The BOOK - An interactive Film
Our drama tutor Michal Hughes developed a script for an interactive film by working with our young people over the course of Term 1.
We made a casting call to young people in our community to act and fulfil roles in the film crew for some intensive filmmaking in the April school holidays. Working with artists Stu Nankivell and Christopher Bond over 5 days as they supported and led the young people through the professional filmmaking process, from pre-production to filming!
The team of young people, most of whom have some acting or filmmaking experience from our previous projects, worked with the artists to develop the story and produce the film. Our youth participants took charge of various key roles in the production while experiencing an authentic intensive filmmaking experience. With an intense filming schedule over the week, we wrapped shooting the final day with all participants extremely proud of their achievements.
The project was funded by Country Arts SA's Regional Arts Fund.
Film Trailer
Behind The Scenes Interviews
The smoke machine was put to work a lot!
Our young film crew took charge in making the film look and sound great!
A final shot from our last day on set!
Some terrifying screen makeup!
Apart from the high-quality interactive film, the main key outcome of the project was the experience it provided for the participants. Unlike other short films we have produced, the artists ran this project like a fully professional film set. It provided our experienced young people with the opportunity to learn what industry practice is like. It provided a mix of cast and crew experiences that pushed our young people to learn new skills and really explore the high calibre work they can produce. Seeing the overwhelmingly positive responses to the project reinforced the successful structure this project had.
As with all our projects, one core strength is in ensuring that the initial project idea was youth-led. It was our young people who came up with the idea of an interactive film and it was our own young drama tutor that wrote the script. Recognising our young peoples experience at filmmaking it was important that we made this project an opportunity for our young filmmakers to get the feeling of a professional film set. By recruiting Stu Nankivell and Christopher Bond to act as lead artists on the project it allowed us to give the participants a unique experience that has inspired them to keep making films. The new and challenging structure of creating a "choose your own adventure" type film added extra excitement to the project which contributed to its success.
Setting up for each shot was a big group effort
The team planning our action for the busy week ahead
The crew meet before an outdoor shoot on location in Whyalla
Watch THE BOOK Now!
Choose your own terror - will you survive the curse?