After Crikey reported last week on the almost comatose state
of Australia’s film industry, local producers have called for the
federal government to inject $15 million to save our dying local film
and TV productions.

The ABC reports
that Opposition Arts spokesman and former Midnight Oil lead singer
Peter Garrett has jumped on to the film industry bandwagon, with
Garrett claiming that local productions are heading for rock bottom.
Adding to the strain, Crikey’s heard rumblings that the Victorian film
industry is ready to snap and is
planning to picket the Bracks Government for not providing local
producers and crews with enough support.

Industry insiders have told Crikeythat they fear Melbourne’s
multi-million dollar Docklands studio – which the Bracks Government
says will inject an extra $100 million annually into the local film
industry – is being sold out to foreign and interstate film crews at
the expense of the Victorian industry. A US production of the Stephen
King television series, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, is scheduled to be shot at Docklands over the next eight months and insiders tell Crikey that
most of the crew is expected to be imported from Queensland and NSW,
while also locking out local producers from using the state-of-the-art
facilities.

Rumours abound that Vic crews are organising a convoy of film trucks to
rally around the Docklands studios to protest the latest US
production. They’re also expected to target the Victorian state
parliament.

“People are generally pretty unhappy in the Victorian film industry…
and people are hurting,” an agent from one of Australia’s largest
freelance booking companies told Crikey. Victorian film grants
and incentives don’t require productions to hire local crew like other
states, and producers are scared money that’s being set aside for local
films and productions is disappearing overseas and interstate.

If we’re actually going to revive our dying film industry then
Australian crews need to be doing more than just propping up overseas
productions, and although it may not be the most glamorous way for
state governments to spend their money, many in the industry expect our
home-grown film industry will quickly die without more support.