Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), Saturday 7 December 1946, page 13


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THE immediate postwar boom in Australian film production is no flash in the pan. . English and Australian capital continues to back longrange expansion.Success Success of three Australian-made films already released in the Eastern States has prompted considerable activity..

@ Ealing Studios, makers in Australia of The Overlanders and intending makers of Eureka Stockade, plan to produce more here at the rate of one a year; © Eric Porter, Australian independent producer-director of A Son Is Born, is building new studios near Sydney to make three pictures a year himself; , © Three Australian producers have approached Porter seeking to rent studio space for their own planned productions; © Endeavour Film Productions, Sydney, are about to start their first big film, The Intimate Stranger; © Columbia, makers of Smithy, have decided to make more films in Australia. It is expected that Ealing director Harry Watt will start shooting Eureka Stockade early next year. He has been in Australia for nearly two months studying the story and locations, will return briefly to England to organise a production unit. 'Ealing does not yet see another Hollywood in Australia,' he says, 'but we are going to make one picture a year. 'Each will be a prestige picture, which will be the most successful as well as doing the most good for Australia overseas. 'Eureka Stockade will not be ' a political film, but it will present the rock on which is based the inherent personal democracy of the Australian. 'Chips Raff erty will be brought back from England to play Peter Lalor.' ^LSO coming from England arp larp'p nu^ntitips o modern, badly-needed equipment (a type of camera used by producer Ken Hall for his Cinesound productions has for many years been an exhibit in a Los Angeles museum). Hall is currently in England buying equipment, camerajs, ' sound apparatus, lighting effects) and discussing with cinemagnate J. Arthur Rank (Ealing's boss) plans for modernising Pagewood Studios, Sydney, for full-time production of world releases. 'The Rank interest in Australian films will build up Australian talent and treble present opportunities for Australian artists,' Hall predicts. -'When we make our stars,

we'll be able to hold them or exchange them on loan with British stars.' ' 'But we must develop our own technique. Recent advances have given English technique a style of its own. We must not copy it — nor the American style. 'Our chance is, to learn as much as we can from each and then produce the truly Australian style — something which will arrive naturally with increased production.'' #? ? : I7RIC Porter hopes to start building his new studios at Herne Bay, near Sydney, before the end of the year. They will include two sound stages, one 180ft. by 100ft. and the other 60ft. by 40ft. In the most ambitious scheme yet announced for Australian film production, Porter says he will make, three pictures a year himself and rent the studios out to other producers. As soon as work starts on studio construction, he will go to England for camera and other equipment. In England he will also offer the leading role in liis next film, Storm Hill, to Australian John McCallum, a Porter discovery (in A Son Is Born) who is currently working for Rank. Storm Hill will go into production when Porter returns. He hopes his Herne Bay studios will be finished by then. #-??-?. QLAIMING that 'audiences are clamouring for an adult Australian film,' Endeavour Film Productions, Ltd., of 'Sydney, have entered the field with a psychological drama, The Intimate Stranger, which is now in production. The locale switches from bohemian sections of King's Cross to the Pacific coast near Palm Beach, and the studios assert that here they are unfolding 'the most sophisticated story ever filmed in Australia.' Photography is in the hands of Carl Kayser, formerly of Continental U.F.A. and Ealing. His last work in Australia was on The Overlanders. Finally, Smithy producer N. P. Pery announced on his return from America that Columbia had authorised him to make more films in Australia. His next picture will have a typically Australian theme (yet to be decided) and will go into production sometime in 1947. Pery wanted it to be in Technicolour but it's not likely that equipment for this will be available in time. ' 'I have a belief in the film industry- in Australia,' he said. 'There's plenty of material, plenty of talent here but most of it is undeveloped. 'Australian girls' are unsurpassed in their natural beauty, natural talent. 'But before, we can develop that, every encouragement will have to be given to the -building of studios and making them available to independent producers.'

HARRY WATT o . more far Ealing

CHIPS RAFFE&TY . . more for Australia

N. P. PERY more for Columbia