Given the impact of the pandemic on the screen sector, emerging from lockdown should feel like relief. However, for many, the truth is likely to be more complicated – and that’s okay, writes actor, filmmaker and mental health advocate Ben Steel (The Show Must Go On).
As New South Wales, and shortly Victoria and the Act, start to come out of what we all hope will be the final series of lockdowns on our shores, it’s understandable that many screen workers are feeling unsettled, rather than an overwhelming sense of relief.
The last 19 months have been incredibly traumatic, and have impacted every part of the screen industry. From our creative tertiary institutions, production, post, and right through to exhibition. Businesses have had to, if they could, pivot online. Screen leaders have had to create and implement Covid-Safe production protocols, which screen workers have had to adopt – all the while...
As New South Wales, and shortly Victoria and the Act, start to come out of what we all hope will be the final series of lockdowns on our shores, it’s understandable that many screen workers are feeling unsettled, rather than an overwhelming sense of relief.
The last 19 months have been incredibly traumatic, and have impacted every part of the screen industry. From our creative tertiary institutions, production, post, and right through to exhibition. Businesses have had to, if they could, pivot online. Screen leaders have had to create and implement Covid-Safe production protocols, which screen workers have had to adopt – all the while...
- 10/11/2021
- by Ben Steel
- IF.com.au
Today, on R U Ok? Day, many among us are checking in on our family, friends and colleagues’ mental health and wellbeing – especially as lockdowns roll on.
However, what should we do next when someone reveals to us that actually, they aren’t okay?
That’s something actor and filmmaker Ben Steel wants to help the screen industry confidentially tackle.
Steel’s 2019 ABC documentary The Show Must Go On addressed mental health in the entertainment industry, going behind the Entertainment Assist statistics that reveal for those working in the industry, rates of suicide ideation are double that of the general population, anxiety symptoms 10 times higher and depression symptoms five times higher.
As part of that film’s impact campaign, Steel toured the country with a Wellness Roadshow to start a bigger conversation with various arts and entertainment sectors about mental health and wellbeing. However, the process revealed to him that...
However, what should we do next when someone reveals to us that actually, they aren’t okay?
That’s something actor and filmmaker Ben Steel wants to help the screen industry confidentially tackle.
Steel’s 2019 ABC documentary The Show Must Go On addressed mental health in the entertainment industry, going behind the Entertainment Assist statistics that reveal for those working in the industry, rates of suicide ideation are double that of the general population, anxiety symptoms 10 times higher and depression symptoms five times higher.
As part of that film’s impact campaign, Steel toured the country with a Wellness Roadshow to start a bigger conversation with various arts and entertainment sectors about mental health and wellbeing. However, the process revealed to him that...
- 9/8/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
Ben Steel in ‘The Show Must Go On’.
While the impact of coronavirus on the screen industry has been sobering and tough for all, producer Sue Maslin is particularly concerned that the documentary sector is falling through the cracks.
Independent documentary – distinct from reality and factual entertainment, often associated with larger enterprise – is particularly vulnerable at this point in time, Maslin says.
The vast majority of such filmmakers work in either small companies, as sole traders or as contractors, with many falling outside of government support nets such as JobKeeper and potentially isolated. Covid has also coincided with the ABC cutting $5 million from independent commissions (much of which will come from the factual slate), and there is downward pressure on philanthropic funding due to the economic downturn.
Indeed, even prior to Covid the doc sector was vulnerable, battling market changes and diminished funding from broadcasters and screen agencies. Many such filmmakers self-fund development,...
While the impact of coronavirus on the screen industry has been sobering and tough for all, producer Sue Maslin is particularly concerned that the documentary sector is falling through the cracks.
Independent documentary – distinct from reality and factual entertainment, often associated with larger enterprise – is particularly vulnerable at this point in time, Maslin says.
The vast majority of such filmmakers work in either small companies, as sole traders or as contractors, with many falling outside of government support nets such as JobKeeper and potentially isolated. Covid has also coincided with the ABC cutting $5 million from independent commissions (much of which will come from the factual slate), and there is downward pressure on philanthropic funding due to the economic downturn.
Indeed, even prior to Covid the doc sector was vulnerable, battling market changes and diminished funding from broadcasters and screen agencies. Many such filmmakers self-fund development,...
