Category Archives: Television

Jim Schembri departs The Melbourne Age after 28 years

Film, Latest News, Online Media, Television, , , , , ,

AFTER a number of Twitter indiscretions, The Age’s long-serving entertainment writer Jim Schembri negotiates an exit.

In a memo sent to staff last night, editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge wrote: “After 28 years of dedicated service and hard work bringing a distinctive voice to The Age’s entertainment coverage as a film and TV critic and feature writer, Jim has decided to embrace other challenges.”

Last week, website Crikey erroneously reported Schembri had been “sacked from his position following revelations he had reportedly dobbed on the employers of his Twitter critics and hinted at taking legal action under the auspices of Fairfax Media”.

In fact, management only asked Schembri to take early leave after Crikey broke news of his Twitter transgressions. It is understood Schembri had a substantial amount of time owing and Fairfax Media did not comment on Schembri’s misdemeanours.

Schembri has since negotiated his departure. It is believed he will continue writing  on pop cultural matters elsewhere.

He is the published author of more than 40 books, including the memoir Room For One and eight novels for young children.

Schembri was one of the best-loved and contentious writers at The Age, with his Modern Fable series in the 1990s a particular favourite with readers. He cultivated a strong film blog, Cinetopia, for the newspaper and occasionally attracted the opprobrium of the film industry for his strident views on the industry despite his championing of comedy and certain filmmakers.

While presenting at this year’s AACTA Awards, A Few Best Men’s director Stephan Elliott asked Schembri to “stop the poison pen” and “hate” after the journalist wrote his film was “unreleasable”. It went on to earn $5 million.

At the 2008 AFI Awards, The Black Balloon’s co-writer, Jimmy Jack, responded to Schembri’s criticism of his film by reading the review before saying “Jim Schembri. F*** you.”

And last year, The Chaser’s Hamster Wheel program named its segment on internet discretions ‘The Schembris’ after the journalist revealed a major plot twist in his review of Scream 4 before retracting it and writing it was merely a ruse to fool the “Twittersphere.”

In the memo to staff, Ramadge thanked Schembri for his contribution and wished him well. He added Schembri “has chosen to forego farewell drinks and will arrange an informal gathering soon.”

Michael Bodey – The Australian, 16/3/12

Cameraman kills earless bunny

Directing, Documentary, Film, Latest News, Television, , , ,

An earless baby bunny that was a rising star on Germany’s celebrity animal scene had his 15 minutes of fame brought to an abrupt end when he was accidentally stepped on by a television cameraman.

The fate of 17-day-old Til, a rabbit with a genetic defect, was plastered across German newspapers on Thursday, the same day a small zoo in Saxony was to have presented him to the world at a press conference.

The cameraman told Bild newspaper he had not seen Til, who had buried himself in hay, when he took the fateful step backwards on Wednesday.

Til was reportedly hidden under hay when he was stepped on.Til was reportedly hidden under hay when he was stepped on. Photo: AP

Zoo director Uwe Dempewolf told Spiegel magazine that Til did not suffer.

“We are all shocked. During the filming, the cameraman took a step back and trod on the bunny.

“He was immediately dead, he didn’t suffer. It was a direct hit. No one could have foreseen this. Everyone here is upset. The cameraman was distraught.”

Spiegel Online reported that the rabbit’s body would be frozen while zoo officials decided if it would be stuffed.

Germany has been home to several global animal celebrities in recent years, including polar bear Knut and Paul the prognosticating octopus.

AP and smh.com.au

Screen Australia loses Producer Offset appeal

Documentary, Latest News, Television, ,

As predicted by Simon Nasht at last week’s 2012 AIDC conference in Adelaide, the Federal Court has rejected Screen Australia’s appeal against the documentary series Lush House being granted the producer offset.

As Geoff Brown says, SPAA urged Screen Australia not to appeal against the ruling that Lush House was eligible for the offset, but they went ahead anyway. This will now add to the uncertainty about the definition of what is a documentary, for the purposes of the Producer Offset.

