President Tracey Vieira and Vice President Suzanne Ryan, on behalf of the SPA Council, are pleased to announce the two participants selected for the SPA Council Leadership Diversity Mentorship.
Tsu Shan Chambers (Wise Goat Productions) and Hayley Johnson (Noble Savage Pictures) will be mentored by SPA councillors, participate in Council meetings and bespoke activities to develop skills and experiences, with the goal of generating pathways to formally become members of Council as well as pursue other leadership roles in the sector in the future.
“We welcome Hayley and Tsu Shan as the inaugural participants in our leadership diversity mentorship. Our hope is that from this mentorship both will gain insight into leadership styles and aid in the development of their existing skill sets. The SPA Council contains some of Australia’s most prolific and revered industry professionals and they, along with SPA want to foster new growth within the industry, paving the way for the next generation of leaders in our industry.” said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.
Hayley and Tsu Shan both expressed strong interest in developing the types of leadership skills and knowledge that are sought from the SPA Council given its wide-ranging functions including: governance responsibilities; strategic expertise; finance and legal skills; risk management; industrial and government relations; as well as events, marketing and communications.
Tracy Vieira said “Screen Producers Australia is striving to increase diversity and inclusion at every level of our organisation which includes at the highest level in Council. I am absolutely thrilled that we actively supporting the next generation of leading producers and providing mentorship to support their success. Hayley and Tsu Shan are both incredible producers and I look forward to working with them both as they expand their leadership for the the wider industry.”
Suzanne Ryan added “The SPA Leadership Diversity Mentorship is an incredible step for the SPA Council and the organisation in supporting and elevating new producers who wish to grow their skills. It’s wonderful to have Hayley and Tsu Shan be the first producers to be mentored by Council and I look forward to working with them and support them in their new roles.”
Hayley and Tsu Shan’s biographies can be viewed on the SPA Council listings, found on the ‘About’ page on the SPA website.
The Council were also extremely impressed by the quality and range of the applicants across the board and have undertaken to implement a broader program to assist them strengthening their applications for future intakes.
Evan Rachel Wood (Photo: Gage Skidmore) and Eliza Scanlen (Photo: Lisa Maree Williams)
Eliza Scanlen, Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Redgrave and Rufus Sewell are attached to star in Kate Dennis’ debut feature All That I Am.
An adaptation of Anna Funder’s Miles Franklin-winning novel of the same name, the film follows four German-Jewish pacifists forced to flee to London as Hitler comes to power.
Sixty years later, the sole survivor of the group, Ruth Wesemann, is living in Sydney. One day she receives a package containing the memoirs of her old friend Ernst Toller that bring back memories of how they smuggled classified documents from Nazi Hermann Goering’s office into Britain.
Funder’s novel is based on real people. Scanlen will play the young Ruth, and Redgrave her older self. Wood will play Dora Fabian and Sewell is Ernst.
Set to shoot across Sydney and Berlin in winter this year, All That I Am will be Kate Dennis’ first feature after an extensive TV career across Australia and the US, including The Handmaid’s Tale, for which she was nominated for an Emmy.
The film is fully financed by AGC Studios, who is shopping it at the European Film Market next week.
It will likely be one of the first projects to enter production for Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Gabrielle Tana’s new outfit Brouhaha Entertainment, who have partnered here with German producers Jorgo Narjes (Babylon Berlin) and Uwe Schott (The Queen’s Gambit), of X Filme Creative Pool.
The project has been in development for around six to seven years as the producers navigated the pandemic and iterations of script and cast.
Despite the journey, Lum tells IF that the team is pleased to have secured actors of the calibre of Scanlen and Wood, noting they “best suit the parts”.
Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet are writing the screenplay, with Funder also having having had involvement in the scripting process.
Lum describes the film as a faithful adaptation, though they have worked to imbue the story with a cinematic quality.
“While we’ve kept all the beats around friendship and the historical storylines, we’ve infused it with a bit more more of an espionage quality and also more suspense.”
Further, since the world has changed since they began development, from the #MeToo movement, the rise of Trump and the pandemic, they have tried to emphasise different elements of the script so that it speaks to the times.
“This is a very prescient movie in terms of its themes,” Lum says.
“We now have a script that, whilst it’s set in the 1930s, there’s a certain currency around those events and how we look at the world through the lens of this story.”
In terms of Dennis, Lum is excited to see her bring her experience in television to cinema.
“I think film allows allows her to have more freedom in terms of the choices that she can make, and I’m really excited about that because just in the journey of working with her, I feel she’s got a fantastic filmmaking instinct.”
Next month’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival will feature a bumper line-up of Australian projects.
Set to make their world premiere at the Austin, Texas event are feature films Seriously Red and Sissy, featurette Shadow, feature documentary Clean and virtual reality series Lustration VR.
