tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/screen-australia-7462/articlesScreen Australia – The Conversation2024-03-12T19:16:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248532024-03-12T19:16:06Z2024-03-12T19:16:06ZAll of Us Strangers buys into tropes of tragic queer lives – but there is hope there, too<p><em>This article contains spoilers and discussions of trauma and homophobia.</em></p>
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<p>On the surface, All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh, is a dark and twisty love story. Underneath, there is the often-present storyline seen in queer cinema: that of trauma and tragedy. </p>
<p>All of Us Strangers follows lonely middle-aged gay man Adam (Andrew Scott), struggling to come to terms with his tragic past and sexuality. Adam is a screenwriter, attempting to use his craft to work through his trauma, but his solitary life is interrupted by his new neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal). </p>
<p>Through a dreamworld-like exploration, Adam experiences the companionship and love accepting his homosexuality would bring, all the while visiting his dead parents in an “I see dead people” Sixth Sense fashion. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the story ends with the realisation Harry, like Adam’s parents, was actually dead all along, and the film leaves us wondering if Adam himself is a ghost, too. </p>
<p>LGBTIQA+ audiences are accustomed to seeing themes of loss, grief, homophobia and tragedy play out on screen, and this film is no exception. While it explores these themes through a beautiful, haunting ghost story, gorgeous cinematography, affective music score and captivating performances, it still reinforces the narrative queer people cannot live happy lives.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/all-of-us-strangers-coming-to-terms-with-the-grief-and-trauma-of-being-gay-in-the-1980s-222530">All of Us Strangers: coming to terms with the grief and trauma of being gay in the 1980s</a>
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<h2>Queer representation</h2>
<p>Queer representation in mainstream media has historically been marred by negative stereotypes, tokenistic representation and death. In my recent interactive documentary, <a href="http://www.queerrepresentationmatters.com">Queer Representation Matters</a>, queer media scholars and queer screen storytellers share how queer characters are often relegated to roles characterised by tragedy or trauma, perpetuating harmful tropes like “bury your gays”.</p>
<p>Bury your gays is a storytelling trope that sees LGBTQI+ characters die, often to propel the story forward for a cis, heterosexual character. We can first find these stories in late 19th century literature such as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). </p>
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<span class="caption">Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray could be considered an early example of ‘bury your gays’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.07756/">Library of Congress</a></span>
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<p>It gained traction in the early 20th century, in Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour (1934) and Vin Packer’s Spring Fire (1956) (although she doesn’t die, just ends up institutionalised), and continues to appear in novels, plays, films and on television. </p>
<p>Films such as The Hours (2002), Philadelphia (2003), Brokeback Mountain (2005), A Single Man (2009) and Black Swan (2010) are all films about a queer character who suffers and dies. </p>
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<p>You may remember some of these much-loved, yet killed-off TV characters: Villanelle from Killing Eve (2018–2022), Poussey Washington from Orange is the New Black (2013–2019) and Lexa from The 100 (2014–2020). </p>
<p>Online queer news site, Autostraddle, have compiled a <a href="https://www.autostraddle.com/all-65-dead-lesbian-and-bisexual-characters-on-tv-and-how-they-died-312315/?all=1">list of the 230+ dead queer female TV characters</a>, which continues to be updated with each death. </p>
<p>Essentially, for queer people, it starts to feel like you can’t have queer representation without someone dying tragically at the end. </p>
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<p>A 2023 <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/reports-and-key-issues/reports-and-discussion-papers/seeing-ourselves-2">report</a> from Screen Australia shows only 7.4% of main or recurring characters on Australian scripted TV from 2016–2021 were identifiably LGBTQI+, and although there <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241236990">have been improvements</a> in representing more complex and inclusive queer stories on Australian television, we remain quite conservative in depicting queer sex and diverse genders. </p>
<p>Queer people will have <a href="https://variety.com/2016/tv/columns/the-100-lexa-dead-clarke-relationship-13-1201722916/">different and complicated</a> responses to queer death on screen. The result of the bury your gays trope is many queer people are left feeling that being queer means you are destined for tragedy. Witnessing another queer death on screen can make us revisit past wounds and experiences.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-studied-two-decades-of-queer-representation-on-australian-tv-and-found-some-interesting-trends-224645">We studied two decades of queer representation on Australian TV, and found some interesting trends</a>
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<h2>We need diverse stories</h2>
<p>Tropes will always exist in storytelling, but by having more diverse queer filmmakers telling more diverse queer stories, audiences will have a more balanced narrative about queer life (and life expectancy). </p>
<p>So, do these themes of trauma, tragedy and queer death mean films like All of Us Strangers fall into the bury your gays trope? Not necessarily, no. Here, Harry’s death is not propelling a straight character’s story forward. </p>
<p>It is also necessary to have sad stories about queer characters. Stories that show the queer experience in different social and historical contexts are important to understanding the struggle for LGBTQI+ liberation. </p>
<p>While All of Us Strangers may reinforce the narrative queer people cannot live happy lives, there are moments of tenderness, vulnerability and hope in the film. The true value of the story lies in its creation by gay filmmaker Haigh.</p>
<p>When a gay man is able to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/29/a-generation-of-queer-people-are-grieving-for-the-childhood-they-never-had-andrew-haigh-on-all-of-us-strangers">tell the story his way</a>, the story becomes more authentic. </p>
<p>Haigh’s ability to create truthful conversations between Adam and his parents, cross-generational romance, and the desire to heal persisting wounds, demonstrates the value of the authentic lived experience. </p>
<p>It is important to reflect the tragic queer lived experiences. But when these stories are saturating our big and small screens we are not seeing the alternative – the queer resilience, resistance, joy, hope, creativity, potential and triumph. </p>
<p>We need to see stories that challenge the narrative that being queer ultimately leads to pain, trauma and tragedy. We need to see we can also live long and happy lives, so we can believe we can have the happy ever after. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/all-of-us-strangers-heartbreaking-film-speaks-to-real-experiences-of-gay-men-in-uk-and-ireland-222628">All of Us Strangers: heartbreaking film speaks to real experiences of gay men in UK and Ireland</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Krikowa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On the surface, All of Us Strangers is a dark and twisty love story. Underneath, there is the often-present storyline seen in queer cinema: that of trauma and tragedy.Natalie Krikowa, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1628612021-06-28T03:07:35Z2021-06-28T03:07:35ZInternational franchises love filming in ‘Aussiewood’ — but the local industry is booming too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408327/original/file-20210625-13-1iwc9c0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C3976%2C2413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Dry/Roadshow Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian screen industry is booming. </p>
<p>Russell Crowe recently announced his support for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jun/16/russell-crowe-backs-400m-film-studio-for-coffs-harbour-pacific-bay-resort-studios-and-village">A$438 million film studio</a> — complete with accommodation — in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. </p>
<p>In the lead up to the state election, the Western Australian government announced their own <a href="https://www.if.com.au/wa-government-promises-studio-and-20-million-production-attraction-fund/">$100 million film studio</a> to be located in Fremantle. </p>
<p>This would be the first film studio in the state, and is intended to compete for Hollywood productions with existing major studios in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. </p>
<p>These existing studios have all been fully booked for some time, and film production in Australia shows no sign of slowing down. With effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic and government production incentives, Australian studios are an attractive location. </p>
<p>Indeed, global juggernaut Marvel Studios has relocated its productions to Sydney for the “<a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/marvel-movies-set-to-be-filmed-in-sydney-for-the-foreseeable-future/news-story/7c2f76c57ca3cc109185a2a3892cfe87">foreseeable future</a>”.</p>
<p>It may seem the current boom is led by the strong growth of “Aussiewood”, or locally-filmed international productions. But more than 80% of the productions currently being made in Australia are Australian.</p>
<h2>The rise of Australian cinema</h2>
<p>Arts policy expert Jo Caust <a href="https://theconversation.com/400-million-in-government-funding-for-hollywood-but-only-scraps-for-australian-film-142979">has cautioned</a> that, while the government’s $400 million production incentive is predicted to attract billions in foreign expenditure and create thousands of jobs, it is a fund for foreign filmmakers, not for Australian films. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-million-in-government-funding-for-hollywood-but-only-scraps-for-australian-film-142979">$400 million in government funding for Hollywood, but only scraps for Australian film</a>
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<p>There are currently <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/upcoming-productions/">more than 90</a> screen projects in pre-production, production or post-production in Australia. </p>
<p>These include international television productions, like Amazon’s Nine Perfect Strangers and blockbuster films like Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder. But more than 80% of current productions are Australian: films where the intellectual property is owned, or jointly owned, and controlled by an Australian production company.</p>
<p>And those Australian productions are increasingly focused on quirky, popular films, telling local stories in new ways.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for 2020 Australian sci-fi film, Occupation Rainfall.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Historically, Australian cinema was dominated by movies emphasising the representation of our cultural identity: Australia’s stories, history, characters and the unique landscape. </p>
<p>Government-funded Australian films were typically informed by a <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/52046/">national identity agenda</a>, which emphasised cultural prestige and middle-class respectability over commercialism or pure entertainment. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="My Brilliant Career screenshot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408325/original/file-20210625-26-mbwyc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Australian New Wave films, like My Brilliant Career, were interested in representation of cultural identity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
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<p>The films of the 1970s and 1980s’ “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41958833">New Wave</a>” are some of our most iconic. Think Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), My Brilliant Career (1979) and Breaker Morant (1980). </p>
<p>During this period, popular genres were often dismissed by the local industry and screen funders. Action, gangster films, fantasy, horror and science-fiction films were viewed as “<a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/202956/">too American</a>”. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, Australian cinema was dominated by art films, dramas and comedies. Many of these films followed quirky characters — think Muriel’s Wedding (1994) or Shine (1996) — that were difficult to compare to US films of the same period.</p>
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<span class="caption">Australian films of the 1990s, like Muriel’s Wedding, were unlike anything coming out of Hollywood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
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<p>These trends of both the New Wave and the 1990s reflected attempts by government funding agencies to prioritise “Australian” content in a global and national market dominated by Hollywood. </p>
<p>But since the 2008 founding of Screen Australia and its explicit remit to <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/last-chance-to-see-20091129-ge87fg.html">prioritise audiences and commercial filmmaking</a>, we are seeing a much <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/production-trends/feature-production/australian-feature-films/genres-produced">broader range</a> of films being made.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-is-opening-its-first-australian-hq-what-does-this-mean-for-the-local-screen-industry-118903">Netflix is opening its first Australian HQ. What does this mean for the local screen industry?</a>
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<p>In the last decade, we have seen action films like Occupation Rainfall (2020), musicals like The Sapphires (2012), Westerns like Mystery Road (2013), horror films like The Babadook (2014) and sci-fi films like I Am Mother (2019).</p>
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<p>And audiences are also responding to these popular genre films: crime drama The Dry (2021) made <a href="https://www.flicks.com.au/news/record-breaking-australian-film-the-dry-reaches-a-fantastic-20-million-at-the-box-office/">over $20 million</a> at the local box-office.</p>
<p>There are no signs that demand for Australian films is slowing down: the Mad Max prequel, Furiosa, is “<a href="https://www.create.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/mad-max-prequel-furiosa-to-be-filmed-in-nsw-2/">expected to become the biggest film ever to be made in Australia</a>”, with filming scheduled to begin next year. </p>
<h2>Traversing the pandemic</h2>
<p>The boom in both international and local productions, however, creates competition for scarce resources.</p>
<p>Large film productions typically need studio space, but the major studios have been solidly booked for some time. The new proposals in Coffs Harbour and Fremantle will go some way to remedy these issues, but there are associated issues, such as the limited pool of film crews for the increasing number of productions.</p>
<p>It is also a tricky time for the industry to forward plan.</p>
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<p>While Australia could be expected to maintain its pull as an attractive production destination because of world-class facilities, locations and competitive financial incentives, the pandemic-advantage is dissipating. </p>
<p>After being an early leader in COVID management, Australia’s vaccine rollout now lags woefully behind the United States. How long will Hollywood studios continue to privilege Australia? </p>
<p>An increasing focus on popular films also raises potential issues for the local industry. Many of these films require substantial special effects and large crews, so remain considerably more expensive to produce. </p>
<p>In order to continue this boom time, Australian film makers must be supported to sustain production and supported in accessing larger international markets, to justify these additional expenses. </p>
