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Crowd-funded short film secures Sam Worthington as EP

A new Australian short film using crowd-funding platform Pozible has received investment from Australian actor Sam Worthington.

The project, Scratch, written and produced by Rachael Turk, is based on her own family’s life experiences with child allergies.

Directed by Danielle Boesenberg, it is co-produced by Sam Meikle, writer on All Saints, Wild Boys, Crownies and Home and Away with Claudia Karvan cast in the lead role.

The project, which sat at $8,000 earlier today received a $20,000 investment from Worthington this afteroon, taking the film’s target beyond its $25,000 goal, to $28,331.

The investment marks Worthington as an ‘Angel Investor’ and gives him and executive producer title on the film for providing over $10,000.

The film is budgeted at $60,000.

Turk, who’s day job is development executive for drama at Southern Star where Karvan is a producer, told Encore: “Claudia is not working for the rates she might normally command, but there’s the other talent there’s also technical equipment.”

Turk said: “$25,000 is a lot of money and we’ve got to be responsible with that. The onus on us is to make something that has a really resonates with people and the festival circuit.”

Production on the film will begin in September or October and look to feature in the international short film festival circuit next year, aiming for the Berlin Film Festival.

Turk said: “Ideally I’d like to see this in Berlin Film Festival’s Genration 14+ category where Australia has had success in the past.”

This year saw Matthew Moore’s film Julian win a Crystal Bear Award at the Festival in the Generation Kplus category while BINO, by Billie Pleffer received special mention.

Turk’s husband, Ben Cooper, also The Monkey’s digital director has come on board as digital advisor.

To market the Pozible project, Cooper said: “You have to architect success, each online platform has it’s nuances and we’re using them in combination to reach our audience. Facebook affords us amplification via sponsored stories, making every interaction go that much further. Pozible itself allows us to keep current supporters up to date and donation activity kicks us up to the homepage where we reach a wider audience. The big leap, of course, is turning a like or a view into a donation.”

Cooper added: “What is obvious is how hard it is to talk about something that doesn’t exist yet. Social audiences don’t engage with copy alone so images are important to standout in a busy newsfeed. Right now there’s no trailer, or treatment, we’ve essentially got to make a story around the story but ensuring we don’t spoil the finished film. Right now we’re working with a designer on telling a story in graphics that can be featured in our various channels to keep people connected with the project.”

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