American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 140

Upping the Ante

For

Down Under

shooting

all over Australia
and South East Asia...

and Television Office says
financial incentive

makers is

its major

to overseas

film¬

payroll tax rebate for
at Fox Studios in

productions based
Sydney. However,

a new

initiative

called the

Regional Filming Fund,
which aims to attract production to
rural areas by offering grants of up to
AUS

$50,000 to offset filming costs,
on Jan. 1, 2001. All

will take effect

film

agencies welcome inquires
foreign filmmakers planning to

state

from

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New South Wales

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Fax:

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film in Australia and offer free assis¬
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The existence of

Hollywoodquality studios has enabled bigbudget films to be shot in Australia
using Australian talent. Andrew
Mason, the Australian producer of
The Matrix, said the film would most

likely have been "parked" had it not
been for the cost-effectiveness of

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shooting at Fox Studios-Sydney.
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over

deduction to
financial years,

two

is the

Sydney's main state tax benefit
payroll-tax incentive for films

made

at Fox

Studios.

Hollywood-financed films are
landing in Australia more frequently,
attracted by the locations and the
comparatively cheap cost of produc¬
tion, as well as the favorable exchange
rate. According to Victoria Buchan of
Fox Studios-Sydney, the current
exchange rate means that American
films can save roughly 10 percent by
filming in Australia.
Many
studio
managers
acknowledge that facilities such as
Fox Studios-Sydney are luring work
to

Australia that would otherwise

have gone to another country. Most
of the principal photography on

George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II
Fox Studios-Sydney this
summer, and Episode III is slated for

took place at

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production there
to
Episode II

well. According
producer Rick

McCallum, the film's
from 60 to 70. "By

crew

numbered

normal Australian

American Cinematographer - September 2000

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