Good morning and welcome.
I would also like to pay my respects to the Wurundjeri people and the peoples of the Kulin Nation and the Elders of other communities who may be with us today.
Thanks to our Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley, a fantastic supporter of the Victorian screen industry as is our Premier Daniel Andrews, leading the Victorian Government. They understand the value of our industry so we are indeed very fortunate for their support.
Thanks to all of the international guests who have travelled and given their time to bringing a global perspective to this conference.
So here we are again at Screen Forever, only a month or so away from Christmas when we all get to down tools and chill out for at least a week or two, which I’m sure we’re all looking forward to.
It’s been quite a year. And this year’s Screen Forever Conference provides a great forum to reflect on the successes and interrogate the issues, challenges and opportunities faced by our screen industry.
One of the hot topics of recent discussion has been about the need for more women in directing roles, and whilst I absolutely agree with this, the question of gender diversity in our industry needs to challenged and addressed more broadly.
Its seems to me a tad ironic that whilst it’s a well-accepted fact that women drive consumer behaviour, which translates beyond what is purchased in shops to what is watched in our cinemas and home theatres – the people making the majority of decisions about what films and TV dramas get commissioned and financed are males, all very capable to be sure – but to what extent are these decisions truly meeting the interests of women as significant consumers and household decision makers when it comes to determining what screen content gets made?
I would argue women as an audience are a seriously underserved and to some extent over looked market, as I might add are the Baby Boomers, children and families. It’s a known fact that women respond and behave very differently to men – therefore as the drivers of consumer behaviour wouldn’t it make sense to have more women influencing the decisions about what gets financed, the screenwriting, casting, directing and overall production approach, on the basis they might intuitively have a better sense of what women will relate and respond to?
There’s a logic to this that suggests audience numbers have the potential to be even higher than what they currently are – which might then attract more advertising and investment dollars to help grow our industry.
This discussion will be explored further at 11am this morning, with four extraordinary women speakers including keynote guest Paula Wagner, Deanne Weir, Claudia Karvan and Courtney Gibson, and I encourage you to come along.
On the political front we’ve had yet another change of Prime Minister, although the Federal election is not due until next year – an important point I’ll come back to.
At least we now have the Federal Arts and Communications portfolios being under the charge of one Minister, Victorian Senator Mitch Fifield - who we’ll hear from this evening. For those of us in the independent sector creating screen content, which falls under the care of the Arts portfolio there is hope that there now may be a better understanding of critical link between the Arts and Communications, which may lead to a more holistic approach and better consultation on decisions affecting our industry.
Although the fact that ACMA have as recently at last week announced registering a new Commercial Television Code of Practice with few in the industry seeming to know about this other than the broadcasters, suggests a priority for the combined portfolio may be to look at enhancing their communication skills.
Moving on, I think we all recognise that we are an industry that thrives on collaboration and cooperation.
When we pull together using these skills, there’s strong evidence to show we have the best chance of finding success and making an impact.
As is demonstrated by the success of Australian feature films this year, where these collaborative efforts have delivered a bumper outcome at the Box Office. Congratulations to the teams behind The Water Diviner, Mad Max Fury Road, Paper Planes, Last Cab to Darwin, Oddball and most recently The Dressmaker, which has achieved $11.6 mil in 2.5 weeks and could easily reach $20 million.
I’m delighted to note that Film Victoria was a strong supporter of The Water Diviner, Paper Planes, Oddball and The Dressmaker, providing development and/or investment support.
I make this point to emphasise that the success of these films has not come out of the blue. They result from the significant effort and commitment of producers who had a clear vision of the story they felt needed to be told and understood the market they were aiming for. Backed by wonderful creative talent, including writers, directors, cast and crew they’ve achieved brilliant results.
What’s equally important to note is that each of these producers were also well supported through the collective efforts of many other people, over many years, including distributors, sales agents, script developers, screen agencies, private investors and others - all of whom believed in and backed the vision and talent of the filmmakers because they wanted to see them succeed in bringing these very Australian stories to the screen.
Television drama has also enjoyed a fantastic year, despite the 14/15 drama production hours being down a little. Productions like The Secret River, The Code, Glitch, The Beautiful Lie, Catching Milat, the various Gallipoli stories and many more have delivered brilliant acting, writing, direction and production values. And there’s been terrific comedy and documentary output also.
Once again all of this content has been the result of the combined efforts of many talented and hardworking individuals working together to bring these great stories to our screens, for the pleasure of all Australians and travelling to global audiences as well.
It all starts from having a great story to tell. Last year I spoke at this conference and suggested that, in anticipation of the 2016 federal election, the industry should unite to tell one particular story, to both our politicians and the public.
The story of how important is it to keep Australian content on our screens highlighting the economic, cultural and social value our industry can create if it is supported through holistic and forwardlooking policy objectives, underpinned by meaningful funding for the screen sector across the board.
I’m delighted to report that, since then, 11 of our industry guilds, including SPA, the ADG, AWS, ACS, APDG, AGSC, ASE, ASSG,WIFT, VES and MEAA, have indeed united to do just this. They’ve been meeting quietly and regularly behind the scenes throughout the year to develop what I’ll conveniently call “a treatment.”
There’s a little more finessing to be done before it’s at final script stage and ready to be shared with the industry but it’s not far away. When it is fully developed and has a marketing strategy in place, it’ll be pitched to all political parties contesting the 2016 Federal election. There’s plenty more to be done over the next 6-8 months, which includes getting this message to the public via a clever social media campaign.
The 2016 election presents a rare opportunity to get bipartisan commitment to supporting the growth of industry over the next 5-10 years, centred around a strong belief in the importance of telling stories from an Australian perspective, reflecting what it means to be Australian in a global world and retaining our distinctive cultural identity for future generations.
The support and growth of our industry must include mechanisms which propel the potential of talented individuals and businesses to greater success on the local and global stage, with women being well represented in that picture along with the ethnic diversity that makes us a culturally rich and admired nation.
Now is the time when those most valuable skills of co-operation and collaboration we have in spades need to come forth and be used even more determinedly.
If you’re keen to learn more or even assist with telling this story please let SPA CEO Matthew Deaner, ADG Executive Director Kingston Anderson or myself know and you’ll be added to the “investor” list and contacted in due course. Investments of time, cash or just spreading the word on social media are most welcome.
In the meantime I’d like to congratulate all the Guilds for the collegiate effort everyone has put in to getting to this point. It’s an impressive and inspiring and reinforces the benefit to be gained when we pull together.
In closing I’d also like to congratulate all those involved with SPA who assisted in delivering 30 years of this conference, and particularly acknowledge those behind this year’s conference including Matthew Deaner, Rachelle Gibson, Lorelle Lee, Peter Herbert, Angus Young and Simonne Overend.
Congratulations also to all the producers who are still in the game after 30 years.
Enjoy the conference and the diverse selection of panels that await you, in the company of your colleagues and our international guests.
And be sure to take some time out to enjoy the beautiful city of Melbourne if you can.
Thank you.