Writer and director Dena Curtis takes us through the sometimes spooky, yet always fascinating ride that was investigating traditional spirits for the NITV documentary series Shadow Trackers. By Caris Bizzaca.

During the shoot for Shadow Trackers, writer/director Dena Curtis was staying in a houseboat on South Australia’s Murray River investigating a water creature called the Muldjewangk. As night descended, she, the small crew, and presenters Hunter Page-Lochard (Cleverman) and Zac James (8MMM), geared up with cameras and flashlights to search for evidence of this half-man-half-fish.

“On the boat it was fine. But the moment we stepped onto land it was just a whole different feeling. The things that happened there were quite creepy,” Curtis, who also co-produced the series, says.

It was an experience that left her “rattled” and is captured in episode 2 of Screen Australia-supported Shadow Trackers, which airs on NITV on Thursday 3 November at 8.30pm.

Page-Lochard and James went out on their own as they always did, with Curtis, researcher/co-writer Rhea Stephenson, the cameraman and sound person trailing not far behind.

“I would always say ‘don’t go any further than this’ because with the gear and the sound, we could only go so far… But it was a bit nerve-racking, making sure they were safe and came back in one piece,” she says.

While not giving everything that happened away, at one point, Curtis heard a growling noise from where James was walking.

“It was just the most unsettling feeling,” Curtis says.

In the tapes you can hear James calling out about the noise. He could hear it too. But yet, from all six cameras they were working with (two GoPros apiece for Page-Lochard and James, an infrared camera and main camera) and the professional sound equipment, only James’ chest camera managed to pick up the growl.

What happened next, to Page-Lochard was just as eerie. But we won’t spoil the surprise.

Shadow Trackers isn’t your typical ghost-hunting series.

The idea came about through a Screen Australia Indigenous factual television series workshop Curtis participated in during 2014.

“I was thinking ‘what’s factual, entertaining and hasn’t been done before?’,” she says.

“And I came up with the idea of a ghost-hunting series that explores traditional spirit stories and urban legends. It’s about entertaining audiences, but also putting a new spin on old stories and drawing people into a part of our culture that you don’t really stop to think about.”

With development money from Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department, Curtis and Stephenson began honing the idea and very quickly James and Page-Lochard emerged as the perfect fit for the presenters of the series. The pair bring a sense of levity and curiosity to Shadow Trackers that keeps it fun, even when they in the midst of an eerie investigation.

“I had worked with Zac on 8MMM,” Curtis says. “And so I’d known about his interest in the genre, and his connection to country and spirits… we knew of Hunter and he had very similar interests so we approached him too…

“The really great thing was they both understood what we were trying to get out of the series… so even though they were scared of the stories, they were really respectful in terms of listening to people telling these stories and learning more about them.”

Each of the four episodes focuses on a different traditional spirit or legend, which were determined largely by the strength of the story and the costs to travel there.

“Then during the filming process –and even in development – we always followed protocol,” she says.

“So being welcomed to country, being with people who are from that country, and not going anywhere we weren’t supposed to.”

All up, it was a four week shoot, filmed in two blocks with a week off in the middle.

First up, they travelled to Queensland’s Beaudesert in search of the bunyip-like creature The Il-Bogan (Ep 1); then to the Kimberley in Western Australia and the township of Fitzroy Crossing, where the spirits of Devil Highway in Bunuba country are (Ep 3).

In the next block, they travelled to Ngarrindjeri land in South Australia for their encounter with the water creature the Muldjewangk (Ep 2) and capped it off with a trip to Darwin to investigate the Larrakia Nation’s most-revered urban legend: the Poinciana woman (Ep 4).

“Spirit stories are different to ghost stories – they are around to teach us something. They all serve a purpose in our culture and I guess that’s why I wanted to explore them,” she says. (Read more about some of these stories here.)

Her take-away from Shadow Trackers is seeing just how strong Indigenous culture, heritage and spiritual connection to country is.

“It’s never gone away. There are generations that talk about these stories. It shows how important it is to be respectful to country and the role that these spirit stories play within each culture and in each nation.”

Shadow Trackers airs Thursdays at 8.30pm on NITV. It was co-produced by Veronica Fury, Principal of WildBear Entertainment.

Nowhere Boys producer Beth Frey reveals the unique challenges the creators of children’s TV face – and why we’ll be seeing a new cast this season. By Caris Bizzaca.

After two award-winning series and a movie, the third season of ABC Me’s Nowhere Boys will have a whole new line-up for the class of 2016.

Why?

“They grew up,” producer Beth Frey says simply of the original cast. “The reality is they are not boys anymore.”

You can’t argue with that logic. Nowhere Men wouldn’t be a children’s TV drama anymore.

“I think a reality of financing children’s TV is that decisions take a long time,” Frey says.

“Even with Screen Australia’s funding support opening up more opportunities, there’s still a limited pool of money…

“By the time a decision is made in the next lot of funding, and then by the time you get to shoot, your actors can be 18 months or even two years older potentially.”

Frey and Matchbox Pictures encountered this very problem when it came to filming series 2.

On the page, it picked up as if it was one day later from the events of the first series. But because it had been over a year since the shoot, the physical change in the teenagers was dramatic. When it came time for season 3, some of original cast were by then in their 20s and over six feet tall.

Another unique challenge is the restriction on the amount of hours young actors can work. This affects the shooting time, which impacts the budgets per episode and in turn, the length of series.

For Nowhere Boys each series has been 13 episodes. This was initially an issue when it came to international sales.

“It was a dilemma, because those short-run series can be hard to place internationally,” Frey says.

But once series 2 was in the can, they had 26 episodes all up and a newfound momentum.

“Once we had 26 episodes that gave us better prospects for the international market, who felt they could make more of a statement with it than they could with 13 episodes. Also a number of broadcasters like to run two major series a year.

“So certainly in kids TV, volume is important.”

The first two seasons of Nowhere Boys has made 42 individual sales internationally, although it can be seen in many more countries than that thanks to multi-territory deals with various buyers. It sold to the BBC in the UK and the second series won an international Emmy award in April this year.

Now with the third season, Nowhere Boys: Two Moons Rising, the story is picking up a few years on from the events of the movie, which wrapped up the stories of the original cast.

The Screen Australia-supported series is still set in Bremin, where newcomer Luke (Kamil Ellis) arrives and finds himself part of a new gang of Nowhere Boys (including the first Nowhere Girl), who have to figure out how to save the town.

“For us, it’s sort of a mantra that while this is set in a sci-fi fantastical world, we don’t ever make magic the solution or an easy fix, because it’s not satisfying,” she says.

It’s one of the ingredients that have enabled Nowhere Boys to resonate so potently here and abroad.

For the first series, which came from the mind of Matchbox Pictures producer Tony Ayres, not one of the creative team had ever worked in children’s TV.

The writing team – including Craig Irvin, Roger Monk and Elise McCredie – tried to create dilemmas that were credible and truthful. And young imaginations were entranced by what they saw, regardless of gender.

“This was a series that was initially to fill a gap. Dance Academy was for girls and ABC were looking for a show for boys. That became Nowhere Boys. But what we found was the girls came in equal numbers.”

For young Australians, it also meant seeing their accents and stories reflected back to them. Particularly with the aforementioned costs and limited support available for children’s TV, Frey says it’s more important than ever to have locally made content on screens.

