Fake it ‘til you make it… as a development executive
Veronica Gleeson, a senior development executive at Screen Australia, tells us how.
What does a development executive do?
The job title is a dead giveaway – Screen Australia is a federal screen agency and the job of the development executives who work here is to assist with the development of feature film projects and the careers they spawn. In short, we’re here to help.
What skills do you need to be good at the job?
Reading, writing, talking – and most importantly listening. A big part of the job is communicating emotion in the appropriate way, at the right time.
Who are the people you work closest with?
If you’re doing it right, screenwriters, producers and directors. All the development executives report directly to the head of development, so that’s a key relationship. And we work closely with each other as well. The dark truth at the heart of Screen Australia life is that we’re a happy, functional bunch who really value each other’s opinions and ideas – and those of the storytellers we work with.
Is there any lingo we need to know to do the job?
Probably not as much as a nuclear physicist. But in order for a film to have impact – firstly on the people who are going to help it get made, and ultimately with an audience – it requires a lot of technical and craft-based discussion as it’s being built. So you’re constantly in dialogue about the finer points of genre, premise, story logic, character design, structure. You may not be talking dialectical juxtapositions every day, but you can’t do the job without knowing your first act turn from your mid-point.
What does a typical day on the job entail?
Odds on you’ll be reading a script, making notes, talking with a writer, director or producer (sometimes all three simultaneously). It’s not all creative nirvana: there’s a fair bit of housekeeping, along the lines of emailing, looking at spreadsheets, entering reports in databases, scheduling meetings, attending meetings… Plus we make a point of speaking directly with film-makers whether they’re successful with their funding applications or not, so over the course of any day there might be a difficult call. Or two.
What’s the best part of the job?
Seeing a well-told story become meaningful to an audience.
What’s the biggest challenge?
Saying no is never fun. But the biggest challenge is just staying balanced; keeping a lot of stories in your head, understanding each in relation to their own ambition and finding relevant ways to get them closer to the screen.
How do you become a development executive?
Read a lot of scripts – produced and unproduced. Learn as much as you can about how screen stories operate from the inside out. Temper that knowledge with curiosity and heart. Then wedge your foot in the door of a production company as their decent, reliable, insightful reader and keep going.
Screen Australia is currently looking to hire a development executive. To find out more visit this website.
This story first appeared in the weekly edition of Encore available for iPad and Android tablets. Visit encore.com.au for a preview of the app or click below to download.
I woke up in a new Bugatti!!
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Screen Australia are so lucky to have Vanessa on their staff…excellent interview !!
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This is an excellent interview, it is also a warm , friendly , “fun time” interview.
What it tells us is less than it evokes.
Does it admit to the process of shaping scripts by committee? does it suggest that there is an inner sanctum, or a kind of glass bead game? Who is the arbiter of artistic merit? What is the goal, and is it in sight before the game begins?
Why have so many crashing disasters been sanctioned and produced? Must we be processed and squeezed into the mould or the template, before we progress to film making?
Sardou wrote all the dramatic high points , entrances and exits first, then constructed the remainder as a carpenter might build a house frame; Brecht did not , neither did Dylan Thomas or Dennis Potter.
I wonder what happens at screen Australia, I also wonder much more about what happens after the process.
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What a great job.
I could leverage creative discernment and somehow use my huge back catalogue of watched films.
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oh dear, grow up Moss, R.
do you propose wasting million of dollars on film’s that have no interest in audiences?
or is it a laughable conspiracy theory that you are trying to run about taste generators and a supposed inner sanctum?
if you have a problem with government support of the arts and artistic endeavour read a book and come to grips with those arguments first (NUggest Coombs anyone?)
or is it simply that you can’t let go of a rather outmoded modernist pursuit that eschews genrosity, hybridity and the deep value of collaboration???
Oh you have privileged access to the true value of truth – wait, hang on . . .
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@ hito steyerl
You begin by using a rude and aggressive demand that I “Grow up” which though it is what it is, I find your puerile questioning even more disappointing from one who quite obviously has a great deal more intellect than the attack would suggest.
Of course I do not [quote] “propose wasting million of dollars on film’s that have no interest in audiences” [unquote] and I have no problem with government support of the arts since I have spent over 40 years of my life working and benefiting from just that.
You are younger than I , so it is easy for you to accuse me of being stuck to an [quote] “outmoded modernist pursuit that eschews genrosity,(sic) hybridity” [unquote] which I will not comment upon since it is a figment of your own imagination.
I did not at any time attack Veronica Gleeson’s comments or her interview, and I did not make a direct statement regarding my personal opinion. I did , however, ask a few questions that lurk in deepest recesses of my mind, in the hope that it may invite intelligent and/or enlightening comment.
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