When award-winning film director Glendyn Ivin was given the green light in May 2021 to create the streaming TV series, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, he struggled to find local Australian film crews to help in production.
With big names like Sigourney Weaver and Asher Keddie leading the cast, and full funding from streaming service Amazon Prime, it was an attractive project.
But with so many other Australian productions happening at the same time, Ivin had to call in international film crews from New Zealand to help cover the skills shortage.
He questions how the Australian film-making industry will be able to respond to federal government changes to the National Cultural Policy, which will impose a quota for major streaming platforms to invest revenue into producing local content from mid-2024.
While the details are yet to be finalised, Ivin said Australia currently did not have enough film crews to fully benefit from the 20 per cent quota being pushed for by the screen industry.
"If you get a show up and you have to get a crew together, it's kind of like The Hunger Games," he said.
"You're out there fighting to try and find crew."
Ivin said he would like to see more money put into training and development, with many film students unaware of viable industry roles outside of being director or producer.
"If I was coming up in the film industry and wasn't hell-bent on being a director, I'd be a sound person, or a lighting person, or hair and make up, or any of those hundreds of jobs," he said.
"I'd like to see [an] apprenticeship scheme, like in the building industry, or more studios built."
Regulations cause tension
Some streaming services have limited the amount of Australian productions they are commissioning until the quota is known.
Ivin believes the services are nervous about being regulated for something many are already doing.
"What I think the government is trying to do is regulate it so that in five or 10 years' time, this [investment in Australian content] is still happening," he said.
"Right now there is no guarantee."
While Ivin is supportive of the quotas, he hopes streaming services realise the strengths of the Australian film industry without needing need to be regulated.
"We know that if we make good programs in Australia, they will travel and stand up against any other show around the world."
Another boom after 'sugar hit'
University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Media Arts & Production Program lecturer Matthew Dabner said pandemic-related stimulus from the Morrison government triggered a "sugar hit" of content from the Australian screen industry.
An Australian Bureau of Statistics survey showed industry investment reached $4.6 billion in the 2021/22 financial year, more than doubling the five years prior.
"There was a period in 2021-22 where producers could not find enough workers to do the jobs that we had," Mr Dabner said.
"That has come off the boil now. Anecdotally, I'm hearing things have contracted significantly."
Mr Dabner said a streaming quota could renew confidence in the local industry and trigger another surge of production.
He said UTS is seeing a steady increase in the number of students studying film and believed they were nearly at the point they could quickly turn around new professionals if needed.
"The industry is really responsive to stimulus, so when situations come along, like the quota, it will be able to respond quickly," Mr Dabner said.
"It would require just a small uplift in terms of the training and the skills."
Forgotten formats need support
Rulings in the National Cultural Policy dictate what types of programs formats contribute to the quotas.
Mr Dabner said broadcasters under the policy were required to portion time between scripted dramas, documentaries, and children's programs.
"Some of those rules were relaxed [for free-to-air television] during the pandemic, in particular with children's programming," he said.
"That has seen a precipitous drop off in the amount of children's program we are making."
The changes to the policy are intended to compel streaming services to use revenues generated here to make a fixed percentage of its productions not just in Australia but about Australia too.
Mr Dabner said they did not want streaming companies to use quotas to create shows based on formats originating from other countries, like reality TV.
"It really does have to be supporting the kinds of formats that need the extra support across the finish line," he said.