A Heartbeat Away: Smells Like Teen Spirit
From Nirvana (and Isabel Lucas) fans to seventy-year-olds, Gale Edwards’ debut feature A Heartbeat Away targets an unusually wide demographic. Miguel Gonzalez reports.
Originally titled Montague Municipal, the script was submitted by a Queensland Investment Corporation equities dealer, Julia Kincade, to an initiative set up by the PFTC and Pictures in Paradise to find new writers. Read more »
Content Classification: Industry guidance recommended
Our content classification system is about to be reviewed to ensure it remains relevant in the digital age, allowing Australians to make informed content choices. Miguel Gonzalez reports.
Just before Christmas, Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor announced they would ask the Australian Law Reform Commission to review the nation’s classification categories and, indeed, the entire classification system. O’Connor said it needs to be modernised to accommodate current and future technologies, and to allow people to make informed choices about their content consumption The last enquiry into classification laws took place in 1991. Read more »
Profile: Bob Connolly, a life of observation
After a long absence, director Bob Connolly returns with Mrs. Carey’s Concert. Miguel Gonzalez spoke with him about his life in documentary.
Connolly was not the type of child that dreamt of working on TV or film. When he dropped out of an Arts Law degree in 1964, he joined the ABC as a cadet journalist. He did “reasonably well” and ended up doing a stint in New York. When he returned in 1968, he joined a current affairs program, first as an assistant producer, and ultimately working as an on camera reporter. Read more »
Gender equality, a huge issue in the Australian screen industry
As the world celebrates the International Women’s Day and Australian screen professionals such as Jan Chapman, Liz Watts and Mandy Walker continue to succeed globally, it would seem that gender imbalance is a thing of the past. However, Georgina Pearson sat down with Women in Film and Television’s (WIFT) program director Ana Tiwary, who explained that gender equality is not only a huge issue today, but in fact the number of women in the industry is actually decreasing. Read more »
3D: In everyone’s hands
In the past 12 months the number of 3D-capable cinemas has tripled worldwide, and with content becoming more cost-effective and in higher demand than ever, a surge in 3D-ready cameras, televisions, computers and console games follows close behind. Georgina Pearson found that 3D is now almost within anyone’s reach.
Backed by major Hollywood studios and electronics manufacturers, a brand new market has opened for the taking – one expected to bring in $25 billion by the end of 2012. However, the industry-wide transition to stereoscopic 3D is not without challenges – especially in the television market. Read more »
Australian International Documentary Conference: Networking in a fragmented world
AIDC is evolving from an annual conference to a year-round networking powerhouse. César Albarrán Torres spoke with director Joost den Hartog about this transformation and the state of affairs in the factual content industry.
There is a word that has been in vogue during recent years in all sorts of business environments: networking. Propelled by the rise of the mighty internet and the breaking-down of spatial and temporal barriers, the factual content industry has jumped into the networking wagon by inciting global partnerships and co-productions. But there’s a catch: networking is an ongoing process, and industry conferences like AIDC need to provide constant collaboration channels and opportunities. Collaborative efforts might dissolve if they are restricted to once-a-year events. Read more »
Danger 5: find them online, bring them to the TV screen
Dario Russo got millions of hits online with his Italian Spider-Man. He told Miguel Gonzalez how he’s going to bring that existing audience to his new TV show, Danger 5.
When Dario Russo first conceived Italian Spider-Man – a parody of Italian action films of the 70s – as a short film for his final year at Flinders University and uploaded it to YouTube in late 2007, just as he had done with all his previous work, he did not anticipate that the fake trailer would find a cult following online… but it did. Read more »
The Jesters: Who’s laughing now?
The Jesters, the comedy group in the Movie Extra series, is more successful than ever. Will the real show match its fictional counterpart?
Movie Extra’s series about the making of a comedy show The Jesters was positively received when it first aired in 2009, so it was only natural they’d be back with more biting satire. Kevin Brumpton and Angus FitzSimons (both writers and executive producers of the show) once again take aim at the entertainment industry – and their former CNNNN colleagues The Chaser, complete with a parody of their infamous “Make a realistic wish” sketch – with eight new episodes shot in Sydney in mid-2009. Read more »
Testing: audience knows best
Predicting the future of a film or television program and avoiding a financial disaster doesn’t necessarily require clairvoyant powers; testing your project with an audience at different stages of the production process can make a huge difference. Aravind Balasubramaniam reports.
“Nobody wants others to tell them their baby is ugly,” says the founder and CEO of Audience Development Australia (ADA) David Castran. “But it’s very important that producers listen with two ears and try to challenge their strongly-held views. Testing empowers producers by giving them information about the audience’s relationship with the pilot or program. I know at times that can be controversial.” Read more »
BigPond Adelaide Film Festival: A true independent
Everyone’s going to Adelaide this week, to be at the country’s most risk-taking festival. Encore spoke with festival director Katrina Sedgwick and associate director Adele Hann about the secrets behind its success.
The first point of differenceis the festival’s Investment Fund, which has delivered some of Australia’s most acclaimed films of recent times, including 2009’s Samson & Delilah. The pressure to continue this high level of performance from its slate hasn’t seen the funded projects become safe, predictable choices. It’s been quite the opposite. Read more »