SYDNEY | Film 

9 Minute Short Film

Drama

When perennial “it girl” Callie seeks a favour from her hyper-controlling celebrity chef ex, Karl, a barely contained explosion follows, but Callie is hardly innocent and blazes a trail of emotional destruction of her own.

“Sydney” implies an ode to the city but it explores the damage we cause to the ones we love.

Shoot Scheduled: End May 2018

Written, Produced & Directed by: Peter Spann 

Director of Photography: David Thomas Ross

Starring: Jacqui Purvis 

Callie falls through life not knowing how much pain her actions cause.  She is beaituful, sexy and fun to be around, until things get out of control, and they always do. Callie assumes everyone loves her and her lifestyle and is alwyas the life of the party.  She is highly maniulative, always gets what she wants, but at what cost?  

Co-Starring: Damien Strouthos

Celebrity cake chef, and control freak Karl normally lives a perfectly ordered life and this is the basis of his success but equally he is bored.  He is compelled by the chaos Callie creates in his life.  It is both addictive and destructive. 

Co-Starring: Georgia Scott

Callie's partner often sacrifices her needs for the needs of others.  She knows Callie’s behaviour is destructive and tries to stand up to her but frequently finds herself failing, her dependency on the meagre benefits Callie delivers in their relationship both unsatisfying but all consuming. 

Director: Peter Spann

Sydney is written and directed by Peter Spann.  “Undertow”, his first short after studying at AFTRS, premiered at the Byron Bay Film Festival in 2017 and went on to receive 27 awards at 18 film festivals including Best Short Film, Best Drama, Best Narrative, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Soundtrack and multiple Best Actress awards for its star. 

“Sydney” will be lovingly crafted with the same creative team, all AFTRS graduates and shot on Arri Amira. 

It will then be entered into multiple international film festivals including many Oscar qualifiers. 

SYDNEY is a 9 minute short film with a production budget of around $25,000.  

We have generously recived support from one backer for the majority of this budget but film making, even low budget film is an expensive exercise and we have a few wish list items we need funding for.  

All cast and crew will be paid but not at standard industry rates.  

The budget will primarily be spent in three main areas:

1. Production expenses - locations, costumes, catering, the day to day needs of getting a series of this nature on the ground.

2. Production value.  Whilst spending more money doesn't necessarily guarantee that a film will be better the two generally go hand in hand.  This largely has to do with the quality and quantity of the equipment used.  The more we raise the better gear we will use.  

3. Post-production - editing, sound mix, special effects and colour grading.  

If we raise surplus funds we will roll it over to another project.  

Filming is not an easy business.  There are hundreds of moving parts of of which have derailed productions over time.  

On Undertow for example we had a major weather event that delayed filming and meant we had to refilm some scenes later.  That all cost money.  But we worked through the issues and solved the problems.  

And we will do again.  

The major risks to this production are external locations.  We are filming during one of the busiest times in Sydney - Vivid - and it has not been easy to get permits so some of will need to be gun & run style.