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Drama funding revamp at Screen Australia

Funding body takes an agnostic approach to story development, putting film, TV & online projects together.

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Screen Australia is restructuring its Drama funding guidelines with a new Screen Story Development putting film, television and online projects into one of two program strands – the Generate Fund or the Premium Fund.

It will replace the current Story Development strand from July.

The Generate Fund will be for lower budget projects with an emphasis on new and emerging talent or experienced talent wanting to take a creative risk. There will be no eligibility requirements for this fund.

The Premium Fund will be for higher budget projects from creatives who have had critical and/or commercial success. This will be for projects that demonstrate “ambition and scale” with a focus on commercial viability of the project.

“The proposed development guidelines represent a seismic shift for early career creators – doing away with barriers based on eligibility credits, distribution platform, when funding is available and even administrative barriers in the application process itself,” said Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason. “We expect experienced creators will also welcome the ability to apply for multiple phases of development on a single application, and the removal of funding caps.”

“In proposing these changes we are seeking to ensure that our funding is accessible to the best projects on the platform and budget that best suits that story, with an emphasis on supporting talent who have a strong idea and a clear pathway to an audience. We expect the proposed changes will increase the diversity of screen stories being told and who is telling them.”

“Bottom line is the magic happens in the development stage – it’s where the concept, the characters and the script all come to life, and this is the crucial point where Screen Australia can assist. I’m confident the proposed guidelines will empower Australia’s talented screen creatives to do their best work.”

Screen Australia is currently seeking industry feedback until Thursday 31 May, before coming into effect on 1 July 2018.

More info is at Screen Australia.

4 Responses

  1. I think a good move would be that if you were getting money from the ABC you couldn’t apply for money from Screen Australia. Would keep things moving quicker in both camps and maybe result in the ABC actually paying for a few things outright more often, which is very rare.

    1. Yes there seems little point in having the Government funded Screen Australia fund the Government funded ABC to make drama. The ABC spends 2.6% of its $1.03b dollar budget on comedies and dramas. Commercial TV spends about 5%.

      1. Seems to me that anything that could discourage the ABC’s default setting from being ‘we’ll pay this much, you need to to get the rest from other people’ on every budget they do would be great for the Australian TV industry. It’d be great if they just actually paid for television.

      2. “Commercial TV” doesn’t also run multiple national & local radio networks or run their own major on-line news/information services. They were also extremely late to the game with streaming services, and are continuously trying hard to have those crippled too.

        Seems to me that “Commercial TV” prefers its cosy little ologopoly, and cries “unfair! unfair!” like spoilt little children asking the government to protect them rather than face up to actual competitors on their own merit…

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