Adam Demos and Victoria Justice in ‘A Perfect Pairing’. (Image: Vince Valitutti/Netflix)
As a kid growing up in Queensland, Stuart McDonald used to walk along the cliffs of the Numinbah Valley in the Gold Coast hinterland and hope to be able to capture the scenery as a director when he was older.
That wish became a reality when he filmed Netflix rom-com A Perfect Pairing in the area last year.
The director said the memories from his childhood were not lost on him as he returned to the location for the film.
“It was so strange as an adult, literally being at the foot of those hills looking back up and getting the chance to actually direct a film there.”
Written by Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy, A Perfect Pairingstars Victoria Justice as Lola, an LA wine-company executive who travels to an Australian sheep station in an attempt to land a major client (Samantha Tolj).
While working as a ranch hand, she forms a connection with a rugged local Max (Adam Demos). As they open up to one another, Lola discovers that Australia has introduced her to much more than just a love for entrepreneurship. The cast also includes Nicholas Brown, Natalie Abbott, Lucy Durack, Luca Sardelis and Emily Havea.
The film was produced by Hoodlum Entertainment’s Deborah Glover and Tracey Vieira, alongside Robyn Snyder and Deborah Evans.
Hackett and Galanoy also executive produced with Hoodlum’s Tracey Robertson Nathan Mayfield, and Fernando Szew.
Shot across five and a half weeks in winter, much of the production took place outdoors, with McDonald admitting they were “really fortunate” with the weather, while also paying tribute to cinematographer Ben Nott and production designer Helen O’Loan for their work.
“The cinematographer Ben Nott has such a beautiful eye and is so energetically engaged in the filmmaking process and Helen O’Loan, our production designer, was stunningly good,” he said.
“They made the film so beautiful and created things that didn’t exist.”
McDonald also singled out first assistant director Damien Grant for praise for helping to figure out “every location where the sun was at every single time in the day”, so they were always shooting “in the perfect light”.
“There’s a lot of math in that Rubik’s Cube of figuring out the right direction at right time of day,” he said.
“It was a lot of work, but it really paid off.”
A Perfect Pairing is McDonald’s first feature film since 2015’s family adventure Oddball, having since helmed episodes of series such as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, American Housewife, and Wrecked.
Having spent a decent chunk of time working abroad, he said he was pleased to highlight a part of his home country that international audiences may not be aware of.
“In some ways, there is that image of Australia as the dry outback, which is of course still part of the country, but it isn’t only that,” he said.
“I was really pleased that I could make Oddball in Warrnambool because it has such a specific look to it.
“When we made A Perfect Pairing in Numinbah Valley, I was really happy because [the location] was also very specific, in the way there are these huge rocky cliffs topped with rainforests that roll down these big hills.
“It’s great when Australian filmmakers get to celebrate parts of the country that are quite unique.”
The director is set to continue his relationship with Netflix for his next project, ChooseLove, which is currently shooting in Auckland.
Also a rom-com, the interactive feature follows Cami, a young woman who seemingly has it all but still feels something is missing, a feeling that begins to grow when she meets Rex and an old love returns to her life.
McDonald commended the streamer for its faith in the rom-coms, noting some studios did not pursue films within the genre as vigorously as they once did.
“I think there will always be an audience for that genre because how we feel about each other and how we negotiate our love lives isnt something that is going to go away,” he said.
A Perfect Pairing is available to stream on Netflix.
1. You will always encounter a proportion of both love and fear for a project you want to take on. What you need to do is overcome the fear just enough so that the inspiration and love for it is slightly stronger than the fear.
Fear will hold you back. As I type this, I know it’s held me back. Aside from making great things, I think all filmmakers probably need therapy, but also maybe the ability to be introspective. Confront fear and translate that into inspiration.
2. At the start of the film, plant a seed in the audience’s mind and steer their attention toward something that will trigger a memory for them later on.
You know I don’t believe there are any rules in writing, but I do think plant and payoff is the most important part of storytelling. If you can set up certain aspects at the beginning, you can help your characters’ arc, and hang a light on things for the audience to connect to later.
3. Dig deep to try and discover if the story or characters apply to your own life experience in some way and use what you learned from those experiences.
Writing and directing comes from a personal place. You don’t have to have been in the same situation as the characters, but try to find where they are in terms of emotional states.
Have you felt scared, excited, turned on, happy, etc? How did you react then? Add some naturalism.
4. While you’re making the film, give it all the love, attention, and intelligence it needs, but once it’s out in the world, let it be.
We’ve seen many directors mess with their work over time. I think the best thing you can do is find a finished version and let your art stand. There’s always the temptation to change or alter things. Let it hang, see how it matures.
Then make something new. You have a lot to offer.
5. Tell your friends to be brutal with their feedback. You have to pull your muscles to hear that bad feedback. Because feedback is brutal. But feedback is also help, and it’s the only way to learn.
Man, it can be so hard to hear the real notes from people. So hard.
