Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason has told Mumbrella he plans to halve the length of the funding application process as he seeks to build a self-sustaining screen industry in Australia.

Mason said he has been working to cut the time to decide whether to green light projects by around a third since he joined the industry body in November, and plans to reduce that further still.

“I do think we should give people a steer very early if we see the a life for their project. I’m trying to get you to know very quickly, like in a matter of weeks, if we see potential for it or not. And I would hope to halve the time,” he said.

“We’re also trying to do two stages for most applications. I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask you all to give us an encyclopaedia in hard copy, not even online, I think that’s daft. So we need to speed that up and make it as fluid as possible. At least a fast ‘no’ is better than a slow ‘no’.”

Screen Australia is the main national funding body for the screen industry in Australia, covering film and television along with new media and the games sector.

Mason said it was his goal for the industry to make it self-sustaining and was looking at schemes to attract investment and help business. However he criticised “the sense of entitlement in this country, but also the sense of negativity”. He said he scored the health of the industry at seven marks out of ten.

Responding to a question posted on Mumbrella by a viewer of the live video hangout, Mason said the Producer Offset scheme brought in after the 10BA tax perk was scrapped had been successful across the board as production had increased.

However he said it had not been as helpful for feature films, as the 10BA tax write-off incentive had been much more advantageous to private equity.

“Something I’m really keen on is to try and attract investment,” he said. “I do not believe the government or Treasury would look at that kind of favourable alteration at this exact moment when they are trying very hard to contain costs.”

Mason said Screen Australia was working towards helping the industry to sustain itself.

He said: “I think its a moment now for Screen Australia to be seen as a part of the industry, to work with the industry, to best develop their careers and stories but recognising that we are also part of government. All the money we’re spending is coming from government. So they have aims and desires, culturally, creatively, capability building, and its working out where we fit with the film schools, with the people doing it themselves. But we can’t do it all for everybody.

“Our brief is to build an industry that is working towards sustaining itself,” he said.

“So we’re obviously trying to bring new people through but as we bring them through we need them to get to a point where they can be more in charge of their own destiny and move on.”

Aaddendum: Screen Australia’s chair Glen Boreham announced today that he would stand down when his term expires at the end of June.

Megan Reynolds – mumbrella blog – March 28th, 2014