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Your Industry News Listing From Screenhub
Dear Subscriber
Welcome to the News Bulletin for Friday 13 June, 2008 from Screen Hub, the regular digest of news articles for Australian screen professionals.
The British film industry is holding a monster auction to support the National Film and Television School. Besides a tuxedo from a Bond film, Aardman figurines and a proof copy of a Harry Potter book, you can bid for a walk on part in a romantic comedy, Lost for Words. Actors who are under the impression that the production company pays them to do these roles may be lost for words too.
In 2001, a small Canadian production company, Leader Media, was negotiating with financiers over two feature films when the local tax laws changed and the deal collapsed. They fell to sueing each other, and Leader won a million dollars in damages. In the subsequent appeal, the financiers argued that the judge could not rule effectively because he kept falling asleep.
The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that lawyers did not raise the issue at the time. Which raises a delicate issue for counsel: how do you tactfully club a snoring judge alert without prejudicing your case?
If you are allergic to peanuts, did you know you can get a peanut detector dog? A beagle owner recently told us that they are basically the bogans of the dog world. That friendly beast who snuffles around in your luggage is actually hoping that a) reincarnation is true, and b) s/he can be reincarnated as a shiftless tattooed yoof with a bucket bong.
After assiduous research, the Amphetamine Twins have not been able to bully anyone into admitting they either did the work or started the rumour that Nicole Kidman's face on Australia had been animated in post on a computer. So you can get that idea out of your head right now.
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Feature News Articles
FFC: Australian films suffer no handicap at the box office
By Alex Prior
Screen Hub
Australian films are crap? Right? No! Wrong! According to new research commissioned by the Film Finance Corporation and released today, Australian films suffer no handicap at the box office compared to American films.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21573
WIN: producing local versions of A Current Affair in Perth & Adelaide (take one)
Screen Hub
In its latest move towards local programming, regional broadcaster WIN Corporation has announced that it will produce local versions of Nine’s flagship A Current Affair in Perth and Adelaide. WIN bought Nine affiliates STW9 Perth and NWS9 Adelaide in July 2007, in the middle of bruising contract negotiations with PBL Media over its affiliate relationship, and has gradually been increasing the level of local, non-affiliate programming since then.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21582
Animal Logic: the games people play in LA
Screen Hub
Feisty Animal Logic, aiming for vertical integration on the way to world domination, is setting up a games production house in Los Angeles.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21605
Playpen: violent wrinklies wrecking modern cinema. YES!
Screen Hub
The Americans have their own version of Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, or at least a bent YouTube parallel universe of the thing.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21581
Ratings: Wednesday 11 June 2008
Oztam
Living proof that Australians will run screaming at any kind of sports event, even neglecting 'The Gruen Factor'. Bet Ten feels ugly with a sub- 20 figure.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21606
Ratings: Thursday, 12 June 2008
Oztam
While Nine and Seven duel, Ten is behind and the ABC is doing pretty well for a Thursday night.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21607
News Articles
Film Business
'Accidents Happen': the Variety take
Variety
Nice to know they care.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21598
Alaska: starts offering film incentives (another Kodiak moment?)
Reuters
The US state of Alaska was the last state to join the union, and is now the last state to offer tax incentives for filming. They closed their film office in the 1990s.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21591
Bergent Report: how not to talk about budget...
The Australian
'..what is the objective of government funding, to create box-office winners or tell Australian stories?' After bashing us as elitists, the Australian has a moment of doubt. Maybe culture is a good thing after all. All in response to the Bergent report for the FFC.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21575
Harold Mitchell: we like Australian TV, why not film?
The Australian
No answers, but an arresting sentence - 'At the federal level there are no fewer than nine government bodies dealing with film, with a total budget in excess of $150million, all for a box-office return last year of about $35million.'
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21579
SAG Strike: impact spreads, fear is palpable
Hollywood Reporter
With schedules moved forward or put on hold, Hollywood already has a de facto strike on its hands; Hollywood Reporter analyses shooting schedules and lists the films that are taking the risk of shooting now anyway. But an actors' strike will be much more comprehensive than the WGA fight.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21593
Filmmaking
'Accidents Happen': commences principal photography
Sally Steele
Principal Photography began this week in Sydney on the new feature film ACCIDENTS HAPPEN starring Academy Award winner Geena Davis (The Accidental Tourist, Thelma and Louise, Stuart Little).
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21587
Wildscreen 2008: New Zealand dying rat film selected for festival
Screen Hub
Two New Zealand filmmaking students filmed the dying moments of a rat, and made it into a documentary. They are now both working in the industry, and A Moment of Clarity has been selected to screen in the 2008 Wildscreen Festival.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21601
Internet & Mobile
BBC Future Media and Technology: own future up for grabs
The Guardian
BBC Future Media and Technology is enduring a fight about its top job, which is really about the division's power, relationship to editorial, and the unity of a BBC under attack for being too London-centric.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21594
Broadband: new Victorian bidder backed by business
The Australian
Acacia, the new player to emerge with a state-based bid for the Victorian part of the national broadband network, is being backed by KPMG, Highpoint Property Group and the founders of online employment giant Seek.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21597
Safe Kids' Links: no Teletubbies here
Stuff.co
Seriously though, here's a list of links that will entertain small children and maintain their innocence.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21600
Telstra: Is evil. Very, very evil!
