The Knowledge - Trish Lake
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.
Trish Lake - biography
Trish Lake is an independent film producer and the principal of Freshwater Productions, a business she established in 1991 to pursue her commercial and creative interests in the fields of film, television and publishing. In a career spanning three decades, beginning as an ABC journalist, Trish has gained an outstanding depth and breadth of experience in all facets of the media, communications and entertainment industries.
Trish’s work in the film industry has encompassed project identification, development, creative producing and hands-on filmmaking. In 2004 she won the prestigious SPAA Feature Film Producer of the Year Award for her first feature film Gettin’ Square. After serving for two years as a Feature Film Councillor on the SPAA Federal Council and two years as the SPAA Queensland Chapter Head, Trish has spent three years as National President of SPAA.
Audio download
Chapter 1 - From journalism to film - 15 minutes
- From journalist and publisher to producer – curiosity, story, idiom, relevance, fairness
- Journalism shows you how the world works
- Working capital from own resources. Had assets to leverage, wasn’t desperate
- Had a clear objective, knew I could create an entity that could operate without me
- Importance of having the right business partners
- Business is about humans, not assets
- I take radical positions – Machiavellian but inclusive
- Had a mentor in Michael Thornhill
Video downloads
Chapter 2 - The value of relationships - 18 minutes
- Gettin’ Square – process of packaging it
- Manipulation – means thinking and planning
- Balancing interests, trying to do the right thing
- Learnt to read every contract; excellent lawyers
- Relationship with brand companies like Mushroom Pictures, Focus Features, Working Title
- Building value in the business; selling off smallest share for largest return
- Brought in business analysts and built strategic alliances
- Used sale of assets to provide further working capital
- Producer Offset helping to make one of two features
- Our investors are emotionally engaged
Video downloads
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