• On 3 August the Minister for Arts and Sport, Senator George Brandis, released details of important enhancements to the Screen Production Incentive package, specifically the Producer Rebate and the application of the qualifying Australian production expenditure (QAPE) test. The release includes a letter to film industry stakeholders from Senator Brandis. Link to full release and statement, and fact sheets.


• The Industry & Cultural Development Division's major project australianscreen online launched on 18 July, and in its first week received over 30,000 hits. Daily numbers of visitors to the website are averaging 2,500-3,500 per day. The vast majority of visitors are from Australia but around 4,000 have been from overseas, mainly the US and the UK. New material is being added daily and there are now over 600 titles included on the site. Visit australianscreen, and read the feature article in this issue.


• Senator Brandis launched the National Film and Sound Archive's (NFSA) new state-of-the-art cinema, Arc, on 7 August in Canberra. Rolf de Heer presented the ACT premiere of his new silent comedy Dr Plonk as Arc's first screening, with live musical accompaniment. Star Magda Szubanski was also in attendance. "It has been a long-held dream for the NFSA to have its own cinema. I am sure cinema lovers will also share in the NFSA's joy at the realisation of this dream," said Minister Brandis. NFSA Director Paolo Cherchi Usai said, "The goal is for our programming to have rich and wide-ranging appeal, and we hope Arc will go on to provide a unique and meaningful cinema experience for everyone who enters this very distinctive space. Film programming at Arc will be a reflection of this approach to culture; watching a film at Arc will be more than going to the movies - it will be a special event, as dignified as walking through a fine art gallery." Media release. Program details on the NFSA site.


• The AFC's Big Screen travelling film festival will host the world premiere of Greg McLean's new feature thriller Rogue as part of the 2007 Darwin Festival on 11 August. McLean, actors John Jarratt and Stephen Curry, and producers David Lightfoot and Matt Hearn will join AFC Commissioner Rachel Perkins at the event. "Having Rogue feature as part of Big Screen's tour to Darwin is amazing," said McLean. With financial backing from world-renowned executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein and a $30 million budget, many are predicting Rogue will become the Australian Jaws. Details.


• The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is this month conducting two audiovisual-related surveys. When complete, the Film, Television and Video Production and Post-Production, Digital and Visual Effects Services 2006-07 publication will report on production levels, income, employment numbers and profitability across the audiovisual production industry; the Digital Games Development Survey will provide detailed measures of the performance, structure and activity of the businesses operating in Australia, including the break-down of income earned, details of expenses and the characteristics of the workforce. "The AFC strongly supports industry participation in these important surveys," said Acting AFC Chief Executive Chris Fitchett. Media release.

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• Complete 2007/08 Funding Guidelines and application forms for the Film Development Division, the Industry & Cultural Development (ICD) Funding Program and the Indigenous Branch are now all available on the AFC website.


• AFC funding deadlines - August to early September 2007:
  
  FILM DEVELOPMENT:
  DRAMA
  Feature Drama Development (prev Strands A & D) -
  3 Aug
  Short Drama Production (Strand H) - 17 August
  IndiVision Low-budget Feature Production (Strand I) - 7 Sept
  
  DOCUMENTARY
  Documentary Early Development (Strand J) - 10 August
  Documentary Development (Strand K) - 10 August
  Shooting Time-critical Material (Strand L) - 10 August
  Documentary Production (Strand N) - 31 August
  
  ANIMATION
  Short Animation Production (Strand T1) - 17 August
  Pilot/Trailer Animation Production (Strand T2) - 17 August
  
  PRACTITIONER SUPPORT
  Internships - 3 August
  
  
  INDUSTRY & CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT:
  New Projects Fund - 13 August
  ICD Interactive Media Fund - 13 August
  
  
  TRAVEL GRANTS:
  1 September
  Type B: Market Attendance - Producers with Market Experience
  Type C: Market Attendance - Producers Developing Market Experience


• AFC funding approvals.

