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Screen Australia report glosses over key issue

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A qualitative research study commissioned by Screen Australia affirms the importance of Australian screen culture but pays scant attention to the issue of why cinemagoers rarely see local films.


The Ipsos Australia report, Hearts & Minds, affirms that Australians believe that a strong local film and television industry producing high-quality content is essential to their sense of culture and identity.


The study found the heavily promoted Hollywood films have a strong advantage in attracting cinemagoers but said Australians will go to see a local film if it has buzz and strong word-of-mouth. Reflecting their box-office results, Australia, Red Dog and The Sapphires were the most often cited examples.

The focus group research indicated Australian films were easy to miss at the cinema because of very short runs, with one respondent quoting recent misfires Save Your Legs! and Blinder. That’s a chicken-and- egg argument because those films wouldn’t have been pulled off screen so quickly if they had sold more tickets.


Pointing to a possible failure of marketing, participants said they missed out on seeing some Australian films at the cinema because they didn’t hear about them early enough. Tellingly, the film that was most widely and spontaneously discussed was Rabbit-Proof Fence, Phillip Noyce’s 2002 portrayal of the Stolen Generation, raising the question of why so few local films in the past 11 years had resonated strongly.

The most positive responses were for TV dramas including The Slap, Redfern Now, Offspring, Howzat, Paper Giants and Puberty Blues. The ‘real life’ documentaries Go Back to Where You Came From, The First Australians and Australian Story were praised.


“We’re experiencing a golden age of Australian drama,” said Screen Australia’s outgoing chief executive Ruth Harley. “Australian audiences are responding to local stories, using them to better understand themselves and each other. Our stories are staying with us long after we’ve turned off the television or left the cinema.”


The research shows, however, that there is still a long way to go in reflecting the full diversity of the population. First and second generation migrants felt that mainstream content often did not reflect the multicultural reality of urban life and some had trouble relating to ‘Aussie’ cultural and social norms portrayed in commercial shows.


The research was released ahead of the Jobs, Dollars, Hearts & Minds conference being staged by the agency in Canberra on Tuesday.
The Hearts & Minds report can be downloaded from www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/hearts_and_minds.aspx

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15 Comments

  1. Amazing ! The very same response came from the last research of this nature, done by the FFC, maybe 6 years ago.
    But has or will Screen Australia do anything about supporting our films to reach local audiences? Not a thing. A Golden Age indeed.

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  2. Australia films are BORING. They are of boring subject matter, are badly acted and poorly filmed. You can pick an Australia film a mile away.

    Why would I want to see an Australian low budget badly acted film of poor quality when I can see an American low budget well acted film of high quality?

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  3. This is no surprise but the surprise is that it is seen as a surprise if you see what I mean. Take note – I believe that as more films and TV actually reflect more fully the Australia we are now rather than the Home and Away version we seem stuck on since 1980, we will get some successes. If films are meant to reflect our experience we are in a very strange loop indeed at the moment with Australian Cinema.

    And we don’t make many films here so we cannot expect that every funded film or otherwise will be any good. Look at other coutnries with bigger film industries. They might have a few good’uns in between a sea of mediocre and downright awful but they have a lot more failures too.

    Film Making is an eye wateringy expensive form of story telling even with technology driving down some costs and making it more accessible to wanne be directors. But where will your film be seen, even if you make it to the end of completion and postproduction. It’s a question every film maker has to address now whether they like it or not.

    We know that cinema bound films cannot just succeed on word of mouth anymore – they have to have a publicity budget like The Sapphires did to make them even register on the radar for most of the public. I loved this film and it was a crowd pleaser but it was actually on the radar because it was EVERYWHERE! That cost money.

    However smaller films can succeed if they take on the multiple niche marketing plan that most of us in the business have to accept is the new norm. One of the very largest multi-nationa film companies admitted to me fairly recently that even with their larger publicity budgets and staffing they struggled to get many of their huge tent poles successes (think the biggest B.O. performers in Australia in last 2 years) to break even in Australia. Given that most Australian films won’t have those kind of resources it is no wonder they will struggle, even if they are good and can get past the dreaded first week end box office result that determines if they can stay another week.

    Despite talking about Social Media a lot, SA recent activity and the Producer offset requirements show that their’s is still a very old distribution model and that they really do not value the alternative distribution models out there. The first would be be to openly acknowledge that the Cinema is not going to be in any way shape or form, the place they will recoup their investment and more importantly, it is not going to be how most of the audience will consume the product. I make for cinema and will love the cinema as a place to see films till I die but I recognise fully most people will not watch my films at the cinema and that any screenings whether in a festival, arthouse or multiplex venue are purely a form of marketing and establish a kind of legitimacy. For smaller films, the deals they are forced into signing are commercial suicide.

