In recent days, there have been reports that the Australian Film Industry is 'stuffed'. I'll quote the lot here because I do want this to go down in posterity rather than disappear off the internet as news articles do:
Alarm at state of film industry
Des Partridge and Greg StolzAugust 9, 2004
AUSTRALIAN movie makers have dramatically declared the nation's once celebrated film industry to be "stuffed".Screen Producers Association of Australia president Stephen Smith made that blunt assessment yesterday. Queensland filmmaker Trish Lake agreed as filmmakers met at the first SPAA conference to be held on the Gold Coast.
"There is no question that the industry is stuffed," Lake, the producer of local success story Gettin' Square, said. "It's difficult to be a producer in Australia at this moment." Mr Smith slammed the industry's "strike rate" in the past five to six years, saying it had been overshadowed by a resurgent England and Canada.
He said the problem was a poor financing structure which virtually ensured films did not go into profit. Limited releases for local productions meant the public had little opportunity to watch home-grown films, giving producers even less chance of turning a profit.
"This leaves little money to live on between projects, let alone anything left for reinvestment or development," he said. The harsh assessment came after figures released last week showed the number of Australian films to hit the big screen was at its lowest level in years. Australian Film Commission data revealed almost two-thirds of local releases took less than $1 million at the cinemas. The only films to break the $10 million barrier is the past five years were Moulin Rouge, The Dish,
Lantana and The Wog Boy .Spending on Australian film and television drama production also had slumped to a 10-year low. While expenditure on feature films and television dramas rose 15 per cent to $588 million in 2003-04, the increase was due entirely to foreign productions.
The malaise meant the champagne had a bittersweet taste at the SPAA awards for Lake and fellow Queensland movie maker Chris Brown. Lake was recognised for
Gettin' Square while Brown scored with Blurred."Gettin' Square has done very well in a very bad climate for Australian feature films," Lake said. Brown, who was named SPAA Independent Producer of the Year for films including the Schoolies Week-inspired Blurred and the new release Under the Radar, said Australian films were being overshadowed by Hollywood productions and distributors and exhibitors needed incentives to promote the local product.
He warned that the downturn in Australian film production was putting pressure on every new film to be the "saviour" of the industry. But critics were bagging films "just because they're Australian".
Well, uh, no. They were bagging them because they were shit in conception and execution. The foreign product was better. Why? I don't know; ask the market. I'm going to come back to this topic, but for now, just read the symptomatic mess - heck, it's an entire syndrome by now.
- Art Neuro
1 comment:
Went with a few mates to see Fahrenheit 911. We got there late, so ended up watching I Robot. I'd already seen it, but the alternative was an Australian film. We didn't know anything about the film, just that it was Australian. I felt it equivalent to watching a Moore film with the brilliant humor or editing.
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