Opinion

For love or money

Making The Great GatsbyHow many jobs are really created by government investment in screen productions? Megan Reynolds investigates.

This week the NSW Government announced plans to invest nearly $1million through Screen NSW to fund four film and TV projects that will generate more than 1,000 jobs and a $25m spend in the state. But how many jobs will really be created, and what are the actual economic benefits for NSW?

Speaking off the record, industry professionals told Encore they feel the numbers are far-fetched, but Screen NSW maintains the figures come from a very stringent process.

Unlike applications for government funding in other industries, the figures are not calculated by estimating the multiplier effects their investment may have. Rather, the jobs created and spend generated by productions are based on meticulously planned budgets submitted in detailed funding applications to the funding body.

Jason Ballantine, president of the Australian Screen Editors guild, says: “I’m not sure how the roll-on effect is calculated. $25m generated from near $1m sounds like a pretty good gamble. There must be some formula to substantiate these investment figures.”

However Screen NSW insists it all comes down to the smallest details.

“Producers apply to Screen NSW for funding with a very detailed production budget in place, which clearly indicates expenditure,” says Maureen Barron, Screen NSW CEO.

“They also provide the number of personnel required to complete the production. The producers are required to indicate the proportion of the budget that will be spent in New South Wales as well as the number of NSW cast, crew and extras. This information is required in the application form used by Screen NSW,” Barron adds.

Producers will account for every spend down to the coffee machine, and as they estimate which roles will be filled in the state, they also have to note where they might have to look outside of the state for talent.

FACT OR ESTIMATION

When submitting an application to fund the first series of The Moodys, production company Jungleboys outlined exactly how much they were likely to spend and the jobs they were likely to fill. Jungleboys’ senior producer Chloe Rickard says: “As part of the Screen NSW application process, I worked through the budget line by line and made an estimate as to whether a supplier or crew member was based in NSW. As The Moodys is a second series, and most of the cast and crew from series one are returning, I could do this quite accurately. I left a margin for error on roles that were harder to fill in series one, and made the assumption that we may need to draw from interstate.”

As a result, Jungleboys has recieved $200,000 from Screen NSW’s production finance fund and the estimated knock-on effect will be 274 jobs and an injection of $3.35m into the local economy.

Matchbox Pictures’ series Camp for NBC, now filming in the Northern Rivers, will also receive $100,000 from Screen NSW as a result of the latest funding. The production is estimated to require around 200 people, and spend $3.2m in regional areas of NSW. Cordell Jigsaw’s travel documentary series Two Men in China is estimated to create 21 jobs and generate a spend of $760,241, following the receipt of $74,000 from Screen NSW.

Backtrack, the next film by Australian writer and director Michael Petroni, is estimated to support 520 jobs spend more than $6.6m in the state during the lifetime of the production. The film production will receive $500,000 from Screen NSW’s production finance fund and another $100,000 from the regional filming fund. The total number of jobs created by the four productions following the $974,000 investment adds up to 1,015, and the estimated spend in the state during the lifetime of the productions is $25m, Screen NSW says.

“The regional filming fund helps ensure that regional NSW benefits from the growth of the State’s screen sector by encouraging productions to film outside metropolitan Sydney by granting assistance to offset costs associated with shooting in regional areas,” state minister for the arts George Souris said in an announcement last week.

Souris says NSW has a “world class” screen industry to be proud of, with Australia’s biggest names returning to produce films such as The Great Gatsby and The Wolverine. The Wolverine, shot in August last year, created almost 2,000 jobs for cast, crew and extras, and spent more than $80m in the state while Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby supported more than 800 jobs and generated a spend of more than $120m.

“More than 1,100 film and television related businesses are located in NSW employing more than 9,000 people and generating income of around $1 billion per annum,” Screen NSW’s Barron told Encore. However, as crews spring up from out of nowhere and then move on, the genuineness of the figures are hard to swallow.

A GOOD TIME NOT A LONG TIME

“Because they are completely moveable feasts, they can generate a huge number of jobs, but they are temporary,” says Kingston Anderson of the Australian Directors Guild.

“The only way to know the veracity of the numbers is to check what they are at the beginning and then compare them with the number of jobs that were created at the end.”

But unlike government investments in other industries, such as car manufacturing, investment in film is not all about creating long-term job opportunities, Anderson says.

“One of the core reasons government invest in film and television is to invest in Australian culture,” Anderson says. “At the heart of all this is that we want to have a sustainable film and television industry, but they can’t just give money away, so they have to justify the spend. It usually needs to be something tangible, so it’s both cultural and economic.”

CREATING A SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY

Most in the industry agree government investment will always be needed. “The Australian film industry will not become self-sufficient,” Anderson says. “It’s not possible because we can’t compete with Hollywood, so that’s why the government supports the film and television industry. Australia can’t compete with Asian companies building cars, so Ford has to close. But with film and television production it is a cultural investment, so it’s different.”

Although the jobs created are not long-term, they do provide Australians with film and television production experience that will be recognised in Hollywood. Yet it is for that reason that the number of jobs created could also point to losses in the workforce when the crew rolls out. “For those who are impassioned, it probably becomes more of a magnet drawing people away and you lose your local crew because they’re off to Hollywood, so it’s really entwined, and really hard,” says Ballantine.

“The big problem we have is the brain drain, because there isn’t the frequency of those longer, interesting projects. So people get experience and training, their pay goes up, and off they go. To then turn back to do low budget TV doesn’t necessarily appeal.”

But the investment in the economy and culture is a win all round for Screen NSW. “The industry provides substantial economic and cultural benefits to this state,” Barron says.

“The industry is considered to be a significant driver of technological innovation and the digital economy and is an important part of the creative industries which have been identified as playing a role in the state’s economic prosperity.”
Encore Issue 16This 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.

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