<p>These are arguably good problems to have, but they are ones we’ll need to address if the current upswings in both Aussiewood and Australian popular films are to continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162861/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark David Ryan has in the past received Australian Research Council funding to research Australian screen media and Australian Film Institute Research Collection funding to research Australian horror movies in 2018. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly McWilliam has received past Australian Research Council funding to research screen media.</span></em></p>Studios like Marvel may be grabbing the headlines — but it is also an exciting time for Australian stories on screen.Mark David Ryan, Associate Professor Film, Screen, Animation, Queensland University of TechnologyKelly McWilliam, Associate Professor of Communication and Media, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429792020-07-20T05:28:14Z2020-07-20T05:28:14Z$400 million in government funding for Hollywood, but only scraps for Australian film<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348271/original/file-20200720-63094-1534ooo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1777%2C736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marvel Studios</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On July 17, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced an additional <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-17/australian-film-industry-funding-boost/12465348">A$400 million</a> to attract film and television productions to Australia until 2027.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/new-400-million-incentive-boost-jobs-screen-industry">press release</a>, Morrison argued Australia is an attractive destination due to our relative success in managing COVID-19. The idea is that this financial expansion of the “<a href="https://www.ausfilm.com.au/incentives/location/">location incentive</a>” program will attract international filmmakers in production limbo to come to Australia.</p>
<p>What does the Australian film industry get out of this incentive? There is no doubt more film production here will ensure the employment of production staff, technical crews and support actors, many of whom have been badly economically affected by the stoppage in film making. As Morrison notes:</p>
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<p>Behind these projects are thousands of workers that build and light the stages, that feed, house and cater for the huge cast and crew and that bring the productions to life. This is backing thousands of Australians who make their living working in front of the camera and behind the scenes in the creative economy.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.ausfilm.com.au/incentives/location/">existing</a> location offset provides a tax rebate of 16.5% of production expenses spent in Australia, while the location incentive – which this $400 million will go towards – provides grants of up to 13.5% of qualifying expenses. </p>
<p>This new input is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-17/australian-film-industry-funding-boost/12465348">predicted by the government</a> to attract around $3 billion in foreign expenditure to Australia and up to 8,000 new jobs annually. </p>
<p>This is not a fund to make Australian films, but an incentive for foreign filmmakers to make films in Australia.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-has-saved-a-hollywood-blockbuster-but-the-local-film-industry-is-still-missing-out-94027">Queensland has saved a Hollywood blockbuster, but the local film industry is still missing out</a>
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<h2>Global incentives</h2>
<p>Many countries offer <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/2016/07/film-production-incentives-tax-incentives-movie-rebates">similar incentives</a>. </p>
<p>The UK offers up to a 25% cash rebate of qualifying expenditure; Ireland offers 32% tax credit on eligible production, post-production and/or VFX expenses for local and international cast and crew, and goods and services. </p>
<p>Singapore is even more generous, offering up to 50% of qualifying expenses. But as a condition of receiving the money, the filmmakers must portray Singapore in a “<a href="https://nofilmschool.com/2016/07/film-production-incentives-tax-incentives-movie-rebates">positive light</a>”. </p>
<p>There are usually caveats: a minimum spend of the film’s budget in the country providing the incentive; a minimum employment of local practitioners on the crew; and in some cases a “cultural test”. </p>
<p>In the UK, productions can <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/british-certification-tax-relief/cultural-test-video-games/summary-points-cultural-test-film">earn points</a> towards this cultural test by filming in English, contributing to local employment, and creating films “reflecting British creativity, heritage and diversity”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aquaman holds a gold staff." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348276/original/file-20200720-29-l5h0jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aquaman was filmed on the Gold Coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Does Australia apply any similar conditions? The location tax offset requires the company to be operating with an Australian Business Number, and have a minimum qualifying spend in Australia of $15 million, while the location incentive is for “<a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/default/files/consultation/pdf/supporting-australian-stories-on-our-screens-options-paper.pdf">eligible international footloose productions</a>”, that is international films being produced in Australia.</p>
<h2>Delights, and concerns</h2>
<p>The Australian and New Zealand Screen Association — whose members include Universal, Walt Disney, Sony, Netflix, Warner Brothers and Paramount — commissioned a <a href="https://www.screenproducers.org.au/assets/Insights-images/Impact-of-Film-and-Television-Incentives-in-Australia-FINAL-2018-03-12.pdf">research report</a> on Australian location incentives in 2018. </p>
<p>The report argued other countries have been more generous in their provision of location offsetting, thereby resulting in a loss of international production in Australia. The association is <a href="https://anzsa.film/australias-screen-industry-set-to-be-a-key-driver-for-economic-recovery-post-covid-19-following-morrison-government-announcement/">delighted</a> about this latest announcement.</p>
<p>But how do local filmmakers feel about this funding? Screen Producers Australia, whose members include local producers and production businesses, <a href="https://www.screenproducers.org.au/news/spa-welcomes-extended-location-incentive-but-warns-more-to-be-done">has said</a> this funding may help to support around 20% of the local workforce, but is concerned about the lack of support for Australian filmmakers making Australian films.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Very rich people stand in a very posh room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348281/original/file-20200720-37-8hi9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Great Gatsby was filmed in Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This new funding will certainly not help the production and development of locally made films and television. As Screen Producers Australia asserts, foreign made films and producers can now access <a href="https://www.screenproducers.org.au/news/spa-welcomes-extended-location-incentive-but-warns-more-to-be-done">more government funding</a> in Australia than Australian made films and producers.</p>
<h2>A sector in crisis</h2>
<p>On June 24, the federal government announced <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-arts-needed-a-champion-it-got-a-package-to-prop-up-the-major-players-100-days-later-141444">new funding packages</a> to support the “creative economy”. This included $50 million for a Temporary Interruption Fund to help film and television producers who are unable to access insurance due to COVID-19 to secure finance and restart production. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-arts-needed-a-champion-it-got-a-package-to-prop-up-the-major-players-100-days-later-141444">The arts needed a champion – it got a package to prop up the major players 100 days later</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This $50 million is the only support the government has specifically targeted towards the local film sector under coronavirus. Nearly a month on, no details have been released on how filmmakers will be able to access this support.</p>
<p>Since April 2020, free-to-air and subscription television services <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-tv-support-package-leaves-screen-writers-and-directors-even-less-certain-than-before-136545">have been exempt</a> from the need to adhere to the Australian content stipulations, significantly reducing the amount of Australian television content produced into the foreseeable future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-tv-support-package-leaves-screen-writers-and-directors-even-less-certain-than-before-136545">Coronavirus TV 'support' package leaves screen writers and directors even less certain than before</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This was further compounded by an announcement by the ABC in mid-June they would be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-24/abc-announces-cuts-to-programming-and-jobs-funding/12384972">reducing</a> their commitment to local content production, given ongoing budget cuts.</p>
<p>The capacity of the Australian film and television sector to continue to make Australian stories that reflect our culture is seriously impacted. </p>
<p>While the government is showing support and generosity to foreign filmmakers and commercial television interests, it seems less inclined to demonstrate similar largesse to its own creators. </p>
<p>Some film workers are now likely to be employed, but the sector overall will not be assisted. If our own stories are not being made for our audiences, the on-going loss to the nation will be significant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council (SA) and NAVA. </span></em></p>While the government is showing support and generosity to foreign filmmakers and commercial television interests, it seems less inclined to demonstrate similar largesse to its own creators.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1198782019-07-11T03:37:00Z2019-07-11T03:37:00ZInside the story: writing the powerful female world of Wentworth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283219/original/file-20190709-51312-1ajf4f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Susie Porter as Marie and Kate Jenkinson as Allie in Wentworth. The show's drama revolves around a women's prison.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fremantle Media Australia/Xinger Xanger Photograph</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Why do we tell stories, and how are they crafted? In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/inside-the-story-69863">this series</a>, we unpick the work of the writer on both page and screen.</em></p>
<p>One of the major considerations when creating an ongoing television series is its “story world”, made up by its place, people, themes, style and tone. Central to this world is the setting, known in television writing as the “hub” or “precinct”, which serves the need for constant generation of characters and storylines. </p>
<p>Well-known examples of a hub or precinct include Ramsay Street (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088580/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Neighbours</a>), Sun Hill Police Station (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084987/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Bill</a>), the White House (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200276/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">West Wing</a>) and the eponymous <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3428912/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Happy Valley</a>.</p>
<p>With its high turnover of criminals, and the pressure-cooker effect of locking up many characters within the same walls, a prison is a particularly useful story hub for a TV drama series. The Melbourne-set and produced series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2433738/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Wentworth</a>, now in its seventh season on Foxtel in Australia, is a good example of how this can work.</p>
<p>Wentworth reimagines cult show <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077064/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Prisoner</a>, bringing together cold killers, pretty criminals and correctional officers – some of them also corrupt – in the one space. With a series of “top dogs” ruling the roost - from fiery mum Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack) to vigilante leader Kaz Proctor (Tammy Macintosh) – personalities clash, friendships and relationships evolve, and death threats, set-ups and escape attempts are frequently made.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QQfpGRvhmRo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>TV series are often called “returning series”, usually because the setting plays such a vital role in structuring the story. Each week we come back to the same village, hospital, police station or school to see how the characters react to new challenges.</p>
<p>For prison dramas such as Wentworth, mostly the characters do not so much return as remain. Confined within cells, rec rooms, canteens and exercise yards, characters find themselves creating their own dramas, defining their own hierarchies, and of course dreaming up ways to get out (legally or otherwise). </p>
<p>Writers can introduce new characters at any time – for any crime – and mainstay characters can be dispatched with little narrative contrivance, because the prisoners’ lack of control over their own movement is a given.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283235/original/file-20190709-51268-1wc3n7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kate Jenkinson, Leah Purcell and Susie Porter in Wentworth. The enclosed space of a women’s prison is ripe with potential for new characters and conflict.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Enticknap</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many TV series creators have explored the possibilities of detention as a story hub, generating shows such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071036/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Porridge</a> (1974-77), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455275/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Prison Break</a> (2005-17) and most recently <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Orange is the New Black</a> (2013-present). Mostly shot in a few indoor spaces, prison stories are cheaper to produce than many other scripted television series.</p>
<p>Characters in Wentworth have much at stake in each encounter. From eating breakfast to exercising in the yard, they may lose their freedom, social position, familial ties and even their lives. The prison corridor can readily become a place for compassion or conflict, solidarity or rioting.</p>
<p>Queueing to use the public telephone, where we typically see teary connections with loved ones, can easily slip into hierarchical games among the inmates, and sometimes violence. Because of the setting, the extreme stakes and emotional power of melodrama are never far from the surface.</p>
<h2>Female-focused storytelling</h2>
<p>Wentworth’s story hub is distinctive, because it brims with women. Wentworth Correctional Centre is a (fictional) social space constructed primarily by and for women. This allows for a variety of female identities and experiences to be played out.</p>
<p>As part of a global movement to better represent women on screens (and behind the scenes), including Screen Australia’s <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/backgrounders/2017/11-30-gender-matters">Gender Matters</a> program, this show is very timely. Not only does it increase representation of women on screen, it also demands a greater breadth of female characters simply because all of the inmates – and the majority of the staff – identify as female. Women are Governors and “Top Dogs”, the brutalised and the perpetrators. </p>
<p>All of these character types, backgrounds and motivations come together within the powerful female world of Wentworth. In the first season, the prison functions as a magnetic narrative force, drawing the characters towards their incarcerated state. The causes of their custodial sentences are dramatised via flashbacks, so we see their various positions in society before they become levelled as prisoners.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283214/original/file-20190709-51284-hbqyor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Danielle Cormack as Bea in Wentworth. The first season of the show looks at how the characters ended up in prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fremantle Media/Foxtel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In later seasons, the prison functions as a kind of decentralising force as the narrative follows selected characters trying to establish new lives on parole. For example, Liz Birdsworth (Celia Ireland) is released to a halfway house, where she must deal with violence and theft; and inmate Franky’s (Nicole da Silva) attempt to establish a legal career after her release is told over two seasons.</p>
