Lights, camera, perth!

...a growing film industry...

The WA film industry is growing! There are more and more productions every year with bigger and bigger stars.

How can we, the filmmakers of tomorrow, create meaningful WA films that reach a wide audience and put our isolated city on the map?

Lights, Camera, Perth! endeavours to uncover these questions and give a greater understanding of this small industry. Providing information and motivation to established and future filmmakers alike.

Interviews with leading professionals in the Perth scene gives an insider view of this great industry.

Watch the trailer

Our story

We are a small group of filmmakers who currently study film at SAE Institute in Perth. We are set to graduate at the end of the year and are extremely excited to exit the academic world and enter the workforce. Historically, the Perth film scene has been small, and it seems that only a few graduates end up becoming meaningful contributors to our local film industry. Wanting to strengthen our odds, we set out to learn as much as we could.

We have all come to film school on different paths but have all come to the same destination and now walk together. That is the exciting part about art, especially art as collaborative as film, we can interact with people who come from vastly different backgrounds and end up unified through our love of the craft.

Each of us share in the excitement of the growing film industry here in Perth and are eagerly seeking our path into it. The developments that are currently happening will have a distinct impact on our generation of filmmakers and we are truly grateful to those who have done the work before us to get these developments underway.

Along the way, we found other people to work with that are not current students. This kept in theme of the film we were making as networking is key! It has been a great blessing to combine our university project with the practical skill of networking. Because of this networking and ultimate collaboration, we were able to create something that we believe will help inspire people in Perth to follow their passion.

We will never forget why we have decided to pursue this career, and that is a love for movies. So on that note: See ya at the movies.

director's statement

In 2016 I decided I wanted to pursue a career in the film industry. Before this, I was always interested in film, interested in cameras etc. I just never knew it was a valid career path until a coworker at a grocery store, I worked at in Canada said he was quitting to go work in the film industry. This opened my eyes to the possibility of doing what I love for a career.

A few years later, after living in California, I moved back to Perth and felt defeated. There I was, 20 years old and I wasn’t a famous film director yet! I know… the horror! Shortly after moving back here and having my little quarter life crisis, I went to Tafe to study film. It was also around this time that I listened to an episode of my favourite filmmaking podcast, the Film Riot Podcast, and heard the guest was from WA and was making films in WA!

Since hearing this, I researched more and more about the Perth film industry and found it to be not just existent but ripe with opportunity. I started studying at SAE Institute and have also focused on networking and trying to understand the Perth industry. This is what made me want to create this documentary for my trimester 4 major project. It really was two birds, one stone situation. I can finish my project and also learn more about this industry I hope to be a part of.

These are some extremely exciting times for the WA film industry, and I hope you are as excited as me. We have the diverse landscape, we have the talented filmmakers, let’s tell our stories!