“When you crunch the numbers and ask yourself, ‘how many live action shows can Australian broadcasters and networks afford to do a year’? It’s limited. And those limitations mean we’re buying lots of shows from overseas,” she says.

“It’s a problem because for our kids, growing up, I think it’s really central to our identity to see ourselves on television.”

And if their social media is anything to go by, there is an appetite for it.

“Kids in this social media age, they are fearless about reaching out to connect and interact.

“They’ll find me, the cast, and (producer) Tony Ayers online.”

It provides filmmakers with a direct link to their audience, but also invaluable commentary – good and bad.

“It’s about getting feedback. It’s about not living in isolation, and just delivering something and putting it out.

“And it’s powerful to hear those young voices.”

Nowhere Boys: Two Moons Rising premieres on ABC Me with a special double episode on Friday November 11 and will be available on ABC iview.

Actor Toby Wallace says it’s important for young Australians to see themselves reflected on the screen, whether it’s in films like Boys in the Trees or TV series such as Puberty Blues.

Wallace stars in director Nicholas Verso’s feature debut Boys in the Trees (in cinemas now), which is set around a group of teenagers in 1997 suburbia, whose last night of school also coincides with Halloween.

Part coming-of-age drama, part fantastical psychological thriller, the film follows Wallace’s character Corey, who takes pity on a former childhood friend that his mates bully mercilessly and agrees to walk him home. But a simple walk, combined with ghost stories and set to a late 90s soundtrack of hits, becomes something far more magical and dark.

Wallace says when films like Boys in the Trees speak to young people – particularly young Australians – in a way nothing else can.

“I suppose it’s just their own voice (on screen)…. It effects people. They’re like ‘I’m a part of something’,” he says.

“I think it’s really important to see a representation of your own country.”

From Heartbreak High, to The Year My Voice Broke, to a young Heath Ledger in Sweat, to Round the Twist, Australia has created many much-loved and stories that spoke to and connected with young people. Here is a selection of 11 more:

Galore (2014)

Wallace also featured in the Canberra-set film from writer/director Rhys Graham, which centred on the friendship of two girls, played by Puberty Blues’ Ashleigh Cummings and Lily Sullivan (Sucker). As they while away the summer before their final year of school, Billie is harbouring a secret – she’s in love and sleeping with Laura’s boyfriend (played by Wallace).

Looking for Alibrandi (2000)

Based on the book by Melina Marchetta (who also wrote the screenplay, and episodes of Dance Academy), this film starred Pia Miranda as teenager Josie Alibrandi, who is trying to balance the demands of her Italian family – and the arrival of a father she’s never met – with first loves and finishing Year 12 at a prestigious Sydney high school where she’s never felt like she belonged.

Puberty Blues (2012-13)

The two seasons of the popular Network Ten series starred Ashleigh Cummings and Brenna Harding as best friends growing up in Sydney’s southern beach suburbs as they deal with peer pressure, sex, surf and rebelling. The all-star cast also featured Claudia Karvan, Rodger Corser, Susie Porter and Dan Wylie. It was based on the classic 1979 novel by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette, which was also made into a film in 1981.

Dance Academy (2010-13)

Over three seasons this ABC drama series followed Tara Webster (played by Xenia Goodwin), who at 15 moved from rural Australia to Sydney to study at the National Academy of Dance. Along with her fellow students, she navigates the emotional and physical challenges of studying to become an elite dancer, along with the added pressures and drama of being a teenager. It is also being extended into a feature film, Dance Academy: The Movie, which began shooting in Sydney in May.

Ready for This (2015)

The 14-episode series focused on six exceptionally talented teenagers – some great athletes, others musicians – who arrive at Arcadia House in Sydney to follow their dreams. For some it’s their last chance to make it happen, for others it’s the opportunity they never thought was possible. Made by the producers of Dance Academy and Redfern Now, the ABC Me series was also Australia’s first Indigenous teen drama and was recently nominated for an International Emmy.

Nowhere Boys (2013- )

This popular ABC series started out as the story of four mismatched teenagers – goth Felix (Dougie Baldwin), nerd Andy (Joel Lok), jock Jake (Matt Testro) and confident golden boy Sam (Rahart Adams) – who return from a school excursion to discover they are stuck in a parallel world where they were never born. The fantastical Emmy award-winning adventures of the foursome then extended into a second series and the movie Nowhere Boys: Book of Shadows. Now, fans are gearing up for the premiere of series 3 on ABC in November, set in the same world, but with fresh new faces.

SLiDE (2011)

Foxtel’s drama focused on the lives of five Brisbane teens in their final year of high school, who at 17, are hitting adulthood at top speed. Each episode is set over 24 hours and leads to unexpected and transformative first times, whether it’s a first kiss, first fight, first broken heart, or the first time you’ve been kicked out of somewhere. It also starred a young Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Son of a Gun), The Code’s Adele Perovic and Love Child’s Gracie Gilbert (who also appears in Lockie Leonard).

Tomorrow When the War Began – The Series (2016)

Based on the novel of the same name by John Marsden and also a 2010 film, the series told the story of a group of eight teenagers, who return to their small country town after a camping trip to discover their country has been invaded. As the teens-turned-rebels are caught up in a conflict they never could have imagined, their parents are also having to cope with their lands being taken and sudden imprisonment.

Lockie Leonard (2006-09)

Before Puberty Blues, Sean Keenan starred as the titular character in two seasons of this Nine Network series, based on the books by acclaimed author Tim Winton. In it, surfer Lockie is 12 and three quarters years old when his family moves to a small coastal town in Western Australia. At first, it’s a total disaster with no friends and starting at a new school. But the surf, he discovers, is the best he’s ever seen. And then there’s Vicki Streeten (Gracie Gilbert), the first girl he’s ever met who makes him forget how to speak…

Girl Asleep (2016)

This off-beat coming-of-age film stars Bethany Whitmore as shy teen Greta, who’s pulled from her life of obscurity when to her dismay, her parents throw her a 15^th birthday party and invite the whole school. Based on the stage play by Windmill Theatre Company where director Rosemary Myers is artistic director, it has drawn comparisons to Wes Anderson and Napolean Dynamite and also won the 2016 CinefestOZ $100,000 Film Prize. It is still screening in Victoria – visit the website for more details.

Emo (The Musical) (2016)

A satirical, fun take on the concept of a high school musical, this feature from writer/director/composer Neil Triffett is based on his short film of the same name, which was awarded a special mention at the 2014 Berlinale. The film stars Benson Jack Anthony (800 Words) as the sarcastic, witty Ethan, who wants to join the alternative school rock band ‘Worst Day Ever’ at his new high school and be a part of the Emo world. Only thing is, he can’t stop thinking about naïve Christian girl Trinity, even though she’s desperate to convert him. Emo (The Musical) premiered at Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2016 and will release in Australian cinemas in early 2017. Visit the website to find out more.

Boys in the Trees is out now – find out your nearest cinema here. It is produced and distributed by Mushroom Pictures with financing support from Screen Australia and South Australian Film Commission.

Triple M’s Gus Worland, gonzo journalism and making Australian men Man Up by digging deep. By Caris Bizzaca.

There is no distinction between the way parents treat boys and girls as babies. If a baby is crying, he or she has his or her nappy changed, is fed, or comforted.

