At high school, drama unfolds every single day. So imagine the challenge facing Revolution School series producer Alex West as he tried to fit the ups and downs of an entire school year into just four episodes. By Caris Bizzaca.

In 2015, the centenary of Gallipoli was commemorated, Malcom Turnbull became prime minister, and in Melbourne, a typical high school was trying to lift their bar under the watchful lenses of a group of documentary-makers.

The result is Revolution School: a four-part ABC documentary series that investigates how to improve high school education in Australia by focusing on Melbourne’s Kambrya College over the course of one year.

Alex West was brought on as series producer by production company CJZ – who won the pitching bid from ABC – to bring the project from page to screen.

The first challenge he faced was how.

“How on earth do you begin to capture events in a very dynamic ever-changing school environment where there’s over 1000 people, and you have no idea who will end up being key characters or what might happen to them?” West says.

The second main challenge was finding a way of incorporating the cutting-edge research and work of academics, such as Professor John Hattie from University of Melbourne, into the series.

But having this work cohesively alongside the stories of students, parents and teachers presented an additional problem.

“It’s kind of two genres in a program-making sense, which could fight against each other,” West says.

“Strictly observational documentary making and specialist factual television production had to be somehow aligned into a way that would work.”

To solve these issues, West first needed to capture the stories.

From the outset, he decided two fixed rigs, each with two cameras would need to be installed in the school, so they would never miss an opportunity. They monitored these cameras from an office onsite, so they could selectively record only what was necessary. On top of that were two roving cameras, helmed by shooter-directors Naomi Elkin-Jones and Nick McInerney, and four to six cameras installed on the school’s own CCTV system.

A blanket agreement was made with the school and every child was sent home with a release form. If those weren’t signed, there was an extensive process involved in making sure the filmmakers didn’t include a child who wasn’t cleared.

The amount of footage they accumulated was immense.

“More footage than I’ve ever created and I struggled to think how we could have shot less,” West says.

The management of that was a huge logistical task, involving constant logging and monitoring of storylines, so as to create a kind of map through the mountain of data.

“You’ve got multiple open storylines. And you don’t know how they’re going to resolve, you don’t know how they’re going to fit into the big picture,” he says.

“We knew the story we wanted but to manage that material I think was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done professionally.”

On top of that, they were trying to understand if this was actually even arresting television.

“At that point nobody knew if this was really boring.”

But dramatic storylines began to emerge, and the academics rose to the task of becoming deeply engaged with the teachers and school.

The stories were bundled into a long, unruly timeline, which West and the team began to hammer into shape with the work of “fantastic” editors.

Together they built a super structure across the four episodes, but also individual structures that allowed each episode to essentially stand alone, weaving between the stories of the students, teachers and academics.

“It’s one of the most complex editorial jobs I’ve ever undertaken… It was really challenging and creatively stimulating and I’m really proud of the result,” West says.

“When you watch it as a viewer you’ve got this double layer. You’re learning from the academic side, but also getting attached to characters and following a narrative.”

Revolution School starts on ABC Tuesday 31 May at 8.30pm.

Whether it’s Jai Courtney or Last Cab to Darwin, Australian creatives, stars and projects – and the stories they create – continue to be in high demand across the globe. Need proof? Here’s the first in our new international success series, giving you a glimpse at recent casting, sales and release news.

ON SCREEN

British actor Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Sherlock) has signed on to star in new zombie apocalypse thriller, Cargo from Australian directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, and producer Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook).

Actors Jai Courtney (Divergent, Suicide Squad) and Brendon Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Ruben Guthrie) have been cast alongside Hollywood veteran Michael Douglas in sports drama The God Four.

Actress Caitlyn Stasey (Please Like Me, Reign) will star in the new US Fox network police drama series A.P.B. alongside Justin Kirk (Weeds, Wayward Pines) and Eric Winter (The Mentalist).

Claire McCarthy (The Waiting City) will direct not one but two upcoming international features. Ophelia is a re-imagining of the Shakespeare classic Hamlet with Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Naomi Watts expected to star. The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, based on the novel by Ann Weisgarber about the experiences of black frontier women in the American West, will be produced by Violet Davis (How To Get Away With Murder) and star Naomie Harris (Spectre) in the title role.

Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays) has signed on to direct British comedy Animals, adapted from the Manchester-set novel by Emma Jane Unsworth, about two women whose hedonistic friendship is tested when one of them decides to sober up and settle down with her fiancé.

Director Nash Edgerton’s new untitled feature is filming in Mexico with Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo (Interstellar), Amanda Seyfried (Les Miserables), Thandie Newtown (US The Slap) and Aussie Joel Edgerton (Black Mass, The Gift) all starring. Amazon and STX Entertainment have bought the world rights to the comedy, which is Nash Edgerton’s first directorial outing since 2008’s The Square.

OFF SCREEN

ABC teen drama and Logie award-winner Ready For This from Werner Films Productions and Blackfella Films was sold to German broadcaster ZDF and will screen on their free-to-air children’s channel KiKA later this year.

