by FIlmInk Staff
The vastness of the Australian continent – especially its physical characteristics – is huge. It’s not just the scale of the country, but its variation. It is that environmental variation – manifest in red deserts, white deserts, rainforests, pine forests, and beaches – which serves as a unique point of difference and backdrop for filmmakers.
Louise Schultze, Executive Director of Australian Production House (APH), is a big booster for Cairns and Queensland for scripting and shooting Australian and international co-productions.
Speaking soon as a panellist at Screen Queensland’s ‘In the Frame’ event in Far North Queensland on 17 March, Schultze will be articulating some of these benefits, and explaining why Cairns is a key site that APH has in mind for three projects it has in development.
‘Screen Queensland is unique in really being devoted and focused on investing in regional and remote filmmaking. Australia is more urban than many of us, or the world realise, but Australia has that reputation for being a wild and rugged place,’ says Schultze.
‘That’s why overseas, Australia is renowned for outdoor-based, blue-sky drama from Picnic at Hanging Rock to Rabbit Proof Fence to Priscilla to The Dry.
‘The cinema was built originally on that idea of scale and the sublime. Large screens, the enormity of nature which has a transformative quality in its own right. Australia has this enormous abundance of nature and of great variety too. That makes it a terrific place to shoot a film,’ says Schultze.
‘We’ve got a co-production war drama in development that’s set in Europe. The purpose-built studios allow us to connect the beautiful diverse outdoors directly to studio. We also have Kriv Stenders thriller SCREAMING PEAK set in the vast desert of regional QLD in Winton.’
Our goal is to continue the upskilling of local talent to continue the work that Screen QLD invest into their state says Schultze.
Other panelists joining Schultze* will discuss those opportunities and how films oriented toward Blue Sky style themes can take advantage of what Cairns and Queensland have to offer.
*Brett Popplewell – Head of Drama and Production in Australia, Fremantle
Coco Garner Davis – Legal and Business Affairs Counsel and Development Producer, Flying Bark Productions/After Bark
Richard Finlayson – Director and Co-CEO, Wooden Horse
Emma Fitzsimons – Managing Director, Princess Pictures