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• Iconic Australian musician Jimmy Little recently spent several hours at the NFSA recording an oral history of his life and career. Music Specialist Nick Weare interviewed Jimmy and says that the experience was truly fascinating: "Jimmy spoke about his childhood and how he learnt the guitar from his father who was a performer in a travelling troupe. His father also wrote a very moving song about Aboriginal unemployment which Jimmy recorded early in his career. He talked about more than 40 years in the music business and the performers he had worked with." Nick says that Jimmy's oral history is a most welcome addition to the large collection of oral histories held by the NFSA.


• The NFSA will host the 2007 Australasian Sound Recording Association (ASRA) Conference in Melbourne, 15-17 August. This year's theme is The Art of Audio, and the program will include papers by experts and practitioners, ranging from artists and musicians to technicians, engineers and archivists. The keynote speaker is Neville Thiele OAM, a former President of the Institution of Radio and Electronic Engineers and a world-renowned expert on audio engineering standards and the design of loudspeakers. Conference topics will include: the history of the highly successful Victorian Jazz Archive; Percy Grainger and the collection of folksongs; W & G - the story of the Melbourne record label; and much more. Details.


• In July the NFSA launched the National Registry of Audiovisual Collections, a unique publication which brings together, for the first time, information about audiovisual collections held throughout Australia. Compiled by the NFSA's Marilyn Dooley, the Registry provides details of more than 80 collections held by institutions as diverse as libraries and museums, community groups, political parties, historical societies, research centres, film societies, broadcasters, distributors, production companies as well as individual collectors. More.


• The latest Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research (CSAR) Fellow has arrived at the NFSA to undertake the research project Dance as Social Forum. Garry Lester will be living in the Residence for the next two months while he explores the NFSA's National Collection. Garry's current research interests include revealing and disseminating the cultural significance of Australia's rich non-ballet concert dance history with a particular focus on the work of the choreographers/directors Margaret Barr and Kai Tai Chan. Garry has performed, choreographed and taught dance both here and internationally for many years.

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• Congratulations are due to all the filmmakers whose AFC-funded / supported films have been selected for screening at various festivals around the world:
  
  Melbourne International Film Festival: FEATURE - The Home Song Stories; DOCOS - Night, Hope, Forbidden Lie$, Kalaupapa Heaven, 4, Big Dreamers, What the Future Sounded Like, The Passion of Gina Sinozich, Searching 4 Sandeep, Words from the City; SHORTS - Katoomba, Punch, Fast Lane, Advantage Satan, INDIGENOUS Branch-funded films - Back Seat, Nana, Custard, Jackie Jackie, Hush, Crocodile Dreaming and Nigger Lovers.
  
  Black Water (d/w: Andrew Traucki & David Nerlich, p: Michael Robertson) has been selected for the opening night of the 2007 FrightFest Film Festival in the UK and is also in official selection for this year's 21st International Festival for Science Fiction, Horror and Thriller (aka Fantasy Filmfest) in Germany.
  
  Short animation Sweet & Sour (p: Sam White, w/d: Eddie White) has been selected for Sapporo Shortfest, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the LA Short Festival.
  
  Piranha (w/d: Irina Goundortseva, p: Stuart Parkyn) and Hush (w/d:Dena Curtis, p: Kath shelper) will be screening at the Palm Springs ShortsFest this month - the biggest short film festival in the US. Hush is also screening at the All Roads Film Festival, USA, along with Nana (w/d: Warwick Thornton, p: Kath Shelper), and at the Mecal International Short Film Festival in Barcelona, with Days Like These (w/d: Martin Leroy Adams, p: Kath Shelper).
  
  The experimental Revolving Door (w/d: Alexandra Beesley & David Beesley) will be screening at the 16th International Electronic Arts Festival 'Videobrasil' in Sao Paulo, and at DOCNZ 2007.
  
  All five Podlove films have also been selected to screen at DOCNZ 2007, 27 Sept - 21 Nov in four cities around New Zealand.
  
  Short film Skin (w/d: Claire McCarthy, p: Mim Davis) has just been selected for the upcoming Montreal International Film Festival.
  
  Done Dirt Cheap (w/d Debbie Carmody, p: Kath Shelper) and The Turtle (w/d: Kellie Cross, p: Kath Shelper) have recently screened at the Revelation Film Festival, Perth.


