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Screen Australia’s drama production survey continues the research published by the Australian Film Commission since 1990, tracking production of feature films and TV drama programs (mini-series, telemovies and series/serials) by financial year.
The survey covers all Australian and co-production titles made each year, as well as foreign titles if they are shot (or substantially shot) in Australia. See Definitions for definitions of ‘Australian’, ‘co-production’ and ‘foreign’.
Data on foreign productions carrying out post, digital or visual effects (PDV) work in Australia without shooting here is also available from 2005/06 onwards and is presented separately to allow ongoing comparison with historical production data.
Feature films and TV dramas represent about 20 per cent of all audiovisual production in Australia. Other areas of activity include documentaries, light entertainment, commercials, music videos, corporate video and TV production such as sport, news and current affairs. See Get the Picture Online for details.
Analysis of ‘total budgets’ includes all projects that started shooting during the financial year, with the full budget allocated to the date principal photography starts; budgets are not apportioned across the duration of the project. This indicator is not reported for foreign PDV-only productions as the Australian work may represent only a small proportion of the overall budget.
As a subset of ‘total budgets’, the amount spent in Australia is also analysed; this is particularly relevant for co-productions and foreign productions. Again, all expenditure is allocated to the date principal photography or the date PDV work in Australia begins rather than according to the actual date of spending.
Note that in this research, ‘co-productions’ are defined as projects where creative control is shared between Australian and foreign partners and there is a mix of Australian and foreign elements in the key creative positions. This includes both official co-productions (ie projects made pursuant to an agreement between the Australian Government and the government of another country) and other unofficial co-productions, mainly with US companies (there is no co-production treaty with the US).
Because official co-productions may be classified as ‘Australian’ for the purposes of tax incentives and Australian content regulation applying to broadcasters, in most cases the report discusses local and co-production projects as a combined slate.
