A Few Best Men

Like most of Stephan Elliott’s movies, A Few Best Men is difficult to discuss without focusing on the director himself. A wedding-gone-wrong comedy, A Few Best Men is Elliott’s first Australian feature film in seventeen years. After directing the low-budget crime-thriller Frauds (1993), Elliott achieved worldwide success as writer-director of the Oscar-winning road movie Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). A quirky and visually striking film about two drag-queens and a transsexual’s journey across the harsh Australian outback in a bus named Priscilla, the movie earned over US$70 million at the international box-office and became an instant Australian classic. Elliott’s career, however, self-destructed soon after...

Dystopian fiction for young people: Instructive tales of resilience

The rise and popularity of dystopian fiction in recent years is quite marked and critics often attribute such high sales of books and box office as being linked to the impact September 11 has had on the world, especially in the United States. While the events of September 11, 2001 saw a heightened anxiety by nations and their citizens about the fear and threat of terrorism – an anxiety which is paradoxically lowered and raised by increased surveillance practices, security checks and warnings – other changes since the last stages of the twentieth century have also raised concerns and anxieties. In this paper I use examples of Young Adult (YA) dystopian fiction to illustrate the potential these texts have for providing their readers with alternative ways of thinking about the challenges that others face and their capacity for resilience.

Australian feature films and distribution: Industry or cottage industry?

Feature films remain critical flagships to any national film industry. Australian feature films can be highly commercial endeavours that also perform symbolic functions by embodying the national imaginary in big screen based sound and imagery. They conduct a dialogue with domestic audiences as well as showcase key aspects of Australia in the global film festival circuit. As the pre-eminent filmmaking form, feature films also serve as important launchpads for the careers of many Australian writers, directors, actors and technical crew. In the wake of over a decade of diminished share of local box office obtained by Australian feature films, Australian Feature Films and Distribution: Industry or cottage industry, examines issues in the production sector affecting the performance of Australian feature films and some responses by the central funding and support screen agency, Screen Australia.

Examining the black box between stimulating regions and individual entrepreneurship

This paper seeks to investigate the link between the objective regional opportunity structure (captured by regional data) and individuals’ engagement in different stages in the venture creation process (intention to start a business and engagement in nascent entrepreneurship). We further investigate pathways through which a favourable regional environment could affect entrepreneurial intentions and the propensity to be a nascent entrepreneur. We combine individual level GEM-data for Western Germany with regional level data from the statistical office and use multi-level analysis to test our hypotheses. We find support for our contention that a favourable regional opportunity structure affects entrepreneurial intentions and engagement. As pathways between the region and individual behaviour serve the individual perception of founding opportunities and the individual social capital.

Implication of global warming on air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

With the accelerated trend of global warming, the thermal behavior of existing buildings, which were typically designed based on current weather data, may not be able to cope with the future climate. This paper quantifies, through computer simulations, the increased cooling loads imposed by potential global warming and probable indoor temperature increases due to possible undersized air-conditioning system. It is found from the sample office building examined that the existing buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warmth of 2030 year Low and High scenarios projections and 2070 year Low scenario projection. However, for the 2070 year High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings, in all capital cities except for Hobart, will suffer from overheating problems. When the annual average temperature increase exceeds 2°C, the risk of current office buildings subjected to overheating will be significantly increased. For existing buildings which are designed with current climate condition, it is shown that there is a nearly linear correlation between the increase of average external air temperature and the increase of building cooling load. For the new buildings, in which the possible global warming has been taken into account in the design, a 28-59% increase of cooling capacity under 2070 High scenario would be required to improve the building thermal comfort level to an acceptable standard.

The future of office property

The following paper considers the question, where to office property? In doing so, it focuses, in the first instance, on identifying and describing a selection of key forces for change present within the contemporary operating environment in which office property functions. Given the increasingly complex, dynamic and multi-faceted character of this environment, the paper seeks to identify only the primary forces for change, within the context of the future of office property. These core drivers of change have, for the purposes of this discussion, been characterised as including a range of economic, demographic and socio-cultural factors, together with developments in information and communication technology. Having established this foundation, the paper proceeds to consider the manner in which these forces may, in the future, be manifested within the office property market. Comment is offered regarding the potential future implications of these forces for change together with their likely influence on the nature and management of the physical asset itself. Whilst no explicit time horizon has been envisioned in the preparation of this paper particular attention has been accorded short to medium term trends, that is, those likely to emerge in the office property marketplace over the coming two decades. Further, the paper considers the question posed, in respect of the future of office property, in the context of developed western nations. The degree of commonality seen in these mature markets is such that generalisations may more appropriately and robustly be applied. Whilst some of the comments offered with respect to the target market may find application in other arenas, it is beyond the scope of this paper to explicitly consider highly heterogeneous markets. Given also the wide scope of this paper key drivers for change and their likely implications for the commercial office property market are identified at a global level (within the above established parameters). Accordingly, the focus is necessarily such that it serves to reflect overarching directions at a universal level (with the effect being that direct applicability to individual markets - when viewed in isolation on a geographic or property type specific basis – may not be fitting in all instances)