The local Perth film and television industry

Article by: Eleanor Edwards

There has always been a love-hate relationship between the city of Perth and its people. We have a thriving local music scene, yet some of us complain that major overseas bands often bypass Perth. We produce some of the world’s most credible wines, yet most are very expensive to buy. We can get to all of our state’s attractions, yet there doesn’t seem to be enough of them. Local residents think Perth is the best place in the world to live, but it’s so far away from everything else. In the same vein, “sandgropers” often complain about the lack of opportunities in the creative industries. Yet despite geographical restrictions, there have been some recent developments that suggest our film and television industry has flourished in recent years.

Recently Hugh Jackman revisited the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts to give back to the institution that gave him the skills to build his extremely successful career. This along with last year’s release of the movie Drift, and director Zak Hilditch’s film These Final Hours receiving praise at this year’s Cannes Film Festival have not only put Perth on the map, but have caught the attention of international production companies and audiences world-wide.

Given Perth’s location, there are various challenges, constraints and obstacles the small, yet respected industry face on a day-to-day basis, which includes competing against not only Hollywood and the rest of the world but the better-known states New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. However, whilst there are challenges, working in Perth also has its benefits; everyone tends to know everyone, there are many social networks you can attend that can build up your contact list, and companies are always looking for people to fill alternative roles in the industry. For this research paper, I interviewed actress Alla Hand, journalist and film reviewer Shannon Harvey, and documentary researcher Diana Pepper to discover some of their experiences working in Perth and the advice they would give to students and individuals looking at becoming part of the industry.

Moving to Australia from Russia at the age of 6, up and coming actress Alla Hand, 21, says she’s always had a passion for performing on stage. Whether it’s film, theatre, music videos or commercials, the notion of being able to create and become someone has continued to fascinate and intrigue her.

“I love acting because I get to explore every aspect of myself,” she says. “I love being able to express myself and just be! Every character I play, I give them life. I give them hopes and dreams and feelings and I make them real. That’s such an invigorating feeling. As an actor, I want my work to matter, to mean something. I want to stir up emotions in the audience and make them think, maybe even change their lives somehow.”

After leaving high school in 2010, where she excelled in creative subjects like drama, art and languages, Hand studied Screen Arts at Curtin, but is currently attending performance classes at Murdoch. She believes having a university degree in acting will help her find work, but that it’s the opportunities you create for yourself that will inevitably see you succeed in the industry.

2013 was a big year for Hand, who just wrapped up acting in a number of local Australian films including Pinch, The Silent City and These Final Hours, all of which were set and shot entirely in Perth. Now in post-production, these films have been receiving praise from critics and audiences in 2014, showcasing this state and it’s thriving film and television industry. For Hand, this exposure Perth has been getting in recent years is a wonderful thing, because she thinks that maybe now the state will be recognized for its talented performers and artists.

She says as an actress in Perth, location is a major challenge when you’re trying to establish yourself.

“A big challenge is the location. It can be very frustrating trying to get a gig on a major film when they are most likely looking for people [from] over east, but the Perth film industry is definitely starting to gain some serious attention for our local talent.”

Maybe it was Australian actor Hugh Jackman’s recent visit to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts where he studied acting that has captured the attention of the international media industry? Or, it could be that with new technologies, actors are able to reach out to more people in a shorter amount of time. Social media and the Internet have definitely made this possible, says Hand.

“I send the link to my website to everyone I approach (casting directors, agents, talent scouts, directors) so that they can see everything I have from photos to CVs to snippets of my work [that are all] in one place. I have received quite a lot of positive feedback on it so that’s a good thing! I believe that it can only aid me as I go out of my way to market myself and give the right, positive and professional impression.”

Another challenge of the industry Hand mentions when she was first starting out was the limited information given on where and how to build contacts in the industry. Where are all the screenwriters, producers, directors, cinematographers, editors, designers, photographers, and casting agents hiding? In mid-2012, she came across a group called The Perth Film Network and decided to attend one of their functions at the Empyrean Function Centre. Chief Executive Office of The Perth Film Network, Debbie Thoy, created the group in 2009 where she states on the group’s website that the network “aims to bring filmmakers together from the experienced to those just starting out in the hope to form [and] create teams to make films, steering filmmakers in the right direction and strengthening our film community.” Since its beginnings in 2009, The Perth Film Network has become the social hub of the local media industry and is proving to help those seeking to find a job in the world of film and television. Hand says the Perth Film Network has had such a positive impact on her path of becoming a well-known actress. She pauses for a moment, reflecting on that first time she attended one of their functions,

“It was an amazing experience, but I was extremely overwhelmed by the amount of people there. [After attending a few more functions,] I met my first feature film director there and chatted to him for an hour about a film he was working on and then he asked me to audition for it! I was completely thrown off, but accepted as soon as I was able to recompose myself from the shock of just being offered an audition on the spot.”

