Terraform and Terra Firma: transnational economies of image, landscape and location in screen production in Queensland

Craven, Allison (2019) Terraform and Terra Firma: transnational economies of image, landscape and location in screen production in Queensland. In: Van Luyn, Ariella, and de la Fuente, Eduardo, (eds.) Regional Cultures, Economies and Creativity: innovating through place in Australia and beyond. Routledge Advances in Sociology . Routledge, London, UK, pp. 67-81.

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Abstract

Marine and coastal tropical settings figure in a growing number of transnational films created in the Australian state of Queensland, notably since the establishment of Village Roadshow film studios on the Gold Coast in the late 1990s, and encouraged by incentives offered since 2007 by state and federal screen agencies, including location offset regimes. Stimulated by the same state-based incentives, a second regional hub around Winton has gained popularity among filmmakers in the western interior of the state. There the spectacular arid landscapes are sought for resemblance to American westerns, with some resulting productions tagged 'Queensland genre films.' In either setting, coastal or outback, these activities reconfigure and resignify places and spaces once identified with pastoral or other industries that incurred the dispossession of Indigenous people, and which now sustain a renewed identity for Queensland as a centre for screen production. The location assets garner dual value for generic resemblance to iconic landscapes and in economic stimulus to the regional communities. A comparison is made using the notion of 'Terraform', a term from hypothetical science that is adapted to describe the imaginary geographies in the films; and terra firma, a term to suggest the substance and responsivity of the regional cultures of production.

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