Rosemary Blight: Kicking Goals | FilmInk

Over the past two decades, Rosemary Blight, Kylie du Fresne, Ben Grant and Cass O’Connor’s Goalpost Pictures has cemented itself as one of Australia’s leading production companies.

In those years, Blight has shepherded hits across both TV and film including Black Snow, Upgrade, The Sapphires, The Invisible Man and I Am Woman, to name a few.

The company has just released their much-anticipated film, Carmen starring Paul Mescal in the US, with an Australian released planned for the middle of the year via Madman.

FilmInk caught up with Blight to coincide with Screen Producers Australia’s Screen Forever conference.

How has the feature market changed, from your perspective?

“It’s certainly changed in independent financing. A lot of the planks of independent financing that we relied on five years ago have disappeared. So, there is no ancillary, the television market has been replaced by the streaming market. The streamers have moved from buying a whole lot of films to buying just one big one. So, for independent films, it’s constantly in a state of flux. People are very, very risk-averse. So, budgets are seriously being challenged, which of course is very hard as well, because with the increase in crew rates, which of course everyone should get – I’m not saying they shouldn’t go up – but you try and balance that with a very, very conservative film market. That’s the biggest thing, how you put the planks together now.

“Films which would’ve had distribution going into Cannes, competition films, don’t have US distribution in place. It’s a whole different world. And, new players have merged with the rightful downfall of the Weinstein Company. You’ve got the rise of what A24 has been doing, there’s some really exciting things happening. It’s tough, but when has it not been tough? You’ve got to believe that there’s still a theatrical proposition, which I do. I think it has to be incredibly exciting and fresh to have a theatrical proposition. If it’s not really distinctive enough and fresh enough and different enough to have a theatrical life, then it doesn’t necessarily mean you can pick up your budget in other ways. That is the challenge. Our films have to be stronger, they have to be fresher, and they’ve got to be budget-conscious.”

Are you optimistic despite these challenges?

“Yeah, I am. Goalpost has always been involved in film and television. And now we don’t really distinguish between them because I think that the screens have merged. But we still have a great love for the theatrical potential. If we’ve got a project which has theatrical potential, we want to run for it. And there is nothing more exciting and nothing greater than to be in a room of people and watching a movie together and experience it together. And whether it’s a movie we make or just being part of someone else’s beautiful work, and sitting in it is just an experience which I still think cannot be replaced. And there is still business to be had and there’s still distributors in Australia, and there’s still international film sales agents. So, there is a business, it’s just that you should always go in being very clear on who your audience is. You really have to scrutinise what you are making.”

Goalpost have traditionally largely focused on independent features. Are you looking more towards series?

“Yeah. Last year, we produced Black Snow for Stan and All3Media and for Sundance Now. That did really, really well for everyone involved. It’s sold really well, and it was a great experience. It was incredibly rewarding. We worked with some great creative talent.  Lucas Taylor, the creator, is really smart. It’s really exciting to see him emerge out of the blocks as a serious Australian creator.

“We’re just in the final stages of post on Amazon movie Five Blind Dates, which was the first Amazon Original made in Australia. We’ve got the IP that we made into a film, which we’re turning into a series. So yeah, television is an important part of our business. But again, it’s around the stories we want to tell and the stories that come to us and that we respond to.”

What did you learn from Black Snow’s success?

“I learned that good Australian stories still have a place and an audience will come to them. Stan’s audience is quite broad and they came to it and they responded to it. Black Snow had something to say, its underlying story was about blackbirding, but still an audience responded to it. And I think what Lucas Taylor does very well, and what we really responded to, is essentially it was a mystery and had all those traditional tropes, but it had something to say underneath it.

“You can still Trojan Horse the story, which is sort of what Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson and Wayne Blair did with The Sapphires. It was a story about the stolen generation with a whole lot of soul music, with a really stellar soundtrack. I don’t think we should dismiss those; those genres are there for a reason. We could tell a story underneath Black Snow, which a lot of people didn’t know about. And, that it worked was a great relief.”

Are you looking to do more with Stan?

