Encore Magazine articles from December 2008

Encore Magazine archives from December 2008

Sometimes there's no middle ground: the expectations were too high, and many were quick to call Australia a flop. Is Australia being too hard on the film that was supposed to make or break the industry?(Editorial)
December 1, 2008... IN THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS as there are people exposed to your work, and it's perfectly acceptable to like or dislike a film. With certain titles, however, there is no middle ground. It was always clear that Baz...

Are you experienced? Screen Australia's draft guidelines have caused a commotion in the filmmaking communitiy.(SCREEN AUSTRALIA)
December 1, 2008... THE DOCUMENT PRESENTS TWO DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT programs: Enterprise and Project-by-Project Development. The former will provide up to $500,000 per year for a three-year period to 'production companies with experienced principals who have...

End the cultural cleansing.(SPAA CONFERENCE)(Conference news)
December 1, 2008... "YOU'VE GOT TO LEARN WHEN NOT TO MAKE A FILM, AND WHEN TO GIVE UP ON A FILM." That's perhaps 50% of the SPAA Conference synthesised by British producer Mark Herbert [the other half was about the understandable financial woes affecting the...

Battle against piracy gets serious: November was a hectic month in the fight against copyright infringement in Australia.(COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT)
December 1, 2008... EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION AGAINST Copyright Theft (Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network) launched legal action...

Time to say G'Day again: Australia Week's G'Day USA, the annual festival that celebrates all things Aussie, will turn six this month. Tracey Vieira previews the event.(LA Insider)
December 1, 2008... THE EVENT, WHICH BEGAN IN LOS ANGELES, HAS grown to become the largest annual foreign country promotion in the United States, with over 15,000 participants across three cities: Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Australia Week...

Co-productions and Bond bring Euro Solace: European films and talent can't complain about their achievements in 2008. Julian Newby advices European filmmakers about the power of co-productions.(Euro Insider)
December 1, 2008... FEW PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER 2008 AS A GOOD YEAR. News of pending financial turmoil worldwide had started to gather momentum towards the end of 2007 and the media spoke of little else. The optimism that the historic Beijing Olympics might have...

Is Australia a case of wasted money? Even with its great production values, Bob Ellis was not impressed by Baz Luhrmann's Australia. Instead, he was seduced by hungers haunting qualities.
December 1, 2008... THIS MONTH: AUSTRALIA (DIRECTOR: BAZ LUHRMANN, DISTRIBUTOR: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX); HUNGER (DIRECTOR: STEVE MCQUEEN, DISTRIBUTOR: ICON FILM); JOHN ADAMS (DIRECTOR: TOM HOOPER, CURRENTLY SCREENING ON SHOWCASE) THERE ARE FILMS CALLED...

Chandon Pictures, genius at work: self-styled documenteur Tom Chandon (Rob Carlton) will once more go digging for "documentary gold" in the second series of Movie Network's Chandon Pictures. Peter Galvin reports.(On Location)
December 1, 2008... INDUSTRY "BOTTOM FEEDER", PRODUCER OF CORPORATE TVCS, TRAINING REELS and wedding videos, Tom Chandon appears to have negligible gifts as a filmmaker. What he does seem to possess is a knack for taking every unpromising assignment and turning it...

Olympic HD lessons loom large for OB companies: the Olympics were a significant HD challenge for outside broadcasters. David Braue explains how the experience will help them cope with increasing content and skills demands back home.(Broadcast)
December 1, 2008... HIS TEAM OF MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE HAD BEEN AT THE QINGDAO venue for weeks beforehand, preparing for one of the highest-profile jobs of their careers. Yet even though they thought they'd seen it all, nothing prepared Greg Roberts for the sight...

No place like home ... Australians want to be the masters of their own media consumption destiny and as a result, the home entertainment market has grown enormously over the last decade. Paul Hayes reports.(HOME ENTERTAINMENT)(Industry overview)
December 1, 2008... IN THE AUSTRALIA OF THE 21ST CENTURY PEOPLE WANT THEIR entertainment the same way they want everything else: immediately and at their fingertips. A night out at the movies or a night in watching a favourite show on TV just don't seem to have...

Call of the Middle East: the Arab world is a growing market, and proactive Australians could benefit from the opportunities if they overcome the geographical and cultural distance. Miguel Gonzalez reports from Abu Dhabi.(Middle East)
December 1, 2008... TIRED OF BEING DUBAI'S LESS ATTRACTIVE SISTER, ABU DHABI, THE capital of the United Arab Emirates, is using its oil money to create a bright future for itself by investing U$1 trillion in development for a city that as recently as the 1950s was...

Australian idols: it may have been a difficult year for Australian films, but recognition must be given to those who, in different ways, have written a new chapter in the history of our industry. Miguel Gonzalez consulted some of Australia's major film journalists and critics, and we're proud to announce the results.(Best Of 2008)
December 1, 2008... THE BLACK BALLOON "Coming-of-age stories are an Australian staple but this one was lifted by great performances and a lot of rueful humour." (Sandra Hall) "A great debut from Elissa Down, with strong performances from up and...

Heath ledger's sad death.(NEWS STORIES OF THE YEAR)
December 1, 2008... "Heath Ledger's sad death, the dispute over Justice League, the reinvention of Australian film financing, the release of Baz Luhrmann's Australia and, on a wider scale, the Hollywood studios cutting back on films as the American independent...

The Australian film industry.(NEWS STORIES OF THE YEAR)
December 1, 2008... "Every year, the Australian film industry - despite its fixation of arthouse films - comes up with an impressive and entertaining roster of movies. And every year the Australian public stays away from them in droves while happily feasting on...