But at some stage between then and becoming a teenager, it all seems to go pear-shaped.

“Between being a little kid to being 13 or 14, you’re called all sorts of names and it’s such a negative for a boy to be crying,” says radio presenter Gus Worland.

“We need to change that.”

Worland wants to emphasise the need to change.

Why? Because Australian men face a unique issue – this stereotype of being a stoic, carefree bloke and bottling up your emotions is contributing to 2000 Aussie men taking their own lives every year.

In fact, if you’re a man aged between 15 and 44 years, the leading cause of death is not road accidents, cancer or heart disease.

It’s suicide.

As Worland discovers in the three-part ABC documentary series Man Up, many Australian men think speaking up about their problems is not an option. It’s seen as ‘weak’ or ‘unmanly’ to burden someone else with your feelings.

It’s personal for Worland, whose mate Angus committed suicide in 2006, but also because his son is now a teenager. The mental health of high school boys is the focus of the second episode in particular.

“We would love to offer it to every education department in the country and say look, play this to your year 8, 9 and 10 students and hopefully this might trigger some thoughts in some young men to realise they’re not on their own and they might seek some help,” he says.

Worland is also in a unique position to get the message out – as a popular radio presenter on Triple M.

It’s actually how he got involved with Man Up.

Executive producer Jennifer Cummins of Heiress Films discovered Worland through her two sons, who frequently tuned into Triple M’s The Grill Team, and asked him for a meeting.

“We had a really good chat and she realised how passionate I was and how much I was going to put into it and I was fortunate to get the job,” Worland said.

Cummins was working on a documentary series with Professor Jane Pirkis from the University of Melbourne. Professor Pirkis wanted to try and enact change after the results of a study called Ten to Men found a key risk factor for suicidal thinking in Australian boys and men aged 10 to 55 was ‘self-reliance’. That is: this need to be stoic and to not seek help.

With University of Melbourne and Movember Foundation providing funding support, and Heiress Films on board as well as Worland, Man Up was made in association with ABC, but has become much more than a documentary. It’s a movement.

Consumer Psychologist Adam Ferrier was brought on board (he appears in Episode 3) to help develop the #ABCManUp campaign.

It was no easy feat, needing to both appeal to these Australian blokes, but also smash through that macho exterior Australian advertising so often tries to appeal to.

“It’s really hard to appeal to a stereotype with a new message and then break that stereotype apart for two reasons,” Ferrier says.

“Firstly, people don’t like change. It’s easier to keep things going the way they are – for the consumer, the person delivering the message and media organisations.

“But also, the budget the documentary has for media is incredibly thin, so even though we might say insightful or impactful in the documentary, there’s lots and lots of messages out that continue to reinforce the stereotype.”

But if anyone is going to break through, it’s Worland.

“It’s incredible that it’s Gus telling this story,” he says.

“It’s kind of a case of gonzo journalism… where the narrator is also the character. And for it to be such a mainstream blokey bloke as Gus going on this sensitive journey of inquiry is incredible.”

Watch Man Up! on Tuesday at 8.30pm on ABC TV and catch up on missed episodes on ABC iview.

If you or anyone you know needs help or support contact Lifeline on 131114, or Beyond Blue on 1300224636.

One of the most common questions Screen Australia is asked by everyone from the general public to politicians is: how is the screen industry doing?

It’s not an easy question to answer because it is so broad. Does it relate to all Australian production, which includes reality television and many other types of content? Is it a question about quality and quantity? Is it only about audience numbers?

By Caris Bizzaca.

Spring tends to be the time industry organisations and commentators get a fresh batch of data to help with this health assessment, at least in relation to the scripted content (drama):

• Screen Australia and most of the state screen agencies release their annual reports around September and October, providing summaries of what has gone into development or production.
• November marks the release of Screen Australia’s annual Drama Report – now in its 26^th year – which reports on the production of all feature films and TV dramas in the past financial year.
• The end of the year brings with it annual TV ratings and box office statistics. It’s also a busy season at the cinema this year, with high-profile films Lion, Hacksaw Ridge and Red Dog: True Blue all due for release.

Below we detail five different ways Screen Australia – and others – use these publications and data sets to gauge the screen industry’s health, despite there being so many film, television and online drama projects at varying stages of Development, Production and Consumption at any one time.

Individually these mechanisms only paint part of the picture; together they create a sense of where the Australian screen industry is sitting at any point in time, especially if compared to the previous year’s results.

Other measures focus in on cultural importance and economic impact of the screen industry. These factors will be analysed in the upcoming landmark Screen Currency report commissioned by Screen Australia, due for release in November.

1. ANNUAL REPORT

The Annual Report of Screen Australia (and those of other agencies) is useful as it highlights the titles – and filmmakers – that are receiving development support and whose work may come to fruition in the years to come. Development funds can also come from the private sector, broadcasters and other parties, but this expenditure is generally not made public.

The Annual Report also reveals details about production investments, thereby highlights which films and TV dramas will definitely be made. (Discussed later under #2: Drama Report).

“Development” refers to the stages before a project reaches the screen, during which a writer might receive funds to produce a draft of a script, or a team might undertake a workshop with actors as part of the scripting process. Gender Matters: Brilliant Stories is also a development initiative.

Some projects never go into production. However, by looking at the active development slate (projects that have received funding and are yet to deliver), Screen Australia can monitor the deficiencies and opportunities across the board – seeing the genres or talent coming through, but also what kinds of stories audiences might be missing out on.

Screen Australia’s 14/15 Annual Report stated that the agency committed $2.2 million in development support to 71 films. These included the following titles that did progress into production (as at September 2016):

• Cargo – in production
• Dance Academy The Movie – (aka Dance Academy: The Comeback) – in post
• Nest, an official Australia/China co-production – in post

Each film’s timeline from development to release is different and there are many unpredictable factors from cast availability to the length of time financing and story development takes. A quiet year in cinemas for Australian films could mean a very busy year for development.

Take these four Screen Australia-supported titles, which all released in Australia in 2015:

*Provided by producer

**Last Cab to Darwin also received development funding from one of Screen Australia’s predecessor agencies the Australian Film Commission in August 2006 and June 2007

Not all Screen Australia-supported projects are created as the result of an organic process, whereby filmmakers come to the agency with their idea, hoping to take it to the next stage. In television, the development of TV drama largely occurs through the production houses, state agencies and broadcasters – which is in turn influenced by Australian content quotas and the broadcasters’ scheduling and marketing plans. Screen Australia’s role for television drama generally comes in as one of the last pieces of the financing puzzle, which enables the TV drama to commence shooting.

Screen Australia may also be more proactive and encourage the targeted development of projects in new growth areas. In 2012, the agency received a special four-year allocation to develop innovative online and interactive projects. The funding allowed projects to be developed not just in paper format but through the filming of pilots and low-budget seasons, which proved to be powerful tools to grow an idea, attract marketplace, and build an audience. The funding was used for successful special initiatives such as Fresh Blood (with ABC) and Skip Ahead (with Google).This special funding proved to be a significant boost to new talent, and was also used to support a range of unorthodox series such as The Katering Show, supported from development through to season two, which has gone on to be the most successful ABC iview original series of all time. The special funding will end in this financial year.