Directed by Gracie Otto and written by and starring Krew Boylan, musical comedy Seriously Red will premiere in the Narrative Feature Competition.
In the Dollhouse Pictures film, Boylan plays Red, a vivacious but occasionally misguided red-head who trades her job in real estate for a new career as a Dolly Parton impersonator.
Starring alongside are Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Daniel Webber, with music from Parton, Kenny Rogers, Neil Diamond and David Bowie.
For Otto it is a return to the festival, with her documentary Under the Volcanomaking its world premiere at SXSW last year. Jessica Carrera produces for Dollhouse, alongside Robyn Kershaw for Robyn Kershaw Productions, alongside Sonia Borella and Timothy White. Seriously Red will be distributed locally by Roadshow Films, release date TBC.
Carrera said: “SXSW is a cultural happening – the festival has a great synergy across film and music so it’s the perfect home for the world premiere of Seriously Red.”
‘Sissy’.
Horror satire Sissy, co-written and co-directed by Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes, will play in the Midnighters strand on the opening night of the festival.
The film is led by The Bold Type star Aisha Dee as Cecilia (aka Sissy), a successful social media influencer living the dream, until she runs into her ex-teenage best friend on a bachelorette weekend.
Barlow, Emily De Margheriti, Daniel Monks, Yerin Ha and Lucy Barrett also star in the film, produced by John De Margheriti, Lisa Shaunessy, Jason Taylor and Bec Janek.
Shaunessy described SXSW as the “perfect festival home” for Sissy, noting its inclusion was a testament to Canberra’s screen community.
“The film is a thrill-a-minute and Arcadia distribution look forward to opening the film for Australian audiences in cinemas later this year.”.
‘Shadow’. (Photo: Jeff Busby)
Also making its world premiere at SXSW is Shadow, from Geelong-based theatre company Back to Back Theatre – a 56 minute film based on its award-winning ‘The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes’.
Screening in the Visions section, the film follows a trio of activists with intellectual disabilities who hold a town hall meeting about the future impacts of artificial intelligence. What begins as a polite discussion quickly descends into bickering and chaos.
It is directed by Bruce Gladwin, produced by Alice Fleming and co-conceived and co-authored by Back to Back’s core performing artists Michael Chan, Mark Deans, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Simon Laherty and Sonia Teuben.
Almost all the actors on screen are people with disabilities, and the majority of the crew roles were fulfilled by interns who identify as people with disabilities supported by professional mentors.
Back to Back made the project in December 2020, pivoting to film after live performances were shut down. It builds on Back to Back’s previous short Oddlands, and was designed to create as many opportunities for people to get experience in the screen industry as possible.
Gladwin and Price told IF it was exciting as just to have finished the film, let alone to have it seen in a festival like SXSW that can expand its scope and audience.
“We had a strong agenda for this project to bring in a number of interns to work across the crew – people with disabilities that may not necessarily get an opportunity to work on a film crew and to give them mentorship and training,” Gladwin said.
Premiering in the Documentary Feature Competition is Clean, from writer/director Lachlan McLeod and producers David Elliot-Jones and Charlotte Wheaton. It provides a fly-on-the-wall insight into the world of trauma cleaning through the journey of larger-than-life business owner, the late Sandra Pankhurst, and the workers at Melbourne’s Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services.
McLeod said: “To have Clean premiere at SXSW is a huge honour and means so much to me and the production team involved. This documentary has been three years in the making, and we can’t thank Sandra and the team at STC Services enough for inviting us into their lives during this time. SXSW is a dream launch for our film, and we are absolutely thrilled to be able to participate in the 2022 festival.”
Created for Meta Quest and produced by New Canvas, the project boasts a voice cast that includes Batman‘s Kevin Conroy and Shakira Clanton and follows two protectors of the afterlife, upholding good against evil by removing those who do not belong.
Nayuka Gorrie wrote the project with Griffen, while Taryne Laffar and Carolina Sorensen produced.
Griffen said: “I was always taught that culturally, our stories were earned and not just given. I’ve been trying to apply this to our modern structures of storytelling for a while and VR is the perfect home for it. With Screen Australia’s support, we were able to assemble a world-class team and cast to bring this story to the world. Being given the opportunity to launch Lustration at SXSW, a festival that doesn’t shy away from innovation in storytelling and technology, feels like the perfect fit.”
After screening at major festivals around Australia, Danny Cohen’s portrait of singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, Film Camp’s Anonymous Club makes its international debut at SXSW.
Writer/director Cohen said: “I’m still pinching myself to have our international premiere at the incredible music and film festival that is SXSW. I’m thrilled for US audiences to experience our film on the big screen there, ahead of the theatrical releases here in Australia and then the US.”
