filmmaking production support

Open Channel, Victoria's Screen Resource Organisation,is delighted to announce that the three short films to be produced in Victoria under the Raw Nerve production initiative in 2011 are:

• Bruce Lee Played Badminton Too (Corrie Chen, Writer/Director & Anna Kojevnikov, Producer)
• Phone Call (Daniel Daperis, Writer/Director, Jared Daperis, Co-Director, Angela Lee, Producer)
• Switch (Phoebe Hartley, Writer/Director)

Raw Nerve is a national short film production initiative supported by Screen Australia. In Victoria it is managed by Open Channel and offers three emerging Victorian filmmakers the chance to make a high quality, low budget short film with support from leading industry experts.

A record seventy nine scripts were submitted for this year's Raw Nerve. This is an increase of 40% on 2010, when four films were produced: Space Boy, Home, Hard Rubbish and We Are Illuminated. Open Channel's Raw Nerve films have received a number of awards and have been selected for major film festivals including Sundance, Clermont Ferrand, Hot Docs, Sydney, Melbourne, St Kilda and Flickerfest.

Speaking of this year's submissions, Open Channel Producer Marc Gracie (who will supervise the three productions), said, "It has been incredibly tough to pick just three. There is so much talent out there. I've been blown away at the quality of the scripts and the intelligence of the writers, directors and producers behind them. I was gobsmacked when sixty people came to our Information Night, but to receive seventy nine scripts that are at this level means that Victoria's future is very bright; and it's such a shame we can't make more than just the three. It's been a challenge and a pleasure to go through the many hours of script reading and meetings with the creative teams, and I owe a great debt of thanks to Creative Consultants Alan Finney and Chris Ryan who have helped me reach this selection."

The films and their makers:
Bruce Lee Played Badminton Too is the story of Nic, a suburban teenager who dreams of being the greatest badminton player in the world, much to the dismay of his demanding father, a former tennis champion. Writer/Director Corrie Chen and Producer Anna Kojevnikov are recent graduates of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television (VCA). At VCA Corrie wrote and directed Happy Country (2008) and Wonder Boy (2010). Both films screened at numerous film festivals, and Corrie was selected for the Accelerator Talent Camp program at the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival. Anna produced Deeper Than Yesterday (Grand Jury Prize winner, Sundance Film Festival), The Zombie Monologues and Wonder Boy. Her first foray into producing started in 2007 with a Production short course at Open Channel.

Phone Call is a psychological thriller that revolves around a complex father and son relationship. Writer/Director Daniel Separis and Co-Director Jared Deparis are established actors with lead and supporting roles in Angel Baby, Blue Heelers, Stingers, The Saddle Club, Small Time Gangster and The Cup. Daniel pursued studies in film and video at Deakin University alongside his acting work in a bid to further his skills in writing, directing and producing. Producer Angela Lee undertook an Open Channel short course in Production and Production Management in 2009 before taking on the role of Line Producer for the Raw Nerve program overseeing four overlapping short film productions. In 2010 she was a script assessor for the Short & Sharp Pitching Competition, Producer of Raw Nerve short film Hard Rubbish and C31 TV show With Tim Ferguson.

Switch is set in an outer-suburban skateboard park, where tensions between two teenage sisters comes to head. Writer/Director Phoebe Hartley recently completed a Director Internship with Neighbours (supported by Film Victoria). She has made a number of corporate videos and short films including The Confession which was filmed entirely on a mobile phone. In 1998 she completed a Certificate of Video Production at Open Channel which led to a media studies degree at RMIT.