Encore Magazine articles from May 2007

Encore Magazine archives from May 2007

Get with the program: the emergence of new platforms and pipes has changed the playing field for content creators. The definition of a TV program isn't quite what it once was.(Editorial)
May 1, 2007... MAYDAY, MAYDAY..." The distress signals have been coming thick and fast for some time now. So it's fitting that a day in May should provide the respite. The Federal Budget is reportedly 'flush with cash'; a circumstance the production industry...

Sydney Film Fest to carry broader focus: new SFF executive director Clare Stewart has taken steps to make the 2007 festival more of an 'event' by supplementing screenings with live performances. David Hull reports.(FESTIVAL)
May 1, 2007... THE 2007 SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL (SFF) will be "more broadly accessible" than in previous years, according to executive director Clare Stewart, with a partnership with a live music venue, the Metro theatre, enriching the program beyond its core...

Melbourne confirmed as 'Pacific' base.(The Pacific shooting location)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... HBO FILMS' MINI SERIES THE PACIFIC WILL become the 10th major project to shoot at Melbourne's Central City Studios when it goes into production in November 2007. Currently in pre production, the project is scheduled to wrap in May 2008 with...

Gold Coast to host first regional awards.(AWARDS)
May 1, 2007... THE INAUGURAL ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS WERE LAUNCHED AT A GALA EVENT HELD IN Brisbane on April 17. Created and funded by the Queensland Events Corporation, the event will take place on the Gold Coast on November 13. The initiative is...

SAFC, ScreenWest and SBS team for doco makers.(South Australian Film Corp., SBS Independent )
May 1, 2007... THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILM CORPORATION (SAFC), ScreenWest and SBS Independent have joined forces to develop an initiative aimed at developing Gen Y documentary filmmakers, which will a series of documentaries screening on SBS TV in July 2008....

Tropfest winners strike series deal: Movie Extra has commissioned a comedy series from the duo behind the tropfest-winning short at Carmichael & Shane. Peter Galvin reports.(PRODUCTION)
May 1, 2007... FILMMAKERS ROB CARLTON AND ALEX WEINRESS, WHO WON THE TOP gong at the 2006 Tropfest for their mockumentary Carmichael & Shane, have been commissioned by the Movie Extra cable channel to produce a new comedy series about a try-hard video...

Kearns sets up festival consultancy.(FESTIVALS)
May 1, 2007... FORMER ARCLIGHT FILMS FESTIVALS AND MARKETING MANAGER Linda Kearns has set up her own consultancy, InFestation Film Festival Management, which will specialise in film festival strategy and coordination both for sales agents and distributors,...

Local Stark gets cosy with Flying Bark.(ANIMATION)(partnerships of Avrill Stark and Flying Bark Productions)(A Stark Entertainment)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... CHILDREN'S ANIMATION PRODUCER AVRILL STARK HAS TEAMED WITH animation powerhouse Flying Bark Productions to form a new production company, A Stark Entertainment. The company was launched at the MIPTV content market, which was held last month in...

Nine gets a bun in its oven.(FORMATS)(contracts of Nine Network Australia Ltd. and British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... THE NINE NETWORK HAS PICKED UP THE COMPLETED EPISODES AND FORMAT rights to BBC factual series Make Me a Baby. The deal was completed at this year's MIPTV content market. The format puts 100 couples through various experiments to gauge fertility...

Panavision makes Broadcam purchase.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Panavision Australia has expanded its digital rental operations with the acquisition of digital camera provider Broadcam. Managing director of Panavision Australia Martin Cayzer said the move would diversify its "local rental business into the...

Former FTO chief joins Seed Australia.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Former chief executive of the New South Wales Film and Television Office (FTO) Jane Smith has been appointed to the role of vice president for production company Seed Australia. Smith, who left the FTO when her contract expired at the end of...

'Sea Patrol' secures Hallmark deal.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Local drama Sea Patrol has secured a lucrative deal with the Hallmark Channels through sales agent Portman Films. The deal was finalised at last month's MIPTV content market in Cannes, France. The deal came about through Hallmark parent company...