<p>The sheer number of female characters also demands diversity: there are women of various ages, ethnicities, social classes, body shapes, genders, religions and sexualities. This creates a world in which social norms, power dynamics and gender categories can be disrupted and challenged.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283212/original/file-20190709-51253-1mgdxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With a cast largely made up of female characters, Wentworth represents a diversity of women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Freemantle Media/Foxtel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the central characters in Wentworth are lesbian or bisexual. When Franky and her psychologist Bridget develop a strong relationship in season three, for example, the forbidden couple became a fan favourite tagged “Fridget”. </p>
<p>The frequency of representing taboo and marginalised sexualities is a major contributing factor in the enduring appeal of women-in-prison stories. </p>
<p>But the prison of this television series is still an imaginary world, where characters and stories are played for the tastes and thrills of mainstream audiences, rather than to compassionately illuminate the experiences of the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/C57B3CAC8D0EDB87CA25825000141F8F?Opendocument">43,000 Australians</a> who live in our prisons. Although Wentworth features more major Indigenous characters than the <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2016/08-24-study-of-diversity-on-tv-released">average Australian television series</a> (the current season features two Indigenous Australian main characters in an ensemble of ten), it still fails to adequately represent or address the horrifically high rate of <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-indigenous-incarceration-rates-keep-rising-justice-reinvestment-offers-a-solution-107610">Indigenous incarceration</a> here.</p>
<p>Wentworth has been praised <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/john-doyle-prison-drama-wentworth-delivers-superb-storytelling/article26281789/">elsewhere</a> as “a striking example of how to make strongly dramatic, addictive TV using a confined setting”, in a series that is “dark, tense and fully female-centric”. </p>
<p>Inbuilt with drama, rivalries, collusions, hierarchies and forced interactions between characters, Wentworth epitomises how a TV series is not just haphazardly set somewhere, but rather how its precinct can be pivotal in supplying all the necessary elements of drama. </p>
<p>By placing women at the centre of the narrative, Wentworth’s female-centric world also creates opportunities for real industry change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the popular Australian TV series Wentworth, the setting of a women’s prison is a pressure-cooker for drama. The setting also allows for greater representation of diverse female characters.Craig Batty, Professor of Creative Writing, University of Technology SydneyRadha O'Meara, Lecturer in Screenwriting, The University of MelbourneStayci Taylor, Lecturer, RMIT UniversityTessa Dwyer, Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830332017-09-05T20:13:24Z2017-09-05T20:13:24ZCan ‘cli-fi’ actually make a difference? A climate scientist’s perspective<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184466/original/file-20170904-8510-16zmsdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Day After Tomorrow's apocalyptic depiction of climate change is a little embellished. But such storylines can ignite conversations with people that mainstream science fails to reach.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">20th Century Fox</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change - or global warming - is a term we are all familiar with. The <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/">warming</a> of the Earth’s atmosphere due to the consumption of fossil fuels by human activity was predicted in the <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Arrhenius/">19th century</a>. It can be seen in the increase in <a href="https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/">global temperature</a> from the industrial revolution onwards, and has been a central political issue for decades.</p>
<p>Climate scientists who moonlight as communicators tend to bombard their audiences with facts and figures - to convince them how rapidly our planet is warming - and scientific evidence demonstrating why we are to blame. A classic example is Al Gore’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497116/">An Inconvenient Truth</a>, and its <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6322922/">sequel</a>, which are loaded with graphs and statistics. However, it is becoming ever clearer that these methods don’t <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/08/11/more-climate-change-stories-fewer-graphs-and-maps/#665d7f8b798e">work as well as we’d like</a>. In fact, more often than not, we are preaching to the converted, and can further polarise those who accept the science from those who don’t.</p>
<p>One way of potentially tapping into previously unreached audiences is via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_fiction">cli-fi</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/cli-fi-could-a-literary-genre-help-save-the-planet-23478">climate-fiction</a>. Cli-fi explores how the world may look in the process or aftermath of dealing with climate change, and not just that caused by burning fossil fuels. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-solarpunk-or-how-to-be-an-optimistic-radical-80275">Explainer: 'solarpunk', or how to be an optimistic radical</a>
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<p>Recently, I participated as a scientist in a <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2017/08-16-cli-fi?utm_source=email&utm_medium=enews-23-aug&utm_campaign=cli-fi">forum with Screen Australia</a>, looking at how cli-fi might communicate the issues around climate change in new ways. I’m a heatwave scientist and I’d love to see a cli-fi story bringing the experience of heatwaves to light. After the forum, Screen Australia put out a call for proposals for TV series and telemovies in the cli-fi genre. </p>
<p>We absolutely need and should rely on peer-reviewed scientific findings for public policy, and planning to stop climate change and adapt to it. But climate scientists should not expect everyone to be as concerned as they are when they show a plot of increasing global temperatures. </p>
<p>Cli-fi has the potential to work in the exact opposite way, through compelling storylines, dramatic visuals, and characters. By making people care about and individually connect to climate change, it can motivate them to seek out the scientific evidence for themselves. </p>
<h2>Imagined worlds</h2>
<p>The term “cli-fi” was coined at the turn of the millennium, but the genre has existed for much longer. One of the earliest examples is Jules Verne’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6271800-the-purchase-of-the-north-pole">The Purchase of the North Pole</a>, where the tilt of the Earth’s axis is altered by human endeavours (of the astronaut, not industrial kind), bringing an end to seasonal variability.</p>
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<p>More modern examples of cli-fi take their prose from real-life contemporary issues, imagining the effects of human-caused climate change. Some pieces of cli-fi are perhaps closer to the truth than others</p>
<p>Could the <a href="http://www.pik-potsdam.de/%7Estefan/thc_fact_sheet.html">thermohaline circulatio</a>n (which carries heat around our oceans) shut down, bringing a sudden global freeze, as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/">The Day After Tomorrow</a> suggests? There is <a href="https://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n5/full/nclimate2554.html">evidence</a> that it will, but perhaps not as quickly as the film imagines. </p>
<p>Is it possible that fertility rates will be affected by climate change? The television-adapted version of Margaret Atwood’s <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/the-handmaids-tale">The Handmaid’s Tale</a> blames pollution and environmental change for a world-wide plummet in fertility, thus giving a cli-fi undertone to the whole dystopian series. While there is no scientific evidence to currently back this scenario, as a new parent, it struck a chord with me personally. The thought of a world where virtually every couple is unable to experience the joys of parenthood, particularly due to climate change, is quite distressing.</p>
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<span class="caption">Poster for The Road Warrior, the second in the first Mad Max trilogy.</span>
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<p>Cli-fi also underpins the highly acclaimed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_(franchise)">Mad Max</a> movie series. In a dystopian near-future, fossil fuel resources have depleted and the social and environmental impacts are vast. Australia has become a desolate wasteland and our society has all but collapsed.</p>
<p>Although such a scenario will be unlikely to occur in the next couple of decades, it is not completely unrealistic. We are burning fossil fuels far faster than they are forming, with <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421508004126">some predictions</a> that accessible sources will run out in the next century.
And some of our <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/05/economist-explains-3">famous ecosystems</a> are already very sick thanks to climate change.</p>
<p>And then there is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/">Waterworld</a>. Yet another dystopia, where there is no ice left on Earth and sea levels have risen 7.5km above current levels. Civilisations exists only in small settlements, where inhabitants dream of the mythical “dry land”. While the movie overestimates exactly how much water is locked away in ice (sea levels can only rise by up to <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/how-high-will-global-sea-levels-rise">60-70 metres</a>), many major global cities would be <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/09/rising-seas-ice-melt-new-shoreline-maps/">inundated</a> and no longer exist. And while it will take thousands, not hundreds of years for complete melting to take place, sea level rise is already posing a problem for some <a href="http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/news/floria-and-the-rising-sea">coastal settlements</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sea-level-rise-has-claimed-five-whole-islands-in-the-pacific-first-scientific-evidence-58511">small islands</a>. Moreover, Arctic ice is predicted to completely melt away well before the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/110/31/12571.abstract">end of this century</a>.</p>
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<p>Sure, the scientific evidence underpinning these storylines is embellished to say the least, But they are certainly worth deliberating over if they ignite conversations with people that mainstream science fails to reach.</p>
<h2>The power of fiction</h2>
<p>In the long run, cli-fi might encourage audiences to modify their everyday lives (and maybe even who they vote for) to reduce their own carbon footprint.</p>
<p>From personal experience, some audiences tend to disengage from climate change because of how overwhelming the issue may seem. Global temperatures are rising at a rate not seen for millions of years, and we are currently not doing enough to avoid dangerous climate change. Understandably, the scale and weight of climate change likely encourages many to bury their heads firmly in the sand.</p>
<p>To this audience, cli-fi also has an important message to deliver – that of hope. That it is not, or will it be ever, too late to combat human-caused climate change.</p>
<p>Imagining a future where green energy is accessible to everyone, where global politicians work tirelessly to rapidly reduce emissions, or where new technologies are discovered that safely and permanently remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere are absolutely worth air time. Cli-fi can act as prose for science. And on the topic of mitigating climate change, there is no such thing as too much prose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Climate scientists often bombard their audiences with facts and figures - a method of communication that often doesn’t work. Perhaps this is where cli-fi can step in, with its compelling characters and just slightly embellished science.Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Research Fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/826382017-08-20T19:21:56Z2017-08-20T19:21:56ZAustralia’s screen future is online: time to support our new content creators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182370/original/file-20170817-13501-s92x7y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">RackaRacka, a sketch channel on YouTube, have been called Australia's most successful content creators. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from YouTube</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever heard of Mighty Car Mods? Or maybe RackaRacka? Or perhaps Veritasium? These are a few of the most famous Australian screen creators you might never have heard of. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgJRL30YS6XFxq9Ga8W2J3A">Mighty Car Mods</a> are a couple of petrolheads who run the world’s number-one independent online DIY automotive show (their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbGWgvJN1_8">most-viewed video</a> has had 6.6 million views). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/Therackaracka">RackaRacka</a>, run out of Adelaide by brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, creates action-packed videos full of choreographed fight scenes, comic violence, and pop culture references (their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNlLAp2OGi8&t=236s">Marvel v DC video</a> has had nearly 50 million views). Graeme Mason, the CEO of Screen Australia, has described RackaRacka as Australia’s <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/aa9d4041-f0fd-45d2-8764-633d44d930d4/SPA-2016-speech.pdf">most successful content creator</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-web-series-are-shaking-up-australias-screen-industry-79844">How web series are shaking up Australia's screen industry</a>
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<p>You might know <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium">Veritasium</a> as Derek Muller, presenter of SBS documentaries on nuclear power, but who has been leading Australia’s contribution to popular science online and around the world (with 35 million views for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OSrvzNW9FE">video on the Magnus Effect</a>). </p>
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<p>Last week the Australian government released a <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/australian-and-childrens-screen-content-review">consultation paper</a> as part of its review into <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/australian-childrens-screen-content-review">Australian and Children’s Screen Content</a>. The paper acknowledges the explosion of screen content available to Australians online, and the disruption this has caused to many traditional business models in the screen sector. However, it is fair to say there is no consensus on what, if anything, to do about it. </p>
<p>A new industry is emerging based on previously amateur creators turning pro and working across many platforms such as Youtube and other social media, building global fan communities and creating their own media brands. Established industry professionals worry about its lack of quality and that online content creation is not a sustainable career. Actually, it is a real opportunity for Australian creators.</p>
<h2>Dream numbers</h2>
<p>Screen creators such as RackaRacka are producing viewer numbers of which our broadcasters could only dream. At the same time these creators are exporting Australian culture to the world, and generating real export dollars from their huge overseas audiences through a mixture of digital advertising revenue, merchandising, live appearances and other innovative methods. These twin goals have proven very challenging over some time for Australia’s screen content industry.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-local-networks-retreat-netflix-is-filling-the-gap-in-teen-tv-81624">As local networks retreat, Netflix is filling the gap in teen TV</a>
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<p>Worldwide more than three million YouTube creators earn some level of income from their uploaded content, and 3,500 YouTube channels have at least a million subscribers. In Australia, there are now <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/australian-and-childrens-screen-content-review">65 online creators with more than one million subscribers</a>, and about 90% of their video views come from overseas.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.alphabeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Google_Bigger-Picture-Report_Dec2016.pdf">Google-funded study</a> by AlphaBeta estimates the number of content creators in Australia has more than doubled over the last 15 years, almost wholly driven by the entry of 230,000 new creators of online video content. The same study estimates that online video has created a A$6 billion consumer surplus, or the benefit of a service on top of what they’ve paid for it.</p>
