CAN YOU protect your job from going to a robot or automated system? You most likely can if you are in the creative industries, according to QUT Professor Stuart Cunningham.

He can show that as the workforce becomes increasingly automated, jobs requiring creative and emotional intelligence will be the most robot-proof. 

“Parents once worried about what use an arts degree was for their kids,” Prof. Cunningham said. “Now the digital creative economy is a growth area for Australia and the rest of the world. Even the usually staid Australian Bureau of Statistics claims culture is big business.

“In what some are terming a ‘rise of the machines’ era, a degree in one of the creative industries is an intelligent choice. Creative services like design, social media management and digital content have experienced much faster employment growth than the broader workforce.

“Yet the arts appear to be under siege, with the Federal Government hardly bothering to issue an arts policy at the recent election, and only minor tweaks to the dramatic downsizing of the budget of the Australia Council.”

QUT is going the other way, he said, “pinning its colours to the mast” with the unveiling of an $88 million second stage of its Creative Industries Precinct on August 28.

“QUT has taken a leadership role in modernising arts and humanities education, creating the world’s first Creative Industries Faculty in 2001, followed by a major investment in an innovative creative industries precinct in 2004 combining education, research and development, creative business enterprise development, and performance venue.

“Economics strategist Andrew Charlton from AlphaBeta has been collecting online statistics and was recently quoted on his analysis of 4.2 million job advertisements in the past three years. He found a 212 percent increase in jobs demanding digital literacy, a 158 percent rise in jobs demanding critical thinking and a 65 percent rise in jobs demanding creativity,” Prof. Cunningham said.

“Many unskilled and repetitive jobs are under threat, as are some in the engineering, accountancy and science disciplines. However jobs that require the human touch – creative and emotional intelligence – are much less vulnerable.

“Being so resilient in the face of automation they will be the jobs that will grow over the next 20-plus years.”
Prof. Cunningham said the Creative Industries Innovation Centre report, Valuing Australia’s Creative Industries – 2013, stated the total revenue generated from the creative economy in Australia each year amounts to $91 billion.

“Employment in creative industries has been growing much faster than the Australian economy as a whole,” he said. “At this stage the total creative workforce amounts to more than 600,000 people with industry growth driven by the digital revolution and demand for digital and design services across the whole economy.

“And we look forward to seeing what August’s Census will tell us about creative activity in Australia.

“Australia mirrors an international trend. In December 2015 the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers released a study concluding the global cultural and creative industries revenue amounted to $US2,250 billion – three percent of the world’s GDP.

“It also reported that, globally, the cultural and creative industries sector accounted for 29.5 million jobs, which is more than the combined jobs of the automotive industry in Europe, Japan, and US.”

Prof. Cunningham said the British Government recognised the value of creative industries when it started branding ‘Cool Brittania’ in the late 1990s and QUT was quick to follow in linking the arts to the broader economy.

“From the jobs of the future perspective we continue to push ahead,” Prof Cunningham said. “In 2012, for example, QUT brought its design and architecture disciplines from science and engineering into the Creative Industries faculty.

“It’s all about fashioning synergies between the disciplines,” he said.

The expansion of QUT’s Creative Industries Precinct makes it the most sophisticated and technically advanced creative education space in Australia, he said.

The centrepiece of the new development is a six-storey building accommodating QUT’s dance, drama, music, visual art, creative writing and animation and research programs.

It pulses with a state-of-the-art digital backbone and its design principles celebrate transparency, connectivity and a transdisciplinary approach.
The space was publically opened during the CreateX Festival on Sunday, August 28.

Billed as a collision of creativity and technology, CreateX offered a day of dazzling interactive performances and events, immersive games, workshops, films, robotics displays, talks, panels and more.

#QUTcreatex

www.qut.edu.au

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SCREEN Australia and Australians in Film have launched their inaugural Mentor LA film industry career development program with the help of Hollywood-based mentors Bruna Papandrea, Stuart Beattie, Deborah Riley and Eden Gaha.

Mentor LA matches four early-to-mid-level practitioners who currently work in the Australian industry with the dedicated mentors, giving them the opportunity to gain international industry knowledge from people who have excelled in their field.

