Creative Business Programme

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday evenings, 5.30pm - 8.30pm
Workshops: 10th - 19th June 2024
Pitching via Video Submission

Creative Business Programme Alumni

Xavier Coetsee, Jayme Corbett, Georgia Cotterill, Finn Culver, Emma Duncan, Tom Field, Maria Franceschina, Sherryn Hunt, Reuben Kirk, Shayden Lowrey, Grace Medlicott, Nathan Whalley

Supported by the Southeast Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence, the Creative Business Programme delivered a tailored short-form course on fundamental and transferrable business skills for creative screen practitioners.

During this course, participants developed a unique story for screen idea through a vocational and applied learning programme within the ASEAN, US & NZ markets. Training culminated in a pitching session to local and international screen industry professionals.

We wish to thank the Southeast Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence for supporting the Creative Business Programme

Programme Partner

Course Content

  • Monday 10 June, 5.30pm - 8.30pm

    The first of the series explored and examined creative concepts. Questions were posed: Where does an idea start from? What do you need to explore your idea further? What kinds of research do you need to carry out?

  • Tuesday 11 June, 5.30pm - 8.30pm

    This session focused on the best ways to market & pitch ideas. In this session, heard first hand from a successful producer & screen content creator. In addition, the importance of spectacle and story was examined to show different ways of presenting ideas to a panel of industry experts and to identify the unique selling points.

  • Wednesday 12 June, 5.30pm - 8.30pm

    Funding and finance are a significant part of realising ideas. Participants heard from an experienced funding advisor and fundraiser about their journey into building meaningful relationships and partnerships, which have funded and grown their projects.

  • Monday 17 June, 5.30pm - 8.30pm

    This session focused on learning the different ways of setting up as a business. A focus was put on the relationship between employer and contractor, tips and advice on company structures, how to handle taxes, GST, per diems and expenses.

  • Tuesday 18 June 5.30pm - 8.30pm

    This session investigated how to sustain a business, which will included tools like business mapping, exit strategies and more. In addition, the session examined the importance of networking and navigating what that looks like in a global pandemic climate.

  • Wednesday 19 June, 5.30pm - 8.30pm

    In the final meeting, students practice pitched their idea to other workshop participants and to the course facilitator. The session garnered feedback on personal pitching styles before the pitch to industry professionals the following week.

  • Participants had the opportunity to pitch their idea to industry professionals for feedback who work for brands such as Netflix, Disney, TVNZ, 108 Media and more. Their pitches were a short 6-minute pitch followed by questions and feedback from the Zoom panel.

Course Facilitator

Dr Leon Gurevitch

Associate Professor & Associate Dean of Research at Victoria University of Wellington - School of Design

Leon Gurevitch is an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design where he researches global creative industries, transformative technologies and complex systems design. Leon has previously been a Marsden Fund recipient for “The Digital Workshops of the World” Research Project, a visiting scholar at multiple institutions across the United States including Yale University. He is a founding member of the UCLA Cultural Analytics group and has presented invited lectures about his research at Dreamworks, Blizzard Game Studios, WetaDigital, The Universities of California Los Angeles, Berkeley and Santa Barbra, Yale, BeidaBeijing, Shanghai University and many more. Leon has published research and exhibited design work in over 40 international locations and presented over 80 peer reviewed conference papers, keynotes and invited talks around the world in the last ten years. Leon teaches photography and computational culture and is based in the Media Lab at Victoria University.

The Panel

  • Mikhail Red

    Independent Filmmaker and Director, Singapore/ Philippines

    Mikhail RED (1991, Philippines) is an independent filmmaker who was guided from a young age by his father, filmmaker Raymond Red, who is a Palme d'Or winner. He wrote and directed his first short film at 15, earning recognition at local and international film festivals. He continued making short films which were screened worldwide, and made his first long feature film Recorder in 2013. This film won five international awards, including Best New Director in Vancouver. His second feature Birdshot (2016) won Best Film in the Asian Future section in Tokyo and was selected as the official Filipino entry for the Oscars.

  • Micah Tadena

    Producer, SEA Region

    Micah Tadena is a Filipino Producer. She has served as Development Coordinator for Amazon and Philippine Country Manager at 108 Media, an IP-focused global company with over 10 offices in the world. Prior to this, she was Head of Business Development of the Cinematografo team in ABS-CBN Global. She produced the Filipino-Singaporean horror film EERIE, which broke box office records locally and was an international hit on Netflix worldwide.

  • Adam Scott

    Director, Studio Management & Services - APAC, Netflix, Singapore

    Adam Scott has a background with over 30 years of Film, Broadcast Television, Production and Post Production Management experience, capturing international market relationships. He enables extensive knowledge from a global perspective with an organisation that is innovative, strategic, and always thinking.

    Building strong business associations; strategy and logistics, plus identifying and designing new solutions, prospecting, closing million-dollar deals, hooking new clients and then ensuring client support are pivotal in his role.

  • Steve Barr

    Writer, Producer, Executive, NZ

    Steve Barr moved to New Zealand in 2010 after working for 16 years in the Hollywood industry. He has been a studio suit for Universal Studios, a feature screenwriter for Walt Disney Pictures, and the vice president of development for indie production company SMASHfilms. Steve has been hired to write a dozen or so screenplays in the New Zealand, American, and Chinese industries, two of which have been produced - Timeslow and Born To Dance. He has produced nearly 20 short films and two features - Chronesthesia and Hang Time.

    Steve has a BFA in Theatre from the University of Southern California, and has taught screenwriting for the New Zealand Film and Television School, the New Zealand Writers Guild, Massey University, and Victoria University. He is a member of the WGA, WIFT, SPADA and served as president of the New Zealand Writers Guild. He is currently the commissioner for drama and scripted comedy for Television New Zealand.

  • Jason Hintz Llopis

    Interactive Experiences Designer, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, Imagineering & Studios, Orlando

    Over the past 30 years as an experience designer, creative innovator and veteran producer, Jason’s career has always been at the heart of The Walt Disney Company. Through “Pocahontas”, “Tarzan”, “Bolt”, “Princess and the Frog”, “Tangled” and many other films, Jason produced and pushed the envelope of computer graphics at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was then invited to Walt Disney Imagineering R&D where he developed theme park innovations for Disneyland in California & Shanghai Disneyland and implemented new technologies on a number of films including “Disney’s The Jungle Book,” Marvel’s “Avengers: End Game” and Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Rogue One.”

    Today, Jason lives in Florida with his husband Noel and creates new digital attraction experiences for Disney’s Parks, Resorts, and Cruise Line. His family is hosting their 18th and 19th high school exchange students from Bosnia Herzegovina and Brazil. Past students have come from New Zealand, Argentina, Japan, and across Europe. Their daughter recently graduated with a degree in design at the University of California at San Diego.