also said How To Please A Woman had “certain site-specific success” among its locations.

“We are finding that given this is an Aussie film, it is doing well where we customarily have a lot of ex-pat regulars,” he said.

Robert Connolly and Eric Bana begin filming follow up to ‘The Dry’ in Victoria

Directing, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

by Sean Slatter IF Magazine May 17, 2022

Top row (from left) are Deborra-lee Furness, Lucy Ansell, Sisi Stringer, and Richard Roxburgh. Bottom row (from left) are Robin McLeavy, Eric Bana, Anna Torv and Jacqueline McKenzie.

The team behind the award-winning film The Dry has begun production on another Jane Harper feature adaptation in Victoria, with Eric Bana reprising his role as Aaron Falk and Robert Connolly returning as writer and director.

Set to shoot primarily in the Dandenong Ranges, Yarra Valley, and the Otways, Force of Nature follows five women that take part in a corporate hiking retreat, from which only four come out on the other side.

Federal Agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie) head deep into the Victorian mountain ranges to investigate in the hopes of finding their whistle-blowing informant, Alice Russell (Anna Torv), alive.

Deborra-lee Furness, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, and Lucy Ansell play the remaining hikers, while Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor is back in the role of Erik Falk, alongside Richard Roxburgh as Daniel Bailey, Tony Briggs as Ian Chase and Kenneth Radley as Sergeant King.

Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea, Jodi Matterson and Steve Hutensky are again producing alongside Bana for Pick Up Truck Pictures and Connolly for Arenamedia. Ricci Swart, Andrew Myer, Robert Patterson, Joel Pearlman and Edwina Waddy are executive producing.

The film has received major production investment from Screen Australia, in association with VicScreen, and is being financed with support from Soundfirm and Blue Post. Roadshow is on board as local distributor, with WME Independent to handle international sales.

Connolly said he was “so excited” to return to the world of detective Aaron Falk.

“We’re also delighted by the exceptional cast of established and emerging actors joining us on this journey,” he said.

“Jane Harper’s Force of Nature is a deeply emotional and thrilling story showcasing the extraordinary world and landscape of the Australian wilderness.”

Bana said he was proud to be able to follow up The Dry.

“Jane has once again provided a thrilling story that gives us another chance to
showcase a unique and incredible Australian landscape,” he said.

“Whilst it was always our dream to bring this story to the big screen, its fate always rested with the Australian cinemagoing public. Their overwhelming support of The Dry turns this into a reality.”

Eric Bana and Robert Connolly on the set of ‘The Dry’.

Released on New Year’s Day in 2021, The Dry took in more than $20 million at the Australian box office to become the fifth-biggest release of the year and the 14th highest grossing Australian film of all time.

Screen Australia head of content Grainne Brunsdon said the cast and setting of the sequel meant it was likely to become “another cinematic event”.

“The Dry was an extraordinary success, reaching number one at the Australian box office and quickly becoming an Australian classic,” she said.

We’re delighted to support this immensely talented team’s return for Force of Nature and deliver an enthralling Australian thriller.”

Victorian Creative Industries Minister Danny Pearson said the production would inject $10 million into the state’s economy and “showcase Victoria’s regions to the world”.