- 8/18/2020
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
When Rowan Chapman first set out to create a ‘career longevity’ guide for aspiring and young actors, full of survival tactics to help them cope with the pressures of the industry, it wasn’t initially clear that what he was crafting would end up in large part as a mental health and wellbeing resource.
Launched this week, The Long Haul is a free website with advice that spans graduation from drama school, finding an agent, working with casting directors and maintaining professional relationships. But further, it also offers advice on cultivating a healthy attitude to creativity, dealing with rejection, nutrition, fitness, sleep, body image issues, finances, self doubt and career obsession, and knowing when you aren’t okay and need to reach out for help.
Its content and research was generated and vetted over four years by 150 industry professionals, including actors, casting directors, producers, directors and distributors, as well as...
Launched this week, The Long Haul is a free website with advice that spans graduation from drama school, finding an agent, working with casting directors and maintaining professional relationships. But further, it also offers advice on cultivating a healthy attitude to creativity, dealing with rejection, nutrition, fitness, sleep, body image issues, finances, self doubt and career obsession, and knowing when you aren’t okay and need to reach out for help.
Its content and research was generated and vetted over four years by 150 industry professionals, including actors, casting directors, producers, directors and distributors, as well as...
- 11/1/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
ABC Arts documentary ‘The Show Must Go On.’
Screen Producers Australia (Spa) has broadly welcomed Screen Australia’s proposed overhaul of documentary funding guidelines but fears low budget productions will suffer from scrapping the Producer Equity Program (Pep).
In its submission to the review Spa also asks for 15 per cent of development funding to be quarantined for producers, which is not likely to sit well with the Australian Independent Documentary group or the Australian Directors Guild, whose submissions were virtually identical.
Noting the proposal to reserve 20 per cent of the Development Program for productions budgeted below $500,000, Spa argues this will not make up for the loss of Pep.
Projects that receive funding from the Producer and the Commissioned Programs would be ineligible for funding from the Completion Program, leaving the Development Program as the only other source of funding for low budget documentaries. “The net effect of these changes is...
Screen Producers Australia (Spa) has broadly welcomed Screen Australia’s proposed overhaul of documentary funding guidelines but fears low budget productions will suffer from scrapping the Producer Equity Program (Pep).
In its submission to the review Spa also asks for 15 per cent of development funding to be quarantined for producers, which is not likely to sit well with the Australian Independent Documentary group or the Australian Directors Guild, whose submissions were virtually identical.
Noting the proposal to reserve 20 per cent of the Development Program for productions budgeted below $500,000, Spa argues this will not make up for the loss of Pep.
Projects that receive funding from the Producer and the Commissioned Programs would be ineligible for funding from the Completion Program, leaving the Development Program as the only other source of funding for low budget documentaries. “The net effect of these changes is...
- 10/28/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
‘Playing for Keeps’ (Season 1).
Film Victoria has announced $2 million in production funding across 11 film, television and online projects, including Matchbox Pictures’ upcoming Sbs series Hungry Ghosts.
The agency has also backed second seasons of Screentime’s Playing For Keeps for 10, Wtfn children’s series Larry the Wonderpup, and Ruby Entertainment/Robot Army comedy Rostered On, both for Seven.
Matchbox’s Hungry Ghosts is a four-part series which centres on three generations of Vietnamese Australian families touched by the effects of war. When a powerful amulet is broken on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival in Melbourne, a vengeful spirit is unleashed, bringing the dead with him. Shawn Seet will direct, Stephen Corvini is producing and the writers are Timothy Hobart, Michelle Lee, Alan Nguyen, Jeremy Nguyen and John Ridley.
Film Victoria has also invested in two fiction features, including Good Things Productions’ Below, which recently wrapped production in Western Australia.
Film Victoria has announced $2 million in production funding across 11 film, television and online projects, including Matchbox Pictures’ upcoming Sbs series Hungry Ghosts.
The agency has also backed second seasons of Screentime’s Playing For Keeps for 10, Wtfn children’s series Larry the Wonderpup, and Ruby Entertainment/Robot Army comedy Rostered On, both for Seven.
