Director Jeffrey Walker says international film and television productions are creating new opportunities for Australian above-the-line creatives to work globally while staying at home.
The Brisbane-based director, known for series including Young Rock, The Artful Dodger and Apple Cider Vinegar, has seen how global productions filming in Australia allow local talent to take on major roles across television and film.
“The crew that I work with on my projects are the crew that work on all of the big US films.”
As more international projects shoot in Australia, local creatives are building global careers while contributing to world-class productions at home.
Brisbane-based Walker used to have to travel the globe to work on US projects such as Fresh Off the Boat and Modern Family until NBC’s Young Rock offered the chance to make an international series at home.
“Young Rock had been developed as a series that was fully cast, fully written, ready to go and be filmed at Universal Studios in Burbank, but COVID struck right at the worst time for that particular production and they had to down tools,” Walker remembers.
The production started looking around the world for other locations. Queensland was one of the options: the project could be facilitated on the ground by Matchbox Pictures with Walker on board as director. There was the added ease that Young Rock’s creator, writer and showrunner Nahnatchka Khan had worked with Walker before on Fresh Off the Boat and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23.
“We all jumped on a call and I said, ‘we can make Pennsylvania out of Brisbane, no problem’.”
Across the two seasons that filmed in Australia, the crew turned Brisbane into not just Pennsylvania, but Miami, Hawaii and more.
“We really only had probably three or four American folk on the ground behind the scenes to make that project happen and the other hundreds of people we had were all Australians,” recalls Walker.
Directing Opportunities Across TV and Film
Aside from Walker, Australians in above-the-line roles on Young Rock included internationally-renowned local directors Daina Reid and Cherie Nowlan, who shot episodes in season 1 and 2.
Reid, nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on The Handmaid’s Tale, also returned to Australia to direct the 2023 Netflix feature Run Rabbit Run. Meanwhile, Nowlan directed on global series La Brea (NBCUniversal) and Clickbait (Netflix) in Victoria, as well as The Survivors (Netflix), which she also executive produced and was largely filmed in Tasmania.
In the years since Young Rock, Walker has similarly directed local series, all created by Australians, including The Artful Dodger and The Clearing for Disney+, and Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar.
It’s not just television that provides rich opportunities for above-the-line creatives. In Queensland, Australian Grant Sputore will helm the next instalment in Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse series Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, while Patrick Hughes (War Machine) has just directed a new Amazon MGM Studios feature about decorated NAVY Seal hero Mike Thornton.
Meanwhile, Walker directed the 2023 film The Portable Door then teamed up again with its producer Todd Fellman to direct FING!, an Australian/UK Official Co-production that premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January.
The (Lack of) Differences Filming Locally
In FING!, Brisbane doubled as England, and the cast was stacked with the likes of Mia Wasikowska, Richard Roxburgh and Robyn Nevin, but as a co-production some of the VFX and all the music composition was completed remotely in the UK.
“I love remote post… I live in Brisbane and this is where my family is, but a lot of productions I work on are either overseas or Melbourne or Sydney so it was definitely something that I wanted, to make sure that particularly the editing could be done remotely.”
For Walker, there isn’t a huge difference between directing a global project to an Australian series or film.
“I find that working with a writer on their film script and collaborating with the producers, the process is very, very similar,” he says.
Sometimes he says you will find that there are more executives weighing in on international projects, “but ultimately, the disciplines that I’ve learned over the years of working in Australian projects are identical to what’s required on an American project.”
World-Class Crew and Cast
Those skills are transferable whether you’re in an above-the-line or below-the-line role.
“The crew that I work with on my projects are the crew that work on all of the big US films that everybody loves,” Walker says. “And they bring that same skill set that the audience is used to seeing in a 100-or-200-million-dollar film,” Walker says.
“That’s why you have the quality of a series that I did like Apple Cider Vinegar, which didn’t have the budget it would have had if it was a US series of the same concept and requiring the same level of execution, but we’re getting a crew level that’s second to none,” explains Walker.
“They’re all bringing the skill set of a film that’s four times the budget.”
In this way, international productions train and sustain the crew base that then contributes their skills and equipment to Australian screen stories.
This win-win process works the same way for actors too. In Young Rock, Australians in above-the-line roles included key and supporting cast, with Uli Latukefu chosen for the lead role of teenage Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson and Lexie Duncan as Dwayne’s love interest.
It’s just one of dozens of examples of the world’s biggest movies and films filming in Australia and featuring local talent: the Subversion cast is packed with Aussies including Chris Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer and David Wenham; romcom Anyone But You boasts Rachel Griffiths, Charlee Fraser, Brian Brown and Nat Buchanan, and familiar faces can be seen in everything from action film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, to slasher horror I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Creating a Global Career in Australia
Walker believes the industry has changed, in that Australians don’t have to travel overseas to have a global career in the way they once used to.
“I’ve worked an enormous amount with Netflix and Disney now here in Australia and their ambition for their projects is huge, and they’ve got pipelines to the entire globe where tens of millions of viewers can find those projects.”
While many local creatives still journey to try their hand in Hollywood, Walker says, “the vast majority of actors and filmmakers find their way back to Australia when the project’s right and have a blast making those films, which then travel as well as any now around the world.”
He says the talent base is now so strong that producers or showrunners considering a shoot in Australia, will find talented creatives capable of bringing any idea to life, no matter the size or scale.
“The skill set below-the-line and from directors is certainly ready to take on any project that any producer can finance here in Australia.”