But I promise you, when your story gets better, when your writing goes further, when your films premiere somewhere, it will all be worth it. Listen. Take it in. Let it make you better.
6. Have someone do psyche work with you. Let them help you facilitate a discussion between yourself and your character.
I have found this to be really helpful. Work with a friend or a mentor and talk out every aspect of a character. You can even use an actor friend to play one of them. That’s really fun because you can ask them questions and truly round out your story and the way to sink into these people.
7. Shun the world you don’t like and create your own.
Life is very hard. Hollywood is full of rejection. Writing and directing can take you far away from your troubles and give you the opportunity to examine things you never would get to see otherwise. Time travel. Fall in love. Go somewhere special.
8. Write, in disguise, about yourself and the people around you by changing the details.
We all know a few characters. Put them in your work. Make them authentic. Combine people you know or just keep digging into them. Change names and details, but don’t fear using friends and family as a jumping-off point for something more.
9. Make your audience think back to how they missed something in your film that’s been in front of their noses the whole time.
This is the thing about planting early, you can surprise the audience later. Really find people interested in how things are panning off by rewarding them. If you add layers to your storytelling, this will really show up.
10. If your mind goes blank on set, just remember all you need to do is put the camera up, put some people in front of it, and trust that you’ve done enough preparation that you know what you’re doing.
Intuition is your best friend. It can carry you through a long career. The truth is, you’re always going to be hustling for work. But when you get lost or down, follow your gut.
Set up a camera and shoot something. Find your inspiration.
Comedy “How to Please a Woman,” starring “Veep” and “Bridget Jones Diary” actor Sally Phillips, has generated brisk business for Beta Cinema. Brainstorm Media has taken all rights for the U.S. and will release the film theatrically on July 22, and pay TV operator Sky has secured all rights for the U.K.
Beta Cinema also sold all rights for Canada (Mongrel Media), Poland (Monolith Films), former Yugoslavia (Discovery), Czech Republic (Bohemia Motion Pictures) and Hungary (ADS).
Madman will put the film out in Australia and New Zealand on a wide release on May 19 and May 26, respectively.
Phillips stars as 50-year-old Gina, who feels she has become “invisible to everyone.” Establishing a house-cleaning service, staffed by good-looking male cleaners who provide cleaning with benefits, the film follows her as she learns how to ask for what she wants and encourages other women to do the same.
“We fell in love with this movie as we feel most people will when they see it,” said Michelle Shwarzstein, head of distribution at Brainstorm Media. “This film manages to tackle an often taboo subject in the funniest and most heartfelt way. People will walk away smiling.”
Paul Wiegard, co-founder and CEO of Madman Entertainment, stated: “Australian and New Zealand exhibitors are backing this feel-good, relatable comedy about female sexuality and vulnerability. More than 300 screens have already confirmed. The film offers a fun girls’ night out, the themes of empowerment and pleasure connecting with the primary audience.”
Thorsten Ritter, exec VP acquisitions, sales and marketing at Beta Cinema, stated: “We acquired ‘How to Please a Woman’ very early at script stage as it resonated with us as a truthful, enlightening and smart comedy for a mature audience. I am very pleased to see all of what we envisaged from the script and the filmmakers behind it worked out so beautifully.”
Erik Thomson (“The Black Balloon,” “The Furnace”), Alexander England (“Alien: Covenant”), and Caroline Brazier (“Three Summers,” “Rake”) round out the cast of this Australian production, written and directed by Renée Webster.
It is produced by Tania Chambers and Judi Levine of Feisty Dame Productions and Such Much Films, supported by Screenwest, Lotterywest and Screen Australia.
At the Cannes Film Market, Beta Cinema will host a market screening for “How to Please a Woman” on May 19, 11:30 a.m. at Olympia 3.
Recent highlights for Beta Cinema include Berlinale 2022 Special Gala entry “The Forger,” featuring Louis Hofmann from the Netflix series “Dark,” and David Hayman and Udo Kier starrer “My Neighbor Adolf.”
Turning well-built male removalists into well-built domestic cleaners, WA-made film How to Please a Woman is designed to open up some important conversations around sex, intimacy… and housework, discovers Ara Jansen.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that any woman in possession of a home must want someone to clean it. Someone that isn’t her. That’s part of the premise of a wonderfully warm movie, filmed in Fremantle, that hits cinemas this month. How to Please a Woman stars Sally Phillips, Erik Thomson, Alexander England, Ryan Johnson, Josh Thomson and Cameron Daddo, alongside WA-born actors Caroline Brazier, Tasma Walton and Hayley McElhinney.
Sally Phillips is Gina, a mature woman who starts a business which turns well-built male removalists into well-built house cleaners. The response from her ocean-swimming community helps make her new venture an instant hit. As business booms, her clients demand something more – sex – but more importantly, pleasure. Gina and her foodie manager (Erik Thomson) launch an enterprise that’s all about getting intimacy right between people.
