60Seconds

WHY FILM IN AUSTRALIA?

We stitched together the Federal Government’s Location Offset, as well as Create NSW Incentives and Screenwest’s post-production incentive which enabled us to do post in Western Australia. And we had secured all our production insurance in December 2019 so we were all systems go. It’s important that Australia keeps its incentives competitive. Children of The Corn is a relatively small film so the incentives were a big part of the math on making that happen. Doing post-production totally remotely is new for me and a really interesting experience. The time differences between Los Angeles and Western Australia mean someone is always working on the film. It’s worked out well.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE LIKE FILMING IN AUSTRALIA?

[Foster had settled on New South Wales as the film’s location base in 2019 and had sown a field of corn in Richmond, a regional town on the outskirts of Sydney, creating a location backlot which allowed him to shoot in the Northern Winter, with an eye to a Halloween 2020 release.] 

I’ve shot with Australian Directors and DP’s in the US and I knew the crew would be a great asset, and support a system similar to the US. The creative and crew base, the locations and landscapes in Australia are world-class but it’s always the incentives that influences everyone’s decision in moviemaking.

HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO FILM DURING COVID-19?

As productions shut down around the world, Children of the Corn’s remote location and backlot set meant that the cast and crew had effectively been in our own ‘bubble”, quarantined from the outside world and any immediate impact of the health of cast and crew from COVID-19. The Australian government’s quick reaction to the threat by COVID and the country’s pro-business attitude helped our decision to keep production moving. Instead of saying certain categories of work had to shut down, the attitude that “we’re going to do everything we can to ensure all work is essential” was a great thing and public health policy was consistent. 

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE LIKE SHOOTING WITHIN COVID-SAFE PROTOCOLS?

Many of the protocols developed with Safe NSW and Screen NSW for COVID-safe shooting provided a template for productions worldwide, given that, as a US production, Children Of The Corn was obliged to give all its protocols to US unions and guilds which have since used them as the basis for production elsewhere. 

DESCRIBE WORKING WITH AUSTRALIAN CREWS IN FIVE WORDS.

No challenge is too great!