<h2>New voices, new business models</h2>
<p>For its consultation paper, the government wants to know what its role in the screen industry, both traditional and online, should be. It’s long been accepted that the creation of content that tells uniquely Australian stories requires government support. </p>
<p>While that remains the case, the government needs to address the evidence that the creation of local Australian online video content is booming and that this has happened with very little government regulation or market intervention. This would suggest that regulation is not the answer to securing the benefits of online video content for Australia.</p>
<p>Platforms like YouTube have allowed creators to commercialise niche content by aggregating small audiences in many countries from around the world into large fanbases. There’s perhaps no better example of this than the YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA">Primitive Technology</a>. Videos on the channel record a man in remote far north Queensland making primitive huts and tools from scratch using only natural materials. </p>
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<p>The videos include no dialogue and you barely see the man’s face. This type of content would never interest a broadcaster, commercial or public. And yet the channel, which launched just over two years ago, has already attracted more than 4.5 million subscribers and its 26 videos have been viewed more than 270 million times.</p>
<p>The popularity of online content creators, and their ability to engage especially new and passionate viewers, explains why Screen Australia has partnered with Google on its successful <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/television-and-online/production/skip-ahead">Skip Ahead program</a> three times since 2014 to provide funding for popular online creators to “take their work to the next level”.</p>
<h2>A gap for government</h2>
<p>Australia’s media industry has changed since the current laws and regulations were drawn up, no more so than in the booming world of online video. As the government ponders its role in supporting Australian content, it should address the online challenge to historical models while also embracing the ongoing success of our online video creators and the stories they tell.</p>
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<p>The biggest gap in the consultation paper is a lack of attention to new online business models. What the paper calls “user generated content” is beginning to transform what Australian content is, and who is engaging with it. The review purports not to be a narrow review of only regulation. Funding support and the needs of the viewers are also on the table. Therefore, it should do three things. </p>
<p>First, it should consider how the government can get a true picture of what screen content Australians, especially the millennial generation largely lost to traditional television, are engaging with. </p>
<p>Second, it should consider a new content fund that facilitates new ways of producing content, and ensuring that creators have sustainable careers. While there are well-established models for film and TV funding, this requires a new approach. </p>
<p>Third, it should consider how to ensure this content fund supports new voices who can genuinely engage with those who have been lost to traditional television and cinema going. It is time to start taking so-called “user generated content” seriously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
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Stuart Cunningham receives funding from the Australian Research Council to conduct research on which this article is based. He has also held a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to conduct research relevant as background to this article. He has also consulted for Google Australia. </span></em></p>Online video is flourishing in Australia with very little government attention. Content creators like Youtube channel RackaRacka are getting millions of viewers, numbers the traditional screen industry can only dream of.Stuart Cunningham, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/798982017-06-22T02:01:03Z2017-06-22T02:01:03ZWhy is the Australian government funding Hollywood films at the expense of our stories?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175081/original/file-20170621-4662-rjgurc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Gulpilil as the tracker Moodoo in the 2002 film Rabbit Proof Fence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rumbalara Films, Australian Film Commission, The, Australian Film Finance Corporation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Watching David Stratton’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/david-strattons-stories-of-australian-cinema/">loving recall of Australian films of the past 50 years</a> over the past three weeks on the ABC, makes you realise how much impact they have had on us all. As one actor says, our films stop us from being mute. They give us a voice. They demonstrate the uniqueness of the Australian character, sensibility and humour. </p>
<p>They have documented cultural changes and the enormous challenges that this old/new country has faced. The films themselves stand alone as amazing and thrilling moments in our shared cultures. They have also provided a forum for public debates around Indigenous rights, new migrants, the rights of women and environmental issues.</p>
<p>Many individuals stand out in this extraordinary history. Actors and the extraordinary characters they created: David Gulpilil, Jackie Weaver, Hugo Weaving, Michael Caton, Judy Davis, Toni Collette and Eric Bana. Directors such as Rolf De Heer, Paul Cox, Phillip Noyce, Gillian Armstrong and Rachel Perkins. Writers such as Andrew Bovell and Jocelyn Moorhouse. And films such as The Castle, Newsfront, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Animal Kingdom, Muriel’s Wedding, The Tracker, Rabbit Proof Fence, Sunday Too Far Away and Samson and Delilah.</p>
<p>Stratton himself has made an amazing contribution with Margaret Pomeranz, commenting on and critiquing the work. This retrospective, interspersed with his own story, showed how his world was changed by his passion for film. As an English migrant coming to Australia, he discovered the wealth that his adopted country could provide. </p>
<p>It is wonderful that this biopic was funded by the Adelaide Film Festival and others to celebrate not just David’s contribution, but the incredible contribution of our filmic storytellers.</p>
<p>Yet over a five-year period, the Australian Government has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-16/myefo-government-slashes-50-million-from-arts-sector/7033296">cut funding</a> for our major film funding agency Screen Australia by more than $51 million. Instead, it has given <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2015/oct/26/how-much-does-australia-really-subsidise-overseas-films-and-is-it-worth-it">at least $70 million </a> over the same period to American producers <a href="http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/mitch_fifield/transcripts/blockbuster_announcement#.WUsYzBKGMQ9">to enable American blockbusters to be made in Australia</a>, as well as providing generous tax breaks.</p>
<p>These unremarkable films include Thor: Ragnarok, Alien: Covenant, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and coming up, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Aquaman</a>. While this subsidy may provide temporary employment for technical crew members and other support people, (and Aquaman will star Nicole Kidman, alongside Amber Heard) it generally does not provide work for Australian filmmakers; be they writers, actors, editors, or directors. </p>
<p>Most importantly, diverting scarce film funding to Hollywood prevents an Australian film (or several Australian films given the size generally of their budgets) being made. As an example, the wonderful <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3680410/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Last Cab to Darwin </a> received less than a million dollars in government funding and nevertheless made $8 million at the box office.</p>
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<p>It seems extraordinary that this argument should still need to be made. Why would governments not want to support Australian stories and Australian films?</p>
<p>As Stratton showed us, Australia produced the first feature film in the world made in 1906. It then took another 70 years for Australian films to be made in any quantity and that was because of the dominance of the Hollywood film industry. </p>
<p>Enlightened governments have provided subsidies to make Australian films from the 1970s. This is one reason why the Australian film industry has produced such a stellar number of great films since then.</p>
<p>It seems perverse that an Australian government is now giving money to Hollywood producers to make their films here and not continue to support the work of its own people. Why?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council (SA) and NAVA. </span></em></p>Watching David Stratton’s loving recall of Australian films of the past 50 years over the past three weeks on the ABC, makes you realise how much impact they have had on us all. As one actor says, our…Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/687402016-11-15T01:38:07Z2016-11-15T01:38:07ZWomen aren’t the problem in the film industry, men are<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145907/original/image-20161114-5108-bfuccw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using the same network analysis used to identify criminal organisations, new research examines how men work in the film industry. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week Australia’s screen producers will gather at their <a href="http://screenforever.org.au/">annual conference</a> to discuss the state of the industry. One of the many hot topics <a href="http://screenforever.org.au/sessions/women-on-the-edge-of-a-nervous-breakthrough/">under review</a> is the federal government’s recent attempt to address the industry’s woeful gender equity record.</p>
<p>Since the federal government began systemically funding film production in the 1970s, participation rates for women in key creative roles (producer, director, writer) have <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-right-to-make-a-scene-about-gender-equity-in-the-australian-screen-industry-51728">never even remotely approached parity</a>.</p>
<p>In response, late last year the national funding agency, Screen Australia, launched a policy response, <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/new-directions/gender-matters">Gender Matters</a>, largely designed to assist women at the level of project and career development. It’s hard to see these tentative initiatives doing more than reiterating that the key problem for addressing gender inequity lies with women themselves. </p>
<p>This was scandalously underlined last week when the Screen Australia Head of Production, Sally Caplan, speaking at the Athena Project forum, declared that what the organisation was <a href="http://screenworks.com.au/theathenaproject/athenaproject-tv-live-stream/">really trying to put in process</a> was “a system whereby organically we’ll get to 50/50” once women are able to “believe in themselves”.</p>
<p>Like Screen Australia, industry commentators typically place the burden for women’s omission from the screen industries on women themselves, rather than seeking to examine the specific dynamics of what must now be plainly called a deeply ingrained pattern of injustice. This is subtly reiterated by the regular release of statistics describing how <a href="http://www.ewawomen.com/en/research-.html">women are missing</a> from film industries around the globe.</p>
<p>But what if, after 40 years of intransigent inequality, we shifted focus and instead turned to address specifically those who benefit from maintaining the status quo?</p>
<p>Research data shows that films with male producers, on average, have creative teams that are 70% male. Similarly, the average creative team for a film with female producers is 60% male. No matter the gender of the producer, key creative roles for men predominate. </p>
<p>What if we used industry data to demonstrate the impact of dominant behaviours, and to inspire new approaches to encourage change in the industry?</p>
<p>This is what we did. We analysed data describing all the key creative roles in films submitted to the <a href="http://www.aacta.org/">AACTA awards</a> between 2006 and 2015. This data includes information on 205 films, which generated 997 key creative jobs.</p>
<p>Using a technique known as Social Network Analysis, we are able to observe how the film industry operates as a series of creative networks in which male-only or male-dominated creative teams thrive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145678/original/image-20161114-9048-1bnpmu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This diagram represents the Australian film industry’s producer networks; that is, who is working with whom. Women are represented by orange dots, and men by purple (the data has been anonymised).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even more specifically, we can use associated techniques such as <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/msparrow/documents--in%20use/Application%20of%20Network%20Analysis%20to%20Criminal%20Intelligence--Social%20Networks--1991.pdf">Criminal Network Analysis</a> to understand how to disrupt networks of what we might call “gender offenders” (men who work predominantly with other men).</p>
<p>Typically Criminal Network Analysis has been used by police and counter-terrorism agencies – for example, identifying how <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4361400/">drug cartels and terrorist networks</a> cohere and how they can be most effectively fragmented. It could also be used to make evidence-based interventions in the film industry’s male dominated creative networks.</p>
<p>For example, using Criminal Network Analysis we have identified which individual producers have the most influence throughout the film industry</p>
<p>We can also measure the significance of specific male producers to maintaining the cohesion of male dominance in the industry and therefore exactly how much impact their absence would have in terms of fragmenting the network.</p>
<p>The network data visualisation below is not really a pretty picture. It describes the relationships between male producers in the Australian film industry over a ten year period. During this time, 89 men in our dataset worked exclusively with other men in key creative roles. That’s around 40% of the total number of male producers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145686/original/image-20161114-9089-1fbsf36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Every point on this diagram represents a male film producer. The pink dots represent men who worked exclusively with other men in the period surveyed, and the green dots represent those who worked with women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course some of these men may have worked with women in other parts of the industry (television or commercials for instance). Or they may have worked with women who have not been credited for their contribution. But interestingly, about 30% of the films made by these male-only teams were also nominally about men, with a male pronoun in the title – The Railway Man, Cedar Boys, Son of Gun and The Boys are Back, just to name a few. </p>
<p>Perhaps most astonishing, more than 75% of the male producers in the industry worked on films during this ten-year interval with only one or no women in key creative roles.</p>
<p>It is our belief that many women and some men would try and act against the unrelenting dynamics that ensure male dominance if they understood how and why these dynamics work.</p>
<p>Male dominance will not decline until there is a different distribution of the film industry’s finite resources, one that is based on reducing the number of men, rather than by using equity measures to “just add women” onto existing production teams.</p>
<p>Unless we know how men control the film industry and unless we understand how they influence the industry’s institutional and social processes, our hopes for developing equitable participation in the industry are unlikely to succeed. </p>
<p>There is no need to maintain the smokescreen around the problem of male domination in the Australian screen industries any longer. The historically consistent lack of equity for women in the film industry is not inevitable, but is caused by identifiable networks of people. Using techniques like Social Network Analysis we can now see this all too clearly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women are underrepresented in the film industry, but it’s not their fault. New research analyses the system that ensures male dominance and identifies the ‘gender offenders’: men who work predominantly with men.Deb Verhoeven, Professor and Chair of Media and Communication, Deakin UniversityStuart Palmer, Associate Professor, Integrated Learning, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519942015-12-08T04:16:13Z2015-12-08T04:16:13ZThree ways Screen Australia can actually improve diversity in the industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104798/original/image-20151208-3108-10deg8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia’s defining narratives are apparently stories by, for and about white cis men.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">George A. Spiva Center for the Arts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 1970s the argument for government subsidy to the local film industry has been made in terms of the opportunity it provides for Australians “to tell our own stories”. </p>
