Ten years ago, actor Diana Glenn was a 40-year-old single mother who – despite a successful career in the Australian screen industry – was starting to realise she needed greater job security.
‘I’d been very lucky with my career, not just with acting, but also with voiceovers, so I’d managed to be able to take care of myself – and my son – but I was constantly at the mercy of somebody else’s decision-making,’ Glenn explains.
Despite an AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) Award-winning performance in 2011’s The Slap and, more recently, roles in popular television programs including Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Bad Behaviour and In Our Blood, Glenn had also reached an age where, ‘sadly, the roles for women start dwindling, in terms of acting – which is something I’m determined to change’.
After speaking with industry mentors and taking time to weigh up her options, Glenn took a step sideways, into the parallel field of producing. Securing a Screen Australia attachment, she worked with Northern Pictures as a producer on the 2021 TV series, Spreadsheet, and found herself flourishing in the demanding new role.
‘I’ve been on sets for 30 years now, and acting is my world; it’s a world I love, even though it’s a tricky industry. So perhaps because I’ve been on the other side of the camera, I could look after the other actors and understand what they needed. And that was a wonderful experience,’ Glenn says.
Passion can only get one so far, however. Glenn quickly recognised she needed to gain a greater understanding of the business side of producing if she was to flourish in her new role – especially if she wanted to be a creative producer, helping to develop projects from the ground up rather than coming on board as a gun for hire at a later stage in a project’s development.
Consequently, Glenn enrolled in the Master of Arts Screen: Business (MASB) at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), a flexible course that’s designed to accelerate the careers of screen media practitioners and encourage entrepreneurial thinking.
‘What the MASB gave me, which I don’t think any other course would have, was an understanding of business. As an actor, and someone who’s mostly been in the creative world, to get in sync with the business mind was a huge shift, but a great one too,’ Glenn says.
‘It really challenged me. I had to look at the industry and see where the gaps were, where the opportunities were, where it was working, where it wasn’t working, and look at it through a much bigger lens.’
Studying the Master of Arts Screen: Business also taught Glenn – formerly a self-described Luddite – to embrace the possibilities and opportunities presented by new technologies in the screen industry, a process that was especially important to her as part of the course’s capstone project, but also important to her personally, as the mother of a 10-year-old boy.
‘The capstone is your big research project; the hope is that it repositions you in the in the industry or the marketplace… Ultimately, I had to distil what my interests were, what my values were, where I wanted to see change and what I wanted to contribute to. And so my final capstone was about positive representation of gender in young adult entertainment and also how young adults were consuming their entertainment,’ she explains.
Glenn now lives in Byron Bay, working part-time with the regional non-profit Screenworks, doing voiceovers from her home studio, acting when possible, and developing various creative projects.
“I’m currently in the R&D phase of an app concept that I believe could be beneficial to the industry, collaborating with a fellow AFTRS graduate to bring it to life. I co-founded a production company with my dear friend and fellow MASB student, Sarah Goodes, and I’m developing a comedy series that highlights and celebrates women over 50. Following my capstone project, I’m keen to create new IP for the YA audience, though I’m not sure whether that will present as a traditional TV format, or if I want to focus on short-form content with positive and intentional messaging for young people,” she explains.
While she absolutely believes there’s still merit in more traditional forms of content making, Glenn says completing the MASB gave her, ‘a much broader view of entertainment, different ways to use your imagination and different ways to reach audiences’.
Whichever project Glenn focuses on next, she says she wouldn’t be where she is now without completing the Master of Arts Screen: Business.
‘I thought I knew a lot, having worked as an actor and as a producer, but now I have a much broader view of the industry, and have new ways to explore the industry too – such as thinking about how your imagination can spill out into new worlds of Augmented Reality, for example, and so much more.’
She also wants to change the industry from within – not just what is made, but how it’s made too.
‘At the moment I’m helping to oversee a regional crew pathway program, for regional practitioners who are breaking into below-the-line positions in the film industry. But I’m also interested in finding and implementing solutions to the arduous expectations on crew to make screen content. I’d love to create more opportunities for job sharing and transference of skills within the Below the Line sector with the aim to reduce the often-negative impact of work on crew members’ family and personal lives,” Glenn explains.
‘I think that’s one of the things the MASB has given me the confidence to think about – yes, it’s about the business side of things, but I think you’re also very much encouraged to think socially and ethically as well,’ she continues.
‘There’s a real emphasis on ethical practice and inclusivity and that’s certainly encouraged at AFTRS. My idea of leadership changed during the MASB, and I found that really encouraging, because really, that’s the future – and I think the MASB challenges all of those outdated models of leadership.’
Learn more about the Master of Arts Screen: Business at AFTRS. Applications for the course are now open and close on Tuesday 29 October 2024.
