Course Leaders
Dr David Court - Founder of Compton School
David is Chair of Screen Canberra and a Director of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation. He was previously Head of Screen Business at the Australian Film Television & Radio School, where he led the highly regarded Masters of Screen Arts & Business program. He has been involved in the financing of more than a dozen film and television productions including Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom, Dean Cavell’s The Wiggles Movie and Andrew Horne’s The Animated Leunig. As author of Film Assistance: Future Options (Allen & Unwin, 1986), he was policy architect of the Film Finance Corporation established by the Australian Government in 1988. David holds a PhD from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.
Emma Slade - Producer
Emma is currently in post production with NUDE TUESDAY, a NZ/Aust co-production, starring Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers) and Damon Herriman (Judy and Punch), and THE JUSTICE OF BUNNY KING starring Essie Davis (The Babadook) and Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace). Her film COME TO DADDY, an NZ/Irish/Canadian official co-production premiered earlier this year at Tribeca, which also won best director (Ant Timpson) and actor (Elijah Wood) in Toronto After Dark Festival 2019. She is also in post her blue-chip documentary feature with David Farrier (Dark Tourist, Tickled). In 2017, her young adult thriller THE CHANGEOVER starring Timothy Spall (Mr Turner) and Melanie Lynskey (The Intervention), was in competition at the Alice Nella Citta. Earlier that year, INTO THE RAINBOW was the first Chinese/NZ co-production, starring Willow Shields (Hunger Games) and the Brazilian/NZ feature LITTLE SECRET, which was nominated as Brazil’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film 2017. Other titles include the Netflix original LETTER FOR THE KING, RAGE, the UK/NZ co-production TRACKER, SEPARATION CITY and BRIDE FLIGHT.
Emma is also a founding member of the Screen Women’s Action Group (SWAG), which began in January 2018 as a local response to the international movements #metoo and TimesUp. SWAG was driven by their belief that more could be done to address sexual harassment, discrimination and power imbalances in New Zealand’s own screen culture.
Abigail Tabone - Producer
Abi is a producer at Midwinter Films, where she co-produced The Butterfly Tree, which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2017. She produced Over and Out which won Best Short Form at Canneseries 2019. She was Associate Producer on H is for Happiness, which won Best Film at Cinefest Oz in 2019 and screened at Berlin International Film Festival. She previously worked as a producer at The Project Factory for clients including Channel 7, Sherlock: The Network, Home and Away and NITV. Abi’s career has spanned theatre and events as well as film and TV for clients including The Wolverine, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here, Handa Opera’s Carmen on Sydney Harbour, Where the Wild Things Are and Gods of Egypt. Abi holds a Masters in Screen Arts & Business from the Australian Film Television & Radio School.
Victoria Dabbs - Producer
Over the years Victoria has worked internationally across Europe, Asia and Australasia She has worked with various tax credit schemes and is a Screen Production Grant consultant for the NZ Film Commission as well as experienced in cast and crew contracting, including PACT/Equity in the UK, SAG in the US and the Blue book and SPADA/Equity Agreement.
From 2012 Victoria has been line producing primarily independent feature films which include Dexter Fletcher’s SUNSHINE ON LEITH, Terence Davies’ SUNSET SONG, and in New Zealand Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt’s THE CHANGEOVER and David Stubbs’ DAFFODILS.
Victoria started her production career working on a children’s TV series as a production assistant. She continued to work her way up through the production team to co-ordinate and production manage productions such as Nicolas Winding Refn’s VALHALLA RISING, Peter Mullan’s NEDS and most recently the BBC’s ABC MURDERS and THE SINGAPORE GRIP.