<p>What isn’t clear in this aspirational statement is that, from the outset, these stories have been told almost exclusively in monotone. </p>
<p>Australia’s defining narratives are apparently, and with rare exception, stories by, for and about white <a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-transgender-cisgender-we-are-what-we-name-ourselves-29788">cis</a> men.</p>
<p>In this context Screen Australia’s <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_151207_gendermatters.aspx">recent announcement</a> of a suite of measures intended to address gender equity in the film industry has been widely welcomed. </p>
<p>At the heart of Screen Australia’s response is an endeavour to congregate women creatives (writer, producer, director and protagonist) using a three-tick test (based on a now superseded <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/bfi-announces-1m-diversity-fund-alongside-new-diversity-strands">UK initiative of the same name</a>). But what changes can we realistically expect to emerge from this initiative? </p>
<h2>Piecemeal strategies</h2>
<p>Over the years some attempts have been made to redress inequities in the industry, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>the establishment of a Women’s Film Fund and an <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding/indigenous/default.aspx">Indigenous Program </a> by the national funding agency</li>
<li>the adoption of affirmative action measures, the development of women’s training courses</li>
<li>and now Screen Australia’s plan, <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/c7902a0f-6496-43e2-96b2-e24262ea8ba6/Gender-Matters-Women-in-the-Australian-Screen-Industry.pdf">Gender Matters</a>, which include an initiative to establish <a href="https://theconversation.com/reel-action-on-gender-screen-australia-sets-minimum-targets-for-female-led-projects-51894">non-mandatory “targets” for creative teams</a> that are at least 50% female by 2018 year end. </li>
</ul>
<p>The historical evidence suggests that, as substantive game-changers, these piecemeal strategies are doomed. </p>
<p>Despite various attempts to improve gender equity in the Australian film industry <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/statistics/employmentfeaturefilmmakers.aspx">the data is clear</a>: the position for women in key creative roles has simply worsened. The number of women directors, to take just one metric, is down from 22% in 1992 to 17% in 2014. </p>
<p>It is safe to assume that sporadic equal-opportunity measures or affirmative-action policies that identify the statistical representation of women as the cause rather than the symptom of a problem do not create the conditions for improved diversity throughout the film industry.</p>
<p>It is not the numbers we need to be focused on. It’s the values.</p>
<p>Quotas, compliance measures, targets and even good intentions focused on altering the behaviours of minorities are simply not good enough. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough women. The problem is that too many men benefit from the current system. </p>
<p>We need to look at the systemic and pervasive bias towards rewarding men in the industry at all levels, including within Screen Australia’s micro-practices and macro-structures. We need to critically examine the culture of male entitlement that underlies the film industry and its administration. </p>
<h2>Women aren’t the problem</h2>
<p>The data tells us that women already tend to work together in the industry: in the past five years <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-right-to-make-a-scene-about-gender-equity-in-the-australian-screen-industry-51728">90% of women directors had female producers</a>. </p>
<p>Male creatives on the other hand, have a demonstrated preference for working with other men. So by proposing an initiative designed to get women to work together, Screen Australia is reiterating the status quo rather than solving an evident problem. </p>
<p>Perhaps more promising is Screen Australia’s (rather vague) commitment to adding the gender and cultural diversity of creative teams as a consideration in its funding assessment procedures. The cautionary language it has used to describe this initiative is quite revealing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Eligibility will still be assessed on merit, but preference may be given to those who have gender and cultural diversity in their teams. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The telling use of the word “but” suggests that, for Screen Australia, merit is somehow distinct from diversity.</p>
<p>There is a long literature on how organisations use “merit” as a way of <a href="https://medium.com/@jessnordell/it-s-not-foot-in-mouth-disease-6fdc3e2b08bc#.xrkhk3gi4">defending incumbent organisational biases</a>. And many studies across a range of industries confirm that the perception of bias plays a key role in underrepresented groups avoiding participation.</p>
<p>In Australia, women constitute around half of all film-school graduates. And yet they do not go on to receive the full benefits of a public funding system delivered through Screen Australia. This is a spectacular waste of industry resource and an indictment on the national funding agency which doesn’t, and hasn’t for a long time, served the full national interest. </p>
<p>It is organisational accountability that is sorely lacking. The three-year project based plan proposed by Screen Australia should not be confused with an ongoing open-ended policy commitment.</p>
<p>What we really need is for funding agencies and key organisations to be more accountable for their biases. What we really need to know is how Screen Australia will adopt measures to deal with both explicit and unconscious bias in its own work culture.</p>
<p>First, we need to accept that project evaluation is not objective. Let’s finally admit that Screen Australia’s assessment processes would be made only slightly less defensible if they also involved the use of chicken entrails. </p>
<p>Graeme Mason, the CEO of Screen Australia says <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/swedish-film-institute-achieves-50-50-funding-distribution-for-male-and-female-directors-20150529">there will not be quotas</a> along the lines of the Swedish Film Institute’s successful intervention. But the truth is we already have quotas. For men. </p>
<p>The point is not to incorporate a few more women in a biased system. The point is to change the system. That means aiming for change at every level – from the way the paperwork is organised to changing the very definitions of what constitutes merit or success.</p>
<h2>A few suggestions</h2>
<p>Here are three quick suggestions for Screen Australia to improve diversity in the Australian screen industries by looking at the problem from a systemic rather than programmatic level:</p>
<ol>
<li> Stop funding producers who have no demonstrated track record for diversity. If you belong to an all white cis male creative team your time is over. </li>
<li> Insist that all project assessors take the <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html">unconscious bias test</a>. Or even better, develop one specifically for cultural agencies and apply it or use blind review processes.</li>
<li> Apply the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-bechdel-test-doesnt-tell-us-about-women-on-film-20062">Bechdel test</a> or a variation to all government-funded scripts. </li>
</ol>
<p>Use the data to track your own biases and to improve organisational self-awareness rather than to monitor minorities. Gender (or race or ability or age) is not just one thing as crude statistical measures suggest. Take this opportunity to rethink the current definition and management of success and merit in order to embrace difference in a way that doesn’t further stereotype people. </p>
<p>Above all, remember that diversity should be the expectation not the exception. Projects that don’t meet diversity standards need to explain why. Not the other way around. </p>
<p>We are all entitled to expect that a government-subsidised cultural industry will tell “our” stories in all their complexity and variety. From this moment on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51994/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deb Verhoeven is a Life Member of Women in Film and Television. </span></em></p>Australia’s defining narratives are apparently, with rare exception, stories by, for and about white cis men. We need more than Screen Australia’s new measures to address gender equity in the film industry.Deb Verhoeven, Professor and Chair of Media and Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/518942015-12-07T03:08:47Z2015-12-07T03:08:47ZReel action on gender: Screen Australia sets minimum targets for female-led projects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104578/original/image-20151207-22677-1tl1q95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screen Australia will target female-led projects. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Preiser Project</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Screen Australia <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_151207_gendermatters.aspx">announced this morning</a> a A$5 million plan called <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/c7902a0f-6496-43e2-96b2-e24262ea8ba6/Gender-Matters-Women-in-the-Australian-Screen-Industry.pdf">Gender Matters</a>, a three-year suite of initiatives aimed at addressing gender imbalances in the Australian film industry. </p>
<p>In order to attract funding, projects must have at least three of their four key creative roles – director, writer, producer and protagonist – occupied by a woman.</p>
<p>This plan follows a string of initiatives aimed at addressing gender diversity from within the Australian film industry. </p>
<p>In the past month, Screen NSW set targets for <a href="http://if.com.au/2015/11/16/article/Screen-NSW-sets-gender-equity-targets/HBGTBBAWAM.html">50/50 gender equity</a> for development and production funding by 2020; Film Victoria announced a <a href="http://film.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/96552/Victorian-Women-Leadership-Development-Initiative.pdf">A$50K partnership with the Natalie Miller Fellowship</a> to advance the careers/leadership roles of women in the screen industry; and the Australian Director’s Guild has proposed <a href="http://if.com.au/2015/10/26/article/ADG-calls-for-50-per-cent-gender-quota/NTIBLSOYLL.html">quotas of 50%</a> for directors getting Screen Australia funding.</p>
<p>Women are a vital and under appreciated part of Australia’s film industry. If Screen Australia can follow through on these targets, we might see real change in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-right-to-make-a-scene-about-gender-equity-in-the-australian-screen-industry-51728">stubbornly persistent gender imbalance</a>. </p>
<h2>Best in show: why gender matters</h2>
<p>The industry has been <a href="http://www.aftrs.edu.au/media/books/lumina/lumina14-ch13-1/index.html">slow to acknowledge</a> the low participation of women, that they get paid less, and that they are a minority across key creative fields. </p>
<p>And more significantly, there has been no acknowledgement that not only are women not increasing their participation – but in some areas <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/b636257b-0143-4771-bde5-7611eda229a4/DidUKnow_March2013.pdf">it is declining</a>. In 1992, women were 18% of directors of feature films, today they are only 16%. </p>
<p>One reason this issue has been slow to attract attention is that Australian women punch well above their weight in the film industry. The presence of highly successful women makes the industry look more representative than it actually is. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2014.942024">According to my research</a> of the AFI (now AACTA) feature film categories between 2000 and 2010, women won Best Film 80% of the time, Best Direction 40% of the time and Best Original Screenplay 50% of the time. </p>
<p>In that period, women made up, respectively, 33%, 18% and 20% of the workforce in those categories.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Dressmaker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Universal Pictures.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The strong performance of women illustrates the business case for drawing more women into the industry. Promoting the work of women also promotes innovation and diversity in the stories that are reaching our screens.</p>
<p>It is becoming difficult to ignore that audiences are flocking to the cinemas to see films such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2910904/">The Dressmaker</a> (2015), or to the small screen to see female-centred Australian shows such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2222848/">Puberty Blues</a> (2012-), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2433738/">Wentworth</a> (2013-), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1724700/">Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo</a> (2011).</p>
<p>Shows made by female creatives have also made an impact, such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1988386/">Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries</a> (2012–), created by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530541/">Offspring</a> (2010–), created by Debra Oswald, John Edwards and Imogen Banks. </p>
<h2>Quotas or targets?</h2>
<p>Senior leadership at Screen Australia has been very firm in saying these initiatives are targets, not quotas. The operative difference is that a target is optional and a quota is mandatory. </p>
<p>The issue of quotas is <a href="https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/20131119_PP_targetsquotas.pdf">complex</a>, but many, including myself, believe quotas (and affirmative action) are necessary to get some change. However, some women are ambivalent about them and it does mean they have to deal with perceptions that they got an unfair leg-up. Quotas can be seen as divisive, at at a time when everyone, men and women, should be working together to get the best possible industry.</p>
<p>Setting targets, with firm plans on how to achieve them, may counterbalance the perceived drawbacks of quotas. </p>
<p>It’s worth noting that a comparable situation has played out in the political arena: in 1994 the ALP adopted a quota system, which Howard rejected as “patronising women”. Today, the ALP has around <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-quotas-in-politics-the-absence-of-women-isnt-merit-based-45297">twice as many female MPs as the Liberal party</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, whether you call it a target or a quota, the key will be strong leadership, and a commitment from Screen Australia to integrate this policy into every level of their funding policies. </p>
<p>We know that dedicated resources for underrepresented populations can have a highly positive results: <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding/indigenous/default.aspx">Indigenous filmmaking funds</a> spurred a whole generation of filmmakers who produced some of the most vibrant work Australia had seen for decades. </p>
<p>This is long overdue action from the industry, but is likely to make a significant positive impact on its success – and I commend the industry for putting gender on the agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa French does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Screen Australia has announced a five point plan to promote gender balance, including A$3 million funding for female-led creative projects.Lisa French, Deputy Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/517282015-12-03T02:12:42Z2015-12-03T02:12:42ZWe’re right to make a scene about gender equity in the Australian screen industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104181/original/image-20151203-22467-17ytiun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even with Kate Winslet and Judy Davis cast in The Dressmaker, the film was considered too high a risk for international buyers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Universal Pictures. </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I think it is fair to say that over the 35 or so years that the gender equity issue for women in the screen industry has been on the table, the equity and the cultural diversity arguments have failed dismally to shift the consistently poor representation of women in creative and business leadership roles – directors, producers, writers, distributors and exhibitors.</p>
