Based on an Australian short story by Louise D’Arcy that won The Age Short Story Award in 2009, Flat Daddy is one of only three short film projects to receive production funding from Screen NSW as part of their Emerging Filmmakers Fund (EFF) for 2014.
Executive produced by Al Clark, whose list of producer and executive producer credits include films such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Chopper, The Hard Word, Blessed and Red Hill, Flat Daddy tells the tale of a working-class Australian military family and of how a life-size cut-out of the serving husband and father, meant to provide a sense of comfort during prolonged absences, becomes a source of emotional upheaval.
Writer-director Matt Holcomb – currently in advanced development on his first feature, Pinball – has teamed with TVC producer Annie Kinnane, who steps into the world of drama production to work on Flat Daddy, her third short film. Director of photography Geoffrey Hall ACS (Red Dog, Chopper, Drift, Dirty Deeds), co-producer and editor – and Matt’s brother and long-time collaborator – Trevor Holcomb, and screen composer Matt McGowen, round out the Flat Daddy creative team.
AFI, AACTA and Logie-award-winning actor Kat Stewart (Offspring, Underbelly, Tangled) has been cast in the lead role – the wife of the titular Flat Daddy, and the mother of a nine-year-old girl who becomes besotted with the cut-out.
The decision to adapt the short story was, according to director Matt Holcomb, an easy one.
“I usually originate my own stories, but I found Louise’s story to be so distinctive and unusual, and affecting, that it would have been a mistake not to do it. Of course, certain ideas presented themselves to me during the process of adapting the story — ideas that gave the adaptation its own identity. The idea that a one-dimensional object could have this kind of emotional hold on people was fascinating; I wanted to give the cut-out a real, almost supernatural presence, as though it contained the father’s life-force.”
To supplement the Screen NSW EFF grant, the producers of Flat Daddy are currently running a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo, with the aim of raising the extra $22,000 required to get the production over the line, complete post-production and get the film out to film festivals around the world.
www.indiegogo.com/projects/flat-daddy