2. DRAMA REPORT

As mentioned, Screen Australia’s Annual Report also publishes the projects that receive ’production investment’, the money provided to actually shoot the TV drama or film.

The year when a title receives production investment might not be the same year in which it is filmed. In the 13/14 Annual Report, The Dressmaker was awarded ‘Feature Production’ funding, but director Jocelyn Moorhouse didn’t actually begin filming until more than a year later. It is not practical to only rely on one source to predict what’s in production.

Enter Screen Australia’s Drama Report.

This report lists what Australian feature films and TV dramas (mini-series, telemovies and series/serials) went into production in the past financial year and provides data on the slate and comparisons to the four years prior. It has been released annually by Screen Australia and its predecessor agency, the Australian Film Commission (AFC), since 1990.

From 13/14, content made for Catch-up TV or subscription Video-on-Demand (VOD) has been captured too providing it was 60 minutes or more in total length (e.g. ABC’s Wastelander Panda or Stan’s No Activity).

Features with budgets of less than $500,000 are included in the report only if they have had a cinema release or major festival screening.

This data is supplied by the industry to Screen Australia and compiled by the Research Unit into the annual document. It includes:

• All Australian titles, irrespective of whether they are Screen Australia-funded or not
• Foreign titles that have been shot (or substantially shot) in Australia
• Foreign titles that are not filmed in Australia, but carry out post, digital or visual effects (PDV) work in Australia.

The date that principal photography started (or PDV started in the case of foreign projects that just come for post) determines which year’s Drama Report a title is featured in. For instance The Kettering Incident started filming in August 2014 so was included in the 14/15 Drama Report, despite the show receiving Screen Australia production funding in December 2013, and not airing until July 2016.

In addition, The Drama Report outlines the operation of the Producer Offset (PO) tax rebate for domestic Australian projects and official co-productions, incorporating data gathered through surveys and publicly available sources. This adds to the report’s comprehensive overview of drama production activity in Australia and the PO’s contribution to the financing of the annual slate. The PO is administered by Screen Australia. It is an indirect subsidy whereas Screen Australia’s directly invests.

The 15/16 Drama Report will be released by Screen Australia on November 3. Subscribe to our mailing list to be notified upon release.

3. RATINGS

Television ratings track viewer behaviour, thus indicating what programs are connecting with Australians. But for Screen Australia and the wider industry they also aid with decisions about what programs to develop. Advertisers make spending decisions based on ratings and financial institutions and the media use ratings to assess the performance of television networks.

It’s worth looking at how ratings in Australia are compiled.

Households are contacted initially via a random large-scale phone survey and then a panel is recruited to reflect the composition of the overall national population.

OzTAM measures TV ratings in metropolitan areas and Regional TAM in regional areas through a device called a Peoplemeter, which monitors the working TVs found in the homes in the panel. These small black boxes use audio recognition to store information such as what is being watched, when and for how long, in the same way an app such as Shazam identify what song is on the radio. A Peoplemeter also logs who is watching, through residents and guests using a remote control to register if they are in the room when the TV is on. Homes recruited in the panel are not paid to participate and can remain on the OzTAM panel for a maximum of four years.

In July 2016, OzTAM announced it would be increasing the number of homes in its panel by 50 per cent. This would take the metropolitan panel to 5,250 homes and its STV (subscription TV) panel to 2,120 from the present 3,500 and 1,413, respectively. Regional TAM has also announced the expansion of its own panel by 50 per cent to more than 3,000 homes.

According to OzTAM, when these changes (including Regional TAM’s expansion) come into effect in 2017, Australia will be the largest people metered market per capita in the world.

This table shows how current Peoplemeter households are distributed, in line with population density. Note that Northern Territory is currently not captured in the ratings.

The popularity of programs via the ratings is measured in the following ways:

• ‘Overnight’ ratings – available each day for users wanting a ‘next day’ indication of viewing behaviour. These ratings report on viewing that occurred live at the time of broadcast as well as the playback of any content recorded that day and played back before 2am (the end of the research day). Two business days after broadcast, ‘Revised overnight data based on confirmed program logs’ then becomes available, taking into account programming changes and overruns.
• ‘Consolidated’ ratings (7 day) – includes viewing from broadcast TV recorded and played back through the television set within seven days after broadcast via personal video recorders (PVRs), such as Foxtel IQ. It was introduced in 2010 because audiences were increasingly deciding for themselves when to watch TV.
• ‘Consolidated’ ratings (28 day) – includes viewing from broadcast TV recorded and played back through the television set within 28 days after broadcast. Though viewing between 8 to 28 days is small, it was introduced in April 2016 in recognition of the growing preference of audiences for binge viewing. It’s significant for TV drama in particular, which can gain a large percentage of total audiences from playback viewing. It is the preferred performance measure of the broadcasters.
• Video Player Measurement (VPM) – measures viewership of content available on broadcaster catch-up TV services (ABC iview, SBS On Demand, Plus7, 9Now, Tenplay, Foxtel GO) via internet connected devices such as tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, desktop and laptop computers and games consoles. The first VPM reports were publically released in February 2016. The VPM service is separate to the TV measurement service and includes two daily downloadable PDF reports which list the top 10 programs across all networks ranked on VPM Rating (Total minutes played across all devices divided by the content length and rounded to the nearest 1000), as well as the Top 5 for each network, within a rolling 7 and 28 day period. Measurement of live streaming and demographic data is expected to be rolled into the VPM in 2017.

The below table gives a sense of what ratings numbers look like for recent TV drama. Note these figures are series averages (the average number of viewings for each episode across the series)*.

*Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM, 5-city-metro, combined markets, total people, average audience, Live, Overnight, 7 day consolidated, 28 day consolidated. Metropolitan data is copyright to OzTAM and Regional data is copyright to Regional TAM and may not be reproduced, published or communicated in whole or part without the prior consent of OzTAM or Regional TAM.

There are currently no plans to measure TV content viewed via SVOD services such as Stan and Netflix.

Access to ratings data requires a subscription to OzTAM, although OzTAM publishes weekly reports free of charge and also provides daily reports to certain companies that have signed an agreement with OzTAM and have permission to publish these reports, an example being the online news service TV Tonight. The VPM PDF reports are also available publicly free of charge.

Further reading: Mumbrella’s analysis of OzTAM’s latest Australian Multi-Screen Report.

Until recently a television program only had one or two broadcasts but now it has an increasingly ‘long tail’, meaning its reach is much greater than its first airdate. So while the media still often focus on overnight figures when ratings performance is newsworthy, these don’t include catch-up TV, recording on set top boxes, free-to-air secondary channels or streaming services. Nor do they take into account the impact these series can have overseas, that is, on streaming platforms, international broadcasters or on DVD.

So, yes, ratings are a significant contributor to any assessment of the health of the overall industry but they require considered examination.

4. BOX OFFICE

The Australian box office results are released by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) and clearly indicate what feature films are capturing the imagination of the Australian public.

The MPDAA is supplied these figures by distributors, comScore and companies such as TUGG (when the title does not have an Australian distributor). It releases them in bi-weekly box office reports to subscribers, as well as a special annual report with summary information published in late January. The service is subscription only, however it is offered to Australian producers (and their creative teams) free of charge while their films are in cinemas, and basic information is available to the general public on the MPDAA landing page, such as upcoming releases and the current week and weekend box office.

