Encore Magazine articles from October 2004

Encore Magazine archives from October 2004

Editor's note.(NEWS)
October 1, 2004... In this month's audio supplement, features editor David Hull finds Australia's sound facilities continuing to take on a variety of work to make up for the shortfall in local features. For some companies this means looking for opportunities...

'Ghost Rider' hits Vic.(PRODUCTION)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... More than $50 million in new production is scheduled to move into Central City Studios--including Ghost Rider, claimed to be the largest feature film ever made in Victoria. Columbia Pictures Entertainment is set to film the Marvel comic classic...

Melb gets caught in 'Web'.(PRODUCTION)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Kerner Entertainment and Paramount Pictures are looking to shoot a remake of the children's classic Charlotte's Web in Melbourne next year. Gary Winick is attached to direct the film based on E.B. White's book of the same name and featuring...

'Boomerang' in devt.(PRODUCTION)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Acrobat Films' Phillip Marzella has signed Harry Connick Jr to star in his yet-to-be funded feature Boomerang Deal, due to shoot next year. The project, which received development funding from the Australian Film Commission, sees Marzella take...

'Faireez' set for pre.(PRODUCTION)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Animated 52-part Australian/Canadian co-production Faireez is set to go into pre-production on October 25. Produced by Rick Morrison for Canada's Funbag Animation Studios and Australia's Moody Street Kids, the series was created by Gillian Carr...

$150m in future.(PRODUCTION)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Investment bank Goldstream Capital Group (Australia) has teamed with UK finance and production house Future Film Group to set up a local film investment arm. Future Films Australia expects to raise $50 million in risk money in support of the...

Omnilab buys Ambience.(NEWS)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The consolidation of Australia's post production companies has continued with the acquisition of Ambience Entertainment by the Omnilab Group. The Ambience deal follows the Omnilab Group's acquisition of Sydney editing facility Island Films in...

'Somersault' breaks AFI noms record.(NEWS)(Australian Film Institute)
October 1, 2004... CATE Shortland's Somersault is a fair bet to walk away with at least one Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award come October 29, as the film has set a new record and scored nominations in every feature film category (bar foreign film). The...

'Candy' gets FFC evaluation nod.(NEWS)(Film Finance Corporation)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) approved funding for Australian/UK co-production Like Minds and director Neil Armfield's Candy in its September funding round. The organisation also firmed its support for Anna Kokkinos' The Book of...

FFC amends television drama guidelines.(NEWS)(Film Finance Corporation)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... THE Film Finance Corporation (FFC) has amended its July investment guidelines covering adult and children's television drama, which will come into effect in December. The guidelines were amended to clear confusion about the cut-off...

Taxing time for producers and investors: if you thought raising private investment for film and television production from the local market was tough enough, it just got a little harder. Mark Bamford and Julie Marcus' take a closer look at the current state of play.(TAXATION)
October 1, 2004... The Australian Tax Office has released a Taxation Determination (TD 2004/29), the effect of which is that deductions available under Division 10BA and 10B of Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA) must be apportioned between Australian income...

AWGIE nominations announced.(AWARDS)(Australian Writers' Guild)
October 1, 2004... The Australian Writers' Guild has announced the nominations for the 2004 AWGIE Awards. The winners will be named at a gala function at The Regent Theatre in Melbourne on October 22. The full list of nominees is as follows: Feature film...

Seven leads way in PROMAX & BDA awards.(AWARDS)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The Seven Network emerged with the highest number of honours among the free-to-air television networks as PROMAX & BDA handed out creative excellence awards at its Australia/New Zealand Conference 2004, held in Sydney from September 17-18. Four...

Screen producers association of Australia - monthly update.(AWARDS)
October 1, 2004... The last year presented great challenges for SPAA, none bigger than the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States of America. At the beginning of this reporting year SPAA achieved a degree of success by convincing the...

Directors reach out to actors: crossing bridges.(ASDA FEATURE)
October 1, 2004... IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A CREATIVE LOVE MATCH, BUT LIKE ANY SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP, THE ACTOR/DIRECTOR LIAISON CAN BE VOLATILE, AND WHEN MONEY'S TIGHT, TENSIONS MOUNT. IT SEEMED LIKE THE TIME WAS RIGHT FOR SOME COUNSELLING, EGO STROKING AND...

Top Brisbane post production company destroyed in massive visual effects fire.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... In the late hours of Thursday evening, BEEPS, long recognised as Brisbane's premier post production facility, was destroyed in a blazing visual effects fire. An ashen faced Mr Steve Cooper, Managing Director of the now destroyed BEEPS...

Madness, comeuppance, black coffee and weaving wonders.(ROUGH CUT)
October 1, 2004... I was told The Corporation was better than Fahrenheit 9/11 and it is; by the year 2050 it might prove to have been as influential as The Communist Manifesto. With a mathematical clarity that stirs the blood, it shows how, say, a...

No couch: but plenty of new friends and contacts.(LA INSIDER)
October 1, 2004... It has been two months since I arrived in Los Angeles to take up the Film Commissioner post with AusFILM. The role itself is similar to my previous post at the Pacific Film and Television Commission, so I have found the change relatively smooth...

