Michael Wark

Hundreds of people die on the NSW railways each year. For each of these deaths there’s an innocent train driver watching the incident in sickening detail. Most of these drivers return to work after a brief period of leave and counselling, but others are scarred for life and never return to their job. And this is the story we want to tell.

This short film follows the story of one of those drivers on his first day back on the job after witnessing a death on the rails. It ‘s a story about a person finding the strength to overcome a harrowing ordeal and take the difficult first steps towards moving on with their life.

What makes this story so unique is that it happens around us all the time yet we know nothing about it. By turning this real life issue into a narrative film, we hope to reach a wide audience and raise awareness for the cause.

The Rail Industry has been very supportive with this project and have committed to assisting in any way they can. We’ve been given access to key filming locations (including trains and platforms) as well as being put in contact with NSW train drivers who have been instrumental in providing background to the story.



Project status

This project was selected in Metro Screen / Screen NSW Breaks Program and has been through a rigorous Hothouse Development program. This included three months of script development, directing and producing workshops that finished up a few weeks ago. Through this program, our script came on leaps and bounds and all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together nicely for the shoot.

We have attracted some top cast and crew for the film and plan to go into pre production in early August for a September shoot date. The film will be completed by early November and we hope to enter the film into film festivals for a 2015 release.

A unique and untold story of this nature deserves to be executed at the highest standard possible. This involves certain unavoidable costs such as:

> Key Cast
> Camera and Equipment hire
> Transport and Location costs
> Post Production Services
> Marketing & Festival entry fees

Metro Screen has provided a proportion of the budget however there is still a large gap in our finance that we need to cover. Filmmaking is an expensive process and in order to create a product that can compete on the world stage, we need your support.

Putting together any project involves an element of risk. In dealing with such an important subject matter, we have spent numerous months ensuring that each element of the project has been properly addressed and our script is in the best possible shape before we spend any money on production. 

We are assembling a top team of dedicated professionals who, like us, have a passion to put this story on the big screen. With the support of Metro Screen/Screen NSW and the rail industry itself, we are prepared to deal with any problems as they come up during the next phase of production.

Thank you for checking out our page and we hope you’re as excited about this project as we are!