Role of Producers: John Edwards

John Edwards is a renown Film producer in Australia. From the time he was born in 1953 and his early lives in high school, Edwards exhibited high levels of creativity, had a high sense of humor and was a sociable person. His outgoing traits are attributed to be the major factors that propelled him to the top in the film industry (Alexander, 2011).

Edwards’ early life was mostly spent in Manly suburb. He attended Balgowlah Boys Campus, which was instrumental in developing skills of many television and film stars such as I am Berry. The two final years of Edwards life were spent in The Shore School, and finally, he attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama and Sydney University in Australia. His teaching career as a history teacher was instrumental in his creativity, motivation, and skills he used to develop superb scripts for television and film industry. The number of films he developed include Out of place, The weekly war, and The bounty experiment, and was a co-writer of the two-part movie(Edwards et al., 2011).

After commencing his career in writing and researching at Film Australia, Edwards who partnered with Tim Read entered the film production scene. The feature Film was called the Empty Beach, and Bryan Brown was the starring. Later, Edwards and Team Read produced a telemovie in 1985 called I own the racecourse. In 1986, Cyclone Tracy, a mini-series was produced. In 1988, a TV series referred to as Stringer was produced. By partnering with Sandra Levy, he produced a successful crime drama called Police Rescue. It was the most popular Drama between 1991 and 1996, which received several international awards, a swag of acting Logies and 5AFI Awards. In 1997-1999, Edwards partnered with Levy to produce Big Sky. The Big Sky, which was aired in Network Ten, and ran for two seasons, involved pilots in a small aviation company called BIG sky Aviation and the battles of the owner of the company who were striving to enable the company to continue running. The theme of Big Sky was influential and enabled the film to win an AFI award. John Edwards and Levey parted ways, and in 2000, Edwards produced an award-winning film called On the Beach in 2000. The starring was Rachel Ward. The film won two golden globe nominations and two AFI awards.

Between 2002 and 2005, Edwards and Amanda Higgs managed to produce one of the most watched series called The secret life of us (Alexander, 2011). The series contains several dramas that were awarded six Logies. The plot of the series revolves around friends who are in their early thirties who live in flats. The film features their romantic interests, interaction with each other, their career and personal development, and their relationship with friends. The drama is informative and tries to highlight factors that affect the lives of young people, and shows how they mix with each other, thus reflecting the social dynamic that occurs in real life situation. In the same year, Edwards produced the ABC mini-series called Marking time. The film was awarded seven AFI award, which was a record award to be presented to a television series during that period(Edwards et al., 2011).

Edwards is presumed to have become tremendously famous, because of his award-winning Drama called Love my way aired between 2004 and 2007. The film was produced and developed specifically for pay televisions. It was written by Jacqueline Perske, and the main actor was Claudia Karvan. The series won eight AFI award, six ASTRA awards, and six Logie awards. Love my way was a changing point in Australian television, because it sought to highlight the complexities of modern adult life, and was a pioneering series to use HBO model of developing high-quality Drama within the television series. The TV series, which received several awards shows that Edwards J played a key role in the way films present the responsible matters that influence the current society, how people live, social evils and the positive changes people are facing in their day to day lives. Further, it was a shift from fiction drama which most of the directors and producers concentrated on when writing film scripts and production(Rowe, 2012).

In 2008, Edwards and Mimi Butler produced Rush, a Channel 10 series that went for four seasons. In 2010, it won the television series award’s AFI award. In 2010, Tangle, a new pay television series was launched by Edwards and Imogen Banks. The series which went for three seasons had an innovative shooting, and the collaboration involved Jackqueline Perske and Claudian Karvan. Tangle highlights the tangled lives of preceding generations of two families, thus showcasing how family matters are different, people have differing views, there exist generational gaps, and that life within the family requires tolerance and understanding. Tangle brings out the message about family matters, and so it gives the audience a chance to reflect on family lives that are facing the contemporary Australian generations. The Tangle episodes are currently being prepared to be shown in the SoHo, a Foxtel channel (Rowe, 2012).

Apart from television series, most of which have earned accolades from the audience, Edwards has produced numerous telemovies and ministries that include Children of the Dragon that won 7 AFI awards, Tracy shown in Seven network,Police rescue telemovie,Golden globe, marking team, fireflies and offspring, Hard Knox,and six telemovies in cordy series, and The Birth of Cleo. The birth of Cleo became the highest rating Drama for numerous years and is aired by the ABC(Edwards et al., 2011).