PC World
Telstra's competitors held an event to prove why Telstra winning the national broadband network contract would be bad. They invited international experts (who attended) and federal government experts (who didn't).
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21592
US Viewing Habits; wait till we jack into your spine
Screen Hub
A US report notes that average viewing of screen stuff has gone up from 4.6 to 6.1 hours in a decade,and is expected to rise to 8 hours by 2013. Why? the net is making moving images inescapable.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21583
Victorian Video Wanker: caught in the act
The Register
A Victorian man who thought it was a really neat idea to send video of himself masturbating to a woman's mobile phone was caught when she answered her phone while in the cop shop. The officer took her complaint seriously.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21588
WiMax: opportunities stifled in Australia
PC World
A new report from Frost & Sullivan claims that WiMax is being stifled in Australia, despite its popularity in the rest of the Asia-Pacific.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21590
Tech & Animation
Animalia: animators looking in depth
AWN
Ewan Burnett interviewed by Animation World Magazine. He is an articulate man.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21596
Television Business
Beijing Olympics: Seven leads crisis talks about coverage
The Australian
What if China spent billions on the games, flung in vast amounts of work, and forgot to let the TV crews in?
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21576
Crew Credits: Ten gets out the axe..
The Australian
Will anyone care? Do crews really worry? How far will they go? Why do actors get credits? Do you want a bar code tattooed on your face?
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21577
Endemol Southern Star: to make local version of Wipeout in Argentina
Screen Hub
Endemol International has sold obstacle-course format Wipeout to an undisclosed Australian network. The format will be shot by Endemol Southern Star on a specially-built facility in Argentina, and the network will also broadcast the US version for Australian audiences.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21603
Mark Colson: leaving Nine in Adelaide
The Australian
In a month, Mark Colson will be gone from the job he has held for a decade. No indication of why or whither he goeth.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21578
Nine: Spiteri given clearance to sue
Scopical
Sacked Nine reporter Christine Spiteri has been given permission by the Federal court to sue PBL Media and the Nine Network for sexism and breach of contract.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21602
SBS: ad revenue climbing as elites watch minority sport
The Australian
Two out of three successful, powerful Australian men watched the Tour de France on SBS last year. Think about it.... ???? Anyway, SBS has used that information to make Skoda an official sponsor of this year's coverage. Presumably Malvern Star turned them down.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21574
Screentime: gets international thriller for UKTV
Screen Hub
Screentime (them of 'Underbelly' fame, have started production on a two-part television series for UK TV set in Sydney, Tajikistan and London. Rural New South Wales seems to be doubling for Tajikistan.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21604
Ten: Braced for Beijing
CanWest
Network Ten reports solid results, but confesses it expects the worst as the Beijing Olympics takes over the nation's eyeballs.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21589
The Simpsons: twenty years on, it means what?
The Age
Local screen people asked about attitude to The Simpsons. Says Adam Elliott: 'The fact that the show has always been pitched to adults first, then children, has paved the way for filmmakers like myself who want to tackle serious subject matter in animation.' Noice.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21609
TV Wars: plasma versus LCD
Current.com.au
There is a battle for control of our lounge rooms: will it be plasma or will it be LCD. This is Panasonic versus Sharp - or Alien versus Predator for the couch potato(e).
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21599
Television Content
BBC: entire archive to go online
TechRadar
The BBC has used the Banff Festival to announce that it will make its entire, 80 year archive available online.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21595
Don Lane: no dementia
SMH
Reports that he has dementia are not correct, say supporters.
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http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=21608
Company Announcements
IF Awards: entries open, go for it...
The national people’s choice awards for Australian film are officially calling for entries to the Independent Spirit IF Award and the ZTudio What IF? Award for Best Unproduced Screenplay.
Click Here to Read this Announcement Online
http://www.screenhub.com.au/announcements/detail.asp?newsID=21586
Beautiful Kate: making the ranges ring
New Town Films and Doll are delighted to announce that the filming of their Australian feature, 'Beautiful Kate', will commence shooting in the Flinders Ranges this Monday 16 June.
Click Here to Read this Announcement Online
http://www.screenhub.com.au/announcements/detail.asp?newsID=21585
WIN: appoints Michelle Heal Queensland promotions and publicity manager
WIN Network Marketing Director, Kellie Cunningham, today announced the appointment of Michelle Heal to the position of Queensland Promotions and Publicity Manager.
Click Here to Read this Announcement Online
http://www.screenhub.com.au/announcements/detail.asp?newsID=21584
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