Screen Australia utilises this data to monitor how individual local films fare at the box office and the slate as a whole, including its  share of the total revenue from ticket sales to all films released across the country.

The way the Australian cinema release cycles operates means some of the year’s biggest Australian films open toward the end of the year, geared toward the summer holidays and – in the case of Lion and Hacksaw Ridge for example, the lead-up to the international awards season.

In September Lion premiered to positive reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of a 19 January 2017 Australian release, while Hacksaw Ridge debuted to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, with Icon marking 3 November 2016 for its theatrical run.

Another film looking to capitalise on the summer box office potential is the prequel Red Dog: True Blue, which is aiming to follow-up the original film’s success with a release on Boxing Day 2016, one of the busiest days of the year in cinemas.

Because of the timing of something like Hacksaw Ridge and Red Dog: True Blue (releasing late in the year) and the MPDAA yearly box office report (early the following year), the revenue will be split across two years in the MPDAA’s records. This happened with The Water Diviner, which was released on Boxing Day 2014 and pulled in $5.7 million over six days. In 2015, it earned a further $10.1 million.

Hacksaw Ridge 3 November 2016

Red Dog: True Blue 26 December 2016

Lion 19 January 2017

As such, using a single year of box office results – good or bad – as a performance indicator, needs to be seen in context. Screen Australia analyses box office share as three-year rolling averages. This allows for release patterns in Australia (such as the tradition of Boxing Day openings splitting titles over calendar years), plus the fact that local box office is often driven by one or two break-out big-budget Australian hits every couple of years, e.g. The Great Gatsby in 2013 and Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015.

This graph makes the distinction between annual box office share and averaged figures. Year to year, the industry can appear volatile, but if you consider the last 10 years (2015 and earlier), the average share was 4.3%.

A film has to be accessible to a large number of potential filmgoers – that is, in a cinema near to them – for it to have a good chance of being well patronized. The Australian Films in the Marketplace (2009) report found that 82% of Australian films are released on less than 100 prints nationally (in the industry a ‘limited release’ is less than 20 screens and a ‘specialty release is 20-99 screens). By comparison, the ‘blockbuster’ category has 400+ prints.

In the limited release and speciality release categories, Australian films accounted for a 15% share of the box office. In the limited release category, the median box office for Australian films is similar to that for UK and US films. In the specialty release category, median box office for Australian films is higher than for US films.

Further reading: Page 15 of Issues in Feature Film Distribution report (2015) and through this infographic.

Factoring in that Australian films are generally in English and face tough competition from US and UK films and that the country has a relatively small local population to consume these films, Screen Australia uses a goal of 4.5% box office share across a three-year rolling average to measure success.

Local box office performance is just the one measure of a film’s financial success, because it doesn’t take into account sales to international territories or subscription services, ratings on free-to-air television and so on. For example, The Dressmaker grossed more than $20 million at the Australian box office and went on to sell more than 200,000 DVD units locally.

5. VIEWS

The number of times audiences are watching videos (as in content made for watching online) online is an indicator of the appetite for Australian content, which then feeds into demand.

Online video creators RackaRacka accumulated more than 70 million views across YouTube and Facebook for their Versus series (RackaRacka’s total video views have surpassed 360 million on YouTube alone) – showing the viewing potential of such platforms into the future. The Adelaide-based creators were recently profiled by Variety Magazine as being one of the 10 ‘famechangers’ of 2016 and are developing their own feature film with Screen Australia support.

Broadcasters have also been paying attention to this online space.

Screen Australia-funded Starting From Now seasons 4 and 5 proves it. After building their following over the first three seasons and garnering 20 million views in less than two years, the filmmakers behind Starting From Now received funding from Screen Australia and Screen NSW to create season 4 and 5. These two seasons were picked up by SBS2 and aired in March 2016.

Filmmaker Michael Shanks (aka popular YouTuber timtimfed) also made the six-part series The Wizards of Aus, which was picked up by SBS upon completion, and has had three million views across the series on YouTube.

Other examples include The Katering Show (see #1: Annual Report) and ABC series Soul Mates, a spin-off of the popular YouTube series Bondi Hipsters.

Views can mean different things depending on the platform, be it Vimeo, YouTube or Facebook. As Facebook recently clarified, in the past two years a single ‘view’ has been based on whether someone watched a Facebook video for more than three seconds – not the entirety of the video. Views are hard data, but care has to be taken with the interpretation.

It was acknowledged at the 2015 ASTRA conference that a single cross-platform measurement that captures digital and television metrics is a long-term goal for the industry.

WANT MORE?

For further reading, visit Screen Australia’s Fact Finders section or subscribe to the e-newsletter, which will mean being notified when the Annual Report, the Drama Report and Screen Currency are available.

If you think you have an idea for the next Mad Max, Offspring, The Katering Show or Sherpa sitting in your drawer, visit Screen Australia’s Funding and Support section to find out how to take that idea to the screen.

Beast co-writer/co-director Sam McKeith on the pros and cons of creating an Australian film in the Philippines. By Caris Bizzaca

Filmmakers and brothers Sam and Tom McKeith never intended to shoot Beast in the Philippines, but the decision arguably sped up their leap from shorts into features.

The pair have had short films at Berlin, Telluride and Busan since graduating from AFTRS some six years ago. An early incarnation of Beast (then called Dealer) came through Screen Australia’s Springboard workshops and received some early development funding, before going through Screen NSW’s Aurora program. It took a year and a half to write, along with the help of Will Jaymes, who also co-produced.

“Usually how it works is one of us will have an idea, and then we’ll workshop it together into a treatment,” Sam says of working with his brother.

“From there, one person, usually the person who had the idea will take the lead on the writing of the script, and then the other person will rewrite it.”

But after a number of short films, tackling their debut feature Beast was an entirely different, well, beast.

“Short films are more of a really broad, flexible form. Whereas, with features, you’ve got to be a little bit more rigorous on the craft side with the story and the script,” he says.

“There’s also the financing side, which just takes a long time.”

Reportedly making the film for less than $1 million, the decision to set it there was initially financial – a suggestion from Filipino producers they met at Busan International Film Festival as they struggled to raise finance back home. But it ended up working better on a story level as well. In Beast, a boxer (Chad McKinney) accidentally kills his opponent, and the underground boxing culture depicted in the film very much exists in the Philippines, but would have been less plausible in Australia.

“And they have a very vibrant culture of independent filmmaking there so they had a team that was used to working with small-budgets,” Sam says.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing from the time they arrived in Manila.

“We were very stressed out because we got over there with about a month until we would shoot and we didn’t have a lead actor,” he says.

A casting call was filled with actors used to auditioning for local soaps, rather than believable boxers. And so they began scouting at gyms.

Jaymes was the one who found McKinney, an actual boxer. With zero screen experience, he recorded a “phenomenal” screen test and landed the job, appearing in basically every scene in the film.

“We just took a risk on him (but) he anchors the film really well and he’s one of the real stand-out elements of the movie,” Sam says.

He also credits US actor Garret Dillahunt, who plays McKinney’s onscreen father, for taking the boxer under his wing. McKinney would memorise his lines half an hour before a shot, improvise a lot and had an instinctual approach, whereas Dillahunt had a completely different process – and yet they made it work. (After travelling with the team to the world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, McKinney is now back to boxing full-time.)