<p>I am a recipient of the affirmative action programs of the early 1980s that kickstarted my career with a film titled, ironically, <a href="http://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/thanks-girls-and-goodbye/">Thanks Girls and Goodbye</a> (1988). I have been involved in many affirmative action programs since including setting up <a href="http://www.wift.org/">Women In Film and Television</a> in the early 1990s, running Women Applying To Film School programs and Taking The Next Step leadership programs for <a href="http://apo.org.au/source/australian-film-commission">The Australian Film Commission</a> for women in middle management in the television sector. </p>
<p>All of these programs were targeted at increasing the representation of women at the supply end of the value chain and were largely effective. Today film schools have around 50% gender equity among graduates and there is no shortage of aspiring female composers, writers, directors, producers who are simply not getting the opportunities they deserve.</p>
<p>What has not shifted is the number of women leaders at the demand end of the value chain. That is, amongst the exhibitors, distributors, sales agents, investors, and broadcasters that drive the business and decide what should be programmed upon our cinema and television screens. </p>
<p>These are the people who green light projects and approve the key creatives on any project. We need to take the argument up to these men – and they are overwhelmingly male – for anything to change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104175/original/image-20151203-22461-ygjzrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sue Maslin, delivering the keynote address for Adjusting The Set at RMIT.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How do we achieve this? I have come to the conclusion that nothing will shift unless we can effectively make the business case – that is, demonstrating that having more women in positions of leadership will be good for audiences and for the bottom line of the screen industry.</p>
<h2>Why are women’s stories seen as risky?</h2>
<p>The Australian screen industry is an incredibly complex ecosystem and it is largely shaped by the management of risk and opportunity, capital and cultural policy, audience taste and by the flow of really good ideas. </p>
<p>The leaders and decision makers in this landscape – the exhibitors, distributors, sales agents, investors, producers, directors and writers – are overwhelmingly male. These are the people who shape what gets made and what appears on our screens. They are also the people who care passionately about making good films that make a good return on investment – be they cultural returns or commercial returns.</p>
<p>Most films require a high level of risk to be taken at every stage of the value chain. It’s a miracle that any film gets made – it is just that hard! As the late Hollywood producer Laura Ziskin (Spider-Man) <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/14/local/la-me-laura-ziskin-20110614">famously said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Films are not made – they are forced into existence. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is basic psychology that male decision makers (and they are mostly men), in a high-risk business environment will feel more comfortable backing people they have affinity with – that is, other men – on stories and genres they understand.</p>
<p>In order to convince screen business leaders that there is a business case to include more women in their ranks, we need to show them that opportunity exists to build capacity. That is, there is talent within their organisations and behind the camera that is currently being overlooked and there is potential for market growth by making more films that appeal to women.</p>
<p>The latter is self evident from <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2013_032514-v2.pdf">all of the data emerging</a> which shows that women buy more than 50% of all movie tickets and women 35-plus is one of the only demographics that continues to grow worldwide at a time when cinema audience numbers are trending downwards. </p>
<p>In fact, female-focused films such as Fifty Shades of Grey (US$547 million worldwide) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (US$752 million) have been credited with rescuing the looming downward projections for US box office last year.</p>
<p>It is patently absurd in the face of this market demand that year in year out, less than 25% of all films in the market are about women or have female protagonists.</p>
<p>When I was financing <a href="https://theconversation.com/books-at-miff-how-the-dressmaker-was-adapted-into-a-film-starring-kate-winslet-45376">The Dressmaker</a> (2015) (directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse) four years ago and speaking to a number of local distributors who had an interest in this film, I chose Universal Pictures because it was the only distributor at the time who would talk to me seriously about the female demographic as a commercial market.</p>
<h2>Who is taking a chance?</h2>
<p>So who is actually taking the risk on women’s stories? For a start, female directors are. Their films are overwhelmingly about female protagonists. But according to <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/statistics/employmentfeaturefilmmakers.aspx">Screen Australia statistics</a>, they represent only 16% on average of the total number of directors at work in Australia. Worse still, this figure has not shifted appreciably in decades.</p>
<p>In Australia, it is very unlikely that a woman will get to direct a film unless she has at least one female producer on board. In fact, in the past five years 90% of women directors had female producers. Male producers overwhelmingly work with male directors and are not taking the risk on engaging women directors. Why not?</p>
<p>Once again, you have to look higher up the chain and go back to the problem of perceived risk. The distributors, sales agents and investors want to be comfortable about where they place their money and their confidence and unsurprisingly, will repeatedly select projects with male protagonists and male directors.</p>
<p>I experienced this challenge when financing The Dressmaker. Even with Kate Winslet and Judy Davis, arguably two of the greatest actresses of our time cast in the film, the film was considered too high a risk for international buyers. In a film about a woman dressmaker targeted primarily to a female audience, the exclusively male sales agents and buyers needed A-list male actors to secure the sales estimates.</p>
<p>We need to collectively agree that the <em>status quo</em> is not serving the industry or the audiences at all well. I welcome Gillian Armstrong’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-10/gillian-armstrong-film-director-women-he's-undressed-orry-kelly/6608702">call to arms</a> on this issue and the seriousness with which it is being taken by the Australia Director’s Guild and Screen Australia. </p>
<p>Personally, I am not in favour of quotas as I think the carrot is always a better way to incentivise than the stick over the long term. I would prefer to see the whole industry to get behind setting targets we can all sign up to as an industry. There is no silver-bullet solution and there needs to be many strategies put into place to address the problem. </p>
<p>If the whole industry is to grow into the future and prosper, it cannot ignore the untapped creative talent and leadership potential of women. It’s about time we adjusted the set.</p>
<p><br>
<em>This is an edited version of a keynote address given by Sue Maslin at the RMIT event Adjusting the Set on December 2. You can <a href="https://vimeo.com/147671864">watch a video of the whole address here</a></em>.</p>
<p><em>Sue Maslin’s latest film, The Dressmaker, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and starring Kate Winslet was released nationally on October 29</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51728/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Maslin is affiliated with the Natalie Miller Fellowship and is patron of Women In Film and Television (Victoria). She is a member of the Screen Australia Task Force for Gender Equity.</span></em></p>If the Australian screen industry is to grow into the future and prosper, it cannot ignore the untapped creative talent and leadership potential of women. We need strategies to address this problem.Sue Maslin, Adjunct Professor of Media and Communications, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/399892015-04-13T20:27:22Z2015-04-13T20:27:22ZThe ‘refugee telemovie’ shows our government is lost at sea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77714/original/image-20150413-4081-frw5wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'A dramatised event is no replacement for the horrors of what is really going on.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/NewZulu/Nicolas Koutsokostas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week it was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-09/tv-drama-to-deter-asylum-seekers/6381092">reported</a> that the Australian government will fund the production of a A$4.1 million telemovie to be screened in “refugee hot spots” including Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. The film will include storylines about asylum seekers drowning at sea and feature the Australian navy. It’s a uniquely Australian contribution to the global cultural politics of seeking asylum – and it’s unlikely to be successful.</p>
<p>As an undergraduate, one of the most influential books I read was Sven Lindqvist’s <a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/exterminate-all-brutes">Exterminate All Brutes</a> (1992), a dark tribute to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Using narrative non-fiction, the book tells of the brutality of Europe’s dark history in the colonial era in Africa and the origins of genocide.</p>
<p>The part of the book that stays with me relates to the outrage that the populace back in Europe expressed when the true extent of this brutality broke into the popular press. Lindqvist speculates, however, that the population back home always knew what was going on, but it was ignored until it could be disregarded no longer. </p>
<p>After demanding punishment for the rogue elements of the colonial army seen to be perpetrating the genocide, the population settles down and quietly accepts that exploitation and brutality is the price others pay for their privileged lifestyle.</p>
<p>If Lindqvist were writing about Australia’s treatment of refugees, he would most likely come to the same conclusions – though <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/15/travel.features">he has written</a> about Australia’s treatment of our Aboriginal population. Whenever the latest leaked document or whistleblower breaks the news of the true extent of the cruelty of Australia’s detention centres – both onshore and offshore – there is an all-too-brief outrage followed by business-as-usual acceptance.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77713/original/image-20150413-4067-13rhyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 2014 graphic novel produced to deter Afghan asylum seekers from travelling to Australia by boat. (AAP Image/Supplied) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the Abbott government, which has had little success except for its claim that it has “stopped the boats”, sees the deterrent associated with this mistreatment as a price it is willing to pay.</p>
<p>With little political capital left, this is the one issue it will continue to push, while reminding us that under the Rudd/Gillard governments all the good work done by Howard government was undone.</p>
<p>Saying this, few people would have anticipated that one of the strategies it would employ would be a telemovie that fictionalises the experiences of asylum seekers and cautions against travelling to Australia by sea.</p>
<p>It’s not the first time the government has used cultural tools to smooth immigration policy. In 2014, it <a href="https://theconversation.com/graphic-novel-versus-taliban-an-asylum-seeker-deterrent-23122">published an 18-page graphic novel</a> aimed at discouraging Afghan asylum seekers from travelling to Australia by boat.</p>
<p>The film will be produced by the Sydney production company, Put It Out There Pictures. The filmmaker, Trudi-Ann Tierney, has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-government-spends-4-million-on-stoptheboats-telemovie-20150410-1mhwlb.html">described herself</a> as a “propaganda merchant”. She has also <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4213714.htm">described</a> her previous work as “psychological operations” that failed to acknowledge their funders and were made to appear as if they were created by a local source.</p>
<p>While there are many ways we can analyse this turn of events, let us limit ourselves to three.</p>
<p>The first is from the perspective of arts funding. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-priorities-for-george-brandis-minister-for-the-arts-39362">I wrote recently</a> on The Conversation, George Brandis as the Minister of the Arts has continued the tradition of funding the 28 large arts organisations at the expense of smaller organisations that tell uniquely Australian stories. </p>
<p>Cuts have been made to government funding of the Australian screen industry – but A$4.1 million can be found to fund a propaganda piece for a for-profit organisation.</p>
<p>Let’s hope that in his next interview as the Minister of the Arts, Senator Brandis, a supporter of libertarian politics, can confirm whether or not it is the role of the government to fund propaganda pieces like this.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77715/original/image-20150413-4044-ijeg1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asylum seekers during a hunger strike at the Manus Island detention centre in January.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Refugee Action Collective</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, while the boats may have stopped arriving on our shores, they have not stopped. They have been displaced. The wars in the Middle East have seen millions of refugees seeking asylum and a reprieve from war. In fact, earlier this year, the United Nations <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49742#.VSrzXhOUcZ0">reported</a> that 5.5 million people had been displaced – a new record of sorts. </p>
<p>The Abbott Government has benefited from Indonesian governments that have been willing to enforce an Australian domestic policy. If that changes, the “we stopped the boats” boast will quickly cease. </p>
<p>Third, it is quite simply a waste of money. Filmmaker Tierney said that her initial reservations dissipated because of the positive aims of the project. The Sydney Morning Herald <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-government-spends-4-million-on-stoptheboats-telemovie-20150410-1mhwlb.html">reported her</a> saying, “the impact this film will have on a person’s decision to attempt a journey by boat to Australia cannot be underestimated,” because it could “save people from detention, disappointment and even death”.</p>
<p>If someone fears for their life and that of their family, no film will stop them fleeing. The horrors of the current conflict are there for all to see, and the imaginary queue is nowhere in site.</p>
<p>The unfortunate truth is, however, the government could save money by simply showing what life is really like inside the detention centres people will be sent to if they do attempt to make it to Australia: from child abuse to suicide attempts, and the mental health deterioration that follows when people lose all hope for the future. </p>
<p>Rather than spending A$4.1 million to produce this film, the government would be better off showing the many reports documenting life inside the centres. A dramatised event is no replacement for the horrors of what is really going on. </p>
<p>The Refugee Council of Australia’s president, Phil Glendenning, <a href="http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/04/10/03/27/stop-the-boats-telemovie-scores-$4m-in-federal-government-funding#Hp2vplLLouXE33bq.99">stated</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t think the government understands why people are on the move if they think a TV drama will be a deterrent. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But if we were cynical, we could see such a project as pandering to the latest round of anti-immigration movements such as Reclaim Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Arvanitakis receives funding for a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council and the Office of Learning and Teaching as part of the Teaching Excellence Award. James has previously volunteered and worked for Oxfam Australia, Oxfam Hong Kong and Amnesty International. He was also the Campaign Director at Aid/Watch between 2001-04. </span></em></p>The government has announced its latest method to stop the boats: a telemovie with storylines about asylum seekers dying at sea. Is it really the role of government to fund propaganda pieces like this?James Arvanitakis, Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/380372015-02-26T19:29:38Z2015-02-26T19:29:38ZSpeaking with: David Tiley on funding Australian films<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73146/original/image-20150226-1780-1vhlcaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many Australian films have significant cultural capital that should also be considered when measuring their level of success.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was founded with a budget of A$6.5 million in 1975 with the hope of revitalising the Australian film industry to a point where it could sustain itself without government support.</p>
