Tourism Tasmania harnesses filmmakers’ talent in global promotion to find the essence of Tasmania
Save a Mainlander was Tourism Tasmania’s foray into quirkiness and it worked. Now they have more. Watch these films to see the latest from Tourism Tasmania where three talented filmmakers have won a competition capturing the ‘Essence of Tasmania’.
Film No.1 – ‘The Grim Experience’ by Andrew Quaile
The Plot: We see Harold who lives in Cape Grim (Tasmania’s North West coast), a location which claims to have with the cleanest air on the planet. Harold comes up with the ingenious idea of bottling the air and selling it to people craving a breath of fresh air around the world His idea takes wing, with the unusual product quickly developing a loyal following. This humorous film follows Harold on the job, telling us how ‘The Grim Experience’ (Harold’s bottled Cape Grim air) has become a calling card for visitors worldwide to visit the Cape Grim region.
Film No.2 – ‘Best Kept Secret’ by David Pyefinch
The Plot: A conspiracy by local tour guide Rob of Tasmanian Audio Tours to keep Tasmania’s most desirable spots a secret amongst the locals. Visitors Max and Gulia are warned to listen to the tour, keep on the track and admire Tasmania’s tourism ‘hot-spots’. Max and Gulia however, stray from the path, and entranced by what they see, vow to plan a return trip to the state and even buy a house there. But Rob isn’t simply going to let them get away with that! Watch what unfolds as Rob tries to dissuade them from returning to Tasmania.
Film No.3 – ‘A Portrait of Tasmanian Surfing’ by Nick Stranger
The Plot: This beautifully poignant documentary tells the story of Nick Stranger, who has been shaping surfboards for over forty years after being introduced to surfing and the ocean by his father. In this exquisitely-shot film, Nick recounts the early years of surfing in the state and reflects on the clear waters, massive waves and passionate surfers in Tasmania.
Tony Mayell, CEO of Tourism Tasmania, praised the creativity of the filmmakers.
Says Mayall: “We wanted to find a fresh perspective that we could leverage nationally and internationally, and give people’s perceptions of Tasmania a bit of a shake-up. Each filmmaker successfully captured the essence of Tasmania in a way that went beyond the predictable, casting the island in a different light and broadening people’s perceptions of Tasmania and the breadth of what it has to offer.”
The three films were entries in the ‘Essence of Tasmania’ short film competition – a partnership between Tourism Tasmania and the Breath of Fresh Air (BOFA) film festival to find creative filmmakers around the world that could capture Tasmania’s essence in three minutes.
Judged by an independent panel, the winning filmmakers would take away $5,000 each, with their film used to promote Tasmania throughout the world. 24 entries from Australia and North America were shortlisted, with four other short films receiving commendation from the competition’s judges. Audio Network Australia offered entrants complimentary use of the Audio Network’s music, which feature in two of the winning films.
Winning entries and the four commended films can be viewed on Discover Tasmania’s YouTube channel and the BOFA website
They will also run during the 2012 BOFA Festival (8 – 11 November) and as a collection at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery over an eight week period after BOFA.
Save a Mainlander update:
One and a half weeks after its launch, Tasmania’s Save a Mainlander campaign is tracking well. 15,593 people have visited the Save a Mainlander website so far, with a total of 58,649 page views to both the ‘Save a Mainlander’ and ‘Save yourself’ pages. 9,116 visits have come from mainland states with mainlanders from Victoria most keen on visiting (3,658 visits), followed by mainlanders from New South Wales (3,600 visits) and Queensland (1,295 visits).
4 Comments
I wouldn’t say that 9,000 visitors to your website is exactly a run-away success. And I certainly wouldn’t infer that because they visited the site, they’re “keen” to visit Tasmania. After seeing the message on the website, they may well be put off ever visiting. ‘Save a mainlander’ is awful and it won’t work, which is a crying shame because Tasmania is fantastic. Why not do something sophisticated, smart and beautiful, like the place itself. Give up on this jokey quirky thing – it’s tonally off.
Problem with these short film competitions is the funny quirky stuff often wins over the more interesting ideas. Unfortunately a mentality that spreads across all facets of aussie film making, funding and competitions.
A prize of $5k covers the ideas they came up with at best let alone paying everyone who worked on the production and industry standard wage. With that said, no-one forces anyone to enter so each to their own and if that justifies Tourism Tasmania feeling ok about what they’ve done good on em. Perhaps a prize of what they would have spent had it been produced properly would have been a nice gesture rather than an obvious attempt to get something for 5% of what it should have cost them under the premise of a good deed.
tourism tasmania do not value any creativity, so it makes complete sense they’d pay $5K to a “winner” of a competition. they’re in charge of enticing people to a truly amazing state, albeit expensive, and it’s a shame such a bunch of turkeys run it. if only they had a marketing brain….