24-hour VR documentary Gondwana, directed by Ben Joseph Andrews and produced by Emma Roberts will screen in the XR Experience Spotlight. The project features a constantly-evolving virtual ecosystem and chronicles the possible futures of the Daintree Rainforest.
Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason congratulated all films on their selection.
“To have a group of seven such distinct stories premiering at a festival renowned for launching ground-breaking work is a fantastic achievement and evidence of the wealth of unique and compelling stories coming out of Australia that are connecting with global audiences,” he said.
Every film on the SXSW line-up this year will have an in-person premiere, and films that have opted-in will also have an online screening.
Network Ten determined to find new backer after Channel 5 announces it will stop airing the show in August
The wedding of Scott (Jason Donovan) and Charlene (Kylie Minogue) was a famous Neighbours moment in 1988. The show’s future is in doubt after it was axed by UK network Channel 5. Photograph: CHANNEL 5
The Australian soap Neighbours, which launched the international careers of countless local stars including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie and Guy Pearce, has been axed in the UK in a move likely to sound the death knell for the iconic show.
The UK’s Channel 5 announced it would no longer air the program and unless it is picked up by another broadcaster the show will end its record-breaking 36-year run in August.
Australian broadcaster Network Ten says it is determined to save the show but it needs a new backer.
Since 2008 the sun-soaked drama about the residents of the fictional cul-de-sac of Ramsay Street has been largely paid for by the UK broadcaster after it was no longer commercially viable for Ten to fund the Fremantle production alone.
After a speculative story ran in UK tabloid The Sun over the weekend, Channel 5 said “Neighbours will no longer air on Channel 5 beyond this summer”.
“It’s been a much-loved part of our schedule for more than a decade, and we’d like to thank the cast, Fremantle and all of the production team for their fantastic work on this iconic series,” a spokesperson said.
“We’d also of course like to thank the fans for their loyal support of Neighbours across the years.
“We recognise that there will be disappointment about this decision, however our current focus is on increasing our investment in original UK drama, which has strong appeal for our viewers.”
Alan Fletcher and Natalie Bassingthwaighte as Karl Kennedy and Izzy Hoyland in Neighbours. Photograph: Fremantle Media/Shutterstock
Network Ten told the show’s cast and crew on Sunday that filming will be paused on Monday for a meeting and that they were looking for another broadcast partner.
“As outlined in the email to Neighbours cast and crew, it is our intention to continue our association with Neighbours if another broadcast partner comes forward,” a Ten spokesperson said.
“Network 10 has an ongoing commitment to the show, the cast and crew and is hopeful that Fremantle will find a new production partner. We will provide further updates as they become available.”
The decision came as a surprise as the lives of the Ramsay Street characters still attracts 1.5 million UK viewers a day.
Neighbours was first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985 but the network famously axed it before it went on to be a worldwide hit for Ten, which picked it up the following year.
It is the longest-running drama series on Australian television and in 2005 it was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.
Film Victoria has appointed four industry-leading practitioners into Production Executive and Development Executive roles. Today, Film Victoria CEOCaroline Pitcher announced the appointments of:
Mackenzie Lush, Development Executive
Davey Thompson, Production Executive – First People’s Lead
Ariel Waymouth, Production Executive – Children’s Lead
Sam Dinning, Production Executive – Factual Lead
The announcement follows the appointments of Paul Callaghan and Lise Leitner into key digital games roles within the screen agency.
Caroline Pitcher said, “Victoria’s screen industry is advancing its position as a global centre for creating great screen productions including internationally acclaimed digital games. Film Victoria is supporting this by delivering on Victoria’s Screen Industry Strategy. These specialist appointments will champion the execution of grant programs and development initiatives for Victorian screen practitioners and projects.”
“Each individual comes with impressive industry experience, expertise and connections and I’m delighted to welcome them to the team. Their significant industry experience and skillsets will enable us to better support even more captivating local content for audiences to enjoy on screens across a variety of platforms.”
The appointments will oversee the delivery of development and production grants whilst identifying new opportunities to invest in local IP across digital games, film, television and online platforms.
See below for full biographies of the new team.
MACKENZIE LUSH – DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE
Before joining Film Victoria as a Development Executive, Mackenzie served as Director, Creative Affairs for leading global studio Entertainment One Television. During her 10 years with the studio, she developed and was involved in the production of multiple series that have reached screens worldwide including most recently, Burden of Truth (CBC/CW), Private Eyes, (Global TV/ION), and Mary Kills People (Global TV/Lifetime).