“We really loved working with Stan. And yes, we are conjuring something up together and they were really good partners. Amanda Duthie (Stan’s Head of Scripted), she’s a very smart commissioner. We’ve got some really smart commissioners in this country. Sally Riley’s another one at the ABC. And the marketing team at Stan, they really got behind Black Snow. It was everywhere. An independent film can survive if someone puts the money in. If it’s a good film and people put money behind it, audiences will know it’s there and they’ll come to it. And that’s what Stan did with Black Snow. They put the money into the marketing. There was nothing that was left out, from billboards to advertising, from editorial for online and digital. They told the audience it was there and the audience watched it. So, I really respect what they did.”

Have you been pleased with the US reception to Carmen?

Carmen is something different, it’s a dance movie. It’s an exquisitely beautiful expression of love and female power through movement. We’ve had great lovers and great haters, but I think that when you make a film, which is this distinct, it is going to divide. But we’ve only had three days and it’s only on in New York and LA, so far so good… It’s a really exquisite theatrical experience. I can’t wait for people to see it here. It’s like the days of independent movies, when you didn’t know what to expect and it will take you to an unexpected place. It was a really incredible experience to be part of a movie by one of the world’s greatest choreographers [Benjamin Millepied].

“(It’s with Sony Classics in the US), they’re the original independent US distributors, who are still doing it, who are about creative talent, who are about the director. I admire them immensely that they back these films in and they still distribute independent movies of all sorts.

“Madman are releasing in Australia. We’re very grateful that we’ve got them involved. They just breathe film, talk cinema, understand cinema, they just want to discover new talent.”

Goalpost has specialised in bringing international talent to Australia (Invisible Man, Upgrade). Will that continue to be a focus?

“Yeah. for us, it’s all about who the core talent is. So, Leigh Whannell is obviously a massive talent. If you get a phone call from Leigh Whannell, do you want to be part of his movie? There was no question. And through that experience, of course we got to work with Jason Blum. I think however long you’ve been around, you should always be around people who do things at their best and excellently. We learned a lot from those experiences. We are really proud of the movies. They’re different, they’re bold. It really depends on the director and both those films came through the director.”

Both Invisible Man and Upgrade had strong global appeal. How important is to have global appeal built in?

“It’s really important. Australia’s still not big enough. We don’t have enough people. Our market’s just not big enough to survive on its own. I admire companies like Causeway who make these incredibly  skilled independent, beautiful films. We’re the same I guess, but we’ve got a slightly different type of slate. But, without the international market, you just don’t survive. Independent movies are not about making fees at the front. It’s got to be about what you can get out the backend, especially as the budgets are being squeezed. And the market is so much thinner than it was. So yeah, it’s vital. It doesn’t have to be generic. But, it’s got to say something universal.”

All of Goalpost’s productions have been quite different. Is there a type of project that you have yet to do which you would like to?

“I’d love to do like a really big international thriller, so those people out there with a big international thriller, it’s an area that we haven’t done a lot of and would really like to.

“I think my creative business partner, Kylie du Fresne and I talk about how we’re very agnostic about genre. We just fall in love with projects. I’m doing a project at the moment that is sort of comedy horror and it’s not really a world that I’ve ever seen myself in, but the writer is just amazing and he’s talented and he’s got such a crazy head. His mind is just nuts. And part of this job has got to be enjoying being with these people, being with other creative people and watching their mind work. And so yes, we fall in love with the project and the team behind the project.”

What are the key challenges Goalpost is facing as a business?

“Certainly, the cost of production is increased, but it’s not just here. It’s all over the world. We are doing a project in a country which has traditionally been somewhere people go and do it cheaply, but they’ve increased by 30%. So, the production is costing more than the market wants to pay for it. And that’s the biggest problem we’ve got. So, how do we bring those two things together? You change what you’re making, but then none of us want to change the ambitions of our projects. Having a high budget doesn’t necessarily make it better. It’s not always that, but it’s a real challenge to marry the market and the cost of production. The two aren’t really meeting, even in television.

“Another challenge is getting big names onto films because they’re tied up on eight one-hour limited TV series with Apple, whatever their per-episode budget is. You’ve just got to be clever. But yeah, it’s unrealistic to think you’re going to get massive stars on your films.

“Our biggest opportunity at the moment is working with some of our key talent. Lucas Taylor, Josh Tyler, Miranda Tapsell, James McNamara, just to name a few really, really strong creatives that we’re working with and ones that we want to work with. We’re also really excited to continue working Corrie Chen, who we worked with on New Gold Mountain.”



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