Jonathan J Sequeira

Film Producer, Director, Editor
Most Australian Band Ever! (Hard-Ons)
Descent into the Maelstrom - the Radio Birdman Story
Waiting - the Van Duren Story

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

Pip Hoyle from Radio Birdman is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Most people who know him would agree.

Thanks to him, I've submitted two suggestions to the National Policy Review.
1. The ABC should be all-Australian. People are already familiar with my views on this.

2. Get rid of all creative assessment of arts funding in Australia. Okay, this takes a paradigm shift, to use a popular expression from the 90s....

Pip Hoyle first suggested this to me over ten years ago. He said the idea of a Government body deciding what art was worthwhile was crazy. When Radio Birdman tour Europe they had played in council-run venues that are available for any community group to organise events in. The government facilitated the art by providing resources. They didn't decide what to put on in those spaces, the artists did.

He's right of course. It's a simple concept but it's radical. It's far removed from the current demoralising system of applications, trying to plan for something that might never happen, rejection, uncertainty, favouritism, political trends etc.

I know it will never happen. The people who control the arts in Australia are the least creative people in the country. They do not want to lose their power. Interesting art exists despite them, not because of them.

I really only submitted so I don't feel like a whinger who doesn't do the bare minimum of at least writing to Government to let them know.

On one level, I know the answer is to just get on with it. That's the only rational response to the arts in Australia. On another level, it's impossible to keep making films in Australia without some level of Government support. They are so expensive they are just not viable compared to any other artform. The logical response is to abandon features and move to short form social media, and that is what is happening.

If you want to have your say, submissions close at midnight on Sunday.
https://t.co/aUbhu7Gs6A

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

Claudine Longet died.
She appeared as a guest in TV shows such as McHale's Navy, married Andy Williams, killed her boyfriend 'Spider' Sabich claiming that the gun she was holding misfired. And of course she was the female lead in 'The Party', a film that wouldn't get made today..

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

Banned by the ABC! Recommended by the Aussie Prime Minister @AlboMP
Available on Amazon in Australia, through @mvdentgroup in the USA and @_king_records in Japan!

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

Descent into the Maelstrom - the Radio Birdman Story is now available on Amazon Prime in Australia
https://t.co/zGZHk7172P

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

@gearside @MarkDiStef @dannolan The ABC could be 100% Australian at no extra cost but prefers to buy content from the UK. But imagine the outrage if the Australian Institute of Sport trained the English soccer team.

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

@PulpLibrarian We just call them chips, cobber.

[Orson Scott Card @orsonscottcard]

You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts. 

My short story “Ender's Game” was rejected by Ben Bova at Analog back when that was the top market for a sci-fi story. Ben gave me feedback. He thought the title should be “Professional Soldier” and he said to “cut it in half.”

But I knew he was wrong on both points and submitted it to Jim Baen at Galaxy. He sat on it for a year, and responded to my query with a rejection. There was some kind of explanation, but I don't remember what it was. I concluded at the time that Baen's comments showed that he had barely glanced at the story.

So … I got feedback both times, but it was not helpful. I looked at Ben's rejection again. What was it about the story that made him think it should, let alone COULD, be cut in half?

Apparently it FELT long. What made it feel long? Now, post-Harry Potter, I would call it the quidditch problem. I had too many battles in which the details became tedious. So I cut two battles entirely, merely reporting the outcomes, and shortened another. In retyping the whole manuscript (pre-word-processor, that was the only way to get a clean manuscript), I added new point-of-view material to the point that I had cut only one page in length. So much for “in half.”
But I already knew that my manuscripts did not need cutting — if it wasn't needed, it wouldn't be there in the first place. Even the battles were still there, but instead of showing them, I merely told what happened (so much for the usually asinine advice “show don't tell”), which kept the pace going.

Those changes made, I sent it to Ben again. I did not remind him of what he had advised me to do. I merely told him I liked my title, and said, “I have addressed your other concerns,” which was true. I figured he wouldn't remember what his exact words had been. My answer was a check. That revised story was the basis for my winning the Campbell Award for best new writer.

Did Ben's feedback help? Yes — but his specific advice was not right, and I knew it. On my next two submissions, Ben hated my endings, and I revised as suggested. The fourth submission he rejected outright, and the fifth, and I thought, Am I a one-story writer? I went back to Ender's Game and tried to analyze why it worked. Then, deliberately imitating myself, I wrote “Mikal's Songbird.” Ben bought it, and it received favorable mentions. I was afraid then that I had consigned myself to writing stories about children in jeopardy. But in fact I was writing character stories rather than idea stories. And THAT was how I built a career, not by self-imitation, and not by following editorial suggestions.

