Is There Any Point In Even Trying? - Part 2

Sorry About The Comments Section
I'm sorry that the comments section isn't working. Encouragingly, I received a number of phone calls to that effect after my last entry. People wanted to tell me they felt strongly enough about this situation in Australia. They wanted to comment, but couldn't. I don't know what's going wrong with google, but you might just have to bear with me a little bit.

An AFTRS Graduate, You Say?
I've been reflecting some more on how this situation even came to pass in Australia. Back in my days at AFTRS, it was bleeding obvious that there was an industry and that it was on the verge of making s big mark on the world. Films were getting made. People who graduated only years ago were making feature films. They had distributors and were winning spots in prestigious international festivals. It seemed the Australian Film Industry was finally coming of age as an industry.

Well, I can report to you the simple fact that none of the people I graduated with have directed a feature film on film. It's amazing, really. Daniel Kriege and Samantha Lang from the years after me have made their films, but I don't think anybody from my year has directed their feature film. It's a sorry tale, but it's true.

Last December I was working a Christmas party for some Pay TV company and ran into the guy from the year above, who was once the "the Most Likely" to go and make his films. In all this time, he hadn't gone on to be that. Neither have I - well, I hve Key Psycho, but what the hey? We both were just 2 guys who had not fulfilled the expectations that were placed on us by the lofty institution - That night he was the DJ, and I operated the video camera as people who barely knew anything about lighting gave speeches in the dark. We barely acknowledged one another and kind of walked off with a shrug. It's sad, really.

From a bird's eye point of view, what happened was that the investing part of the industry contracted severely in the wake of the 10BA rule changes in the early 1990s, and this was followed by a general contraction of the scope of the industry to the point where the market for Australian Films in Australia itself evaporated. My part in the story has been the year in year out struggle t convince people that I can actually direct a film, but each year the hurdles get higher, the terms get tougher, the opening gets smaller until I can no longer even get an application accepted by the NSWFTO for project development.

You'd think that anybody who graduated AFTRS and was still in the business decade later was committed to the business in spite of its state was somebody you would want to at least look into, but no - they really didn't want to know. Why the hell is the Federal government even funding AFTRS to create graduates like me, if the State government isn't interested? The mind boggles. And I'm not alone.

I'm not really here to go over that terrain again, but needless to say, there's a gigantic disconnect between what the government thinks it's doing and what actually happens at the policy level. If you're going to produce 10-20 film makers a year at AUD$9 million p.a., you'd think that you wanted an industry that was making at least 50 films a year. nobody seems to be doing the maths. Nobody seems to be copping the blame for the fact that only 14 get made and all f them have government funding. There are a lot of angry people out here as a result.

PB was telling me he knows a Sydney based producer who is working with a Brisbane based Director, and neither can get support from the NSWFTO or Film Queensland because one of the 'Key Creatives' is not living and working in the state. This is notwithstanding that the film is about something overseas. Yeah, the NSWFTO won't help because the director attached is a Cane Toad and Film Queensland won't help because the Producer is a cockroach. Hooray for State of Origin!

Russell Crowe Isn't Interested, Why The Fuck Should You Be Interested?
The bottom line is this: our top talent want to come back to work in Australia as a perk. The world is a big place. Once you are out of Australia and you become a bankable star in the world market, it's really hard to justify coming back to Australia.

The problem is, any time you want to talk to the commercial entities such as a distributor about making a film, they always seem to ask for big names (And the big names ask for distributors to be lined up before they read your script but that is another travesty). It's wishful thinking that the A-Listers who have effectively *graduated* to the world market would be interested in working on a small Australian film when they would be working for mega-bucks playing a comic book super hero (Yeah, I'm talking about you Hugh Jackman!). By insisting on the unrealistic, producers, directors and writers are forced to wait. And wait. And wait some more... until they get no answer and they move onto the next A-Lister who won't return communications (That would be you Guy Pearce!)

The question that begs to be answered is, why on earth do the distributors and production companies keep on insisting on these pipe dreams instead of just developing new talent? All you gotta do is look. Untapped talent is the 'market inefficiency', but nobody with any money seems to have sense - which seems to confirm the adage: 'Money is Wasted On The Rich'.

Ask The Market, Stupid!
Year after year, Australian films fail in the market place. They do. It's just the stark reality of it all. They get made half-cocked, and they they get to markets half-heartedly. After 20 years, the Australian public has learned to totally mistrust the brand. Ironically, there's probably a stronger market for Australian product in say, Europe than Australia simply because we're exotic to them. Until we're successful overseas again, I just don't think we're going to win back our own public. The thing about the 1980s was that the market didn't hate Australian Films as much as they do now.

How did this happen? Imagine if I was a parochially loyal customer of say, a local cheese company. You keep buying the cheese even if the quality is uneven because you're loyal to the brand. Until one day you come across a string of really bad cheese and you say, "That's it. I'm done with the local cheese factory. I've supported their product for years but this last run of cheeses has been dreadful." And so you stop buying from them on principle. This has been happening for years.

The most commonly asked question by non-film people is "why don't we make Mad Max type movies any more? That was fun". Why don't we make exciting action movies?"
The answer is not: "because Mel won't come home to do anything."
The answer is: there's a whole cabal of people in government and in the private sector who don't want the Australian industry to be commercially driven.
"But why not? I'd love to see a kick-arse Aussie action movie."
"I'd love to make one myself," I tell them. "But it just won't happen."
You should see the bewildered looks. They're the market. They hate our cheese.