Even as frontiers in the industry expand, and the networks scour for the kind of content that will allow them to compete creatively with Pay-TV and VoD services, creating original, radical television in Australia is still a struggle. A quick channel-surf at any time of the day will show you just how little defining, scripted content means on free-to-air.
That’s why many creators have turned to the internet, especially Youtube, where they have found the kind of appreciation and success that they otherwise would not have in Australia.
Today, we take a look at three series lead by female directors that have put Australian web content producers on the global radar.
FRAGMENTS OF FRIDAY
After a successful crowd-funding campaign in 2012, the first season of Fragments of Friday went into production on a budget of less than $6500.
The result? Pubic bush interventions, vomiting in vases, and the occasional accidental stabbing. It’s honest, far from glamorous, and features the kinds of roles traditionally expected to be filled by men. That’s what makes it so damn funny, and relatable to its target audience; an audience often neglected in mainstream entertainment.
In a Huffington Post article entitled Australia’s Answer to ‘Girls’: The Female Comedy We Need, director Kacie Anning said: “I think we’re kind of hitting on a gap of content, especially in Australia, for young females that my show is resonating very deeply with”.
With videos generally spanning only 5 minutes in length, Fragments is the perfect series to binge on a lazy afternoon, as the creators so emphatically request.
WASTELANDER PANDA
What started as a joke in university has now become one of the best-known Australian web series ever.
The brainchild of director Victoria Cocks, along with classmate Marcus McKenzie, Wastelander Panda is set in a dystopic future in which Arcayus, one of the last pandas, must travel through the wastelands with a young girl in an attempt to rejoin his clan.
The series takes inspiration from a range of sources, from the characterisation of good and evil in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, to the adventure found in game series like Fallout and Borderlands (the developers of Borderlands even acknowledged with a drawing of Arcayus that can be found in the second game).
Initially, Wastelander Panda was envisioned to be a series for television but, realising the costs involved, they instead produced a trailer for submission to the Optus One80Project, which was offering money for the creation of series pilots. The trailer didn’t place, so Vickie, Marcus, and producer Kirsty Stark decided to release it on Youtube. It received 100,000 views in three days.
Since then, ABC commissioned a six-episode series of the show for showing on their online platform iView, which was later distributed on DVD by Madman Entertainment. Victoria and Kirsty were flown nationally and internationally to discuss the project, including SXSW and Fantastic Fest.
STARTING FROM…NOW!
In a direct reaction to the lack of diversity found on Australian television, director Julie Kalceff created Starting From…Now!, a series designed to focus on the complex lives of four gay women.
Celebrated for its frankness, the three seasons of the show currently available have been viewed over 19 million times, and screened at ten film festivals worldwide.
Talking with Bitch Flicks, Kalceff explained the show was focused on dealing with issues broader than the women’s sexuality: “We’re taking the opportunity to explore new topics and push the boundaries a bit in regards to this world and the world of online content.”
Recently, seasons four and five were funded by Screen Australia. Season four is set to premiere as part of the Sydney Mardi Gras’ Queer Screen on March 1st.
With Screen Australia announcing their ‘Gender Matters’ initiative late-2015, directors like Anning, Cocks, and Kalceff are not only helping lead a new generation of women into filmmaking, but revolutionising the way they tell their stories.
Click below for the official channels of these three programs: