Screen Australia reveals mixed year for film production, but TV breaks records
Feature film production in Australia failed to maintain last year’s high which had been boosted by the production of The Great Gatsby, according to Screen Australia’s Drama Report for 2012/13.
Screen Australia reported feature production declined by 16 per cent from last year’s high of $297 million.
Screen Australia’s chief executive Ruth Harley said: “The drop in Australian feature film activity reflects the cyclical nature of feature film production, which while down on last year, still achieved a strong result with compelling Australian stories including The Rover and Tracks.”
Production of The Wolverine in Australia ended two-years of no high-budget US features shooting in Australia. Screen Australia said foreign activity increased almost a third on last year as a result.
However, foreign projects spending money on carrying out post, digital or visual effects (PDV) work in Australia declined. According to Screen Australia, the PDV sector as a whole experienced a contraction of the last 12 months due to the high Australian dollar.
While it was a mixed year for features, it was a good year overall for TV. Screen Australia reports overall drama expenditure increased by 9 per cent for 2012/13, boosted by Australian TV drama, which Screen Australia said has reached the highest levels on record, increasing by 27 per cent.
Adult TV drama continues to strengthen, Screen Australia said, with investment continuing in high-production value mini-series. Screen Australia reported overall hours increased by 7 per cent and budgets and spend by 11 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
“The television broadcasters have raised their stakes, with all broadcasters increasing their investment in Australian drama,” Harley said.
Children’s television drama saw a spike in activity, with total expenditure more than doubled, hours increased by 95 per cent and total budgets by 74 per cent. Screen Australia said it “increased significantly across all indicators following a contraction over the previous three years.”
Harley said: “There is clearly a growing demand from local audiences for Australian stories, across multiple platforms and new channels.”
Miranda Ward
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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Screen Australia is essentially an off balance sheet ABC SBS funding vehicle for programs that suit these viewers. Only 4 out of 10 dramas went to the three networks, one to Foxtel (sop), and 5 to ABC/SBS. Naturally Screen Australia support does not accord with mainstream Australia – with rating shares or number of channels shares. In children’s drama, 2 out of 4 went to ABC/SBS.
Pretty biased and should therefore be added to ABC/SBS budgets costs to the Commonwealth.
In a pretty abysmal annual report, Screen Australia didn’t even publish the Australian feature films percentage of box office that they financed (15) – something that that Screen Australia normally does. Probably too embarrassing. I suspect that this has been the lowest performance from Screen Australia support as a percentage of total box offices (FY13 circa $1.1b) in recent years, and is an indictment on the feature film picking skills of the organisation. It looks like less than 2.5%. Screen Australia was doing around an already pathetic 4% (before Red Dog’s outlier) in prior years. 3 only made mention this year – $14.5m for Sapphires, Kath and Kimberrella at $6.08m, and $4.08m from Mental.
Screen Australian total business cost would be better spent on direct ABC/SBS programming support in proportion to ratings, and the balance a reduction in commercial network licence fees, but the offset being increased drama /local content requirement.
They should all be sacked.
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