Metro Magazine articles from June 2007

Metro Magazine archives from June 2007

Film industry support--a whole new era.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... IN THE MAY BUDGET, the federal government announced the result of its 2006 Review of Australian Government Film Funding Support: a $282.9 million package which will make significant changes to the support and administrative structures of...

The super-agency.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Just how the FFC, AFC and Film Australia will merge into the new super-agency, a body that will apparently take on the roles of regulator, certifier, producer, investor, cultural supporter and arbiter, and archive (an identity quite similar,...

What is an 'Australian film'?(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... While the federal government had announced that eligibility of productions would be based on the current 10BA criteria for certification as an 'Australian film', but with sources of financing and ownership of copyright no longer included as...

Documentary.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Documentary makers in particular have a number of concerns about the new system, and are continuing to meet, lobby and agitate. The offset rebate of twenty per cent for eligible local documentaries applies when the budget reaches $500,000 (or...

Low-budget production.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... If, as it seems clear, feature-film projects under $1 million won't qualify for the rebate, this is probably something that needs to be taken into consideration in connection with the overall development of the industry. In this digital age...

The shrivelling forty per cent.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Producer Rebate has been set at what was initially seen as a generous forty per cent, but with a number of budget categories apparently not considered eligible (including completion bond and insurance items, marketing, financing,...

Distribution.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Feature films, to qualify for the Producer Rebate, 'will require a guaranteed cinema release'. But will the new rebate be sufficient incentive for distributors to increase their total level of investment and therefore the total number of...

Australian audiences.(SHORTCUTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... How to increase the success of Australian titles at the Australian theatrical box office? A spokesperson has said that the government wants to support films that engage with an audience. But Australian films rarely break out beyond their home...

Screen Cultural Issues
June 1, 2007... It is interesting that at the same time as the Australian industry is being changed in ways that may sideline or even ignore screen cultural values, something is happening in the UK that should cause us some concern. In an article entitled 'Save...

The Home Song Stories: Making It Real: Tony Ayres' Second Feature Tells a Powerful Autobiographical Tale of Love, Loss, Migration and Family, While Keeping Its Emotions Beautifully in Check
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HONG KONG, 1964. An Australian sailor, Bill (Steve Vidler), falls in love with a beautiful Chinese nightclub singer, Rose (Joan Chen). Their courtship and Bill's proposal of a new life for her and her two children, May...

To Love More: Clubland Director Cherie Nowlan
June 1, 2007... Let's start off talking about Clubland and what attracted you to the script. The truth of the script is what attracted me to it, it was very funny and there were certain things in it, certain lines that made me think it had to be from...

Going Walkabout Lucky Miles: I Don't Know How Many Films Are Needed to Constitute a New Genre, but after Watching Lucky Miles (Michael James Rowland, 2007) I Couldn't Help Thinking That There's a Definite Mutation Going on in Australian Cinema
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OF COURSE I could be wrong. It's not the sort of thing that filmmakers deliberately attempt, and so many of the rules that define genre are completely subjective anyway. Certainly when I walked into the cinema I wasn't...

A Road Movie without a Road: An Interview with Michael James Rowland: Brian McFarlane: You and Helen Barnes Are Credited as 'Co-Writers'. What Was the Source of Your Story in Lucky Miles and How Did You Go about the Writing Process Together?
June 1, 2007... MICHAEL James Rowland: Helen's a novelist and she doesn't generally write for the screen, but we'd met at an AFTRS writing course and became mates. We'd written together once before for one of SBS's DIY television projects, and we'd had a good...

This Boy's Life: Romulus, My Father: In Richard Roxburgh's Debut Feature, We See the Turbulent World of a Migrant Family in 1960s Rural Australia through the Eyes of a Child
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A LIGHT bulb swings in the darkness, awakening the sleeping bees in the palm of a hand. Drowsy at first, then slowly gaining energy, the beese take flight, out of the room and into the breaking dawn. This image--one...