ABC comedy Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane has been picked up by Netflix for the UK market, not long after NBC Universal picked up the US rights for their comedy channel Seeso.

The US rights to Rosemary Myers’ debut feature Girl Asleep has been picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories after the 1970s coming-of-age story premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival.

AACTA award-winning feature Last Cab To Darwin starring Michael Caton and Jacki Weaver will open in US cinemas next month.

Vanuatu-set love story Tanna will also have a US release in September, initially in New York and LA before potentially a wider release.

US network Fox has commissioned eight episodes of Channel 7’s hit reality series My Kitchen Rules featuring Aussie chef Curtis Stone and Cat Cora (Iron Chef) as judges for celebrities cooking in their Hollywood homes.

Rob Connolly explains his multipronged approach to tackling the worldwide decline in independent cinema. By Don Groves.

The theatrical market for middle ground independent movies around the world has virtually disappeared. So how should Australian filmmakers respond?

According to seasoned producer, director and distributor Rob Connolly, there are several solutions.

“We’re seeing a polarisation of movies,” Connolly says. “They either have to be big and bold or small, innovative and adventurous. You can’t make middle-ground dramas for theatrical release. TV is now a better place for that kind of drama.”

The founder of Arenamedia is pursuing all three avenues as well as continuing to mentor emerging talent and pursue alternative release strategies.

Arenamedia’s development slate consists of film projects both big and small and the firm is readying its first TV drama, an eight-parter, which will be announced soon.

Meanwhile, Connolly’s latest effort is directing Barracuda, the four-part Matchbox Pictures drama for the ABC based on the Christos Tsiolkas novel. This is Connolly’s second time directing a Tsiolkas adaptation, following The Slap.

Connolly says he is delighted with the performances of newcomers Elias Anton and Ben Kindon in Barracuda. Both actors were discovered by Mullinars’ Jane Norris (Rob’s wife).  Elias plays Danny Kelly, a Melbourne teenager who yearns for a gold medal in swimming at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Matt Nable plays his coach and Kindon his teammate and rival. Rachel Griffiths and Victoria Haralabidou play the boys’ mothers and Tilda Cobham-Hervey is Kindon’s character’s sister.

Tsiolkas was involved in the script development but trusted the screenwriters, Blake Ayshford and Belinda Chayko to adapt his novel. Connolly is a fan of the four x one hour format, figuring most people prefer to watch TV in one hour chunks (although plenty also binge on entire series).

It’s not the only adaptation Connolly has tackled – after producing Tim Winton’s The Turning in 2013, which comprised 18 short films each helmed by a different filmmaker.

Connolly proudly points to The Turning as a springboard for some people to get their first crack at feature directing. Bangarra Dance Theatre artistic director Stephen Page went on to direct Spear for Arenamedia, Simon Stone shot The Daughter for producers Jan Chapman and Nicole O’Donohue, David Wenham has just written and directed a film and Jub Clerc is in advanced development on a feature.

Arenamedia and Andrew Myer (who executive produced Last Cab to Darwin, Paper Planes and The Turning) invested in Wenham’s film, which was shot under the radar. Connolly expects to release the film under his event screenings banner, CinemaPlus. CinemaPlus debuted with Connolly’s Underground: The Julian Assange Story, followed by The Turning (co-distributed with Madman Entertainment), Michael Kantor’s The Boy Castaways and Paul Cox’s Force of Destiny. Screen Australia has supported the CinemaPlus initiative.

CinemaPlus will next release Chasing Asylum, Eva Orner’s documentary which chronicles the raw personal stories of asylum seekers who were sent to live indefinitely on Manus Island and Nauru, and the impact on people who worked at the detention centres.

Connolly says these event screenings enable films to run much longer than would be possible in a conventional cinema release and are serving as effective platforms for ancillary markets. Spear, for example, is having a theatrical life stretching over six months, including outdoor screenings in remote communities using an inflatable cinema provided by Bangarra.

It’s a different cinema landscape to when Connolly started his filmmaking career.

Connolly produced his first film, the Rowan Woods-directed The Boys, in 1998 when he was 27, after serving as associate producer with producer John Maynard on writer and director Gerard Lee’s All Men Are Liars. Ever since, Connolly has been keen to give emerging producers and directors opportunities.

John Harvey, who produced Spear and one of the short films in The Turning, joined Arenamedia under Screen Australia’s Indigenous internship program. Harvey is now collaborating with Arenamedia via his firm Brown Cabs. And Liz Kearney came on board after producing These Final Hours, thanks to Screen Australia’s Enterprise People program.

Shine director Scott Hicks reflects on his return to the world of music for the documentary Highly Strung. By Caris Bizzaca.

As a teenager, you were just as likely to find Scott Hicks watching classical music concerts as rock’n’roll gigs.

It was how he met pianist David Helfgott – the man who would inspire his 1996 biopic Shine, which won Geoffrey Rush an Oscar and saw Hicks nominated for both directing and screenwriting.

But Shine did not satisfy Hicks’ fascination with classical music. A decade later he returned to the hypnotic world of woodwind and brass for the documentary on composer Philip Glass.

