Encore Magazine articles from September 2008

Encore Magazine archives from September 2008

Stenders heads into the west on new feature: local film-maker Kriv Stenders has begun shooting a new feature and, in a departure from his earlier pictures, it's a western-style thriller.(SHOOT)
September 1, 2008... SYDNEY BASED FILMMAKER KRIV Stenders (The Illustrated Family Doctor) began shooting his fourth feature as director--Home, a western style thriller set in the Australian outback starring Aden Young (Mao is Last Dancer)--in August in South...

Animation boosts Fox8 during Olympics.(RATINGS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... PAY TV CHANNEL FOX8 HAS LAID CLAIM TO BEING the only channel outside of the official Olympic Games' broadcasters--SBS and Seven--to experience an increase in audience and share of viewing. The uplift was underpinned by animation-skewed...

Film and TV re-structure?(INDUSTRY)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... ENCORE RECEIVED CONFIRMATION FROM THE PACIFIC FILM AND TV OFFICE THAT THERE IS some substance in recent media speculation that Queensland's state film agency is looking seriously at a re-structure. The move could mean divesting the Brisbane...

Six Australian films for Toronto.(AWARDS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... SIX AUSTRALIAN FILMS WILL FEATURE AT THE TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL IN SEPTEMBER. They include Mark Hartley's critically acclaimed Not Quite Hollywood; Disgrace from director Steve Jacobs, adapted from the novel by JM Coetzee by Anna-Maria...

A brighter future: as encore takes the temperature of the Australian animation industry, the magazine ushers in a new era.(Editorial)
September 1, 2008... AS THE AUSTRALIAN TV ANIMATION SECTOR FINDS new markets, Encore renews its vows to the industry. Being the new kid on the block is always tricky. The excitement of that first day is combined with an inevitable uncertainty during the...

Dark themes deliver at AWG awards night; Underbelly and other dark-themed series' take out the honours at top writers' awards.(WRITERS' GUILD)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... THE 41ST ANNUAL AUSTRALIAN WRITERS' Guild Awards were presented in Melbourne last month, with Underbelly, East West 101, The Black Balloon, Disgrace and Beyond the Neck, taking out the five top prizes in the TV mini-series...

NSW film and TV office claim bang for buck in new slate.(INVESTMENT)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... THE NEW SOUTH WALES FILM AND TV OFFICE ANNOUNCED THAT they will stimulate $23 million worth of production investment across nine projects; two features, four TV series, two factual series and one documentary. Arts Minister Frank Sartor...

S.A intervenes to secure new big budget Hicks production.(PRODUCTION)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT HAS DIRECTLY INTERVENED TO secure a new big budget feature for production in the state, to be directed by Adelaide based filmmaker Scott Hicks (Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts). South Australian...

First slate for SA.(INDUSTRY)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... SCREEN AUSTRALIA HAS DELIVERED ITS FIRST production slate in addition to naming its chief executive officer. Arts Minister Peter Garrett announced that Dr Ruth Harley, a veteran film industry player in her native New Zealand, as Chief Executive...

Everything ready for series two: Peter Galvin reports on the start of production of season 2 of ABC'S east of everything.(PRODUCTION)
September 1, 2008... ABC TV SERIES EAST OF EVERYTHING began shooting its second season on location on the New South Wales north coast in August. Production of the seven one-hour episodes (as opposed to last season's six) will feature new cast members Nick Tate,...

AFI doco winner to win Cannes trip.(AWARDS)(Australian Film Institute)
September 1, 2008... THE AUSTRALIAN FILM INSTITUTE AWARD winner for best documentary will be flown to Cannes next year for the International Trailblazer Tribute, a market showcase for factual film-makers at MIPDOC/MIPCOM, the AFI announced in August as they...

Brizfest lifts sales.(FESTIVALS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... QUEENSLAND ARTS MINISTER ROD WELFORD announced a boost in the box office for this year's Brisbane International Film Festival. According to figures released this week as BIFF wound up its 17th year, 2008's festival saw a 10% increase in...

Film vic surging.(BUSINESS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... FILM VICTORIA ANNOUNCED A "SURGE AHEAD" for the state's film-makers in August, as details of its 2007/08 financial report were released. According to its figures, Film Victoria's total production jumped 80% in the past year, with its...

"Gasps and laughs" for script workshop.(SCRIPTS)
September 1, 2008... SCREEN AUSTRALIA, UK FILM STUDIO WARP X AND MADMAN DISTRIBUTORS HAVE TEAMED UP to produce a two-day work shop intended to develop both comedy and thriller feature concepts. Applications are open now to writer/directors for the event, called...

