How Screen Australia is stalling small films
Patrick Fischer is the managing director of Creativity Capital. He is based in the United Kingdom and is a fan of Australian filmmakers.
About three years ago Fischer’s company lent more than $US1 million to a Queensland production company, headed by Steve Jaggi, which was the first local company to resume production after the pandemic lockdowns.
Over this period The Steve Jaggi Company was responsible for more than $30 million in production expenditure, on titles for Netflix, Disney and Network Ten.
Fischer lent The Steve Jaggi Company the money in the expectation that the project would receive the producer offset – a legislated tax incentive for screen production that rebates producers between 30 and 40 per cent of their production costs.
Based on the scheme’s 15 years of operation, both producer and financier had an expectation that the loan would be repaid within two or three months of the application being lodged.
“We were waiting to be paid out and then we start hearing from Steve that Screen Australia are short-staffed, and we said ‘Well, these things happen in the film industry’,” Fischer says.
“But then it became chronic. All of a sudden, we heard it could be six months, or another year, and when this is sprung on you as a financier this is going to wreak havoc on your deals.”
As a result of the time taken by Screen Australia to process Jaggi’s offset application, the loan from Fischer’s company was so late in being repaid that under the contract it triggered penalty conditions where default interest kicked in.
“We were trying to be nice because we could see it was beyond Steve’s control,” Fischer says, “but he was faced with the prospect of paying more money to keep the money out there for longer, and this was money that he didn’t need to pay.”
Creativity Capital helps Madame Blanc uncover new mysteries
Creativity Capital is co-financing season 2 of the Channel 5 hit show, which will include a Christmas Special. The creator of the series, Sally Lindsay, will return to reprise her role of Jean White. Sally has also joined forces again with Sue Vincent, who will also return on screen as Gloria Beaushaw, to co-write the second series.
Sally Lindsay said: “The team and I were overwhelmed with the amazing response to The Madame Blanc Mysteries last year. Sue and I were thrilled to get the go-ahead to create seven more mysteries in the beautiful sunshine of Sainte Victoire. We were even more delighted to create a Christmas special as Christmas television has always been a highlight of the television year for me.”