'West': Sex, Drugs and No Control: Two Youths, Cousins, Crouch against a Wall in a Stormwater Canal, Drinking and Talking. 'So, What Are We Going to Do This Year?' Asks Jerry, 'The Same Thing We Did Last Year,' Answers Pete. Jerry Frowns, 'Yeah, but You've Got to Have a Plan.' Pete Demurs-There's No Point in Having Plans, He Insists. 'They Don't Happen. You Get Depressed.'
June 1, 2007... THIS opening to West, debut feature from writer-director Daniel Krige, concisely, if somewhat clumsily, elucidates the film's central theme, and the next ninety-odd minutes are spent driving the point home. Following the aimless lives of youths...

Silence, Please: Dr Plonk
June 1, 2007... 'I just think, "Ah! That's a great idea, I'd like to do that!"'--Rolf de Heer. (1) Is Rolf de Heer Australia's most risk-taking, most innovative filmmaker? This, in the light of his track record over the last decade or so, is at least an...

Some Takes on the Meaning of Noise: One Popular Research Strategy of the Post-Structuralist Interpretative Paradigm of Cultural Studies Is Textual Analysis, a Methodology of Great Comfort to the Contemporary Film Reviewer When Confronted by Those with Differing Opinions
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] THIS way of understanding the world acknowledges that a given text has no single, definitive meaning and that a wide variety of sense-making practices are not only valid but also perfectly acceptable, thus permitting...

Their Brothers Keepers: Bra Boys: Bra Boys Is a Feature-Length Documentary about an Infamous Sydney Surfing Brotherhood. It Has Become the Highest Grossing Non-IMAX Cinema-Release Australian Documentary. Bruce Andrews Explored the Filmmakers' Journey
June 1, 2007... SUNNY Abberton is the 34-year-old director of Bra Boys (2007) and the eldest brother of Jai (32), Koby (27) and Dakota (16). The brothers were raised in (Marou)bra--(Marou)bra boys--by their much loved grandmother 'Ma' and say surfing and...

It All Begins at Home: Accelerating Local Film Talent: 'The International Film Festival Scene Is Largely about Discovering the Next Hot Young Thing,' Says Nick Feik, Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) Programmer, 'And MIFFs Accelerator Program Is Largely about Framing That Discovery'
June 1, 2007... In July 2003, MIFF introduced the Accelerator program under the direction of its then executive director, James Hewison. According to Hewison, Accelerator was created as a way of 'distilling all the ingredients of a dynamic film festival and...

In Danger of Great Film: The Tenth Revelation Perth International Film Festival: For the First Time, Richard Sowada Is Not at the Helm of One of Australia's Most Unique and Challenging Film Events, the Revelation Perth International Film Festival. Filmmaker and Critic Megan Spencer Has Taken Up the Responsibility to Curate a 2007 Program of Independent and Underground Film
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THIS year is the tenth of these annual screenings and conferences, bringing a radical array of contemporary filmmaking to Perth. The work at Revelation ('Rev') is independent: made by inspired rather than commercial...

Vibrant and Varied: The Melbourne International Animation Festival: The Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF), in Its Sixth Year in 2007, Brings Together Animation from around the World, and Highlights with Pride the Animation Being Produced in Australia
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THIS year the organizers brought 350 animated films together, and showed special programs on the greats of Polish animation, the work of American legend Fred Crippen, highlights from Korea's Indie AniFest, two excellent...

'The Curse of the Golden Flower' and Two Trends in Chinese Cinema: The Release of Zhang Yimou's the Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) in Australia Provides a Timely Moment for Reflection on the Huge Schism in Chinese Cinema at the Moment
June 1, 2007... IT is a schism born of two contradictory approaches. The first attempts to find textual forms that will serve as models for the economic consolidation of the cinema, domestically and internationally. The second views cinema as a mode of dissent...

