Screen Queensland has selected the five screen practitioners for its Post, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) Professional Development Placement Program, designed to provide skills across sound editing and design, 3D modelling, animation, visual effects, virtual production, and producing.
Hanyue (John) Wang, Giuseppe Cassin, Katie Dahlenburg, Oska Zervoudakis and Kyra Bellamy will complete year-long paid placements at Alt.VFX, Chop Shop Post, Fika Entertainment, Folklore Sound, and The Post Lounge, respectively.
Each of the five placements will be supported by Screen Queensland with a $50,000 contribution towards their full-time salary, in accordance with MEAA industry awards.
Screen Queensland CEO Courtney Gibson said the program would ensure the local PDV sector keeps pace with the rapid growth of this current post-production boom period and beyond.
“Last year, Screen Queensland increased our PDV incentive to 15 per cent and lowered the threshold to $250,000, significantly enhancing the global competitiveness of Queensland PDV facilities, and I’m delighted to say that the amount of PDV work coming in is at an all-time high,” she said.
“The new placement program bolsters the capacity of our Queensland PDV facilities to take advantage of the increased volume of Australian and international productions coming to local facilities. We are working closely with industry to provide a pipeline of exciting new talent to support local screen businesses.”
The announcement follows last month’s announcement by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that the state government, through Screen Queensland, supported an unprecedented number of PDV projects in the 2021–22 financial year, injecting an estimated $38.5 million into the state economy.
Projects choosing Queensland for post-production include Teletubbies Let’s Go, Mattel American Girl: Designer House, and one untitled project, all of which will be serviced by Fika Entertainment, with Folklore Sound selected to provide audio services on two of them.
Further, Alt.VFX secured See-Saw Films’ sci-fi drama movie Foe, The Post Lounge is working across two Bronte Pictures feature films – Kane and The Greatest Surf Movie in The Universe – and Chop Shop Post are servicing Helium Pictures’ Last King of the Cross.
The participants are as follows:
Hanyue (John) Wang – Junior Unreal Artist, Alt.VFX
Originally from China, John Wang graduated in 2022 from a Bachelor of Games Design degree at Griffith University with a Major in Player Experience Design. His focus during his study was primarily on 3D environment production using Unreal Engine and Unity — exploring and harnessing their technical capabilities to create new, beautiful and detailed worlds. Student works during his degree also enabled Wang to gain experience within motion capture and virtual production teams. Recent project highlights include a 360 interactive video for the Global Wetlands Project (GLOW) as Unreal virtual environment artist and technical artist, and the short film Displaced for the 2022 Unreal Engine Short Film Challenge as project manager and technical director. Prior to transitioning towards a career in the screen industry, his work as a professional double bassist and music teacher, as well as architectural studies at UQ’s international foundational course at IES College, have shaped Wang’s artistic and collaborative outlook.
Giuseppe Cassin – Junior Post-Production Producer, Chop Shop
Giuseppe Cassin is an entertainment lawyer and filmmaker who has worked across various projects within the international film and television industry. Of Italo-Brazilian heritage, he has long harboured a passion for storytelling and international cinema. Cassin has produced music videos for Masked Wolf, and Tones and I, while also working as an Executive Producer for the Australian Feature Film Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism which is yet to be released.
Katie Dahlenburg – Junior 3D Generalist, Fika Entertainment
Dahlenburg started her career in film production after studying screenwriting at the RMIT in 2011. Following her graduation, she freelanced within the Melbourne independent film scene before heading to Vancouver to work within locations departments on big-budget productions. After returning to Australia in 2016, she produced, wrote, and directed her first web series dating JEN, which is currently in post-production. This experience heavily influenced her decision to enroll into TAFE Queensland at the start of 2022 and to make the shift into the post-production sector, particularly 3D modelling, animation, and editing.
Oska Zervoudakis – Sound Assistant, Folklore Sound
Oska Zervoudakis is a graduate of a Bachelor of Film and Screen Media at Griffith Film School. A lifelong musician, his practice quickly centered on audio post-production and composition for film. Zervoudakis has provided original compositions, sound design, mixing, ADR, and editing services for a number of projects, such as standalone children’s program Viv’s Silly Mango (2022) for the ABC; Screen Australia national content initiative The Kaleidoscope Project; the short film Pause (2022), which screened at the Outfest LA LGBTQ+ Film Festival; the short film Lost Contact; the 2021 AACTA Award-winning ABC series All My Friends Are Racist; and Lucky Lucky (2020), for which he earned the award for Best Sound Design at the 2021 Independent Shorts Awards (ISA).
Kyra Bellamy – Assistant Sound Editor, The Post Lounge
Leading on from a strong background in visual arts, Bellamy began her film career in 2017 by freelancing in corporate film. In 2022, she graduated with a Bachelor of Business (Finance) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film, Screen and New Media) at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), during which she developed a passion for sound recording and design. During her studies, Bellamy continued to expand her network of freelance clients, while also working as an Audio-Visual Technician and Video Producer at Australia Zoo doing video production, live sound mixing, and broadcasts. One of her more recent credits is assistant voice over editor on the 2022 game Wayward Strand by Ghost Pattern.