The inaugural mentors list is exceptional: producer Bruna Papandrea (Gone Girl, Wild); writer/director Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Collateral); Emmy award-winning production designer Deborah Riley(Game of Thrones); and the president of unscripted television at Endemol Shine USA, Eden Gaha, who has been named one of the most influential unscripted executives by Variety.

The pairs will be matched for a 12 month structured program specific to their area of work, allowing the mentees to continue to develop their careers in Australia and build on their existing knowledge with their mentor.

Over the year, the mentors and mentees will meet on four occasions – three times online and once in person during a week of meetings in Los Angeles at the culmination of the program.

“AiF is in the perfect position to connect the Australian industry with the international market,” AiF president Simonne Overend said.

“Supported by Screen Australia, Mentor LA was created in the spirit of helping and supporting the next generation of Australian talent. It is all about investing information, ideas and experience back into the Australian market to make it more robust.”

Screen Australia’s head of business and audience Richard Harris said: “Mentor LA is a fantastic opportunity for up-and-coming talent to be guided by some of the most experienced and successful Australians in the industry. Working with these mentors is an invaluable experience, and we look forward to following the trajectory of the successful mentees and seeing the impact of the very first Mentor LA program.”

The successful mentees will be selected based on their work experience, career trajectory in their chosen field, and their statement of purpose and goals.  The mentees must reside in Australia and have professional experience in a field of endeavour that is shared with a mentor. AiF will manage and coordinate the program and applications.

www.screenaustralia.gov.au

The Mentors:

Born in South Australia, Bruna Papandrea launched production banner Pacific Standard with Reese Witherspoon in 2012. Since its launch, Pacific Standard has acquired and produced bestselling books into films, including Wild by Cheryl Strayed which starred Reese Witherspoon and was directed by Jean Marc Vallee, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which was directed by David Fincher. 

Pacific Standard is currently producing Big Little Lies starring Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley for HBO. Papandrea also produced the Summit Entertainment box office hit Warm Bodies through her company Make Movies. Her producing credits also include Andrew Jarecki’s All Good Things,Noam Murro’s Smart People and Jonathan Teplitzky’s Better than Sex.Papandrea was also the executive producer on the highly acclaimed Milk from director Gus Van Sant.

Stuart Beattie began his career writing screenplays for Australian independent films, including the hit family film, Joey and the much-admired romantic comedy, Kick. He branched into Hollywood with the Oscar-nominated Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, which went on to become one of the most successful franchises in movie history. 

Then came the Michael Mann thriller, Collateral, which he wrote as a ‘spec’ script. The movie starred Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx and became the highest grossing film Michael Mann ever directed. It was also nominated for two Oscars and won a host of other awards around the world.

A graduate from Queensland University and NIDA, Deborah Riley started her career as a set designer for The Matrix and later as assistant art director on Moulin Rouge. Riley was herself mentored by the production designer Brigitte Broch, for whom she worked as art director on Real Women Have Curves in Los Angeles and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams in Tennessee and New Mexico. 

In 2013, she was employed as production designer on season four on HBO’s epic medieval fantasy, Game of Thrones. Since then she has been awarded back-to-back Emmys and Art Directors Guild awards for her work on the show. She was invited to speak on Visual Storytelling at the Smithsonian Institute in 2015.

After starting his career as a presenter for Channel Nine in Australia, Eden Gaha is now president, Unscripted Television at Endemol Shine USA, one of world’s largest producers of unscripted television. 

Edemol Shine USA produces some of the top unscripted series in the US, including MasterChef (FOX), MasterChef Junior (FOX), The Biggest Loser (NBC), Restaurant Startup (CNBC), Hunted (CBS) and Billion Dollar Buyer (CNBC). Gaha was recently named one of the most influential unscripted executives in Variety’s Reality Impact special report. 

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IT SEEMS LIKE an odd title for an Australian feature film – Flammable Children – but in that respect it perhaps follows so many other quirky and cleverly scripted internationally successful feature length comedies, including Crocodile Dundee and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Flammable Children – collaboratively backed by Screen Australia, Screen NSW and Screen Queensland – happens to have the star of Priscilla, one of one of the most successful comedic features in Australia’s history, Guy Pearce, again teamed with that film’s writer and director, Stephan Elliott. With the recent announcements of popular actors Kylie Minogue and Radha Mitchell joining the cast, big things are anticipated for the film. 

