The Gold Coast on Screen: Children's Television Selling Brand Australia In
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PRODUCTIONS / MARKETS / STRATEGIES THE GOLD COAST ON SCREEN: CHILDREN’S TELEVISION SELLING BRAND AUSTRALIA IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS ANNA POTTER AND RACHEL DAVIS Name Anna Potter ABSTRACT Academic centre Australian Research Council DECRA For many countries, children’s television plays a vital Fellow, University of the Sunshine Coast role in national cultural representation. Australia with E-mail address [email protected] (corresponding author) a population of 22m people has had state supports including local content quotas for children’s television Name Rachel Davis since the late 1970s. Despite its important role in national Academic centre independent children’s television producer cultural representation Australian children’s television— E-mail address [email protected] particularly high cost, scripted drama—has always been viewed internationally. Indeed, ever since iconic drama KEYWORDS Skippy (1967), Australian children’s television has relied Children’s television; landscape; screen production; screen on international investment and sales to cover its costs. policy; live action drama; beach location. Thus producers have become adept at using Australian landscapes to create a distinctive and appealing ‘Brand Australia’ for international audiences. 27 SERIES VOLUME III, Nº 1, SPRING 2017: 27-40 DOI 10.6092/issn.2421-454X/7140 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TV SERIAL NARRATIVES ISSN 2421-454X LOCATIONS IN TELEVISION DRAMA SERIES PRODUCTIONS / MARKETS / STRATEGIES > ANNA POTTER, RACHEL DAVIS THE GOLD COAST ON SCREEN: CHILDREN’S TELEVISION SELLING BRAND AUSTRALIA IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS For many countries, including Australia and the UK, children’s budgets. Despite the importance of beach locations for these television is believed to play a vital role in national cultural purposes, the beach as location is only one element of a screen representation. Children are seen as deserving of locally pro- production ecology that is also affected by the availability of duced television that entertains them while reflecting famil- local funding subsidies, access to production infrastructure iar situations, accents and locations back to them. In order to and creative labor, currency fluctuations, and creative decision support the production of culturally specific drama series that making by individual writers, directors and producers. Indeed, situate children in their own culture, Australia—with a small the complex nature of the children’s TV production ecology in population of 22 million—has had state supports including Australia is mirrored in the complexity of the children’s drama tax breaks, direct subsidies and content quotas on commercial series it engenders. These series ultimately inhabit a liminal television since the late 1970s. Despite the acknowledged im- space themselves, between the national and the international, portance of the local, children’s television in Australia—partic- carefully designed to appeal to their most important markets ularly high cost, scripted, drama series—relies on international outside Australia, and simultaneously inward facing, as they investment and sales to cover the majority of its production seek to reflect their country of origin back to its youngest au- budgets. This can impact its look, style and content, with in- diences. This state of creative tension is exacerbated at times ternationally appealing, local elements foregrounded. While by international broadcaster demands to reduce culturally bush landscapes were popular in early Australian shows like specific language in order to make these series more accessi- Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (1967–1970), the majority of recent ble to their own audiences, when cultural specificity is the very children’s drama focuses on the beach, a liminal and iconic loca- quality needed for producers to attract local commissions and tion with considerable appeal in European television markets. funding subsidies at home. In this article we examine the aesthetic and economic Four case studies: H20: Just Add Water (2006–2010), advantages that Australian beach locations and waterside Mortified(2006–2007), Lockie Leonard (2007–2010) and Dance settings offer to producers of children’s live action drama Academy (2010–2013) will be used to illustrate how the con- series. Our examination draws on semi-structured face-to- nections between Australian broadcasting policy, producers’ face interviews with broadcasters and producers, and textual aesthetic and creative considerations and the availability of analysis of Australian policy documents, industry publications infrastructure and labor frequently result in the foreground- and live action drama series. The research presented here ing of the beach and other waterside locations in Australian represents some early findings from a three-year Australian children’s drama. These series were selected because all were Research Council-funded project examining key global trends produced in response to state demand, generated either by in the production and distribution of contemporary children’s quotas on Australia’s commercial networks or the 2009 in- television, after a period of rapid industrial and technologi- troduction of the country’s first free to air children’s channel cal change. Working with industry collaboration, the project by public service broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting engages with the production ecology (Steemers 2010) of chil- Corporation (ABC). All were set in beach or waterside lo - dren’s television; that is the industrial, economic, creative and cations, all received direct funding from funding agency regulatory influences that shape its creation. In following the Screen Australia and all were made with the support of the actors—the producers, broadcasters and screen agencies— Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF), which to gauge their impact on the production and distribution of was established in 1983 as a national children’s media pro- Australian children’s television series in global markets, the duction and policy hub (Edgar 2006). research is situated in a production studies model within a In addition to these common elements, the case study se- political economy tradition. ries were all commissioned during the mid-to late 2000s, at a Our examination of four successful children’s drama series time when Australia’s commercial networks were prepared to reveals the ways in which producers use identifiably Australian invest in high quality children’s drama to fill their quota obliga- waterside locations in their children’s television series. In do- tions for 32 hours of locally made, first run children’s (C) drama ing so they manage to create live action drama that achieves each year (ACMA, 2016). All were critical and commercial suc- local regulatory objectives, by reflecting Australian locations, cesses for their producers, winning national and international stories and social norms back to Australian children, while si- awards and selling well in global media markets while fulfill- multaneously appealing to international broadcasters whose ing the goals of national cultural representation in Australia. sales revenues are a crucial component of their production And yet, we argue that while spectacular beach locations 28 SERIES VOLUME III, Nº 1, SPRING 2017: 27-40 DOI 10.6092/issn.2421-454X/7140 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TV SERIAL NARRATIVES ISSN 2421-454X LOCATIONS IN TELEVISION DRAMA SERIES PRODUCTIONS / MARKETS / STRATEGIES > ANNA POTTER, RACHEL DAVIS THE GOLD COAST ON SCREEN: CHILDREN’S TELEVISION SELLING BRAND AUSTRALIA IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS remain appealing to international buyers, and location and pealing to international audiences. The producers’ strategies funding subsidies still exist, the live action drama series for for producing identifiably Australian drama series for export which Australian children’s television producers have a global markets were highly successful; Skippy the Bush Kangaroo reputation for excellence are under increasing threat. Their sold in 128 countries including England, Netherlands, Canada, production levels have plummeted since the period examined Japan, and Belgium. The series was dubbed into 25 languag- here, due largely to commercial broadcasters’ reluctance to es and viewed by more than 300 million people a week, the invest in local children’s content at a time of digital disruption first time a uniquely Australian production had sold so well to their business models. Animation has now largely replaced internationally (Moran 1985; Gibson 2014). the live action drama that showcased Australian locations to Skippy’s success did not, however, immediately lead to a both national and international audiences, meaning the beach boom in local screen production. Indeed high-quality, chil- location as signifier of Australian culture and lifestyle is far dren’s programs remained in short supply in 1960s Australia, less visible in the children’s drama series being produced now despite a 1957 recommendation from the Australian for national and international audiences. Broadcasting Control Board (ABCB) that regular supplies of educational, cultural and religious programs should be made available to children. Without content quotas, however, the 1. AUSTRALIAN CULTURAL POLICY AND commercial networks were able to ignore the ABCB’s guide- A CHILDREN’S SCREEN PRODUCTION lines and use cheap US imports or inexpensive studio-based INDUSTRY shows sponsored by biscuit and soft drink manufacturers to attract the child audience. The ABCB criticized the networks’