• Congratulations to all the filmmakers nominated for ATOM Awards this year. Special mention goes to the AFC-funded / supported films: Nigger Lovers, Sweet and Sour, 2 Mums and a Dad, Just Punishment, My Home - Your War, the Podlove series, Virtual Freedom (Podlove), I Love Like Blood (Podlove), What the Future Sounded Like, Bomb Harvest, Chiko Accidential Alien, Coolest Girl in School, Spike Up, William and Golden Sandals - The Art of Reg Mombassa.


• Following its Best Documentary Award at the St Kilda Film Festival in July, My Brother Vinnie (d: Steven McGregor, p: Sarah Bond) took home the IF Audience Choice Award. Congratulations to Steven, Sarah, Aaron, Vinnie and their team.


• On 11 August, Big Screen will present the world premiere of Greg McLean's new film Rogue as part of the Darwin Festival (see Headlines piece this issue). Tim Slade's soaring documentary 4, with a live violin performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, will also screen.


• Coming up in August on the Regional Digital Screen Network is the award-winning Lucky Miles. A pre-recorded Q&A with director Michael James Rowland and actor Rodney Afif, courtesy of Popcorn Taxi, will accompany the film. Also in August, presented with School Screen, is a selection of Message Sticks 2007 films, screening free for secondary school students.


• AFC's School Screen continues to joins forces with Big Screen in August with screenings in Darwin as part of the 2007 Darwin Festival. School Screen will also be touring to Rockhampton. This month School Screen will also be experienced by schools that are taking part in the Australia-wide Croc Festival. Selected Indigenous short films will show in Mullewa and Alice Springs. Bookings for the majority of these screenings can be made online on the ATOM website.


• The Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival National Tour continues this month. In Darwin on 12 August the NT premiere of Crocodile Dreaming screens, with director Darlene Johnson presenting her film and Rachel Perkins (co-curator and AFC Commissioner) presenting the program. Also screening is Sonja Dare's Destiny in Alice and Glen Stasiuk's Footprints in the Sand. The program will also showcase short films by NT Indigenous filmmakers developed by the AFC's Indigenous Branch.
  
  Message Sticks in Brisbane will open at the Gallery of Modern Art with Nana, Bloodlines and Crocodile Dreaming. Darren Dale, festival co-curator, will present and Rhoda Roberts will be there to present and discuss Iven Sen's A Sister's Love.
  
  In Adelaide, the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute hosts the festival. Join guest filmmakers Dena Curtis and Trisha Morton-Thomas. More program info: Black Screen.


• In August the Embassy Roadshow travels to three locations in Canada: Calgary, Banff and Edmonton. This is an initiative of the Australian International Cultural Council, managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the AFC.
  
  Also this month the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur presents an Australian Film Festival to coincide with the 50th anniversary of relations between Malaysia and Australia. Actor Denise Roberts will present Razzle Dazzle on opening night and conduct a workshop for film students and actors.
  
  The High Commission in New Delhi, in association with the Indian Government, is participating in the IOR-ARC Film Festival (Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation). Razzle Dazzle will screen for council members.


• The Australian films The Home Song Stories and Dr Plonk are opening in August. West, Lucky Miles, Gone, Romulus, My Father and Noise are still screening so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.

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• Are you looking for details of a particular Australian film title - feature, short, TV drama or documentary? The Searchable Film Database includes Australian and co-produced features, TV drama and documentaries from 1990 and shorts from 1998. It is updated on the AFC website each month.


• Latest updates to industry statistics in Get the Picture Online.

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• Welcome to Anthony Johnsen, Research Assistant; Bronwyn Coupe, Collection Access Manager; Richard Hart, Mail/Services Officer.


• Farewell to Jenn Daylight, ICD Exhibition Administrative Assistant; Elisa Limburg, Researcher and PR & Events Assistant; Beth Taylor, Editorial Coordinator; Sarah Maslen, NFVLS Support Officer; Margot Holt, Senior Reference Officer; David Farrell, Safety Film Services Officer; Noeline Milson and Anne Khinmaung, Collection Information Officers; Eleanor Greenwood, Archive Shop Assistant, Matthew Hewatt, Mail/Services Officer; Ann Baylis, National Discography Program Manager; Marcus Cole, Project Manager.


• Positions vacant: for current vacant positions at the AFC.