There were pros and cons to filming in Manila.

Aside from the lower cost, Sam says that it’s easier to film on location.

“It’s so easy to shoot in markets, malls, anywhere. You just get the owners approval.”

However the Filipino crews work differently.

“They will shoot a film in say 10 days, but with 16-hour days and one day off in the week,” Sam says, adding they ended up working more like 14-hour days.

“It’s very tiring doing it their way, but you really did get in the zone.”

The crews are also much larger.

“They don’t have insurance for any of their camera gear, so one person will basically guard each piece of equipment and you end up with a gigantic crew which can be quite cumbersome,” he says.

“Having a huge convoy of trucks with all these people can be unwieldy at times (especially as) Manila itself is very chaotic. Traffic’s terrible, so it’s (already) very hard to move around.”

It was challenging, particularly as for budget reasons, they were short on time and often arriving at locations having not seen them before.

“So we were having to figure out quite frantically how to block the scene,” he says.

They shot on the ARRI AMIRA with frequent collaborator Mike Steel as cinematographer, and had two cameras most of the time so there were more options in the edit.

“In terms of performance, we’d maybe get about five or six takes depending on the set-up,” he says, with the docu-drama shooting style meant they could cut around the performances in the edit.

Post-production was “quite gruelling”, but aided significantly by completion funding from Screen Australia.

And it paid off, with Beast selected for TIFF in 2015, before going on to screen at Sydney Film Festival in June this year.

Sam says the festivals have been significant in helping Beast reach audiences.

“It looks like distribution locally is getting really difficult for Australian films,” he says. “Our film in particular, falls a bit between commercial and truly arthouse.”

It’s something they will be keeping in mind for their next project. As for what that is, the brothers have a few ideas on the boil – some are collaborations, some as their own ventures.

“Given this took three years you’ve got to be really careful about what you pick,” Sam says.

Beast is in select cinemas now. Click here or see below for more info.

NSW

Dendy Newtown, plus a special event Q&A on 6 Oct

http://www.dendy.com.au/Promotion/Beast-Qa-Dendy-Newtown

VIC

ACMI plus a Q&A on 8 Oct 8

https://www.acmi.net.au/film/australian-perspectives/beast/

Joe Cinque’s Consolation director, co-producer and co-writer Sotiris Dounoukos on adapting Helen Garner’s true crime book for the screen in his native Canberra. By Caris Bizzaca.

Like many Australians, filmmaker Sotiris Dounoukos was deeply affected by Helen Garner’s true crime book Joe Cinque’s Consolation. But unlike others, it hit him on a very personal level, placing him in an unique position to one day bring the tragedy to life again on screens.

Not only was Dounoukos raised in Canberra, but he attended Australian National University with many people involved in the death of Joe Cinque, who was killed by his girlfriend Anu Singh with Rohypnol and heroin after a “farewell” dinner party with friends at their home in 1997.

Now, some 19 years after the death and 12 years since Garner’s book, and the film Joe Cinque’s Consolation, the feature debut of Dounoukos, has premiered at film festivals in Melbourne and Toronto is now releasing in Australian cinemas.

Research began in 2006, two years after the release of the book, and in 2009-10, through support from Screen Australia and Screen ACT, Dounoukos was able to attend the then Binger Institute in Amsterdam and write the first draft.

“It was a script and directing workshop that was based in Amsterdam and filmmakers from around the world would come together and develop their work. Australians were very much a big part of that because of the help of Screen Australia. I was in the 2009/10 intake for screenwriting there with several other Australians including Jennifer Kent who wrote The Babadook there,” he says.

The screenplay was worked on with co-writer Matt Rubinstein and “then the years before production were all about raising the money and putting the team together.”

“The challenge was to be able to keep the budget low enough so it makes sense for investors and still allow for it to film on location in Canberra with the team and actors I wanted,” Dounoukos says.

While Canberra has had a boom in filming of late, with Secret City and The Code series 2, at the time Dounoukos says the infrastructure for his hometown’s screen industry was still developing.

“So it also involved breaking ground there to be able to support a production of that size (over) a seven-week shoot,” he says.

In terms of financing, Dounoukos says winning the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Short Cuts Award for Best Film in 2014 with his short was A Single Body was a real turning point.

“It gave a lot of the investors confidence that I could tell the story and do it in a way that would reach an audience,” he says.

And that support from the investors remained strong, even into post-production.

“We were lucky in that we were supported by the investors to have a longer edit than we originally anticipated… we basically were able to have another couple of months of editing and that also allowed even more interaction with the composer (Antonio Gambale) as the edit was coming together.”

The finished product, while it shares the same title as Garner’s book, does not replicate it page-for-page.

The film does not play out as a journalist’s investigation or a court-room-drama, but Dounoukos says it focuses in on the same experience Garner and the court were having, as they tried to come to terms with the story unfolding before them.

On one level he says what they are adapting is “the experience you have when you read the book and enter Helen’s narrative and journey as she goes to court to try and understand what occurred.”

Dounoukos felt that film was a great medium to explore this on, because it can express so many points of view – from the characters, but also including his own.

“Looking at Helen’s book, that was an example where my point of view to the underlying facts was quite different,” he says.

“I had a very positive experience at the Australian National University and so that environment as a context for the story of Anu killing Joe was important to me as a counterpoint to their story, rather than necessarily saying it contributed to it or was consistent with the nature of that tragedy.”

It also highlights one of the important factors Dounoukos believes any filmmaker who wants to adapt true crime must heed.

“Your point of view as a filmmaker is what will both mark the film but perhaps give people some clarity over the underlying events,” he says, adding that Garner’s presence in the book is very clear, as he tried to do with his representation of Canberra.

“I think it’s important to put your hand up and declare your presence as a storyteller so that when you’re dealing with fact, in a sense you don’t obscure it.”

True crime has long gripped Australians, from Evil Angels in 1988 through to Seven Network’s Catching Milat last year.

“These true crime narratives that bring people back seem to be things that still have unanswered questions,” Dounoukos says.

“There’s a place for people to return to these facts and stories, to reflect and have a conversation around them so as to understand their significance for all of us.”

Joe Cinque’s Consolation releases in Australian cinemas on 13 October with preview Q&A screenings on the following dates:

SYDNEY
6.30pm Mon 10 Oct at Palace Cinemas Norton Street

CANBERRA
7pm and 8pm on Tues 11 Oct

BRISBANE
6.30pm on Thu 13 Oct at Palace Barracks

MELBOURNE
6.45pm on Fri 7 Oct at Cinema Nova in Carlton (nearly sold out)
1.00pm on Sat 8 Oct at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville
4.00pm on Sun 9 Oct at the Classic in Elsternwick

GEELONG
7pm on Sat 8 Oct in Geelong at the Pivotonian Cinemas

NEWCASTLE
7pm on Wed 12 Oct at Newcastle Event Cinemas

ADELAIDE
6.30pm on Fri 14 Oct at Palace Nova Eastend

PERTH
4pm on Sun 16 Oct at the Luna Palace Leederville

Rosehaven’s Luke McGregor on his increased admiration for Rob Sitch and why Tasmania is the next Hollywood. By Caris Bizzaca.

