RIGHT at the moment, the biggest blockbuster movie in production on the planet is being filmed in Queensland.

That $100 million-plus 3D movie’s name is San Andreas and it stars Hollywood ‘go-to’ action star and former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. 

It is an outstanding credit for the plucky Australian movie industry, at a time when its exchange rate, approaching parity with the US dollar, is not doing it any favours.

While the word around Australian movie production teams is that the rates of pay are no longer at the ‘very comfortable’ levels of their heyday, these professionals are very glad to be working on such a prestigious project and have a quiet confidence that it will lead to more regular jobs in movie production on behalf of Hollywood.

While much of the media discussion centred on economic incentives to bring film work to Australia – and it has worked, with actor and director Angelina Jolie completing Australian filming of her World War Two epic, Unbroken, the inspirational story of 1936 Olympic runner Louis Zamperini just a few months before San Andreas commenced – word in the industry is that the professionalism and efficiency of the Australian crews is the real clapper-board to the future.

San Andreas is being filmed primarily at Village Roadshow studios on the Gold Coast, and also utilising locations in Brisbane, Gatton, Ipswich and at Archerfield Airport, where rare 1930s-era hangars temporarily became the Los Angeles Fire Department special air operations headquarters and the RACQ Careflight helicopter maintenance crews provided equipment and advice.

San Andreas is said to have been attracted through Warner Bros. by Screen Queensland’s production incentive scheme and the state’s payroll tax rebate. According to Variety magazine, only 18 days of filming for San Andreas has been made in Los Angeles itself, primarily because of poor LA financial incentives.

Officially, San Andreas is expected to create 2700 jobs and generate $40 million into the Australian economy, but it may be that the real long-term value is the tidal rise it brings to the local screen production industry and its tourism onflow.

More coverage in the print edition of Business Acumen, #77.

www.unbrokenfilm.com

www.screenqueensland.com.au

www.screenaustralia.gov.au

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ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 2014.

THE National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is creating a new business model and organisational structure – and now plans a series of meetings and workshops with supporters and key stakeholders.

The aim of the sessions is to engage with the film, recorded sound and broadcast industries, as well as academia, the cultural sector, and community at large, about the future of the revered NFSA. 

In the wake of comments from industry and the public, NFSA CEO Michael Loebenstein said, “It has been very encouraging to see how deeply people care about the national audio-visual collection as a fundamental piece of our national cultural heritage.

“We want to better understand our stakeholders’ expectations and hear their ideas, and for them to think how they can help the NFSA to remain strong and independent in a rapidly changing and challenging environment.

“These workshops represent an opportunity for us to show how seriously the NFSA takes its role and responsibilities, today and well into the future.”

Gabrielle Trainor, chair of the NFSA Board, agreed.

“We welcome the concern and support we have received,” Ms Trainor said. “We also welcome the opportunity to share our vision, hear from our stakeholders in person, respond to questions, explain the rationale behind the changes, and to engage in constructive discussion.”

Mr Loebenstein plans to share the new vision for the NFSA, and the draft strategic plan 2014/15 to 2016/17, as well as clarify the issues and concerns raised by participants. 
Sessions will be held in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Brisbane. The exact dates, times and venues will be published on the NFSA website.

www.nfsa.gov.au

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FILM historian and writer Jeannette Delamoir revealed the story behind Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s 1986 ‘lost’ musical Crocodile Creek, in a special presentation at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) Theatrette in Canberra in August.

It was an unusual and prescient production that deserves greater recognition within Australia’s creative pantheon, according to Ms Delamoir. 

One of Australia’s most successful film directors, Mr Luhrmann was only 23 when he visited Rockhampton, Queensland, to direct Crocodile Creek — a community musical that unfolds amidst the 1867 anti-Chinese riots at the Crocodile Creek goldfield.

“Crocodile Creek faded from sight, and this oblivion is undeserved,” said Ms Delamoir. “Over the past year, I’ve interviewed many of the participants, and I’m convinced that fate brought together a fortuitous combination of personnel who created something special.

“Certainly the production made a long-lasting impact on those involved—and that includes Luhrmann, its professional director.”

The illustrated lecture explained this forgotten Baz Luhrmann production and it also included a special performance by Crocodile Creek composer Felix Meagher, who played excerpts from the score. The music had not been heard in public since the show’s four-night season ended almost 30 years ago. Mr Meagher has continued his career as a school music teacher and composer, completing a long list of projects and touring schools around the country as manager and performer in the band Bushwahzee.

He is co-creator and program director of The Lake School of Celtic Music in Koroit, Victoria, and has also worked on 30 Port Fairy Folk Festivals. Recently he wrote and composed Barry v. Kelly, a dramatic musical set around the death of Ned Kelly; and, with Dennis O’Keeffe, the musical The Man They Call The Banjo.

In 1988, he again collaborated with Mr Luhrmann and Wendy Harmer on Lake Lost for the Australian Opera Workshop and he also contributed music to Mr Luhrmann’s film Australia (2008), which starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

Crocodile Creek came from a script by Rockhampton writer Barbara Birchall, inspired by a ‘disturbance’ in 1867, when racist violence targeted Chinese miners at the  Crocodile Creek goldfield.

Ms Birchall used these events as a backdrop for a romance between two teenagers, Irish Molly and Chinese Mickee. Their relationship is bitterly opposed by Molly’s father, Black Ned, the leader of the riot.

Eventually 120 local people were involved. The cast had 40 members, the orchestra 23 musicians. About 50 volunteers worked through the night making costumes and building sets — then went to work the next day.

“The characteristics that underlie Luhrmann’s present success — the highly developed vision, the searing drive, and the capacity for deep connections with cast and crew — were already evident,” Ms Delamoir said.

Ms Delamoir has a PhD in media studies from La Trobe University, and taught for many years at CQUniversity in Rockhampton. She has also worked at the NFSA in Canberra and Sydney, and was a 2011 NFSA SAR fellow. She is currently researching the 1927 Royal Commission into the Moving Picture Industry in Australia.

www.nfsa.gov.au

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