Response to Maureen Barron's letter

Maureen Barron

Chief Executive

Screen NSW

Level 5, 323 Castlereagh St

Sydney 2001                                                                                      

28^th Oct 2014

Dear Maureen

Your letter to me of 16^th Oct does not answer any of my questions or address any of the issues I raised in my letter to you. You merely reiterate the information passed on to me by Mark Hamlyn and Kate Stone in our meeting earlier in the month - namely that Screen NSW has guidelines and that these must be adhered to come hell or high water. No exceptions can be made and no dialogue will be entered into about the logic that informs them!

These guidelines are not holy writ, Maureen, like the Ten Commandments. They were formulated by film bureaucrats. They can be changed by these same bureaucrats. By you!

You make it clear in your letter of 16^th that you have no intention of either changing the guidelines or of entering into a dialogue with me (or the Writer’s Guild, it seems) about the need for guidelines that exclude filmmakers such as myself.  And, I should add, a lot of talented and very experienced screenwriters who just happen not to have written the screenplay for a feature film produced in the last decade.

You say I am not banned, Maureen, but this is not true. A filmmaker who is ineligible to make applications to Screen NSW is, by definition, banned. During the Apartheid era a white bureaucrat in South Africa could, applying the same logic, have said to a black man: “You are not banned from sitting at the front of the bus. It’s just that in accordance with our guidelines, you must sit at the back of the bus.”

In my letter to mark Hamlyn of 22^nd Sept I asked this question:

“Given that ANGKOR will require an international cast, does a producer with the requisite qualifications have to be an Australian citizen?”

I have not received an answer to this question and would appreciate one. The producer I am referring to has more that 40 years experience producing films  and has produced several feature films in the past few years. He is not Australian, however. Would my application for Early Stage Development funds be acceptable to Screen NSW if I nominated him as my producer? He is, incidentally, in the process of developing feature films set in Australia and has a long association with Australia.

And if this non-Australian producer is not acceptable, how about another producer (my second choice) who likewise has 40 years experience but has not made a feature film in the past decade? She, along with myself and the script editor I would like to work with, would have between 120 years of film experience. Would I be eligible to apply with such a team in place? Please do not refer me to your guidelines, Maureen. Please explain why it is that such a team would be ineligible.

I had another question for Mark which likewise remains unanswered:

“In relation to SHIPS IN THE NIGHT, the first draft funded by Screen NSW, what funds am I qualified to apply for with this project? I would like to know, in advance, where the goalposts are. I do not wish to make an application only to find that the goalposts have shifted or that you have found, somewhere in your guidelines, some reason to knock my application back.”

Given that I am banned by Screen Australia, one option open to me is to produce SHIPS IN THE NIGHT for a very low budget – filming the entire feature film (set for the most part inside a taxi on one night) in 3 to 4 days. If I were to put up half of a $100,000 budget, say, would Screen NSW be able to match my funding with the other 50% it its assessment of the project was a positive one?

I think I know what your answer will be: “In accordance with Screen NSW’s guidelines etc…(the answer is no).” Nonetheless, I would like you to explain to me in what ways Screen NSW might be able to help me get SHIPS IN THE NIGHT made given that I am both not banned and not eligible to apply!

Your guidelines are a major problem, Maureen. The fact that you do not see this is another major problem. And the fact that you refuse to enter into dialogue with either myself or, it seems, with the Writer’s Guild is yet another major problem.

It’s a new production and broadcast world we live in now and it is time for Screen NSW to realize this and respond accordingly with guidelines that are in sync with it.

cheers

James

Response from Maureen Barron to questions regarding reasons for exclusionary guidelines that make it impossible for a filmmaker with 43 years of experince to apply for funds

Maureen Barron’s letter speaks for itself. I will respond to it in due course. At present I am in Cambodia - caught up in a real life drama of considerably greater significance than Screen NSW’s guidelines relating to Early Stage Development. If interested, visit:

http://cambodia440.blogspot.com/

16^th October

Dear James

I have received your letter of 8^th Oct 2014 sent via email to Mark Hamlyn.

Please be assured that you have not been banned by Screen NSW from applying for funding and that you, like other practitioners and teams, are able to apply for support according to the terms of the published guidelines, which do change from time to time. Mark Hamlyn and Kate Stone have already explained the reasons behind the current form of guidelines for Early Stage Development, the program to which you recently applied for the project ANGKOR.

All Screen NSW programs and program guidelines are reviewed and revised  from time to time to reflect current circumstances. Screen NSW staff members are available, as you know, to assist practitioners and teams with questions relating to guidelines.

Your views in relation to the current guidelines for Early Stage Development as expressed to Mark and Kate, will be taken into account, along with those of other practitioners, when the program and its guidelines are next reviewed.

yours sincerely

Maureen Barron

to Maureen Barron re Screen NSW's exclusionary script development policies

Maureen Barron

Chief Executive

Screen NSW

Level 5, 323 Castlereagh St

Sydney 2001                                                                                       

15^th Oct 2014

Dear Maureen

Imagine this: A young Australian Mark Zuckerberg applies to Screen NSW’s Early Stage Script Development fund to develop a feature film screenplay to be shot, multicam, with the latest (and best) mobile phone available on the market.