'Cold feet' writer: turns his hand to directing.(PROFILE)
October 1, 2004... For Mike Bullen the idea for his first short film, and directorial debut, Amorality Tale, came from an overland train trip he made returning from Perth's Small Screen Big Picture some two years ago. Having recently moved to Sydney from the UK,...

IBC 2004 wrap: high definition broadcast standards and digital cinema dominated discussion at the recent International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) event in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Fiona Williams reports.(CONFERENCE REPORT)
October 1, 2004... Numbers were up at this year's International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), with 40,776 delegates converging on Amsterdam's RAI Centre for Europe's major showcase of content creation, management and delivery. The event took place at...

Production report.
October 1, 2004... 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...

It's Halloween and everyone is screaming; well connected industry columnist Harvey Shore keeps his ear close to the ground for the latest gossip doing the rounds at the major broadcasters.(HARVEY'S HEARSAY)
October 1, 2004... October is always a good month for screaming--ending as it does with Halloween. The screaming started early this month with a federal election. It will carry on to the sales spruiking at MIP in Cannes. Then it grows louder as the winners and...

Facilities looking for more time: the DVD boom and demand for multiple delivery versions of a release have the audio fraternity yearning for a larger slice of the post-production budget.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)
October 1, 2004... That final but essential cog in the production process, the sound post stage, is often the first to be compromised by a producer's limited funds. This leaves facilities to rue not having more time to work on an audio mix but is generally...

Soundfirm fleshes out 'Daggers': complex sound effects work characterised the post job on Zhang Yimou's follow up martial arts feature to Hero.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2004... Soundfirm CEO Roger Savage relished the opportunity to take on the sound design and mixing for the US $20 million, period-set House of Flying Daggers, having worked on mostly low-budget projects in recent times. Continuing the audio post...

Sounding out 'Somersault': seeking a soundtrack to replicate the visual mood of their film, the creative team behind Australian feature Somersault came calling to the door of Decoder Ring. David Hull reports.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)
October 1, 2004... One listen to Decoder Ring's sparse and emotive soundtrack to Somersault, and it's clear the Sydney-based band were the perfect choice to lend weight to writer/director Cate Shortland's feature focusing on the inner emotional life of a troubled...

301 gears up for DVD boom: Sydney music recording and mastering facility studios 301 officially launched its 301 Interactive division in September.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)
October 1, 2004... The emergence of the DVD medium has brought about a new opportunity for recording studios able to offer clients interactive services, according to Studios 301 special project manager Martin Benge. Through the formation of a new division,...

APRA/AGSC nominates the talent: nominations have been announced for the 2004 APRA/AGSC Screen Music Awards to be held in Sydney on November 1.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)(Illustration)
October 1, 2004... Now in its third year, the awards, run jointly by APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) and the AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers) recognise Australian music composition in film and television. Composers will be...

ICON makes tracks: on the back of Digidesign's entry into the audio console market, Tracks Post Production became Australia's first investor in an ICON.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... In a move designed to integrate Pro Tools into its studio workflow, Sydney's Tracks Post Production became the first facility in Australia to install a Digidesign ICON audio mixing console. Conscious of the increasing number of sound and...

'Hunchback' gets dose of Elvis: the soundtrack to short film Harry the Hunchback includes a specially recorded theme song.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2004... Well-known musician Tex Perkins was enlisted to record a cover of Elvis Presley's I Believe in the Man in the Sky to accompany the short film Harry the Hunchback, after the filmmakers had initially failed in a bid to obtain the rights to use...

DVD requires synching feeling; vision became a slave to sound at the editing stage as an ABC Classics recording project extended to DVD production in widescreen and surround sound.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)
October 1, 2004... The DVD recording of Beethoven's 'Emperor Concerto', featuring pianist Gerard Willems and the Sinfonia Australis orchestra, required all the patience and expertise its editors could muster in order to match vision to the CD audio. To...

The electronic 'Family Doctor': the director of upcoming local feature The Illustrated Family Doctor placed electronic sound at the forefront of the creative process.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)
October 1, 2004... Determined his debut feature would include a standout score, director Kriv Stenders enlisted electronic music pioneer Tom Ellard, best known for his work with Severed Heads, as a composer and sound designer on the project. Stenders believes...

Supersonic reaches 10 years.(AUDIO: PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Music and sound design company Supersonic (established in 1994 by Paul Healy, Andrew Lancaster and Antony Partos) marked its 10th anniversary with a lively September 18 party in Sydney featuring bands such as Dave McCormack & the Polaroids,...

301 interactive launch party.(AUDIO: PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Sydney recording studio 301 threw a bash on September 16 to celebrate the opening of a new digital media and DVD authoring division and the installation of a new mixing console.

Audio product news: a look at new audio product releases.(AUDIO: SUPPLEMENT)(Advertisement)
October 1, 2004... SOLID STATE MB-630 (1) Local broadcast manufacturer Talia Sound and Vision's solid-state version of its MB-630 audio monitoring bridge features a new LED-based metering system enabling users to monitor audio in both VU or PPM modes. The...