In welcome news, the 9th May budget extended the Location Offset from 16.5% to 30% effective from 1st July, which creates a significant growth opportunity for production in Australia. However, the eligibility requirement for a commitment to training and capacity building remains critical in ensuring we can cater to increased inbound production.

At this year’s Entertainment Partners-sponsored Screen Forever session titled ‘Critical mass of Crewing,’ Agnieszka Moody, a guest speaker from the British Film Institute in the UK, gave great insights from their research findings. They determined that the industry needs to take responsibility for the training that this industry requires. There can be no public funds big enough to deliver on the numbers demanded by the industry. The guidelines for the training eligibility requirement will evolve during a period of consultation between the Department of the Arts and the entertainment industry.

The intention is to achieve a balance that will be constructive without creating a budget deterrent. This means sourcing candidates with appropriate preexisting skills that can be more quickly translated into the gap positions while supplying training and support that will ensure candidates are immediately productive.

Entertainment Partners has designed workplace training programs, sourcing new entrants and training them within the workplace while ensuring the critical heads of department are not distracted from their core activity. This includes training production and payroll accountants and assistants. The program focuses on fast tracking assistants while training them within the workplace to ensure digital processes are streamlined between production, art, costume and locations. Administration best practice training of these departments becomes a by-product of the program.

Mentoring the participants over multiple productions ensures true capacity building and the maintenance of industry’s best practice while recruiting accounting students from community and regional colleges and communicating the possibilities to qualified immigrants or those with disability creates a rich source of candidates and will ensure that we meet our diversity and inclusion goals.

In the last three years, Entertainment Partners Powered by Moneypenny, has created eight production accountants via their mentoring scheme. They were sourced from the AFTRS diploma course or from calls within industry for stepping up or across from other positions. Additionally, six assistants were placed from this year’s Netflix & Entertainment Partnership course alone. The eligibility requirement of the extended Location Offset will supply the opportunity to keep building the talent through these tried and tested schemes of Entertainment Partners.

Feature image: Entertainment Partners Powered by Moneypenny in partnership with Netflix training intensive. Designed to give an overview of the production accountant role and how to manage production budget.