CQU Rockhampton graduates Tamara Anderson (performing arts) and Tony Doak (creative enterprise) have launched a talent and events management business called Encompass Art Productions.

.They now have a new website at: http://www.encompassartproduction.com.au/

UniNews recently approached them to lay out their vision:

Tamara Anderson
Tony Doak

How would you describe your short-term aims (over the next 12 months)?

As the first year of any small business is difficult, I suppose our main goal is to stay afloat and make a profit. We will continue making industry contacts and collecting the talent database which has always been a primary focus. We have all this paid work for actors and performers but not enough in our talent database to pass the work on.

Our aim was to aid the community and the arts, not to cause rivalry and competition.  So we are working in conjunction with local business and artistic communities to help provide talent, marketing and organisation.

We will be hosting workshops that will take artists from script to stage or screen. This is to help people become actors, directors and writers and provide a connection between those who want to star in a movie, create a movie or just be a part of it. It will force people to create a movie that will be presented to the public at local festivals.

What sort of projects are you helping to source talent for recently?

We have found it easier to become a part of an organisation that already has talent or has people interested. Word of mouth is big in Rockhampton and Central Queensland and attending functions and community groups helps us become known as well as sourcing new talent.

The more we are out there the more we are seen and known and the more we help other people the more they wish to help us. Next year we will start with the schools to get involved with arts and get enough talent to get a travelling theatre troupe. We'll start in Rockhampton but we will branch out to the whole of Central Queensland.

Gladstone is huge on actors. I believe Gladstone will be the next town we conquer, although Blackwater are hiring us for a lot of gigs out there so you never know.=

How would you describe your longer-term aims (over the next 5 years)?

If we aren't a fully fledged talent and events management business in the next 5 years then we've taken a wrong term somewhere along the line.

We are looking at bringing talent back into the Central Queensland region. We want to give the talent a good reason to stay and they won't come back if they can't find work and can't further their skills. Further work with and for the University is needed and without great people working alongside us such as Bernie Walker-Gibbs. Richard Smith, Marc Barnbaum, Peter Lawerence and others that have jumped on board I doubt we would have the strength to keep fighting against the cliques of Rockhampton.

In 5 years time we will have knocked down those small town cliques and will have built up a strong entertainment and art community within Central Queensland. 

What sort of projects would you like to get involved with over the longer-term?

Tam: I would love to have control over the entertainment within the Beef Expo and local town shows so that our performers have a chance to display their talents across Central Queensland. I suppose I wouldn't mind working on a feature film and a theatre production that can travel Australia and then the world. Anything that will help our talent blossom and put Central Queensland on the map for the best talent around.

Tony: Definitely events that build connections within the central Queensland towns. From Bundaberg to Mackay we have a large amount of talent, but due to the towns being spaced out the talent is also spread out.  If we utilize the combined skills and talents we have within Central Queensland we can achieve so much more.  So I'd like to see partnerships built within the towns so we can all go forward.  I'd also like to further explore my love of experimental and improvisational theatre and show Central Queensland a new type of theatre experience.

Is your immediate challenge expanding your pool of actors and performers?

Tam: Yes, but then once we have that pool it would be keeping them by providing work and opportunities for them. We don't won't our talent to just stay in Central Queensland, we would love for them to go off and be great movie stars. So in that case, the goal is gathering the actors and then establishing the worldwide industry contacts to be able to get our performers where they would like to be.

Tony: Definitely, and then finding further opportunities for those performers.  This is the tricky part as most performers have to have other employment to make ends, which means they have limited time for their art.  This makes having a large pool of talent essential.

What sort of people do you need on your books?

Tam: If you can burp the national anthem then we have a spot for you. We are looking for it all, from movie actors through to street performers, musicians to dancers and clowns. We need it all to make this worthwhile.

Tony: Either a talent or skill whether it is conventional, like dance or drama or something less mainstream like animation or juggling.  Alternatively anyone with interest in exploring the performing arts and some confidence can also be an asset and skills can be taught.

Would you describe your business model as an agency or brokerage?

Encompass Art Productions could be classified as both. We have work come in and we sub-contract people out but we are also a business that offers events management and marketing that we'll expand more next year. We have many things to offer people and we can only get bigger. But within the next year or 2 we are focusing on performers and entertainers and making sure they have plenty of work through us. For now we are having to put people on our books but we will expand onto an online database and forum so that performers can talk amongst themselves and support others in following their artistic dreams.

For details: 07 4927 5431 or 0413 955 853 or encompass_art@hotmail.com