Aug

07

Tony Cavanaugh Guest Speaker at Gold Coast Literary Luncheon

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Tony Cavanaugh Bio

Tony Cavanaugh

Tony Cavanaugh is a writer and producer in film and television. He has over thirty years experience in the industry, in all fields, from the genesis of an idea to production. For over twenty years he has also taught and lectured to students and professionals about the industry and writing for the screen.

Tony was educated at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria. He left at the age of sixteen with his Higher School Certificate. He then chose La Trobe University to study Sociology, English Literature, and Revolutionary History, taught by a founding member of the Zapu-Zanu Party. Tony ran and organised film and entertainment events for the Halls at La Trobe.

At the end of the first year Tony took a gap break. Living in Melbourne and working in a number of jobs, he searched for employment in the film industry. His prior experience was whist while boarding at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop campus. He wrote a short film for student production, but when the subject matter (running away from school to protest against the Vietnam war) was deemed offensive, production was banned. Tony had also worked for Hector Crawford, on Matlock Police, at the age of fifteen.

Tony decided to go to Flinders University where he studied Art History, English Literature, Cinema Studies and Visual Communication. After three years he graduated with a BA.  He was invited to study for an Honours Degree but declined. 

Returning to Melbourne he was offered a job at Crawford Productions where he spent three years working in the Camera Department on The Sullivans. He then decided to move across into the writing department where he became a script editor, writer and story editor for The Sullivans. Working closely with Hector Crawford during the last series of the award winning show, he wrote its final episode.

His work as a writer and editor at Crawfords over the years was diverse: the Emmy winning series, Zoo Family, the drama, Carson’s Law and the long-forgotten Cluedo; he adapted Robin Klein’s novel, Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left into a series and script edited the film, I Live With My Dad. 

He was then asked to create The Flying Doctors into a series, devising each story, hiring the writers and overseeing the editing of all scripts, while liaising with the directors and actors. Responsible for the content in the episodes, Tony was able to break down some old rules that ‘defined’ a national identity on television. He created the first Aboriginal character in a main cast of an Australian drama series. Creators of drama had been ignoring a new phenomenon, AIDS, as it was considered a taboo subject; Tony put together the first dramatic depiction of the disease on Australian television. He ensured it was thoroughly researched, hired one of the best writers in the country, then engaged Gerard Kennedy, famous for a string of ‘tough guy’ roles in the 60’s and 70’s, to play the lead role of a gay man. 

Tony was hired by Nick Roddick, editor of Sight and Sound, to write feature film reviews for Cinema Papers, a magazine published and distributed through newsagencies each month. He worked on the magazine for two years. 

He left Crawfords after the first season of The Flying Doctors and became a freelance writer, story editor and script editor for all the major Australian production companies on a diverse range of television series. He also worked as a ‘crisis-manager’ when scripts and writers were in need of guidance during, or just before, production. In this role, Tony was hired by the Networks to ensure that their needs were being addressed in order to maximise ratings.

During this period he read and assessed thousands of screenplays from America and the UK, for a Melbourne-based film financing company. They included Joan Didion’s Salvador, adaptations by the BBC of Evelyn Waugh’s novels and David Yallop’s screenplay of his book, In God’s Name.

Tony was a regular guest for Jon Faine on ABC morning talk radio where he commented on the film and television industry. He was often invited to work for the Australian Film Commission as an assessor of screenplays. He also worked in this role for Film Victoria, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, the Australian Film Finance Corporation and the West Australian Film Commission.  

He was invited to give a guest lecture on scriptwriting to students at Swinburne College. This led to further and regular lectures for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology film students, Prahran College, Geelong Grammar School and then for the Australian Film, Television and Radio School campus in Melbourne. 

Alarmed by the absence of narrative in the scripts he was reading, combined with an absence in the teaching of film, Tony approached the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and asked if he could create a course. They agreed and he designed then taught, Storytelling: the Forgotten Skill. 