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• SPAAmart, Australasia's feature film market, is now open for applications. SPAAmart is calling for unique and distinct projects that are in an advanced stage of development and are ready to present to the market for financing, sales and distribution. Companies which have attended SPAAmart in previous years and have acquired Australian films include Goalpost Films, Becker International, Miramax Films, Fortissimo Films and Fabrication Films. Reps from major international markets such as Cinemart and IFP also attend. Entries close 5pm 17 August. Guidelines and app forms are on the SPAA website. SPAAmart runs 13-15 November on the Gold Coast. Enquiries: Dale Fairbairn, SPAAmart Manager, 02 9321 6580 or 1800 226 615; spaa@afc.gov.au.


• SPAA Fringe, the forum for emerging producers to gain knowledge and be inspired is back in Sydney this year, 26-27 October. Early Bird registrations close 8 September. Check the website for details.


• This year's SPAA Conference is on 13-16 November at the Gold Coast and the website is now live for registration with Early Bird rates. The site will be progressively updated with speakers and sessions.


• X|Media|Lab's Melbourne conference is on 10-12 August, entitled Digital Worlds: Social, Virtual, Mobile. It focuses on digital media's new forms of community building. Shekhar Kapur (The Golden Age, Elizabeth) will be Keynote Speaker and International Mentor. Check the X|Media|Lab website for details.


• If you have made an Australian film screened at an IF-accredited film festival since 16 September 2006 then your film should be on the Inside Film Awards website. If you would like a still with your film listing to jolt the audiences' memories, email ifawards@if.com.au with 'Update Listing: [film name]' in the subject line. Check out the website for a list of accredited festivals.


• The AFC's Industry and Cultural Development Division proudly supports the following upcoming festivals and events:
  
  AFI Australian screenings
  August - September
  
  Melbourne International Film Festival
  until 12 August
  
  Brisbane International Film Festival
  until 12 August
  
  Little Big Shots
  3-4 August
  
  X|Media|Lab
  10-12 August
  
  Fist Full of Films
  20-21 August
  
  Open Channel Short & Sharp Pitching Comp
  22 August
  
  Sydney Travelling Film Festival
  22-26 August (Huskisson)
  
  Experimenta Playground
  25 August - 23 September
  
  AWGIE Awards
  31 August


• OPEN CHANNEL's From Concept to Screen course focuses on turning a story idea into a professionally crafted screenplay. Every Friday for 17 weeks from 24 August. $1,300 for 102 contact hours. Enquiries 03 8610 9300 or check their website for details.


• The application deadline for the ACT Filmmakers' Network Productions Workshop: Perfecting Your Pitch - Win a Trip to Cannes is 2pm, 15 August. W'shop is 25 & 26 August. More info: admin.actfilmmakers@netspeed.com.au 02 6162 5160 or their website.


• Check Metro Screen's website for details of all their programs. Speed Networking II is on 6 September. Apply to register by 20 August, 5.30pm. Registration forms on website.


• Check out Popcorn Taxi's new website, which includes video podcasts of recent events. Popcorn Taxi, a regular film event where filmmakers and film lovers can meet, watch films of all types, and discuss the filmmaking process all year round runs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin.


• mo:life monthly is an informal gathering on the second Monday of every month, that offers the opportunity to discuss the latest advances and opportunities in mobile media technology and culture. Find out about the various players and networks and what they offer, explore the capabilities of the latest handsets, and see what others around the globe are doing with this new format. Contact d.opitz@metroscreen.org.au


• ScreenWest and PAC Screen Workshops run the PAC Script Lab initiative, rehearsed readings of West Australian feature film scripts on the last Sunday of each month. The aim is to hone West Australian scripts and increase the profile, quality and awareness of West Australian film projects.


• IF Magazine's What's On in Film guide to screen events is sponsored by the AFC. The July to December 2007 calendar is now available as a PDF on the AFC website.


• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

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After two years in development, the groundbreaking new website australianscreen is now live, offering global access to a goldmine of historical and contemporary material from the Australian film and television industries. Containing over 1500 moving image clips from features, documentaries, shorts, Indigenous cinema, home movies, and even ads from the early 1900s, the site spans the breadth of our film and TV industry from the late 1800s through to current releases. The site had an extraordinary 21,000 hits and 200,000 page views in the week following its launch on 18 July. Lauren McCorquodale takes a look.