Luke McGregor has been running what would appear to be a comedy marathon. Since last year, the comedian has been in the second season of ABC’s Utopia, followed up by the documentary series Luke Warm Sex and now Rosehaven (which he also wrote) – and he’s kept us in stitches the whole time.

In late June, McGregor was nearing the end of that marathon. On a drizzly Tasmanian Wednesday, he was just two days out from wrapping Rosehaven – the ABC comedy series he cooked up with on-screen-off-screen best mate Celia Pacquola.

The pair have known each other since their stand-up days, but the idea to make a show together really came about after working on the first season of Working Dog’s series Utopia. They pitched the idea of a buddy comedy about two friends running a real estate business to the ABC, who came on board, along with support from Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania, with Guesswork Television producing.

Speaking to Screen Australia during a break, McGregor says the experience has given him a newfound appreciation for Utopia director/star and co-writer/co-producer Rob Sitch.

“Celia and I have a couple of scenes off each but otherwise we’re in every scene so you go home to learn lines and you’ve got a book (to memorise from),” he says.

“But even more respect to Rob, because he was directing as well, so he was the main character, learning lines and he was directing which is… that’s incredible.”

Would McGregor want to step up to directing or producing then?

“I don’t know. I’d want to try them all individually first before (otherwise) I think I’d just explode or start crying.”

Rosehaven stars McGregor as Daniel McCallum, a young man who returns to his rural Tasmanian hometown to help his mother in her real estate business, when his best friend from the city Emma (Pacquola) turns up – on the run from her new marriage.

“My parents work in real estate, so the show’s kind of if I hadn’t gone into comedy (and) taken over the family business,” he says, adding that the pair actually worked undercover at his parent’s real estate business for 10 days as research, although they sold no houses.

McGregor said it took one or two years to write the scripts and working with the same jokes could be trying. It’s what he finds particularly difficult about writing comedy – just trusting that something is still funny.

“Because by the time you’ve written everything you’ve got months before you potentially film,” he says. “A joke that you wrote at the start of the year might still be funny but you are sick of it…

“You’ve got to be careful sometimes to trust the writing and not change every scene just because you’ve heard all this stuff before.”

The shoot kicked off in early May in Tasmania with Jonathan Brough directing seven of the 8 x 30 minute episodes. In the last block, director’s attachment Shaun Wilson took the reins to direct episode 7.

While it can be hard to pass on your writing into the hands of a director, McGregor didn’t feel that way with Brough or Wilson.

“Maybe if I hadn’t seen anything they had done it would be different but the fact that I love (Sammy J & Randy in) Ricketts Lane, and I love Noirhouse (which McGregor also appeared in) is enough to then trust them on set,” he says.

“It’s the same as someone who edits or does sound…

“It’s actually less stressful, knowing you’ve got people you trust helping out as opposed to more stressful because you’re losing control.”

Similar to Wilson, McGregor hails from Tasmania, and says the recent spate of projects filmed there – including The Kettering Incident, Oscar-buzz feature Lion and Jennifer Kent’s soon-to-be-shot The Nightingale – are ensuring a sustainable industry.

“The fact that there’s been a lot of production recently, means there’s starting to be a good team of people who productions can draw from so hopefully it’ll keep happening more and more,” he says.

“I think Tassie’s probably going to be the next Hollywood,” he says.

“They’ll probably film the next Avatar here, the sequel. (Have a) sign up on Mt Wellington there, in big letters.”

Rosehaven premieres on ABC Wednesday October 12 at 9pm.

As The Wrong Girl and Deep Water hit screens Twitter’s Tony Broderick talks about the Screen Australia initiative helping these TV dramas and his advice for filmmakers. By Caris Bizzaca.

Had you been on Twitter on the evening of September 28, you would have noticed Network Ten’s new drama The Wrong Girl was trending, alongside the Dally M Awards and South Australia blackout concerns.

It’s not unusual to see a new TV series trending on Twitter – internationally, HBO’s Game of Thrones, Netflix’s Stranger Things and Australia’s own Foxtel drama Wentworth all feature in the platform’s most talked about topics with their own hashtags.

According to Twitter’s Head of Partnerships for news and TV, Tony Broderick*, it’s because Twitter is about connecting people with a shared event, whether that’s a breaking story, or a television broadcast.

“We never really intentionally designed Twitter as a second screen platform for broadcast TV. It kind of just happened of its own accord and it’s really about how at any moment or event which is a shared experience, people come together to discuss that,” he says.

“And what we’re also finding is that Twitter is just a great place to discover content and to find out what’s basically the most interesting and newest thing to watch and share.”

In Australia, he says Twitter has really been embraced by non-scripted programming in particular, whether it’s Q&A or the latest episode of The Bachelor.

“Australia is one of the earliest to adopt this, in that it realises essentially any show, even if it’s a pre-recorded series, can be turned into a live event – integrating the Twitter conversation either on air or providing just additional great content.”

For scripted Australian TV, the uptake has not been as organic as it has for reality TV, news and sport. And so Twitter and Screen Australia partnered for an initiative that has been guiding four projects to create a social media strategy for the platform.

“We really wanted to find a way to tap into the amazing storytellers and filmmakers here and take them through best practices from a really early stage,” he says.

“We kicked it off with Ambience Entertainment and ABC with Tomorrow When the War Began. Now we have this follow-up with The Wrong Girl, which is with Playmaker Media and Network Ten, and then we’ve got Deep Water with Blackfella Films and SBS.

“And what we’re tried to do across those first three projects (and we have a fourth unannounced), is we’ve tried to work across different genres, networks, producers, and audiences.

“What we’re really hoping from this initiative is both Screen Australia and Twitter can demonstrate how to integrate Twitter in a really slick way around genre and really spread that education around the industry.”

A few takeaway lessons for filmmakers have already emerged from the initiative, which Broderick says filmmakers keen to utilise social media should be aware of:

1. Know your show

Twitter has a statistic that says about 70% of TV-related tweets are sent and viewed while the show is actually happening, but that’s for TV in general – including your dating shows and AFL matches.

Broderick says the pattern is different with scripted TV.

From their research, there are two types of TV drama that people tweet about.

One is more relationship-driven drama, whether it’s a family drama such as Offspring, or a serial like Home and Away or Neighbours. “Or it could be a drama based on real life event, like a House of Hancock or a Schapelle, where (people) know what’s going to happen, but are interested in how that story is going to be told,” Broderick says.

In these shows, people can be tweeting while they’re watching because if they take their eyes from the screen momentarily they are less likely to miss a crucial piece of evidence that would crop up in a crime drama or the cryptic monologue from a House of Cards type-show.

“So they’re much more active during that conversation because they don’t need to keep their eyes so focused on the screen,” he says.

“On the flip side, a drama series with a lot more density and intensity, you may find the Twitter conversation sits more around commercial breaks or just near the end of episodes, unless something massive happens. They tend to check in when the show starts, gets a bit quieter during the episode and then check-in again at the end to debrief what’s just happened in a way that’s hopefully pretty spoiler free as well.”

Take The Wrong Girl and Deep Water, which Broderick says couldn’t have been more different.

One is an eight-part novel adaptation starring Jessica Marais as a morning TV show producer on The Breakfast Bar as she juggles her career and relationships.

