Well there goes the American film we were contracted to work on for the next 9 months.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=114495
This is a rant from me, on the deplorable state of the Aussie film industry...especially NSW.
In the last 4 years, we have watched so many of our friends and business associates go bankrupt, loose absolutely everything, and some of them commit suicide.
We are one of only 2 studios left in NSW, and believe me, its been a bloody struggle to hold onto.
And why is this?
1-The Australian Government doesn't want to give tax credits to overseas films, thereby guaranteeing that no big films are made here, and with the Aussie dollar almost the same as America, what is the incentive?The government only wants to give credits to Australian films, but most Aussie films are low budget, and cannot sustain a large crew. And it has been shown that they are pretty much uninteresting to the wider market, how many Rabbit Proof fence's, Danny Deckchairs, Prissilla , etc can you watch?
2-You have rich media moguls (not mentioning names) who keep the biggest film studios in Australia booked up and constantly empty, so their equally spoilt favourite directors can decide at their leisure if they want to make a film there or not, with the result that no big films can be made, they usually go overseas. The rent of these studios to the rich moguls is an unbelievably low amount, so they are under no pressure to make it profitable, its a tax write off to them.
3-When something does finally get made, you have the piranhas that are in the council circling around, all wanting a slice of the pie, and charging exorbitant location fees. The last big TVC we did, we rented the premises privately of a company, worked out the price, and away we went.
A council officer stepped in, and tried to blackmail the production company into giving them $10,000 a day. Now as this was private land, it was pretty obvious who's pockets this would be lining. Luckily the producer called the council big Whigs in and called them on it, and they had to drop it, but this sort of thing happens all the time.
The upshot of this shortsightedness, is an industry that was once thriving is dead, not dying, actually dead.
It was an industry that once employed thousands of people, and trained young people in the actual (not film school) way of film making.
Now any talented people who want to survive have to go overseas. ..which puts a huge strain on families, relationships, and guarantees that our brightest and most talented are not working here, and again flows what could be money into Australia, out of it.
So that's my rant.
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16 comments:
And another sad fact is that we are so good at it. Technically led the rest of the world in many areas, great directors, outrageous number of famous actors because of something in national character that lends itself to storytelling and the industry at home is struggling, sucks big time, no idea what could be done to fix it, but somebody should,
Maybe somone should go up the mountain and drag Philip Adams off his 'farm' and tell him to stop fiddlearsing around in the Australian about what a champion of the Yarts he used to be and do some bloody work for a change.
I won't profess to understand all the dynamics goin' on here---but I do know uckiness when I hear it. And it sounds like uckiness.
Politics.
*sigh*
And money, obviously.
Why is it the two seem to go hand in hand?
ginga, we are trying to fix it...i havnt mentioned this before, but Mr Enigma is a bit of a big player in the film industry, often referred to as a "living legend"(and boy that can create its own problems)we organised a rally 2 years ago, was in the papers, blah blah...nothing happened. at the moment there is a lot of internal stuff happening with people in the film industry trying to change it.
And you are right , we have some of the finest, most skilled people here, but unless the government changes its stance,i dont see much happening...this is why i have branched our bussiness into differant directions lately.
Phillip Adams, and those of his ilk, have no idea of what is really happening, and in a sense are responsable for the problem,Australia cannot afford to be "artsy", we need big, stupid blockbusters to fund the artsy, and until that is recognised it will continue.
Mel, its people like Ruport Murdoch, the government and all the others that are responsable, and the impact on lives is enormous.And i dont know any other muti million dollar industry that has died, with so little done about it.
MG! It's like a Simpson's episode. Or Mayberry...
ya know, without the giggles
Some of my favourite films have been Australian....that does suck, sorry Enigma. Stooopid government.
PS that link is my "just another day at the office post", one of my finest.i think.
hello, hello?
I hope you're still speaking to me after I was so unforgivably rude about cats on Randall's blog...... ;) Would you please pass my most sincere apologies on to your disgruntled cats.
I'll try to turn over a new leaf.
Jo that made me laugh for the day!!, I dont know,they arnt happy about it. they still arnt talking to me.very disgruntled.
Is the oposite of disgruntled, gruntled? I wonder.
The little mum cat had her other litter last night, 6 off them.She is such a good little mum, even if she does have a big head, and a slinky skinny body.
Sounds like Ally McBeal, it hasn't held her back :) I'm glad to hear it all went well, though, seriously.
politics-are what they are--that is never correct--keep it up.
yeah, everyone thinks of the industry as glamorous, but you know the real deal...hell, coming out of cali i watched it unfold/fold over itself/crash/burn/rise and still continue...good luck trying to change it, sugar. i so feel your pain on this one!
Jo, thats funny...and I cant stand those stupid sitcoms, where vapid 30 something women have nothing better to do in their life than gaggle on about relationships.
Hi Scott, yep, its all politics, and greed.
Savvannah, thats one of my favourite expressions"welcome to the glamourous world of the film industry" usually said to someone after an 18 hour shoot, when your filming in the middle of nowhere.
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