So many hits
Ausfilm’s Tracey Vieira reports from Ausfilm Week – perhaps the agency’s hardest week ever.
Attracting offshore production has never been harder. The once booming industry that attracted large budget feature films, movies of the week and television series from the USA has taken so many hits that Australia is no longer one of the standard locations studios do budget comparisons for when looking at potential filming locations.
As a result, the infrastructure that is a legacy of such production, sits unused and crew are finding work outside the film industry or moving overseas to follow the work that is happening. While unemployment in Australia is generally at a low, in the film industry – it is at a high.
No one event has triggered this impact more than the strength of the Australian dollar against the US currency. As the dollar has shot up to a 27-year high after fulltime employment rose strongly in Australia production already secured to Australia is looking at alternatives.
Australia does have a reputable film incentive to attract offshore production called the 15 percent Location Offset, however the incentive is only competitive when the Australian dollar is in the range of $0.75 or lower and now with the AUD almost on par with the USD, the incentive is just not strong enough to secure work. It would need to be at minimum doubled at the current exchange rate for production to reconsider Australia.
Industry marketing body, Ausfilm has heard from many in the industry about the impact on their businesses and cuts being made to try and survive in the current climate. Ausfilm has adjusted its focus to ensure it maximises opportunities for production through working with Australian filmmakers and matching them with development executives in the USA to encourage collaboration and potential Producer Offset projects (Producer Offset projects receive a 40 percent incentive as Australian films) which remains Australia’s most attractive incentive.
Approximately 35 leading representatives of Australia’s film production community headed to Los Angeles for Ausfilm Week 2010 (25-29 October) undertaking targeted meetings and networking sessions in an effort to encourage much needed international production in Australia.
In the face of the record high Australian dollar, Ausfilm took the issue of production in Australia head on during the week holding seven events over five days with the focus given to the Producer Offset and seeking opportunities to present Australian projects to US development executives as international partnerships.
The potential for partnerships was offered through targeted matchmaking sessions between Australian creative teams and US studios and producers for the development of joint venture Producer Offset projects. Australian creative producers and filmmakers that attended and took part in the international discussions included Andrea Buck, Anthony Anderson, Beth Fray, Elissa Down, Eva Orner, Ian Sutherland, Jamie Hilton, Jodea Bloomfield, Josh Tickell, Matt Reeder, Michael Bond & Cameron Daddo, Patrick Hughes and Trish Graham.
In addition the week included a post, digital and visual effects breakfast with a high profile panel of US VFX and post executives talking about the capabilities of those components in Australia, a creative development lunch where Australian industry met with development executives, agents and producers, a formal dinner with senior Studio Executives, a film screening of Stuart Beatties’s film Tomorrow When the War Began to showcase the ability of Australian filmmakers, and two receptions where Australian filmmakers and industry professionals discussed filming in Australia with their US colleagues and encouraged them to access Australia’s Screen Production Incentives.
The industry may be facing more challenges than ever, but working together insured they chased every opportunity to create and secure production for Australia.
Ever since De Laurentis opened the Qld studios decades ago, o/s production has always fluctuated with the AUD. You would have thought by now that those attempting to sell Oz as a production location would have developed products sophisticated enough to work globally.
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Budgets prepared in Australia 12mths ago have suffered a 50% increase in the US$ market as the AU$ has gone from US$0.65 to US$0.98.
International & US sales agents which pin their presales to the US$ dont want to know about it.
The AU Producer Offset holds no attraction since other US states offer the same amounts, without the baggage of QAPE and Qualifying content.
The advice Australian Producers are getting from Foreign Sales Agents … is take AU projects offshore.
Whatever remote opportunities there are to get Screen Australia Equity funding, is outweighed by the need to cast bigger names and more of them, so that only half the budget would be QAPE anyway …
And the lead times to process the Producer Offset, then the Copro status, then an application for Screen Australia funding, and then the contractual close, collectively add 9mths just to get an answer as to whether SA funding can be of any use … by which time, the international agents of the actors which producers have strived so hard to get … have had enough and have booked their actors on some other show … so the MGs are lost … and one has to start again.
Oh … and I did I add that Screen Australia now charges for Producer Offset applications ? … too bad for the indy producer if their film falls over, cause they have just poured that money down the toilet.
But to address another recent article about internationa guests … Peter Broderick did very much speak about an Aussie film that followed his model to achieve success. Foodmatters.
Maybe the film makers should make a another film called Filmmatters 😉
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Really well written LfO.
Lately I’ve been EP’ing a few U.S films. From script to production with investors it takes 25 days minimum. That’s right, I can go to investors who know nothing about a film, present them with a script, actors, crew and get investment up to $10Million U.S delivered to the producers within 25 days of first approach. Why would you bother doing anything in a country that not only just gives funding to the same people but who also require a lifetime to make a simple decision.
The Producer offset has no value at all. Tax credits in the U.S, Mexico and especially Canada now form the most part of any film my company Wingman Pictures do now. Even when you get Screen Australia involvement, they never talk to you when something goes wrong, there is no transparency and the people running the show are mindless ego’s that have no real want for the success of the film. In the U.S I can have a film up and running in under a month, post produced in another 2 months and ready for distribution in the same time it take Screen Australia to make a decision on funding (which is most likely going to be knocked back).
Australian film makers are far better off going overseas where talent, passion and business ethics are rewarded.
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And put that in your pipe and smoke it SA!!!
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