Palestine Uncut: The Inaugural Melbourne-Palestine Film Festival: 'There Was No Such Thing as Palestinians, They Never Existed.' So Said Israeli Prime Minister Golda Maier in 1969
June 1, 2007... THIS STATEMENT must have fanned the flame in every Palestinian filmmaker's breast because ideas of selfhood, struggle and presence permeated the ten films screened at the first Melbourne-Palestine Film Festival, held 16-17 June. Palestine...

Introduction to Newsfront.(The Atlab/Kodak Cinema Collection)(Movie review)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Few films of the Australian revival of the 1970s are held in such affectionate regard as Phillip Noyce's Newsfront (1978). It evokes the Australian decade following the end of World War Two with precision and rigour: certainly, one may feel...

'Newsfront': Part Two. Newsfront Was One of the Most Highly Successful Films of the 1970s Revival in Australian Cinema; It Was 'That Rare Thing: A Movie That Pleased the Crowds and the Critics'. (1) Indeed the Film Was Well Received by Critics and Patrons Alike, Grossing a Satisfactory $19,000 in Its First Week and Continuing to Bring in Solid Returns over Subsequent Months. (2)
June 1, 2007... IT also won an astounding eight AFI awards (3) and was lauded even outside the domestic market, at film festivals in Cannes, New York, London and Taormina. Newsfront has continued to be a landmark film discussed by a wide range of film...

Taking the 'Nation' out of Gallipoli: Tolga Ornek's Gallipoli: The Frontline: From Both Sides of the Trenches, the Famous Battle of Gallipoli Has Often Been Exploited as a Vehicle for Whipping Up Naive Nationalistic Sentiment by Filmmakers and Politicians Alike
June 1, 2007... IN the Turkish national consciousness Gallipoli, or the 'Canakkale battle' as it is referred to, is the landmark campaign in which General Mustafa Kemal established his reputation as a formidable and courageous leader who later became the new...

Bonds of War: Tolga Ornek on Gallipoli: The Frontline and Australian-Turkish Relations
June 1, 2007... Catherine Simpson: What was the inspiration for Gallipoli: The Frontline? (Tolga Ornek, 2005) Tolga Ornek: My previous documentary, The Hittites (2003), had put us in a very good position in Turkey as far as the backers, the public and the...

The Shape of Light: Australian Cinematographers: Part One: Setting the Scene; Russell Boyd: The Following Article Is the First in a Three-Part Series Examining the Work of Australia's Premier Cinematographers
June 1, 2007... A MID the strange ingredients of Hollywood... there is a figure unknown to the chants of promoters and glorifiers... This figure, a giant in his industry, is the cameraman--the sine qua non of a profession, which often boasts that no one in...

The Picture That Might Have Been: The Story of the Kelly Gang: The Story of the Kelly Gang (Charles Tait, 1906) Plays a Powerful Role in the History of Australian Cinema. the Claim That a 4000-Foot Film, Running for More or Less a Whole Hour, Was One of the First (Perhaps Even the First!) Feature Films in the World Is Taken as Evidence That Australia Was, and Might Have Continued to Be, in the Vanguard of World Film Production
June 1, 2007... ALAS, it was too good to last and the bad guys--Hollywood, of course--intervened to reduce us to the sorry state in which we have spent the past ninety years, struggling to sustain film production. Shot in the leg, shot in the foot: such is...

Filmonomics: An Introduction to the Economics of the Box Office: Can Economics Play a Role in Predicting the Next Big Hit?
June 1, 2007... ECONOMICS 101 teaches students to understand the basic fundamentals of demand and supply by using demand and supply curves. The demand curve states that, other things being equal, the lower the price, the more quantity is demanded. The supply...

Metro 153 the Big Picture: Australian Box Office Wrap
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] This new series will shed light on what Australians are watching in cinemas, from the seemingly endless glut of assembly-line blockbusters to the comparatively small number of homegrown titles, and all that falls...

From the Big Screen to the Computer Screen: Australianscreen' Goes Online: A New Website from the Australian Film Commission Aims to Be the Number One Resource for Learning about Australian Film
June 1, 2007... THE australianscreen website is the culmination of a three-year undertaking by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) to provide a web-based resource which offers access to information on a wide range of Australian audio-visual production,...