Here is Brendan Swift of IF Magazine’s take on the issue (Wed 07/03/2012)

The Federal Court of Australia has confirmed that TV documentary series Lush House should qualify for the Producer Offset rebate after Screen Australia challenged last year’s similar decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The national screen agency originally rejected Essential Media and Entertainment’s Producer Offset application because it viewed the ten-episode cleaning series as a ‘reality’ program. However, Essential argued that the series, which follows household expert Shannon Lush as she gives cleaning advice to homemakers, was similar to another of its programs, Is Your House Killing You?, which did receive the tax break.

The AAT confirmed Essential’s position although Screen Australia then challenged that judgement in the Federal Court.

Essential said the Federal Court did not find any fault with the process followed by the lower court in determining that Lush House is eligible for the 20 per cent tax rebate available for broadcast documentaries.

Essential Media and Entertainment chief executive Chris Hilton said the company is pleased with the Federal Court decision.

“It represents a win for the Australian production industry as a whole and should provide more certainty to producers who are seeking to invest the Producer’s Offset as part of their project finance,” he said in a statement.

Continue reading Screen Australia loses Producer Offset appeal →

What’s a documentary?

Documentary, Latest News, Television, , ,

WHAT’S A DOCUMENTARY?

This session at the AIDC 2012 in Adelaide has arisen via a ‘stoush’ between Chris Hilton and Screen Australia over their production Lush House. Chris applied for a producer offset for the program, but it was rejected. However Chris appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, who overturned the decision. Then Screen Australia appealed, and this was heard on 13 February. To date the outcome is still pending.

The session was the liveliest of the conference, with robust discussion as could be expected – and then some! Chris Hilton put forward a passionate argument in favour of Lush House being awarded the offset, and Screen Australia’s Chief Operating Officer Fiona Cameron rebutted his arguments.

Simon Nasht countered with an offer of a bet that Screen Australia would lose its appeal, as in his eyes their case is weak. If he is right, this will create the very uncertainty that Fiona said they were seeking to avoid over what sort of documentary is eligible for an offset.

Bob Connolly unleashed an astounding diatribe against the current state of the documentary industry in Australia. It was so astounding that we have reported it as a transcript of his comments, to the best of our ability in transcribing it. Our apologies for any errors.

Finally Jennifer Peedom put forward a perspective of someone with fewer kilometers on the odometer, but some equally penetrating insights into the dilemmas facing writer-directors or producer-directors who were not part of a large production company, and who wanted to continue to make films, and also pay the mortgage.

Continue reading What’s a documentary? →

Joost den Hartog mourns Film Australia

Documentary, Latest News, Television, , , , ,

To herald the 2012 AIDC documentary conference just completed in Adelaide, Director Joost den Hartog took the industry to task for failing to save Film Australia. He suggests that only Film Australia was capable of looking after the need to make culturally relevant documentaries here.

This is what he said in IF magazine:

In 2006 – the year I migrated to Australia – Film Australia made its submission to the federal government’s film funding review. That year my ignorance prevailed when I was occupied programming my first Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) as its new director.

Encouraged by industry anger about the terms of trade, role and direction of Film Australia, I programmed a keynote address that criticised the six-decade-old institution and put some more fuel on the already burning fire. The keynote by Wall to Wall’s chief executive Alex Graham was meant to alter the terms of engagement, but it set the tone for a further attack on Film Australia as a whole. Unfortunately the industry mobilisation happened at a time the federal government was keen to cut some costs and a golden opportunity arose to axe Film Australia with seemingly the full blessing of stakeholders in the documentary community.

Had I paid more attention to Film Australia’s submission, I would have realised the deep cultural importance of the institution as the people’s production house. I believe cost-cutting was the true reason behind the demise of the agency – there is no other logical explanation why a small industry would liquidate such a national public asset. Unfortunately Film Australia only made it to the age of 61. Something Australia has always understood very well is the importance of documenting its history. The national documentary history exists parallel with federated Australia’s narrative of nation building, starting with the first multi-camera documentary The Inauguration of the Commonwealth in 1901, and onwards to the present day.

Continue reading Joost den Hartog mourns Film Australia →

ScreenAus’s optimism not shared by ADG

Directing, Documentary, Latest News, Television, , , , , ,

Australian documentary makers are struggling to make a living and are losing the
grip of their rights to their own intellectual property, Kingston Anderson, general
manager of Australian Directors Guild told the Australian International
Documentary Conference in Adelaide yesterday.

