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Notes

Notes on survey methodology

Production data is gathered through contact with production companies and from publicly available sources, while PDV data is gathered through surveying PDV companies.
The following federal and state government funding agencies provide data on titles they have funded and, in the case of state agencies, titles shot and/or post-produced in their state: Screen Australia (including the former Film Finance Corporation Australia and the Australian Film Commission), NSW Film and Television Office, Film Victoria, South Australian Film Corporation, Pacific Film and Television Commission, ScreenWest, Screen Tasmania and Northern Territory Film Office.
Due to tax secrecy laws, no information, including categorisation of projects as Australian, co-production or foreign, has been sourced from Screen Australia’s administration of the Producer Offset or from the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts’ administration of the Location and PDV Offsets.
In some cases, estimates have been made where data was not available.
Foreign projects are included in the survey when a substantial amount is shot in Australia or when PDV work is undertaken in Australia. Where only one or two episodes of a foreign series are shot in Australia or where the spend is less than 10 per cent of the total budget, only the budgets for the episodes shot in Australia are included in the total.
Features with budgets under $500,000 are only included if they have had a screening at a festival or cinema release.
Spending in Australia may include some expenditure on foreign production elements – for example, fees for non-Australian actors or other individuals while working in Australia. Likewise spending in a particular state may include fees for elements from outside the state such as foreign or interstate cast or crew.
When analysing sources of finance, the ABC and SBS are categorised as film and TV industry, rather than as government sources. This reflects industry perception of the public broadcasters as part of the broadcast sector rather than government film agencies. In addition to the federal, state and territory film agencies (listed above), government sources may include direct finance from other government agencies and departments, including the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and the Adelaide and Melbourne Film Festival Funds.
Funding figures from government agencies may not correlate with the survey figures because the survey includes projects according to the start date of principal photography rather than contract dates.
Contributions to TV drama by broadcasters in this survey do not correlate with expenditure reported by the Australian Communications and Media Authority in the Broadcasting Financial Results. This survey reports finance sources in place at the start of production while the BFR reports expenditure by the commercial free-to-air broadcasters on screened programs during the year and includes amortisation costs for programs purchased in previous years and programs purchased after completion. For pay TV, ACMA reports annual expenditure by drama channels on 'eligible Australian drama', including licence fees, production expenses and limited pre-production costs. Expenditure on features may be apportioned across financial years. For both free-to-air and pay TV, the ACMA figures can include expenditure on New Zealand programs, following the ‘Australian content’ definition.
Sketch comedy programs are included in line with ACMA’s definition of TV drama under the Australian Content Standard.
In categorising titles as either mini-series or series, Screen Australia has followed the definitions set out in Division 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.
Series of telemovies are counted by the number of individual titles.
Survey data is updated on an ongoing basis, with the result that some discrepancies with previously published surveys may appear. The discrepancies reflect new information or adjustments to methodology. In the sources of finance sections , the Producer Offset has been allocated to the Australian film/TV industry; however, in the 2007/08 report, it was allocated to government sources (see Australian and co-productions: Feature films: Sources of finance for features and Australian and co-productions: TV drama: Sources of finance for TV drama).
Figures may not total exactly due to rounding.
See About the PDV survey.

About the PDV survey

Companies identified by Screen Australia as providing PDV services for features and TV drama were surveyed, and this data was supplemented with data from production companies gathered from the main survey. PDV is defined as a set of activities rather than a stage in the production process (see Key terms).

To provide a sense of the ongoing business activity of PDV companies, in this section, income has been assigned to the years it was earned, from the time PDV work commenced to the project’s completion. In the rest of the report, all PDV expenditure for foreign PDV-only projects is allocated to the year post-production began; and for Australian and co-production projects, expenditure on PDV is part of the total spend in Australia and allocated to the year principal photography began. Figures, therefore, are not comparable between the two sections.

Note that this data relates to the production of features and TV drama only and so does not cover all PDV activity in Australia. The most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that Australian companies received income of $427.6 million in 2006/07 from the provision of PDV services across all audiovisual production, with 43 per cent accounted for by feature films and TV drama. Other areas of PDV activity include commercials and other TV productions.

See Post, digital and visual effects (PDV) in the Production section of Get the Picture.

Key terms

Total budgets includes all projects that started shooting during the financial year, with the full budget allocated to the date principal photography started; 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.

Spend in Australia is also analysed, as a subset of total budgets; this is particularly relevant for co-productions and foreign productions. Again, all expenditure is allocated to the start date of principal photography – or of PDV work in Australia for foreign PDV-only productions – rather than according to the actual date of spending.

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 (i.e. projects made pursuant to an agreement between the Australian Government or Screen Australia and a similar authority or the government of another country) and other unofficial co-productions, mainly with US companies (there is no co-production treaty with the US).

Australian productions are defined as those under Australian creative control (i.e. where the key elements are predominantly Australian and the project was originated and developed by Australians). This includes projects under Australian creative control that are 100 per cent foreign financed.

Foreign productions are defined as those under foreign creative control, originated and developed by non-Australians. This includes foreign projects with an Australian production company operating in a service capacity.

In-house productions are projects by Australian TV stations where no independent production company is credited as producer or co-producer.

PDV (post-production, digital production and visual effects) refers to those activities that create audio and visual elements for film or TV drama other than by principal photography, pick ups or physical elements such as sets and props and includes animation. It also refers to the manipulation of those elements and includes sound and visual editing, digital effects, creation of computer-generated images (CGI), film laboratory work and duplication services. As such, it includes a variety of activities that not only take place after the shoot but also during the earlier stages of a project’s overall production.

Note Projects defined as having ‘significant Australian content’ for the purposes of the Producer Offset may fall into either the Australian or co-production category. 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. See also Notes on survey methodology.