Rebel producer’s plans to ensure Aussie films get seen at home
BLAKE Northfield is hellbent on seeing good Australian films shown in local cinemas and is going to extraordinary lengths to make sure it happens — even on a small scale.
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BLAKE Northfield is hellbent on seeing good Australian films shown in local cinemas and is going to extraordinary lengths to make sure it happens — even on a small scale.
The emerging producer, who runs Bronte Pictures, just wrapped filming political war thriller Escape And Evasion and will soon start on the Jocelyn Moorehouse-directed Agaart, is frustrated good local productions often get ignored in favour of bigger international movies.
Northfield is fed up with the way some distributors churn through the limited marketing cash a local movie has and is looking at an unusual investment to ensure Aussie films get seen.
“What some do is spend your 30k on coke and champagne on a yacht and then they sell it to iTunes for 10 bucks and you’re like ‘where did the 30k go?’ ” he says.
“We’re looking to buy into 10 cinemas in the next year for that reason alone — because the money it would cost us to buy into 10 cinemas is less than what distributors would take for their marketing costs which still doesn’t guarantee the film will ever see a cinematic release.”
It’s not an uncommon scenario in Australian cinema. Northfield cites The Babadook, a critically acclaimed horror film produced by friends, that was one of the most well-critiqued films on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes in 2014.
The movie, written and directed by Jennifer Kent, made less than $300,000 at the Australian box office but pulled in more than $7.5 million overseas.
“The Babadook made all its money back just in France alone. It made more in its opening weekend in Thailand than it did in its entire release in Australia,” he says.
“It’s f … ing ridiculous that was ever allowed to happen and it’s because no one wanted to pitch it to cinemas here — it’s a joke.”
It was the former Home And Away and Sea Patrol actor’s frustration with the other side of the movie game that kickstarted his career behind the scenes.
After becoming disillusioned by the struggle to make a living as an actor, Northfield decided the best way to be guaranteed work was to make his own films.
“I was sick of desperately working every f … ing job under the sun to live, trying to make this dream come true,” he says. “So I decided I was going to go and try to make my own acting work.”
With little experience dealing with the intricacies of making a movie, Northfield and a friend decided to wing it and head to Cannes with a script and a lot of hope.
“We did everything and anything — we were climbing trees to get over fences into parties we weren’t allowed to be in, we were breaking all the rules essentially,” he says.
They got a break after sneaking into the premiere of Mad Max: Fury Road and following the stars back to an afterparty.
“We got into this lift and realised we were there with Jake Gyllenhaal and we just looked at the ground and walked behind him as he entered this party,” he laughs. “But it wasn’t really a party — it was just a gathering of 15 people we shouldn’t have been in a room with.”
But it was there they learned of an investor looking to put money towards an Australian project. A year later Bronte Pictures began production on its first film, Out Of The Shadows