Joy lands head VFX role at animal.(IN BRIEF)(appointment of Karin Joy at Animal Logic)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Animal Logic has appointed Karin Joy as its new head of Film VFX Production, a role in which she will oversee feature film VFX projects. Joy began her career at Boss Film Studios where she was a coordinator and then VFX producer, working on...

Farewell to a Maori trailblazer: Australasian film and theatre industries mourn the passing of leading Kiwi figure Don Selwyn.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)
May 1, 2007... DON SELWYN, ACTOR AND FILMMAKER, a much loved and admired figure in the New Zealand film, television and stage scene, died on April 13 after enduring a long illness. He was 71. Best known in Australia for his appearances in Kiwi feature...

AFC backs 11 writers with Fellowships.(Australian Film Commission)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... THE AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION HAS BACKED 11 projects as part of its inaugural Television Writers Fellowships. Between them they share $400,000, with individual teams sharing between $30,000 and $50,000 in development funds. The projects...

Don't lose sight of the bigger picture: the funding review is important however, according to ASDA executive director Richard Harris, there needs to be greater focus on how the industry survives in the digital age.(Dialogue)
May 1, 2007... IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE IN FOR A BUSY LAST HALF OF 2007. Whatever is announced in the May Budget in response to the Federal Government film review, it appears inevitable that much time and energy will be spent both at an industry and governmental...

Crime story: hard-working TV director Peter Andrikidis has teamed with Knapman Wyld to deliver a six-episode cop series exploring various ethnic crime subcultures. Peter Galvin joined them on set at Parramatta in Sydney's west.(On Location)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... THERE'S ALWAYS A BATTLE BETWEEN THE DRAMA FILMMAKERS ARE TRYING TO create and realism, according to former New South Wales Detective Sergeant Hany Elbatoory, who is a special consultant on the new SBS mini-series East West 101. "My opinion...

ADELAIDE COINCIDES WITH AUSSIE FILM RENEWAL: THE ADELAIDE FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM SERVED UP A MIXTURE OF THE SUBLIME AND THE RIDICULOUS, ACCORDING TO BOB ELLIS.
May 1, 2007... THIS MONTH BOB ELLIS REVIEWS: PRINCE OF THE HIMALAYAS (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER SHERWOOD HU, PRODUCER JIANHUA YIN) DR PLONK (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER ROLF DE HEER, PRODUCER JULIE RYAN), ROMULUS, MY FATHER (DIRECTOR RICHARD ROXBURGH, PRODUCERS ROBERT CONNOLLY...

Tax enhancements essential to a competitive OZ: Tracey Montgomery outlines the need for adjustments to Australia's Tax Offset scheme amidst fierce competition from rival nations and increasingly from within the us itself.(LA Insider)
May 1, 2007... FOR FIVE YEARS, INDUSTRY AND FILM BODIES IN australia have been asking for added flexibility to the Federal Government incentive designed to attract international production to Australia. The introduction of the 12.5 percent Refundable Tax...

A modest man heads to cannes: Julian Newby profiles British director Stephen Frears who will serve as jury president at this month's Cannes Film Festival.(Euro Insider)
May 1, 2007... THE 60TH CANNES FILM FESTIVAL IS SET TO ENJOY A blast of no-frills Britishness in the form of Stephen Frears, chosen as jury president for 2007. Frears' endearing, down-to-earth, speak-as-you-find demeanour--and patchwork quilt of a movie...

Time for us all to raise the volume: SPAA executive director Geoff Brown discusses the challenges of getting through to Federal Government in Canberra, and looks forward to a major event for the Asia Pacific region.(Above The Line)(Screen Production Association of Australia)
May 1, 2007... IN THIS ELECTION YEAR, EVERY INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA IS pushing their agenda to the Federal Government in Canberra. Many of these industries spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on professional lobbyists, who pound the corridors of Parliament...

'Let's see that again ...' Australians' curiousity about all things retrospective is fuelling demand for archival material, in 'clip' shows and factual series that delve into our past.(Stock footage)
May 1, 2007... TELEVISION PROGRAMS RE-INTRODUCING AUDIENCES TO MOVING scenes from the past, whether from the public or an individual's private domain, have been appearing on our screens with increasing regularity during the past few years. Such is the thirst...