She then went on to serve as Vice President, Development and Production for First Generation Films’ television division, where she launched an expansive scripted television slate spanning all genres in both prime time and children’s content. Her creative leadership resulted in the greenlight of FGF’s first series set to premiere on a leading global streamer in 2022 which she Executive Produces in partnership with DreamWorks Animation.
In addition, Mackenzie has served on advisory committees, panels and juries across Canada including the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Festival, All Access Manitoba, the Vancouver International Film Festival Gatekeeper’s Panel, as well as the Canadian Film Centre, and many more.
DAVEY THOMPSON – PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE – FIRST PEOPLE’S LEAD
Davey is a Bidjara, Wakka Wakka and Gubbi Gubbi producer, writer and actor currently working at Film Victoria as the First Peoples’ Production Executive.
He’s previously worked various production roles with Guesswork Television, Princess Pictures, Screen Australia and the ABC, as well as being a recipient of Film Victoria’s Screen Development Internship. He’s also worked for Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Circus Oz and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. To top it all off, Davey also plays Casey in All My Friends Are Racist. Not bad for a boy from Barcaldine, hey?
ARIEL WAYMOUTH – PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE – CHILDREN’S LEAD
Ariel has been working in production, focusing on Children’s entertainment, for over 20 years. Most recently at Studio Moshi as Head of Production/Supervising Producer – Dragamonz (Spinmaster), Monster Beach (CN), Where is Anne Frank (Cannes selected Feature), Beebo Saves Christmas (The CW) and Solar Opposites Season Three (Hulu).
At Viskatoons Ariel produced Jar Dwellers Season Two (Ten) & Suspect Moustache (SBS). During her career, she has been dedicated to the development and production of exceptional live action and animated content for local and international broadcasters. Ariel is passionate about gender parity across all areas of production and developing and sustaining collaborative relationships that ensure unique creative results.
SAMANTHA DINNING –PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE – FACTUAL LEAD
Sam is a passionate screen industry professional with over 13 years experience as a producer, writer, story producer and director. Recent credits include writing and story producing 3-part series And We Danced produced by Wildbear Entertainment; producing, with Philippa Campey, theatrical documentaries Anonymous Club, and Palazzo Di Cozzo and writing, directing, and producing feature documentary No Time For Quiet, with Hylton Shaw.
Sam spent 4 years as a Creative Producer at independent production company Film Camp, where, she worked across a slate of projects, including The Unmissables, Treaty, The Leunig Fragments and Brazen Hussies. Producing credits include feature documentary Guardians of the Strait directed by Claire Jager. Earlier in her career, Sam was awarded a Development Executive Internship with Oscar-winning UK production company Element Pictures where she assessed hundreds of scripts and novels for adaptation and has since assessed projects for Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania.
PAUL CALLAGHAN – GAMES AND DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER
Paul has over 20 years experience in games as a developer, writer, educator, and creative producer both in Australia and overseas. With a background in games development, he has collaborated with cultural organisations, directed festivals and public events, designed education and university programs, and worked on digital, physical, and real-world playful projects, including with British Council, BAFTA, the BFI, the Freeplay Independent Games Festival, the ABC, ACMI, and State Library Victoria.
LISE LEITNER – COORDINATOR GAMES AND DIGITAL CONTENT
Lise is a games creative and writer based in Naarm/Melbourne. They’ve worked in marketing and communications for more than ten years and have worked for cultural institutions and museums in Australia and in their home country of Belgium. As a writer, they’ve contributed to game titles like Slay the Spire, Trash and MMORPG Tycoon 2, and they’ve written articles, game reviews, and short stories for outlets like SBS, Overland, Joy94.9, and more. Lise sometimes tweets about stuff @lisekarel.
Production has begun in Victoria on Garth Davis’ sci-fi psychological thriller Foe, starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal and Aaron Pierre.
The Amazon Studios film is an adaptation of Ian Reid’s 2018 novel, set in a future where corporate power and environmental decay are ravaging the planet.
Ronan and Mescal play Hen and Junior, a young married couple living a solitary life on their isolated farm.
One night, a knock on the door from a stranger named Terrance (Pierre) changes everything: Junior has been randomly selected to travel to a large, experimental space station orbiting Earth.
Davis adapted the book with Reid, with producers including Kerry Kohansky-Roberts on behalf of AC Studios, Davis for I Am That, his JV with See-Saw Films, and See-Saw’s Emile Sherman and Iain Canning.
Executive producers include Reid, and I Am That’s Samantha Lang. Libby Sharpe will co-produce for I Am That and See-Saw Films.
Production will take place at Docklands Studios Melbourne and other locations around the state.
The Lion director said: “I am very proud to be making Foe in my home state of Victoria, particularly on Yorta Yorta country in the amazing Winton Wetlands, which is one of our key locations.”
