Meet the teams behind Fresh Blood 3 - Part 1
Go behind-the-scenes of five of the Fresh Blood 3 projects and meet the creators of Australia’s newest comedy webseries.
Beginning in 2013, Fresh Blood is a joint ABC and Screen Australia initiative created to unearth new comedic talent. 10 teams were selected to produce three comedy shorts of 3 x 5 minutes duration. Up to three projects are then selected to make a longer pilot, with the potential to be commissioned by the ABC as a series.
Fresh Blood has been the launchpad for the careers of some of Australia’s best comedy writers, directors, and performers, including Aunty Donna, Nina Oyama, Freudian Nip, Fancy Boy, Michael Cusack, and Skit Box.
The Fresh Blood 3 webseries are now available on ABC TV + iview YouTube Channel here.
RUBY RAI P.I.
with co-writer Elyce Phillips
Vidya Rajan as Ruby Rai P.I.
Ruby Rai P.I. is a neo-noir narrative comedy, set in an amped-up Melbourne where the cases are deadly serious and the characters are sillier than a bare arse at midnight.
What inspired the story?
A few years ago, Vidya and Amruta Nargundkar were throwing around ideas for a neo-noir show set in Melbourne with a South Asian P.I. at the centre that was more serious in tone. That project didn’t take off, but the idea percolated into a comedy with a satirical lens, sharp jokes, and loads of silliness.
I also love a Raymond Chandler novel which helped! The noir detective figure is always presented as an outsider, at the fringes of the world they live in. Traditionally, that figure is also a straight white man, but it felt like the perfect place to put a character who truly is treated as an outsider in their world.
What have you learnt during production?
Working with LateNite has been such a joy, and has shown us that when you bring together a great crew who are all incredibly creative and share a sense of humour, everyone works together to elevate the project - it’s more than the sum of its parts.
What do you hope audiences take away from the series?
Our goal was to make the comedy front and centre in this series, so we hope audiences find it funny! But if they feel seen when they’re watching our collection of oddballs and weird units, that’s wonderful too.
Ruby Rai P.I is available to watch on ABC TV + iview YouTube channel
I’M SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS
with creator Annie Louey
Annie Louey and Fady Kassab in I’m So Sorry For Your Loss
I’m So Sorry For Your Loss is about Annie, the newest employee of the fictional funeral home Lady Garden Funerals run by a shambolic boss Sal, where the characters find themselves in farcical situations.
What inspired the story?
Back in 2019, I quit my job to do comedy full-time. As part of my hustling, I did a celebrancy course that year and I was curious about the funeral side of celebrancy. I did some work experience with a family friend who conducted my dad’s funeral many years ago, and when the pandemic hit, I accidentally wound up with a full-time job - which was an extremely bizarre place for a comedian to find themselves.
When the world resumed, I performed a show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival about my experiences. I’m So Sorry For Your Loss takes this premise to the next level. There are so many situations and deeper themes left to explore and as people say, “Any show about death is a show about life”, and that’s what I want to celebrate.
What have you learnt during production?
I come from a news background and it’s been a huge learning curve to understand the differences between them. A lot of film terms are still new to me and don’t know what everyone’s jobs are. Sometimes I felt like a clueless, idiot boss – kind of like Sal.
That’s the fun part of it though, Fresh Blood has been the best crash course into “making cinema” and I was able to try screenwriting properly for the first time.
Favourite moment during production?
A pigeon got into the church on the final day of shooting. I think every single cast and crew member had a go at chasing the pigeon out, but somehow it kept coming back every single time. Even though I’m not religious, I do believe in signs and symbols. Call me crazy but I 100% believe that pigeon had some connection to the themes in our show.
I’m So Sorry For Your Loss is available to watch ABC TV + iview YouTube channel
DAY JOB
with creator Paul Georghiou
The Gutterball pin monkeys in Day Job
Day Job is an animated documentary that follows the lives of the over-qualified young staff of a dingy local bowling alley. Watch as that dream life of passion, love and career triumph always narrowly eludes them.
What inspired the story?
Guided by aspirational visions of Scooby Doo and his kin, I enrolled in a college for interactive entertainment. But shortly after graduation, disaster struck when my new degree found me working at a local pizza restaurant.
