Ahead of Melbourne WebFest 2014 we are profiling all the series in the Official Selection as well as the “Second Look” series. 

Brought together by their attendance at weekly JobQuest meetings. Stern public servant Janet heads the dole office, where an unlucky Scott is joined by child star Jayde, oddball Neville, knocked up Candice, old-timer Maurie, bully Karen and lonely housewife Brigitte. Seven unemployed Aussies, one jaded public servant all on a quest for sex, stardom and the odd Stilnox hit… It’s A Dole Life!

The series was inspired by the lack of domestic comedies and a desire to challenge the ‘Dole Bludger’ cliché.

Why should people watch your series?
You won’t find a gang of misfits like ours in any other series. We offer an authentic take on Australian culture.

What do you want people to take away from your series?
Who knew being on the dole could be so much fun?

How do you finance your series?
Wanting to prove our skills before applying for funding, we independently launched ‘It’s A Dole Life’ without financial backing. We worked with a small budget of our own personal finances.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?
A lack of resources. Our production company ‘Knife and Fork Productions’ consisted of three people, Sean Flynn (Executive Producer/Co-creator), Gerard Dewhurst (Director/Co-creator) and Angela Crilley (Producer) and while we wouldn’t have been able to complete the series without our loyal (and unpaid) cast and crew, a shortage of hands was our greatest challenge.

How do you reach your audience?
We built our audience via social media, including our YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter account. During our marketing campaign we have also maintained a presence in local newspapers, magazines and radio.

Is it an ongoing project? If so, can you give us some clues about what comes next?
It’s A Dole Life is a snapshot of our character’s lives, we believe there are more stories to be told and more importantly in this job market, they won’t be finding work anytime soon.

Trivia: please tell us a quirky and/or interesting fact about yourself or team that’s unrelated to your web series.
We often create our own slang, including the acronym PROFL – Priest Rolling On Floor Laughing.

Why make a web series?
Having produced several short films, we wanted to pursue an ongoing storyline and the web series genre was the perfect platform. An emerging trend with low production costs and flexible distribution.

Is there anything in particular you’d like us to add about you or your series?
Our production featured over 90 separate locations and more than 120 different characters. This was challenging for a variety of reasons, especially as we were new to Sydney. We purposely entered this production knowing that we wouldn’t make any money and we loved every bit of it. We just want to learn more and continue to create fresh and original Australian content.

It’s A Dole Life on the web:
Website: www.itsadolelife.com 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DoleLife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dolelife2014

Keep up to date with Melbourne Web Fest on twitter: @MelbWebFest

La Trobe University is a festival sponsor of Melbourne WebFest.