Screen Australia to review TV funding
Screen Australia has announced a review of funding for television content (drama, children’s TV and documentaries), consulting with the industry during July and August.
“The television environment is changing dramatically and Screen Australia has not looked at how we fund television drama since the creation of the new organisation,” admitted CEO Ruth Harley. “This review will allow us to develop a new blueprint for Screen Australia’s support of the television production industry.” Read more »
Menzies, in charge of ABC2
Head of ABC TV documentaries Stuart Menzies will be the controller of ABC2, responsible for the channel’s strategy, commissioning and programming.
“The appointment does mean that ABC2 will can develop its own identity – that is a critical part in the thinking to have created this structure where each channel has its own curator in that sense,” Menzies told Encore. Read more »
Eriksen leaves SBS
SBS manager of production and development Denise Eriksen is leaving the network.
According to an official SBS communication, Eriksen’s departure is the result of a ‘restructure’ of the content division that will focus on cross-platform content – an SBS priority. Read more »
Australian share of video sales drops
Screen Australia reveals new home entertainment figures, with Australian accounting for 7.6 percent / $47m of the retail value of the home entertainment in 2009 but “foreign movies still dominated video sales overall”.
Baz Luhrmann’s Australia (Fox) was the biggest selling title in 2009 (sales value and units sold), with Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities as the highest-earning TV drama and Love the Beast heading the Australian documentary list. Read more »
More flexibility for co-productions
Screen Australia released draft guidelines for co-productions, in an attempt to be more flexible and give screen practitioners a better chance of working with international partners.
The changes include contributions from writers outside the co-producing partner countries, a revision of the points test, and the introduction of a non-binding letter of preliminary compliance for producers. Read more »
Animal Logic wins at advertising awards
Animal Logic received the Silver World Medal in the category of Art and Technique – Special Effects at the New York Festivals International Advertising Awards.
The awards, held in Shanghai, recognised AL’s work on a TVC for Subaru, entitled Crowd. Read more »
Filmmakers launch ‘buy a frame’ initiative
Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi have launched the ‘135K project’ to raise funds for their film The Tunnel, which is set to be released online, worldwide, for free.
“The Tunnel is going to be the first time that we can tell that a movie has raised funds in this way, and then released the finished product back onto the Internet for free,” they said. Read more »
Mid-range features, a pressure point: Harley
Screen Australia CEO Ruth Harley told a Sydney audience that the federal agency has identified production of mid-range features, timing of the Producer Offset and threshold levels as the industry’s main pressure points.
Harley spoke last night at an industry briefing alongisde Screen NSW CEO Tania Chambers and Ausfilm director Jackie O’Sullivan. Read more »
WA announces Tele-Navigator program
ScreenWest will launch its new three-phase Tele-Navigator Development Program for television, replacing the former T-Vis program.
The first phase will see executives from Ten, SBS, ABC1 and ABC3 visit Perth over a three-week period to discuss the state of drama production, what they want to commission, and what they’re looking for in a pitch. Read more »
Dark Lurking to screen in Sydney
Greg Connors’ low-budget sci-fi film The Dark Lurking will debut in Sydney this weekend but it has already been a victim of piracy, even though so far it has only been screened at festivals.
“It’s a kick in the guts; a lot of people are downloading it. A friend in Shanghai went to a video store there, and they had two shelves of our film on DVD, stacked between Transformers 2 and Transporter 3,” producer Bret Connors told Encore. Read more »