The Australian Filmmaker

One day I’ll figure out what I want to do. Last year I shot a MOW in Ottawa, Directed some plumbing commercials in Australia, shot a bunch of commercials which helped get rid of John Howard, produced a movie “The Gates of Hell”. I am producing a TV series for our Aus PBS network (SBS), co-producing a doco that is going to be insanely good and, oh yeah, I wrote a screenplay.

This year things are a little more serious. Despite the reasonably active 2007 - the greenbacks did not match the hours worked and the bank manager is not happy - or more correctly, he is less happy than usual. Now you may have heard that Australia has introduced some tax rebates for qualifying Australian films. 40%? Sounds good. But wait, there’s more. (or, in fact, less) There’s a few exclusions that tends to bring that down to 30%. Might as well go to Canada. Manitoba reckons they’ll give 55%. The rebate in Australia replaces the 10BA certification, which allowed investors a 100% tax deduction on their investment. Most first time directors managed to eak a few dollars out of the guy next door, Uncle Lazlo, his lawyer and his lawyers property developing brother. The Gates of Hell was financed that way - its unlikely we could have scraped the budget together under the new scheme. So we get 30% maybe 10% from a State Government body - perhaps another 10% in presales and we need to fund the other 50% - hedge funds, loans, equity, insurance - all a bit hard to come by down under. But hey, we’ll do it - we’ll find that benevolent high worth individual or that grey suited businessman who wants his bit of Hollywood. We’ll end up tipping some in ourselves; a bit from a sales agent and we’ll be off and running on our seventh movie. And it will be ours.

So that’s producing the Australian way - probably the way of the world. I produce because I want our films made. I prefer being the ratbag on the set, striving for the best, being one of the crew more than one of the producers, but at lunch, I can’t eat because we’re running behind - the lighting is taking too long, and that’s my fault. The crane shot will have to go and we’d better forget the hothead through the second floor window. I’m about to crack in two as at least two of my personalities wrestle with their particular areas of concern. “but I want it to look awesome” says the cinematographer me. “and I want to wrap on time” says producer me. “You won’t be able to sell it if it looks like shit” says cinematographer me. “I won’t be able to sell it without an ending” says producer me. And then 100 years of film making becomes painfully clear - there is a reason why there are separate people doing all these jobs - the gaffer, the grip, the focus puller and craft services. They are uncompromised by conflict - they are here to do a job and they are employed because they do it well.

Well, I’m convinced. That is, the producer me - I cant vouch for the writer me nor the cinematographer me, nor even the rainmaker me, because that was my other job on the last movie.