In 2012, Edwards produced Puberty Blues. In this movie, he co-produced with Imogen Banks and became a new AFI award-winning series. The series was produced for Network Ten and a min-series, Howzat! Kerry Packer’s war that he co-produced with Mimi Butler was aired by Channel 9. The Puberty blues clearly shows how Edwards was creative and could analyze the society critically and present what is happening. The Puberty Blues is an educative series that calls for the society to analyze the confusion that teenagers face when seeking their identity, and so if the stage is well catered for, an individual can grow into a responsible individual. However, if ignored, it may be detrimental to one's life. Pubert blues was a well-written script as John’s co-producer Bank puts, “You sit around and talk a lot, swap stories, start to put a structure in place, start to plot each episode” (George, 2012). Currently, Edwards is producing the second series of puberty blues, which he is co-producing with Imogen Banks. Further, he is producing another mini-series, Power Game: The Packer-Murdoch story, which is expected to be aired by Nine Network (Rowe, 2012).

John Edwards has superb talents and skills that have played a key role in his success of being a producer. Most of his productions have earned prestigious awards. Further, he has earned an AFTR honorary degree for his good work. In accepting his honorary degree award, he states, “I’m so chuffed, this work is huge fun, and to be honored for it, well, that’s even better ” (Al-Janabi, 2012). He is very creative, and he analyses the society, on what transpires in the society, and the issues the bedevil it to develop state of the art television presentation. In his Puberty Blues, he shows his audience that puberty stage is a critical one that must be followed and adhered to. The secret lives of us tend to highlight issues that involve young adults. These are relationships, how they are related with each other, and matters that might bring conflict among young people. In this case, he shows his audience that he understands the exact issues that affect modern society, and is capable of turning these issues into television presentations. Edwards has a great sense of humor which is exhibited in his drama Police Rescue and The secret life of us, which amused the audience. As time goes by and modernity sets in, he changes with the tastes of his audience, and produces a series that suit the contemporary generation. For instance, he is instrumental in utilizing HBO Model of Drama to create quality presentations on television. This is a clear indication that he adheres to the requirements of quality and a sense of humor in television production. Another important quality that  Edwards wields is his unrelenting nature, and his quest to ever produce new series containing new themes.

Basing on the series that he produces, he has reproduced very few series done by other people. Most of his productions are his original work or has co-produced with others. Since the beginning of his production work in 1979, his work has remained creative, and he continues to produce innovative work. For instance, he is currently working on the second series of Puberty two, which indicates that he is not yet in a state to leave his career. John Edwards can collaborate with others in his production work. He has collaborated with other renowned producers, such as Mimi Butler to develop high standard works.

Further, he has collaborated with other renowned writer, actors, and directors that have helped him build a strong career. Although he has worked with other renowned producers and film writers, he has broken the common stereotypes of working only with the famous and has worked with new people in developing his films. Further, he uses any television network that is ready to air his work. Through this, he has been able to tap appropriate talent in writing and acting, and so he has been able to remain a top producer (Wright et al., 2004).

John Edwards, who started as a career history teacher has been influential in the television productions in Australia and the globe. His first influence is changing the common perception that one cannot change his or her career to adopt the one that he or she is well talented. As such, even people who take different career paths can change them and follow those that they believe would be of assistance to them. His themes especially those that touch directly on the society and its values, have stirred critical thinking among the audience, who have got the opportunity to understand what is going around them, how the society is changing, what needs to be done to handle generational changes, and the issues that emanate from different families in the society (Kelly.et.al, 2003).  As such, his themes keep on attracting a new audience to watch the series, and other related series that are instrumental in both sales and interest of the viewers, thus promoting the industry. His role in producing films has played an influential role in modernizing the Australian film industry. In his film, Love my way, which was aired between 2004 and 2007, he utilized the HBO model to develop superb television presentation aired. The model was essential in enhancing quality that suits the taste of the contemporary generations.

In conclusion, John Edwards is an icon in film and television presentation. He has managed to produce many award-winning series that have had great influence on film and television fraternity and the audience. His production work is a clear signal of unrelenting spirit to pursue the goals of developing superb series and creativity in remaining relevant in the industry. His creativity has enabled him to explore issues that occur in the society, analyze them and make a superb presentation that stirs critical thinking and amusement among his audience. Further, he has managed to work with others as co-producers which indicate that he is a team worker and is ready to pool talents to come up with excellent work.