Now, his new documentary Highly Strung marks what he jokingly refers to as the third in his ‘trilogy’ of music films.

“I’ve always been drawn to that world,” Hicks says, reflecting on his life.

“Music and classical music have always been a big element in my life.”

But he says it’s more than just music. He finds he’s drawn toward creative people and how they devote their lives to their work. In Highly Strung, a man spends more than four months carefully hand carving a single cello and musicians take out mortgage-size loans to buy million dollar centuries-old instruments.

Through media interviews, Hicks has actually noticed common themes amongst his works he was never conscious about at the time of filming.

“You look at Highly Strung and reflect back on what happened in Glass and it goes right back to Shine – I feel as though there’s something about the whole balance of life that seems to be a common thread,” he says.

“How do you balance work and art and family and a social life? I think it’s a question that preoccupies a lot of us, not just artists.”

For Hicks, it was a question that came up in the making of Highly Strung.

The filmmaker’s career has encompassed everything from big-budget studio films such as Snow Falling on Cedars, Stephen King adaptation Hearts in Atlantis and No Reservations, to large documentary series for the Discovery Channel and more intimate Australian stories like Shine. Many of these, including Highly Strung, were made with producer Kerry Heysen-Hicks.

Hicks says he enjoys the process of creating big budget movies just as much as independent films – it’s all about striving for that balance.

“In a sense it’s like creating a sort of patchwork, between ‘Hollywood’ for want of a better word, and things that are more immediately personal in their appeal for me,” he says.

Highly Strung was most certainly in the latter.

Hicks had just come off the back of directing a major studio movie, The Lucky One with Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling, and all the red carpets and mayhem that come with it, when he discovered something extraordinary was occurring close to home.

Philanthropist Ulrike Klein was gifting the four members of the Australian String Quartet (ASQ) with (incredibly expensive) instruments crafted by the G. B. Guadagnini in the 18^th century.

“I was intrigued by the whole idea of these ancient instruments and the people that play, work with and collect them,” he says.

Because while Highly Strung revolves, in part, around the ASQ and the clashing personalities of its members, it also looks at the people who invest millions in Stradivari and Guadagninis, and even those commissioned to recreate the instruments.

In Highly Strung, what is clear is how these creative people are all being driven by a kind of obsession to achieve something greater than perfection.

“It’s a prerequisite for high artistic achievement… to be sort of possessed by what you’re doing,” Hicks says, adding that it’s people like this that also make fascinating subjects for documentaries.

“Certainly that’s what I’ve tried to do in Highly Strung, because everybody’s obsessed, not just the musicians… and that’s what I think made it so rich.”

Hicks can also relate. With Shine, it was ten years before he was able to get the film off the ground – four of which were spent trying to convince people Geoffrey Rush was the only person to play David Helfgott.

“You sort of have to be obsessed to make a film – to put the amount of energy into every frame you create to make it as good as you feel it can be,” he admits.

“It does require a certain amount of obsessiveness.”

Highly Strung is playing in select cinemas from Thursday, May 19.

Mick Taylor is back. John Jarratt talks bringing his iconic sociopath back to screens in the new Stan TV series, and what SVOD is doing for Australian storytelling. By Caris Bizzaca.

Filmed in and around Adelaide for a little over two months, this new iteration of the Wolf Creek world flips the familiar story.

Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) goes from being the hunter to the hunted when he murders an American family and unknowingly lets their daughter Eve (Lucy Fry) escape with her life – and a newfound thirst for vengeance.

Jarratt says while this marks the third time he’s played the tattooed outback serial killer since 2005, he wasn’t about to say ‘no’ to creator Greg McLean (who co-wrote and co-directed on the series).

“It’s not every day you come up with an iconic character I suppose and this is mine in my career,” he says, assuring fans that Wolf Creek the series delivers.

“With this one I start out in a big way and give all my horror fans everything they want. Then we kind of hand it over the amazing Lucy Fry, who goes on a vengeful rampage trying to find the bastard who did over her family.”

For Fry, who was last seen in Now Add Honey, playing Eve not only brought her back home to Australia for a stretch, but also marks her first lead role.

The 24-year-old Brisbane actor says reading the six episodes from Los Angeles, she was immediately captivated by how Eve’s story plays out as a psychological thriller more so than a horror series.

“When I read how Eve transforms from a victim of Mick to someone who’s trying to take him on, that was really exciting to me,” she says.

Wolf Creek marks the second original series commissioned by Stan, after Jungle’s No Activity, a move which Jarratt says is extraordinary.

“Stan is… very proud and very vocal about being an Australian company supporting Australian stuff,” he says.

Speaking on the cusp of the six episodes launching on Stan, he says the future of this kind of commitment will be in the hands of audiences.

“If the Australian public backs them as they’re backing us, it’ll be a wonderful thing,” he says.

Jarratt, who has long been vocal in the battle against illegal downloading, says it’s thanks to SVOD services like Stan that there has been a decline in online piracy.