The other is a four-part drama starring Yael Stone and Noah Taylor as detectives assigned to a brutal murder case, inspired by the true unexplained deaths of homosexual men in the 1980s and 1990s.

For The Wrong Girl the team have produced webisode series #AlicesWorld, where The Breakfast Bar social media producer Alice effectively takes viewers behind the scenes of the show within the show.

“It’s what a Twitter account for The Breakfast Bar would be producing if that was a real show,” he says, adding the approach is suited to the style.

“So you could say The Wrong Girl is one of those dramas where people can be a bit more chatty while the show is on.” This follows in the style of other Network Ten dramas like Offspring which become huge talking points on social media during and after broadcast.

However a different approach has been taken with Deep Water. For #DeepWater two Twitter accounts have been created – one for the show and another for Yael Stone’s character.

“They’re going to be pushing out real-time evidence as the episode unfolds. So with Deep Water, there’s a little less focus on video content, which would be distracting, and more on photos and GIFs of evidence that’s happening on screen,” he says, allowing viewers to deep-dive into the detail during ad breaks, but still be able to maintain their attention on the main show.

SBS have also created a Deep Water documentary and online interactive hub.

2. The early bird catches the worm

Broderick says you should be thinking about your social media strategies as early as possible – it will not only save you money, but give you greater reward.

“One of the biggest learnings we’ve had from this initiative is that effectively the earlier you can start in this process, the cheaper it is, and the more impactful it is,” he says.

“What’s been great about working with Screen Australia is that we obviously get to work with projects pretty much from when they’re greenlit and going into pre-production. If we were trying to build those relationships later in the process, it actually would almost be too late.

“By starting as early as possible you effectively can come up with an idea that makes sense for your genre, makes sense for your audience, makes sense for your story and your narrative, so you’re not trying to retrofit something.

“You can integrate it into your production schedule which means that it actually doesn’t take much extra time or too much extra cost to actually produce that content, but the quality of it is always a lot better.”

3. Take the wheel

Instead of handing over a finished product to a marketing team, having a social media strategy means filmmakers can be a part of the process – and even take the lead.

“It’s empowering for the storytellers as well, because they really get to be involved,” Broderick says.

“Content should be something that the producers feel proud to have made and by them having a really integral role early in the process it tends to work best for all partners involved.”

4. Get instant feedback and audience trust

The thing that separates Twitter from any other platform is how instantaneous it is, says Broderick.

“If you’re currently working on a production, make sure that when the show is on air you go onto Twitter, follow the show hashtag, and look at what the conversation is saying,” he says.

“You get that feedback live and in real-time which is something which I don’t know any other platform can do as quickly.”

And you can also build on it.

“If it’s something that’s live on air, running Q&As and actually talking direct to the audience is a really good way to engage with them and make them feel quite rewarded about being part of the process as well,” he says.

To see how The Wrong Girl and Deep Water are embracing Twitter follow the conversation through #TheWrongGirl, #AlicesWorld and from Wednesday October 5 at 8.30pm, @DeepWaterSBS and @ToriLustigman.

The Wrong Girl airs Wednesdays on Network Ten at 8.30pm, while Deep Water starts on SBS on Wednesday October 5 at 8.30pm. The feature documentary Deep Water – The Real Story airs on SBS on Sunday October 16.

*After three years with Twitter, Tony Broderick has recently departed the company and Screen Australia thanks him for his work on this project. For ongoing Twitter Australia enquiries contact Nathan Burman

Jess Mauboy and producer Karl Zwicky on how the Seven Network series came about – and why it’s a big moment for diversity. By Caris Bizzaca.

The initial concept for The Secret Daughter couldn’t have been clearer: let’s build a show around Jessica Mauboy.

Producer Karl Zwicky says the idea came from Screentime CEO Rory Callaghan, who “saw in Jess an absolute major star and an opportunity to make a really unique vehicle” for her.

“Well, when the opportunity came to frame a drama around Jess Mauboy, you’d have to be mad not to go for it,” he says.

“She’s actually got a fantastic onscreen personality that people possibly haven’t seen as much of until they see this show.”

Many Australians would have first got to know Mauboy as one of the finalists on the 2006 series of Australian Idol. But it was her turn in Bran Nue Dae in 2009 and then in 2012 with The Sapphires, alongside Deborah Mailman, Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens, that kicked off her acting career.

However with The Secret Daughter, Mauboy is making a return to the small screen – a move she didn’t consider lightly.

Mauboy says she had been concentrating on making music when the call came about The Secret Daughter.

“I ummed and ahhed about it,” she says. “But reading the story, it sounded exactly like my own personal journey and I wanted to share that.”

The script was half-written when Mauboy says she was brought into the scripting process to talk with the writing team, which included Greg Haddrick, Justin Monjo, Louise Bowes and Keith Thompson.

“Basically I came in the middle of it to express my journey and musical pathway. That was how it really evolved and became what it is now,” she says.

The Secret Daughter stars Mauboy as part-time country pub singer Billie Carter, whose chance meeting with a wealthy Sydney hotelier (played by Colin Friels) kicks off a series of life-changing events.

Zwicky says both Mauboy and set-up director Leah Purcell added an authenticity to The Secret Daughter that really took the six-part series to a new level.

“Leah Purcell who obviously is a fine actor… but also an outstanding director who was brilliant at working with Jess Mauboy in terms of getting the script to speak to her tongue without sounding forced,” he says.

Purcell, who Zwicky says has been “absolutely integral” in setting up the story and style of the show, was also hugely important to Mauboy as she adjusted to the pace of television.

“I feel like I’ve known Leah forever, just watching her on stage and working in incredible shows and stories,” she says. “And working with her for the very first time, it was just like a breath of fresh air and learning from her as I went.”

For Mauboy, to be in something like The Secret Daughter, which is co-directed by an Indigenous woman and starring an Indigenous woman, is a big step forward.

“Definitely, it feels like a massive movement in terms of diversity and what we see on TV,” she says.

“These are really such powerful tools and they go a long way and I guess for me growing up I watched a lot of ABC and I saw a lot of diversity on that and for me that was everything.”

Mauboy says she can remember watching her Sapphires co-star Deborah Mailman as well as Purcell and “that was huge inspiration right there for me growing up watching TV”.

“Moving forward doing this show I wanted to help create that,” she says.

The 2002 study entitled Broadcast in Colour found that in 1992 there were no Indigenous Australians in sustaining roles on Australian TV. In 1999, there were two.

Now, Screen Australia’s report on diversity in Australian TV drama observed that from 2011 to 2015, 5% of main characters were Indigenous, despite making up 3% of the population.

The Secret Daughter, from a commercial broadcaster like Seven Network, is another positive step forward.

Zwicky says, “We’re not making a social issue show but of course, those are things that are still playing in the script and it’s great to bring them into mainstream entertainment.”

And there’s plenty of material for another season.

“The story in the first series is a set up for what challenges the character has,” Zwicky says. “There’s definitely opportunity and a wish for a second series because we can really expand where the characters can go.”

Mauboy says she would definitely return for round two, saying she felt like the three-month shoot flew by too quickly.

“For sure. That would be amazing,” she says.

“I haven’t heard anything yet but for me, having worked on this show for three months, I was quite sad (when it was) over.”

Mauboy can relive the magic all over again from October 3, when The Secret Daughter premieres on Seven Network after The X-Factor.