The comments came after Ruth Harley, Screen Australia CEO on Tuesday told the
conference as a keynote speaker, the value of documentary production was the
highest on record to date and driven by more hours of high production value series.

In Tuesday’s address, Harley said: “It’s been a great year for documentaries with 430
hours of Australian documentary projects made in 2010/11 and a total of $133
million spent on documentary production. This is above the $118 million five-year
average for documentary production.”

Anderson’s point was backed by an ADG survey which showed that the income levels
of documentary makers have declined further in the last 12 months, from 55.5% of
2011 respondents earning less than $45,000 compared to 58.6% of respondents in
2010 earning less than $60,000 per annum. This is below the average Australian
wage for August 2011 of $68,700.

Continue reading ScreenAus’s optimism not shared by ADG →

At least on YouTube it’s not all black and white

Latest News, Online Media, Television, , ,

Online star … video blogger Natalie Tran says that while ethnicity is irrelevant to
YouTube success it would be preferable to see a greater spread of racial backgrounds
on television.

MAJOR TV networks stand accused of creating too few roles for people from
Australia’s ethnic mix. Firass Dirani, who portrayed John Ibrahim in Channel
Nine’s Underbelly: The Golden Mile and New Zealand actor Jay Laga’aia, recently
cut from Home and Away, have slammed racial tokenism on television.

But viewers of the democratised online platform YouTube see a different
representation of Australia.

More of them log on to Natalie Tran’s channel on YouTube than any other. Ms Tran,
25, who lives in Sydney and has a Vietnamese background, is at the top of the list of
the most subscribed to channels in Australia. Her witty and instructive video blogs
have earned her hundreds of millions of viewers globally – and a large salary.

Continue reading At least on YouTube it’s not all black and white →

Katrina Sedgwick swaps jobs with Amanda Duthie to take Head of Arts

Documentary, Latest News, Television

The former director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival, Katrina Sedgwick, has
been appointed the new ABC TV Head of Arts in a seeming swap. She replaces, in
part, former ABC content head of arts and entertainment, Amanda Duthie, who was
appointed director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival in December.

The move comes after criticism of the ABC’s perceived diminution of arts
programming after the axing of production staff in Melbourne and the weekly arts
program Art Nation.

In a statement announcing Sedgwick’s appointment, director of ABC TV Kim Dalton
said, “This new stand alone position reporting directly to me will provide stronger
focus on our arts programming. As a result of changes to our arts production and
line up last year we have increased the resources committed to prime-time arts
programming to be commissioned from the independent production sector,” he said.

Sedgwick will begin the newly-created role, based in Sydney, on 11April.

From The Australian. Michael Bodey. ABC TV names new Head of Arts
February 24, 2012 1:26PM

More Here:
Google: ABC TV names new Head of Arts

The Simpsons top episodes

Screenwriting, Television

According to a recent survey by The Guardian in the UK, here are the top Simpsons episodes of all time:

Number 10: A Streetcar Named Marge (Season 4, Episode 2)

This episode has it all. Great songs (“you can always rely on the comfort of strangers”); dozens of film parodies (including a subplot involving Maggie’s Great Escape at the Ayn Rand School for Tots); Marge channeling her anger at Homer into some top drawer amateur dramatics and, as @alitadepollo notes, “the revelation that Flanders is buff!“.

Number 9: Homer Badman (Season 6, Episode 9)

Poor Homer is wrongly accused of sexual molestation and hounded by the press but is proved innocent when Groundskeeper Willie reveals that his hobby is secretly filming couples in cars. “I dinna come forward because in this country it makes you look like a pervert,” he tells Homer. “But every single Scottish person does it!” It is “simply the most sublime 22 minutes of television ever,” says @shellsuitwarrior.

Number 8: Homer the Heretic (Season 4 Episode 3)

According to @bunnymen this episode is “Homer’s finest hour”. He quits church, develops his own religion, invents moon waffles and gets to dance in his underpants like Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

Continue reading The Simpsons top episodes →