It comprised eight four-hour workshops. Tony lectured on the absolute necessity for narrative in scriptwriting, drawing on his knowledge of cinema, the history of American film and, by contrast, non-narrative film, including the history of Documentary cinema and a brief description of Experimental, Surrealist and Avant-Garde Cinema. After screening Casablanca to his students, he deconstructed it, illustrating the narrative techniques used by the writers.

An important element to the course was the active engagement of the students so they had a clear understanding of developing narrative in a collaborative environment replicating the industry sessions known as ‘brainstorming.’

The course was a success. Tony was invited to run it on a regular basis but had to decline as a screenplay he had written was going into production.

Father was made in 1989.  Tony wrote and produced the film. It told the story of an ordinary woman defending her father of allegations of war crimes.  Max von Sydow played the main character. Max was a legendary actor and one of Ingmar Bergman’s regular performers. His films included Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, The Exorcist and had just been nominated Best Actor in the Academy Awards for Pelle, the Conquerer. 

Father was released in 1990. The film had excellent reviews. Evan Williams, from The Australian called it “the best Australian film ever made.”  Max von Sydow won Best Actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards; Julia Blake won an award for Best Supporting Actress. Tony’s screenplay was shortlisted in the 1990 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. 

During the making of Father, Tony was adapting a young adult’s novel, Clowning Sim into a mini-series, Clowning Around.  He worked with the BBC, the ABC, French broadcaster TF1 and the American channel, Nickelodeon, on the development of the scripts.  The mini-series was broadcast around the world in 1991.  Among the actors were Van Johnston (of Brigadoon and The Caine Mutiny) and Ernie Dingo.

Tony was asked to adapt a New Zealand novel, Once Were Warriors; instead he suggested first-time author, Alan Duff, was a more appropriate choice if guided through the process of adaptation to screenplay. Tony worked in Auckland as he taught Alan the essentials of scriptwriting then as he edited the script to its final draft. The film was an international success.

Tony created and wrote Clowning Around Encore, another mini-series, based on the success of the original. Robert Vaughn from The Man From UNCLE played the lead role.

In 1991 Tony formed Liberty Films with Simone North.  Its first production was Fire, a thirteen-hour drama mini-series.  Tony was a creator of the drama; he also wrote and edited the scripts and produced the series with Simone. The Seven Network then asked for it to be filmed in ‘a benign city.’ In other words, that it not be set in Melbourne or Sydney.  Networks believed the audience from one city was antagonistic to a drama set in the other. This was a baseless theory that held great sway. As a script editor on The Sullivans Tony had to ensure that any street mentioned existed in both Melbourne and Sydney, despite the trams that carried the characters along these streets.

Fire was the first television drama series filmed in Brisbane. Telling the story of a pyromaniac hidden among the ranks of a platoon of fire fighters, Fire was a huge ratings success.  Leading up to its final weeks on air, it was watched by 50% of the television audience around the country. Fire was nominated for Most Outstanding Mini-Series and Most Popular Drama at the 1994 Logie Awards.

The Seven Network ordered a further season of Fire ; Tony and Simone unpacked for good and settled in Clayfield. Liberty Films was Brisbane’s first sustainable production company with a new series to produce and two more in development. 

Tony had already been asked to lecture on the craft of scriptwriting to film students at Bond University; he had lectured on scriptwriting at QUT and developed a workshop, at the request of the university, for the final year acting students. He taught the professional skills required when auditioning. Tony was a regular speaker at the Brisbane Writers’ Guild.  He also gave his first guest lecture at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

Tony was invited to be a guest speaker at the Warana Writer’s Festival.  He was profiled in the Courier Mail and the Brisbane News. Time magazine published an article on his distinct creative approach to television drama. Tony was a regular guest for Andrew Lofthouse on ABC radio in Brisbane, speaking on the film and television industry.