So, with a bit of courage, a professional and positive attitude, and a bit of luck, Hand believes you can make it as an actress in Perth as long as you work hard and keep in contact with the people who first recognised your potential.

“I’ve been in touch with [Debbie Thoy] ever since and she’s been amazing in helping direct my career path. She’s very dedicated to the Network and always goes out of her way to help whoever asks for it.”

Since graduating from high school four years ago and developing her career as an actress, Hand says her favourite experience so far was touring throughout the United Kingdom, performing in the production River Dreaming in January 2013, directed and choreographed by Peta Flanigan. Another one of her favourites was being cast as the lead for the John Butler Trio’s recent video Only One where she plays a girl who wakes up in a car with her boyfriend to find they are the only humans left on Earth and that everyone else has turned into zombies. As you can see, it has been a very eventful two years for Hand, and she can’t wait to see what the future holds for her as an actress in Perth and abroad.

“I think within a few years time, Perth will be on the map for its film industry and that’s something I really look forward to.”

 

“It’s tough. It’s not romantic. It’s not a glorious lifestyle where you go and sit in a dark theatre and eat popcorn all day,”

but respected Perth journalist and film reviewer Shannon Harvey says he wouldn’t have it any other way. The Perth writer has been writing solid, opinionated feature articles and film reviews for The Sunday Times and The West Australian for over 14 years. In this time, he has worked on local, national and international projects in the media industry, critiquing the best and worst of Australian cinema and has “reported from film festivals in WA, Australia and the world”, he says.

As the owner and editor of Chocbomb, a website dedicated to reviewing and rating every film that is screened in Australian cinemas, it is clear that he has contributed to the industry immensely over the course of his career. So, how does one establish himself as a credible film reviewer in Perth? It’s all about self-assurance and how well you write, says Harvey.

“In terms of advice, I would say to be absolutely positive you want to do this and to ensure that you can do it. To do that, you have to have, I think, two things; absolute drive and an iron clad will to succeed and the second thing is your ability to write. If you haven’t got those two things, look at something else because they’re crucial. Writing reviews, you have to be a good writer, an entertaining writer, an informative writer. [You have to] have a personal opinion, a good insight [and] a good knowledge of film. [You’ve got to] have the passion to succeed and to trump your competition away. You’ve got to have a thick skin in media and journalism.”

With the Perth film and television industry, it’s the location most people find the hardest to overcome. Whilst for Hand, the prospect of moving to another state or country is her desired goal, Harvey, however, found himself drawn to Perth as the ideal place to establish his career. He says the lifestyle and familiarity of this state suited what he wanted to explore in terms of reviewing films and writing features.

Also tutoring journalism at Curtin University in his spare time, Harvey often asks his students,

“Do you want to be a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond?” In terms of my own, personal situation, “I sort of chose earlier on that it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond because then you can eat all the other little fish.”

His big fish, little fish story has helped students discover how they’d like to approach the field they’ve been studying, and to figure out the best way of getting a job in that industry.

“It’s almost better, if I could give you some advice or a tip, to move straight away, because establishing yourself here and then trying to establish yourself over there is a tough thing to do, especially if you’ve got a wife and kids or family, or anything that you’re connected to where you have roots. Maybe go away and build some roots first,” he says.

Through building up your contacts, developing a good reputation and maintaining a professional public profile, life as a film reviewer will be a satisfying and enjoyable career, he says.

“Once you build up all those contacts, you become comfortable and you become, I suppose, really well known in your field here.”

As part of his job as a film reviewer, researching and interviewing the subjects in these films are other components that can liven up and add colour to any literary critique. It is through getting to know the cast and crew behind the scenes of a film where we can establish our deepest criticism, be it positive or negative. In 2013, the local Perth film, Drift, paints a picture of Western Australian culture in the 1970s – surfing, drugs and the nation growing up.

