Peter Cheng

Perth Artists is an arts documentary series that first launched online in 2014, helmed by Perth filmmaker Peter Cheng. After a series of 11 short episodes were produced, Perth Artists successfully raised funds via Pozible for a limited edition series of printed interview transcripts.

This year, the series has gained the attention of the Community Broadcasting Fund and broadcasting partner, West TV. We are hoping to produce and broadcast ten new episodes in a new 22-minute duration within our second season. Your pledges will be matched by the Community Broadcasting Fund 3 to 1. With your financial assistance, we will be able to produce the longer format episodes for public television and celebrate the work of a variety of creatives in Perth, Western Australia.

Series Synopsis

Perth Artists is a half-hour documentary series investigating the public and private artistic experiences of 20 artists based in Perth, Western Australia. Perth’s art scene is adopting new and experimental approaches and expanding the boundaries of art with respect to materials, techniques and means; challenging expectations about what art is and where it belongs. The series follows a diverse range of multidisciplinary artists, emerging and established, in the construction of art both weird and wonderful, contemporary and traditional. Filmed between the artist’s studio spaces and public art spaces, the series explores process, means and context with mediums of film, sound, sculpture, poetry, painting, fashion, design and performance. Audiences are invited into the private working space of each artist, where artists address questions pertaining to practice and lifestyle; revealing the history and meaning behind their works, inspiration and motivation, successes and failures, funding and finance, and the exhibition process. Audiences gain insight into the artist’s method and methodology from work that is finished, unfinished and just beginning to take form. Perth Artists acts to bridge the divide between the artist and the spectator, promoting accessibility and inclusivity - and fostering resistance, tension, education and inspiration in the uniting of art and life. The series moves beyond the documentation of artwork, permitting audiences insight into the intimate processes underlying the white cube; humanising the art world and stripping away the glamour and grandeur of the public artist. The documentation becomes an obsession with person, practice and process and a voyeuristic and inquisitive encounter with the individual behind the image of the artist.

The funds will go into the production costs of making the videos for Season Two. Each episode requires multiple filming days in order to document the different stages of an artist's work. Production requires a number of people working behind the scenes in order to capture the interviews with the artists, hence funding will assist with paying the film crew for their time and fuel. Finally, funding is required for the post-production and marketing of the series - ensuring that each episode is finished to a high standard before broadcasting on public access television.

Overview of an Episode's Costs

Typically the filming of an episode looks like this:

4-6 days for documenting each artist in their studio throughout the different stages of their work.

2 days for filming an interview with each artist- requiring extra crew for lighting, sound and second camera.

4-6 days for editing.

4-6 days for sound and colour grading.

Your pledges will be matched 3 to 1 by the Community Broadcasting Fund to a maximum value of $15,000. These funds will go towards paying film crew for their time and fuel, and covering the cost of consumables (such as hard drives for archiving the footage safely!)

Various challenges can arise throughout the filming and production of a documentary series, hence additional time will be allocated within the production schedule. 

This ambitious project will see the coordination and scheduling of twenty local artists and various crew members to be filmed before the end of the 2017. 

In order that the project can move forward, financial support is required to conduct members of crew and to renumerate them for their time and flexibility.