Send Screen Queensland your story. Here is mine.
An update to Six months in, and a call for help
Last Thursday, at the Mayor's Sunset Networking event at HOTA, Screen Queensland CEO Jacqui Feeney asked the room to send her our stories.
I agree with her wholeheartedly. I would add one thing. Do not only send the wins. Send the problems too, because an agency can only fix what it hears about.
So here is mine, in public, with the numbers.
Where we are this week
This week I spoke with Trevor Jackson on ABC Gold Coast Breakfast about our six-month report. Since I published it on Friday, the numbers have moved:
50 on-site visits
40 producer tours
9 productions and activations hosted
76 live conversations with producers, up from 66 on Friday
Zero confirmed bookings for the rest of 2026
Ten new conversations in four days tells you demand is real. In the same four days I have read feature scripts and written virtual production feasibility notes for local producers, free of charge, because helping a project get to a start date is the only way any of us gets a customer.
I have also taken calls from experienced Gold Coast crew telling me they have nothing lined up, and that it is unusually quiet for this time of year. Those calls are anecdotes, not data. They are also the reason I am writing this.
The one thing that costs nothing
Screen Queensland has a page called Gold Coast Facilities. It is where a producer looks first when deciding where to shoot on the Coast. It lists Village Roadshow Studios and Pinnacle Studios. Both are excellent, and I have good relationships with both.
Chrysaor Studios is not on it.
I first asked in April. I have asked in writing several times since, supplied listing copy in Screen Queensland's house style, offered photography and our analytics, and hosted the Arts Minister in the building. In July the request was declined by the Industry and Audience Engagement team, and the CEO upheld that decision, describing it as "not a closed door".
Two reasons were given. I would like to answer both.
Reason one: "we would have to list all twelve"
Screen Queensland's Capital Grants Program supported twelve businesses. I was told that listing Chrysaor would mean listing all of them.
Look at the twelve. Ten are costume, post-production, visual effects, scanning, camera and workflow companies. Excellent businesses, and none of them is a studio. Only two of the twelve operate stages a producer can hire: Pinnacle and Chrysaor.
Pinnacle is on the page. We are not.
Nobody is asking for a costume house to be listed as a studio. I am asking that the two studios the program supported be treated the same way.
Reason two: the page is for major production attraction
I was told the page is for facilities that have hosted and can host projects supported by the Production Attraction Strategy. That criterion is not published anywhere. I asked in writing on 16 July to be assessed against it, having already serviced work connected to Stan, Netflix and Paramount+ productions. I have not had a written outcome.
Here is the part I find hardest to understand. We are not competing with Village Roadshow or Pinnacle. We exist for the Australian production that cannot carry the scale or cost of a major complex. Right now, when that producer looks at Queensland's official list and sees only the big stages, the realistic alternative is not a bigger Queensland booking. It is Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide.
Listing a mid-scale stage does not take work from anyone here. It keeps work in the state.
What the numbers say
I was pointed to the ReelScout directory instead, where we have had a listing from the start. Here are our website sessions by source for the 12 months to 22 September 2026:
Total: 6,033
Google search: 1,616
Facebook: 437
Email newsletters: 232
LinkedIn: 120
37°South Market at MIFF: 52
Screen UK: 19
Screen Queensland's ReelScout directory: 4
screenqueensland.com.au: 0
Four visits in a year, from three people. A British screen website sent us nearly five times as many.
I am not claiming a web listing would fill our diary. I am saying the channel we were directed to is not helping producers find us, and the page that would is closed to us on a rule nobody can read.
Thank you, sincerely
Screen Queensland published a generous story about us last Thursday. We opened during Screen Forever at the end of April, so it took close to six months and a fair bit of chasing, but it is a lovely piece and I am grateful to the team who wrote it. I am grateful for the grant, which we matched with our own investment. I am grateful Minister John-Paul Langbroek and our local member Hermann Vorster toured the studio in July, and that Mayor Tom Tate came through in June.
Gratitude and a fair question can sit in the same article.
My questions
What are the criteria for the Gold Coast Facilities page, and will Screen Queensland publish them?
Of the two studios supported by the Capital Grants Program, why is one listed and one not?
Will Chrysaor Studios be assessed against the criteria, with the outcome in writing?
In the six months since we opened, the only Screen Queensland visit to the finished studio was alongside the Minister. Will the Industry and Audience Engagement team come and stand on the floor?
Screen Queensland's Strategic Plan commits to "fit for purpose and sustainable infrastructure" and "a strengthened and expanded screen business ecosystem". The 10-Year Roadmap says investing in the domestic industry "will be essential to building a resilient and sustainable sector". How does leaving a supported studio off the map serve either?
Screen Queensland, or International Film Queensland?
The research is already done. QUT's report for the Gold Coast Film Commission found only Sydney and Melbourne produce more film and television than the Gold Coast, and named limited stage capacity as a constraint on growth. Screen Australia's Production Infrastructure and Capacity Analysis points to the same infrastructure pressure nationally.
International production built this city and it should keep coming. But incentives move. Trained crews, permanent infrastructure and intellectual property we own do not. If the state's screen agency only has a front door for international work, it is fair to ask whether we have Screen Queensland or International Film Queensland. I would like the answer to be the first one.
Who I have written to
Last Friday I wrote to Jacqui Feeney and Ken Crouch at Screen Queensland, Mayor Tom Tate, Gina Black at the Gold Coast Film Commission, Minister Langbroek, Hermann Vorster MP and our local councillors, with this update and an invitation to a Gold Coast screen industry leaders gathering at the studio in October.
So far I have had a warm response from Councillor Josh Martin's office, a courteous reply from our Division 11 councillor, and acknowledgements from the Mayor's and the Minister's offices. I hope to hear from the others this week, and I will update this post when I do.
Your turn
Jacqui asked for our stories. Please take her up on it, and tell her the hard parts as well as the highlights. I know some people worry that speaking up costs them later. I understand that worry. I think an industry that only reports good news gets policy built for an industry that does not exist.
Write to Screen Queensland. Then write to me. If you have a project, the diary is open.
Chrysaor Studios is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland's Capital Grants Program.
Christopher Amos, Founder and CEO, Chrysaor Studios.
