Category Archives: Latest News

The Business of Development

Latest News, Screenwriting

published in Screen Hub.

This week the Australian Writers’ Guild hosted a lively session on script development, with speakers from both Screen Australia and Film Victoria.

It was a timely opportunity to hear from three people central to development decisions, namely Jenni Tosi, CEO of Film Victoria, Veronica Gleeson, Senior Development Executive of Feature and Professional Development at Screen Australia, and the new person on the block, Jo Dillon who has just taken up her post as Development Executive at Screen Australia, based in Melbourne.

The session was pointed at times, if not outright heated, and each participant spoke from the heart about what moved them in a screenplay, which was fascinating to hear. However it also reflected the development limbo we’re in at present.

Continue reading The Business of Development →

TV Networks Play to ‘Second Screen’

Latest News, Online Media, Television

AMC Networks has been shooting material for its crime drama The Killing but it will not be seen on TV. The material is for second-screen viewers.

LAST weekend, members of the cast and crew of AMC Network’s crime drama The Killing were on location in Vancouver, British Columbia, shooting material for Sunday’s season premiere. What they produced won’t be shown on television, though. It is meant for smartphones, tablets and laptops.

The video vignettes are for an online application AMC channel is launching this weekend to promote The Killing, one of a number of increasingly ambitious such efforts being produced by TV networks.

Designed to be watched on mobile devices and computers, the services show videos, photos, games, trivia and other content when the affiliated TV show is on the air.

Continue reading TV Networks Play to ‘Second Screen’ →

The Writers Guild of America Names ‘Sopranos’ Best-Written TV Series Ever

Latest News, Screenwriting, Television

Tony Soprano is a made man. The Writer Guild of America East and West on Sunday night revealed its list of 101 best-written TV series ever, and David Chase’s The Sopranos, which aired on HBO from 1999-2007, came in at No. 1.

Landing at No. 2 was Seinfeld, created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, which aired on NBC from 1989-98.

Rounding out the top five are the original Twilight Zone, All in the Family and M*A*S*H.

“At their core, all of these wonderful series began with the words of the writers who created them and were sustained by the writers who joined their staffs or worked on individual episodes,” WGAW president Chris Keyser and WGAE president Michael Winship said in a joint statement. “This list is not only a tribute to great TV, it is a dedication to all writers who devote their hearts and minds to advancing their craft.”

The top 10 shows, as determined through online voting by WGAW and WGAE members, can be found below. For the entire list, go here:

Continue reading The Writers Guild of America Names ‘Sopranos’ Best-Written TV Series Ever →

Mystery Road takes a new (distribution) path

Film, Latest News

Ivan Sen’s new film Mystery Road, which will open the Sydney Film Festival, is bypassing the established theatrical distributors in a rare departure from the usual distribution model. Producer David Jowsey and writer-director Sen have decided to release the murder mystery on August 15 via Dark Matter, a company they own with Michael Wrenn.

The rationale: If the film turns a profit, that will go to the filmmakers, not the distributor. The producers are paying for the marketing costs, avoiding the standard 25%-30% fee charged by distributors. They’ve hired the Melbourne-based Backlot Studios to negotiate terms with exhibitors for a flat fee. Distribution veteran Alan Finney is a consultant and Tracey Mair is coordinating the national marketing and publicity campaign.

The film stars Aaron Pedersen as an Aboriginal cop, Detective Jay Swan, who’s called on to investigate the murder of a young Indigenous girl and realises a serial killer is at work. The cast includes Hugo Weaving, Ryan Kwanten, Jack Thompson and Tony Barry.

The $2 million film was financed by Screen Australia, Screen Queensland and the ABC. Gary Hamilton’s Arclight Films has world sales rights outside Australia.

By Don Groves – INSIDEFILM – [Tue 04/06/2013 08:32:57]

More Here:

http://if.com.au

Alec Baldwin: ‘The movies are abandoning serious acting to television’

Film, Latest News

The actor has been at Cannes making a documentary, Seduced and Abandoned,
about the film festival. Here he talks about the state of his profession today

Where I’ve ended up, I’m pretty content. I see the people at the top of the movie
business today and I compare their careers with those at the top 40 years ago. I wouldn’t trade places with those that dominate today; I don’t necessarily want what they have. I want the choices they have but I look at some of the films they make and think: “You could get anybody to play those parts.”