Pushing the envelope: when finances are stretched sound post is often first to get the squeeze. But when push comes to shove, where do the compromises lie and what steps can be taken to ensure these do not negatively impact on the final product? David Hull reports.(BUDGET CHALLENGES)
May 1, 2007... THE NATURE OF AUSTRALIAN FEATURE FILM BUDGETS PLACES various limitations on what can be achieved and when a producer has over-estimated just how far a budget is going to stretch, sound post production, as the last cab off the rank, tends to...

Animated film given humanist edge: a far-flung speaking cast left the creatives behind stop-motion animated feature $9.99 requiring a cost-effective method of remote dialogue recording. Peter Galvin discovered the solution when he visited the sydney set.($9.99)
May 1, 2007... THE FIRST EVER ISRAELI-AUSTRALIAN CO-PRODUCTION, $9.99 IS A drama, which deals with "the big questions", according to producer Emile Sherman. The script is based on the short stories of Tel Aviv-born Etgar Keret, best-known for his strange,...

'Noise' heard but sound still muted: despite the huge leaps in technology during the last 20 years, has sound design remained the 'poor cousin' of feature post production? Are directors approaching sound in all its possibilities? Peter Galvin spoke to a group of sound design professionals to find out the answers.(DESIGN)
May 1, 2007... THE NEW FEATURE FROM MATT SAVILLE (ROY HOLLSDOTTER Live) has created a buzz of intrigue and interest amongst the film community for its rich and complex soundtrack executed by sound designer Emma Bortignon. As the title, Noise, indicates, sound...

Beefed-up IMG Media seeks local collaboration: UK indie producers Tiger Aspect and Darlow Smithson are looking for Australian co-production partners for their wide range of programming.(Script)
May 1, 2007... UK-HEADQUARTERED PRODUCTION GROUP IMG Media, best known for its successful sports production subsidiary TWI, diversified its offering in 2006 with the acquisitions of 'multi-genre' producer Tiger Aspect Productions (TAP) and high-end factual...

FTO funds three features and a mini.(IN BRIEF)(Film and Television Office)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The New South Wales Film and Television Office (FTO) has invested in the development of three new features in addition to a new television mini series. The features are Lou (writer/director Belinda Chayko, producers Michael McMahon and Tony...

AFC revises Strand A closing date.(IN BRIEF)(Australian Film Commission)
May 1, 2007... The Australian Film Commission (AFC)'s Film Development division has extended the closing date for applications for Strand A funding from June 15 until late July, 2007, with proposed guideline revisions for 2007/2008 being circulated to the...

QLD Literary Awards close this month.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Entries to the 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards close on May 25. The prestigious literary awards program has been running since 1999 and offers $225, 000 in prize money across 14 categories. Both the award for film script--sponsored by...

Woods directs 'Winged' for RGM.(IN BRIEF)(Rowan Woods, Winged Creatures, RGM Entertainment)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Australian director Rowan Woods is directing the drama Winged Creatures, co-funded and executive produced by Sydney and Singapore-based RGM Entertainment. The film stars Forest Whitaker, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Hudson, Guy Pearce and Dakota...

Gibson raises the 'Dead' in zombie flick.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Actor and musician Tyrese Gibson (Transformers) will team with Melbourne-based Clint Morris (Between the Sand and the Sky, Howl) and Rock Shaink (The Seed, 12th Man) to produce the new action/thriller zombie film Condition Dead for HQ Pictures....

NAB 2007: Red leads the way with high-res focus: 12 months after the unveiling of its prototype the Red video camera remained the talk of the town at last month's NAB 2007 trade show in Las Vegas. Scott Lehane reports.(Shoot)
May 1, 2007... JUST A FEW MINUTES AFTER THE SHOW FLOOR opened for NAB 2007, a queue started to form at the Red booth, stretching around the side and back of the booth, and it didn't let up until the end of the show on Thursday April 19. The company had...