Matchbox’s Hungry Ghosts is a four-part series which centres on three generations of Vietnamese Australian families touched by the effects of war. When a powerful amulet is broken on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival in Melbourne, a vengeful spirit is unleashed, bringing the dead with him. Shawn Seet will direct, Stephen Corvini is producing and the writers are Timothy Hobart, Michelle Lee, Alan Nguyen, Jeremy Nguyen and John Ridley.
Film Victoria has also invested in two fiction features, including Good Things Productions’ Below, which recently wrapped production in Western Australia.
- 3/15/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Ben Steel with assistant editor Mars Williamson (l) and editor Lucy Paplinska.
As an actor Ben Steel often suffered from anxiety and depression – but for years his condition was not diagnosed or treated.
Discovering that many people in the entertainment industry struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse, the former Home and Away star embarked on a personal and professional journey.
Steel has interviewed 63 people from all walks of the industry, including actors, musicians, theatre producers, editors, roadies, dancers and sound recordists, who shared their experiences for The Show Must Go On.
Every single one recognised that mental illness is a massive issue and only a handful declined to go on the record due to their public profile or wishing to remain anonymous.
The interviewees include Sam Neill, David McAllister, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Dean Ray, Marcia Hines and Michala Banas.
Sue Maslin is producing the feature documentary with Steel, his feature directing debut,...
As an actor Ben Steel often suffered from anxiety and depression – but for years his condition was not diagnosed or treated.
Discovering that many people in the entertainment industry struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse, the former Home and Away star embarked on a personal and professional journey.
Steel has interviewed 63 people from all walks of the industry, including actors, musicians, theatre producers, editors, roadies, dancers and sound recordists, who shared their experiences for The Show Must Go On.
Every single one recognised that mental illness is a massive issue and only a handful declined to go on the record due to their public profile or wishing to remain anonymous.
The interviewees include Sam Neill, David McAllister, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Dean Ray, Marcia Hines and Michala Banas.
Sue Maslin is producing the feature documentary with Steel, his feature directing debut,...
- 3/13/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
History remembers Franz Stampfl as one of the athletics world.s premier coaches, a former Austrian art student who mentored Olympics champions including Roger Bannister, Christopher Chataway, Ralph Doubell and John Landy.
His accomplishments were all the more remarkable considering the adversity he suffered: a near-drowning in the Atlantic Ocean after his ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat during WW2; internment in Australia as a prisoner-of-war; and, in later life, a near-fatal car accident that rendered him a quadriplegic but did not stop him from coaching.
Australian writer-director-producer Sally McLean profiles Stampfl in her feature-length documentary A Life Unexpected: The Man Behind The Miracle Mile. McLean has a personal connection to her subject, who died in 1995: Her mother Margaret Woodlock competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as a 17-year-old shot putter, one of Stampfl.s first Australian protégés.
.I never met Franz which is one of the reasons...
His accomplishments were all the more remarkable considering the adversity he suffered: a near-drowning in the Atlantic Ocean after his ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat during WW2; internment in Australia as a prisoner-of-war; and, in later life, a near-fatal car accident that rendered him a quadriplegic but did not stop him from coaching.
Australian writer-director-producer Sally McLean profiles Stampfl in her feature-length documentary A Life Unexpected: The Man Behind The Miracle Mile. McLean has a personal connection to her subject, who died in 1995: Her mother Margaret Woodlock competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as a 17-year-old shot putter, one of Stampfl.s first Australian protégés.
.I never met Franz which is one of the reasons...
- 7/23/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Those lucky enough to attend the Toronto International Film Festival will be the first ones to catch Michael Basset’s “Solomon Kane”, which is a part of the festival’s Midnight Madness line-up on September 16 at the Ryerson Theatre. Until then, check out a new image from the live-action adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s famous character that the studio has sent over. With Solomon Kane, Conan and his other heroes, iconic American writer Robert E. Howard created the genre now known as “Sword & Sorcery,” in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His work has spawned countless imitators and given rise to his influence in the fantasy genre which can be rivaled only by J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings). Now just shy of a decade later, Solomon Kane is poised to be the next great film trilogy. Starring Pete Postlethwaite, James Purefoy, Samuel Roukin, Robert Russell, Ben Steel, Max von Sydow,...
- 9/14/2009
- by Nix
- Beyond Hollywood
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