#MelbourneWebFest, #ShakespeareRepublic & more!

So much has been happening over these past few months that it is somewhat of a blur! But in the spirit of not leaving it another year before posting updates, here is a bit about what’s been happening in the world of Sally over these last three months …

I’m going to start with the latest news and move backwards, just because I can. And so that means that I’m beginning with last weekend’s Melbourne Web Fest, which anyone following my Twitter feed, Facebook page or Instagram may be sick of hearing about, but I promise this will be the last public mention of it I make … for now 🙂

GENERAL NEWS: MELBOURNE WEB FEST

Melbourne Web Fest Closing Night Gala Awards (Photo courtesy of Melbourne Web Fest)

What can I say about Melbourne WebFest other than what I’ve already said in my post over on Shakespeare Republic’s blog? Not much more really. It was amazing, brilliant, inspiring, collaborative and so … much … fun! Steiner Ellingsen and his fabulous team made the whole long weekend a joy to be a part of from the Spotlight on Melbourne screenings on the Thursday night, to the Industry Development Day on the Friday (which I was a last-minute presenter for with my session “Working With Talent”, alongside content creators such as the lovely John Cabrera (H+), among others) to the Opening Night, all the screenings and the stylish Closing Night Gala Awards – it was a fantastic festival to attend and I have come away inspired and invigorated. Shane Savage’s article for WebVee Guide about the festival sums it all up very nicely, which you can read here.

Thank you to all the team at MWF – and look forward to doing it all again next year!

PROJECT NEWS: SHAKESPEARE REPUBLIC

“Best Web Series” Award from 12MFF, Romania in the Shakespeare Republic office

I am delighted to announce that since my last post here at the end of March, Shakespeare Republic has been selected now for 18 Film Festivals around the world and has won 7 awards!!

“Best Mobisode or Web Short” – Peak City International Film Festival, USA
“Best Web Series” – 12 Months Film Festival, Romania
“Best Web/New Media” – Los Angeles Cinefest (March), USA
“Best Picture (Web Series)” – Indiepossible International Film Festival, USA
“Best Director (Web Series)”, Sally McLean – Indiepossible International Film Festival, USA
“Best Cinematographer (Web Series)”, Shaun Herbertson – Indiepossible International Film Festival, USA
“Best Actor (Web Series)”, Ben Steel – Indiepossible International Film Festival, USA

Amazing!

So delighted to have experienced such amazing success with the project and I thank all the juries and festival organizers for including us in their lineup! We are about to head into pre-production for Season Two, so expect more updates and things move ahead over the coming months.

Here are all the laurels we’ve been lucky enough to get so far.

Keep up with the project via the official website here.

PROJECT NEWS: CHAMPION: THE DOCUMENTARY

Phil Craig, former Head of Factual at ABC Television has joined the team of "Champion" — Phil Craig, former Head of Factual at ABC Television has joined the team of “Champion”

My documentary project, formally called “A Life Unexpected”, now re-titled “Champion” has a new addition to the team in the form of the wonderful Phil Craig (former Head of Factual, ABC TV), who came on board after the Australian International Documentary Conference as another Executive Producer for the project! We are so delighted to have Phil join the team and I am very excited to work with him going forward. We are currently waiting to hear back on meetings that took place a couple of weeks ago in Europe, so fingers crossed that it’s good news and we can get onto filming the final few days and then into the post production! I’ll keep you posted!

Keep up with this project via the official website here.

ACTING NEWS: UPPER MIDDLE BOGAN

The main cast of ABC's Upper Middle Bogan — The main cast of ABC’s Upper Middle Bogan

I was so delighted to get to head to set and play with the amazing team behind Upper Middle Bogan a couple of months back. Sadly I didn’t get to work with Michala (Banas) (despite our trying to coordinate that to happen, just so we could say we’d worked on two projects together this year), because I wasn’t cast as a bogan, but rather as a surgeon. But getting to work and hang out with Annie (Maynard) and Lara (Robinson) was compensation enough – both lovely actors and human beings and made me feel very welcome.

We had fun hanging around in a functional operating theatre (complete with fake blood) for a few hours, dressed head to toe in blue scrubs, gloves, face masks and shoe covers. Add to that the operating theatre lights and the film set lights and let’s say it was hot. Very much so. But being able to work with such lovely and smart people more than made up for any discomfort due to the heat. Loved my time on set there and thank Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler for inviting me into their world and letting me play there for a while – it was a blast. No idea when the airdate is, but I’ll undoubtedly keep you posted via here, Twitter or Facebook!

And that’s it for now. Hope everyone is well and thanks for reading through all this! As always, much love to all and speak soon!

Sally x