Created by Julius Telmer, Greenfield is about James’ unexplained absence of over ten years. After a long period of time, James’ aspirations of rebuilding his former life with his girlfriend Kelly, are short-lived when her brother confides in him with a volatile secret.
Set in a rural town in Perth, Greenfield explores the dark side of small towns.
Greenfield is set in rural WA and explores some confronting ideas. Did you grow up in a rural town?
I grew up in Perth, however I was ostracised during my schooling years for being different which had a big part in it all. I do have extended family in some rural areas though and through conversations became aware of the problem. It even still exists in the city here in Perth however on a much more isolating level in rural areas.
Are the stories in Greenfield based on your own experiences?
We (Julius and I) made a decision that we would write from what we know. All of the stories were something I’ve either directly experienced or seen or known close friends that have experienced. That’s why I’m looking forward to writing season 2 which is currently in development. I have got some incredible stories and research to share. It’s looking really exciting. The whole ICE/Meth issue affects almost every person in Australia either directly or indirectly, it’s crazy. Perth is now known as “Meth City” with one of the highest or if not the highest usage rate per capita in the world.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome making this series?
In one word? Money. In a few more words? Having a lack of funding for the size of the project was difficult. We could have just made a pilot and paid everyone properly and waited for someone to take interest but we decided to take a risk. Put all of the money on the screen and release a full series.
The key creatives including myself were contractually obliged to pay themselves due to some of the funding we received so we each took $1. I think I still have that coin lying around somewhere. We paid crew and actors just enough for them to take off work and contribute to our idea. I’m glad we took the risk, but moving forwards, we need to create less stress and make it viable for everyone involved so we will be looking for some market attachments for season 2 and ideally working on a much higher level.
How do you reach your audience?
Most of our audience has grown from our core audience that have been on board with us since the early days with other projects. We are certainly looking to expand and there are a few things in the works I can’t talk about yet, but fingers crossed we can get this thing moving and grooving.
Greenfield on the web:
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