They’ll roll out a film like Lincoln every now and again with Kushner and Spielberg and Day-Lewis – who is someone I worship. I saw him at the SAG awards and I said: “Do you realise what your career means to other actors? You give them hope that there is still some purity in acting.”

Those movies are exceptions to the rule. When I started out in the early 80s, twothirds of the movies made were very cast specific, meaning: “We need that woman to play the psychiatrist and that man to play the judge.” Now that’s down to one quarter. Now they have a line item in the budget that says: “Here’s how much money we’re going to spend for that part – get whoever you can that’s acceptable.”

Cable TV is the bastion of great acting now. This is why you have this riotous celebration of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland – all these really seminal dramas.

The motion-picture business is more and more abandoning serious acting to television. If they want a serious experience, people have been raised over the past 20 years to depend less and less on movies for that.

However, the apex of this business is still to make a great, great film. When Marty Scorsese said to me: “Come do The Aviator with Leo” – I adore Leo and I admire him, he’s probably my favourite young actor around today; and Ryan Gosling, I love Ryan – I was elated. I wept. To go and make great movies is still the ultimate. But it’s like musical chairs. They’re taking away more and more chairs but the number of people circling the table trying to sit down when the music stops is the same. And now people are fighting and fighting and fighting. Now my agent calls me and says: “I got a phone call from some famous director …” and I’ll get very excited and become so happy. “What did he say?” “Only five other guys have to die and you can have this part.” And I go: “Oh my God, thank you.”

As told to Catherine Shoard – The Guardian, Thursday 23 May 2013

Industry Reacts to the AACTA’s downgrading of Documentary

Documentary, Latest News,

Media Release 23rd May 2013 – Oz Dox

Representatives of Australia’s documentary-making community have responded with concern to recent changes to the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, the nation’s leading film and television awards. The replacement of six documentary-specific craft awards with general TV categories, also open to drama and reality TV, has been interpreted as a downgrading of the documentary form. Spokespeople from OzDox, Australia’s organisation for documentary professionals, say they find the results of the AACTA’s consultation process and the changes to the AACTA Awards completely unacceptable.

In a media release, AACTA justified the move by saying … “we have created Awards which achieve greater inclusivity for more screen crafts than before.” OzDox believes that while these changes might appear to be more inclusive, it is to the detriment of documentary filmmaking which is, in itself, a discrete craft. What ‘TV’ gains, documentary loses.

The OzDox community asks: “If AACTA sees these changes as a way of reinvigorating an Awards night that should be about celebrating our work as an industry, they are misguided. We now find ourselves in the absurd position of comparing the craft of documentary with formal drama and reality TV.”

“The documentary community is a valuable, dynamic, creative and craft-driven part of the industry. Our work and that of our professional and talented crews is vital to the cultural landscape of Australia and the world. All too often the work of documentarians is sidelined as a lesser form – the poor cousins of drama. This is a case in point. The decision to remove the documentary craft categories from the AACTA Awards is belittling of our community’s significant contribution to the industry.” This statement is supported by the undersigned colleagues represented at the conclusion of this document.

The Documentary craft is responsive, creative and critical in capturing real Australian stories. We need to celebrate the successes of the Documentary craft at our national film awards.

● We ask that a representative from the Documentary community is at the table for all future negotiations regarding the AACTA Awards.

● We seek to have the lost Documentary Awards reinstated until a satisfactory consultation process has been undertaken.

