Czechs & balances: Monika Charvátová reports new Czech film rebate

Czech producer Monika Charvátová, formerly of Film Studio Gatteo and now partner of US producer Steven North of Iskra Productions (Vukovar, The Last Butterfly), is in Sydney this week.

She reports that this month the Czech government has finally fallen into line with the rest of Europe by launching a 20 percent tax rebate for productions shooting in the country (Hungary had a similar incentive as early as 2004; Germany 2008 and France 2009.)

Films seeking to access the scheme must have 75 percent of their budget secured from other sources and must pass a broad test for Czech and/or European “culture point scale” – as required by the European Commission – that includes factors such as make-up of crews, script and local partners.

Locals are hoping it will help put the Czech Republic back on the map after the industry was seriously hit by a drop in ad production.

North is currently developing a project with Australian TV producer Paul Barron (Parallax), with Peter Andrikidis (East West 101, BlackJack) likely to direct.

Window of opportunity: Mia Bays in Sydney

From small budgets, great things can come.

It worked for Kieslowski, who believed that technical and budgetary constraints always forced a simple and often more ingenious type of creativity.

Mia Bays, the marketing consultant for micro-studio Film London Microwave, agrees, giving here an anecdote about how budgetary limitations on the £100,000 Shifty forced even better solutions:

“There’s a great scene where Shifty is doing a regular drop to an older woman. As written, the woman has lots of cats. In pre-production, the production designer and producers said ‘we can’t afford real cats, and there’s a risk they won’t behave and you won’t get the shot.’ They pushed the director Eran Creevy to think about stuffed cats instead, to show her obsession. Soon, the flat became filled with cat trinkets; it followed right through the production design. Then one of the lead actors reacted spontaneously to the stuffed cat. Now it’s now a really, really funny scene.

“That’s happened several times on Shifty and on Freestyle, which is coming out in UK cinemas in February.”

Mia Bays will present the keynote address at 9.30am this Saturday at SPAA Fringe. Curious Film’s Michael Wrenn will talk about the Australian release strategy on Friday, 5-6pm at Friday On My Mind.

The Tree to blossom with Gainsbourg

Australian/French co-production project The Tree has secured acclaimed French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Science of Sleep, Lemming), its executive producer Rosemary Blight announced today.

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Peter Weir makes his way back to Australia for post

It has been confirmed that Australian director Peter Weir will complete his next film The Way Back in New South Wales through a substantial post-production and digital visual effects component.

EFilm and Stage One Sound will conduct the sound mix and the DI (digital intermediate), having had their senior colorist Olivier Fontenay working alongside DOP Russell Boyd on the shoot in Bulgaria.

Rising Sun Pictures is the sole provider of the film’s 81 visual effects shots. It was through this clustering of work that the $5m threshold for the 15% PDV rebate was triggered.

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FTO hangs out Green Lantern

After a tough four years that saw the state’s production levels flag, it’s all systems go for New South Wales film industry after yesterday’s announcement that big-budget Hollywood film Green Lantern will be shot in the state, creating around 500 jobs and providing a major boost for the state’s film industry…

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NBCal flies high (if solo) in Aust

Independent American community bank the National Bank of California (NBCal) is taking its “remote services” to a new level with a lend offering to the Australian film industry.

A much needed source of lending capability in this country, NBCal is offering film and television production loans (including discounting pre-sales, cash flow of domestic and international tax incentives, and gap financing), corporate lines of credit and acquisition financing…

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Branded Entertainment: Call for cross-platform savvy contracts

A forum exploring the future of branded entertainment held by the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) on February 24 has revealed an urgent need for industrial policies to get up to speed with the changing nature and requirements of branded entertainment…

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Despite a contraction of global marketing spends, there was an overwhelming optimism amongst speakers at Tuesday’s Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) forum on ‘Branded Entertainment’ in terms of the opportunities for cross-platform projects and the potential for it to be a financially workable model (or models)…

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Interviews during editorship include: Lars von Trier, Marc Forster, Michael Winterbottom, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, Franke Potente, Cate Shortland, Anton Corbijn, Charles Roven, Christopher Doyle, January Jones, Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion, Julian Schnabel, Catherine Breillat and oh so many more.

A selection of covers, from Nick Cave to Eric Bana: