in the archive
Enterprise Funding approvals 2012

Bearcage (ACT)

Michael Tear; Serge Ou
$400,000
www.bearcage.com.au

Bearcage Pty Ltd is an award-winning integrated media production company with more than 20 years of operation. The company has also won or been nominated for a number of ACT and national business awards, this includes winning the recent 2012 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Award in the Arts and Entertainment category. Bearcage’s production slate is characterised by narrative-driven documentaries and factual series, with a mix of domestic and international broadcasters.

Recently Bearcage extended their move into the international sphere to continue the company’s model of diversifying into new markets to build revenue growth. The company has established strong connections with China and attended the Australia-China Film Industry Forums in 2010 and 2012. They have recently implemented a pan-Asian strategy and are in discussions with Chinese broadcasters and producers on a number of projects. Recently Bearcage announced the first formal co-production for a documentary television series between Australia and China Central Television’s CCTV-9 Documentary Channel – titled The Story of Australia.

Enterprise funding will enable the company to intensify development and marketing activities and appoint staff with specialised language and business skills in its implementation of a pan-Asian strategy.
 

Joined Up Films (WA)

Daniel Brown; Jacqueline Willinge; Anthony Willinge  
$675,000
www.joinedup.com.au

Joined Up Films is a media production company focused on developing, producing and exporting returnable factual television formats and series. Joined Up Films also produces one-off factual programs and offers production consultancy services and facilities to third parties. The company brings together the diverse and complementary skills of principals, Dan Brown and Jacqueline Willinge, who together have more than 30 years’ television and business experience.

The company developed and produced the highly acclaimed new factual format Who’s Been Sleeping in My House? The first series which aired in late 2011 on ABC1, launched the television career of new Australian presenter (and archaeologist) Adam Ford and a second series was commissioned for production in 2012. The format has also been optioned to a number of international territories.

With the assistance of Enterprise funding, Joined Up will fast-track the development, marketing and export of its returnable factual formats. To achieve growth, Joined Up will augment its management team to free up its principals and bring in specialist industry consultants to form a non-executive advisory board (chaired by Anthony Willinge) to support the executive directors in extending their reach and promoting the Joined Up brand around the world with an emphasis on Asian territories. In addition, the company will provide a world-class mentor program ‘Factuality’ – designed to increase the ability and talent in the Joined Up team and the Australian industry to compete on the world factual entertainment stage.
 

Jungleboys (NSW)

Jason Burrows; Trent O’Donnell; Phil Lloyd   
$700,000

Jungleboys has grown rapidly over the last seven years to emerge as a new player in the production of primetime TV comedy, TV commercials, branded content and online comedy. The company is now listed as one of the top commercials production companies in Australia. The move from commercials into television production has been a natural progression. Trent and Phil won the Best Comedy AFI Award in 2009 and 2010 for Review with Myles Barlow. Review with Myles Barlow has been licensed internationally including to Comedy Central in the US. Under their company, they have created the ABC1 comedy series A Moody Christmas, currently on air, which has also garnered major interest in the US. They are also co-producers of the Guesswork/ABC comedy series Problems which will go to air this month on ABC1.

The team recently launched an online comedy channel, www.jungleboys.tv, to enable Jungleboys to experiment with new material and to work with different talent. The intention is for the online comedy channel to be a lab for Australia’s best comic creatives and also to run a regular sketch competition designed to discover talent from within as well as outside the screen industry.

Enterprise funding will assist in the development of TV series, brand-sponsored programming, as well as development of the online comedy channel. It will also provide funding to establish a full-time development and research team who will develop and produce world-class TV and online content and mentor others to do the same. The company is also interested in diversifying its niche to include the production of other forms of content.
 

WTFN Holdings (VIC/NSW)

Daryl Talbot; Steve Oemcke; Frank Dunphy; Andrew Logie-Smith
$400,000
www.wtfn.com.au

The WTFN Group has been an active participant in the Australian production community since 2001. Since this time it has built an enviable reputation for quality production, a library of more than 10,000 hours of HD vision, a catalogue of more than 400 hours of completed programs and an active development slate of more than 50 original program concepts. In 2012 alone, WTFN will produce in excess of 100 hours of completed programming for distribution both domestically and overseas.

The core focus of the WTFN expansion is through the exploitation of its existing catalogue rights, the development of services for third-party rights distribution, the exploitation of its more than 10,000 hour HD vision library, the development and exploitation of its new media digital rights catalogue, the broadening of WTFN’s current genre-based exposure and the growth of its core domestic and international production base through partnering with emerging and unaligned producers.

Enterprise Program funding will assist WTFN to launch an international sales company. The planned growth in WTFN’s business will open new revenue opportunities and deepen existing ones, strengthening the overall WTFN business platform.

FEATURES

Jessica Brentnall

Magic Films Pty Ltd
$150,000
Jessica Brentnall (Sleeping Beauty) will pursue development of new projects utilising key Australian creative talent. The funds will also allow Jessica to expand her international knowledge of financing and distribution of independent films.

Angie Fielder

Aquarius Films
$150,000
Feature Enterprise funding will provide Angie Fielder (Wish You Were Here) with overhead and early development support in advancing Aquarius Films’ current slate of feature film projects. 

Nicole O’Donohue

Wildflower Films
$100,000
Nicole O’Donohue (Griff the Invisible) is currently developing both feature film and documentary projects. Feature Enterprise funds will enable Nicole to diversify the slate, attend markets and investigate new and emerging marketing models.

Nelson Woss

Woss Group Film Productions Pty Ltd
$150,000
Feature Enterprise funding will provide Nelson Woss (Red Dog) with the working capital to secure projects and personnel, and to build on marketplace and investor relationships from the success of his last project.