This statement is supported by the following filmmakers, made up of Documentary Directors, Producers, Drama Producers and Directors, Editors, Cinematographers, Sound Recordists, Composers and Commissioning Editors:

Tom Zubyrki (ADG, AACTA, OzDox), Julia Overton (ADG), Ruth Cullen (ADG Board Member, AACTA), John Hughes (DG, AWG, AACTA), Rebecca Barry (ADG, AACTA, OzDox), Madeleine Hetherton (ADG, OzDox), Ester Harding (SPAA, AACTA), Ellenor Cox & Marcus Gillezeau (Winners AACTA Best Documentary Feature 2013 – SPAA, AACTA), Bob Connolly (ADG, AACTA), Jen Peedom (ADG, AACTA), Sylvia Wilcynski (SPAA), Kim Mordant (ADG), John Gray (AGSC), Randall Wood (ADG), Jessica Douglas Henry (ADG), Ruth Hessey, Simon Nasht (SPAA, AWG, ADG), Zoe Harvey, Jeni Thornley (OzDox), Ana Tiwary (ADG), Gillian Leahy (ADG, OzDox), Jane Jeffes, Nicolette Boaz (AGSC), David Rokach (Artistic Director Antenna Film Festival), Denise Haslem (ASE), David Doyle (ASC member), Liz Mcarthy, Hollie Fifer, Brendan Palmer (ASC member), Ruth Hessey (ADG, AACTA, MEAA), Jane Castle (ASC), Siobhan Costigan, Antonietta Morgillo (AACTA), Mel Flanagan, Kay Pavlou (ADG), Mark Gould (ADG), Juliette Weiss, Jennifer Crone (ADG), Ehran Edwards, Dr Cathy Henkel (SPAA, ADG, ACS), Walter McIntosh (ASE), Martha Ansara (ADG), Caitlin Yeo (AGSC), Loosie Craig (OzDox), Rod Freedman (ADG, AACTA, Ozdox), Lesley Seebold (AACTA), Pat Fiske (OzDox, ADG), Karen Johnson (ASE), Mitzi Goldman (ADG, OzDox), Susan McKinnon (ADG, AACTA), Anna Grieve, Rochelle Oshlack (ASE), Sandra Cook, Sharyn Prentice (SPAA, AACTA), Kim Moodie (ASE), Alejandra Canales, Enda Murray, Luke Walker (SPAA, ADG), Genevieve Bailey (ADG, ASE), Daniella Ortega, Gary Doust (AFI Byron Kennedy Award Winner), Natalie van den Dungen, Nadia Astari, Amadeo MarquezPerez, Trevor Graham (MEAA), Merran Lang, Kathryn Millis (ACS member), Jo Parker (ACS member), Simon Smith, Nick Torrens, Rami Fischler (SPAA), Sohail Dahdal, Rod Morris (AACTA, AFI, AWG), Darius Devas, Nora Niasari, Poppy Smith, Rebel Penfold- Russell (AACTA, MEAA), Libbie Doherty (SPAA), Poppy Walker (ADG), Tracey Savage, Trish FitzSImons (AACTA, ASPERA), Andrea Lang (ASE), Liz Burke, David Franken (SPAA, AWG), Rodrigo Vidal Dawson, Sophie Wiesner, Richard Baron, Ian Darling (ADG, AACTA), Tamzin Langsford, Jeni McMahon (Winner 2013 AACTA Best Documentary under one hour – SPAA, AACTA), Joseph Maxwell (SBS – Commissioning Editor), John Godfrey (SBS – Commissioning Editor)

Are we really in a ‘second golden age for television’?

Latest News, Television

Steven Soderbergh is the latest Hollywood director to praise TV over film, but this second coming of great drama, including The Sopranos, The Wire and Spooks, may already be over

Shows such as The Sopranos and Sherlock now feature in surveys of great TV Cinema has historically considered itself superior to television, with executives and critics frequently sneering that a movie or documentary has a “made-for-TV” feel.

But a number of significant Hollywood film-makers – including David Lynch, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone – have moved to the junior medium for mini-series or documentaries and now Steven Soderbergh has paid a compliment, if a slightly qualified one, to home entertainment. “In terms of cultural real estate,” Soderbergh said at the Cannes film festival, “TV has really taken control of the conversation that used to be the reserve of movies. It’s sort of a second golden age of television, which is great for the viewers. … If you like your stories to go narrow and deep, TV is exciting.”

Continue reading Are we really in a ‘second golden age for television’? →

TV Notes Decoder: What Those Baffling Executives Really Mean

Latest News, Screenwriting, Television

TV writers weigh in on the things network execs are saying without saying when they dole out notes such as “It’s a little quiet” or “lots of great stuff here.”