Tony was approached by the Queensland government film agency, Film Queensland to assist the development of emerging writers.  He created a scheme whereby they would learn the skills required for taking an idea to screenplay. This was taught in a production environment. Six Brisbane writers were chosen, all having written for independent theatre companies like La Boite. They were given an original concept for a television series written by Tony about bomb disposal teams during the Vietnam war. He guided the writers through story conferences.  Six narratives were developed then written into outlines and scripts over six months.

Tony was asked to join the board of a newly formed Qpix, which was to provide a bridge for recently graduated film students to a career in the industry. Tony was nominated to be an industry representative to advise on the Film Queensland allocation of funds for script development. 

Tony created an intern scheme, with Film Queensland and the state office of the Australian Film, Radio and TV School.  Determining what essential skills-based areas in Queensland were in need of growth, Tony then planned a path where the intern would learn the skills on the job. For example, Sam Watson, a highly regarded Brisbane playwright, was attached to the lead director of Fire.   Sam then went on to write and direct a short film.

Further intern programs were developed and implemented over the following years.

The second season of Fire  went into production while another television series, created and written by Tony was picked up by Network Ten. Adrenalin Junkies was set in the world of emergency medicine; re-titled Medivac for Australia, the series was launched with strong ratings and, perhaps because of its black humour, became an audience sensation in Germany.

Medivac ran for three seasons. The consistency of drama production in Brisbane was a unique opportunity for emerging writers to see their words and ideas on screen, not only here, also for an international market. Indeed two Queensland writers, without any prior experience, approached Tony with a manuscript that would become one of the most highly regarded mini series made in Australia.

Tony was approached by Lindy Chamberlain to re-tell her story. At first sceptical that anything new could be added to one of the most familiar and divisive stories in our modern culture, he soon changed his mind after initial research. Indeed the opposite seemed to be the case: despite countless books, essays, newspaper articles and two films, the story of Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance had not been fully told at all.

For two years Tony and Simone North interviewed over three hundred people who were directly involved in the events following the disappearance. They had been granted, for the first time, access to legal documents and statements and evidence that had been warehoused in Alice Springs. Aware that the eyewitness accounts and stories of the Aborigines had not been told and, in some cases suppressed, Tony and Simone met with the traditional owners of Uluru. This developed into a close relationship with the traditional owners and the community of Mutijuli.  Tony and Simone were granted the first permission since Handover, to film at Uluru.

With an intricately detailed knowledge of the events, the police investigation that never ended and its accompanying journey through numerous courts, underpinned by witness statements, transcripts and interviews, Tony and Simone wrote the screenplay, Through My Eyes.  Their script was short-listed for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. With Miranda Otto as Lindy, the mini series was broadcast in 2004. 

“The best Australian drama of the year, if not the decade,” wrote the Daily Telegraph. It was nominated as Most Outstanding Mini-Series at the 2005 Logies.  Miranda Otto won an award for Best Actress.  At the AFI Awards it nominated for Best mini-series, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Interviews with Tony were published in newspapers across the country, including a cover article for the Arts Section of the Weekend Australian newspaper. Their research into the case provides the most definitive thus far.

Tony spent a number of months in Los Angeles where he worked at RKO Films, on the development of a re-make of Gunga Din.  During the 1930’s and 40’s RKO made many films, including Citizen Kane and King Kong. Tony and Simone formed RKO Australasia, which they still manage.

Whenever time allowed, Tony continued to lecture and teach. He was asked by Peter Herbert, the Head of Producing at the Australian Film, Radio and TV School, to address an area that is rarely taught to film students: the market. Tony devised the contents of a workshop that he taught at the Sydney campus. The students learnt how to search for a property, how to secure it with an option, how to develop it into a screenplay and finally how to pitch with confidence into the international marketplace. Tony also lectured to their students at the Brisbane campus about the importance of music in film; how to source music and how to work with composers. Tony was invited to lecture on scriptwriting by Dr Veny Armanno, the co-convenor of Creative Writing at UQ. He lectured to film students at Bond University, to emerging writers at Qpix and, at least twice a year, to writers at the Australian Writer’s Guild. 

