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Look out for look both ways
By Stephanie Secomb
It won the judges' vote at the 2004 Queensland Literary Awards. It won the audience vote at the 2005 Adelaide Film Festival and the Discovery Award at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.
When Look Both Ways hits the cinemas, it's sure to win your vote as well.
This debut feature from acclaimed writer and director of short films, Sarah Watt, follows the stories of seven people as they grapple with life-changing events over a scorchingly hot weekend.
As the paths of these strangers intersect and intertwine, their secrets filter out—a potential sacking, a devastating diagnosis, an unplanned pregnancy, a life cut short.
One of the highlights of Look Both Ways is the innovative use of hand-painted animated sequences that bring to life the inner world of Meryl, a painter who pictures disaster at every turn. Sarah developed the technique in her short films and uses it here to capture the contrast between Meryl's imagined calamities and the external reality.
‘I think it's how most people go through life, presenting an external appearance of coping while inside they're thinking each day “Holy cow! We're all going to die!”,' Watt says.
‘I set out to make a romantic comedy, but the stuff of most people's lives includes what we think of as tragedy. Look Both Ways ended up a bit of both, I guess.'
It is ultimately an uplifting tale. Stars William McInnes and Justine Clarke take us through a range of emotions as they respond to their personal crises in ways that are romantic and tragic, intimate and universal.
The contributions from a talented cast, hard-working crew and an inspired director made Bridget Ikin a happy producer.
‘ The making of Look Both Ways has been a remarkably enjoyable process, full of the pleasure of working with a committed, creative team,' she says.
Film-making doesn't happen by itself though. Even the best creative team needs that other essential ingredient—money. Australian Film Commission (AFC) development funds and Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) production funds supported this production.
Both agencies are supported by the Australian Government and received funding increases in the 2005–06 Budget. The AFC will use its new funds to develop scriptwriters, help short film producers move into feature production, and increase access to Australian films across the country. The FFC will have more resources for projects with high levels of creative and technical input.
For information on the Australian Film Commission see www.afc.gov.au and for the Film Finance Corporation see www.ffc.gov.au
Film production investment scheme extended
Australian filmmakers will benefit from greater support from private investors as a result of an Australian Government decision to extend the pilot Film Licensed Investment Company (FLIC) scheme.
The decision, announced as part of the Government's 2004 election commitments and confirmed in this year's budget, provides investors with the opportunity to purchase shares in a company licensed to raise funds for investment in a range of Australian film and television productions. This means that investment risk is spread across a number of productions, rather than one project.
Shareholders will also receive the benefit of a 100 per cent income tax deduction in the year shares are purchased.
The scheme will allow one licensee to raise concessional capital capped at $10 million in each of the 2005–06 and 2006–07 financial years, injecting up to $20 million into the local independent production sector. The concessional capital raising will begin from the date of issue of the licence and conclude on 30 June 2007.
The FLIC 2005 scheme follows a pilot scheme introduced in 1999 to test new methods for the Australian Government and the Australian film and television industry to work together to raise investment for local film production.
The Minister for the Arts and Sport has issued a call for applications for the new FLIC licence, with a closing date of 23 September 2005. For further information on how the FLIC scheme operates see the relevant links at www.dcita.gov.au/arts/film_digital or write to film.info@dcita.gov.au