Entertainment
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. Movies

Big in Hollywood: The Australian filmmakers you've (probably) never heard of

To most Australians, their names mean nothing, but Rising Sun, Iloura, Luma and their like are mixing it with the best on Hollywood's biggest blockbusters.

Karl Quinn

If you've watched a Hollywood blockbuster lately, there's a good chance you've seen Australian filmmakers at their best – even if you didn't know it.

We're used to seeing the likes of Hugh Jackman and the Hemsworth brothers listed above the title, but buried deep in the credits of many a big-budget studio film are a bunch of other Australians, superstars in the rarefied realm of effects work.

Up Next

Trailer: Trollhunters

null
Video duration
01:56

More Entertainment News Videos

null
Video duration
01:56

Trailer: Trollhunters
null
Video duration
01:26

Singer banned from Ellen after homophobic ...
null
Video duration
00:33

Ryan Gosling pays tribute to Debbie ...
More videos

Blockbusters heading to Australia in 2017

The number of celebrities making their way to our shores next year means it will be a very big year for Australian produced film.

They aren't household names but Rising Sun Pictures, Iloura, Animal Logic, Luma and Cutting Edge are as in-demand as it gets.

"The relationship with Hollywood is huge", says Simon Rosenthal, boss of Iloura, which has offices in Melbourne and Sydney. "I'd say about 99 per cent of our revenue is generated out of the US."

Related Content

In the past couple of years Australian firms have quietly contributed to the X-Men films Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Gravity, The Legend of Tarzan, Ted and its sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ghostbusters and Prometheus, among others. They've also worked on big-budget TV series, most notably Game of Thrones.

Sydney's Animal Logic has in fact developed such a reputation that it has now moved into production in its own right, with a couple more Lego Movies and live-action-animation hybrid films of Peter Rabbit and Astro Boy in the works.

Advertisement

Their work is world-class, but the post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) sector is the unsung hero of the local industry, worth a record $105 million in 2015-16, according to industry body Ausfilm but barely registering with most moviegoers.

In September, Melbourne's Iloura grabbed a rare moment in the spotlight when it collected an Emmy for its work on the Battle of the Bastards episode of Game of Thrones. And in February it came close to a share in an Oscar for its part in the visual effects on Mad Max: Fury Road (the award went to Ex Machina). Usually, though, they and their colleagues in this small sector ply their trade in the shadows.

Though they compete for work, Tony Clark of Adelaide-based Rising Sun says the industry is mostly "collegial".

"There are times when a couple of local firms will be working on the same show – and in some cases they'll even work on the same shots within the same show," he says. "In reality we're not competing against each other so much as the global marketplace."

Rising Sun has worked on more than 120 feature films since its first, Red Planet, in 2000. It was an early leader in the space, which helped compensate for its distance from LA. But these days the work is by its nature global, following tax concessions and rebates around the world. And despite its fantastic track record, Australia is at a disadvantage there.

While the federal government supports the industry through a 30 per cent rebate on foreign work carried out here, the subsidy being offered in Canada – a relatively new player in the PDV space – is 40 per cent, and can come close to 50 per cent when state and federal subsidies are combined.

The biggest issue is the gap between the location offset for foreign productions – set at 16.5 per cent of local spend – and the 30 per cent PDV offset. Foreign productions can access only one of those, and they naturally opt for whichever one gives them more buck for their bang. Usually, it's the production offset – especially when that is topped up by the federal government with its "one-off" grants (such as the $22 million that both Pirates of the Caribbean and Aquaman received).

What that means in practice is few of the big films that are shot here will have their PDV work done here, even though Australian firms are more than capable of handling it. Blockbusters such as San Andreas, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Kong: Skull Island did little if any post-production work in Australia. Thor: Ragnarok and Alien: Covenant will do some work here, but much of it overseas. And that leaves the PDV sector chasing work for films made elsewhere.

It's a "highly problematic" scenario for the VFX sector, says Rosenthal, who adds one other anomaly needs to be addressed: there is no rebate available for content made specifically for streaming services such as Netflix and Stan, because the legislation was drafted before they existed.

Until the federal government introduces a standard 30 per cent rebate for foreign productions across all sectors of the industry, notes Clark, that part of the film and television sector that caters to foreign productions is split down the middle, with production on one side and post-production on the other.

"Right now," he says, "It's almost in the interests of companies like ours that foreign films don't shoot here."

Big in Hollywood

Australian post-production firms had a hand in these 2016 releases ...
Deadpool​
Dr Strange
Deepwater Horizon
Ghostbusters
The Legend of Tarzan
X-Men: Apocalypse
Gods of Egypt
Game of Thrones (TV)

And in 2017, their work will crop up in ...
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage
Logan (the new Wolverine film)
Alien: Covenant (also shot here)
Thor: Ragnarok (also shot here) 
​Jumanji
John Wick 2
Game of Thrones (TV)

Meanwhile these were, or are being, made here, but (mostly) post-produced elsewhere ...
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Aquaman (due 2018)
Kong: Skull Island (partly shot here)
The Leftovers (TV)
Bleeding Steel
Dogfight 
Nest
Pacific Rim: Maelstrom (due 2018)

Karl Quinn is on facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on twitter @karlkwin

0 comments