:: Wog Blog ::
:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::
:: Wednesday 8 June 2005 ::
What to do about the crap state of Oz films?
[UPDATED: Sacha is a man.]
Wog solution - sack all the wankers and make movies people want to see.
Sacha Molitorisz of the Sydney Morning Herald has a solution too:
THE WAY FORWARD
Tax overseas movies and reinvest in the local industry
Subsidise the upkeep of domestic art houses
Share costs and risk with film/TV co-production
Institute tax breaks for feature filmmakers
Focus on substance, not the bottom line
Don't make Hollywood clones - address your own culture
Promote - funding is only the beginning
Ya.
I shall paraphrase;
Funding funding funding and stop worrying about whether there is even an audience for this funded shite.
Incredibile.
You have got to read this article.
It is the single most misguided stupid approach to the malaise of Oz film making ever written.
Mille Grazie, wog, you have completely misunderstood the country you live in.
He reckons, get this, we gotta be like Germany and France.
Ooh, oooh, why not throw Italy in to the mix, Sacha? And Spain too? You got a problem with them countries Sacha?
What Sacha actually means is that Oz, as an English speaking nation, has little to learn from the British and American cinema industries, after all, they are just industries inside english speaking democratic countries enjoying vastly similar cultural history.
And Americans are eevil anyway. Hollyweird, you know the drill. He does not write it but it is dripping from the page.
Nothing to learn there, eh?
And no possibility of cross-cultural ties expanding the potential audience for our films, eh?
What a maroon.
The concept of english speaking stuff being good is not explored by Sacha til the very end of her piece and then it is left to a quote from a wog - asian director Wong Kar-wai.
Absolutely zero analysis of the crap wankerdom of Oz film making and how most writers have their heads up their arses and would not know an interesting story to tell if they fell over it.
Sacha gives a list at the end of his piece of Oz films coming up at the Sydney Film Festival and others.
I ask you, does even one of them sound interesting?
Take a minute.
Yeah, I did not think so.
Once again, for the hard of thinking - make good movies. Make it worth $12 for a punter to spend two hours in the dark watching the movie.
Do not make punters pay twice - first with their taxes and then agan with a ticket price.
And for goodness sake do not make them pay three times, by bumping up the ticket price so part of it can be kept for even more funding.
Jeez louise, if you are gonna have that 'hand out' attitude why bother making the movies at all - why not just pay Oz's untalented writers and actors to not make crap. That would be achieve a perfect balance - the arts wankers would make a living and Oz punters would not have to be embarrassed by the crap of the Oz film industry.
Funding is the problem. Too much of it with no accountability to audiences at all.
We do not even feature in Sacha's "analysis".
I think there should be an amnesty - any Oz film which is boring and not watched by Oz punters should entitle the punters of Oz to find the film maker, the actors and actresses (look I am using gener - how European of me)in the film and the agents of those folks, plus the folks in the film funding place....
...and beat them in the street
without fear of criminal or civil prosecution.
Complain about cruelty all you like, but you know deep in your heart that the folks responsible for The Bank - an unwatchable joke of an anti-corporate movie - and Three Dollars - more of the exactly the same - would not make the mistake a third time.
In fact, ya know, I think i just done a synopsis for a movie that I would actually wanna see - a movie about beating movie makers.
Whatever.
:: WB 2:35 pm [link+] ::