Russian film festival details and changes.(FOREIGN FILM)
September 1, 2008... THE 2008 RUSSIAN RESURRECTION FILM Festival has changed its schedule of gala events to kick off celebrations in Melbourne on Wednesday 29th October, with Sydney's Opening Night moving to Friday 31st October. The festival is billed as a...

Screen-based cross over.(EVENTS)
September 1, 2008... SOUTH AUSTRALIA IS READY FOR ANOTHER CREATIVE CROSSOVER, WITH THE third edition of the cross-platform brainstorming workshop that will explore interactivity across screen-based media. Frank Boyd, former Director of Creative Development with the...

Aussie indie with US heart.(INVESTMENT)
September 1, 2008... AN INDEPENDENT 35 MM FEATURE BEING SHOT IN MELBOURNE IS LOOKING for potential investors beyond the Pacific Ocean. Produced by Sure Fire Films, the story of Personality Plus is set in the US, complete with cops in NYPD uniforms. The cast...

CineSpace sold on.(TECHNOLOGY)
September 1, 2008... Adelaide-based Rising Sun Research (RSR) has sold its cineSpace colour management technology and product line to Cine-tal Systems, manufacturers of image processing, display and collaboration solutions for digital cinema and video production....

Portraits of the human heart; Alienation as a theme floats through a selection of recent releases reviewed by bob ellis, while the scott hicks-directed look at the life and times of Philip glass gets a thumbs up.(Rough Cut)
September 1, 2008... PETER DUNCAN'S UNFINISHED SKY (BRUTALISED Afghan woman fleeing redneck sex-slavers meets life-bruised farmer who shelters, protects and comes to want her) caused me to wonder how many love-comes-unbidden Australian films lost money. Flirting?...

Australia in vogue for Olympians and tourism alike: Ausfilm's Tracey Viera plots the path ahead for Australia and outlines the huge amount of promotional activity that has already gone into the move in the us.(LA Insider)
September 1, 2008... HOW MANY FEATURE FILMS CAN LIST AN OLYMPIC Gold amongst its achievements? Sailors Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page claimed Australia's first sailing Olympic gold medal in Beijing winning the '470 class' race on their yacht 'Australia', named in...

What a difference a day makes to pirates: Enigmatc film-maker Lars von Trier is back behind the camera for his new movie, the thriller antichrist. Julian Newby finds out more and delves into European piracy law.(Euro Insider)
September 1, 2008... O ENIGMATC FILM-MAKER LARS VON TRIER IS BACK behind the camera for his new movie, the thriller Antichrist. All Von Trier movies attract attention--and usually critical acclaim--if not commercial success, and this one will be no exception. ...

Time of essence for screen Australia; screen producers association of Australia executive director Geoff brown gives his take on the immediate path ahead for the incoming CEO of screen Australia.(Above The Line)(appointment of Ruth Harley)
September 1, 2008... CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. RUTH HARLEY ON HER appointment to the position of first CEO of Screen Australia. Ruth will take up her appointment later in the year, which unfortunately leaves us without a substantive head of the organisation for...

Five years on: did plush change the TVCs industry? When WPP launched its production business, plush, most of the commercials production industry was livid. but five years on, has Plush really changed the face of the industry?(TVCs)
September 1, 2008... WHEN PLUSH OPENED ITS DOORS FOR BUSINESS FIVE YEARS AGO, the production industry fell into a furore at the audacity of an agency-owned production company poaching a slice of their revenue. The trouble with Plush, they said, is it is jointly...

Animation revels in demand upsurge; the Australian children's animation sector is accustomed to peaks and troughs. Right now though, things look good as producers reap the benefits of strengthened international ties.(Animation)
September 1, 2008... THESE ARE HEADY DAYS INDEED FOR THOSE IMMERSED IN THE provision of animated content Not only has the global success of George Miller's feature film Happy Feet directed a great deal of attention towards the local sector, but a major resurgence...

'Mary and Max' motions path to the future; A ground-breaking production process was debuted on Melodrama pictures' feature film Mary and max, capitalising on the foresight of local software developers who recognised a gap in the stop motion market.(Animation)
September 1, 2008... SUCH HAS BEEN THE RAPID GROWTH OF INNOVATION WITHIN THE Australian animation industry, Bristol, UK-based Aardman Animations--best known for the Wallace and Grommit and Chicken Run movies--is now taking its lead from developments down under. So...

New doc looks at Skippy as Superstar.(IN BRIEF)
September 1, 2008... West Australian company Electric Pictures (The Hunt for HMS Sydney) is currently in pre-production on a documentary that investigates the social and cultural significance of the Skippy children's television series, which debuted in 1967 and...