I did get wise counsel from David Hartwell on my novel Wyrms, but that was on a book that was already under contract, and it was story feedback, not style. I got wise counsel from Beth Meacham, too, on various books over the years — but again, only on books that were under contract. I also received appallingly stupid advice from the editor of my novel Saints, which temporarily destroyed the book's marketability; after that, I was allowed to go back to my original structure and save the book — now it's one of my best.

Editors don't know more than you about your story. They especially don't know why they decide to accept or reject stories. YOU have to know what your story needs to be, and take only advice that you believe in.

Your best counselor on a story nobody bought is TIME. Let some time pass and then reread the story. Don't even think about why it Didn't Work. Instead, think about what DOES work, and then write it again, a complete rewrite, keeping nothing from the previous draft. Find the right protagonist and begin at the beginning — the point where the protagonist first gets involved with the events of the story. Be inventive — the failed first draft no longer exists, so you're not bound by any of your earlier decisions. THAT is how you resurrect a good idea you did not succeed with on your first try.

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

This is what the ABC spends your tax dollars on. Do you think Whoopi Goldberg or Demi Moore need our tax money? How about we give that money to Aussies, and let SBS handle foreign content, paid for with advertising.
Time to make the ABC Australian.
If you want to know ore, click on the link:
https://t.co/scuc5VJEXF

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

A couple of weeks ago I heard ABC Radio 702 (Sydney) play an Earth Wind and Fire song. Great band, great song.
Does it really serve the ABC Charter?

"The functions of the corporation are:
...
(c) to encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia."

Should ABC local radio stations only play Australian music?
(Unless relevant to a talking point)

Let us know what you think. Some FAQs at the link to find out more.
https://t.co/scuc5VJEXF

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

@achingkneejoint You need an explosives licence to handle nitrate film in Australia.

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

STANDARD box set SOLD OUT!
DELUXE BOX SET limited quantities left (about 20).
Shipping worldwide. Trading cards also available separately.
Order at https://t.co/QfL68H9nLJ

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

How would you feel if the Australian Institute of Sport funded the English soccer team? Would you have a problem with tax dollar going to support foreign sports?
...now, what about the ABC sending radio royalties to UK artists?
https://t.co/vdEeRgFtDn

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

Alex Proyas talks about how the Government film financing system works against filmmakers.

My experience with Screen Australia is that they WANT to be gatekeepers. They abolished the PEP documentary rebate because it was criteria-based, not creatively assessed.

Have a read, and if you'd like to try and change at least one aspect, then look at this petition https://t.co/scuc5VJEXF about making the ABC prioritise Australian over BBC and the like.

https://t.co/q6lClFn0vE

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

It's amazing that people will argue AGAINST an Australian Made campaign for the ABC.
Some will insist that we just need to increase the ABC budget if want more Australian on the ABC (both music & TV).
But the ABC doesn't value Australian art and culture. We are still tugging the forelock. Cultural cringe is real.

We wrote about our experience with the ABC here, and how they prioritise Hollywood and the BBC over Australian culture.
https://t.co/WRo1wAiKrz

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

It's amazing that people will argue AGAINST an Australian Made campaign for the ABC. Some will insist that we just need to increase the ABC budget if want more Australian on the ABC (both music & TV). But the ABC doesn't value Australian art & culture.
https://t.co/MVQhbDWNZ1

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

They used to say that rock'n'roll was the devil's music!
https://t.co/vdEeRgFtDn

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

"I just think Australia tends to make very good movies, so if someone hands me an Australian or an American film script I would guess the Australian film would be more intriguing." - Barbara Hershey

Do you think the AUSTRALIAN Broadcast Corporation should prefer AUSSIE movies, or Hollywood?

Have a read of the petition link for the answer!

https://t.co/scuc5VJEXF

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

We offered the ABC the Hard-Ons film for just $1. It could have saved them $339,999. Read what happened next...

[Jonathan J Sequeira @JonathanSeque]

https://t.co/QZALFufDbR

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

Make the ABC Australian - Minister for Communications: Amend the ABC Charter
https://t.co/9fGVajOCig

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

We offered the ABC the Hard-Ons film for just $1. It could have saved them $339,999. Read what happened next...

[Living Eyes (Radio Birdman & Hard-Ons documentary) @LivingEyesFilms]

Make the ABC Australian - Minister for Communications: Amend the ABC Charter
https://t.co/9fGVajOCig