Foe will utilise the Producer Offset, and was attracted to Victoria via its screen incentive and the Regional Location Assistance Fund.
The feature is expected to inject $32 million into the state economy, create 950 jobs for Victorian cast and crew and utilise 500 businesses.
The Victorian government is also supporting placements for three local practitioners: director Michael Hudson, costume buyer Ellen Stainstreet (recently named a Rising Talent for 2022 by IF) and set decorator Tom Herbert.
The women that brought you Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries(2012) andA Sunburnt Christmas (2021) have announced that they are stepping away from management and into advisory roles at Every Cloud Productions.
Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, both Co-Founders of Every Cloud Productions, have been leading the company since its inception in 2009.
As a company, Every Cloud possesses a diverse team of professionals in creative IP across platforms and markets. And now that Ms Cox and Ms Eagger are devolving their responsibilities to an advisory capacity, it presents a chance for new talent to step up into the leadership role.
The production house is best known for the Miss Fisher series, which turns 10 this year, as well as dramas SeaChange, Eden and Newton’s Law. In 2021 they received four AACTA nominations for their productions A Sunburnt Christmas and Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries.
‘Deb and I are thrilled to be handing over the reins to our trusted team who have been such an important part of the company’s success,’ Fiona Eagger said. ‘Succession planning is important and we are excited to infuse our beloved company with new energy and vitality’.
Stepping in as CEO is Head of Business Affairs Drew Grove, with Mike Jones as Head of Content and Shraddha Gatiya as Finance Director.
More diversity?
Though the Every Cloud website boasts of a company policy that aims to ‘put more women in front and behind the camera,’ it is apparent that the new CEO and Head of Content appointees are not women.
‘As a company we’ve always sought to increase female representation on screen as well as behind the camera and to create screen career opportunities in regional communities,’ said Deb Cox. ‘We think it’s equally important to support new talent to step into leadership roles and to provide mentoring and business opportunities to the next generation of screen creatives. It’s exciting to know that Every Cloud will continue in the very capable hands of Drew, Mike and Shraddha’.
Drew Grove added: ‘It’s an exciting time for screen production in Australia and Mike, Shraddha and I – with Deb and Fiona’s support – will take advantage of expanding market opportunities, while continuing to further exploit the company’s existing and very successful suite of brands including both Miss Fisher and Ms Fisher series. We have an exciting development slate and are looking forward to seeing these terrific projects on screen.’
The company continues to operate from its headquarters in Stephen Street, Yarraville.
The bestselling novelist and screenwriter of ‘Clickbait’, Netflix’s first Melbourne project, talks story structure, terrible first drafts and the myth of overnight success.
by Rochelle Siemienowicz ScreenHub 3 November 2019
‘If I start talking about Clickbait, I’m dead. In fact, there are probably red dots from snipers on me right now,’ jokes Christian White, undoubtedly Australia’s hottest young novelist and screenwriter of the moment. The only details he’s allowed to disclose about the eight-part Netflix Originals series he co-created, co-wrote and coproduces with showrunner Tony Ayres, are those already on record. ‘I try to memorise the press release word for word so I’m not in trouble,’ he says. ‘Things are very secretive in the film and TV world compared to the books world, probably because of the vast sums of money involved.’
White talks very very fast as we meet for a G&T before a book signing gig for his second novel, The Wife and the Widow, a page-turning literary murder mystery set in a wintry Victorian seaside town. He’s incredibly self-deprecating, perhaps to disarm the envy of all those struggling writers watching him live out their wildest dreams. He describes himself as ‘a terrible people pleaser’ and has a reputation as the nicest guy around. His instagram account consists entirely of photos of his rescued greyhound Issey, and he hasn’t updated his author website in years. Still, he’s never sweetly bland. Every story you read about him, including this one, will mention the fact that his previous odd jobs have included editing porn for an adult entertainment company.
‘I spent 15 or 16 years trying to break through, doing millions of these crazy odd jobs to support my writing habit,’ he says, ‘and now all of a sudden this is happening with the books and the TV series. It makes me worry that I was hit by a bus and now I’m in a coma and this is just a coma fantasy.’
Clickbait
Here’s what we do know about the Netflix series: It’s the first to be made in Victoria, and is due to start a seven-month shoot in Melbourne’s Docklands Studios and surrounds in November 2019. Clickbait is a character-based thriller told from multiple perspectives which, according to Netflix, ‘provide tantalizing clues to the perpetrator of a gruesome crime fueled by social media.’ The series, shot in Australia but set in the US, will be produced by Tony Ayres Productions (TAP) and Matchbox Pictures, together with UK production company Heyday Television for Netflix and NBC Universal. The Federal Government will put in $4.9 million through the Location Incentive program, while the Victorian Government will support it through Film Victoria’s Production Incentive Attraction Fund. Film Vic’s press release crows that thiswill bring in more than $36 million of international investment, will employ around 540 cast, crew and extras, and use the services of 290 local businesses.
