By Brendan Swift
Western Australian feature film Blame begins its four-week shoot on Monday boasting an all-star cast that includes Sophie Lowe.
The psychological drama, about a group of young vigilantes seeking revenge for a sexual betrayal, will premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July.
The bulk of the film’s 20-day shoot will be held at one central Perth location using the RED camera before the bulk of post-production is conducted in Melbourne via post houses Digital Pictures and Soundfirm.
"The film was deliberately written with a low budget execution in mind," co-producer Ryan Hodgson said.
"We are shooting in the hills east of Perth, which are only 35 minutes from the centre of the CBD, but the location we’ve found could easily feel like it’s two or three hours away from a major city. And we’re shooting on one small farming-like property."
Melissa Kelly and Michael Robinson are also producing the project by debut feature film writer-director Michael Henry.
Blame’s high profile cast also includes Simon Stone (Balibo, Kokoda), Kestie Morassi (Wolf Creek, Satisfaction), Mark Winter (Balibo, Van Diemen’s Land), Ashley Zukerman (Rush), and Damian de Montemas (Underbelly, Secret Life of Us).
The major investor in the film is ScreenWest ($750,000) as well as Screen Australia, the MIFF Premiere Fund and private investors. It will be distributed by Peter Castaldi’s new venture, The Pack, while David Lightfoot (Wolf Creek, Coffin Rock) is playing a mentoring role as executive producer.
MIFF Premiere Fund and MIFF37ºSouth market manager/executive producer Mark Woods said Blame is the first project pitched at MIFF 37ºSouth: PostScript&Direct, to go into production.