“Comedies are more than just a successful genre in Australia’s box office history; they form part of our national identity,” Becker Film Group managing director Richard Becker said. “Films like Priscilla and The Castle are embedded in our culture and serve to remind us of the self-deprecating humour that is the essence of our basic character.

“We are absolutely delighted to be bringing Flammable Children to audiences nationally and are thrilled that iconic Australian, Kylie Minogue, is now attached alongside Guy Pearce and Radha Mitchell to this colourful satire.”

The film is written and directed by Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) and produced by Al Clark (Priscilla, Chopper, Red Hill) and Jamie Hilton (Breath, The Waiting City, Backtrack). 

The storyline has that peculiar Australian quirkiness embedded.

It is 1975: the sexual revolution is in full swing; Saigon will fall; the first sounds of 2JJ are hitting the airwaves; Australia is in constitutional crisis; and in a sleepy beachside suburb, an extraordinary event will set in motion a crucial, comical and revelatory week for a teenage boy and girl. Something is about to go spectacularly wrong, and their lives will change forever.

Flammable Children marks the first time Ms Minogue and Mr Pearce have appeared on screen together since starring in Neighbours, early in their careers. As well as acting as an onscreen reunion for the two stars, Flammable Children will reunite some of the award-winning cast and crew from Priscilla.

The team joining Mr Elliott and Mr Clark includes production designer Colin Gibson, who recently won an Oscar and BAFTA for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road; and costume designer Lizzy Gardiner (Mission: Impossible II), who won an Oscar and BAFTA for her work on Priscilla. Other Priscilla ‘graduates’ include the score composer Guy Gross, who was BAFTA-nominated for Priscilla and Emmy Award-nominated film editor SueBlainey (Lost, Mozart in the Jungle).

“We are so excited to be able to support Flammable Children,” Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason said.

“In Kylie, Guy and Radha, the team has been able to secure some of Australia’s most established and iconic talents. The powerhouse in front of the camera is matched by the award-winning team behind it, who will bring our memories of 1970s Australia to life. Flammable Children is going to be smart and funny, with a distinctly nostalgic flavour that I think people will really connect with. Screen Australia is very proud to work with Screen NSW and Screen Queensland to support this film.”

Cameras will roll on the south-east coast of Queensland from early October.

Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Viera said, “This production will benefit from Queensland’s depth of talented cast and crew and showcase our fantastic locations. It’s a great opportunity for the local industry and keeps the back-to-back production happening in Queensland. It is a winning outcome for our business in creating simultaneous stories and economic growth for the screen.”

Screen NSW CEO Courtney Gibson said: “We’re proud to support Flammable Children, a glorious romp through Australia’s beachside history, being brought to life by an absolute dream team – on the screen, behind the camera and in post.”

Cutting Edge will provide post-production facilities in both Queensland and New South Wales and are also investors in the film. The Becker Film Groupwill look after Australia and New Zealand distribution, with international sales by WestEnd Films.

www.screenaustralia,gov.au

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THE National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), based in Canberra, has launched its first crowdfunding campaign to restore the renowned 1991 feature film Proof.

The NSFA Restores program was launched last year to repair and preserve prints of renowned Australian films, making digital files so they may be screened in modern cinemas. 

NSFA Restore has enlisted movie critic Margaret Pomeranz as its ambassador and the current drive is to raise $25,000 to preserve Proof.

Proof won many international awards on its release and launched the careers of director Jocelyn Moorhouse – today known best for The Dressmaker – and actors Russell Crowe and Hugo Weaving.

The program is a registered charity, offering tax deductibility for donations over $2. It has already restored several classic Australian movies, including the 1976 stand-out Storm Boy.

“I am making the first donation because I thought it was a bit rich to ask you guys to put money into this campaign and me just sitting back and saying. ‘Hey, why don’t you do it?’” Ms Pomeranz said at the launch of the program. “No. I am going to be part of this and I want to gather like-minded people around me. I hope you’re one of them.” 

www.nsfa.gov.au

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