New & used.(IN BRIEF)
December 1, 2008... 2005 Tropfest winner Luke Eve is developing a comedy series called New & Used. He is currently in the process of financing the project "We've been concentrating on the 'series Bible, and the pilot episode. The individual episodes themselves...

Animal Kingdom.(IN BRIEF)
December 1, 2008... Writer-director David Michod is finishing pre-production on Animal Kingdom, which begins shooting in Melbourne early next year. The cast includes Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton and Jacky Weaver, and the story deals with...

Waiting in Calcutta.(IN BRIEF)(The Waiting City )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Director Claire McCarthy (Cross Life) is shooting The Waiting City in Calcutta, India. It is the first Australian feature film to be entirely shot in that country. "It's an intimate, complex love story, set against an exhilarating, epic...

Regional Clinic.(IN BRIEF)
December 1, 2008... A psychological thriller about a group of women trying to survive is currently shooting in Deniliquin, in regional New South Wales. The Clinic is written and directed by James Rabbitts, and the FTO's Regional Filming Fund expects the...

Attraction factor.(IN BRIEF)(New South Wales Film and Television Office appoints Paul de Carvalho )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... The FTO has appointed former Twentieth Century Fox executive Paul de Carvalho as Director, Production Attraction. He will lead a campaign to attract and retain international and domestic production to NSW. The Production Attraction Team...

Fake films.(IN BRIEF)
December 1, 2008... The Fake Film Fest is looking for entries for its 2009 edition. There are three main categories for aspiring filmmakers to explore their fake film fantasies: Features (three-minute trailers for fake movies), ads and docos. The winner will be...

Cinemalive's wiggle invasion.(IN BRIEF)(Cinema Line Films Corp.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... CinemaLive will start its live content delivery operations on December 21, with a live broadcast of The Wiggles' You Make Me Feel Like Dancin' show from Sydney's Entertainment Centre. The concert will screen in 45-50 cinemas, mainly in regional...

Tropfest opens doors.(IN BRIEF)
December 1, 2008... For fifteen years Tropfest has provided a platform for emerging filmmakers to find an audience. "It gives you a profile," 2008 Tropfest winner Michelle Lehman says, encouraging aspiring filmmakers to participate. "It was easier getting...

Mary & Max, independent spirit.(IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Adam Elliott's animated feature Mary & Max is the first Australian film selected to open the Sundance Film Festival on 15 January 2009. It is also the first animated film to have this honour. "They made that decision based on a DVD of the...

Autodesk acquires softimage from avid.(IN BRIEF)
December 1, 2008... The design software company has acquired the assets of Softimage, developers of 3D technologies for the film, television and games markets. The U$35 million deal brings advanced 3D tools to Autodesk's portfolio. "These are tools that are...

Hogan and Jacobson help mould Murphy's Boots: Dean Murphy has reteamed with of his former Strange Bedfellows. Tracey Prisk discussed the development of the script with the writer/director/producer.(Script)
December 1, 2008... THE IDEA BEHIND THE FATHER AND SON ROAD movie Charlie & Boots came about when Dean Murphy realised that Paul Hogan and Shane Jacobson were very similar in many ways. "Both are people that everyone can really relate to and both are seen as...

A woman and her Octopus find love in stop motion: the winner of a screenplay competition had her love story about a woman and her Octopus produced by a professional team. Annabel Mccully reports.(Shoot)
December 1, 2008... "THIS FILM IS A BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY ABOUT A woman and her octopus; she's unsure about committing to a relationship with a cephalopod" explained Van Badham, one of the three winners of the first John Jameson Productions Screenplay Competition....

New audiences await in uncharted territories: John L. Simpson was awarded the AFI fellowship. Miguel Gonzalez spoke with him about his regional screening map to help filmmakers take their work to new places.(Screen)
December 1, 2008... THE FELLOWSHIP IS A $25,000 GRANT INTENDED TO 'assist a highly-skilled practitioner to engage in a project that will have lasting resonance for Australian screen culture' The producer of Men's Group could not see how developing his next film...

No tapes, no drama for television workflow: the long-running series Neighbours has become a totally tapeless production just a year after upgrading to full HD. Tracey Prisk reports.(Sync)
December 1, 2008... THE DRAMATIC UPGRADE REQUIRED GLOBAL Television, which provides the studios and facilities for the series, and the show's producers FremantleMedia Australia, to ensure they devised a workflow that worked for everyone. The HD upgrade last...

Every month.(Production Report)
December 1, 2008... ENCORE's Production Report lists features and television drama/factual programs that are currently in development, pre-production or production in Australia. Television programs must have a network presale in order to be listed and projects in...

Factual.(Production Report)
December 1, 2008... NEWS/TALK/BUSINESS/CURRENT AFFAIRS IN PRODUCTION 60 Minutes Network: Nine Network Prod off: Sydney Prod co: Nine Network Exec Prod: Hamish Thomson Chief of staff: Richard Andrews Spv Prod: Lincoln Howes Foreign ed: Howard Sacre Prod:...

Web.
December 1, 2008... ANIMATION AND VISUAL EFFECTS SAFETY IN NUMBERS http://www.sin.tv/ BUY BACK FILM STOCK STEADI SYSTEMS BUY BACK FILM STOCK www.steadisystems.com CABLE & CONNECTORS BVT - BELDEN CDT CABLES ...

Indigenous Australians find a space: NITV has expanded its reach across the country and provides professional development opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Harvey Shore spoke to deputy CEO Paul Remati.(Hearsay)
December 1, 2008... AT LAST MONTH'S SPAA CONFERENCE, DEPUTY Chair of Screen Australia Ian Robertson declared that development money will not go to people with no experience. Many who heard this shook their heads at what seemed a nonsensical contradiction in terms....