Cine.net expands network to bridge the distance: the recently expanded cine.net broadband network was put to use on two upcoming features from Adelaide-based filmmakers. David Hull reports.(Sync)
May 1, 2007... INDUSTRY-BASED BROADBAND DATA NETWORK cine.net has leased fibre in Brisbane and is using a combination of its own microwave paths and leased fibre in Melbourne and Sydney to enable connection options of between 2MB and 1GB per-second to better...

Digi Pics appoints designer, producer.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Digital Pictures has appointed senior designer and Smoke/Flame artist Mark McKenna and producer Sarah Watts to its editing and post team. Brit McKenna joins from Evolutions, where his credits included the Olympic bid for London with New Moon,...

Blackmagic partners with New Magic.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Multimedia hardware and software distributor New Magic Australia has signed a distribution agreement with Blackmagic Design for the Australia and New Zealand region, as demand for Blackmagic's DeckLink, Intensity and Multibridge products grows....

Avid Australia brings PR in-house.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Broadcast and post production technology specialist Avid Australia has appointed Rachael Cann to the newly-created position of PR and Marketing executive. Working under marketing manager Garrick Simeon, Cann will assume the role previously...

'Ink Freak' wins out in JJJ competition.(IN BRIEF)(Triple J's Pixel Freaks competition)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Oasis Post VFX designer Nick Deboar took out youth radio network Triple J's Pixel Freaks competition for which designers, artists, animators and filmmakers from across Australia were asked to submit a 30-second visual representation of Triple...

'Requiem' gets acting gong at us Fest.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Actor Jai Koutrae received a Screen Actors Guild Award-Best Actor in a Short Film, at the 9th Annual Method Fest, for his role in the Australian short, Death's Requiem. The film was produced by Tim Maddocks and also screened at the Newport...

Ten opts for job sharing for sales.(Network Ten Proprietary Ltd. promotes Kylie Rogers and Daniel King)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Network Ten has promoted group sales managers Kylie Rogers and Daniel King to the position of Sydney sales director in the wake of incumbent Steven Jones' resignation, effective June 30. Rogers and King will share the role. Both are veterans at...

'Kath & Kim' returning to Seven in 2007.(IN BRIEF)(Seven Network)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The fourth series of comedy program Kath & Kim, currently in production, will screen on the Seven Network, which aired the original skit in 1994. The cast, including the show's creators Jane Turner and Gina Riley, Glenn Robbins, Magda Szubanski...

'Clubland' re-named for US July release.(IN BRIEF)(Introducing the Dwights)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Australian feature film Clubland will open with a new title, Introducing the Dwights, on the July 4 holiday weekend in the United States, a crucial period in the country's theatrical distribution calendar. Directed by Cherie Nowlan and produced...

NSW country town debuts on film festival calendar: a film festival junkie found a willing ally in a supportive local council to deliver this this month's inaugural Dungog Film Festival. Fiona Williams reports.(Screen)(Calendar)
May 1, 2007... YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ATTENDING FILM FESTIVALS around the world as both entrant and interested participant, have clearly had an impact on filmmaker Allanah Zitserman. The writer/producer best known as one half of the duo behind the local...

Every month.(Production Report)
May 1, 2007... ENCORE'S production report includes all known features and television drama and non-drama television programs which have a network presale. Projects in the planning stage appear once only and the listing ends when a project goes into post...

Web [guide].(Website list)
May 1, 2007... ANIMATION AND VISUAL EFFECTS FIRE HORSE STUDIO www.firehorse.net.au BUY BACK FILM STOCK STEADI SYSTEMS BUY BACK FILM STOCK www.steadisystems.com CABLE & CONNECTORS BVT - BELDEN CDT CABLES ...

All eyes on the lookout for the winning formula: everything's coming up roses at the moment, as an air of optimisim spreads throughout the industry. Television columnist Harvey Shore reports on the latest developments.(Hearsay)
May 1, 2007... EVERYONE'S A WINNER, AS THE OLD CARNIE spruikers used to say; and that's how many on our side of the entertainment industry felt about work in the last few months. The Australian Film Commission chose 11 winners for its Television Writer...