Welcome to Behind The Screen, a new SPA series putting the spotlight on the producers behind Australian screen stories.
Each edition will take you behind the scenes with a SPA member to discover more about their journey as a producer, the realities of bringing stories to the screen, and the projects they’re working on now.
In our latest edition, we hear from Dan Goldberg, Creative Director at Mint Pictures, who shares what he finds most rewarding and challenging about producing, the story behind his latest productions, and his perspective on the future of Australia’s screen industry.
1. What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
The ‘lightbulb moment’ when your instinct fires up and you reckon you may – just may! – have landed an idea. And then to see that idea get commissioned, come to life and be released into the wide world.
2. What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Landing a commission! From ideation to early development and then formal development is a long, difficult process that doesn’t always end with a green light. And unless you have a returnable format, you have to keep generating IP and translating them into commissions.
3. Tell us about your latest production. What makes this story one you wanted to bring to the screen?
BONDI (working title) is the most difficult film I’ve ever been involved in making in the last 20 years. This first anniversary film on the Bondi massacre is obviously deeply traumatic (and deeply personal because it happened to my community). Trying to strike the right balance on multiple metrics is very challenging and emotionally draining: bearing witness to the awful truth while ensuring it is not so graphic that people switch channels; trying to offer context vis-a-vis the Middle East without getting sucked into 100 years of conflict; contextualising the ‘How’ it happened and the ‘Why’ it happened; and trying to balance humanity amidst the horror.
4. Looking back on your career, what's made the biggest difference in helping you get your productions to the screen?
Rejections! They taught me resilience; to fine-tune pitches; to pressure test them on others before network EPs; and, mostly, to study each network to gain a better instinct for what will – and won't – work on their platform.
5. If you could see one positive change for Australia's screen industry over the next five years, what would it be?
The streamers commissioning many more Australian documentaries (as opposed to scripted).