WESTERN Australia is becoming increasingly recognised as a place brimming with film, television, animation and production specialists.
But rather than companies from Sydney or Los Angeles poaching a director, script writer or animator from Perth those companies are beginning to see the merits of setting up production houses and basing film operations in WA.
This interest in WA, however, has not come overnight.
Fremantle’s Film and Television Institute has spent the past three and a half years reinventing itself as a training, research and development centre aimed at generating a critical mass of specialist film and television enthusiasts.
While the institute has existed for more than 30 years its three-year transformation from a film equipment leasing organisation to an accredited training, research, and commercially focused business has been a catalyst for film and television growth in WA.
New businesses are being spawned and word of Perth’s growing industry is travelling the globe.
FTI senior management staff say it is only a matter of time before world-class animation and film production houses choose to set up their operations in Perth.
Next week WA Business News goes behind the scenes at the FTI to tell the tale of the institute’s transformation and the future outlook for WA’s film, television, animation, and gaming industries.