Writer/director of ‘How To Please A Woman’, Renee Webster. Photo: David Dare Parker
As Gina faces the highs and lows of running a business, she’s also forced to stand up for herself and her own pleasure, and take control.
Exploring the vulnerable world of what women really want – and how hard it can be to get it right – the film is a precarious, often hilarious, heartwarming and revealing journey.
How to Please a Woman was shot over five weeks in the middle of last year in Fremantle and at Leighton Beach. Some of the film’s most delightfully insightful scenes happen in the concrete women’s change rooms at the beach after sunrise swims in the Indian Ocean with Gina’s women friends. Through years of changeroom semi-naked chat, they have grown into a fun and eclectic cohort who share intimate secrets and laughs.
“I never sexualized our view of women in the changerooms,” says director and screenplay writer Renée Webster.
“The atmosphere in those scenes is terrific, even when we were dealing with sex, intimacy and pleasure. All these women standing around with their clothes off and talking about things – you could feel them standing in their own power.”
Caroline Brazier – who plays Sandra – says she would find herself tearing up during those scenes because of the wonderful energy in the space.
Caroline Brazier as Sandra with Alex England as Tom, in ‘How To Please A Woman’. Photo: David Dare Parker
“All these gorgeous women who were extras offering up their naked bodies of all different shapes and sizes; in that moment they all looked so beautiful,” says Brazier. “We really have bought into this lie that our culture needs us to believe that our bodies are terrible if they are not a particular way. They were exquisite and that made for a very profound moment.”
Webster says that in these scenes, and indeed across the movie, tone was incredibly important in order to balance the humanity in the story with the comedy.
“My intention was to create a powerful comedy where you take away something from it. The way for the audience to find their way is to make sure you are being honest and authentic and might speak to people’s own lives.”
Webster takes a slightly more subtle path with Gina’s character, who could have easily been a loud, brash character who barrels along all guns blazing. Instead, in casting Sally Phillips, she delivers a quietly determined woman who is finally discovering her own power and tells her new male crew that “obviously, the cleaning must be effective and there must be a minimum of one orgasm”.
Producer Tania Chambers says it was wonderful to see a realistic woman’s orgasm on screen, one that seems normal and possible rather than porn-inspired.
“We wanted to have grown-ups that are intentional and communicating with each other. We wanted to reflect these values and healthy sexuality.
“Over the last five or so years with internet streaming and women accessing porn and going to sex shops and the proliferation of sex-positive websites, there’s a different language that’s occurring.”
She says this has led to a lot more sex-positive discussions but also a better understanding of how sex really is, as opposed to what many types of unrealistic porn offers. How to Please a Woman adds to this conversation by pointing to communication as being an important part of the process, as the character of Anthony finds out when he gets a few lessons.
Sally Phillips as Gina, in ‘How To Please A Woman’. Photo: David Dare Parker
How to Please a Woman is a female story told from a female perspective, and that female focus resonated behind the scenes too. Of the key film crew, three-quarters are women. Both producers, the line producer and departmental heads for production design, wardrobe, hair and make-up are women. The camera department, grip and gaffers also include women.
Tania Chambers says in general there’s a move to help more women up the ranks in film production and an encouragement for more women to be involved in all facets of film-making.
“To have a number of women working as grips and gaffers in this film was great,” says Chambers. “Someone told me during filming that if there’s more than one woman in a particular area, they feel like they can stand by each other and not feel like they are alone against the world.”
It’s pretty normal to have areas like make-up and wardrobe dominated by women. Less so when it comes to grips and some of the more physical jobs.
“That’s changing and it’s exciting,” says Webster. “I think it’s also practical when you are dealing with intimacy scenes. A room full of men feels really different to a room full of women and men. I find that really enabling and great for the creative process.”
One of the first scenes they shot was Alexander England taking off his clothes. He plays Tom, the first character you also see in the trailer. Webster says she purposefully shifted the mix of the room to be men and women to create the right energy. After the scene the actor told her it was a much better experience.
Hayley McElhinney as Hayley, Tasma Walton as Monique, Sally Phillips as Gina and Caroline Brazier as Sandra, in ‘How To Please A Woman’. Photo: David Dare Parker
The story behind How to Please a Woman came from two women Webster discovered who ran a business offering sexual services to women. She had read about them and wondered who their clients were.
“What I found was unexpected. Yes, there were women with heaps of money and power, but a lot of the women who used the service wanted to find some sexual agency and didn’t know how to get it and be safe, and were not prepared to give up sex.”
The stories that Webster heard around this business were what inspired the film and informed her writing of the screenplay.
The script also allowed her to make a few pointed comments about women and housework.
“For many people housework is something you don’t want to think about but it’s still a big part of your life. I have a lot of working professional mum friends who still have to do the housework. The reality and universality of that was such a touchstone because it’s a part of everyday reality.”
The group of four close female friends in the movie are post-40, maybe closer to 50, as are most of Gina’s clients. Rather than portray them as old, older or getting old, Webster has imbued them with an infectious sense of energy and positivity. There’s a feeling of take-charge and her female characters are not ready to settle for no sex – or average sex.