Get Your Shorts Out
June 1, 2007... Two industry forums held during the St Kilda Film Festival (SKFF), Melbourne, gave local and visiting filmmakers the opportunity to hear film festival representatives and experts share festival information and strategy. The first forum covered...

Vale Richard Franklin: Filmmaker and Educator: Richard Franklin Died of Prostate Cancer on 11 July in Melbourne at the Age of Fifty-Eight
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AS a director, his films included Patrick (1978), Roadgames (1981), Psycho II (1983), Cloak & Dagger (1984), Hotel Sorrento (1995) and Brilliant Lies (1996). His film biography is impressive and well documented so I...

IndiVision: A Pathway for Low Budget Filmmakers: It Is Encouraging to See IndiVision, an Initiative of the Australian Film Commission, Tackling the Huge Problem of Competing with Overseas Blockbuster Movies. This Does Not Imply That We Can Compete with the Overall Profits of Such Films, but Rather We Can Still Make Excellent Films That People Want to See
June 1, 2007... INDIVISION accepts that budgets are generally small in Australia and has decided to focus on the very low end of budget filmmaking. If you're fairly new on the feature film scene, then you can expect your budget to fall in this category. (Why...

Your Typical Mini-Series: Bastard Boys: On the Night of 17 April 1998, I Stood on Swanston Dock with Several Thousand Other People. Each of Us Supported the Embattled Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) in Its Dispute with Patrick Stevedores and the Federal Liberal Government
June 1, 2007... MY ARMS WERE LINKED with those of two of my friends and scattered through the crowd were other friends and acquaintances of mine. There was no chance of movement around the crowd; it was pressed too closely together. But as is so often the case...

Our Digital Aunty: The ABC's New Media Future: This Is the First in a Two-Part Series That Looks at the ABC's Digital and New Media Horizons
June 1, 2007... Now we are two: ABC2 THE ABC's managing director, Mark Scott, announced in February a major overhaul of Aunty's current divisional structure. Significantly, the New Media and Digital Services division has been dismantled with the aim of...

Performing History: The 'Circa' Theatre at the National Museum of Australia: Circa, the National Museum of Australia's Rotating Multimedia Theatre, Has Been a Site of Political and Historical Debate as Much as It Has Been a Site of Cultural Learning and Entertainment
June 1, 2007... WHEN it opened in 2001, the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in Canberra was notably influenced by the changing mediascape to which it also sought to contribute. It was influenced by the emergent aesthetic practices and technological...

Invasion of the iPod People: Music and Radio: 'It's the Invasion of the Pod People.' These Words from American TV's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Provide Just One Example of the Media Excitement That Accompanied the Appearance of iPod around the Globe
June 1, 2007... Invasion of the iPod people: music and radio: 'it's the invasion of the pod people.' These words from American TV's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer provide just one example of the media excitement that accompanied the appearance of iPod around the...

Done by Law: Australia's New Media Ownership Laws: What Do Australia's New Media Ownership Laws Mean to the General Public? Will Debate on the Issues of the Day Be Stifled? Is Our Democracy under Threat?
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN the biggest media shake-up in twenty years, the federal government's overhaul of the media laws was passed in the Senate last October. The most significant change, the one gaining the most attention and the one the...

Reading the Signs: An Interview with Andy Carmichael: The Hearing Son of Two Deaf Scottish Parents, 36-Year-Old Andy Charmichael Came to Sydney to Take a Graduate Diploma in Television Producing at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Why Did a Professional Sign Language Interpreter with a Peerless International Reputation Decide to Go to Film School So He Could Reinvent Himself as a Television Producer?
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANDY grew up bilingual in the deaf community in Glasgow, a community he describes as 'pretty much self-reliant'. He explains: Deaf people are hard workers--my father was an engineer and college lecturer, my mother...