This is evident in a report released Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF) last year, where executive director Lori Flekser acknowledged the contribution of video-on-demand services in the decline.

Jarratt says while he worries piracy will never fully go away without further action, this is a positive step.

“There definitely are figures to prove that they are (making a difference),” he says.

“I was talking to my son Charlie this morning about it actually. How it’s probably easier to turn on Stan or Netflix and find the movie you want for a lousy 10 bucks a month, rather than to go trying to illegally download it. So I think finally we might have a panacea to this full-on theft.”

While television grapples with changes with everything streaming services, to series length, it’s also being presented with the ever-present issue of the need for diversity – something that Screen Australia is currently researching.

While Fry believes Wolf Creek has done a great job in casting actors like Miranda Tapsell and Deborah Mailman, she acknowledges there is still a way to go.

“I’d love to get to a place where… you have a great story and automatically anyone of any nationality can be cast,” she says.

“Where (you don’t have to say) ‘we want Hispanic for this role, we want African-American for this role, we want to Asian for this role’… it’s just ‘this girl is great for this role, she’s a really great actress and she happens to be from a certain culture’.”

Wolf Creek is available on Stan from Thursday 12 May.

Australian-made dramas, comedies, sci-fi series and reality TV were amongst the winners at LAWebfest this year.

For the third in our ‘great stuff online’ series, we shine a spotlight on the talented Australians who were recognised at the Los Angeles Web Series Festival (aka LAWebfest) from April 22-24. An outstanding 10 different series won prizes across a range of categories and genres, from editing, to directing, to VFX ad sound design.

Here’s a look at the Australian productions awarded at the festival.

DRAMA

AIRLOCK*

A three-part online series from the creators of The Tunnel and Event Zero, this sci-fi story follows the Security Officer of a derelict ship (played by Mark Coles Smith), who is tasked with investigating an isolated space station they happen upon. What he finds is a murdered crew and a group of asylum seekers hiding a secret that could put not just them, but humanity itself, in danger.

OUTSTANDING EDITING

Endo Tedeschi, Antonio Mestres, “Airlock” (Ryde, AUSTRALIA)

 OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

Mark Coles Smith, “Airlock” (Ryde, AUSTRALIA)

STARTING FROM NOW**

Australia’s most successful lesbian multiplatform drama, Starting From Now amassed over 20 million views across its first three seasons. The series secured Screen Australia and Screen NSW funding for Seasons 4 and 5, which were then acquired and screened on SBS2 as television half-hours.

OUTSTANDING WRITING

Julie Kalceff, “Starting From Now: Season 3” (Marrickville, AUSTRALIA)

 OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE CAST

Rosie Lourde, Sarah de Possesse, Heather Mitchell, Frankie Savige, Lauren Orrell, Bianca Bradey, Kylie Watson, Clementine Mills, Peter McAllum, “Starting From Now: Season 3” (Marrickville, AUSTRALIA)

WASTELANDER PANDA: EXILE*

The follow-up to the popular Wastelander Panda online series from 2012 has Isaac, one of the last remaining pandas in the Wasteland, banished with his family for his part in an inexcusable crime – a wrong he must now put right if his family is ever to be reinstated into the Tribe of Legion.

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL/VISUAL EFFECTS

Jeremy Kelly-Baker, “Wastelander Panda: Exile” (Glenunga, AUSTRALIA)

FOLLIES OF YOUTH

A series created and written by Tony Avard that aims to shed light and educate people about the issues of HIV and sexual assault, through the stories of four friends finding their way through life in their 20s.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

Tony Avard, “Follies of Youth” (Seaford, AUSTRALIA)

GREENFIELD

An Australian/Scandinavian co-production, this five-part web series was shot in WA and follows James (Ethan Tomas) as he returns after a decade-long absence, determined to piece his life back together with his former girlfriend. But this dream is disrupted when her brother tells James a secret.

OUTSTANDING EDITING

Sofie Steenberger, Rebecca Jorgensen, “Greenfield” (North Perth, AUSTRALIA)

COMEDY

BEDHEAD*

This series about an awkward sexual encounter between two friends, was created by a group of freshly minted film school graduates and selected for Screen Australia and ABC’s Fresh Blood Pilot Season. It was previously featured on our ‘great stuff online’ series.

OUTSTANDING EDITING

Anil Griffin, “BedHead” (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jody Kennedy, “BedHead” (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING

Benjamin Matthew, “BedHead” (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

Paul Ayre, “BedHead” (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

LAWEBFEST-RIO WEBFEST (BRAZIL) GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

BedHead (Comedy/Reece Jones, creator; Benjamin Mathews, Claire Phillips, Tom Keele, Reece Jones, & Jon Dalgaard, creators & producers/Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

A SHARED HOUSE

Written and directed by Joshua Lundberg, this stars Georgia Woodward as Charlotte, a 20-something-year-old who finds herself with a lease she can’t afford to keep up when her partner packs up and leaves. The solution? Three new housemates. Also starring David Halgren, Sonny Joe, Grace Avery and Lauren Rowe.

