Short films and short-form content are an important part of a filmmakers portfolio and career path, with online short-form content rapidly becoming the format of choice for creators and audiences. Financing short-form however, can be difficult and self-funding is the most common strategy.
In this webinar our guest speakers represent a range of experiences and perspectives on short-form creation and will talk about innovative strategies for sourcing finance, allocating funds and maximising budgets.
Guest speakers include Lee Naimo, a Senior Investment Manager in Online at Screen Australia, Clare Sladden a writer and director and Diana Nguyen is a content creator and comedian.
When every online project is so different, how do you pull together your finance plan for your project? What are the more typical avenues of funding for web series and VR projects? As a Senior Investment Manager in Online at Screen Australia, Lee Naimo has seen a wide range of projects and can speak to some of the more common (and uncommon) ways creators are funding their online projects.
In November 2014, Diana with the help of Suzi Nguyen (Marketing Strategist) crowdfunded a successful Pozible campaign raising $11k in order to make the first-ever Vietnamese Australian family comedy webseries. Diana will talk about the strategies she used to build her campaign, attract the funds and then unlock support from Screen Australia.
Clare Sladden has self-financed four short-form productions and more recently had her podcast funded by Screen Queensland and Audible. In this webinar, Clare will talk about how she allocated her funds and managed the tight budgets as well as how she prioritised in order to deliver the best outcomes.
Guest Speakers
Diana Nguyen | Content Creator and Comedian
Diana Nguyen is the co-creator of Phi and Me, the first ever Vietnamese Australian family comedy series which was first performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2011, sharing the love of a refugee mother’s love for her child living in Australia.
In 2019 Phi and Me became the first ever Vietnamese Australian family comedy web series which was funded by Screen Australia and crowd funders from around the world.
www.phiandme.tv
Diana is also a content creator on LinkedIn with 58k followers and produces and hosts her LIVE interview called The SnortCast interviewing funny comedians from around the world on Linkedin. Guests include Jo Stanley, Peter Helliar, Kevin Kropinyeri and Steph Tisdell.
www.diananguyen.com.au
Clare Sladden | Writer and Director
Clare Sladden is an award-winning writer and director with a passion for female-driven stories and is currently writing on a new television series for Every Cloud Productions called Eden. She is also writing, directing and co-producing a web series called From Her Rib, funded by Audible and Screen Queensland and is also writing episodes of Wentworth for a new podcast series by Fremantle Media for Audible.
Clare’s first feature-length screenplay, Always the Dressmaker, was a finalist in the prestigious Cinestory Fellowship in 2014, and since then Clare has won and placed in various international screenwriting competitions.
Clare’s feature, Broken Head, won the inaugural Byron Bay Film Festival International Screenplay Competition, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowship, and was selected to attend the 2016 Cinestory Fellowship Retreat, where she was mentored by Oscar-nominated screenwriter, Meg LeFauve (Inside Out).
Clare’s debut short film, Consent, which she wrote, directed & produced, has screened nationally and internationally, most notably at the 2017 Palm Springs International ShortFest, the 2018 Cleveland International Film Festival, and the Freshflix/G’Day LA Emerging Filmmakers Conference. Consent has been awarded an IndieFest Award of Excellence, a Gold Remi, and the WIFT Award at Freshflix/Vivid. Clare’s web series, Freudian Slip was nominated for ‘best Australian comedy’ at the Melbourne Webfest, won Best Comedy Web Series at the Gold Coast Film Festival, and Clare received an AWGIE nomination for her writing. Clare’s short film, The Men That Come, premiered at the Academy Award-accredited St Kilda Film Festival in June 2019.
Clare has a number of her own projects in various stages of development.
Lee Naimo | Senior Investment Manager in Online at Screen Australia
Lee Naimo is a professional writer, actor, comedian and government employee. As one-third of the musical comedy troupe, The Axis of Awesome, he has toured the world and written songs and sketches that have achieved hundreds of millions of views online. Over their ten year history, the Axis of Awesome built an army of fans worldwide, in part due to their hugely popular Four Chords song, which itself has over 100 million hits on YouTube.
Lee is an accomplished solo performer and writer, having recently been the head writer on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia as well as writing several solo sketch shows that have toured Australia. He is also the co-creator and Creative Producer of Insert Coin, an online sketch comedy series about video games with over 2 million views. Since 2018 he has worked for Screen Australia as an Online Investment Manager, where he has supported hugely successful online content such as Sarah’s Channel, Content, Superwog, Over and Out, Glennridge Secondary College, At Home Alone Together and many more. He is also responsible for setting up initiatives such as Pitcher Perfect with VidCon, Digital Originals with SBS and Snapchat + Screen Australia, which is the first-ever Australian partnership with mobile platform Snapchat.
