Ahead of Melbourne WebFest 2014 we are profiling all the series in the Official Selection as well as the “Second Look” series.
In the world of professional Australian Rules football, nothing speaks louder than courage, longer than success and more everlasting than premiership glory.
For the Rams FC, however, success comes at a cost – a coach on the ropes, a captain just holding on, a rookie struggling to make his own way and a wayward superstar on his last chance.
This is a season that will define them.
Richardson decided to make White Lines into what it is as no one has ever made a fictional web series about an Australian Rules club before.
Why should people watch your series?
White Lines is everything I wanted to see in an Australian sports series. Drama, punch ups, scandal, success, failure and interesting characters you can love and hate. We wanted to do the great game justice and entertain the footy loving public at the same time. What I believe we achieved was a drama that people can relate to even if you don’t like the sport. The big personalities and storylines will get you hooked.
What do you want people to take away from your series?
I would like people to enjoy it! We gave it a shot and wanted to “Hollywood-ise” it. We want people to come away thinking “wow, now that is a drama!”
How do you finance your series?
I financed most of the film from my own pocket. We were also lucky enough to have sponsorship from a few wonderful companies PH Perfect and Veto Sports.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?
Time was our biggest challenge. We had a huge cast and crew from all over Australia and a lot to film in a very short period of time. We were fortunate to have some very good people working on the project on the crew side and the actors all gave of their time freely out of their passion for the series.
How do you reach your audience?
We embarked on a social media campaign targeting lovers of football and drama.
Is it an ongoing project? If so, can you give us some clues about what comes next?
At this stage we have left the door open for season 2 but nothing planned as yet.
Trivia: please tell us a quirky and/or interesting fact about yourself or team that’s unrelated to your web series.
My Grandma is a famous opera singer – Marilyn Richardson – yet I can’t sing a note to save myself!
I was also ranked the #1 salesman in Australasian region for selling vacuum cleaners door to door!
White Lines on the web:
Website: www.whitelinesseries.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/WhiteLinesSeries
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WhiteLinesSeries
Twitter: @WhiteLinesAus
Keep up to date with Melbourne Web Fest on twitter: @MelbWebFest
La Trobe University is a festival sponsor of Melbourne WebFest.
