Encore Magazine articles from March 2009

Encore Magazine archives from March 2009

Wanted: real stories: share yours and help find a solution to the offset timing claim issue.(Editorial)
March 1, 2009... WHAT A GREAT EVENT THE 2009 Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival was! My sincere congratulations to Katrina Sedgwick and everyone else behind this event; there are so many festivals with a much higher profile that don't live up to the expectations,...

Are you connected? Yahoo!'s connected TV is coming to MIPTV.(MIPTV)
March 1, 2009... MIPTV IS UPON US ONCE AGAIN. ENCORE SPOKE WITH one of the keynote speakers, Patrick Barry, VP of Connected TV, Yahoo! Inc. He's responsible for the strategy, products and partnerships that extend Yahoo's content, communities and services to...

An explosive combination.(EXHIBITION)
March 1, 2009... DAVID FIELD'S FILM THE COMBINATION HAD A tempestuous first week at the box office when, three days after its opening, the film - which deals with gang violence, particularly within the Lebanese community - was pulled from four Greater Union...

If we build it, will they really come? Spaa's Geoff Brown has spent some time in Canberra, discussing top level producer offset issues with key Government figures.(Above The Line)(Screen Producers Association of Australia)
March 1, 2009... MANY MEMBERS OF THE INDUSTRY ARE ASKING me why 'someone' didn't point out the impending pitfalls of the Producer Offset right from the start. Well, once the guidelines were out, we at SPAA certainly did point out some potential pitfalls for the...

Everyone needs a little incentive: countries and states struggle to remain competitive in a world full of potential locations. Tracey Vieira analyses Australia's American competitors.(LA Insider)
March 1, 2009... THE ASSOCIATION OF FILM COMMISSIONERS International Location Trade Show, held annually in Santa Monica, California, offers international and US film commissions a unique opportunity to connect with producers, and studio executives and...

Doubt Comes From Ambiguity: There's No Doubt In Bob Ellis' Mind That Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman And Amy Adams Will Have You Thinking Long After You Leave The Cinema.
March 1, 2009... DOUBT SHOWS A BIT TOO MUCH OF ITS THEATRE origins (a four-hander in one office set with no onstage children) and the playwright John Patrick Shanley's direction is muddled and clunky, but Streep and Seymour Hoffman as menacing Mother Superior...

A Nue Dae for musicals: even before it became a stage hit, Bran Nue Dae seemed destined for success. Peter Galvin reports from Broome, Western Australia.(BRAN NUE DAE)
March 1, 2009... PRODUCER ROBYN KERSHAW (LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI) KNEW THE STORY'S potential ever since the first workshop, when she was a part of the West Australian Theatre Company, in 1987. "It was a wonderful discovery... you're just so full of life...

The sun still shines in Queensland: Genevieve Tait found that with the growth of other state film industries, changing financial dynamics and a disgruntled screen actors guild in the USA, Queensland's film industry has to evolve in order to survive.(INDUSTRY REPORT)
March 1, 2009... QUEENSLAND IS STILL A HUB FOR AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION. However, with the changing face of industry and finance, its international production has slowed. Despite these obstacles, the state continues to build its filmmaking infrastructure and...

Safety in numbers: Screen Australia's research manager, Rosemary Curtis, provides some insights into the latest data on the screen production industries from the ABS, as the future of the survey is under review.(ABS REPORT)
March 1, 2009... IN HIS ARTICLE PLAYING THE NUMBERS GAME' (ENCORE, AUGUST 2008), Geoff Brown, the Executive Director of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA), commented on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report on television, film and...

Ready for Fair Work? The head of holding Redlich's national employment law practice, Stephen Trew, gives practical advice on how the screen production industry can prepare for Australia's new employment law regime.(WORKPLACE LAWS)
March 1, 2009... CHANGE WILL COME JUST WHEN EMPLOYERS WERE GETTING USED TO the current employment law regime. On 4 December 2008 the Fair Work Bill 2008 was passed by the House of Representatives and is currently before a Senate Committee. It is expected to be...

Beauty is in the eye of the investor: the creators of beautiful told Miguel Gonzalez their secret to make the producer offset work to their advantage, and how honesty is the best way to attract investors.(BEAUTIFUL)
March 1, 2009... "THE PRODUCER OFFSET WORKED FOR US," ADMITS BEAUTIFUL producer / DOP Kent Smith. "One of our secrets was to make the rebate a smaller part of the budget. A mistake that producers tend to make is trying to maximise it by putting every cent of...

Clearing the offset confusion: Kylie Parker has seen many productions become entangled in the bureaucracy between professional services firms, government bodies and the taxation office. It's time to clear the confusion.(HOW-TO GUIDE)
March 1, 2009... AT THE RECENT SPAA CONFERENCE, THE TALK AROUND THE POOL centred around having an idea and needing to obtain just a bit more finance before starting production, and discussion about whether or not it is better to cash flow the tax rebate using...