The australianscreen concept was originally formulated by the AFC's Industry and Cultural Development (ICD) Division. ICD Director Sabina Wynn regards the site as central to the AFC's mission of "ensuring the creation, preservation and availability of Australian film". Although the AFC has overseen the development of the site, several players have been key to the project. Clips have been sourced from the National Film and Sound Archive, the National Archives of Australia, the ABC, SBS and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, while AARNet (Australia's Academic Research and Education Network) will host the site. In addition, the Curriculum Corporation through the Le@rning Federation has played a significant role in planning.

The moving image clips were (and continue to be as the site is added to) selected by a team of highly experienced curators, each of whom specialise in a particular area: Paul Byrnes (features), Damien Parer (documentary), Adrienne Parr (National Archives of Australia and documentary), Janet Bell (television), Romaine Moreton (Indigenous), Lauren Williams and Elizabeth Taggart-Speers (National Film and Sound Archive), Annemaree O'Brien (children's TV) and Richard Kuipers (timeline editor).

"It probably sounds like a dream job," laughs Paul Byrnes (also Sydney Morning Herald film critic and former Sydney Film Festival director). "It's actually very hard work but it's very rewarding. In my work as a film critic, I am constantly working on new stuff and it becomes a grind - you rarely have time to look back. This whole exercise is about looking back at Australian film, which is fantastic."

australianscreen's growing database already contains clips from over 100 feature films, 220 documentaries, 95 TV programs, and a substantial number of shorts, newsreels, ads and other historical footage. Rare home movies shot by Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies on a 1948 UK family holiday sit alongside home footage of the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy and the 1955 Maitland (NSW) floods. But the site is not limited to searching for clips by title - the Education Collection is a gateway to a range of searchable categories, from environment to film and media, from history to identity and culture, Indigenous Australia to science and technology and the arts. The site also contains an extensive range of other resources such as an interactive timeline, maps, glossaries and a detailed chronology of the Australian screen industry.

Despite the resources available now on the site, Byrnes is adamant that they are not even halfway there. "We have the capacity to just keep building; it will literally never be finished. It should be funded forever," he says. "There are always going to be kids who need to know what our audiovisual heritage is. I see it being a permanent site of ongoing development and expansion."

The collaboration with the educational partners in the project - the Curriculum Corporation through the Le@rning Federation and AARNet in particular - has been instrumental in making the site an invaluable tool for the classroom. The design of the site involved significant consultation with teachers. Given the age range of users, none of the clips could be rated higher than M. Byrnes admits to feeling slightly restricted by this limitation. "It was a difficult thing to work through," he says. "What we had to do was to come up with a way to label the clips very carefully. One thing we didn't do was edit or change the clips in any way. That was not our role."

Although cautious at first, Byrnes was surprised to find that teachers were keen to have some of the more confronting material available on the site. "Teachers actually told me not to be too conservative," Byrnes says. "Some of the most difficult material is the most useful. Say you have a film with a scene about abortion - the temptation with school kids is to avoid using it. The teachers said to me: 'We need to access this material so we can talk about it in the classroom.' So that was a lesson for me. The teachers were more adventurous in the beginning than I was!"

Hence the material chosen for the site is often challenging and thought-provoking, and steps beyond what might normally be shown in a classroom. Australian cinema's biggest hit in 2005, the horror film Wolf Creek, features on the site despite its R rating. In the study notes (which accompany each film), Byrnes describes Wolf Creek as one of the most visually sophisticated and beautifully shot films of the last 10 years. It's also a fascinating character study - as John Jarratt's killer Mick Taylor is, as Byrnes puts it, the "evil inversion of [Paul] Hogan's tourism-building knockabout Northern Territory bloke".

"Obviously we couldn't show some of the most violent scenes, and we wouldn't want to," concedes Byrnes, "but it is an extraordinarily well made film which deals with significant issues to do with landscape in Australia, so it still has to be there. And some of these kids might want to grow up to make horror films, which is quite an honourable profession in my opinion."

Future plans for australianscreen include animation and interactive media programs, and of course the addition of more material across all areas of the site. Visit australianscreen.com.au

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