Launching The Angry Man Series

Its been a while since I've produced anything - 3 years to be exact - but creating The Angry Man Series has been a great way to step back into this role I love. Capping that off has been the experience of launching said series just last week March 3 2015 at 6pmWST.

The launch was always going to be a tricky event for us to manage. How many episodes do we release? Which platforms? Is there potential for return on investment if we put any money into it? Etc, etc. These decisions were based a lot on the previous outcomes of Australian web series launched recently our own gut feelings about how our audience would respond (especially important). In the end, this was the plan prior to the launch:

1. Release all 6 episodes via YouTube, Vimeo and our website (embedded) at the same time March 3 6pmWST
2. Invite respected local media outlets to review the series before March 3
3. Email friends and family about the upcoming date and ask to assist us in sharing the Facebook page with their friends and family
4. Share branded content each day in the lead up to March 3
5. Engage with like-minded comedians and content makers on Twitter
6. Send out a press release a week before the event
7. Liaise with local organisations and filmmaking bodies to ask for assistance in sharing the Facebook page

The result? A small yet solid "opening night" reception to the series, complete with amazing positive feedback from friends and family of the cast and crew, critics' reviews, and other online comments from audience members. Since then, the series has gained more and more viewers and subscribers on YouTube and Vimeo, followers on Facebook and Twitter, and positive feedback from our audience. 

The team (Meg, Aaron and I) are wrapped with how things turned out and so proud of our little team who accomplished the impossible (6 episodes in 2 days??) to produce what is turning out to be a well-rounded little show. 

The Angry Man Series is available via YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook.

Wolf Creek 2: Australia's second attempt at freaking out the Mother Country

I'm not a particularly squeamish person. Growing up on a pig farm, I've seen my fair share of dead animals, maggots, gruesome injuries, etc. Most of the time, what really scares the crap out of me is the unexplained, those gaps in knowledge that allow the imagination to run wild (and your dreams to become nightmares). So it was going to be a hard sell for any horror film to convince me that not only was it scary/horrible/visceral but also realistic. Wolf Creek (2005), did just that for me and I swore never to watch another "true story" based on our Australian outback (a little too close to home). I changed my mind after 6 years when my boyfriend convinced me to hold his hand whilst watching Wolf Creek 2, the sequel to the original box office smash. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you see it, I was very little disturbed by the new Greg McClean feature.

Wolf Creek 2 introduces yet again to that amazing spectacle of a character - Mick Taylor. Mick's been doing just fine for himself after walking away scott-free in last film and has taken up his usual hobbies of hunting pigs, trapping prey, and shooting whatever crosses his pristine Australian land (none of these are animals mind you). Yes, his fastidious attitude towards "Australian pride" is still rampant and its clear from the beginning of the film, after Mick knocks off two German backpackers, that he is not happy with the latest influx of tourists and immigrants. The second and third act follows Ryan, a young British surfer who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he attempts to rescue one of the luckless Germans escape Mick. Ryan inadvertently finds himself caught up in Mick's sick fun with the rest of the film following the two in an extravagant game of "cat and mouse" ending with Mick carefully extracting himself yet again from his wrongdoings, leaving Ryan in the lurch.

The film wouldn't be complete without tons of fake blood; hacksaws and pliers, or big brutish vehicles (this time in the form of a semi-trailer); and for this it delivers well yet too predictably for this cynical viewer. I, like many of my audience constituents, have seen enough gore and violence on YouTube and the news to be truly shocked anymore by just blood and guts. We need real horror - in-your-face, nightmarishly disturbing horror - which just wasn't there in WC2. It may have been the delay between the original and the sequel, the disturbances during production, or the addition of a new writing partner in the form of Aaron Sterns that broke the successful equation the team had so carefully developed in 2005. Either way, I wouldn't recommend this film to those who were die-hard fans of the original lusting for another round of Mick's classic lines and laughter, nor those with a faint stomach. The scene between Mick and the two Germans even managed to make this pig farmer's daughter squeal, just a little.

Why the Australian government won't win the war on online piracy and copyright infringement.

Recent reports came out today speculating on the impact that Attorney General George Brandis' latest anti-piracy proposal will have on the Australian public who were recently deemed by Mumbrella to be "at the top of the world piracy ladder." Online articles today claim the proposal will "force ISPs to take steps to prevent Australians from infringing copyright", "allowing rights holders to pursue legal action to force ISPs to censor websites", and directly from the report itself, "provide an incentive for market participants to work together to address online copyright infringement."

Effectively, the Australian Governments' only resolution to the major issue of Australia's online piracy obsession, is to place a great, big, fat bandage over the whole thing. Here are my reasons why the proposal, and subsequent proposals to fight those who elicit online piracy, will fail.

1.) Its too easy to pirate.
We may not be up there as the most tech-driven countries in the world, but we sure know how to get around ISP blocks, slow download speeds, and blocked access to content. VPN'ing, using proxies, fake accounts, false IP's, are just some of the ways Australians are getting around that whole risk of being caught downloading illegally. Its "virtually" (pun intended) impossible to track a user's identity online these days if they don't want to be found, hence why our Attorney General has not attempted to prosecute the individuals who are responsible for online piracy and instead, go after the ISPs.

2.) There is no alternative and therefore, no incentive for individuals to stop pirating.
The biggest flaw in the proposal from Brandis is the line "provide an incentive for market participants to work together to address online copyright infringement." This should have been the only focus of the proposal and is clearly something the Australian Government has not even considered at this point, despite all the committee meetings and tax-payer funded Premium Skype calls with Hollywood. The following infographic highlights the exact reasons why individuals download illegally and should have been what the proposal responded to:

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2010/05/07/1225863/666012-news-com-au-illegal-downloads-survey-results.gif

As you can see, cost and adequate access to content are the main reasons behind why people download illegally.

Here is how we square up currently against these statements:

Image courtesy of:http://reckoner.com.au/2014/07/watching-tv-in-australia-the-australian-delay-under-the-microscope/

AVERAGE COST OF MOVIE TICKETS

Image courtesy of:http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/statistics/wcboprices.aspx

Image courtesy of:http://reckoner.com.au/2014/07/watching-tv-in-australia-the-australian-delay-under-the-microscope/

The following infographics should also be considered in this regard as evidence of the fact that Australians are not abject to paying for their content. Rather, they just want it to be a fair playing ground and not be forced to accept the lacklustre standards the Australian media and government enforce.

Image courtesy of:http://www.news.com.au/technology/internet-pirates-say-theyd-pay-for-legal-downloads/story-e6frfro0-1225863187697

There is clearly a disconnect between what the Australian Government has proposed and what the actual purpose of an online piracy overhaul should be. Rather than trying to reserve a few million each year for the major studios, the government should be focusing on major initiatives that fulfill long term revenue raising for these companies, not short term gain. To be honest, these are the only two points that need to be considered right now. The Australian government Hollywood studios cannot expect that Australia is suddenly going to find its moral compass and magically stop downloading illegally. Nor should they expect that targeting their ISPs or those who facilitate online piracy will work either. There will always be a work around. There will always be a reason to download illegally unless, we find an alternative. I call upon Attorney General George Brandis to consider this statement and really think about what could be done to resolve this issue in the long run, not just for the term of his position in Parliament.