I first met Camilla Roberts via Pecha Kucha night when she co-presented with Tim Hill.  We’ve been exchanging a lot of info back and forth since then with QPIX keeping me up to date with their panel nights, workshops and short courses.  Make sure that you are in their eNews if you are interested in TV and film production!

Could you give us an update since your PKN presentation earlier this year?

QPIX executive produced five documentaries, three feature films and ten short films:

3 Feature Films 

o Dartworth, Living and Dying in Hotel Broadway, The Little Things 

10 Short Films

o Push Bike 

o 30 Second Love 

o Dead Creek 

o Ubermensch 

o Lamb Island 

o Tender 

o The One That Got Away 

o Smashed 

o Jingle Bell Rock 

o You Tonigt

5 Documentaries

o Mounted Steel 

o Not a Willing Participant 

o Hugh Sawrey 

o Ballots and Bullets 

QPIX also executive produced 3 short dramas, 7 documentaries and 3 music video clips made by indigenous filmmakers in our Black Pearls training Program.  All of the below pieces will be broadcast on the National Indigenous TV Network (NITV) in 2010.

3 Short Dramas

o Jhindu,

o After Dark

o Transit

7 documentaries

o Halfway Band (music documentary)

o Getano Bann (music documentary)

o Impossible Odds (music documentary)

o Through Our Eyes

o Culture

o Leaving Home

o Behind Dead Creek

4 Music Video Clips

o Halfway Band

o Impossible Odds

o Getano Bann

o Dave Dowd and The Orbits

All of the productions happened from April until October and they have gone through their post-production including editing and are now complete.  Now we are getting them into festivals.

Were they mainly Brisbane-based works?

It’s mostly Brisbane based but 4 of the initiatives came from the regions and 6 of the indigenous students’ work were regional as well. We are hoping to extend our work in regional areas in 2010.

Is the focus on QPIX more on emerging filmmakers?

Definitely.  QPIX is the bridge between tertiary education and paid work in the industry.  It’s focused on experience through production.  It’s very much about early career filmmakers so they might have done a degree and they are interested in getting that extra production experience that will give them the edge over their fellow graduates.  Degrees are important in film and TV but the industry wants to see production credits.   Once you’ve got credits then you start to look like a reliable person who can deliver on what you say you can.

Let’s say that I’m an emerging film maker in this industry – so a good way to increase my exposure in this industry is to obtain production credits and experience and also build up my portfolio...

Building up your production credits into a great show reel is the equivalent of an art portfolio for an artist or graphic designer.  Once you’ve got a few credits, you can put together that show reel with clips from all the work that you’ve done.  So when you send in a CV for a job, you’ll always attach your showreel as well as your list of credits.

It’s really important to get credits and it’s important not to lie about credits – ie say that you have more experience than you actually have.  The industry is too small to be able to get away with it so you end up doing yourself a disservice. Once you’ve got credits, the next level is a broadcast credit or an international award.  A broadcast credit is when you have something air on TV.  QPIX is really about building that side of an emerging filmmaker’s experience because those are the tools needed to make a career in film and TV.

What about your professional development workshops, talks, and such?

As well as the productions, QPIX also offers short course workshops in areas like camera technique, lighting, directing, producing, lighting, script writing, pitching your show to a TV network and so on.  QPIX also offers crew link and actor link which is a free service for filmmakers and actors to get more experience. Producers and directors access crew link and actor link and they contact the actors or crew from there.  QPIX also has accredited courses which are the full-time nationally recognised training courses.  Next year, we’ll be offering GEN TV - a Diploma in Screen and Media which specialises in TV.  We just finished our round 1 interviews and applications for round 2 interviews close February 26^th 2010.  Also we hope to offer our Black Pearls indigenous training program again. 

Do you have requests with new/digital media, social networking and such...like the recent U2 concert with people being able to watch it on YouTube...ie being able to spread my work online.

I think a lot of filmmakers are understandably focused on the craft of filmmaking, and pay less attention to distribution and marketing which is a very important part of the process. We are always working on keeping them focused that.  More and more it’s about the buzz or word of mouth (particularly for film) so the easiest way to build word of mouth is through social networks particularly online social networks.  There’s definitely a lot more interest in it but I think there isn’t a focus on it.  Part of the courses that we want to offer (Gen TV and short courses) is multiplatform delivery because that’s the future distribution for film and TV.

So we’ll get more information about that in the coming weeks...or months?

With Gen TV we have a news section and it’s my job to write relevant, interesting articles in relation to multiplatform (whether it’s social networking or putting webisodes online) and things like that.  They are the things that we want to incorporate in Gen TV.  I’ll be writing more articles in 2010. If anyone out there has articles they would like to send to me I’d be interested in them as well and if it cuts the mustard we will put them online.

http://www.gentv.com.au/news/index.php

There’s a new way of distributing film, ie making film for a different screen like a mobile phone screen...

There’s a difference in making a film that’s going to be viewed in a mobile compared to something that can be viewed on a large cinema screen.  It’s not just the way that you shoot it or the format but also the kind of content.   GEN TV will introduce students to this area as well as its web potentials.

Cool!  Who’s involved in Gen TV?