No wonder it’s all a bit intimidating for the 38-year-old writer who grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, and recently moved back to the coast with that doted-upon dog and his filmmaker wife, Summer De Roche, with whom he credits many of his best ideas and plot twists. (Yes, she’s the daughter of the legendary late US-Australian screenwriter Everett De Roche of Patrick and Long Weekend fame.)
White only broke out of obscurity two years ago when he won the 2017 Wheeler Centre Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript. A bidding war between publishers saw Affirm Press come out on top to publish The Nowhere Child in June 2018. A mystery thriller about a stolen child, it quickly became Australia’s fastest selling debut fiction since BookScan records began, with rights sold to 16 territories around the world and a screen deal with Anonymous Content in the US and Carver Films in Australia. White has a four-book deal with Affirm and The Wife and the Widow followed on quickly from the first, releasing in October 2019. He jokes that he’s now very busy ‘pimping it’ just before the madness of Clickbait begins.
Becoming a Real Writer
White says he’s always been obsessed with the idea of being a writer of both novels and screenplays. ‘A model of mine was Alex Garland who wrote The Beach and a few other amazing novels, and now he just writes movies. To be able to move between those worlds, that was always my ideal.’
A true movie buff from way back, White says that as a younger man he used to get very anxious if he didn’t get to the cinema on the same day that new films came out. These days, he’s at least six months behind, a fact he largely credits to having adopted a dog with separation anxiety. ‘It’s taught me to relax a bit more and watch more television,’ he says, which is not a bad thing considering where most of the best work is these days for screenwriters. ‘My wife and I have this endless struggle because she always wants to watch movies, and when we got together I was the movie guy, but now there’s just too much good TV and it’s nice and cosy having characters to come back to.’
White was ambitious right from an early age, and ‘stunned not to be successful at 25’. He kept plugging on year after year, did a few short courses and eventually studied screenwriting at RMIT, while also reading any script he could get his hands on. In the meantime, he was also busy trying to write novels. ‘The idea was to just cast out a wide net and whatever nipped at the line first, that’s what I would go for. To be honest, I thought being a screenwriter was slightly more realistic and achievable than writing books.’
He admits he’s ‘a real structure geek’, and that even as a novelist, he finishes every chapter as if he’s cutting to a commercial break, which perhaps explains the page-turning success of his thrillers, which both feature remarkably believable female protagonists. ‘A lot of people shy away from formula and genre and think it’s a bad word, but I love it,’ he says. ‘It exists for a reason and is part of our evolution. It’s what we expect from stories. You can subvert that or use it as a safety net to guide you towards what happens next, and I really lean into that.’
Going to RMIT and formally learning about story structure was transformative for White. ‘Everyone has a sense of story, but being taught those things that you on some level already knew, but needed to hear out loud, completely changed my life. It taught me structure and dialogue and technical skills, but it also it taught me how to start getting my work out there. That was always the big problem of mine.’
Fears and phantoms
White says he’s never had writer’s block because he loves the actual craft of it so much, ‘but where I struggled was just showing people my work.’
‘I think it was a fear of failure but more a fear of destroying this fantasy I had about being published and having a career in film and TV,’ he says. ‘My first book was the fifth manuscript I tried to write, and the second one I finished, and the first I thought was good enough to show anyone. In my desktop and drawers I’ve got at least three or four feature films that I’ve written completely and been proud of and then never shown anyone, for some weird weird reason! It’s this bizarre mixture of fear of failure and imposter syndrome. It wasn’t until I decided that I had to try and fail and be accountable to myself, instead of doing nothing, that I started to get somewhere.’
‘I think it was a fear of failure but more a fear of destroying this fantasy I had about being published and having a career in film and TV.’
Actually submitting his work to be read and judged in competitions was part of this accountability and it’s paid handsome dividends, and not just with the Premier’s Literary Award. The origins of White’s collaboration with Tony Ayres, a key industry mover and shaker and founder of Matchbox, began in 2013 when White won the Australian Writers’ Guild’s inaugural TV drama screenwriting competition ‘Think inside the Box’ with his series pilot One Year Later. One of the prizes was a meeting with the production company.
‘I went into Matchbox and everyone was completely lovely,’ he remembers, ‘but I was convinced I’d screwed it up by being so nervous and terrible, and then suddenly I got an email from Tony. He’s so supportive of new people and so I started working with him on a few projects, and learning so much from him, even in one day in a writers’ room. I credit him not just with taking a huge chance on me, as he has on so many other people, but on teaching me to be a better writer through action and demonstration.’
