Funding approvals
IN THE ARCHIVE
2017-2018 Enterprise Ideas

• CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL MEDIA ASSOCIATION (CAAMA)

Established in 1982, Alice Springs-based CAAMA is the largest media organisation in Central Australia. It has played a key role in developing Indigenous voices and talent, including Erica Glynn, Warwick Thornton, Steven McGregor, Danielle MacLean and Rachel Perkins.

Enterprise Ideas funding will provide CAAMA with the resources to work with a business planning consultant to produce an organisational direction and plan, with the primary objective of achieving ongoing sustainability.

• CURIOUSWORKS INCORPORATED

CuriousWorks is a Western Sydney-based arts company which celebrates and interrogates Australia’s cultural diversity. Using film, theatre, digital spaces and education, they work with local communities to tell their own stories. CuriousWorks focuses on talent development and providing pathways to build a career in the arts for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, First Nations people, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

CuriousWorks’ Behind Closed Doors initiative is a leading model of story development, placing community partnerships at the heart of the process and building upon this strength with high-level industry support. The program is designed to connect the most exciting local storytellers with experienced industry professionals. They will seek eight storytelling talents and two producers from Western Sydney to work with Blake Ayshford and Emerald Productions principals Sheila Jayadev and Lyn Norfor to develop their stories through a series of workshops, presentations and one-on-ones, with a view to developing both content and careers.

• FILM OUTREACH AUSTRALIA

Film Outreach Australia, based on NSW’s Mid North Coast, is the sister organisation for film festival and screen culture collective Screenwave. They have identified an untapped demand for Australian content in the regional areas in Australia, who have not had easy access to conventional cinema experiences. They subsequently developed an effective and efficient model to meet this demand, extending the life of local feature films that can be rolled out across the country.

Their Regional Screen Activation Program proposal seeks to extend this model and offer it to other areas around Australia by building a network of regional screening venues and licensing programs curated by Screenwave. This will extend not only to conventional screening venues, but also smaller communities who have no access to cinemas by using council and community halls.

• GUESSWORK DISTRIBUTION

Established production company Guesswork Television, led by seasoned comedy producer Kevin Whyte, have experienced considerable success in recent times with shows Rosehaven, Please Like Me and Get Krack!n, alongside developing talent such as Josh Thomas and Celia Pacquola through their sister talent management company Token. In September 2017, they launched a distribution arm and engaged consultant Carly Hardman to expand their presence and connections in the UK and Europe.

The Guesswork Global Development and Distribution Strategy proposal is designed to pivot the company to become increasingly globally-led in their approach, further developing international financing for locally produced programs. Guesswork intends to establish themselves in the global market in order to develop, produce and distribute quality scripted and unscripted content for global audiences.

• MADE UP STORIES

A partnership between one of Australia’s most successful producing exports, Bruna Papandrea, and her local producing partner Jodi Matterson, Made Up Stories is a recently formed company whose first onscreen production credit will be Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale.

Enterprise Ideas funding will support the company to develop a slate of six to eight optioned Australian properties sought from Australian female authors, with a focus on strong and complex female leads. This funding will allow the company to fast-track their development and provide a new pathway for the Australian sector international talent, finance and relationships. 

• SCREENWORKS

Screenworks, based on the NSW far north coast and led by General Manager Ken Crouch, has evolved in recent times to become a leading screen industry service provider. They successfully implemented their Gender Matters: Brilliant Careers funded initiative The Athena Project across regional Australia and partnered with Every Cloud Productions to run a script development workshop for the ABC iview drama Deadlock.

Their Evolution proposal aims to expand on this recent success by running script development labs for three projects from various production companies that will be regional in location and employ local talent. This initiative will offer regional people the opportunity to work with larger city-based companies, whilst also providing those companies with the chance to uncover new talent and voices. State agencies Create NSW, Screen Queensland and Screen Territory have offered their support to run these three labs, with a second stage planned to broaden Screenworks' connections with regional communities nationally.

• START VR

Start VR is a Sydney and Los Angeles-based VR production company established in 2015 that specializes in both creative original narratives and branded entertainment. Its project VR Noir: A Day Before the Night is one of the few Australian-made narrative VR projects to have gained international praise and exposure at high profile events such as Fantasia Montreal, Vivid Ideas Sydney, MIFF, the Proto Awards and ACMI Game Changer.

The VR Artist Residency proposal is a 12-month pilot program that will support Start VR’s work at its Sydney studio in an effort to foster new talent in the rapidly growing VR industry. The program will invite two creative practitioners, in a residency capacity, to explore the creative and technological possibilities of immersive storytelling.