Focus on the bigger picture
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday December 10, 2009
The days of Australian filmmakers producing movies solely for art's sake are over and they are now reaping the benefits, writes Sacha Molitorisz. We laughed, we cried. Then we cried some more. That, according to the doom-and-gloom-sayers, sums up the year in Australian film.They say Australian films have been consistent underperformers. With a few notable exceptions, they say, 2009 box-office figures for local features have ranged from disappointing to dismal. Even for films that deserve to be hits.Stone Bros and The Marriage of Figaro were original comedies that fell flat. Cedar Boys and The Combination were tough, bold dramas that failed to fire. Even Three Blind Mice, Matthew Newton's festival favourite, could barely obtain a release, screening just five times at the Chauvel in Paddington.So, is there cause for optimism or pessimism for Australian films?"It has been a very challenging year for independent film in general," says Troy Lum of independent distributor Hopscotch. "The US and UK independent sectors are a mess. In this context, Australia has been punching above its weight, with solid results for Samson & Delilah, Beautiful Kate, Balibo, The Boys are Back, Charlie & Boots and, of course, Mao's Last Dancer. I see more positives than negatives."Lum's optimism is in part because one of Hopscotch's upcoming films is Bright Star, Jane Campion's tale of poet John Keats, which attracted rave reviews at Cannes and releases locally on Boxing Day.Actor and filmmaker Jeremy Sims says there will always be Australian films that fail to find an audience. "Every English-speaking country battles with the dominance of big American films," he says.Sims is currently editing Beneath Hill 60, a World War I drama based on the true story of a Queensland miner who in 1916 landed in the muddy, bloody trenches of the Western Front. Starring Brendan Cowell and Aden Young, it's set for an April release but a rough cut has already screened for test audiences."We have done a lot of testing during the edit," says Sims, who thinks more Australian films should have test screenings. "We have been surprised and enlightened and re-cut material in response."He isn't alone in saying that too often Australian filmmakers have ignored their potential audiences."We have an unfortunate record of producing too many films by first-time directors," says distributor Allanah Zitserman, of the Australian Film Syndicate."I think this year it's 75 per cent. I'd like to see that around 50 per cent. We need to create more mature films and that requires experience. Research shows that women aged over 35 are our biggest consumers of Australian films - maybe we are not making enough films that appeal to them.""I have a view," says Robert Raymond, producer of Schindler's List, "that Australian filmmakers have often gone off and done what they wanted to do. That's great but what's happening now - and this is a healthy development - is that filmmakers are addressing the issue of who is potentially going to see their movie."Raymond's new film, Going Vertical, is a surfing doco directed by David Bradbury. Released in March, it tells of the rivalry between the Australians and Americans who claim to have invented the shortboard."This is the smallest film I've ever been involved in," Raymond says. "But sometimes a little picture with a big story can work and this has a built-in audience around the world."Also coming soon is Bran Nue Dae, an ambitious musical set in Broome, directed by Rachel Perkins and starring Geoffrey Rush, Deborah Mailman and Jessica Mauboy. It is released next month, as is the Queensland-shot vampire tale Daybreakers, starring Ethan Hawke, Vince Colosimo and Claudia Karvan.Sean Byrnes's inventive horror film The Loved Ones stars Victoria Thaine, Paul Middleditch's comedy-drama Separation City stars Joel Edgerton and Andrew Lancaster's keenly awaited black comedy Accidents Happen is pencilled in for March. Animal Kingdom sees Ben Mendelsohn and Guy Pearce enter Melbourne's underworld, Shirley "Love Serenade" Barrett returns with South Solitary and Oranges and Sunshine tells of the forced migration of British children to Australia.The chief executive of Screen Australia, Ruth Harley, is optimistic, particularly after a year she describes as a huge success."It's true that we released a lot of films this year," she says. "And it's also true that several didn't meet their expectations. However, this has been the best year for Australian film for a very long time."Harley says 10 films have taken more than $1 million. Further, she predicts that Austra- lian films will account for about 5 per cent of the year's total takings (significantly better than 2004's low of 1.3 per cent). And, by Harley's count, Bright Star will take the tally of local films released this year to 42. To put that in perspective, since 1998 there have been between 14 and 25 films released each year."You have to start from the premise that if you have a lot of horses in the race, you have a better chance of having horses that come home and we've had 10 come home," she says.Lum says piracy and home entertainment units aren't having as adverse an impact as people think. It comes down to scripts."We have to make films that are an alternative to Hollywood," Lum says. "The major thing holding back Australian cinema is the lack of imagination of our stories.""Still," Sims adds, "it's great that Australians are beginning to trust Australian films again. Next year will be even better."Attack of the mobile phonesAs with the vampires of Twilight, cinema itself is proving hard to kill. In Australia, the movie market continues to grow, says Ruth Harley of Screen Australia."Every year but one for the past 10 years the total gross [at the Australian box office] has gone up," Harley says. "But where it mostly goes up is at the very top end. Most of our films are aimed at a limited and specialty market and that's going down."Therein lies the problem. Working with limited budgets, Australian auteurs can never hope to compete with Transformers, Avatar or 2012. Just to survive in multiplexes dominated by Hollywood behemoths, boutique Australian films need a marketing weapon. Enter Sebastian Strakowicz, a Canadian-Australian who may prove decisive in several upcoming box-office battles."Film is the perfect example of a monologue," Strakowicz says. "We're engaging in a dialogue, using the small screen to get people into the big screen."By "small screen", Strakowicz is referring to mobile phones, part of a bold campaign for the upcoming feature Accidents Happen. A popular favourite at this year's Sydney Film Festival, the comedy is pencilled in for a March release, which will be preceded by an elaborate marketing strategy involving mobile phones, websites and competitions.Marketing used to comprise a poster with a catchy tagline; increasingly producers are turning to mobile phones and social networking sites. MySpace and Facebook were crucial in the Hoyts strategy for Twilight. Meanwhile, extended trailers are being released to the web well ahead of time. Anything goes in the quest to get bums on seats for the opening weekend. Even DVD distributors are in on the act. For the recent release of The Hangover, a competition invited punters to upload party photos to Facebook. The Accidents Happen campaign also features a competition: pages of the script will be made public and people will be invited to make films with mobile phones.On location in Sydney, Strakowicz handed out mobile phones to the cast and crew, asking them to shoot whatever took their fancy. The results comprised an intriguing compilation of behind-the-scenes footage that will appear on the internet and will be circulated via mobile phone."Usually you have a filmmaker who says, 'I made this film,"' Strakowicz says."What we're doing is asking audiences to use their mobile phones to get involved."Sacha Molitorisz
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