    SA knows this and yet does not address it. Insisting their funded films must have local distribution at home even though we all know our market is tiny, that we have very few optionsin terms of local distributers and that local market territories are making less and less sense. International Sales are much more likely to provide real income.

    Not having films available to buy or rent online or on DVD in Australia as soon as possible from their release dooms those producers to losing any potential income they may have had to a frustrated and often angry consumer who feels justified in pirating it because their attempts to obtain it by legitimate purchase were futile. Look at any forum to see how many people took out their credit card to get the latest Movie/ TV show legitimately but resorted to illegal download because the distribution deal meant they had to wait, sometimes up to 2 years!

    There should be no argument. Everyone knows that a culture’s stories are important. It is how much a society values it’s own stories – sees them as cultural gold or not, that decides how much they will support the making of “Australian” Films. And that means like all art, success might not be just measured in box office terms. It might be very important to not just support the making of those stories, but for those agencies to do so in a more realistic and diverse way, so the few gems that do come through, are treasured for years to come.

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  4. A really important thing to remember is that an Australian Film is produced on an Australian Budget, yet it costs me the same to go and watch it as a Brad Pitt of Julia Roberts Film.

    They rarely reach any great height as far as entertainment goes, Red Dog was a “Nice” Film, however I would have been upset to fork out $15.00 to watch it.

    We shouldn’t be too upset by this, I believe it is the same in Europe, Scandinavia etc. Nice films but hardly crowd pullers. If my wife and I could go and watch an Australian Film together for under $20.00 we would probably go.

    Either distributors or Cinemas themselves are cruelling Australian Films not the movie makers themselves.

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  5. Screenplays need not be written from experience, so much as from empathy. Human stories are by definition tribal stories, and tribal stories are DRAMATIC. What people crave everywhere – whether they live here in Australia or in Timbuctoo are stories that are possessed of characters that they can care about, that act in ways that they can identify with, and whose dreams and goals and needs are common to people everywhere. Australia is NOT one tribe, it is many tribes – many language and cultural groups, that have their own, unique stories to tell within an Australian context. But that context is transformed continuously by the storytellers that inhabit it. What is needed are storytellers that understand and can employ the dramatic grammar in ways that are authentic to their tribe and at the same time offer up dramatic action that is surprising, fresh and credible. For more about all this, see WHERE’S THE DRAMA? at http://www.wheresthedrama.com

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  6. I think this research is extremely flawed. Look at the popular international dramas that have a strong word-of-mouth and huge popularity, e.g. Breaking Bad, Dexter, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire. We need good, gripping drama that appeals to a global audience, not just a local audience. Australians love their cinema and support it even in tough times, but the same issue remains. Give us GREAT stories that appeal to a global audience.

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  7. The problem is rather complex. But as long as Screen Australian doesn’t believe in the merits of a Hero’s Journey approach, I’m afraid we’ll continue to keep struggling.

    However, it is refreshing to see that the new generation screenwriters coming out of AFTRS has had a proper introduction to mythical storytelling techniques thanks to Alan Palmer. I am convinced this will soon show results.

    The other key issues in Australian scripts:

    – poor premise
    – problematic POV
    – passive protagonist

    More here: http://bit.ly/PPPscreenplay

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  8. I’ll go see an Australian film over an imported film every time. We have great writers, directors and stars appearing in films made in other countries. Where did they get their starts? RIGHT HERE.
    And locally made films like ‘Drift’, great entertainment, – ‘Wasted On The Young’, edgy, different, ‘Liquid Bridge’ wonderfull, loved it.
    I’m over Hollywood block busters, car chases, shoot em ups…..give me ‘The Castle, ‘Strictly Ballrooom’ an ‘The Saphires’ any time.

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  9. ALL OF THE ABOVE.NO-ONE BUT GOVERNMENT WILL INVEST IN FILMS THAT DON’T MAKE MONEY.
    ENDLESS STUDIES GATHERING DUST,SANCTIMONIOUS CRAP FROM THE SAME PEOPLE WHO MADE THE MOVIES.ASK THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL OVERSEAS,NOT THOSE WHO KNOW THEM FROM ACTING SCHOOL.

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  10. I think all of the above comments are valid and on the money.