Industry specialists will work with the students. Due to the nature of the film and TV industry though we aren’t able to advertise who is on board because if a big gig like Narnia comes to town they need to take those jobs.  However more and more staff profiles will be added to  http://www.gentv.com.au/about-qpix/our-people.php as we near the course start date.

But you do have people in the industry advising the content for Gen TV?

We’ll get specialist speakers in from different areas to educate on purposing for the different platforms and creating shows designed for online and more.  The core GEN TV show will be developed as a template by the supervising and executive producers and its student cohort will then help shape the content.

What does repurposing mean?

Repurposing is adjusting format and duration and other things so that it’s visible in the best form possible on the right medium.  Each medium requires different styles, sizes and presentations of the programming.

To wrap-up – what is the future of film education?  What about the future of television?  Ideas, castles in the air type of ideas! Michel Mol, Director of Innovation and New Media for the Netherlands Public Broadcasting had some interesting ideas in his X Media Lab presentation.

It is likely to be heading in the direction of the US market.  A lot of it is online now – the networks are going online.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the advertising world with more content going online, more people with the ability to avoid ads through TiVo.  There’ll be a big transition period.  Australia’s general broadband speed isn’t as fast as it is in the US so we can’t watch shows as easily online. The broadcasters in Australia  haven’t yet fully invested yet but it’s a matter of time.  People want to watch TV on demand.  They’re not going to wait for when a broadcaster has programmed it – they’ll just get it online.

With film, I think that there’ll be a lot more online distribution.  There’s a lot of opportunities online that aren’t just film-based but can help with the film. Documentaries have been finding new audiences online, for example ‘The Burning Season’ had a large online presence and have now sold their DVDs to schools around Australia as part of their education on Global Warming.  This builds the buzz and reach of the word of mouth of the film so that more people want to watch it.

So it’s more interactive.

Much more interactive but also more direct, less mediated and increasingly more personalised.

Thanks Camilla!

If you loved this: Tim Hill // Interview, Pecha Kucha Vol 11 at Brisbane Powerhouse, Kelly Chapman in SPAA Fringe, Local Stars Set to Shine on the Gold Coast // Gold Coast Film Fantastic {Film Festival},The 3rd Asia Pacific Screen Awards by Benitta Harding, On Storytelling // {XMediaLab} {42 Entertainment} {Animal Logic}, Games Pt 2 // {XMediaLab} {Eidos}, IdN Onair - an interview with the people who produce IdN Magazine , CCI Symposium: Visual Effects Industry, If you have your own travelling theatre troupe, what would be your main, out-of-this-world performance?, Roundhouse // {For health and happiness} {Creative}, Interview // The Future of Digital Art with Jaymis Loveday

Camilla has also provided me with some excellent news from one of the producers involved with QPIX:

We were fortunate enough to be selected for the QPIX development program. Coming from a advertising background we were in the dark when it came to pitching and selling this type of a production. The insight the team at QPIX gave us was greatly appreciated and I feel they went beyond the call of duty to help us wherever possible, even giving us their personal contacts to liaise with.  As a result our TV series  Money Fish was offered a contract by Cordell Jigsaw, and also by US based production company Reveille who we ended up optioning the show.  It’s now due to begin production in early 2010. 

We now have another series that QPIX has helped develop The Burning Ring of Fire which has interest from several broadcasters and various commissioning editors.

Scott Cairns (Producer) Panga Productions 

What the filmmakers, documentary makers and students think:

QPIX’s Certificate IV in Screen and Media gave me the skills and confidence to start up my own company. This helped me enormously when I relocated to South Africa where I have been making a living making documentaries and corporate videos for the NGO sector.

Graham Young (Producer) Sunflare Films

Fact is, if it wasn't for Qpix I would never had got this project up. 

Marco Sinigaglia, creator of Shintaro! The Samurai that Swept the Nation (aired on SBS)

QPIX is a valuable industry resource that offers a realistic transition between tertiary education and independent filmmaking.   They are one of the very few organisations left in Queensland who still offer funding and full support for short filmmakers, which is the keystone to our independent industry in this state.  Producing a short film through QPIX’s Raw Nerve initiative helped me to develop the skills I needed to survive my first low budget feature film, as well as the various projects I have gone on to do since. I am very thankful for the opportunity.         

Jade Van Der Lei (21.09.09) Producer on QPIX Short 'Notation' which screened at 3 international festivals. 

QPIX offers the perfect avenue for burgeoning filmmakers to gain invaluable experience in a professional industry environment!  With funded initiatives providing crucial support by way of insurances, equipment and advice, I always recommend QPIX to my students as the Queensland epicentre for gaining vital screen credits and networking opportunities.

Sonia Louise Armstrong 15.09.09  Sonia now works in screenwriting and development.  She wrote 2 QPIX short films Missing Pieces and Garden of Love which won and AWGIE for Best Short Film. 

I have a long history with QPIX dating back to 2002.  I have made use of their facilities and equipment, participated in their production initiatives, attended their master classes, and taken part in many of their workshops.  Over the years they have not just been a valuable resource but they have also provided support for a number of my projects.  I look forward to a long and productive association with QPIX in the coming years. 

Terry Clifford (21.10.09) Writer/Director/Producer on QPIX documentary Sailmaker.