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR

Nick Dale/ Ep.1, “A Shared House” (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING WRITING

Joshua Lundberg, “A Shared House” (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

VTV

When two funeral directors inherit a small TV station, they try to make their ratings plummet so a major corporation will lose interest in turning it into a home shopping channel. Their plan? To find the worst onscreen talent to create the worst shows. Directed by Nir Shelter, who also did the award-winning sound design (see below) and co-wrote the series with fellow creator/producer and star Tai Scrivener.

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR

Brett Heath / EP.7, “VTV” (Rose Bay, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL/VISUAL EFFECTS

Lyle Carroll, “VTV” (Rose Bay, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN

Nir Shelter, “VTV” (Rose Bay, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

“VTV” (Nir Shelter, Tai Scrivener – creators & producers, (Rose Bay, AUSTRALIA)

LAWEBFEST-KWEBFEST (KOREA) GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

VTV (Comedy/Nir Shelter, Tai Scrivener, creators & producers/Rose Bay, AUSTRALIA)

THE FILM LAB

A group of scientists are out to get the cold, hard facts about common movie tropes such as whether anyone WOULD actually hear you if you screamed in space, and why all directors have beards. Created by Swingtime, originally it began life as a trailer but has since been developed into a series.

OUTSTANDING SERIES PREMISE

“The Film Lab” Phil MacDonald – creator/Nicholas Hansen, Stuart Subotic – creators & producers) (Darlinghurst, AUSTRALIA)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING

Nicholas Hansen, “The Film Lab” (Darlinghurst, AUSTRALIA)

THE HAPPINESS CURVE

Featured in the last edition of ‘great stuff online’, this series follows four housemates exploring those so-called “best years of your life” in your 20s (don’t worry, although it’s all downhill from there, it apparently picks up again in your 60s). Co-created and written by Ash Mortimer and Mar Borboa.

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE CAST

“The Happiness Curve” Mindy Fyfe, Laura Vine, Tass Labra, Ajay Banks, Eileen Chase, Mitch Ralston, Dom Weintraub, Seon Williams, Simon Gilberg, Evan Raif, (Sandringham, AUSTRALIA)

STUDENT SERIES

MAGNIFY MELBOURNE

Created by students from La Trobe University, this series is comprised of a number of biographical short docs about ‘ordinary’ Melbournians, which together seek to show how extraordinary and layered the city truly is.

OUTSTANDING STUDENT SERIES

“Magnify Melbourne” [Reality/Documentary] (Steinar Ellingsen, La Trobe University Students – creators & producers) (Melbourne, AUSTRALIA)

REALITY

THE GRACELAND HAPPINESS PROJECT

When Tim Domer won Big Brother in 2013, he promised fellow contestant and best friend Ben Zabel he would take him to the home of his childhood idol Elvis Presley. But the holiday to Graceland became something else following Ben’s public struggle with depression – a search for happiness, and if it’s that simple.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING

Nick McInerney, “The Graceland Happiness Project” (Melbourne, AUSTRALIA)

*Supported by Screen Australia

**Season 4 supported by Screen Australia

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason and writer Benjamin Law take stock a year on from Miranda Tapsell’s rousing call for more diversity at the Logies. By Caris Bizzaca.

A year ago to the day Miranda Tapsell stood on the Logies stage to accept her award for Love Child and called for “more beautiful people of colour on TV”.

It struck a nerve in the room, causing the cheering crowd to rise to their feet, and became one of a series of signs that the demand for onscreen diversity is gaining more and more momentum, particularly in 2016.

In January #OscarsSoWhite went viral, the same month SBS series The Family Law hit screens with a 90% Asian-Australian cast.

After premiering in February, Channel Nine’s multicultural comedy Here Come the Habibs averaged 1.4 million people (metro + regional)* and was greenlit for season two.

Then in March, Screen Australia launched a comprehensive research project not just into the representation of cultural diversity, but of disability and LGBTQI as well, to gauge how much our TV drama reflects our incredibly diverse country.

By April, the new batch of Logie nominees was released, including, for the first time, two Gold Logie contenders who weren’t white – SBS presenter Lee Lin Chin and The Project’s Waleed Aly – which became a ‘controversy’ widely debated online.

And in early May, ABC’s first female managing director Michelle Guthrie wrote to staff the day she officially started in the job, saying that the public broadcaster needed “more diversity in both our staff and content” to become more relevant and extend its reach.

Ahead of the 58^th TV Week Logie Awards on May 8, Benjamin Law, who wrote the biographical series The Family Law, says this momentum is part of the wider, more global conversation that Australians are engaging with.

“We’re even more connected and tapped into discussions as they are happening, so we’re having the same discussions with America when Beyonce’s Lemonade lands, or when #OscarsSoWhite happens,” he says.

“And then we relay that back to the Australian context and talk about things like the Logies diversity.”

For Law, to see culturally diverse Gold Logie nominees was really heartening – and yet telling.