Going back to their neighbourly roots: executive producer Susan Bower has led the renovations at Ramsay ST. she told Genevieve Tait how to bring some life back into a show that has seen better days.(NEIGHBOURS)
March 1, 2009... NEIGHBOURS IS GETTING A MAKEOVER. THE SHOW first aired in 1985 and is Australia's longest running serial drama. However in 2007 the ratings were suffering and the creative team was accused of concocting sensationalised plots foreign to the...

Down's Savage Garden.(IN BRIEF)(Elissa Down)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Australian director Elissa Down has made the move to LA to begin work on Savage Garden, a film she hopes will evolve into an Australian-US coproduction to be made in Queensland. It tells the story of a young girl who follows her merchant seaman...

Ledger's pupil.(IN BRIEF)(Heath Ledger Scholarship)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... 29 year-old Sydney-based actor Oliver Ackland is the recipient of the inaugural Australians in Film Heath Ledger Scholarship. The scholarship is for $10,000 and airfare to Los Angeles, plus mentoring support Oliver was chosen from a pool of 150...

Casting reality.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2009... A Cast of Thousands director Kirsty DeVallance is currently casting Network TEN'S upcoming reality show Masterchef. "We're looking for good amateur cooks who are very passionate about their food - and we have found these from all ages and...

Middle Beast.(IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Australian filmmaker Steve Pratt has resigned from his position has head of department in film and TV at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) Institute in Amman, Jordan, to shoot a low budget mockumentary feature about a fictitious hair metal...

Knowing music.(IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... The music for Alex Proyas' new film Knowing has recently been finalised at Trackdown Studios in Sydney. Supervising music editor Tim Ryan - who worked with Proyas in Garage Days in 2002 - says the musical style is much closer to his 1998...

License horror stories.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2009... During his recent visit to Australia to participate in the Australian International Documentary Conference in Adelaide, Thought Equity Motion CEO Kevin Schaff reminded filmmakers of the importance of reducing copyright infringement and...

Polynesian Oasis.(IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Australian films River of No Return and The Oasis won at the Festival du Film Oceanien in Tahiti last month. Sydney-based producer Susan Mackinnon, a jury member and executive producer of The Oasis, had never considered entering the competition...

Online festival.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2009... Twitch Studios' [Matthew Duffy, Matt Dignam and Landon Curry] animated short First Love won the first ever Australian mobile and online 'film festival; Great Moments in History. "The level of accessibility is a major advantage of the new...

The force is strong with this one ... George Lucas has expanded his star wars universe yet again. Miguel Gonzalez spoke with Justin Mettam, an Aussie who is using the force as a 3D story artist.(STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS)
March 1, 2009... "AT LUCAS ANIMATION WE GO STRAIGHT FROM THE script into 3D layout," Mettam explains about the process that skips the traditional storyboard stage. "The job description of 3D story artist was developed as Lucas Animation," Mettam says. "3D...

Going solo to explore an adventurer's mind: a new documentary combines talking heads and actual footage from a man's tragic adventure. Peter Galvin explores the filmmaker's passion for the material.(SOLO)
March 1, 2009... IN DECEMBER 2006, AN ADVENTURER CALLED Andrew McAuley attempted to cross the Southern Ocean of the Tasman Sea, alone in a kayak, covering the stretch of 1600 kilometres (about 1000 miles) that lays between Australia and New Zealand - which...

Family drama is also a knockout boxing film: a young Italian-Australian finds himself torn between a woman, his family and a passion for boxing. Miguel Gonzalez talked to the creators of two fists one heart.(TWO FISRS ONE HEART)
March 1, 2009... TWO FISTS ONE HEART IS DIRECTOR SHAWN SEET'S first feature. His body of work includes Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, The Strip, All Saints and The Secret Life of Us, among others. In spite of those years of experience and success in...

Bigpond Adelaide film festival.(People)
March 1, 2009... PHOTOS: JENNIE GROOM [WHAT] Opening of the 2009 BAFF [WHERE] Adelaide [WHEN] February 19-20 POSTER GIRL STEPHANIE CAUGHT EVERYONE'S ATTENTION! SAMSON & DELILAH PRODUCED KATH SHELPER. MITJILI GIBSON (NANA) ASSISTANT...

Giveaways.
March 1, 2009... Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has provided ten copies of the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, available on DVD and Blu-ray on March 18. "Like its predecessor, this is Bond stripped back to the essentials. It's director Marc...

Every month.(LISTINGS)
March 1, 2009... 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...

Web guide.(Buyers guide)(Website list)
March 1, 2009... 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 ...

Copycats grow like TV weeds: the networks are quick to green light cheap imitations of their competitors' hits, but few of those weeds manage to survive. Harvey Shore explains why.(COPYCATS AND GARDENING SHOWS)
March 1, 2009... IT'S COPYCAT TIME AGAIN. EACH YEAR AT THIS TIME, THE cat's out of the bag and everyone knows what TV shows are working for Australians and what aren't Programmers tweak their line-up to counter-program against rival networks. Then they book...