The Knowledge - Vincent Sheehan
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.
Vincent Sheehan - biography
Vincent Sheehan is a founding partner (with Liz Watts and Anita Sheehan) of Porchlight Films - an independent production company based in Sydney. Porchlight is committed to making innovative and distinctive Australian film and television. Porchlight has a reputation as a dynamic production company at the forefront of the independent sector.
Porchlight Films has produced award winning short films, documentaries, television programs and feature films including the independent box office hit Mullet (2001) and Walking on Water (2002).
Porchlight’s most recent releases include the critically acclaimed Little Fish, directed by Rowan Woods and starring Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving. An Australian box-office hit of 2005, Little Fish went on to win 5 AFI awards and premiered internationally at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. Also in 2005 the award-winning short feature Jewboy, directed by Tony Krawitz, screened in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival 2006.
His has a number of projects in development including The Hunter, an adaptation of Julia Leigh’s acclaimed novel, Valve with director Andrew Lancaster, The Shark Arm Murders and Prime Mover, with Writer director David Caesar and starring Emily Barclay – scheduled for production in April 2007.
In 2004 US Variety magazine listed Porchlight Films in its “top ten producers to watch” and in 2006 Australia’s Encore magazine lists Porchlight Films as one of the country’s top twenty producers.
Audio download
Chapter 1 -Setting up Porchlight Films with Liz Watts and Anita Sheehan - 10 minutes
- Each with their own skills
- Began with loose business model
- Artistically aligned but independent of each other
- Incoming project triggered shareholder agreement
- Project selection and budgets
Video downloads
Chapter 2 - Sustaining the business over 10 years - 9 minutes
- External work
- Measuring success
- Consciously limiting theatrical marketing on Mullet
Video downloads
Chapter 3 - Porchlight now - 14 minutes
- Fine tuned business structure
- Set up licencing arm for growing library
- Private investors
- Good reputation with funding agencies
- Seeking projects, eg books
- Choosing distributors & sales agents
- Research the market
- What makes a good producer
Video downloads
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