“Set in a remote town on Australia’s spectacular and rugged coastline in the early ‘70s, Drift tells the story of two brothers at the genesis of the modern surf industry” (Wikipedia, 2013).

Myles Pollard (born in Perth, Western Australia), Sam Worthington (born in Surrey, England but later moved to the Western Australian suburb Warnbro when he was 6 months old) and Xavier Samuel (born in Hamilton, Victoria) are among some of Australia’s most successful actors to grace the screen not only here, but also in Hollywood and all over the world in film franchises including X-Men, Avatar and Twilight. A movie like Drift provides Perth with a chance to show off all the aspects that make this state unique and special from its natural landscape, to its people. In some ways, Drift is not only a film, but a tourism video, encouraging people to come to Perth and explore everything it has to offer.

Harvey had a lot to do with the behind the scenes goings-on of the film, including interviewing, or attempting to interview Sam Worthington. Harvey said Drift, whilst succeeding at the box office, was dramatic and challenging at times and there was a lot at stake.

“[It] was pretty dramatic because there was a lot at stake for Drift. It was a big $11 million production with a lot of money, a lot of taxpayers’ money. A lot of producers’ money was on the line. Sam Worthington added that extra spice as well. He didn’t want to do interviews so that was a bit dramatic at the time. There was some tension over that and whether the film was good [and] if it was going to make its money back.”

Harvey says one of the biggest challenges as a journalist and film reviewer is getting actors and crew members to agree to do an interview around their busy schedules. It is about being persistent, but also knowing when to move on and get information from other sources for a story. It is about working under conditions that are constantly changing and being able to adapt to those changes.

Drift was a film with a lot of hype surrounding it because of Worthington, Samuel and Pollard’s involvement. They had come back to the place where they first found their passion for acting, to act in a film that showed international audiences a part of themselves they may not have known much about. Producers and directors wanted to not only entertain national and international audiences, but also produce an accurate account of events since it was based on a true story.

“There’s [been] quite a thriving industry here in Perth recently. They’re all great companies to work for, so, for me, I don’t have to go overseas to find work anymore. I’ve done that in the past, but there’s a really good emerging industry here,” a Perth researcher says.

When thinking of who works on a film, we often think of directors, producers, editors, special effects artists, music composers and cinematographers. We can see their contribution to the film because it is visually represented in the end product. But what about the researchers? The runners? The actors’ assistants? These jobs aren’t evident in the film, but without them, films would not be able to get made. Diana Pepper has been a film and television show researcher for over 20 years. Interested in surrounding herself with creative people, Pepper started out writing a small column in an independent UK newspaper, asking celebrities where their favourite holiday destinations were. Whilst she said she wasn’t writing major print stories, she kept little snippets of her column and included them in her resumes when applying for jobs as a researcher for film and television companies. She said they were impressed that she had had previous experience in interviewing celebrities, and she soon started getting jobs writing and researching for media companies.

Since her beginnings as a researcher, Pepper says her favourite experience thus far has been for the series

“Who Do You Think You Are for SBS television which is a family history celebrity show. I researched, I think, about 30 episodes.”

The series is a programme documenting the history of some of Australia’s most well known personalities including actors, comedians, athletes and politicians. Pepper says she researches their family tree and reports back to them through interviews. She says it’s an amazing experience working with the celebrities, asking questions and finding out about their history at the same time as they are.

“It’s almost like journalism, she says. It’s almost like tabloid journalism except with these people, you approach them and say would you be interested and if they say ‘yes’, they often open their address book; ‘here’s my nan’s number, here’s my cousin’s number, here’s my sister’s number, come into my house, meet my wife, meet my kids, pat my dog. So, it’s tabloid journalism [with an] interview, and then you go [and] find out all this stuff that they’ve got no idea about themselves. So, it was really interesting and also the stories to each person’s history. That [was] the whole point of the program.”

Another program she has enjoyed working on is a series about the First World War called The War That Changed Us.