“Australians I think are very good at patting themselves on the back about not being racist, being very egalitarian and I think to an extent, rightly so. In comparison to a lot of western European nations we do multiculturalism really, really well, but the fact that we’re celebrating this in 2016 is really telling of our media landscape.”

There’s a lot that needs to be done. While the Gold Logies recognises TV presenters, and while diversity is commonplace in reality TV and better in factual programming, there is a problem.

“We are lagging behind when it comes to diversity in scripted content in comedy and drama,” Law says.

How much of a problem, is what Screen Australia is trying to find out.

The research project is analysing Australian TV drama and comedy broadcast between 2011 and 2015 to identify characters that are culturally diverse, LGBTQI or have a disability. Surveys have also been sent out to the actors, agents, casting directors, credited writers, directors and producers involved on those titles to explore views, experiences and ideas for the best way forward.

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason says the research has been met with wonderful support from all parts of the sector – from industry bodies, to the guilds, the unions, the casting directors, the networks and the producers.

“We all have a view of what it’s like, but what we need is hard empirical evidence,” Mr Mason says.

From that evidence, set to be released in the coming months, it can then be determined what steps can be made and how we can achieve lasting onscreen diversity.

It isn’t about political correctness, Mr Mason says. It is about truthfully reflecting the world we live in.

“If you catch the bus or the train home tonight from work, look around on a train carriage, or if you’re driving, look around at all the people in the cars next to you. They’re not all blonde with blue eyes, looking like they’ve come straight from the beach,” Mr Mason says.

“They are a mix of people and we need to show that.”

Aside from that cultural imperative, Mr Mason says it also makes moral, creative and commercial sense to tell a wide variety of stories that appeal to a huge segment of the population.

“As a sector we are missing an opportunity, creatively and commercially, and we are underestimating what an audience wants to see,” he says.

“It’s essential for television networks and filmmakers to embrace diversity if they want to stay relevant.”

The commercial networks have been taking notice.

Channel 7 is currently filming The Secret Daughter, a show they built around The Sapphires star Jessica Mauboy. Earlier this year, Channel Nine launched Here Come the Habibs and have committed to season two.

And the aforementioned The Family Law was groundbreaking by default – a family comedy about divorce, the characters’ Asian-Australian culture made up just part of the fabric of the story, rather than being the whole story.

Law says the feedback both SBS and he personally have received from audiences has been thrilling, and surprising.

“We got a lot of obviously Asian Australians saying that they felt recognised, which we were expecting, which we were really gratified by, but also a lot of non-Asian Australians who said they could see themselves onscreen in the family story as well.”

On that, Law isn’t entirely convinced Australians, as an audience, have been “allergic to diversity” in the past.

“I do wonder whether it’s a myth that Australians have been traditionally resistant to diversity. I know that Australia hasn’t had diversity on screen for a really long time but I do wonder whether that branches out and means that the audience was resistant to it as well,” he says.

Instead he believes it’s because people in production, direction, casting and writing have been predominantly white. These people created what they felt confident in making – and that was really strong white characters on television.

“I’m not sure it’s an audience problem, I think it’s a production and broadcasting problem,” Law says.

But it’s a problem that needs to be addressed, and particularly in television.

“I think television is in some ways more important because that is what’s in our living room, so that’s what we have dinner over – that’s our intimate engagement with the media.”

Although The Family Law is a good step forward, Law acknowledges it isn’t a revolution. It is just that – a step. Concrete change has not yet happened.

Mr Mason says what it clear, is that feeling of change is in the air.

“This is a moment,” Mr Mason says. “It’s time to seize it.”

A year on and Tapsell’s words are still reverberating.

“Put more beautiful people of colour on TV and connect viewers in ways which transcend race and unite us,” she said.

“That’s the real Team Australia.”

The 58th TV Week Logie Awards are broadcast live on Channel Nine on Sunday, May 8 at 7.30pm.

*Source: OzTAM and RegionalTAM, 5-city-metro, combined markets, total people, 28 day consolidated. Metro viewers totalled 1.058 million. Metropolitan data is copyright to OzTAM and Regional data is copyright to RegionalTAM and may not be reproduced, published or communicated in whole or part without the prior consent of OzTAM or RegionalTAM.

Whether it’s film, TV, comedies or drama, Matthew Saville’s directing career encompasses an enviable list that ranges from adaptations The Slap and Cloudstreet, to features Felony and Noise and comedies such as Josh Thomas’ Please Like Me and Chris Lilley’s We Can Be Heroes.

Here Matthew takes a break from filming the drama series Seven Types of Ambiguity in Melbourne to talk to Screen Australia about his new film A Month of Sundays.

Saville also wrote the film, about a divorced real estate agent Frank (Anthony LaPaglia), who is trudging through life when he gets a phone call from a wrong number and mistakes the elderly women on the end of the line (Julia Blake) as his recently deceased mum.

Screen Australia: How long had you been sitting on this idea for A Month of Sundays before you put pen to paper?

Matthew Saville: These characters had been in my head since I made a short film in 2002 called Sweetheart, in which a lonely office prole gets an unexpected phone call from a kindly soul. I often wondered what happened to them. A Month of Sundays also draws heavily on distant memories from my childhood. So, maybe, it’s been in me, somewhere, since the late 70s, and it’s taken me this long to actually confront it with pan and paper.