White worked in a number of writers’ rooms including as a note-taker on Seven Types of Ambiguity and as a researcher on Barracuda. ‘Being in a writers’ room now and getting notes, I realise how terrible I was at doing it,’ he says laughing. ‘It was just this dreadful stream of consciousness on the page. A completely different skill from actually writing.’
Though that initial AWGIE-winning pilot script never went anywhere, in recent years White has written other screenplays, including for the short film Creswick, which he co-wrote with director Natalie Erika James, and which won Best Short Form Script at the 2017 Australian Writers Guild Awards. Creswick eventually became a proof of concept for the horror film Relic, also co-written by White, and directed by James, and starring Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote. Shot in Victoria and set to release in 2020, distributed by Umbrella, Relic was produced by Carver Films’ Anna Macleish and Sarah Shaw (Snowtown, Partisan) and Nine Stories’ Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker.
‘Relic is about three generations of women dealing with this shadow of dementia, and what if dementia was manifested as a real monster?’ White explains. The idea for the story came because both he and James were dealing with the issue with their grandparents. ‘It’s terrifying and emotional, dealing with this thing that is maybe coming for us and lying dormant in our genes.’
Writer-director Natalie James and co-writer Christian White on the set of ‘Relic’. Supplied.
It was on the set of Relic that he first saw the impact of his words made real. ‘I remember going to the film set and it was almost so big I couldn’t take it all in. And then I saw this tiny strip of stained glass window above a fake bathroom door. And I remembered writing that into the script. And I thought, wow, someone had to do that. It’s a real thing!’
So, does Christian White consider himself as an artist? He pauses for a moment. ‘I think being a writer is being an artist, but I’m always writing with an audience in mind. I want people to read it and I want people to like it. I want my stuff to be commercial. I know that’s a bit of a dirty word because you’re not supposed to care what the critics or audiences say, but I do!’ He laughs, and then adds, ‘God, I just gave you such a politician’s answer, didn’t I?’
Not really. It’s actually a very good look for any screenwriter to care so deeply about an audience.
Top Tips from Christian White
Read a lot.
Write a lot. (These are the most boring things, I know. It’s like when someone asks you how to lose weight and you have to say, “I’m sorry but the answer is just to eat well and exercise!)
My first draft is always horrible but you need to get it out without too much judgement or distraction. I like what Stephen King says about writing with the door closed and re-writing with the door open.
Hit send on that email! Just don’t wait until everything is perfect, because I don’t think anyone’s looking for a perfect script or perfect manuscript. They’re looking for something that they can add their own voice to, something they can help make better. That’s something I’ve learnt on the other side of things. I wish I’d known that, because I wasted a decade not showing anyone anything because it wasn’t perfect.
Even the rejections will help you if you’re smart about it so just get your stuff out there.
Producers are looking for stories! In the screenwriting world there are tonnes of producers who are looking for stuff. There’s this idea that as a writer, no one’s going to read your stuff and you’ve got to beg producers to read your stuff. But in reality there are so many amazing producers who are looking for good stories and they don’t care who you are, if your story is good they’ll create a relationship with you.
If you find yourself in a writers’ room, concentrate and pay attention. If your idea gets shot down, don’t sulk. Move on and don’t be too sensitive. You’ll learn that in a writers’ room you can get somewhere in 20 minutes that it would have taken you weeks on your own because you’ve got all these genius minds at work. Check your ego and watch what established writers do.
Don’t be a dickhead. Fifty per cent of being a good writer is obviously being committed to the craft, but the other 50 per cent is just not being a dickhead. Check your ego and keep an eye on what more established writers do.
Producer and executive Jill Robb has been remembered by friends and colleagues as an inspiration and driving force in shaping the modern Australian screen industry.
Robb, the first marketing and distribution manager of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) and the inaugural CEO of the Victorian Film Corporation, today’s Film Victoria, died January 16, aged 87.
Among her credits as a producer and executive producer were films Dawn!, the multi-AFI Award-winning Careful, He Might Hear You, TheMore Things Change… and Eight Ball, and the TV series Phoenix, Secrets, Silent Reach, Stark, and Snowy River: The McGregor Saga.
Over her career, Robb was also an executive producer for the ABC, and a founding member of the board of the Australian Film Commission. She served on the Film Victoria board from 1983-1989.
Born in England, Robb’s film career began in 1958, when she was a stand-in for English actress Jill Adams in Lee Robinson’s Dust in the Sun, starring Chips Rafferty.
There, she landed herself a further gig working in the production office, beginning a lifelong passion for filmmaking.
In her early years, she was production coordinator on Michael Powell’s 1965 classic They’re a Weird Mob, and in 1967, Robinson brought Robb on to work as an associate producer on Skippy.
