Hail Documentarians,
Day 2 of the conference dawned. I drank coffee and flipped through the FFC’s facts guide to the Producer Offset. Or the Producer Upset, as SANDY GEORGE had called it the day before. On page 3 of FFC’s graphically dramatic A-5 pamphlet it says, “The Producer Offset is 40% of Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure incurred on feature film and 20% of Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure incurred on projects that are not feature films.”
I mention this, not because I have any idea of the practicalities of this, but more by way of observing that understanding how a policy plays out in the real world is meat and drink for Producers, Funding Body types and Broadcasters. The market place side of a conference like the AIDC is where ALL the action is for probably a majority of the delegates at the conference.
And then there are people like me; right-brained types who fall into that particular category of creatives as outlined in DAVID TILEY’s session yesterday. People who need to be a little harder-nosed about where the money is coming from to buy dinner and pay school fees and vet bills. To paraphrase Mr Tiley, “making a film and having a career is not necessarily the same thing.”
I cursed my lack of documentary ideas. A film about a dog who can kind of say, “I Love You”? Gah! I had nothing.
I kept drinking my coffee. Phrases tumbled out as delegates assembled for the sessions and passed me for their hit of caffeine. My father was a member Communist Party in the 1960s, someone declared to their friend. More grumbles about Skype. And this one, “These people live in abject poverty,” either another satisfied Franklin Mint customer or part of an impromptu pitch.
I heard talk of the previous night’s event. Too much food, we were turning away the man with the plate of scallops. Much drinking, natch. Mention of a handstand competition.
I had been elsewhere, blogging virtuously. Sad to say.
Speaking of the high art of blogging. The AIDC is also being blogged by Graeme Watson. His Across the Mediaverse can be found in the blogroll on the right hand side of your screen.
The contents of this Blog are the sole opinions of the author Phil Jeng Kane, and it does not represent the views of ScreenWest or the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC).
Tags: David Tiley, FFC, Producer Offset, Sandy George