SA: It’s been nine years since the last feature you penned Noise. Was the process of writing A Month of Sundays easier or more difficult in comparison?

MS: Writing is always difficult for me. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I depend on the muse. Sometimes she descends, sometimes she doesn’t. My only quality as a writer is patience. I can wait. But thank you for reminding me that it’s been nine years. I’ll pass that on to the muse, next time I see her.

SA: What made you decide to make Frank a real estate agent for this particular story?

MS: That came from my Dad, Bill. Bill Saville was a land rat in Radelaide until the mid-80s. His approach to the profession was quite different to how real estate agents are generally perceived. He never bought or sold a property for anything except a fair price. He traded those properties with a deep understanding that they were, actually, a “home”. He took that seriously. And he brought that idea home every night. He and Mum taught that great lesson to me and all of my siblings. Good parents. I was lucky.

SA: What is a memory that stands out to you from the shoot?

MS: There isn’t one in particular. It was a quick shoot, so much of it remains a blur. I remember how much I enjoyed working with the cast and the crew, and how committed they were to the film. I remember shooting in streets that were the whole world to me in my childhood. I remember feeling grateful that people were working so hard to make something they decided to believe in. Maybe they wanted to honour their own parents. I sometimes got that sense.

SA: Anthony LaPaglia has said ageism is a problem in the film industry. Thinking about the ages of your central cast (who are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s), do you think A Month of Sundays is a rarity in that way? Or do you think it’s not as much of an issue in Australian cinema compared to Hollywood?

MS: So many “isms” are terribly problematic, not only in film and television. It’s great that Anthony has brought that up. And what he says is very true. Equally, there’s a gender imbalance (Scroz is working hard toward redressing that) and an ethnic one (again, hopefully, that’s being addressed). I’m not interested in comparing Hollywood to Australian cinema. They are two very separate things, I hope. Every part of Oz culture – film, TV, theater, visual art, music, whatever – should reflect our population and, indeed, feed off how it is a diverse thing. A whole thing. With men, women, youth, the elderly, gay, straight, Caucasian, or not Caucasian, rich, middle class, poor. First Australians, or more recent arrivals.  We should all try to enrich each others’ lives with our own stories. But Anthony is quite right. It’d be a terrible shame if we let one narrative dominate the others. Maybe Hollywood’s doing that. I wouldn’t know.

SA: You’re working on another adaptation with Seven Types of Ambiguity – when making adaptations whether it’s Cloudstreet or The Slap do you view it as a new interpretation, or prefer to stay close to the source material?

MS: The obvious answer to that question is “yes”. Both. Obviously, you want to make something that reflects the intentions of the author of the original text. Having said that, Tim (Winton) and Christos (Tsiolkas) and Elliot (Perlman) are smart guys who understand the vagaries of storytelling, and that it evolves as the story is told. I think they are excited by the possibility that their remarkable books can become something new, in another medium. Not a frame of a TV series will ever change a word of their novels. They know that.

SA: Television in recent years has become more about six-part series or 2-part miniseries, as opposed to the 22 episode seasons of something like The Secret Life of Us. What do you think are some of the pros and cons of this change?

MS: Those types of drama are interesting. Certainly I’ve enjoyed engaging in it, meeting its challenges. That has been fun. I recently had the pleasure of working with a crew in Adelaide. Quite often, at lunch, we discussed this very conundrum. The six part series or two part telemovie, or feature film is a fine thing and they are grateful for the work, but crews depend on a longer form to make ends meet. They want six months of guaranteed work, which I don’t think is too much to ask. What would be great – and these people would do this – is if we could get them long seasons, some surety of work, so they could then apply their skills and acumen to the occasional gig on a feature or telemovie. In South Australia, the SAFC and local producers are working very hard toward this aim. There’s a world class studio sitting there. There’s an incredible body of talent there. An ongoing series would nurture that, and feed into other forms of storytelling, even shorts and docos. That’s what I hope for, for crews in every state; a fair paycheque from consistent, ongoing work, and the opportunity to work on the occasional “passion project”.

Six years after the movie hit screens, a television adaption of John Marsden’s beloved Tomorrow When the War Began is preparing to invade ABC3. Producer Michael Boughen walks us through the book, to film, to TV adaption and what fans can expect. By Caris Bizzaca.

Tomorrow When the War Began was an interesting balancing act for filmmaker Michael Boughen.

After producing the 2010 movie, steps were taken to make a sequel until Boughen realised John Marsden’s Tomorrow novels were perfectly suited to television.

Boughen was well aware of the importance of the books’ large fan-base and says it’s one of the most interesting challenges for anyone adapting such well-known works.

“At the end of the day, yes a lot of people have grown up reading the books and loved them (but) there a lot of people are out there that haven’t and want to engage with this on a purely entertainment level,” he says.

“You’ve got to balance the two.”