“[The show was made to] promote the anniversary of World War One. It’s in final production and, again, that’s going to be an amazing series. They’ve been promoting it on the ABC. I wasn’t involved in the research development of this idea, I came on board later, but basically we’ve taken the diaries of men [who] served in World War One [who] wrote about it while they were there, so they’re real people with their real diaries and again, I felt to honoured to read some of this material. One guy, Archie Baowick, wrote in his diary. He went with the first AIF and he came back at the end of the war. He survived. He wrote in his diary pretty much every single day, so it’s about 350 000 words long and I’ve read every single one of them, and he was a brilliant writer. He wasn’t an educated guy. He was just on ordinary soldier, but that was his therapy, obviously him writing in his diary kept him going through the war and I was very moved by that. So, hopefully, our viewers will be as moved as well.”

Pepper says one of the main challenges of working in the Perth film and television industry is accepting the fact that you might not immediately get the job you want. Sometimes, you need to think of another way of how to get into the business and realize it will take time to establish yourself and get your name out there.

Just like Harvey says,

“Over east, they wouldn’t know you from a bar of soap, usually. I mean, publicists and [the] film industry might have heard of you and certainly after 14 years or so they know me now over east, but starting out, no,”

Pepper agrees that some people will have to come to terms with the fact that

“… not everyone is going to be a director or a producer.”

Then, she tells me a story about something she noticed when doing a lecture at a tertiary institution recently. She was talking about her time as a researcher, working on several projects in Perth. She told the students there were lots of different positions in a media company, and to consider other roles, not just that of producers and directors. At the end of the lecture, she put out business cards and said if anyone wanted to do some work experience to pick one up from the desk. As the students started filing out of the class, she told me that not one single person in that class picked up a card. She was completely astounded that no one saw this as an opportunity to build up their contact list, see if they in fact wanted to be part of the industry, and to establish themselves.

“There are so many different elements of filmmaking that people should consider and perhaps do some research [into] and see what areas of work are wanted. So, for example, at the moment there’s a shortage of editors in Perth and productions are actually bringing people from overseas and interstate to work because there are not enough editors.”

Therefore, one of the benefits of being an editor at the moment is that there isn’t as much competition and therefore you’ll have much more of a chance of getting into the industry. Also, being creative, thinking outside the square and finding other roles that need to be filled could help you on your way to doing the roles you do want to do. Pepper says that being patient and working hard will reap its rewards in the future because more people in the industry will see you as a committed and opportunistic person and will be more willing to hire someone who enjoys whatever job they happen to have.

And, in an industry that is constantly transforming itself, change can be considered a positive aspect. It just depends on your own perspective and how well you can adapt to change, says Pepper,

“I think, for the foreseeable future anyway, that [the] funding for Western Australia… through Screenwest and Lotterywest is so established now. There’s such an established industry around that, the future should be very bright for the filmmaking industry in Perth. But, having said that, people will have to change the way they think about the kind of television they are going to make and those who are not prepared to change, or, perhaps come down from the grand, old, expensive, high budget material to something that [has] got more of a chance to be commissioned will be left behind, because, [who knows], in 10 years time we won’t even be watching television on a screen. We will be accessing it through our phones or whatever the device is. So you’ve got to keep up with the times. [You’ve got to] think outside the square.”

She says competing against other companies for airtime is a major challenge, but the more times you compete, the better you get.

“Electric [Pictures] are always trying to develop new ideas and get them up [but] it’s hard because there are lots of other companies pitching ideas, but you keep going. We’ve had a bit of a green light to have something commissioned on another project which I probably shouldn’t say too much about [but] I’ve spent about ten days out in the field, meeting new people and doing some tests and promotional filming and we’ve found some really good characters, so yeah, I’m excited about that.”

For Pepper, she believes that patience, persistence and starting from the bottom and working your way up can lead to a successful career in the Perth film industry. It’s how you apply yourself and the impression you give those in higher ranked positions that inevitably helps you become what you’ve always wanted to become.

“Everyone has to start at the beginning, somewhere, and you might find that by actually doing [that], you’re interested in doing something else,” she says.

So, despite the geographical distance, comparative small size of the industry, and the perceived lack of international exposure, the film and television industry of Perth continues to “punch above its weight” in terms of talent, population, and output. Some of our most highly respected actors including Heath Ledger, Melissa George and Sam Worthington have gone on to achieve world-wide fame and success overseas and have put Perth on the map as a city that has produced some incredibly talented performers. Films like Drift, These Final Hours, and The Silent City show off Perth’s thriving film and television industry and everything this state has to offer.