Lee Matthews

"There’s a strange holy war happening in the high school as a group of Christian musicians and a group of Emos battle it out in preparation for the annual Rock Competition"

After the success of our short film we're now making a feature version of our satirical high school musical - Emo - and we'd love you to support us by being the first to buy a copy of our finished film in advance.


FEATURE SYNOPSIS:
Desperate to belong within his new school, Emo Ethan quickly finds a place in the school Emo band as it is ramping up to win the State School Rock Competition. However, when the School’s Christian Group enters the competition as well, the two groups are set at war against one another, making it the worst possible time for Ethan and Christian Trinity to fall in love.
As the competition escalates and each group's tactics turn nasty, the star-crossed lovers are forced to make decisions that might cost them their friends, their place in school, and each other.

Here's our short-film version that offers a great proof of concept for what we're aiming to create with the feature:

Still images featuring the cast from the short version of Emo (the musical):
1.Harry Borland as Ethan  2.Robert Tripolino as Isaac  3.Zak Marrinan as Bradley. And further below Charlotte Nicdao.


Emo the feature promises to be an exciting film with a point of difference, a satirical high school musical about a group of misfits, elevated by coming of age, romance, buddy antics and a turf war.  It will be a film for teenagers past and present, for everyone who can relate to sometime, somehow, feeling like they didn’t quite fit in.

Please pre-purchase a copy of the film and choose from our range of rewards by checking out the options to screen right>>

Thanks for supporting us - and Australian independent film!

Neil Triffett (writer/director)
Lee Matthews (producer)

 

BACKGROUND:
* Emo (the musical) began as a short film that won a 'special mention' at the prestigious Berlinale International Film Festival in 2014 - the runner up to the Crystal Bear for best short film in Berlinale’s Generation section.
* The short film then went on to worldwide festival success winning awards both locally and internationally.
* The feature version scripted by Director Neil Triffett through the support of Screen Australia and Film Victoria is a tale about unconventional characters, one that’s funny, irreverent and somewhat subversive, promising great music at its heart.
* The film's original songs are also written by Neil and we're currently working with some of Australia's most interesting emerging independent musical talents as we head towards song production.
* As a musical, the film promises to join Australia's proud history of films that have music in their DNA – Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla, Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires – that all reached a wide audience because they were entertaining while having something to say, and got people’s toes tapping. Emo will do the same.
* Emo will be a film created for young adults, 15-35 at its core. Equally for women as men. It will skew towards an intelligent, self-aware audience just left of, but still part of the mainstream.
* We are bringing together an impressive production team including Executive Producers Jonathan Page (The Babadook, 100 Bloody Acres, The Infinite Man) Yael Bergman (Love and Other Catastrophes, I Love You Too), and Shaun Miller (Mary & Max). 
* We have received commitments from investors including Screen Australia, a distributor and an international sales agent and we're now hoping to fill our gap in financing with your support.


By way of pre-purchasing the film your contribution won’t just go towards us making a better film but will give you first opportunity to be part of the Emo audience, or even be part of the team. 

Thank you for supporting and being part of what we are sure will be a new and exciting film for Australian cinema.

To stay up to date with the film including some exciting casting announcements, please follow our Twitter , Instagram or Facebook page.  Also look out for our competitions to be launched throughout the campaign.

And if you're over the age of 16 and would like to be a school-kid Extra during filming in the Melbourne January school holidays, please register your interest, including a face pic via www.matthewswood.com

Filmmaking Team

Emo and us on Social Media

Advanced sales and crowd funding pledges will be used to help pay our cast and crew, to cover props, costumes, sets and location costs and to cover the hire of equipment. We’re committed to ensuring that all of the cast, crew and facilities on this production are paid the minimum rates due as professionals in the industry, and that we abide by all our obligations as an employer and producer.

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR:
We have challenges a-plenty on this film. 

First, it's a musical, which ain't easy. We'll be producing a full-length album in amongst the pre-production, which will be an amazing ball of fun and terrifying. We'll be relying on our super-awesome Music Producer to champion us through this process.

We're also low budget. It'll be tight! But we're keeping our overheads down and doing a bit of salary reinvestment, so we can give our Heads of Department the support they need. 

Artistically, we have the small challenge of needing to make a good film. I'll be tackling that problem by having a brief but significant breakdown, and then putting my nose to the grindstone. This film needs to be fun and fast and funny, and it'll be borne off the back of my sweat, blood and tears. Emo much?

I actually am genuinely looking forward to making this film.

Oh, and we need your help in filling a small but important funding gap in our financing.  
Thanks for considering the project!