    We seem to all know the solutions and problems but year after year the same issues and arguments (whinges) come out.

    Australian films are not about turning a profit. Once we take out the profit/money factor and just make it about the art, original films and tell uniquely Australian stories then we shall retain a cultural film industry that we can all be proud of.

    Lets stop trying to keep up with the big genre commercial fodder and retain our creative input about our culture, history and society.

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  11. I have reviewed this research and its total nonsense.

    Coming from an advertising background I know how easy it is to manipulate market research to get the answers you want.

    Cinema attendance speaks louder than any loaded survey or focus group. Of course if you ask any Australian if they like the idea of supporting and nurturing films that tell Australian stories they will say yes. Doesn’t meant they’ll actually go and see them, or if they do, doest meant they’ll like them, but there is a little bit of patriotism in all of us that likes the feel good theory of supporting films that tell Australian stories.

    I’m appalled that in a time when Screen Australia has so poorly managed their budget and run out of money half way through the year, they are throwing money up against the wall on useless research to support their bad investment policies.

    Isn’t it about time that we look at the basic measurement which is theatrical attendance numbers and realise it’s time for our film corporations to let go of this mind-blowingly-stupid idea of Significant Australian Content.

    Government should serve the purpose to help support an industry to the point that it commercialises and becomes self sustaining. Rather than having a single body in Australia tasked with shaping govenrment policy and helping Australian filmmakers become self sustaining, and god forbid profitable, we have an array of federal and state based bodies wasting all their funds with the employment of endless paper pushers, convoluted processes with silly rules and guidelines to administer collectively a small pool of funds, acting like producers who don’t actually know anything about film without any accountability for their investment decisions.

    In other parts of the world, film is seen as an industry that generates profits, employes thousands of people and creates massive export revenue. Whilst the government in Australia insist on butting their noses into deciding which films get funded and which ones don’t and dictate the type of content they contain, our array of tax payer funded bodies will continue to act as glorified Centrelink agencies for filmmakers.

    Australia is different from other countries, so the film industry does require government intervention to help make it successful, but doing it in the form of handouts is not the answer.

    We need policy reform that incentivises private investment in film both from local and foreign investors. Yes, 10BA had its problems and it was abused from time to time, but simply write better policy that is better regulated.

    Offsets work and are a great idea. The current producer offset program is a complete joke and is engineered around lining the pockets of already established producers rather than helping to build the industry and attract new productions. The offset should be reengineered to work like a co-contribution system – make it 45 or 50%. Scrap all the Significant Auatralian Content nonsense, completely abandon the idea of market attachment – filmmakers should be taking their finished films to the market place, not selling themselves short in order to either attract governement funding or be eligible for an offset. It should be as simple as filmmakers raise their budget trough private investment, prove your production is legitimate, have a completion guarantor and you get your funding as you need it to pay your production expenses until the film is complete. Have tight regulation, inspections to make sure people are doing the right thing and tough penalties for those who abuse it and the system would work great. Make it available to any producer, local, international, experienced or inexperienced, just make the criteria the film is the film is to be primarily made in Australia (principal photography/post) and co-contribution amounts only eligible for Australian expenses.

    With the right incentives to attract private investors and a great co-contribution/offset scheme that makes funds available to filmmakers whilst in production, the idea of grants or government investment should be completely scraped. The market will then sort itself out and grow on its own.

    The only other area the government needs to intervene where it currently has no presence is with exhibition of Australian made films. We need to recognise Australian films are a different product to US films that typically dominate our theatres and take most revenue. One Hollywood film can have a bigger budget than all films made in Australia over a 12 month period combined, yet theatres put the same ticket price on all films.

    We need a new generation of low budget theatres around the countey for exhibiting our home grown content. All the old theatre chains are still tied up in the legacy of the old distribution system, and let’s face it have a business model centred around making money off the Hollywood system. We need a chain of theatres that screen films and content made in Auatralia, in the same way we have governement libraries. With digital technology and the NBN almost here low budget theatres could operate with skeleton staff and DCPs could be distributed to theatres across the country online without any physical costs. Ticket prices could be under $10, enough to provide a healthy return to filmmakers whilst leaving a few dollars aside to keep the theatres self sustaining. With a system like this we could do away with local distributors, who add no value to filmmakers. Every Auatralian made film could then be guaranteed a wide theatrical release and certainty of having a decent screen presence without the fear that their full will be pulled after 3 days when th sequal to the sequal to the sequal of ‘The Fast and the Furious 6’ is released.

