Herald Sun reports Film Victoria Exec’s $45k farewell party

Firstly, let me reinforce that.. I hope this isn’t true… Still if it is, I think it does display a level of disconnect betwêen the filmmaker and the funding body Film Victoria. $45,000 would fund a few writers doing it hard, development funds are slim to non existent for emerging filmmakers, with the new feature writer program having bêen scrapped..with no real reason as to why put in place. It simply disappeared..so a $10,000 an hour bash is a bit of a slap in the face to struggling creatives. I would have liked to sêe $45,000 donated to purcahse camera equipment for a filmmaker collective like Open Channel..or donate it to the Raw Nerve program, but to just drink it and eat it…what a waste. Donate it to charity..anything. Lets sêe how it plays out…still politicians waste money like it was growing on trêes..so maybe its a drop in the ocean. I’d like to hear the rationale behind the expenditure..it is our money after all.

It’s certainly something that must be investigated, even if heads roll. I’m surprised the mainstream media (other than The Herald Sun) have not reported it.

Well now that the party is over we get an open letter saying how transparent and accountable they are. All I’d like to see is somebody stand up and say we spent $45K on a party for “this reason”…no spin..just be honest. How can $45K of taxpayers money spent on a party be rationalized? Who and why do they feel they deserve that? Everybody is over worked these days. Why does an outgoing CEO feel she deserves such a bash?
Because at the end of the day it really is a gross mismanagement of funds. We’ve seen funding programs drop off the radar like the new feature writers program the short film funding program. $45K is a lot of camera hire, actors wages and lighting for an emerging filmmaker with a great idea, struggling to get that short script realized. They can champion how hard working they are at Film Victoria all they want, they are paid to do a job…unlike most filmmakers who live predominately off the drive that comes from a passion for their craft. I know of so many filmmakers out there with great ideas who simply can’t connect the dots to get those ideas into production…how can they rationalize $45K on a party? It really is a slap in the face. If they are going to beat the transparent and accountable drum that’s fine, but why now when they have been caught out? There has been a few questionable funding decisions handed out to people sitting on the boards of Film Victoria committee’s that have seemed a bit on the nepotistic nose. Get transparent and accountable on those decisions, don’t wash us down with figures and facts concerning what you are paid to do..support the local filmmaking industry. I hope it was a blinder of a party..for 45K you’d want it to be.
Screen Australia funded the completion of two short film this year..for the entire nation..that’s all the cash they hand left in the bank..about $40,000 each in post production costs. If Film Victoria came to the “party”..we might have been able to fund a third.

If you read the recent “open letter to Practioners” from Film Victoria, it really is just a thinly veiled backslap “for all the hard work we’ve done, and so we had a party? big deal, we deserved it” press release.
How many of us have labored over an idea for years, finally summoning up the confidence to wade through funding applications for weeks even months. Trundled off to the post office and sent it through only to get a rejection notice six to eight weeks later and felt that deep sense of rejection and the wave of mild depression that comes with failure? Sometimes in our haze of rejection rage we summon up the courage to demand an answer as to why we didn’t get funding. The answer is always the same, “lack of funds”, “we can’t please everybody”, “there was heated debate about your script”, “you didn’t meet the proven criteria” etc etc..or the excuse you’ll never hear is “your idea was just stupid and we didn’t see any merit in it”. Still the journey towards applying for funding is a stressful one and the chances of success are slim, made even smaller by the small pool of funds made available to hopeful practitioners. So when I hear of $45K being spent on a party for a leaving CEO I’m rightly pissed off, I think most aren’t surprised, such is the apathy running deep through a depressed industry at the moment. I think of all the years I’ve spent trying to secure a small amount of funding to develop a screenplay, with no success and to think the powers that be sloshed that same amount down in an hour…one hour, drank and ate their way through it, with nothing to show at the end of it (sorry I forgot the $10,000 DVD) I think the level of disconnect is ridiculous [comment edited] Nice parting shot Sandra..thanks

I have been to screen australia ‘marketing’ events which were fully catered at the Beef Cafe at Fox. Unlimited alcohol and nibblies all night. This would have been in a similar ballpark to above. Absolute waste of funds, I don’t see any other govt. agency workers getting flown to Cannes and having lavish catering for useless events. Not to mention the amount spent on flying established producers and actors around to international festivals…

http://www.screenaustralia.gov.....rants.aspx

Reel in the spending and give it to struggling filmmakers for fucks sake.

We work in an industry that relies upon a healthy amount of innovation, talent and ideas coming through the generations, if we don’t have this cyclic pattern and nurture evolving talent the whole industry suffers as a whole. To think Film Victoria couldn’t see the merit it donating 45k to a fund or group like Open Channel to purchase DSLR equipment so emerging filmmakers could cheaply hire out this equipment and make the kind of films that might slowly nurture their careers shows how out of touch with the actual realities of filmmaking they are. [comment edited] Some of us are actually passionate about what we do and would like some help in pursuing that passion.