<p>The funding resulted in what is now generally regarded as the “golden age” of Australian cinema in the 1970s and 80s. But even today, most Australian films are still primarily funded through government bodies such as <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/">Screen Australia</a> (the successor to the AFC) and through tax offsets. </p>
<p>Despite the release of many critically-acclaimed films in 2014 (<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/may/20/the-babadook-i-was-screaming-all-day">The Babadook</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/charlies-country-david-gulpilil-confounds-our-romantic-fantasies-28966">Charlie’s Country</a>, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/sep/18/the-infinite-man-review-playful-sci-fi-with-masterful-plot-manoeuvres">The Infinite Man</a>, among others), <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/01/21/in-a-world-where-aussie-cinema-cant-catch-a-break/">ticket sales were relatively low</a>.</p>
<p>Australians <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wheres-the-audience-for-australian-films-20945">don’t watch enough local films</a> to sustain the industry without substantial government support. And yet the success of Australian films can’t be measured on box office numbers alone.</p>
<p>Vincent O’Donnell speaks with David Tiley, editor of the online industry magazine <a href="http://screen.artshub.com.au/">ScreenHub</a>, about financing film production in Australia and measuring success by looking beyond the box office.</p>
<hr>
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<p>Music: Free Music Archive/ <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Farsical">Blue Dot Sessions: Farsical</a></p>
<p>Recorded in the studios of RMIT University.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent O'Donnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Vincent O’Donnell speaks with David Tiley, editor of ScreenHub magazine, about financing film production in Australia and looking beyond box office numbers to measure a film's success.Vincent O'Donnell, Honorary Research Associate of the School of Media and Communication , RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/287682014-07-11T02:07:15Z2014-07-11T02:07:15ZIndigenous Australia is deadly – and Leah Purcell shows it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53564/original/wwz9mh27-1405035133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brave New Clan presents the "X-factor" us mob see among ourselves all the time to a wider audience.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foxtel 2014</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Urban skyline, as seen from inside a medium-density apartment block, opens Australian director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0700732/">Leah Purcell</a>’s <a href="http://www.biochannel.com.au/shows/brave-new-clan/">Who We Are: Brave New Clan</a> (2014), which was broadcast on Foxtel’s Bio Channel last night. </p>
<p>The one-off documentary – which deserves another run – follows the lives of six Indigenous Australians (not connected in real life but our “clan” for the sake of the documentary). Does it work? Oh yes. </p>
<p>Our eyes move with the camera as we approach a balcony, from which a young man watches the city in Sydney. His voiceover tells us he has many dreams and one of these has been to “own my own life”. His quiet confidence is palpable but not brash. </p>
<p>Urban skylines routinely open big budget Hollywood blockbusters, but for all that this scene doesn’t feel clichéd, it’s clever and arresting – how often does a young Aboriginal man star in such a scene, brown hand pictured resting on the balcony rail indicating a man comfortable in his well-appointed urban setting? </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53575/original/f2grvn5c-1405040393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leah Purcell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foxtel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the next scene we’re on a Sydney street navigating a pedestrian crossing with an equally attractive young woman, also Aboriginal – canvas bag slung over her shoulder, ubiquitous coffee cup in hand. With these images and voices leading us in, we now know enough to want to keep watching. </p>
<p>Each Brave New Clan member is seen walking and talking us through their world: their everyday, here-and-now world – this shouldn’t startle or particularly warm, but it does. </p>
<p>Commercial culture played out on our screens makes us well-used to young folk jauntily winding their way through cityscapes. We’re less used to these folk being “mob” – being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, First Nations; being Wiradjuri or Nyoongar. </p>
<p>Brave New Clan’s on-screen talent resonates positivity – presenting the “X-factor” us mob see among ourselves all the time to a wider audience. Our <a href="https://twitter.com/IndigenousX">IndigenousX</a> (shorthand for overall Indigenous excellence or, in the vernacular, “deadly [which translates roughly to strong; exclaimed joyously or said quietly in firm admiration] blakness”) factors include quick humour, comfortable self-deprecation, and talk of individual goals peppered with concern and aspiration for all our mobs. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BBlcy3C_3BY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Who We Are: Brave New Clan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kombu-merri philosopher and elder, <a href="http://www.uq.edu.au/diversity-week/mary-graham">Mary Graham</a> <a href="http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-November-2008/graham.html">says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we believe that a person finds their individuality within the group. To behave as if you are a discrete entity or a conscious isolate is to limit yourself to being an observer in an observed world. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Brave New Clan profiles individuals who are part of a group. Purcell enlivens Graham’s philosophy, and I am grateful. There are too many misconceptions about Aboriginality, one being that we have to choose to be individuals or choose to be part of our communities. This documentary helps people understand that’s not the choice. </p>
<p>The choice is to be who we are while we find our way through the world riffing off our innate and learned strengths. Demonstrating this, Brave New Clan accompanies its young talent back home, there’s much talk about keeping connected, remembering who they are and where they’ve come from.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53580/original/x2rpb5qq-1405040585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miranda Tapsell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foxtel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>James Saunders, Kim Isaacs, Harrison Sabatino, Joshua Twomey, Kaylah Tyson, and Miranda Tapsell feature in Purcell’s Brave New Clan. Indigenous Australia, long sensitive to acknowledging its men and its women, ensures the Clan is gender balanced. </p>
<p>The film’s inclusion of a Torres Strait Islander among the five First Nations’ stars gives a nod to our Island sisters and brothers who by dint of British Colonial Office <a href="http://www.tsra.gov.au/the-torres-strait/general-history#QldannexesTS">annexation in 1897</a> became Queensland’s, then Australia’s, <em>other</em> Indigenous community. </p>
<p>All young people in the film have their own voice: thoughtful, reflective, confident, and comfortable – oh, what salve after the relentlessness of negative file footage of Aboriginality played on high-rotation on our televisions, front pages, and on occasion run through our social media timelines.</p>
<p>They’re cheeky too this mob: 27-year-old actor Miranda Tapsell muses to camera about now being considered beautiful:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>well I look the same, this is how I’ve always looked … but I thought why is an Aboriginal woman all of a sudden beautiful because she’s put in a particular light in a film like Sapphires? I’ve always thought the Aboriginal women that I’ve grown up with are stunning. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53581/original/hdqt7bcs-1405040751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaylah Truth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foxtel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rapper Kayla Tyson telegraphs her impact with that stage name: “Kayla Truth” – deadly, little sis, you rap your truth and we will listen, watch, repeat after you, dance, and learn. </p>
<p>Electrical linesman Joshua Twomey reckons his “schoolies went for about four years” before he decided to do things differently, we later see him in charge of a heavy vehicle demonstrating new found skills and confidence. </p>
<p>There are shades of humanitarianism too with this mob. We see doctor Kim Isaacs, treating a bub and reminding us a good start in life is the gift all our bubs deserve; she also says her work as an Aboriginal doctor doesn’t finish when she goes home. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53576/original/2rzxrkck-1405040447.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kim Isaacs (right) with her mother.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foxtel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They’re out there and up there too this mob: engineering student Harrison Sabatino is profiled in a city tower boardroom. With his double degree in engineering and international business underway along with this gig with GHD, Sabatino is going places even if he feels like he has to pinch himself to make it feel real now. </p>
<p>They reach their dreams too: rugby player James Saunders runs his own digital PR agency, moving from a shy child to being a man “with his own life”. </p>
<p>Purcell’s documentary gives us an Indigenous screen narrative that brings together six voices accompanied by the voices and landscapes significant to them; it builds an oral and visual symphony that reminds us how deadly Indigenous Australia is, and allows others in on that little secret too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Phillips does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Urban skyline, as seen from inside a medium-density apartment block, opens Australian director Leah Purcell’s Who We Are: Brave New Clan (2014), which was broadcast on Foxtel’s Bio Channel last night…Sandra Phillips, Lecturer, Creative Writing and Literary Studies, School of Media, Entertainment and Creative Arts, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/262112014-05-01T23:50:06Z2014-05-01T23:50:06ZCommission of Audit and the arts – cuts are not galore<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47589/original/wsqjjtgj-1398987287.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthijs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the past 20 years the size of government spending has grown, both absolutely and as a percentage of GDP. Public sector debt has also increased substantially. The cautionary tale of Greece indicates the dangers of this path.</p>
<p>In Australia, either taxes have to rise, which will lower the standard of living, or spending has to be cut. The <a href="http://www.ncoa.gov.au/">National Commission of Audit report</a> focuses entirely on the latter.</p>
<p>The report broadly does two things. First, as in the terms of reference, it provides “a thorough review of the scope, efficiency and functions of the Commonwealth government”. Second, it sets out a series of 86 recommendations covering the full range of commonwealth spending.</p>
<p>The government is not bound to follow these recommendations, but they provide a useful menu of options.</p>
<p>There seem to be two main findings. The first is directed at what is called “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_imbalance_in_Australia">vertical fiscal imbalance</a>” but really is a boost for genuine federalism: state spending needs to be balanced by the power to raise revenue. This reversal of the increasing tendency toward centralisation is a very welcome development (provided that it is matched by a reduction in federal income tax).</p>
<p>The second is recognition that the biggest components of Commonwealth spending (aged pensions, defence, health) are also those that are growing the fastest, and therefore that nothing is solved unless these “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail_of_politics">third rails of politics</a>” (a euphemism for controversial and/or untouchable issues) are firmly grasped.</p>
<p>Across many recommendations, the overarching approach is to increase the criteria for eligibility, or simply abolish the source of funding. This signals recognition of the manifest unsustainability of decades of vote-buying growth in corporate and middle-class welfare.</p>
<p>Arts and culture doesn’t feature prominently in the report. This is simply because even the most swingeing of cuts to arts or cultural funding – say, cutting everything completely – would barely touch the levels of savings required to restore Australia’s public finances. When you need to feed an entire village, hunting a few mice isn’t going to do it.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, not missing an opportunity, two clear warning shots have been fired into the haystack, possibly injuring a mouse or two. The largest is recommendation 45 (see below), which focuses on <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/the-future-of-public-broadcasting">the role of public broadcasting</a> – specifically, the ABC and the SBS.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47590/original/hg8sf8kt-1398987625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Commission of Audit Report.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They make a familiar argument “that both organisations have the ability to improve their efficiency and better target expenditure than may currently be the case.” They suggest that this case is “underpinned by advances in technology, societal changes and an expectation of achieving efficiencies and value for money”. Furthermore, these developments “increasingly eliminate the traditional arguments for public broadcasting”.</p>
<p>But the commission doesn’t then go where this argument is seemingly headed. They do not then recommend a noble retreat from public funding of national broadcasting.</p>
<p>Instead, they ask why these benefits from new technologies and increased competition have not translated into lower prices or reduced demand on the public purse. They charge instead that the public broadcasters have captured these benefits for themselves, rather than handing them back to the public.</p>
<p>This is the language of the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/EfficiencyDividend">efficiency dividend</a>. The commission has put them on notice by proposing a benchmarking exercise that would attempt to estimate the size of this captured resource, which will then enter into future funding equations.</p>
<p>The other named arts and cultural funding consideration comes in relation to industry assistance – also known as corporate welfare – a most egregious form of public spending and always and everywhere well ripe for cutting.</p>
<p>Screen Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-merger-of-screen-australia-and-australia-council-spells-incoherence-26178">is targeted here</a> for “reduced levels of Commonwealth funding”, specifically recommending that it “be halved and focused on areas of Australian content, including those with an historical perspective that might not otherwise be funded”.</p>
<p>And that’s it. All things considered, it is utterly remarkable how soft the Commission has been on proposing cuts to arts and cultural funding. And remember, these are just recommendations, which if history is our guide have only a small chance of becoming reality. Things really could have been a lot worse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Over the past 20 years the size of government spending has grown, both absolutely and as a percentage of GDP. Public sector debt has also increased substantially. The cautionary tale of Greece indicates…Jason Potts, Professor of Economics, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/261782014-05-01T06:00:51Z2014-05-01T06:00:51ZProposed merger of Screen Australia and Australia Council spells … incoherence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47527/original/5nrtc67p-1398924403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">original</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/screen-australia-faces-50-funding-cut-and-merger-under-commission-proposal?CMP=soc_568">recommendation</a> made by the Commission of Audit to merge <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/">Screen Australia</a> and the <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/">Australia Council</a> is yet another example of this government’s policy incoherence. </p>
<p>Locked into belligerent opposition to anything done by Labor it has arrived in power bereft of any agenda – other than to somehow cut spending, cut taxes and open Australia for business. What that actually means is anybody’s guess. </p>
