Mad Max, Gallipoli, Moulin Rouge, the first Underbelly, Around the Twist, Mr Squiggle, Two Hands, Looking for Alibrandi, Romper Stomper, Muriel's Wedding, The Castle, Priscilla Queen of the Desert - I don't think we're short of imagination. I think its commercial viability. Producers want American blockbusters, not meaningful cultural movies.
IMHO.
Quite a few of those were made more than a decade ago. Obviously we
had creativity, but it definitely seems to have dried up from a television and film sense. Animal Kingdom is probably our only recent cinematic success with any redeemable qualities (f**k
Australia).
I get what you mean about the demand for blockbusters, but it's not like the know how is not there to make them at home. We've got the facilities and there's no shortage of talented directors and technical crew to make it happen.
The big sticking point is money. It's a shame nobody wants to gamble on creativity, because I imagine there
could be some really good Australian made television and film, and some of it (gasp) even set in Australia - that
could appeal to a mass audience if it were properly financed.
Certainly not. Australia has some brilliant creative artists, and agencies in the market. Melbourne is one of the top creative cities. Albeit, not for the films, but the creative minds are there.
I'm not talking about artists, musicians, or advertisers, though. I'm talking specifically about film-makers. I know the money is lacking, but our cinematic culture lags severely behind both the obvious powers (England, USA, India) and even less well known markets (China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong). Even The Philippines and other developing nations have a more active local film culture than us.
Obviously this is due in large part to the fact they have their own language to cater to, but the funding is also there, and that inspires people to pursue their ideas.
No surprise that the bulk of the 'golden generation' of Australian film and television came about in a time where we were both funding the industry, and when the difficulty importing foreign TV programming necessitated a greater focus on home grown productions.
What good TV shows has Australia made lately?
How about lack of talent? Watch an Aussie drama, and see how f*cking crap some of the talent is.
Which is odd when you consider in the last 30 odd years we've also produced the likes of Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving, Sam Worthington, Chris Hemsworth, Liam Hemsworth, Naomi Watts, Toni Collette...
Fat Pizza
But in all seriousness, my point is that Australian TV production is geared towards mass appeal. If it is good or not is a different story.
Awful show. Still, at least SBS was/is encouraging people to create television that appeals to more than just the lowest common denominator.
I do miss the days where Australian satire was so well honed. We've still got ABC producing some good satirical stuff, but it seems to have all but disappeared in favour of imported crap on the commercial networks.
