George Liddle APDG
Our esteemed and talented colleague Robert H. Perkins OAM has been included in the Queen’s birthday honours list for his service to the film and television production and set design. Congratulations Robbie, you have been an outstanding member of the Film and TV design community and we at the guild are tremendously proud of your achievements in our industry. A recognition well deserved. In addition, we thank you for your contribution to the APDG Victorian committee.
We may still be in lockdown, but there are signs of some of our industries creeping back to life with one or two film and TV productions starting up with remote preproduction connections. Hopefully the creeping will develop into a brisk walk in the near future, although our live performance colleagues face a difficult future with restrictions still in place for live venues. Members are still struggling financially and our government offers little support and continues to ignore our industries (and the arts community in general) despite these industries providing tens of thousands of jobs and producing billions for our economy. I urge all members to continue to press your MPs and senate representatives for action.
Another gut punch from the government was their discussion paper proposing a reduction Australian content on free to air platforms. We have to fight this; we need the see and hear our Australian stories on all platforms. ASIG (Australian Screen Industries Group) has been lobbying the government and have made a submission that includes all platforms FTA, streaming, committing to a mandated percentage of local scripted content on all platforms. If adopted this would strengthen the local industries and ensure a productive and creative future.
After much deliberation, the APDG have decided to reschedule the 2020 APDG Awards. The awards are normally held in December, but due to the impacts of Covid-19 on our designers and the broader industry, the awards will now be held as a combined 2020/2021 APDG Awards in August 2021 in Brisbane. This was a difficult decision to make, but it seemed the fairest, to ensure access to all our members, partners, sponsors and friends.
On a brighter note the APDG’s live performance and screen practitioners ZOOM Meet-ups have been a great success, with some productive suggestions on how we weather the CV19 storm, such as protocols on staying safe as we crank up productions. I urge anyone who has not zoomed in to these meeting to do so they will find it very rewarding. We have also introduced APDG Dialogues in Design, a brand-new series of online interviews with some outstanding APDG designers. Kicked off by one of our stars of screen design, the brilliant Owen Paterson APDG. We look forward too many more of these live interviews.
And finally, Congratulation to all our new committees and office holders elected at the 2020 AGM – we appreciate your commitment to the guild.
– George