What our film is about and why it's important...

Outside the Locker Room is a short film about centred around a young country footballer who struggles to enjoy the game he once loved as he battles with depression and anxiety. Through speaking up and raising awareness to his fellow team-mates and club, he begins to see the positive choice he has made for himself.

Outside the Locker Room is a set with the genre of sports drama, and is a story focused around the themes of mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, and not only the effects this can have on someone, but the people around them, and how important it is to see the signs and to ask someone if they are okay. We aim to help those with mental illness see the benefits of speaking up about the way they are feeling and not being afraid to be open and vulnerable. Along with all this, we also wanted to showcase the incredible atmosphere and environment that a sporting club has, and how this can also be so beneficial for people dealing with mental illness or any issue in general. 

What inspired this story

I found inspiration to write this short story as it was loosely based off of my own personal experiences in life. I had a fairly rough time after finishing high school as the next year, the day after my 19th Birthday, I had one of my best friends lose his life in a fatal car accident, followed with other complications and stress brought into my life, that soon developed into a case of depression and anxiety. The biggest thing that helped me over-come all this was the loving and caring support of my football club, a club I'd grown up with and had played there for many years. Football was also a big part of my life, being surrounded by it all the time, yet I began to lose interest, but soon realized that it wasn’t so much the game that I enjoyed, but more so the friends and family that I had made along the way, the club environment was a healthy, warm and loving place to be, that helped me more then I could've imagined.

After a visit from some representatives of a not-for-profit organization by the name of Outside the Locker Room (where we had the inspiration for the name, though originally a placer hold, tells a story within itself, so we stuck with it), to our local football club, the organization and their goals were something that always stuck with me, and I would love to do the same in raising more awareness to this issue, especially in young men and use football as on outlet to help overcome these battles. Below is a link to their official page, where you can learn more about them and what they do.

Meet the Team

Our short film is a production as part of the Diploma of Screen and Media: Film & Television studied at the Swinburne University of Technology. Our team for this film consists of:

Jacob Saunders - Writer / Director / Producer / Editor

Kristian Hughes - Director of Photography (DOP) / Producer


In addition to us enthusiastic, aspiring filmmakers, we will also be accompanied by the talents of Aaron Baines, a Box Hill Institute student who will be the Music Composer for our film, and are excited to have him on board with us and show-off his talents. 

Your support and what it means to us...

As students, we need your help! We want to do everything in our power to make Outside the Locker Room happen, being penniless students as we are, we're here reaching out to you lend us a helping hand. Your generous donations can help Outside the Locker Room story be told and in making our film become a reality. These donations will go towards things like location, props, casting, catering, equipment and so much more, and also helps in providing us with the means to thank you for giving a helping hand, and get that satisfying feeling of "I helped them get started, I helped be apart of this"! This works through a reward tier system that is based on how much you donate, with rewards ranging from Thank You credits in our film, through to an A3 Printed Poster of the Film, signed by us, and possibly even a physical copy of the film if we can raise enough money! This is our way of rewarding you wonderful people for helping us out tremendously, because these contributions towards our film truly means so much to us!

Although, even if can't donate you can still support us, every little bit helps! By spreading the word about our film Outside the Locker Room, this includes telling your friends, your family, your neighbours, everyone and sharing this page on Facebook and Instagram, we can truly bring this story to life and achieve something great! Be sure to follow our journey through our Facebook page and keeping an eye on this page!

We are set to begin shooting on the 10th on November through to the 13th of November, and then a further date that has not been confirmed yet, so we are hoping to raise majority prior to the shooting of the film, in order to account for the costs on set, and raise the remainder to account for promotion and distribution. 

From the team here at Outside the Locker Room, we want to say a massive THANK YOU so much for your lovely support and we look forward to sharing the film with you all!

So this is an overview of how these donations will work and what the reward system will look like, keep in mind that these could change over time, but we hope to keep as true to our word as possible! These rewards are just as exciting as this film, so we look forward to sharing what's in store

Expenses

Your donations will go towards a variety of different expenses through our production, this will include location, props, casting, catering, equipment, promotion, distribution, transport, set safety (masks, sanitizer), wardrobe and more. 

Here are our rewards...

Participant Award - for $5 - You might not have been best-on-ground but you played the game, and that's all that matters! This tier is for those simply looking to help out with the film, although we may have something in mind...

Coaches Award - for $10 - You're a star in the Coaches eyes! This reward will include a Special Thank you Credit & exclusive link to the Film

Most Improved Award - for $25 - Look at you go! You're really kicking goals hear, keep it up! This reward will include a Special Thank you Credit, an exclusive link to the Film & a Desktop + Phone Wallpaper

Most Determined Award - for $50 - Your commitment and determination have paid off! This reward will include a Special Thank you Credit, an exclusive link to the Film, a Desktop + Phone Wallpaper, Behind the Scenes Reel & Physical Copy of the Film

Runners-Up Best & Fairest - for $100 - An outstanding season! You gave it your all week-in and week-out! This reward will include an Executive Producer Credit, an exclusive link to the Film, a Desktop + Phone Wallpaper, Behind the Scenes Reel & Physical Copy of the Film, the Original Soundtrack & a personalised Thank you Video from the crew & cast, & an invitation to all future screenings

Best & Fairest - for $200 - YOU ARE THE BEST (and the fairest, or just the richest, or just very generous, either way, you're still the best). This reward will include an Executive Producer Credit, exclusive link to the Film, Desktop + Phone Wallpaper, Behind the Scenes Reel & Physical Copy of the Film, a downloadable version of the final script, the Original Soundtrack & a personalised Thank you Video from the Crew & Cast, an invitation to all future screenings, A Signed A3 Film Poster, and quite possibly a prop from the film...

Again, from us here at Outside the Locker Room, we want to express how much we appreciate all and any support towards our film, and cannot wait to show you all our work and to share this story with you all! THANK YOU!

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/OTLRShortFilm 
Email - [email protected]