It required a lot of listening to fans, who he thinks will find the Tomorrow When the War Began TV series opens up the world to include much more detail within the book.

“I really felt it was an exciting journey to begin because we had so much more opportunity to really show a lot more character development, which you get in a book but you often don’t get on a 100-minute film,” he says.

There’s also a lot that’s completely fresh and new.

The story is familiar – about a group of teenage friends who find themselves some of the few last free citizens able to stand up to the “Asian Coalition” after they invade Australia – but it’s no longer told just from point-of-view of Ellie (played by Molly Daniels).

“We were therefore able to spend a lot more time with the various characters,” Boughen says, including even looking at what was going on with the teens’ captured parents.

“So we could also look at how being wrenched away from your parents initially seems like a really good idea because you can do whatever you want, but then it becomes really horrendous because you really do need that support, both moral and emotional.”

Even though it’s been updated and modernised, Boughen says the series still holds very true to the DNA of Marsden’s books. The author himself was kept informed of their plans, although he was happy to leave the screenwriting to the screenwriters.

“John is a fantastic author to have on side. He simply says, ‘I write books, I don’t do TV and film’ and he was pleased we were doing it,” Boughen says.

The casting of the teens – another challenge – was a lengthy process of around five months, but resulted in six newcomers who are actually, many of them, playing their onscreen ages.

With casting done, the shoot began in September, followed by a fast turnaround to get the six episodes done for the April 23 premiere. Not that you can tell watching it, Boughen says.

“From day one it was meant to be a cinematic experience… but at the same time get down into the real nitty gritty of character and story,” he says, assuring that they also “haven’t skimped on the explosions”.

Being a PG series about war also presented some unique obstacles for the potentially younger audience. While there are guns, chases, and “lots of bangs”, Boughen said a lot was implied or seen to convey the danger the teens were in.

The demographic also meant Tomorrow When the War Began became the first of four projects to receive funding from a partnership between Screen Australia and Twitter – to tap into the social media savvy audience.

And depending on how successful the series is, there’s always scope for more seasons.

“That’s something we can do for sure,” Boughen says. It depends on how it all travels of course, both locally and internationally, but there are seven books in the series and we’ve still got a lot of material that’s open to us to deal with.”

Tomorrow When the War Began premieres on ABC3 on April 23 at 7.30pm. Remember to tweet or post using the hashtag #TWTWB

With the freedom to take risks and be able to tap into mass audiences, online storytelling is becoming a key player in the battle for eyeballs – a trend only set to continue with the announcement of Skip Ahead #3. By Caris Bizzaca.

Once upon a time, the pathway to a filmmaking career was relatively structured. But the internet and streaming platforms have thrown out the traditional manual and a new renegade group of filmmakers are coming through the ranks.

These filmmakers already have thousands of fans, having cut their teeth on YouTube where they continue to hone and polish their storytelling.

Screen Australia saw the potential in this space years ago, creating a Multiplatform Drama Program, which meant series such as The Katering Show and How to Talk Australians could be made.

It also caught the attention of Google, who were keen to help develop some of the Australian talent tapping into audiences across the globe.

Together Google and Screen Australia developed the Skip Ahead program, designed to help YouTube content creators such as Aunty Donna and Axis of Awesome advance their careers.

After two successful roll-outs of the program, the third instalment of that collaboration has been announced, with applications now open.

Skip Ahead #3 funding is for successful YouTubers to make the leap to longer, narrative-driven stories that run for at least half an hour, whether that be a standalone film or series pilot.

“Online is producing incredible, premium content,” Screen Australia Chief Operating Officer Fiona Cameron says.

“There’s no doubt our online creatives are pushing the boundaries, in everything from documentary, to comedy, to drama.

“But it is also a training ground. We’re helping these filmmakers grow and refine their craft so they can make it a feasible career rather than a hobby.”

Investment Manager Mike Cowap says Screen Australia’s role in all of this is to do whatever we can to help these YouTubers realise and fulfil their full potential.

“They are the next wave of great Australian filmmakers,” Mr Cowap says.

“The grand plan is to arm these guys to be the filmmakers that we believe they can be.”

Skip Ahead #3 follows two workshops by Screen Australia and Google in March, which taught successful applicants (who were “some of the biggest and best” YouTubers, Mr Cowap says) the basic building blocks to make longer works.

“These people are already highly creative, with great storytelling instincts. The workshop just gave them the tools to take that further,” Cowap says.

Because the films will go directly online, filmmakers can push ideas and try new things. With no traditional gatekeepers, the rule book is being rewritten.

“They are breaking new ground,” Screen Australia Chief Operating Officer Fiona Cameron says. “This is untrodden territory.”

Click here to view the Skip Ahead guidelines and to apply for the third round of funding.

Successful projects developed by previous Skip Ahead recipients

Axis All Areas by Axis of Awesome

Lend Us a Ride by Mighty Car Mods

Neighbours Vs. Zombies by Neighbours Official and Louna Maroun

Fernando by SexuaLobster

1999 by Aunty Donna

The Sweetest Thing by How to Cook That