The ‘Whale Shark Jack’ team.
Screenwest has selected three projects for development through the first stage of its West Coast Visions initiative: Miranda and Khrob Edmonds’ Whale Shark Jack, Zoe Pepper’s Fads & Miracles and David Vincent Smith’s Burden.
Each project will receive $20,000, supporting a six month development period. One of the projects will then be selected to receive $750,000 in West Coast Visions production funding.
West Coast Visions is a long-running program designed to support first-time feature directors and the production of low budget features in Western Australia.
This is the first year that it has been broken down into two stages; Screenwest adjusted the program to include a development stage in order to support multiple projects, fast track emerging talent and ensure the final project is production ready.
‘Burden’.Screenwest CEO Willie Rowe said: “The re-design of the program this year was done in response to industry need and a rapidly changing global landscape for feature films. Screenwest are pleased that the re-visioned West Coast Visions enables development for more practitioners, giving them time and guidance to develop their projects to be production ready.”
In order to give market-based insight, SBS head of scripted (acting) Amanda Duthie and strategic consultant James Hewison from Kinetic were engaged as industry assessors.
Duthie said: “The three projects selected were stand-outs for future market potential. I will look forward to seeing how the projects, which capture uniquely Western Australian stories, develop over the next six months.”
Hewison said: “I was delighted to be an assessor of the West Coast Visions program, vitally important for first time feature filmmakers. Moreover, the submitted projects were at once thrillingly singular, clear-eyed and bold as they were diverse, seeking to challenge audiences as they were to entertain. The next generation of WA filmmakers is a truly exciting prospect.”
The shortlisted projects:
Whale Shark Jack
• Format: Feature Film
• Production Company: Cottesloe Films
• Key Creatives: Producer/Director Miranda Edmonds, Director Khrob Edmonds, Writer Kathryn Lefroy
• Synopsis: When Sarah’s best friend, a whale shark named Jack, fails to return to Ningaloo reef for the summer, Sarah must do everything in her power to find him.
Earlier this year, Whale Shark Jack also received matched support from Screenwest and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Content Group (UPHE Content Group) through the Fast Pitch Initiative, to develop the script for this live-action family film, centred around our relationship with the natural world. UPHE Content Group has been working with Cottesloe Films to provide market-based development on the script.
‘Fads & Miracles’.Fads & Miracles
• Format: Feature Film
• Production Company: Rush Films
• Key Creatives: Executive Producer John Maynard, Producer Cody Greenwood, Writer/Director Zoe Pepper, Writer Adriane Daff
• Synopsis: A determined single mother seeks the help of a charismatic high school teacher to help her chronically shy teenage daughter to speak, but the harrowing side effects of the mysterious treatment have devastating consequences.
Burden
• Format: Feature Film
• Production Company: No Labels Media
• Key Creatives: Producer Jessica Parker, Producer Lauren Brunswick and Writer/Director David Vincent Smith.
• Synopsis: A desperate woman kidnaps and enforces rehab on her dangerous, meth-addicted brother in a last-ditch effort to save their lives.