Jeremy Santolin and Gavin Bott
Director and Producer, Picture Club, The
Written by Rebecca Lawrence on 2008-10-13
What do you see happening in the next five years in the audiovisual production industry?
Jeremy: I think we have already started to see it and that is the number of platforms that the client will want content for is increasing. Whereas a few years ago, you just had your really expensive TVC and that’s the only thing you needed to get right. Now, with internet and mobile phones, you need a TVC, then you need a web version of that, which might be a 2 minute long short film, then you need another kind of version of it for mobile phones, which has to be shot more specifically for it because the screen is so small. The money is all spread out over many different platforms. TVC is still considered a lot more important than other platforms, but that is going to diminish in the future.
Gavin: More pressure is being put on front end planning.
What are the biggest challenges you and your organisation face as a member of the Brisbane media community?
Jeremy: Up until recently, $50,000 for a top Australian band, would be easily spent on a music video. Now, downloading has obviously eroded some of the market of the music industry and will continue to do so. So at the moment large record labels in Australia, will limit the budget for music videos to $30,000. It still sounds like a lot to the general punter, but if you put that as a percentage, you’ve lost 40 percent. And that’s all because of the downloading thing. It’s a reality that it is impacting on crews and film industry, There is now significantly less money to produce music videos and everybody wants more for less.
What are the most important/valuable skills that graduates can bring to your industry?
Gavin: On a film set there are lots of roles which need to be filled, but I guarantee that the ones that are already filled are producer, writer, director, DOP, and they are the ones that normally, when you’re at uni, you think are brilliant. But, just because you come out with a degree, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have anything to offer as a DOP, director or producer, to a large company just yet. So, it’s the kind of understanding that you are going to have to start at the bottom and ride the path.
Jeremy: A lot of people find it really tough to get a job and don’t want to do the hard yards as a group assistant or do work experience as a group assistant.
Gavin: I know from the UK, a film degree isn’t something that is particularly well recognized unless it comes with other things. Students have to distinguish themselves with the other things that they can do and know about. It’s all really valuable.
How would you rate the performance of Brisbane-based media organisations in comparison to other national and international media hubs?
Gavin: Brisbane is, in its density of production companies, a very small part of the market. But I think it really punches above its weight, the stuff coming out of Brisbane, TVC agencies and music videos, is great. Because we are not in Sydney, or Melbourne, we don’t get that much attention, so it’s harder to get the work, but I think the results are as good as anywhere, if not better. The Gold Coast studios are also a very huge deal as an international magnet for production. We do have so much good stuff and so many good crews. It’s a good place to work.
Jeremy: The work will also go to where the director is, whether its commercials or music videos. A record label or an advertising agency will come to Brisbane, even if they are from Melbourne, if they want a particular director in Brisbane.
How has new media such as the Internet and mobile communications revolutionised your workplace?
Jeremy: We originally had an office in the valley. But, in our first year of business, we had only two clients come to our office and we had a lot more clients than that. With uploading links on the web and emailing them, we found there was no need to have an office, we were paying all this rent and it was totally unnecessary. So we made to move to a home office, just out of the city and it’s completely seamless. We upload our links; get them approved for big TVC’s and bands easily. I think there is going to be a lot more of that.
Gavin: I remember having lots of exec meetings and you’d have ten people trying to make individual frame changes. It is now more convenient and much easier to get approval without having to meet face to face.
How has the closure of Atlab Queensland this year effected film production in Queensland?
Jeremy: Well, Atlab closing is definitely not ideal. But it probably just fast forwarded what was going to happen anyway, it just means there is no film processing lab in this state. But the reason it closed, was because they weren’t getting enough work, so the trajectory was already set and it was going to close at some point. There are a lot of productions that shoot on film, but if they are still really keen, they will have to send it to Sydney.
Gavin: But on the scale of a big production, running it to Sydney is not really a big deal. It does matter and it is a shame to lose it, but probably the majority of what you see won’t be shot on film.
How competitive is the industry in Brisbane and how did you acquire the work you have done for many Australian Bands?
Gavin: Its competitive anywhere, but it’s brutal. We have a lot of experience in music videos, TVCs, corporate’s, other industrial kind of applications of video and web content which has helped us.
Jeremy: A lot of the bands we have done work for are all under the same Brisbane record label and we managed to make a relationship with them early on in Frenchman Films life. The Grates ‘Message’ was the first video we did for them and we know have lots of work for the next four years for them. So slowly that is paying off with word of mouth, we’ve done something for Silverchair and now other bands have come along as well, it has all stemmed from this one contact in the record label.