REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, Sept 12, 2007

MOVIES and television shows were set to be forced to pay for the privilege of filming everything from the famous Surfers Paradise sign to the paving outside a Gold Coast library.

Tourism and media companies that use public art as a backdrop for promotional material including postcards were also to pay royalties under a proposal being considered by the city council. Everything from street furniture to fences and sculptures was classified by the council as art, and the creators of those pieces would have a right to payment under intellectual property laws.

The public art crackdown was set to be given the go-ahead but the council admitted it had no idea how it would police the 123page policy.

The Gold Coast’s thriving television and film industry, which welcomed a top Bollywood production later that year, was expected to be hardest hit.

Every year hundreds of international media and travel shows featured the Gold Coast, showing events such as Indy and using backdrops including the Surfers Paradise sign.

But the crackdown would have seen the council or the artist ask for money if the art was featured or altered in a movie or television spot.

The council said a fence at Macintosh Island, benches at Burleigh beach and the paving outside Elanora library were all classified as public art and would be covered by the policy.

Cultural Planning and Development co-ordinator Andrew Trump confirmed that artists who designed and built public art could be eligible to make a claim for any financial return made on the piece, including photos and postcards.