Lambert tells a dark story of life in the bright lights: director Sarah Lambert tells Peter Galvin how an idea which started out as a short story penned 10 years ago has found its way to a feature shoot in Victoria next year.(Scrip)
September 1, 2008... FILM-MAKER SARAH LAMBERT (ALIENS AMONG US) spent a large part of her childhood on stage as a dancer, working in clubs and later as an actor on film sets in features such as Newsfront, Doctors and Nurses and TV drama Heartbreak High. What she...

Mining drama draws on deep vein of storytelling; Tracey Prisk talks to the crew behind the dirt game, a new TV drama set against the Australian mining industry and the minerals boom driving the economy down under.(DIRT GAME)
September 1, 2008... WITH DRAMAS ABOUT POLICE, LAW AND MEDICINE common fodder for television schedules all over the world, producers Michael Harvey and David Taft decided to try something different when they developed the $5.5 million Dirt Game, a six-part...

Porchlight shoots on MTV winner.(IN BRIEF)
September 1, 2008... Sydney based producers Porchlight (Little Fish) commenced shooting a one-hour television drama, Dream Life, in August, the wining entry in cable player MTV's national One 80 competition--an initiative aimed to produce a multi-platform TV pilot....

Directors to receive top gongs.(IN BRIEF)
September 1, 2008... Bruce Petty, Kate Woods and Tom Zubrycki will all receive gongs honoring their respective career achievements at this year's Australian Directors Guild awards in September. ADG president Ray Argall told Encore that selecting the individuals...

Digistor appointed Bluearc dealer.(IN BRIEF)
September 1, 2008... Digistor has announced the company's appointment as a dealer for BlueArc Corporation, the provider of high-performance unified network-storage systems. Digistor is known for offering high-performance storage solutions in broadcast and creative...

JVC limelight for upcoming release.(IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Men's Group, a multi-award winning Australian film, was shot entirely with JVC ProHD cameras. The film won the 2007 SPAARTAN Award for Best Australian Digital Film of the Year, Digispaa 2007 and was officially selected at the Rotterdam 2008,...

Telestream adds encoding/decoding.(IN BRIEF)
September 1, 2008... Telestream has announced comprehensive encode and decode support for Flash 7, 8 and 9 video formats as a standard feature in its flagship FlipFactory transcoding workflow automation applications and Episode batch encoding applications....

Flying the flag for Austra-Canadian relations: it was an unusual move for an overseas production business to pitch a project, but it resulted in Australian-set animation Dex Hamilton. Tracey Prisk finds out more.(ANIMATION)
September 1, 2008... SYDNEY-BASED SLR PRODUCTIONS' PRINCIPAL Suzanne Ryan admits that it was highly usual for an overseas production entity to pitch her company a project which was set in Australia but that's exactly what happened when international...

Skipping the ipod option in favour of indy distribution; Peter Galvin reports on how, after more than a year of fathoming the complexities of exhibiting and distributing movies, Tim Boyle took his own approach.(THE PLEX)
September 1, 2008... AT FIRST DIRECTOR TIM BOYLE NEVER ENVISAGED trying to get his low-budget feature, The Plex into cinemas. "Originally I was thinking of doing it for mobile phone and ipod," he told Encore. But after spending more than a year in getting to...

Lennon earns credit on Aussie production.(IN BRIEF)(Julian Lennon )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... British musician Julian Lennon has earned a "presentation" credit on a new local feature documentary production Whale Dreamers. Though it is conceived, produced and directed by another Englishman Kim Kindersley, Byron Bay based executive...

Italian film festival details announced.(IN BRIEF)
September 1, 2008... The line-up for the 2008 Lavazza Italian Film Festival has been announced. The Festival will show 25 new films, plus a Retrospective of 12 movies taken from the past four decades. The dates are: Melbourne: Sept 17 -Oct 5, Palace Balwyn, Cinema...

Every month.(LISTINGS)
September 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: news/talk/business/current affairs in production.(Production Report LISTINGS)
September 1, 2008... 60 Minutes Network: Nine Network Prod off: Sydney Prod co: Nine Network Exec Prod: Hamish Thomson Prod: Sandra Cleary, Damien Comerford Glenda Gaitz, Phil Goyen, Nick Greenaway, Jonathan Harley, Hugh Nailon, Stephen Rice, Stephen Taylor,...

Web.
September 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 www.bayviewtech.com.au...

Will the stars align for pay TV next year? When Optus' new satellite goes up next easter, it will spark a chain of events in the world of Australian subscription TV. Harvey Shore reports.(Hearsay)
September 1, 2008... THE NEW OPTUS D3 SATELLITE IS STILL HALF A YEAR away, but already a queue is forming outside Foxtel chief Kim Williams' door. This queue wants to offer Australia's pay TV subscribers dozens of new channels and services. However, Foxtel and...