“I always had in my mind that this would be fun,” says Webster. Perth is her hometown so she felt particularly drawn to the filming locations and says the synchronicity of shooting her first feature film here and on the beach where she grew up was “really powerful”.
“I have a strong feeling it’s a great time to share this story,” she says. As well as giving people joy in the watching, she hopes it will provoke discussion around intimacy issues.
“This film was made not just to entertain. I would love it if it opened up new conversations in our lives and allowed some space for them. For both men and women.”
Neon has taken the North American rights to Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel, due to star Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving.
Expected to begin production in the coming months, the See-Saw Films feature follows Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Henwick), best friends backpacking in Australia.
After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job in a pub called ‘The Royal Hotel’ in a remote Outback mining town. Bar Owner Billy (Weaving) and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Down Under drinking culture but things turn nasty when their jokes and behaviour cross the line. Soon Hanna and Liv find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.
The Royal Hotel is produced by Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Liz Watts for See-Saw Films, with Scarlett Pictures’ Kath Shelper. Simon Gillis will executive produce.
Neon has previously distributed See-Saw Films feature Ammonite, from Francis Lee. The deal forThe Royal Hotel was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman and Mason Speta on behalf of Neon, Simon Gillis on behalf of Cross City Films, See-Saw’s in-house sales arm, alongside UTA Independent Film Group on behalf of the filmmakers.
In a joint statement, See-Saw’s joint-MDs Sherman and Canning said: “We are very happy to be working with Neon again on the release of The Royal Hotel. Neon have an undeniable history of supporting both emerging and established filmmakers, and putting together innovative and provocative campaigns. We know that they are the right home to bring this film to US theatres.”
The Royal Hotel marks Green’s first feature to shoot in Australia. The Melbourne-born filmmaker’s previous work includes The Assistant, which also starred Garner, and documentaries Casting JonBenet and Ukraine is not a Brothel.
Transmission Films will distribute The Royal Hotel in Australia. Screen Australia has provided major production investment in association with the South Australian Film Corporation. Further finance comes via Screen NSW.
HanWay and Cross City Films are handling international sales.
Like many a busy producer, Nicky Bentham gets a number of unsolicited emails.
The London-based Australian, who runs Neon Films, rarely has the time or capacity to respond to all of them. However, one landed in her inbox a few years ago that managed to grab her attention.
It was an idea for a film detailing the true story of Kempton Bunton, a taxi driver from Newcastle upon Tyne who in 1961 at 60 years old, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London.
Kempton then proceeded to send ransom notes, stating he would return the portrait on the condition the government invested more care for the elderly – he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television licences.
The pitch for the film came from Kempton’s grandson himself, Christopher Bunton. It was a story that was somewhat forgotten by history – in part because Kempton so embarrassed the establishment of the time – but now the family wanted it out there.
“It was a very short paragraph. Considering how hard it is to write an effective synopsis, it was really well-written,” Bentham tells IF.
“It really caught my eye because it was such an absurd, crackpot story of an art heist that I’d never heard of.”
From its email beginnings, Kempton’s story has been brought to life via The Duke, in which he is played by Jim Broadbent, with Helen Mirren starring alongside as his long-suffering wife, Dorothy.
Currently in ANZ cinemas via Transmission Films, the comedy drama is the last project of the late director Roger Michell (Notting Hill).
Roger Michell, Nicky Bentham and Jim Broadbent on the set of ‘The Duke’.
After connecting with Christopher, Bentham spent several years developing the screenplay and assembling the team around the film, including Michell.
Christopher had already written a script himself, but Bentham then engaged Richard Bean and Clive Coleman to take it further. They seemed the perfect duo; Bean a writer from the north of England, and Coleman a comedy writer who was previously a barrister and BBC legal correspondent.
The team had a treasure trove of material to draw from; Kempton was a prolific unproduced playwright, and had also written an unpublished memoir. There were also case files in the National Archives, press clippings and court transcripts, as well as Kempton’s family.
“It became really clear to me that there was all of this really rich material and stranger-than-fiction facts to it. But at the heart of the story was a family drama – that’s where the real the real story lay,” Bentham says.
Michell was the first director Bentham sent the script to, because he could do scale, humour but also “intimate, moving human moments”.
Initially he said no, but they later wrangled him on board, along with Broadbent – they shared an agent, and had previously worked together on Le Week-End.
They were the “perfect package” for the film, particularly as Broadbent was who they always had in mind for Kempton – he even bears a striking resemblance to the real man.
In terms of Kempton’s wife Dorothy, Bentham wanted a “fierce and phenomenal” actress in the role, she being the glue and backbone of the family and who put up with Kempton’s schemes.
However, the team were unsure if Mirren would be keen for such a role.
