Taking the temperature: Section 4 – Working overseas
Results from Encore Magazine‘s industry-wide survey into the mood of the sector and the EncoreLive panel discussion that followed.
Have you ever considered:
Leaving the country to look for work overseas – 34.8%
Staying in Australia, but leaving the industry to pursue another
type of work – 34.4%
None of the above, I’m happy doing this job in Australia – 28%
No response – 2.6%
Comments:
“I’d love to work overseas, but on my terms. Not because I can’t succeed here.”
“Left Australia for ten years to work in the industry in London. Now back for some years I am happy to work in Australia but constantly disheartened by apathy in this neck of the woods.”
What are the main issues affecting your sector of the industry?
Comments:
“Lack of work opportunities especially for my age group (mature aged male).”
“Lack of positions/opportunities or networks available for emerging artists and lack of resources to information for emerging artists.”
Do we have a problem with a brain drain in this country?
Peter: I don’t know if it’s necessarily a bad thing if it’s a two-way street, so long as writers, directors, actors, producers go and come back. I don’t know any Australian who has left and permanently stayed away – everyone seems to come back. People like Miller and Luhrmann bring massive productions back into the industry for specific reasons but everyone goes and comes back. I think it’s great. I think where we are suffering from a brain drain is in the skill set. We’re in serious danger of losing our skill set simply because there is not the activity to keep that momentum in training. I keep going back to grips but they seem to be the people I hang around with. These cranky old bastards who have been shooting films for 30 or 40 years and their trucks are Aladdin’s caves of these insane things that they’ve built and they know how to do. They’re not able to pass that on; both their crankiness and the ability to pull magic out of their truck and make a shot work. I think that’s happening all the way through from hair and make up to production design, art department – that’s where we’re running into trouble.
Lisa: It’s a global industry and if we don’t work on a global scale I think we’re in trouble. I think the filmmakers who are most successful are transnational. They can make films and pull money from anywhere in the world, that’s your Baz Luhrmanns, Jane Campion, writers like Laura Jones, producers like Jane Scott, Jan Chapman – they’re coming and going, moving backwards and forwards. Jane Campion might make a short film because she wants to, because it’s like poetry and that’s the form of the thing she wants to say, then she’ll make a bigger film – most are transnational now but she works here and uses creative talent like (cinematographer) Greig Fraser on Bright Star. They have that two-way relationship which feeds our industry, which is really fantastic.
Tony: One of the things that SPAA is pushing as an agenda to the Government is this fund opportunity called the Producer/Distributer Film Fund. The theory is that we’re making a substantial number of films in the $0-6 million dollar range and we’re making a number at the ultra high budget level at the $80-150 million level, whether it’s Gatsby, Mad Max Four or Happy Feet 2 but we’re not making many in the $7-40 million range. This creates an exodus of a whole range of professionals, most notably the actors and actresses, and to a lesser degree the directors and directors of photography and certainly in the visual effects and post productions sectors who are trained up at the Government and taxpayer expense, achieve some degree of success and critical acclaim before being hoovered up, mostly to the United States and elsewhere to work there. Part of the reason that happens, apart from the traditional curiosity to explore other places to work, is simply because there is a whole canvas size for working on production in Australia that is almost impossible to get financed. To get a seamless career path where someone can get into the industry in their early 20s, get married or get in a relationship, secure a mortgage, have a couple of kids, those sorts of things are pretty hard to do on $35,000.
So 68% of those surveyed are leaving the industry, either moving to another country or just getting out of the industry all together..and that’s not considered a brain drain? We wheel out Baz Jane and George as the infinite success stories as the industry putters along in first gear, so if you’re 30, maybe with some film production experience behind you and some higher learning what kind of career could you honestly say you might be able to successfully carve out for yourself in this country?
I think the apathy that’s been talked about is really the first wave we are seeing of this slow “why bother” attitude, unless real and effective measures are taken soon, you’ll see a generation just not bother with trying to build a career in this country. You might get a percentage aspiring in their 20’s, its when they get into their 30’s and start maturing as creative talent that you’ll see a sharp drop off. We can’t afford that brain drain and if government could actually lead and make decisions and create pathways to nurture creative talent that helps develop our culture, we might be able to stem the tide. Every aspect of film production is work like any other, just because we aren’t digging massive holes in the ground and shipping the contents to China, doesn’t mean that the work film makers aspire to do and develop, isn’t worthy work, we need to see ideas for what they are worth in terms of an export. We have a conservative government coming in, we all know what that means..I can smell the despair already. Screenplays take a long time to nurture…if you can’t make a living out of your craft it becomes a hobby..is that what we want..and industry of hobbyist’s?
Its what we’re building towards..we need to stop the brain drain and begin to identify talent and nurture it effectively .
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I think there’s actually a much bigger and wider problem – namely, the general cost of living in Australia is now driving young professionals from all industries across the pond to the US in record numbers. It seems that few of those who have made it in America have any intention of coming back
This link may be of interest
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au.....?t=1630354
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Agree whole-heartedly with Doug.
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I worked extensively overseas in TV and came back to stay with my ill mother – I had a lot to offer in the Industry with my experience overseas but no-one was interested in what i had done or achieved. I am now working back in Oz and it’s depressing to find that Producers lack any script experience and their main job is to make me write faster whether the product is ready or not. They don’t care nor would they know. Total disrespect and might I add, resentment towards writers. One Producer asked me recently ‘why do Writer’s whinge so much…’ People have really given up fighting. They just keep their mouth shut and take the money…tragic really. Loads of talent here.
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I worked in the industry UK for 8 years, came home for a year and had the same experience as Victoria. I felt that actually my overseas experience was resented and kind of begrudged by my workmates and supervisors, who took a ‘well you’re not in London now’ attitude. Their thinking and mindset was tiny, focused only on the tiny local ‘scene’ and keeping everybody’s wheels spinning until the next job came in. It was depressing. So I moved back overseas again.
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