Reposted from the DLF's mailing list:

Wyn* doth quoth:

Has anyone ever asked the question why we only make 12 movies a year,
when we have world class pool of actors, cinematographers, writers and
fx artists that has the creative capacity (but not the money) to put
put hollywood to shame?

I ask that question all the time, actually.

... and the answer is that we DON"T have world class screenwriters. At
the very least, we haven't developed our good writers to be world
class. Nor is our directing talent encouraged to become exceptional.

Instead, we spend a few million on making movies that take less than
$200,000 at the box office... and then spend the rest of the time
whinging that our 'americanised' audiences don't like our wonderful
'art'.

That's bullshit.

Our crews (which is most of the people on this list) are, as you say,
amazingly talented and skilled. But they're not being given the
opportunity to work on great Australian movies that let them use their
talent.

I mean, what would you rather work on ? The Matrix? Or Danny Deckchair?
What do you think would push you as a digital artist?

Our industry is suffering because we make shit movies, not because of
the 'gutless corrupt empire of the US'**

Stu Willis

--

* Wyn is a very lovely guy and this post is meant to be in no way disrespectful.
** I don't think our movies are -that- shit but I think we should stop being complacent about the quality of what we're doing. We're a smaller market, with smaller budgets - so we actually have to be making BETTER movies for people to see them. We're pushing uphill and we have to fight every step of the way.