Entrepreneurial navigation of the Australian screen industries: The case of Dr D Studios

Abstract

This article analyses the case of the short-lived Australian visual effects and animation enterprise Dr D Studios, which was co-founded by Australian film director, George Miller. Although Miller is an important figure in the history of the contemporary Australian screen industries, he has only rarely been the focus of significant scholarly analysis. Using the emerging scholarly concept of creative entrepreneurship, I analyse Dr D Studios as an instrument for Miller's navigation of the Australian screen industries, and as a strategy for adapting his filmmaking career to emerging industrial conditions and thereby manage and enhance his artistic practice, generate social value for the Australian creative sector, and secure economic value for his filmmaking operation. My analysis develops a new understanding of the career and practice of this significant Australian media figure and demonstrates the effectiveness of the creative entrepreneurship rubric for the future study of Australian screen producers.

Australian author, student and publishing perspectives on marketing knowledge

“…Various related and interrelated terms within the Creative Industries such as creative entrepreneurship and arts entrepreneurship (Douglas, 2022) have been used to encompass the behaviours utilised by creative practitioners to share and distribute their creative work (Bridgstock, 2012). A synthesised definition (Douglas, 2022) is that creative/cultural/art entrepreneurship is ‘a management process through which cultural workers seek to support their creativity and autonomy, advance their capacity for adaptability, and create artistic as well as economic and social value’ (Chang and Wyszomirski, 2015: 24). As such, these activities encompass various business activities and knowledge including strategy, finance, and marketing (Bridgstock, 2012).…”