Sit any TV writer down and they will tell you of wounds they got from a “notes session,” where TV suits mask cutting brutality with obtuse pleasantries. Any veteran scribe knows that “You cracked it!’ is not the same as “Job well done,” but what does it mean?

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to a collection of established writers who’ve explained what the network execs really mean when they say…

What they say: “This is the bad version of what we want, but you know what I mean.”

What they mean: This is what we want

What they say: “You CRACKED it!”

What they mean: You finally did exactly what we told you to do, after five drafts of you trying to make our dumb note not terrible.

What they say: “Maybe we can get into it faster.”

What they mean: It’s boooooo-ring.

What they say: “It’s a little quiet.”

What they mean: Where are all the penis jokes?

What they say: “This should feel more like a real family.”

What they mean: They should feel more like one of the fake families in one of our successful shows.

What they say: “I wish this was cable so we could do that sort of thing.”

What they mean: I don’t get it.

What they say: “Now let’s just do a comedy pass.”

What they mean: You are not funny.

What they say: “We sort of miss some of the fun stuff from the pitch.”

What they mean: We are going to fixate on one tiny improvised joke until you build the entire show around it.

What they say: “Maybe I’m just totally missing it.”

What they mean: You are fired.

What they say: “We’ve seen that before.”

What they mean: We’ve already tried ripping off that idea… and it didn’t work.

What they say: “Let’s put a pin in it.”

What they mean: Let’s stop talking about this until later, when you’ll do what we say.

What they say: “Lots of great stuff here.”

What they mean: I’m supposed to say something nice before I tear a script apart.

What they say: “Do we need that?”

What they mean: Get rid of it.

What they say: “It’s great. We have NO notes.”

What they mean: Your show is canceled.

21/5//2013 As told to Lacey Rose -The Hollywood Reporter

Smart Art Films Thrive at the Right Price

Film, Latest News

Certain helmers can attract financing, but balancing a bare-bones budget with auteur integrity can be tricky.

In the movie business, the label “art film” isn’t always a deal-breaker.

Nowhere is this more apparent than at Cannes, where films that might seem obscure to your average Hollywood studio executive rack up worldwide presales and receive the kind of attention devoted to Brad Pitt strolling down the Croissette.

Consider some of the filmmakers in this year’s lineup: Sofia Coppola, James Gray, Alexander Payne, Roman Polanski, James Toback. They’re not exactly synonymous with blockbusters, but in the realm of global film financing, their names attract coin — at the right budget and with key cast attached.

Producers and financiers say the principal ingredients to getting these movies made are much the same as they were in the past: packages that yield foreign presales, securing locations that provide soft money and tax incentives, and foraging around for ways to cover the risk against the lack of domestic distribution. Continue reading Smart Art Films Thrive at the Right Price →

Australian Writers Guild launches new TV drama screenwriting competition

Latest News, Television,

The Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) is calling for entries to its inaugural writing for
television competition Think Inside the Box. Entries close on 3 June 2013.

Each week we see more quality and diverse Australian storytelling make its way to
our television screens. From Offspring to Puberty Blues, Wentworth to The Straits,
Redfern Now to Rake, this new wave of Australian drama series is bold and exciting,
and a move away from what we’ve seen in the past.

The AWG is presenting an opportunity for writers to be a part of this new era of
Australian TV by giving them the chance to have their original work read by
internationally renowned 2011 SPAA Producer of the Year, Australian production
house Matchbox Pictures.

Writers are invited to submit a 2-3-page treatment outlining their original idea for an
adult television drama series or mini-series. An industry panel of judges will select a
long-list by assessing the treatments for their ability to engage the reader in the
writer’s vision, the potential for the project to be produced for television and the
originality and excellence of the idea. The shortlisted entrants will be asked to submit
the pilot episode of their original show and the winner will be determined from this
group.

As well as being set up with meetings with the development team at Matchbox
Pictures, the shortlisted applicants will be invited to join the AWG’s Pathways
Program, an initiative that provides networking opportunities for writers and the
chance to showcase their ideas to industry professionals thereby giving those
industry professionals access to quality scripts.

For entry form and full guidelines go to www.awg.com.au