It was on the seminal show that Robb gave Sue Milliken one of her first jobs, working in continuity. It would prove the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
“Jill had an innate self-confidence. She was a grounded person, very sure of herself and quite a creative thinker,” Milliken tells IF.
“When she got opportunities, she made the most of them.
“She’s almost the only person I can think of who was a really talented, creative producer and a really talented and competent bureaucrat. That just doesn’t happen.”
While Robb could be tough, Milliken recalls that she was also kind and generous, considerate of the people who worked for her and would look to support them in their careers. For Milliken, she was a mentor.
“What I liked about Jill, she was one of those people who had no pretensions. She was completely open,” she says.
“She would find opportunities and help you if she could. I really liked that. Also, she had a wonderful, dry and very sardonic sense of humour. She could see pomposity a mile off and had no time for it. She was entertaining and a very good person.”
Jill Robb.
Another to receive their first break from Robb was Matt Carroll – one of her neighbours in Sydney’s Paddington during the ’60s.
Robb got the then architecture student a job working in Skippy‘s art department during his university holidays, where he initially filled up production vehicles with petrol, and then worked in the kangaroo unit.
“I always blamed Jill for my ending up not an architect, but a film producer,” he tells IF.
The duo would go on to work together at the SAFC, and Carroll considers Robb’s work there pivotal to the international success of films like Sunday Too Far Away, which she got into Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, and Breaker Morant, which was in the official competition in 1980.
He remembers her as a brilliant executive, one that “didn’t take prisoners” in an era where there were few women in leadership positions.
“She was just the most extraordinary person,” Carroll reflects.
“We just adored her because she was so clever, so supportive and made us love the film industry.
“She was a really clever businesswoman, as well as great creatively and a great leader. There’s only ever been one of her.
“The industry was very lucky to have her.”
Greg Ricketson worked as a production manager on Careful, He Might Hear You and associate producer on TheMore Things Change…, and developed with Robb a series about Australian war hero Nancy Wake that ultimately did not go ahead.
He remembers her as a “one of a kind” and a “magic woman in every sense of the word.”
When Robb interviewed him for Careful He Might Hear You, Ricketson remembers her telling him: “There are lots of things that I am incredibly good at and I’m always going to be in control of. There are some other things which I’m not as good at, and I need somebody like you to run it for me. But I expect you to keep me informed when you make decisions so that I understand them. I’ll keep you informed when I make decisions that are not in your control so that you understand them. And we both must promise that if we disagree, we’ll talk it out.“
For Ricketson, the encounter was an early hint to Robb’s way of running a production, where her openness and trust of those in her employ gave room to an egalitarian and collaborative environment. She was also inquisitive, genuinely appreciative of the role of each member of the crew and unafraid to get her hands dirty.
“You just adored her because she took notice of you and took notice of your work. When she made suggestions they weren’t orders, they were more a collaborative suggestion. But because she was such a wonderful, collaborative person, 99 times out of 100 people said, ‘Okay, let’s try that’,” Ricketson tells IF.
“Everybody who worked with Jill just fell in love with her.”
In the early days of her career, Robb also ran a modelling school, and was casting director on Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright in 1970.
In a statement posted on social media, Film Victoria called Robb a “ground-breaking woman”, noting “she became a role model for many, particularly women working in the screen sector”.
Her career was recognised on numerous occasions, named a Member of the Order of Australia, awarded AFI’s Raymond Longford Award, and honoured by Film Victoria in its annual Jill Robb Award, which recognises the achievements of women in the industry.
Recipients of the Jill Robb Award include Sue Maslin, Jill Bilcock, Nadia Tass, Sonya Pemberton, Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox, Mitu Bhowmick Lange and Claire Dobbin.
Robb is survived by her daughter Louisa and brother David, and their families.
Stephen Johnson’s High Ground topped the Film Critics Circle of Australia awards on Monday, winning in all five of its nominated categories, including Best Film.
The western/thriller, which follows a young Aboriginal man who teams up with an ex-soldier to track down his warrior uncle in 1930s Arnhem Land, was awarded Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Sean Mununggurr.
Johnson was the joint winner of the Best Director award with Nitram‘s Justin Kurzel, whose psychological drama took out the remainder of the acting categories.
They consisted of Best Actor for Caleb Landry Jones, Best Actress for Judy Davis, and Best Actress – Supporting Role for Essie Davis.
The FCCA noted that voting was “extremely tight” in the final round of voting for the awards, resulting in dual winners for Best Director.
The full list of winners is below:
Best Film
High Ground
Producers: David Jowsey, Maggie Miles, Wityana Marika, Greer Simpkin, Stephen Maxwell Johnson
