Strong dollar is killing the OZ film industry
September 27 2010, 6:53 am | | 5 Comments
The rising Australian dollar has sent the Australian screen sector into a tailspin, reports Michael Bodey in today’s Australian: This, as margins continue to contract, new business dries up and the threat of deep job rentrenchment across the sector looms large.
“It’s killing us all,” Rising Sun Pictures co-founder Tony Clark said.
The digital-effects house is working on the Harry Potter and Green Lantern films.
5 Comments
Of all the lame excuses as to why the Oz film ‘industry’ continues to suck, this one HAS to be the worst yet. We cannot rely on foreign investment or international projects to stimulate the growth and knowledge of the local film scene. Does Iran? Does New Zealand? Does France? Does Germany? Does Norway?
No, they don’t. And they all have sustainable local industries producing interesting quality films.
Perhaps if people in this country invested as much time in writing and producing quality local product as they do coming up with reasons to excuse their failures we’d have a vibrant and sustainable local film scene.
Christopher
While I think everyone would agree with you to a point – companies like Rising Sun and several other specialist effects companies rely on large budget, VFX heavy work as part of their overall business strategy.
Australian films, with very few exceptions, do not fit this type of work and we rely on large budget, overseas (usually USA) based productions.
So the conundrum – we can’t maintain our high level of VFX skills without overseas shoots or at least overseas VFX work. And the dollar is killing us.
New Zealand is such an exception because of the Peter Jackson involvement and strength. We tried to get Justice League up and running with Dr George Miller directing which would have been a huge shot in the arm at the time, but sadly I don’t think our industry bodies understand the impact of their lack of support sometimes.
Having said that, we all would like to see well written, imaginative films with an international appeal so they have an opportunity to enjoy success.
I’m sure you know that the currency market runs in cycles. The AUD was low for a very, very long time within that cycle.
Did you not make hay while the sun shines ?
Surely, you can’t do cartwheels in the good times and cry poor when the same system inevitably takes them away.
when i worked os we shot in various countries depending on the currency – australia, south africa, spain and romania.
so yes christopher, a high dollar does have a very big impact on decisions made overseas.
Chris, mate you need to do a tafe course in macro economics…. or just read the newspaper maybe watch the ABC News. Your general knowledge is embarrassing. Foreign currency rules the the roost…. and here is the biggy…. a high dollar will even make the interest rate go up!