South Australia ramps up production, hire production executive and gets their own YouTube stars.

South Australia is one of the first to ramp up filming again with TV comedy Aftertaste and its Risk Assessment Tool.

Filming has commenced on ABC comedy Aftertaste, the first major production to shoot in South Australia since the global shutdown caused by COVID-19. Rachel Griffiths (Muriel’s Wedding, Six Feet Under, Hacksaw Ridge), Wayne Blair (The Sapphires, Mystery Road) and Susan Prior (The Rover, Animal Kingdom) join Erik Thomson (The Black Balloon, Packed to the Rafters) in the six-part comedy series from South Australia’s Closer Productions which will shoot for five weeks in state capital Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills.

Erik Thomson stars as Easton West, an internationally renowned yet volatile celebrity chef whose spectacular fall from grace sees him return to his home town in the hills of Adelaide, where he endeavours to rebuild his career and restore his reputation, with the help of his talented, young, pastry-chef niece.

The Risk Assessment Tool has been instrumental in navigating the path back to production and providing the framework and structure needed to get this production up and running within COVID-Safe guidelines.

Kate Croser, CEO SAFC

To recommence production post COVID-19, the show was aided by the ground breaking new Risk Assessment Tool, commissioned by the South Australian Film Corporation and developed by Deloitte Risk Advisory. The pioneering tool, which has been downloaded more than 500 times from the SAFC website since its launch last month, has been specially developed to assist producers to assess COVID-19 risks for their production and get cameras rolling again more quickly and easily in conjunction with national COVID-safe guidelines. 

Top Producer Julie Ryan joins the South Australian Film Corporation as Production Executive.

Award-winning Australian independent film Producer Julie Ryan has been announced in a host of new staff appointments for the South Australian Film Corporation. Joining the SAFC as Production Executive, Julie’s credits include AFI/AACTA Best Film winners Red Dog, Ten Canoes and Hotel Mumbai, the most successful Australian film to release internationally in 2019, and H is for Happiness, which received a Special Mention by the Children’s Jury, Generation Kplus at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, and won the prestigious 2019 Cinefest Oz Film Prize. Across her career, Julie’s films have premiered at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Venice.

Ryan will join director, producer and screen industry executive Kath McIntyre, who has been appointed Industry Development Executive, and current SAFC staff Nara Wilson and Petra Starke who have been promoted to First Nations Industry Development Executive and Head of Communications and Marketing respectively.

Ryan begins her role on 24 August and McIntyre begins her role on 14 September.

South Australian YouTube sensations to make big screen debut.

Adelaide directing brothers and YouTube stars Danny and Michael Philippou are set for their feature film debut, supported by the South Australian Film Corporation and Screen Australia.

The Philippou brothers are the award-winning creators behind hit YouTube channel RackaRacka, which has more than 6 million subscribers worldwide.

Horror film Talk to Me will be produced by Causeway Films’ Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton, the producers behind breakout horror hit The Babadook, multi-award winning The Nightingale, ground-breaking zombie film Cargo and the internationally acclaimed Buoyancy.

The film follows lonely teenager Mia who becomes hooked on the thrills of conjuring spirits through a disembodied hand. But when she is confronted by a soul claiming to be her dead mother, she becomes increasingly plagued by supernatural visions, and must decide whether to trust the living or the dead.

Danny Philippou is co-writing with RackaRacka collaborator Michael H Beck, with the film to be shot in South Australia in 2021.