Shane Dunlop

UNDER THE MILKY WAY (Save Our Skies) (2015)….

"Three astronomers separated by thousands of kilometers but joined by their shared view of the stars. Helene McKenzie resides in the NSW regional town of Coonabarabran and is an avid astronomer just like her father was, working in the observatory that overlooks her small town. When a nearby and much newer observatory threatens its funding and research grants, Helene's observatory is in danger of being shut down. Helene actively fights its closure and along with her team of misfit colleagues, she attempts to rally her small home town behind her. Plagued by a corrupt local council and hindered by a lazy town mayor, Helene's prospects of saving her observatory are slim. In the meantime, she spends most nights looking up at the stars, or talking to her two interstate peers via internet video calls; Simon Redding, based at the Melbourne Planetarium and Harry Rosenfeldt (played by 70s pop sensation Marty Rhone), an eccentric Tasmanian-based astronomer on the verge of an epic discovery. Hindered by constant battles with an ambitious town councilwoman, distracted by a hunky administrator from the competing observatory and annoyed by a fumbling NASA spokesperson, Helene's headaches go from bad to worse. When disaster strikes on the eve of a Harry's big breakthrough, Helene may get the chance to save more than just her beloved observatory."

Our humble production has already received funding from the Community Broadcasting Foundation, slightly more than we had received for our previous production LEONGATHA ($10k). As we learned whilst working on that series, a little extra $ can make a HUGE difference and there are always hidden costs around every corner. The CBF have provisioned the partial funding of the series to prove there is an audience for original, indie, fiction on Australian screens - they did so, knowing we'd seek further support from the general public - hence here we are, hoping you agree with them and believe in locally produced drama/comedy.

We have the funds already to ensure that we'll have the right equipment to pull this off - through hire and rental we can achieve the look and feel that we are aiming for - the CBF money will ensure our camera department has a budget we can be comfortable with.

Transport & accommodation will be our major cost - with our series covering the expanse of the Australian astronomy industry across three states and four major locations. Through careful management of resources, we'll look to shoot as much as we can close to home (Outer-suburban Melbourne), with locations acting as substitutes for Coonabarabran and Tasmania where possible. However, to maintain authenticity and to fulfill our promise of regional Australia's representation, we are required to shoot some scenes on location, which means under our current budget, we can only afford to take a skeleton cast and crew. During this time our volunteer cast and crew will be taking a leave of absence from work to be a part of this production. Catering, accommodation and basic compensation will be one of the additional ways we will make use of the funds raised here. Travel to and from Coonabaraban with cast/crew and equipment in tow is one of our biggest hurdles to overcome, logistically and financially.

By achieving our crowd funding goal we'll have the ability to send our team (of ten cast/crew) from Melbourne to Coonabarabran the easiest and most direct way possible - hopefully, not piled on to a rental bus as we've been there and done that.

Whilst we have been graciously awarded $20,000 from the Community Broadcast Foundation, we are attempting to pull of a comedy series on a scope that hasn't been seen before on Community TV screens and frankly, doing it on $20k is going to take some doing. With this extra $ we can look to ensure the production doesn't get slugged by any hidden expenses, all cast and crew can be fed and have a comfortable bed whilst on location and our camera department can have access to a little bit extra to bring to life our little story. Our contacts in Coonabarabran have ensured us that we'll be welcomed in town and well looked after wherever we stay - we're hoping we can hold up our end of the bargain.
    
     Three of our cast pictured (Lee McClenaghan, Matt Stewart & Tom McCathie).

Cost breakdown if we were to reach our goal;
- $400 towards petrol expenses incurred by the three vehicles driving the distance to Coonabarabran (unfortunately there is no direct flight) - three cars, 20+ hours on the road each.
- $1200 towards accommodation in Coonabarabran for 5 nights for 10 people. Likely staying in the local caravan park, in bunk beds, we estimate three cabins housing 3-4 people each, for 5 nights at around $80 per cabin per night. This would be getting accom. at mates rates.

If we are able to extend beyond our goal any additional funds will go towards the following;
- Investigating flying our camera department up via Sydney and hiring a car to Coonabarabran - this would allow them to set up camp and to start work on "2nd unit" photography in advance of the rest of the cast & crew arriving by car. This would also allow them to stay an extra day to pick up any cutaways around the Siding Springs Observatory and the town center of Coonabarabran as well.
- We'll stay in the cheapest accommodation possible still.
- We'll be able to better engage local businesses, particularly in catering so the crew doesn't live on cornflakes and fish n' chips for a week.
- Put simply, any extra pledge amounts will help us make a better series. We'd really like to buy a dolly ($1,000+). We'd also love to rig up a steadicam (anywhere from $250 to $1500). We have access to drone footage of the observatory which we'd love to purchase.
In the event we reach our goal and have the capacity to keep pushing, we'll be as transparent as possible as to how that extra money could and would be used.

Our story is set in regional NSW, approx an 10-11 hour drive from the production team's HQ, not easily accessible by plane and a long day's (possibly 2 days) drive. The first challenge will be deciding what must be shot on location and what can easily be shot in and around a standby location - these decisions will be made as financially sound as possible, without affecting our creative vision.

We're telling a story about space exploration and Australia's place in it, all while trying to make people laugh...and perhaps cry along the way - we have a talented writing staff on hand to get that job done - as we have a large database of scientific resources in place to cross check our "science is right". It's important to us that whilst putting together an entertaining show, it's also scientifically accurate and faithful and respectful towards the Aussie astronomy industry and the small towns that support it.