New Stage for MTV
This years Australian MTV Awards will have a revolutionary
new format when the stars walk the red carpet at Redfern on Saturday, April 26
reports Lisa Capozzi in Central of
27th February 2008.
Dave Sibley, managing director of MN Networks Australia,
said, the new-look show will expand into categories honouring music, film,
television and sport and, in a first for Australia, viewers will be eligible
to win a trophy.
The MTV Remake Award allows viewers to submit videos re-enacting
some of the year’s unforgettable pop culture moments.
Mr Sibley said that in their new home within the Australian Technology Park
the awards would set new standards for the show, combining the industrial
setting with the event’s glamorous party atmosphere.
“Instead of resorting to traditional auditorium seating
like most awards, the 5000 guests of the 90-minute show will be treated to an
innovative and fast-paced mix of performance, design and staging unlike any
awards show to date.”
NEW TRAIN OF THOUGHT FOR MTV AWARDS
AFTER scouting locations all over Australia,
MTV Australia Awards executive producer Ean Thorley knew he had found the
perfect space for this year’s show as soon as he walked into Redfern’s Australian Technology Park
reports Lisa Capozzi in Central of
27th February 2008.
International and home-grown celebrities will strut down the
red carpet at the Garden St
site on April 26, when the MTV Australia Video Music Awards are held in our own
backyard.
Mr Thorley told Central that awards organisers were looking
for something different from the large-scale arenas that had been used in
previous years.
“So I looked at venues all across Australia.
We’ve pretty much seen every location around the country,” he said.
“But as soon as I walked into ATP I was blown away, and I thought ‘wow’.
“ATP is very industrial, very cool, very earthy.
“This presents a great opportunity for MTV – I was very
impressed.”
He described the site’s historic railway bays as urban,
gritty and unique.
“It is this great disused railway yard with this great
exhibition hall that holds 4000 people,” Mr Thorley said. “There are
railway bays all exposed and railway pillars. “We’ve got this great depth
and this great scope to use, through lights and visuals.
“I’ve been at the site lots of times with my team and
we’ve
got lots of ideas about what we can do.”
He said the show would have eight performers but their names
are still top secret. Rumoured to be in attendance are Hollywood starlets Lindsay Lohan and Mischa
Barton.
Mr Thorley said inner city residents should be proud of
their area.
“It’s a great area and its going through a lot of
change including creating a media hub, which is superb.” The glitz and
glamour of the MTV Awards aren’t the only things changing the face of Redfern.
Planning and Redfern-Waterloo Minister Frank Sartor last year approved a concept plan for a
development at the for- mer Rachel Forster Hospital site that is expected to
generate $70 million worth of investment in the area, 150 dwellings and more
than 1000sqm of open space.
Mr Sartor said over the next 10 years, planning strategies
put in place by the Redfern-Waterloo Authority were expected to generate
440,000sqm of employment space, 18,000 jobs and 2000 dwellings in the area.
RWA chairman and ATP managing director Robert Domm said the MTV Awards were another
breakthrough for the area, which had been moving forward in leaps and bounds.
“To have an event with such a global television reach, to have that
international profile is fantastic for us and fantastic for the area,” Mr
Domm told Central.
“We are very excited.”
He said Redfern would soon boast the country’s largest
dedicated television production facility and a media centre that would have
another 2000 employees by next year.
“These sorts of major TV events go toward boosting
Redfern’s new profile, and we are expecting to secure a lot more in the
future,” he said.
“Redfern-Waterloo is a large area and what we want to
see is a safer, better community that provides jobs and opportunities for
people to progress, and ATP is a key strategy to creating that.” He said
the authority’s Koori Job Ready
program was providing 60 jobs for local Aboriginals, which was 10 per cent of
all construction jobs on the site, and the proposed Redfern Community Health
Centre would also be a great addition.
“Redfern is changing, but we want to keep the best of
the old,” Mr Domm told Central.
“We want to make sure the people living here now have a
place in the new Redfern.”
He said the authority stood for better housing, creating
optimal open spaces and ensuring safer streets.
“When you put them together, you create a mosaic of a
community,” he said.
PROJECTS CHANGING REDFERN
- Redfern-Waterloo
has more than $500 million earmarked for urban renewal as part of the State
Government’s 10-year plan. - Global
Television will join Channel Seven and Pacific Magazines at Australian Technology
Park in 2009, with 2600
permanent workers. - A
Development Application has been approved for the re-use of Wilson Street’s heritage Blacksmiths’
Workshop to create a community market and arts space. - Former Redfern
Public School was sold to
the Indigenous Land Corporation for a $45 million National Indigenous
Development Centre. - Redfern
Oval upgrade will keep the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Redfern.
HEALTHY PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
PLANS for Redfern’s proposed $10 million community health
centre are currently on public exhibition reports Lisa
Capozzi in Central of 27th February 2008.
The proposed centre will provide essential services for the
area including Aboriginal health, community nursing, post acute care services
and counselling, as well as mental health and drug health services.
Minister for Planning and Redfern-Waterloo, Frank Sartor, recently announced the proceeds from
the sale of the Rachel
Forster Hospital
site would be spent on the new development, proposed for the former court house
and police station on Redfern
Street.
He said Kaymet Corporation had bought the former hospital
site, on Pitt Street,
for $11.5 million.
Source: Central of 27th February 2008