Comprehensive Notes on Hanging Rock Lecture

Picnic at Hanging Rock follows an art cinema approach, characterized by:
- Fewer big narrative events.
- Emphasis on atmosphere and quiet tension.
- Recurring motifs like ticking clocks to create unease.
- Focus on characters' internal worries and anxieties.

The film is not based on a true story, despite common misconceptions.
While people have gotten lost in the Australian bush, there's no record of St. Valentine's school girls disappearing at Hanging Rock.

Hanging Rock is a real place near Mount Macedon, about an hour and 20 minutes from Walthall.
It's a popular destination for picnics and imagining the events of the film.
Despite its creepy reputation, it's just a rock one can climb; no '1900s schoolgirls' will be found.
The story has passed into Australian mythology, despite being fictional.

The 1970s saw a boom in the Australian film industry.
Funding bodies like the Australian Film Corporation (AFC, formerly AFDC) were established at national and state levels (e.g., Film Victoria).
As films became more successful, budgets increased, leading to funding challenges.
Some funding was diverted to TV.

Key question: How to sustain the film industry given limited resources?
- Option 1: Focus on small-budget films catering specifically to Australian audiences.
- Option 2: Produce fewer, bigger-budget films with broader international appeal.

In the 1970s, the 10BA tax scheme was introduced to attract private investment in the film industry.
The scheme aimed to treat the film industry as a business and create content for overseas markets.
It involved private investments alongside government funding.
Investors could claim 150% of their investment on their tax returns as an incentive.
This led to a boom in film budgets in the early 1980s.
- 1979-1980: Budgets around $600,000$ per film.
- 1982: Budgets rose to $2,000,000$ .
- 1983: Budgets increased to $2,500,000$ .
The focus shifted from creative projects to creating packages to attract investors.

The packaging and deals focused on obvious genre films like horror.
There was an emphasis on securing American talent to increase international marketability.
This resulted in a number of Australian films featuring random American actors.
*The quality of films produced during this period varied greatly.

Tax concessions became a drain on government revenue.
The quality of films suffered as they became tax write-offs for business people.

By 1979, only three films were financially successful: Mad Max, My Brilliant Career, and Newsfront.
Newsfront explored the transition from newsreels to TV news.

After the success of films like Stork, Australian cinema gained more acceptance domestically.
Big Australian films like Jimmy Blacksmith, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, and My Brilliant Career emerged.

The Man from Snowy River was organized to appeal to Australians but also used Kirk Douglas to attract international audiences.

Quentin Tarantino coined the term "ausploitation" for outrageous Australian horror films.
These films often featured gore and nudity and were transgressive.
They tapped into a broader movement of slasher films, such as Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978).

The 10BA scheme ended due to the poor quality of films and government revenue loss.
The industry shifted towards low-budget, realist art cinema focused on social issues and film festivals.

The Gothic genre, characterized by the everyday becoming frightening and a sense of entrapment, works well in Australian cinema.
Benefits:
- Good for low budgets (limited locations).
- Recognizable and sellable to film festivals.

Suburban Gothic is also a common theme.
The Boys (based on the Anita Cobby murder) is an example of being trapped in a house with murderous people; inspired by real events, focusing on build up and the social world that creates men like that.
Animal Kingdom or Snowtown.

The Gothic destabilizes what's normal, creating unease and paranoia.
Colonial Perspective: Australia as “empty land” (terra nullius) that was nuts and didn't behave the way British wanted it to; trying to replicate Britain here failed because the land was hostile and alien; concept of terra nullius, was a landscape that was wrong and didn't do things that land was supposed to do. animals where different and dangerous.
Australia as a Convict History (treating the convicts, abuse they suffered created ghost terror, filled with sadness and brutality); Convict history is one that's filled with ghosts and terror and sadness and brutality.
Treatment of Indigenous People and the genocide of whole communities; white colonial perspective and building on that history, there are layers of death and violence.
Those Layers of Meaning in the land in terms of death, loss, domination, oppression, murder and genocide means Gothic is a narrative that can fit this lands past and current reality. It suits our land.
The Babadook is a recent example of a Gothic film.