    Using modern technology and the NBN this could be extended to an Australian low cost VOD service. A VOD service could not only help filmmakers generate revenue for their content from Auatralian viewers over time, but could also act as the perfect medium for promoting what Auatralian films are in theatres and are coming to theatres without the need for big advertising budgets to support our films. If we got it right the service may even have opportunity to be offered into other countries, hence increasing direct international revenue for local filmmakers without sales agents taking a slice of the already dwindling pie.

    So if, government removes road blocks from attracting private investment, offers a great co-contribution finance scheme and helps build an exhibition system that allows Australian filmmakers to have their films seen and make profit theatrically then later in VOD, all at the same time making content more affordable to the average Auatralian we may start to see:

    – more Auatralian films people want to see
    – with a lower cost, significant increase in theatre attendance
    – commercial logic applied to what films should be made
    – young Australians inspired to become filmmakers
    – Australian audiences start to favour our own content instead of international content
    – more international production moving to Australia
    – better opportunities for international movie stars to appear in Auatralian films, which help boost the carrers of our local actors and filmmakers
    – better opportunities for Australian actors at home to stop our best talent moving overseas
    – Auatralian films become profitable
    – a smarter exhibition system will reduce piracy
    – with better content being made here our films will become more popular overseas and start to generate serious export revenue

    The Governemnt happily throws $6bn at the local car manufacturing industry that is entirely owned by US and Japanese companies, where there is absolute certainty the industry will collapse. By contrast the poor film industry that has the potential to become self sustaining, a major employer and a potential major export industry is given laughable funding and is generally written off as ‘art’ and is thrown to a pack of hopeless bureaucrats for saviour through grants and hand-outs.

    Time we all stood up for change and collectively tried to reform the industry.

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  12. I love how Screen Australia conveniently dismisses the fact that Australian audiences largely shun local films. They discuss terms like culture and identity, but don’t have a clue how to make films worthy of cinema. By definition, making films about Australian culture should resonate in a significant proportion of our population.

    SA are fundamentally incompetent in choosing and developing stories. State film bodies fare no better. Let’s expose those charlatans for what they really are; over paid, under skilled public servants.

    Their stories are too small for cinema. Their “genre” films are inept as the local box office attests. At no time have their character based meditations been enjoyed by larger audiences. Yet they keep making them, Because they don’t know better. If they had a clue about the film industry, they’d know they key reason audiences are going to the movies now is to be entertained.

    A 2010/11 charter includes “growing screen business” and “developing high quality scripts”. Write to Screen Australia demanding that these elements be key performance indicators and failure to achieve targets is grounds for dismissal.

    Ruth Harley is deluded when she even considered reapplying for her job and defending her achievements. She managed to combine several film welfare funding bodies together, but creatively she’s an abject failure.

    Write to the board of directors at both Federal and State levels demanding accountability of these people.

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  13. The failure of a lot of Australian film comes down many times to the lack of compelling stories being told.

    I blame this on the emphasis of the entire industry on the auteur theory. There are too many young directors encouraged to write their own screenplays but unwilling to put the effort into studying the craft of screenwriting.

    There are a lot of great screenwriters out there that I know who can’t get their fantastic pilots or screenplays made because there are no opportunities for them. The directors don’t want to collaborate with a screenwriter and make stories that don’t come from themselves.

    Screenwriting and directing are two very different skill-sets and it is a very rare event when a single person can do both extremely well. We need to foster young screenwriters and encourage them to write and provide them with more opportunities.

    For instance, a show like ‘Girls’ by a young writer, with a very clear and intelligent voice never would have come to fruition in Australia because she simply would not have had anyone to foster her work.

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  14. Australia has some amazing stories and people to be shown on the big screen, it is a matter of passion and innovation to produce a movie. All of the comments above point to some good ideas and direction. We need to organise these ideas and focus on some key problems and find some solutions. Then through share hard work we can little by little produce some decent movies.
    Unfortunately public taste is fickle, but I’m sure we’re getting tired of the Hollywood formula. Asia is a huge market, a new theatre is opening up every week in China. I’m sure we can produce more tempting movies for the Asia market.
    I was looking at some historical BBC docu movies, just quality entertainment and learn something.
    Screen Australia should get out there with some U Tube on script writing and directing, then its up to us to have the discipline to write a script for the next steps to direction.
    With all the digital technology it should be easier to make short movies.

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  15. Movie ticket prices are simply too expensive for me. I would definitely see more Australian films if they were more affordable and the films were on for longer than a couple of weeks.

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