Screen Australia, in terrible news for anyone who appreciates hokey teen dramas with cliched
writing and low production values that only people from South Australia
will get, has announced the launch of a new television development fund designed to make “high-end” Australian drama series appealing to a discerning global audience.
Chosen projects will be “internationally driven high-end television drama”, and tell “specific but universal stories, with a creatively ambitious vision and
a cinematic sensibility”.
Something known in other parts of the world as “good television”.
The fund was inspired by “unprecedented” audience interest in award winning dramas such as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Top of the Lake, House of Cards and The Bridge.
As opposed to helping put projects into production, the High-end Television Development Program will provide up to $40,000 each for up to five projects a year to help transition them from the concept stage to the first draft of a pilot
script. But only with a formal letter of interest from a major international broadcaster (HBO or similar) or major internet streaming company (Netflix). Translation? There’s still a shit tonne of hoops to jump through even if you’ve written the entire first season by yourself and it’s a slightly more compelling version of The Sopranos.
It’s a counter-intuitive submission process seeing as the gatekeepers at a network like AMC (where “story matters”) would request a pilot script written on spec anyway (Mad Men’s Matt Weiner and Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan both did that, so don’t think an unknown from Australia will get away with just sending through a story bible) to express interest in your project and only with that letter would you be able to request funding to write its pilot. It’s kind of backwards.
It would better serve its purpose – finding new and interesting television voices with compelling stories to tell – if they trusted their guts and written approval from some American programming executive was removed from the submission requirements. That in itself is a massive barrier to entry, especially for those without professional relationships in Hollywood or an established body of work (most people).
David Michod on the other hand? Step on up brother!
“High-end television is responsible for water cooler conversations all over the world, winning its audience with complex, nuanced stories and creative brilliance,” Screen Australia head of development Martha Coleman said. “We know that Australia has the ideas and the talent to make a global impact through its storytelling, and this fund will assist our producers and writers to rise to the challenge and engage in this space.”
