daford@watdragon.UUCP (02/20/87)
In the past few years the Aussies have managed to produce some very good and VERY profitable movies, most of which were about Australia some how. How did they do this? They have only have a population of 15 meg and yet are able to blast their way onto the world and North American markets. I guess it helps to be far away from the domination of the US but that can't be the only story. Does anyone know anything about this? -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel A. Ford daford@watdragon.uucp CS Department daford%watdragon@waterloo.csnet U. of Waterloo daford%watdragon%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
sarahm@cognos.UUCP (Sarah Metcalfe) (02/23/87)
In article <2322@watdragon.UUCP> daford@watdragon.UUCP writes: >In the past few years the Aussies have managed to produce some very good >and VERY profitable movies, most of which were about Australia some how. > >How did they do this? I attended an interesting seminar given by the (Australian) screenwriter of "My Brilliant Career", the (English) writer of "Experience Preferred, But Not Essential", and the (American) writer of "Beverly Hills Cop", here in Ottawa. In her presentation, the Australian mentioned that a certain percentage (reasonably high, I think -- 10-20%) of profits made from distributing films in Australia MUST be reinvested in making Australian movies. She felt this was the ONLY reason for the success of the Aussie film industry. She said she was shocked to see that Canada had not instituted something along the same lines. She and the British writer both expressed concern that American films (no matter how poor), because they are backed by such financial might, can swamp smaller countries with poorly developed film industries. (The "Beverly Hills Cop" guy, despite his Oscar, looked distinctly guilty through all this!) In reply to one of Brad's comments: Cineplex/Odeon IS the biggest theatre chain in North America, but they have nothing to do with film distribution. The new legislation concerns distribution rights only. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sarah Metcalfe Cognos Incorporated 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1G 3N3 (613) 738-1440 decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!sarahm --------------------------------------------------------------------------