<p>The creative industries has always been a conundrum for the Coalition. Yes, it sounded all very business- and innovation-like, but it was launched by Labor’s Paul Keating. And some residual conservatism in what quickly became a fully neo-liberal party suggested that maybe the “intrinsic value” of the arts was important, whatever that meant (probably something to do with Sydney Opera House).</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.ncoa.gov.au/report/phase-two/part-c/annexes/annex-b.html">recommendation</a> exemplifies this incoherence. </p>
<p>Screen Australia has had its ups and downs, its hits and misses – but it has learnt a lot over the last decade. It also has been subject to contradictory impulses. Do we go for Australian content or do we promote films that employ Australian facilities? The Great Gatsby was, in the latter terms, an Australian film. These don’t have to be opposites. </p>
<p>In recent years the promotion of Australian content could also mean a commitment to developing local skills below the threshold of the huge global tax-cut seeking “runaway” production crews. Perhaps we could have a diverse thriving film industry growing local talent. Many initiatives in Indigenous film were moving this way, as were experiments in digital distribution (let’s not mention the NBN).</p>
<p>Of course none of this registered with the present government. </p>
<p>They want to cut spending so hey, why not Screen Australia? It’s all about subsidy right – and that’s wrong, as we all know. So the industry bit should be left to its own devices – like cars and canned fruit. But maybe some of it is art – historical content, like, you know, Gallipoli. So let’s give it to the Australia Council.</p>
<p>The Australia Council was set up <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/about">to distribute arts funding</a>. It has no capacity whatsoever to deliver an industry strategy, even if the government knew what such a strategy might be. </p>
<p>In my view, if this recommendation is followed, the Australia Council will administer the rump of Screen Australia and somehow promote a few historical art film projects. This is no good for the Australia Council, already suffering a barrage of criticism for its inability to administer what it does have. </p>
<p>And it is no good for the film sector, suffering from the high dollar but also beginning to think in new ways about what it might be. It’s lose-lose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin O'Connor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recommendation made by the Commission of Audit to merge Screen Australia and the Australia Council is yet another example of this government’s policy incoherence. Locked into belligerent opposition…Justin O'Connor, Professor of Communications and Cultural Economy, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221732014-04-10T05:10:21Z2014-04-10T05:10:21ZExplainer: what does a film producer do?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41106/original/9btrgqgz-1391996628.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The producer’s work does not finish with the film’s theatrical release.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">garryknight</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you step back from the perceived glamour of the feature-film industry for a moment and look at it through dispassionate eyes it becomes obvious it’s really about creating a new product and taking it to market. Like any product, it starts with an idea and someone to champion it. In the film industry, that person is the producer.</p>
<p>The producer’s relationship with the idea, if it achieves the levels of success they are banking everything on, will most likely last a lifetime even though for the consumer it will come and go within the blink of an eye.</p>
<h2>Inspiring commitment</h2>
<p>It could be argued that the most important part of a <a href="http://www.producersguild.org/?coc_tmp">producer’s job</a> is to inspire people to commit either creative endeavour or fistfuls of cash to a product that has a high rate of market failure and, for the end user, only exists in a darkened room for a couple of hours.</p>
<p>While advantageous to have a working knowledge of most aspects of the filmmaking process, producers generally employ various experts in their fields, such as accountants, lawyers, production managers, directors of photography, who in turn assemble their own team.</p>
<p>Budget is a determining factor in how much work the producer can contract out. </p>
<p>A micro-budget film might see a producer doing everything from raising the money to organising meals, while a film with a larger budget will enable the producer to step back from the minutiae of the production process and focus on the bigger picture.</p>
<h2>From script to screen</h2>
<p>Typically, the development phase is the longest and can take many years with no guarantee of the project ever seeing the dark of a cinema. After purchasing the right to develop the source material, the producer will work with the writer to develop the screenplay. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41109/original/q39cmvpc-1391997285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Film producer Harvey Weinstein.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the script advances, a director will be brought on board who will, invariably, have input into the further development of the screenplay. Together, the creative team will establish the best way to turn a hundred pages of A4 paper into a film.</p>
<p>To give the project the best chance in the marketplace, the producer will seek to attach at least one high-profile actor who satisfies the creative needs of the story as well as the expectations of the many and varied potential investors who are seeking to mitigate their risk. </p>
<p>The producer must balance the needs of each party with the overall vision for the project; it is not uncommon for the creative and financial needs to be at odds with each other.</p>
<h2>Securing finance and delivering</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/producer_offset/offset101.aspx">Financing a film</a> is a delicate balancing act that draws on a producer’s entrepreneurial skills. </p>
<p>Investors range from international distributors to local television broadcasters to private individuals. All have expectations. What satisfies one investor may not be in the best interests of another. It’s a house of cards that can fall over at any moment. </p>
<p>If an actor’s schedule on another project changes and consequently makes them unavailable for the producer’s film, it is probable that some investors will pull out. How far this sets the producer back depends on the hole in the budget that this leaves. Stressfully, this can happen at any time up until production and even beyond.</p>
<p>Most productions will employ a line-producer whose job it is to keep track of the day-to-day spending and to revise the shooting schedule as challenges arise. But large-scale budget and schedule blow-outs are the responsibility of the producer as is the overarching job of ensuring that the delivered product does not deviate significantly from what was promised to investors. </p>
<p>A major failing here can mean the difference between a theatrical release and a straight-to-DVD release or, worse, no release at all.</p>
<h2>Audience, distribution and future platforms</h2>
<p>As the project enters the final phase before completion – post-production – the producer’s attention again turns toward the audience and distributors. </p>
<p>While not as common in Australia as in the US, test screenings provide an opportunity for the producer to gauge a sample reaction to the film. The outcome of those screenings is significant. It can determine the publicity and advertising spend that the distributors allocate, the release strategy and the general level of support and enthusiasm from distributors and exhibitors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C12%2C918%2C691&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C12%2C918%2C691&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41095/original/pf4tr3ch-1391993853.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">YAZMDG</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The producer’s work does not finish with the film’s theatrical release. Box-office performance is a major predictor of the <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/3b019ba6-696a-4eb0-926d-701e1551dd58/StayingPower.pdf">film’s longevity</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109045/">The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert</a> (1994) was adapted for the stage 12 years after its initial release, and the reality television show, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2362185/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">I Will Survive,</a> aired some 18 years later. Contract negotiations, residuals, revenue and <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/audiences.aspx">emerging platforms and formats</a> have the potential to keep the producer of a successful feature film busy for decades to come.</p>
<h2>The producer’s support team</h2>
<p>On most of these large-scale creative and economic undertakings there are usually several types of producers performing a variety of functions – executive producers, associate producers, co-producers and line producers. All work to support the producer in different ways, but none would have a role at all without the producer having backed a good idea. </p>
<p>The ability to recognise a good idea is much less tangible than, for example, drawing up a budget or a schedule and, while the latter can be out-sourced, the former is the very foundation of a producer’s business. Without a nose for it, and the ability to inspire the right people, it’s pointless knowing whether a studio or location shoot is preferable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Johnsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you step back from the perceived glamour of the feature-film industry for a moment and look at it through dispassionate eyes it becomes obvious it’s really about creating a new product and taking it…Anthony Johnsen, Researcher, Screen AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187562013-10-10T03:35:22Z2013-10-10T03:35:22ZPreview: ABC’s Redesign my Brain with Todd Sampson<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32682/original/3pm63rd6-1381279736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Over the show's three episodes, Todd Sampson tests whether it's possible to enhance his mind, using exercises designed by scientists.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We live in an age of great public fascination with minds and brains; books about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Changes-Itself-Frontiers/dp/0143113100/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381191136&sr=1-2&keywords=the+brain+and+science">brain plasticity</a>, for instance, regularly make the bestseller lists. </p>
<p>This fascination is not merely the product of our thirst for knowledge; it’s driven by fears and hopes – fears of our ageing population’s imminent mental decline and hopes for its prevention. And hopes for brain improvement or enhancement spawned by the dizzying speed of developments in neuroscience.</p>
<p>A new three-part series to be screened on the ABC from tonight caters to this fascination, and to these hopes and fears. In Redesign my Brain, advertising company executive and media personality Todd Sampson is both the host and the guinea pig. </p>
<p>Over the show’s three episodes, Sampson tests whether it is possible to enhance his mind, using exercises designed by scientists.</p>
<p>Few of us are performing at optimal levels, and as we get older we experience a decline in mental performance (not only in memory, but also in reaction speed and peripheral vision). The exercises in the show are designed to improve performance, moving those who do them closer to the optimal level.</p>
<h2>Training the brain</h2>
<p>Episode one focuses on cognition: reaction times, attention, peripheral vision and memory. Psychologists and neuroscientists have a number of standard tests for measuring capacities in these domains, some of which Sampson undergoes. </p>
<p>For instance, he performs a <a href="http://www.onlinestrooptest.com">Stroop task</a>, which tests an aspect of cognitive control. </p>
<p>The task sounds simple: all you have to do is name the colours in which words are written. But it’s harder than you might think because the colours are often “incongruent” - the word “red” might be written in green font, for instance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32687/original/xv2n9bsk-1381280696.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The highlighted part of this brain has been related to the processing of the Stroop effect.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our automatic response to the meaning of the words interferes with trying to name the colour, and performance slows down.</p>
<p>Sampson undergoes this and other tests, and then practices exercises designed to improve his responses. Most of these exercises are designed by scientists using recent psychological knowledge, but one is based on a memorisation technique that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci">dates back to ancient times</a> and one consists nothing more scientific than learning to juggle. </p>
<p>His initial performance is reasonably good, but just a few weeks of training for one hour a day results in dramatic improvement and the capacity to perform apparently extraordinary feats. For instance, Sampson successfully memorises the order of a whole deck of (shuffled) cards.</p>
<p>The second episode focuses on creativity. This time Sampson focuses on enhancing innovative “divergent thinking” – the capacity to come up with left-field ideas – as well as lateral thinking. </p>
<p>The third episode focuses on stress and facing fears; Sampson uses biofeedback (in which instruments are used to measure biological responses such as heart rate, and the person attempts to change the readings), visualising his fears and practising remaining calm.</p>
<h2>The right skills?</h2>
<p>The improvement Sampson shows over the episodes is impressive. Throughout, though, I was left with a nagging worry. </p>
<p>Sampson talks about turbocharging his thinking (one of the scientists describes him after training as a “substantially smarter Todd”), but it’s not clear that the skills he has enhanced are actually all that useful. </p>
<p>Is a much better score at the <a href="http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMH6ZSfhdIuM&ei=oXdSUv6sHuXJiAelvoGYAw&usg=AFQjCNEzajMD1k4xeRI46yJA0rtyJEqMxA&sig2=OS7BP4wLJi7XraRtwyUGIg&bvm=bv.53537100,d.aGc">attentional blink task</a> – in which the capacity to detect rapidly presented symbols is measured – really useful for anything (other than certain kinds of sports, say)? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32690/original/b44g6kxz-1381281577.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s not clear that the skills Sampson has enhanced are actually all that useful.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.stepupleader.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Is the ability to categorise symbols extremely rapidly useful for anything? </p>
<p>The skills enhanced seems useful for some everyday tasks – driving comes to mind – but what we care most about is genuine intelligence, and combating age-related decline. </p>
<p>The program doesn’t really give us any reason to think that the turbocharging is going to be useful in these regards. </p>
<p>Similarly, it’s not obvious that enhancing lateral and divergent thinking actually leads to an increase in the kinds of creativity we value (the capacity to come up with valuable new ideas or to create art).</p>
<p>There are a number of brain training games on the market that purport to improve cognition using the kinds of principles this program explores; there’s big money in playing on fears of dementia.</p>
<p>But whether these games improve performance in the kinds of ways we value or merely improve performance at brain-training games remains controversial. Although a recent <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v501/n7465/full/nature12486.html">paper</a> in Nature provided some evidence that some of the skills trained in one specially designed game generalise to other skills, and combat age-related decline. </p>
<p>It’s a pity the program doesn’t explore these issues; instead taking a slightly credulous view of some results that deserve greater scrutiny. If nothing else, though, it’s an entertaining look at some issues on the cutting edge of brain science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Levy receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He has previously received funding from the Templeton Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p>We live in an age of great public fascination with minds and brains; books about brain plasticity, for instance, regularly make the bestseller lists. This fascination is not merely the product of our thirst…Neil Levy, Head of Neuroethics, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental HealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.