It wasn't ideal, but for Scooby's sake I resolved never to give up. So, in the four years of entry-level drudgery that followed, I took every demeaning experience I had endured and moulded it all into our main character Ivan.
Favourite moment during production?
I often justify my recklessly hands-off approach to directing as an attempt to foster creative freedom in my crew. Providing animators with key-art and actors with scripts takes up time that could have been spent doing my other job (monkey trainer). I would rather give my crew the freedom to draw a scene or perform a character in their own way, entrusting each artist with large segments of the episode, to care for and nurture like their own health-class egg.
Each artist had a sense of ownership over their scenes, and a personal stake in its quality, and the result was a better-looking show. I particularly enjoyed the moment where actors behind Heather and Brooke managed to perform an entire scene without any scripts or materials.
All the time I spent doubting my abilities was for naught, and I hope the same discovery was made by all the artists under my otherwise malevolent reign.
Day Job is available to watch ABC TV + iview YouTube channel
WESTERNERS
with creator Munasib Hamid
Three heroes, three journeys in Westerners
The three-episode anthology follows three young Sydneysiders finding their identity amidst white Australia and their own backgrounds. So-called Australia’s elusive truths and ethnic stories are pencilled with a distinctly surreal spin, acknowledging elements obscured to the few, but painfully obvious to most.
What inspired the series?
Casting intense spotlights on Australian diversity, Westerners is for first, second, third (fourth? – they might never let you be just an Aussie) generation immigrants, and other Australian friends, whose engagement with this country is footnoted with absurdity and unexplainable encounters.
The series was inspired by the creators’ life in Sydney. Westerners gives the world a taste of the diaspora experience here in Australia. In a world where most people don’t understand you, having ethnic friends from all different walks of life and backgrounds who all somehow shared the same values and beliefs, finding those people and sticking with them, and revelling in the crazy situations you can get yourself into, is very necessary and comforting.
Each episode is told from a different POV – what inspired that format?
Ethnic families and households are full of stories, from every POV, each one of them richer than the next. So, playing with format and perspective was something we were really excited to do to help frame stories a bit differently or show another side to it. We want to show audiences that a lot of us, especially immigrants, are sharing the same story and life, just on different paths, and how vibrant and rich our cultures and traditions are.
What have you learnt during production?
Being able to see a lot of our friends on set, telling/playing out a reality that we’ve dreamt about for so many years was a fantastic outcome of production. Putting the right people in the right place, who understand the story and the ~ vibe ~ then letting them create can lead to something truly magical!
Westerners is available to watch ABC TV + iview YouTube channel
URVI WENT TO AN ALL GIRLS SCHOOL
with creator Urvi Majumdar
Cast of Urvi Went To An All Girls School
Urvi Went To An All Girls School is about a misfit Indian-Australian teenage girl struggling to find love at an all-girls school. Set in 2010, we’ve aimed to envelop the show with nostalgic qualities but we definitely don’t shy away from cringe comedy. If you went to school in the 2000s, this one’s for you!
What inspired the story?
It’s inspired by diary entries I have from when I was growing up. Most of these stories are some version of the truth! The stories started with a talented writers’ room consisting of Sashi Perera, Suren Jayemanne, Rohan Ganju, Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa and myself discussing the funniest and most significant/memorable moments from our experiences growing up in Australia as South Asian kids. Nina Oyama, our director, and Sophie Braham, our script editor, used their expertise to perfect the stories. We edited details of truthful stories to fit the greater narrative of the show, but I definitely did a spell to be hot and Katy Perry literally gate crashed our formal!
Favourite moment during production?
The day we filmed at the Choudhary house! Our lighting team led by Han Palmer lit the set night for day which was impressive movie. I felt 17 again inside the bedroom. The Choudhary family made our whole crew, delicious Indian lunch. It felt so beautiful to be able to share great food with such warm company in the perfect set!
What do you hope audiences take away from the series?
I want audiences to be able to laugh in recognition at all the freaky, funny things we do when we’re at our most desperate. Urvi’s character is both endearing and unhinged in pursuing her goals and she’s surrounded by the funniest supporting cast. We’re really proud of the balance of narrative, heart and humour in the show. We hope audiences laugh, cringe and learn with Urvi to find peace in accepting their freaky selves and pride in where they come from.
Urvi Went To An All Girls School is available to watch ABC TV + iview YouTube channel