CSB has been working for months on an exciting project with film journalist Andrew Urban of Urbancinefile. We’re interviewing film and television practitioners about their business experiences.
Our aim is to develop a deeper understanding about the history of business decision-making in film and television and to share with our audience the wisdom from the accumulated mistakes, experiments and achievements of the contributors.
Brian Rosen - biography
Brian Rosen is the CEO of the Film Finance Corporation of Australia. He is also a film producer with over 20 years of experience in Australia and overseas. Rosen was previously CEO of Hoyts Productions. He spent 10 years in America as President of Classic Films USA, which had a production deal with 20th Century Fox in the late 1990s.
Audio download
Chapter 1 - Producer offset - 10 minutes
- Producer offset – a tool to help raise finance
- FFC has held seminars to explain
- FFC is issuing guidelines and will manage it
- Policy is driven by Govt –as part of the Tax Act
- Minimum budgets
- Rationale for minimum budgets
- Rationale for varying levels of Offset between film and TV/doco
- Offset spreads the FFC funds further, expands volume of projects
- Objective to create more production & support businesses
Video downloads
Chapter 2 - Producers - 11 minutes
- Producer offset empowers the producer
- The new screen agency will make assessments how to invest about $100 million a year – in addition
- It’s a change – but once established, tremendous benefits
- Big benefit for long form TV drama
- Most often asked: how do we cashflow it? – several options
- There is no downside – but some producers may have to consolidate and/or change modus operandi
- Built in profit margin idea well intentioned but too hard, so withdrawn
- The new agency will be able to top up a few percentage points
- We must all be flexible and trust each other
Video downloads
Chapter 3 - The Australian industry - 9 minutes
- Legislation requires for projects to have Significant Australian content to be eligible
- At 40% of QAPE it’s the most generous support scheme in the world
- Eligibility requires Australian content and Australian interests – shooting location not the most relevant
- Scheme is transparent and can be assessed by public
- There is no cap on the offset amount
- Serves both cultural remit and economic activity
- The industry itself will need to lobby directly – not the agency
- Within 5 – 6 years we’ll see larger volume and by 10 years a successful industry
Video downloads