“We’re so used to seeing her in a crown and looking incredible, which she does very naturally – would this really appeal; the role of a housewife and domestic cleaner? But we knew she’d bring something amazing to the role. We thought, ‘Well, let’s just send it to her, it’ll probably be a quick pass, and then we’ll have to think again.’ But she really fell in love with the writing, really understood the character and was just so excited to do something different.”
The Duke was shot in November 2019 and premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020, though its theatrical release has then been delayed by the pandemic. Ironically, many of the themes of the film have become more prescient with COVID-19, particularly around caring for the elderly and isolated.
Bentham is warmed that people seem to be responding to the film’s message of kindness and community; that a society can only be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable.
“Obviously the film hasn’t changed, but I think the way that it resonates has,” she says.
“Also the fact that people are getting to see it in cinemas, where we’d always hoped that they would. It is about that community experience.”
Despite older audiences being the slowest to return to cinemagoing, The Duke has proved a relative hit in its native UK, opening to £992,261 and so far tallying £4.8 million ($8.4 million), pushed by a strong marketing campaign from Pathé.
While it has been hard to sit on the film for a long time, Bentham says people seem to “really want to come together and laugh”, and recognise the place of independent cinema among the tentpoles.
“I’m delighted we can offer that experience.
“I missed that, that communal experience, especially with comedy. It’s so much fun to to laugh with people. That’s what life’s all about.”
However, the release of the film has been bittersweet for Bentham, in that Michell, who died last September, has not been around to see it.
“It’s unbearably sad that he’s not here to see how much the film is delighting audiences. As much as he was quite a singular filmmaker – in that he was never making choices just to be a crowd pleaser, he was always following his own instinct and his own interests – he was making them for the people to enjoy. He would have he would have absolutely loved to hear the roaring laughter in the packed houses.”
Bentham has worked in the UK for the last two decades, or almost her entire career, having moved over after studying Media Arts and Production at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).
Nicky Bentham.
However, she is not the only Australian whoworked The Duke; one of the EPs is the Sydney-based Peter Scarf, who she has known all her life.
“He was the first person that I called when I came across the project and was bidding for the rights.”
After landing in the UK with no industry connections, Bentham worked her way up the ladder from the bottom, juggling a “proper cliché” job in a video store with working as a runner, before eventually moving up the production department.
Her break as a producer came on Chris Atkins’ BAFTA-nominated Talking Liberties, with the financing structure she used catching the eye of Liberty Films, leading to her producing Duncan Jones’ Moon.
While Liberty Films then wanted to move into Hollywood features, Bentham decided to go into a different direction and in 2008 started developing her own projects under her banner Neon Films Her other projects include documentary Who Killed The Klf?, a co-production with Fulwell 73 due for release later this year, Andrea Riseborough and Damian Lewis-starrer The Silent Storm and children’s dance film You Can Tutu.
Neon’s focus is predominantly on film, though Bentham is also currently developing a number of TV projects. She is interested in bringing stories from the margins – or stories that have been overlooked or forgotten – to the mainstream, imbuing them with a contemporary gaze.
“I’m always looking for a distinctive angle on something; a story that we think we know or we understand and and how we can see things differently.”
While firmly based in the UK, where she is an active member of BAFTA, WFTV and co-chair of PACT’s Film Policy Group, Bentham is currently working on a project with Robyn Kershaw, and is “desperate” to make a project out of Australia.
“I’m talking to a number of people, but because I am truly independent, I’m pretty picky about projects. They have to really strike a chord. I have been looking for the right Australian project for some time, and I’m very keen to do either a co-production or a full Australian project.”
Of her career, Bentham says it’s “been a long, old bumpy road”.
“It’s been just over 20 years since I’ve been here [in the UK]. I’ve worked non-stop in that time, had two kids and started a non-profit called Raising Films, which has an Australian chapter as well. It’s been unbelievably hard work and really hectic. But I feel like now I’m kind of just hitting my stride, and maybe all of that hard work and those tricky decisions are finally paying off.”
Stuart Menzies, Emma Fitzsimons, Ben Grant, and Felicity Harrison at Screen Forever on Wednesday.
Dealmaking with streamers was once again on the agenda at Screen Forever on Wednesday, as a selection of prominent Australian producers recounted their experiences of negotiating with various platforms.
For the second consecutive year, Werner Film Productions’ Stuart Menzies, Matchbox Pictures’ Felicity Harrison, and Princess Pictures’ Emma Fitzsimons sat together on a panel exploring the many considerations for producers, with the trio this time joined by Goalpost Pictures’ Ben Grant.
While details from a variety of different deals were laid bare, none of the services were mentioned by name due to the live nature of the projects concerned.
At the beginning of the session, Screen Producers Australia moderator Owen Johnston recapped the conclusions made from the previous panel, most notably that the traditional TV model of financing and rights was breaking down with the rise of the streamers, who often finance projects entirely and want to take all rights – reducing the ‘long tail’ or opportunity for producers to exploit IP through secondary windows.
The industry was thus in a period of transition, with deals becoming “more complex” and questions arising about the long-term sustainability of some production companies.