Two Westerns That Weren't? the Tracker and the Proposition: While the Australian Scrublands and the American Frontier May Be Continents Apart, Can We Describe Two Australian Films as Westerns?
June 1, 2007... ROLF de Heer's 2002 film The Tracker is an allegorical work of occasionally heavy-handled didacticism that deals with race relations between Indigenous and European Australians in the 1920s. Critics were quick to pigeonhole its genre, with...

Translating Identities: The Italian as Other in Two Early American Films
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Italian as criminal, Mafioso and sexual predator is a well-established character in American film genres. The Italian (Reginald Barker, 1915) and Poor Little Peppina (Sidney Olcott, 1916) demonstrate that long...

Showing Some Fight: Kemira's Challenge to Industrial Relations
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Join together our forces, put B.H.P. on the rack, We must take some action, and jobs we all need, And stop this big company raping Australia for greed. So workers of Wollongong, we must all unite,...

01 Not How Your Dad Remembers It: Robin Hood
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There's something about the new Robin Hood that annoys Critics of a Certain Age. Upon its premiere, the reviews were full of complaints like 'Robin looks a bit like a guitarist', 'Marian's a bit chunky' and 'What's with...

02 'A Beginner's Guide to Making Sex and Violence Really Boring' by Torchwood (Age 14 3/4): Torchwood
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There aren't a lot of successful family shows on television, but Russell T. Davies' version of Doctor Who definitely qualifies. It crosses all demographics--young and old, male and female--and unsurprisingly the BBC was...

03 Licence to Thrive: Last Chance Learners
June 1, 2007... In Last Chance Learners, ten hopeless drivers are given expert help to obtain their licences through advanced driver training. They are offered the lure of a brand-new car as an inducement to pass their test within thirty days. On arrival at the...

Idiot's Box with Steven Aoun
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself... Had I it written, I would tear the word.'--Romeo and Juliet (1) 'He has made the world weep.'--Cho Family Statement (2) ? Seung-Hui Cho, the mass murderer who called...

Wires Up Computer Games
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You will never play the Playstation 2 game Rule of Rose. Australia has now successfully built a reputation of intolerance towards violence, sexuality and adult themes in computer games to the extent that the game's...

01 Sheep and the Australian Cinema.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 01 SHEEP AND THE AUSTRALIAN CINEMA DEB VERHOEVEN, MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2006 I live in rural Australia. There are sheep in the paddock across the creek as I write. 'Sheep and the Australian Cinema?' I...

02 Where Does it Happen?: John Cassavetes and Cinema at the Breaking Point.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... 02 WHERE DOES IT HAPPEN?: JOHN CASSAVETES AND CINEMA AT THE BREAKING POINT GEORGE KOUVAROS, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, MINNEAPOLIS, 2004 Where Does It Happen?: John Cassavetes and Cinema at the Breaking Point by George Kouvaros...

03 The Hollywood Interviews.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 03 THE HOLLYWOOD INTERVIEWS CAHIERS DU CINEMA. BERG, OXFORD & NEW YORK, 2006 Cahiers du Cinema was the central critical voice that first said cinema was an art form and the director was the true author of a...

04 Film Business: A Handbook for Producers.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... 04 FILM BUSINESS: A HANDBOOK FOR PRODUCERS EDITED BY TOM JEFFREY, ALLEN & UNWIN, 2006 This is a timely revision of a book that has been successful for fifteen years. Regardless of whether you range across forms or specialize, this...

05 Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 05 TELEVISION DISRUPTED: THE TRANSITION FROM NETWORK TO NETWORKED TV SHELLY PALMER, FOCAL PRESS, 2006 This US-focussed book largely succeeds in its aim of providing a comprehensive introduction to the...

06 Mediaworks: The Industry Guide.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 06 MEDIAWORKS: THE INDUSTRY GUIDE BY SALLY HOBAN, CRAFTSMAN HOUSE/THAMES & HUDSON, 2004 Aimed at readers considering a career in media, the publishers of this book describe it as 'the perfect starter kit...