Aware that many writers worked on their scripts without any professional advice, guidance or actual editing, Tony created and held a series of workshops for the Guild. Having read and analysed each of the scripts, Tony asked each writer to explain their work and the problems they were encountering. He then drew perspective on each of these problems turning each into a series of scriptwriting lesson for the group, and as a means of solving issues for each of the writers.

In 2008 Tony produced the film, In Her Skin, written and directed by Simone North.  Shot in Melbourne and Brisbane, the film stars Guy Pearce, Sam Neill, Miranda Otto, Rebecca Gibney and Justine Clarke. The music is by John Butler.  The film is soon to be released with a new title, I Am You by Goldcrest Films, the company that made Ghandi and The Killing Fields. It was screened at the 2010 Brisbane Film Festival and has been invited to screen for the American Writers Guild in Los Angeles in mid 2011.

Tony chaired a session for the 2008 Brisbane Writers Festival interviewing Graeme Blundell before an audience about his recently published autobiography. At the 2009 Brisbane Writers Festival Tony chaired a session with Dexter author Jeff Lindsay, playwright Louis Nowra and Queensland writer, Chris Nyst.

He was elected to the Board of the Queensland Screen Industry Council, a newly formed group to represent the industry to government. Tony was also invited by the Premier to offer advice to her department regarding the future of the industry. On behalf of the Screen Industry Council, Tony conducted an analysis of the opportunities for recently graduated students wishing to enter the film industry; what information the tertiary institutions provided beforehand and support from government funded organisations.

In 2009 Tony was again a guest lecturer for students at the Griffith campus on the Gold Coast. Following this lecture Tony was asked by Marcus Waters, the course convenor, if he would like to sit in on the workshops; this led to Tony being asked if he would like to run tutorials and participate in grading. In the second semester of 2009 and the first semester of 2010 Tony was actively involved in all aspects of teaching the courses.

In 2009 Veny Armanno, from UQ, asked Tony to participate in one of his courses whereby Tony would lecture on the screenplay of I Am You. Tony offered to provide a more substantial learning experience for the students. He created a series of workshops where he would take them through each of the writing stages, from idea to an actual screening of the film. 

Tony had been a Judge for the Logie Awards and the Australian Film Institute Awards. In 2009 he was asked to Judge for the International Emmy Awards, held in New York. 

Also in 2009 Tony was a Producer on Nine Miles Down. Shot in Tunisia and Bulgaria, the film had originally been optioned by Tony in 1992. He developed the project with Spelling Films in Los Angeles, working with a number of Hollywood screenwriters and directors such as John Carpenter, who directed The Thing and William Friedkin, who directed The Exorcist.

Recently Tony was asked to chair sessions at the Reality Bites non-fiction writing festival on the Sunshine Coast. He is currently teaching Year 6 students at Immanuel College how to understand Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Tony was involved with the class, teaching them stage production; they performed their version, which he directed, in October 2010 to a soundtrack of John Lennon’s music.

Until he moved to the Sunshine Coast Tony lectured and explained how to write and produce short films to the Year Eleven class at St. Margaret’s Girls School in Brisbane. The school invited him to be a guest speaker for one of their annual Year Twelve ‘father daughter’ breakfasts. 

Tony agreed to stand in for Marcus Waters during his leave of absence in the second semester of 2010; he taught one hundred students in the subject of ‘Scriptwriting.’ He also provides advice to past students on how to enter the industry.

He is currently writing a screenplay with Sam Watson, continues to speak on radio and regularly comments about the industry for the Weekend Australian. His first novel is to be published in 2011. He has embarked on a series of summer classes for emerging and experienced writers in early 2011 while also working on a number of film and television projects.