Speaking on the panel, Harrison detailed how Matchbox had recently signed a co-production agreement with an international streamer, allowing both to co-own the IP. That involved a license fee, and being paid a flat rate premium, rather than a percentage of budget. She said it was important for producers to do their homework prior to entering negotiations in order to get an idea of what outcome would suit them best.
With regards to negotiating a flat rate, Harrison said producers needed to work out what the right price was to make sure they were making money.
“I think the interesting part of a co-production model, because there’s that split ownership, we retain some rights. We can take a distribution fee and then from the revenue that’s split from those rights, we share that then with the streaming partner. So there is that ability to maximise,” she said, noting Matchbox was able to retain almost all rights except SVOD, with a holdback for run of series plus four years.
Werner Film Productions has recently signed two streaming deals: one was a co-production agreement, where a distributor had put money against a second window with a three year holdback, and on the other, the SVOD service “owned everything”.
Menzies said his experience had demonstrated it was a mistake to view any of the large streaming organisations as “homogenous”.
“It’s opaque where these other doors are, let alone how to knock on them,” he said.
“But in this instance, there was a co-production door. We went in through that, and there was a whole bunch of things that allowed us to do. There are a whole lot different rules in that as well, but it allowed us to retain the IP.”
Grant, who admitted to being a relatively new participant to streaming rights negotiations, said discussions should not be simplified into what is possible with single source funding as opposed to multi-source funding.
“It’s about access to the long tail that traditionally equity has provided us, and that we’re trying to reimagine that going forward,” he said.
“I don’t really think equity is the issue – it’s actually what it would bring. You could still have those things without equity. It’s just a commercial negotiation.”
According to the panel, an ongoing point of difference when working to streamers comes with residual payments to cast members.
Under the Australian Television Repeats And Residuals Agreement 2004 (ATTRA), last updated in 2016, a license period of three years applies to the use of broadcast and digital work from performers.
However, Fitzsimons said the streamers she had dealt with had consistently asked for a longer period.
“We find ourselves negotiating a lot of specific deals with MEAA to try and work out what we do after the three years,” she said.
“Generally, I have been finding MEAA’s quite happy to switch to a SAG-style residual after that three-year period.
“It’s complicated, but hopefully a model is emerging. I wonder if that could then be used as a template for a more complete solution that everybody could access rather than having to individually negotiate every single time, which is exhausting.”
Her comments were backed up by Menzies, who said while opening up the agreement for change “could take years”, it wasn’t a bridge too far.
“I don’t think any of us pretends ATTRA is fit for purpose under any of these sorts of deals – it’s just not.
“All of us have had to do bespoke deals with MEAA and it must be exhausting for them as well.
“There was a 2016 amendment, which allowed for domestic SVOD – essentially the Stan amendment – and I think there has now got to be something like that done.”
Of more immediate concern for Menzies in relation to future negotiations between streamers and producers was a “massive” increase in crew costs which could lead to the Australian industry being priced out of the competitive market.
“Why are the streamers going to come here with those blow in shows when we’re having 30 per cent year-on-year price rises?” he said.
“We’re getting seriously expensive on the world stage. I think we’re unsustainable.”
Adding to the comments, Harrison said it was also worth keeping an eye on how the activities of SVOD services were shaping deals of more traditional broadcasters.
“I think we’re going to look at our commissioning partners at the ABC; they are going to want SVOD-style rights too. They are naturally going to need to grow iview because that’s what consumers are looking for,” she said.
“But at the moment how those rights are valued through our guild arrangements is different. That has to change as well.
“So I think whilst there is going to be a lot of change in the streaming deals as those businesses mature, we’re going to have a lot of change in traditional models too. And as Stuart says, crew rates are expensive, everything is expensive. Licence fees are not going up; they need to, otherwise partners are going to have to take more equity.
“It’s tough. There is a lot of opportunity because there are more choices, but everything is getting much more expensive.”
When Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen set out to make animated documentary Flee, the story of an old school friend Amin Nawabi, he envisioned it as a small project – perhaps a 20-30 minute short.
However, as soon as Amin (a pseudonym) started to tell his story – of leaving Afghanistan as a young refugee in the late ’80s and then making a long and arduous journey to Western Europe – it became clear that the film needed a longer format.
As the project grew in scale, it was still unimaginable to the filmmaker and his subject that it might end up where it is today.
In addition to winning more than 65 awards, including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary, Flee recently made history as the first film to ever be nominated simultaneously for the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary, Best International Feature Film, and Best Animated Feature.
“It feels totally surreal,” Rasmussen tells IF of the nominations over Zoom.
“This film really started out as a conversation between two friends.”
The director will explain the process of making Flee at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) this Sunday, and in particular, the art of using animation in non-fiction storytelling.
Rasmussen first approached Amin to tell his story more than 15 years ago, initially as a radio documentary. At the time, Amin didn’t feel ready to speak publicly, but knew that he would at one point, and that he would do so with Rasmussen.
