What's at Risk: Justice Leauge or the Australian Film Industry?

Justice League Mortal is the film everyone is talking about and its not even in cinemas, yet-

Background:
A new tax incentive for Australian producers has been introduced, its called the Tax Offset (formally the Tax Rebate) and it provides up to a 40% Offset of budget of the film, which goes to the Producer. Like all incentives this one comes with its Red Tape. On this occasion a film must qualify under QAPE (Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure) to be able to access the Offset. This means that when a film is submitted, to the powers that be, a panel of assessors decide if the film is Australian 'enough' and if it is, then it gets the tick of approval. If not? Then find another country to film in with better tax breaks or change the script.

The Situation:
Justice League Mortal now sits in production limbo as, rumour has it, the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) rejected the producers preliminary request for the 40% Offset. So the question remains, are an Australian director, some key cast and crew enough to be an Australian Film? Or does the story have to be about a man cooking 'shrimp' on a Barbie in the outback? In today’s times, when filmmaking is becoming an increasingly global phenomenon the question is asked, what is an Australian film? And does an industry, that seems to be all but fading away, have the capacity to let such an investment go?

Well, on Wednesday, Dr. George Miller (director of Justice League) gave an impassioned response when interviewed by Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National about why he feels Justice League Mortal should receive the Offset.

There is an audio file of the interview and an interesting write up in The Sydney Morning Herald.

What do you think?

Want to know more about Justice League the comic? Find out here.

-Andrew.

AIDC Day 3

After our late night of inspiration how did the final day play out? Read on...

Day 3: Friday

Peter Greenaway was the keynote speaker of the conference and his session was well worth the wait. He spoke very provocatively about Documentary itself as a form and challenged everyone’s notion of the context of cinema in contemporary life. He sees the idea of “the frame” as a limited way of shooting and exhibiting films and has begun to test new ways of viewing films and on new subjects. He has been working with artists in Italy who have been projecting work on massive surfaces, from museum walls and ceilings to 10m high boards. The most interesting clip he showed featured Rembrandt’s The Nightwatchman and was originally played during a Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam. Digital composting was used to bring the painting to life, adding a whole new aspect of light, sound and vision to the work.

I came away from Greenaway's talk feeling that I had experienced something new. It is hard to describe but it is as if something in the new age of cinema is a foot and Peter Greenaway is onto it.

I went to a session run by Bruno Felix, from submarine channel, about the way documentary and the virtual world is evolving together. Later, Phil and I both sat in on the session, Basement Tapes by Brett Gaylor. He is a young director from Canada, making a groundbreaking documentary on Piracy and copyright in the digital world. He helped establish this idea of open source cinema, which encourages re-mixing and re-mashing of one filmmakers work by another. Another session, another glimpse at what the future of filmmaking may look like.

The day ended with some padded out sessions including listening to the people behind ABC and SBS explain what they are programming and looking for over the coming year and according to Matt Campbell Australia's Top Gear did not cost $11m. I was able to meet Jennifer Collins from ABC and chat about our project, she was interested in it and recommended we apply for the JTV DOCS funding round.

The day ended on a high note going for drinks at the Beach Bar, meeting and greeting other producers, directors and people from state agencies. With plenty of Little Creatures on offer and a cool setting it was a great way to end a very full three days.

It was then time to say good bye to the Ole B&B and fly back to the East side to our homes in Canberra. With new deadlines to meet and plenty of business cards to sort through it’s back in front of the computer and into it all over again.

AIDC Day 2

Thinking back to day 2...it was a day that began quickly, lost its way then ended with a high energy climax...so what exactly went down?

Day 2: Thursday

First up was “Who's Who” where all the delegates sat in the audience and were introduced to the faces behind the networks and broadcasters from all around the world with likes of National Geographic, Channel 4, ITVS and Verve Entertainment International.

Documart! For the first time Phil and I watched people giving pitches to television broadcasters from all around the world; Scotland, Germany, the USA, Bangladesh and of course SBS and ABC from Australia. This may show my age, but I wonder why commercial networks like Ten, Seven and Nine don't turn up? Documentary seems to be a hot form at the moment so you never know...(if anyone does know the answer tell us in the comments)

Some pitches were great, some were...not so...actually on second thought all of them were pretty good. The most interesting thing about it was to watch the re-actions and interactions between "pitcher" and the “broadcaster”. Sometimes broadcasters were nice, interested and right into the idea and other times they were ice cold. Phil and I will be mindful of this when we tighten our synopsis and treatments as well as use this experience to further our pitching skills for the future.

“What’s in it for private investors?” was interesting...to sum it up? In our opinion? The new producers offset still has a few bugs to be worked through and the FFC or the to be new Screen Australia will have to work hard with banks and institutions to ensure that the offset is seen as a secure viable model for investing into Australian production. One thing that can be said is that the offset is not designed for small time independent producers but for medium to large size companies who can take on a slate of projects. Instead of trying to make it sound like there are ways for little indie guys to survive I wish someone would have the guts to say what is really going on here and that this is not right as it could destroy the business model for small time players. Some may argue that this is fine, that they are not needed but if the raw indie producers are culled off then the industry stands to lose fresh ideas and its vibrant-risky edge.

The next seminars were so so and our night was drifting nowhere, then by chance we bumped into Tim Sparke from joiningthedots.tv and had fish and chips for dinner with him. We got talking about our project and joiningthedots.tv and before we new it we were debating the current trends in cinema, from England, Australia to the USA and Europe. Later, Tim worked through our film narrative further. We ended up getting some contacts from him and at the stroke of midnight (almost) we met Daryl Karp, Chief Executive Officer of Film Australia. She added some thoughts on our project and with that we walked back to our humble B&B with a renewed focus and vigour.