Mark Hamlyn and Kate Stone refuse to read and assess the project on the grounds that ‘Mr Zuckerberg’, aged 21, has not made a feature film in the last 10 years. They tell him that he must have, as part of his development team, someone who meets the criteria clearly laid out in the guidelines.

Imagine, at the other end of the age spectrum, that Bob Ellis has teamed up with Mark Latham (or Malcolm Fraser) to develop a political thriller along the lines of BORGEN. They told by Mark Hamlyn and Kate Stone that their application can cannot be read and assessed because neither of them qualifies in accordance with Screen NSW guidelines.

Just last week there was a story in the Sydney Morning Herald about a 15 year old boy, Ben Pasternak who, “bored one day during science class…decided to design an iPhone game.”

Stories such as this abound these days but Australian versions of boys such as Ben Pasternak, young men such as Mark Zuckerberg, could not get their idea read and assessed by Screen NSW as a result of the exclusionary policies that you, as Chief Executive, are responsible for keeping in place?

What purpose do such policies serve other than to force young people with exciting ideas into collaborative relationships with ‘experienced’ filmmakers who may not only be inappropriate for the project but damaging to it?

How many young and not-so-young filmmakers and would-be filmmakers are there in NSW whose feature film ideas cannot be read and assessed by Screen NSW for no other reason than that your guidelines forbid it?

Does a good idea, in its initial stages, require a ‘team’ of experienced filmmakers to assist a screenwriter in its early stage development?

An example from my own life. In brief:

A screenwriter falls in love with a book. This is me, falling in love with Archie Weller’s novel, DAY OF THE DOG.

Screenwriter/Director/Producer develops first draft. No producers interested. “Depressing”, says one.

Screenwriter persists, writes half a dozen more drafts. Still no interest from producers.

By about the 10^th draft a senior executive at the Australian Film Commission (Peter Sainsbury) sees potential in the screenplay for BLACKFELLAS and funds two more drafts. He then declares that he is prepared to recommend to the board that the AFC invest in the film.

On the basis of this ‘promisory note’ the Producer/Writer/Director approaches the ABC, which also expresses its interest in investing.

With nominal commitments of two thirds of the budget in place the Producer/Writer/Director approaches an Executive Producer who, very cleverly, manages to structure a deal whereby the entire budget for the film is raised.

The Producer/Writer/Director then hands the producorial reins over to the Executive Producer – three weeks before the commencement of Principal Photography.

A couple of points:

Under current Screen NSW guidelines BLACKFELLAS would not have received any script development funding at any stage.

If I had not persevered with the project, through around 10 drafts when interest in the project was zero, there would be no film.

This kind of tenacious commitment to an idea, a screenplay, a project is, of course, commonplace. How long did it take Baz Lurhman to develop STRICTLY BALLROOM? Would Baz have qualified for Early Stage Script Development funds under the guidelines you now administer? Would YOUNG EINSTEIN, as an idea in development, have been read by the equivalents of Mark Hamlyn and Kate Stone? No. MURIEL’S WEDDING? ANIMAL KINGDOM?

I suspect that many of the very best Australian films, the ones that we now consider to be ‘classics’ and of which we are justifiably proud, were made by producers, writers and directors who persevered over a number of years with a project they felt passionate about but who would not, under your current guidelines, qualify for Early Stage Script Development funds.

I am but one of many ‘victims’ of your exclusionary policy – one that dictates my 43 years of producing, writing and directing films not equipping me to apply for Early Stage Script Development funds for my thriller series, ANGKOR. And, if some young Australian Mark Zuckerberg or Ben Pasternak were to approach me and ask if I could help them develop their feature film idea, your guidelines dictate that I would not be qualified to do so. This policy is counter-productive, absurd and has nothing in it that I can discern that is likely enhance the quality of Australian screenplays!

There is a time when, in the best interests of the film to be produced, it makes a lot of sense for there to be a team involved. This could be at the project’s inception or it could be when there is a 15^th draft screenplay in place. Horses for courses!

You are responsible, Maureen, for these exclusionary guidelines. You are the Captain of the good ship Screen NSW and you have put in place (or refuse to dismantle) guidelines that preclude a whole range of applicants from having their projects read and assessed. Why? To what end? Please explain to those of us working in Australian film who are mystified by a policy that has no discernible upside!

best wishes

James Ricketson

for Maureen Barron re eligibility for experienced filmmakers to apply for funds in accordance with Screen NSW guidelines!

Maureen Barron

Chief Executive

Screen NSW

Level 5, 323 Castlereagh St

Sydney 2001

8^th Oct 2014

Dear Maureen

Mark Hamlyn and Kate Stone confirmed for me today that despite my 43 years of experience producing and directing films I am not qualified, in accordance with Screen NSW guidelines, to apply for Early Stage Script Development funds for my thriller series, ANGKOR.

Not even a team composed of myself, as screenwriter, and Ian David as script editor is qualified to apply for script development!

Ian and I have between us 80 years of screenwriting experience and yet you have in place guidelines that preclude us from applying! This beggars belief!

Given that I have been banned by Screen Australia and, effectively, banned by Screen NSW, I will now develop ANGKOR as a non-Australian project for a non-Australian company that is keen on the story I am developing.

Why do you have in place a policy that excludes a writing team such as Ian David and myself? It makes no sense at all.

best wishes

James Ricketson