Keeping the idea in the back of his head, the director then participated in a Danish animated documentary workshop, AniDox. He realised the format could be the perfect way for Amin to tell his story on his own terms.
“He was very intrigued by the fact you could be anonymous behind animation,” Rasmussen says.
“What you hear in the film, or what you see, is the very first time he talks about these events he went through. It’s really not easy for him to talk about.
“The fact he didn’t have to be in the public eye, and could keep control over what he wanted to talk about… was really what enabled him to start opening up about his story.”
Rasmussen’s film work prior to Flee includes TV documentary SomethingAbout Halfda, hybrid doco Searching for Bill and feature doc What He Did. As both a filmmaker and radio documentarian, he has always been curious about playing with the format.
That said, animating a non-fiction story would prove an entirely different process and a “steep learning curve”. For one, the interviews needed to be done and the story edited before the ‘shoot’ could begin.
“Animation is so expensive; you can’t animate 40 hours of raw material and then start editing. You need to edit first, and close your edits with rough storyboards.”
‘Flee’.
To get Amin’s story, Rasmussen interviewed him over a number of years, using a technique he learned in his radio days: he asked him to lie on his back and close his eyes.
“When you deal with a story that takes place in the past, there’s always a concern of: how do you make it present again and how do you create a presence? This technique really helps with that.
“Every time we would start talking about a certain memory, I always would start out with asking him to describe the location we’re in and to do it in detail.
“For example, in the beginning of the film, he’s in his childhood home in the garden, and his siblings are there. Then I would ask him, “Okay, but what plants are there in the garden? What do you see? What does the house look like? What’s outside the walls? What do you smell?’
“It was material to put into the animation, but it would also bring him back to a specific memory and he would start to remember things he would have otherwise forgotten. It’s really a way of creating a presence in his way of talking; he relives things instead of just retelling them.”
Finding the right animation style to match Amin’s story was a process that took time, with Rasmussen working with the Copenhagen-based Sun Creature Studio and and animation producer Charlotte De La Gournerie. Some initial images proved too ‘cartoony’ – smooth in style and the characters had big eyes – and it became too detached from his testimony.
The team then turned to archival footage and as well as other references from live-action films, photographers, painters and visual artists to bring the film back to a place where it felt authentic.
Jonas Poher Rasmussen.
“We used archival footage a lot as references for the animation; we would take things directly… like props and buildings,” Rasmussen says.
While Flee offers insight into Amin’s life now, as an academic living with his partner Kasper in Copenhagen, much of the film is about the past. In this way, animation proves a vital tool to bring to life Amin’s story in a way that would otherwise have been impossible, except in perhaps dramatic reenactments.
When he goes through traumatic moments, the animation style changes – it gets blurrier around the edges and more abstract, reflecting the emotion of the moment.
“For some reason, it feels like the animation really helps this feeling of authenticity; that we could support this testimony that Amin gives me with the animation,” Rasmussen says.
To ground the audience further in the context of the story, Flee is also interspersed with real news clips and other archive.
“It was so important to me from the very beginning to remind people that this is a documentary story, and underneath the animation you have a real person, and a real voice. You should, if you scratch away the animation, find there is a real person underneath,” Rasmussen says.
“Also [I used archival footage] to show that he reason why he is forced on this flight is because of historical events that happen in the world we all belong to.”
Animation also offered Rasmussen other distinct advantages. In a normal documentary, if you were to miss certain shots in the field, then it’s often too bad. Animation, however, means you can always get the shot and tell the sequence how you want.
“If you need that close up shot, you just ask [the artists] to do it,” Rasmussen says.
“There’s a precision in storytelling that you can have in an animation that you can’t have in the same in normal documentary, which is amazing.”
Using animation laso transformed the often solitary pursuit of documentary filmmaking into a large-scale effort.
“I was lucky to work with some amazing artists; they just brought so many great ideas to the table. I’ve been used to working on my own a lot – sometimes I have a DOP or I have an editor – but a lot of the time I’m on my own. To have that shared experience of being creative was really amazing.”
With Flee having received the recognition that it has, Rasmussen says Amin is “overwhelmed, but in a good way”.
“He’s really happy that people relate to his story. When we started the project, he told me that growing he never really had any stories he could see or read where he felt he could relate to it. So the fact that now his story is out, for the millions and millions of people who have similar backgrounds, have similar experiences there’s a nuanced story out there and they can hopefully relate to it and see that they’re not alone.”
Flee is in cinemas now via Madman Entertainment. Jonas Poher Rasmussen will open AIDC Sunday March 6 at 11:00am in a session titled ‘The Art of Non-Fiction’.
General manager and head of post production at The Post Lounge, Bronwyn Ketels.
A newly launched independent feature film pitching competition is offering funds and a way forward to its winner, with $30,000 and a series of mentoring sessions included in the first prize package.
Established by Brisbane independent production company Progression 7, Feature30 is designed to give applicants a chance to experience the filmmaking process from conception to sale for their feature or documentary ideas.
