Focus on South Australia: looking south

The wheels have been turning in South Australia to bring the state’s film industry to the forefront of the entire nation. Micah Chua reports on the state’s progress and finds out just how this ambitious goal is being acted out.

The vision for the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) as stated in their Strategic Plan for 2012 is to have SA ‘recognised globally as the most dynamic screen industry in Australia’, with measurable targets such as doubling the state’s feature production by 2014 and increasing the number of credited producers and writers in the state.

This year has seen the features Swerve (dir. Craig Lahiff, prod. Helen Leake), The Place Between (dir. Beck Cole, prod. Kath Shelper) and Red Dog (dir. Kriv Stenders, prod. Nelson Woss and Julie Ryan – a South Australia/Western Australia collaboration) shot in the state, and the past year has seen a slew of new programs and strategies initiated by the State government and the SAFC including FilmLab, the producer equity scheme and the construction of the new Film and Screen Centre in Adelaide.
“The government is committed to the future of filmmaking in South Australia and every investment and initiative will have flow-on benefits and strengthen the sector as a whole,” SA Premier and Minister of the
Arts Mike Rann said recently.
After the first year of operation for these new programs and strategies, it’s safe to say that the decision makers in the state’s film industry have certainly put their money where their mouth is as South Australian production looks at a bright future.
THE NEXT LEVEL
The FilmLab initiative, which opened for submissions in March 2009, has undergone its first year in operation.
SA Premier Mike Rann and the SAFC launched the $4.2 million initiative to provide a development opportunity for new filmmakers. The scheme offers successful candidates a $350,000 budget and mentoring opportunities from a slate of professional advisors with Philip Noyce as FilmLab’s patron and Rolf de Heer, Greg McLean and more key industry players running workshops and advisory sessions.
An ideal long-term aim for the scheme would be an increase in feature film production, as well as a strengthening of the key creative base.
“It was done in response to the fact that, while SA has developed a number of filmmakers who are at a certain level of success, it has been less successful at nurturing the next generation of filmmaking talent,” Chief Executive Officer of the SAFC, Richard Harris told Encore.
“The lab was a direct intervention to move filmmakers from one particular level and graduate them to a higher level and longer form projects.
“We identified that there was talent who were just not quite able to crack the market in order to make feature films,” he explained.
“It’s a really great initiative’, added Adelaide Film Festival director Katrina Sedgwick. “It really supports the stated vision of the SAFC, which is to try and make SA a very attractive place for independent artists and
filmmakers to work.”
The program certainly sounds good on paper, but how has it done in its first year in action?
“We’ve found the FilmLab process to be a real eyeopener,” said Hugh Nguyen, participant of the scheme and head of development at the People’s Republic of Animation (PRA). “FilmLab’s best resource has been
the mentoring provided by Stephen Cleary and his experienced team, who have taught us all a lot about script development.”

The PRA may be the best indication of the program’s success. Selected as part of the scheme with their live action/animation project Bear Hug Storm Punch, the film has ‘graduated to a higher level’.
“Through the FilmLab process, our project has evolved into a film that we believe isn’t viable for production on a $350,000 budget,” explained Nguyen. “We’ve also received strong market interest in the project. Therefore, we recently made the decision to graduate it from the FilmLab funding strand to pursue market interest and raise more finance. This is an unexpected but very positive outcome for the project.”
While it may be too early to speak of any commercial success, the scheme has produced a very positive sign of strengthening the creative base and positioning independent production teams at an advantage to crack the market.
“Not enough projects developed in SA end up reaching their full potential,” explained Nguyen. “Lately there seems to be a push for increased focus on script development across all the screen agencies, which will
hopefully lead to higher quality projects and more of them. That would be a great outcome for the screen industry as a whole.”
IT’S BUSINESS TIME
Looking to the business sector of the industry, the government has been working to create an environment where production companies can not only remain sustainable, but also achieve certain levels
of success to keep the prospect of future production well and truly open.
The Producer Equity Scheme was launched in February last year with the backing of the South Australian government. The initiative introduced first dollar returns straight to the producer rather than delaying the recoupment process until after the funding body has made its money back.
“Until we start really finding ways to get producers to have the opportunities to share in those successes, then the industry will continue to be on a drip feed and I don’t think that’s a positive thing,” argued Harris.
The scheme was an industry first and has since received positive feedback from the rest of the industry both in and outside SA.
“The Producer Equity Scheme is one particularly attractive policy the SAFC has introduced that’s made a difference,” said managing director of Kojo Pictures Kent Smith. ”You really start seeing people taking notice of SA and a lot of interest in doing a project here.”