Amy Booth

SYNOPSIS
After Today is a short, sci-fi drama set in Australia in the near future. Nya, a 12 year old girl, is one of the lucky few to “win the lottery” for secondary education and on her day of enrolment must fight her jealous sister and race against time to see her grandmother before she is executed for reaching 70 years of age, the official age limit.

BACKGROUND
The script for After Today was firstly inspired by my niece’s short story about the future of education. The Abbott government’s budget cuts, caused my developments to quickly avalanche and become a politically opinionated story about class inequality. For me in writing this script I came to realise how passionately I feel about class equality and how I perceive the human race and in particular Australians. I believe that as we have progressed with technology in the last 50 years, we have regressed in the human condition, I am referring to sympathy and empathy. I believe we have become more introspective and self-focussed as a society in Australia.

Society, as a whole, is in danger of becoming totally self-focussed; uncaring of how we impact on others and unaware of our inter-dependence. We need to act in ways that benefit the majority. How is change implemented? I’m not naïve enough to think one film can change the world, but if one film can challenge one person to think differently about their potential, my job is done. That is the core message of After Today.

At the core, this film is a family drama about fighting between life and death. 

CASTING
Nya 
played by Maeve Brandt

Nya, 12 years old, brave, fierce and unrelenting. Nya is the lucky child, who ‘won the lottery’ and is about to undertake a course in secondary education. Though grateful for this opportunity, she is desperate to see her grandmother before her execution. Determined and optimistic, she believes she can change the world.

Maeve is the actress who brings Nya to life and delivered an impressive audition with her mature and insightful understanding, and portrayal, of this multi-layered character. Intelligent, open-minded and passionate, Maeve studies screen acting at Mooregrace Acting Studio in Geelong.

Elexa
played by Jessica June Yates

Nya’s older sister, is struggling on the outer edge of the family. Secretly envious of Nya’s obvious strengths while despising her compassion. Despite the inequalities within society, Elexa is determined to conform and find her own path to riches.

An accomplished actor, Jess is a joy to work with. Demonstrating an infectious commitment to discover her character’s many layers. Jessica was the lead actor in the short film, The Summer of ABC Burns which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2015 St Kilda Film Festival. She studies acting at 16^th Street Acting Studio, Caulfield.

Anika
played by Claudia Clark

Nya’s grandmother, the backbone of the family. Sharing her wisdom and memories of better times have shaped Nya’s sense of injustice in this brave new world and instilled the belief that equality is worth fighting for. Now facing her death, Anika’s strength begins to falter.

Claudia Clark plays Anika. She has extensive experience as a stage actor both in England and Australia and brings a wealth of knowledge and skill to her interpretation of Anika. Her recent credits include Lady and the Van by Alan Bennett with Geelong Repertory Theatre Company.

Peyton Gideon
played by Mick Preston

A ‘celebrity’ politician. He successfully sells to the masses legislation that may challenge those with an obsolete and sentimental mindset. And doesn’t he do it well. Confident, smooth and charming, Let’s vote for him!

Mick Preston is an experienced actor, model and musician and we are fortunate to have Mick in the cast. He trained with Ute Hagen in New York. His credits range from Godzilla Final Wars (Japan), The Letterman Show (NYC), The Playbook and I Remember the Future. He has appeared in several films which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Utah, USA. Mick specialises in playing strong, conflicted characters.

Locations

After Today is very heavily based on production design. We want this film to look as realistic and believable as possible, which is why we have hired professionals to create the perfect look. As the filming for After Today will spread out over 8 shooting days at 5 different locations around Melbourne, there are many costs that will be going towards the cast, the crew and much of the equipment we will be using to have a very professional graduate short film.


Costumes: $1500
Make-up: $700
Props/Set Design: $1300
Locations: $1700
Camera/Lighting Equipment: $3350
Catering For Cast & Crew: $1200
Transport For Cast & Crew: $700
Marketing & Distribution to Film Festivals: $1000
CGI: $400
Colour Correction: $250

TOTAL:   $12,100

There are going to be multiple challenges throughout the production and post-production of After Today.

Firstly, as we are filming exterior during the night for one of our shooting days, there is the high risk of rain as we are filming in the middle of winter. To deal with this we have made alternative dates to shoot this scene so there will always be a back up night in case of unfortunate weather.

Secondly, as there are numerous props, costumes and set design elements that we have for this film, there is an increased chance that one, or some of these items may become damaged during filming. If this is the case, however, we have bought duplicates of many of the items just to ensure there is a back up if anything is to break.

Third and finally, one last major challenge that we foresee happening is not being able to film certain shots due to complications with locations, last minute difficulties with cast and crew or the time it will take us to set a location.
In order to stop this from happening we have made sure that our scheduling and time management for this film is at its strictest with our 1st Assistant Director and production team members placing deadlines and time frames on all aspects of the film to ensure the most important shots are dealt  with first.