The nine judges for the competition will act as mentors once their evaluations are complete, guiding the winners towards distributing their product via theatrical release, SVOD, or both.
Assessing the applicants will be actress Brooke Lee, The Steve Jaggi Company founder and chief creative officer Steve Jaggi, SBS commissioning editor of scripted Loani Arman, Flickchicks director Mandy Lake, The Post Lounge general manager Bronwyn Ketels, Umbrella Entertainment head of sales and acquisition Ari Harrison, and E! Entertainment TV founder Larry Namer, as well as Progression 7 competition directors Russell Leadbeater and Lizan Yee.
Ketels told IF competitions like Feature30 provided opportunity, connection, and practical support to filmmakers.
“As a post-production producer, I rely on concepts going from script to screen, which is why I think initiatives like Feature30 are so important.
“I’m excited by proposals that would benefit from my experience in post-production and I also value diversity of both story and storyteller.
“I will help by not only answering questions but by using my experience to flag potential hurdles applicants could face down the line. Preparation is key, and I aim to have the successful applicants prepared for the joyous and stressful journey that is filmmaking.”
In order to apply, applicants must submit a pitch deck, one-page synopsis, no more than 10 pages of script, the project’s pre/prod-post budget, and marketing plan/collateral.
Filmmakers also have the option of including a proof-of-concept no longer than five minutes.
Yee said all genres would be accepted.
“This is open to everyone,” she said.
“If you’ve had a film idea and haven’t done anything about it why not just try?
“There is no right or wrong in terms of ideas and people have certainly broadened their taste in terms of which movies they watch”
Applications for Feature30 are now open, with an early bird deadline of March 31.
The Steve Jaggi Company’s Brisbane studio following the weekend’s rain.
Queensland’s The Steve Jaggi Company (SJC) has reported flood damage to its Brisbane studio facility from the deluge dumped on the state last weekend, as screen communities in affected areas remain on high alert.
Record-breaking downpours have devastated South East Queensland and Northern NSW across the past few days, flooding thousands of homes and leading to mass evacuations of regional towns.
In Brisbane, 80 per cent of the city’s annual rainfall fell across three days, while 30 suburbs across the wider region received more than 1,000mm.
SJC is among the businesses counting the cost of the weather event, which flooded its 650 square metre studio facility in inner north-eastern suburb of Albion, damaging props and costumes, as well as two cameras.
Founder and chief creative officer Steve Jaggi estimated that about 80 per cent or more of the building’s contents were destroyed, with the overall costs expected to “inch towards $500,000”.
“I’m hoping we can salvage some of the costumes because we have more than 2,000 items but I think the props are probably fully written off,” he said.
“The problem with floodwater is that it’s saltwater that has oil and sewerage, so once it mixes with prop materials such as wood and polystyrene, you pretty much have to write the props off.
Props and costumes in the Steve Jaggi Company Brisbane studio.
“We lost two cameras and two underwater housing systems, so just in terms of camera damage, we are talking more than $200,000.”
Having wrapped that shoot on Friday, Jaggi said the company would be forced to reconfigure its schedule for the rest of the year as a result of the floods.
“We try to do a movie every two months give or take, so we have two movies we are working on as well as a television program that we are building sets and props for,” he said.
“The movies will probably be pushed back several months because of what we have lost.”
Elsewhere in the state, Screen Queensland says producers have so far not reported “any damage or major delays to their productions”, with CEO Kylie Munnich saying organisation will continue to support projects “to ensure they can continue to film”.
“Our thoughts are with everyone in Queensland and New South Wales who have suffered through this dreadful weather event,” she told IF.
Further south in NSW, Northern Rivers communities have borne the brunt of the damage this week, with Lismore getting more than 700mm of rain across 30 hours on Sunday and Monday, while residents of Ballina, North Ballina, and West Ballina were told to move to higher ground on Tuesday morning.
National not-for-profit organisation Screenworks is among the occupants of Ballina’s business district, operating out of an office on River Street.
The regional screen body was due to have its first webinar of the year – a session about finding pathways to audience with producer/director/writer Rosie Lourde and producer Hayley Adams – on Tuesday but decided to postpone it as a result of the unfolding floods.
CEO Ken Crouch told IF that while all of his staff had so far generally avoided being directly affected by the rising water levels, the wider screen community would take time to recover.
“Our office in Ballina will be closed this week but we expect it will remain above flood levels.
“We are all working from home to minimise travel, although technology like internet and phone is a bit sketchy across the region (a lot of roads are closed or damaged, so many of us couldn’t get to the office anyway).
“We all have friends and loved ones, in addition to Screenworks members and industry people, who have been impacted by what has happened in Lismore and across all of the region, so I expect that the next few days/weeks will be challenging for many as people recover and clean up from this disaster.”
Screenworks is currently raising funds to help screen practitioners and businesses in the Northern Rivers region who have been impacted by the floods. Find out more about how to donate here
