As she joins the Melbourne WebFest Advisory Board, we’d like to extend a warm welcome to creative producer, Tamasin Simpkin.
A Melbourne based producer with experience in both online and traditional media spaces, Simpkin is well known for her passion in collaborating with diverse talent. Creating meaningful entertainment, she joined Film Victoria as a Production Executive earlier this year, working across both the development and production funding programs.
Alumni of the Screen Producers Australia Ones to Watch Program, and nominee for Breakthrough Business of the Year, Simpkin has over a decade of experience working across casting, locations, production, and most recently producing, which gives her a holistic understanding of the production process and compliments her passion and instinct for story.
Her most recent production, Get Krack!n, was described by critics as “the finest satire ever put to air on Australian television”, “comedy at its groundbreaking best” and “a must-watch for all Australians”. The series won an AWGIE Award, received an AACTA nomination in the Best Actress category for Miranda Tapsell, and both seasons were nominated for Best Comedy at the Screen Producers Australia Awards.
An alumni of MWF, Simpkins’ previous work on The Katering Show allowed her to develop the knowledge and skills pertinent to online production and distribution – be it an independent project or in collaboration with a network. The first series had 2 million views in its first week online and took out numerous awards, including Best of the Fest and Best Short Form Series at the New York Television Festival, an AWGIE for Best Short Form Series, and the award for Best Comedy at MWF, ITV Festival and the Online Video Awards. Series two also broke the record for most watched ABC iView original program at the time of its release.
Simpkin believes short form series have established itself as a viable pathway for emerging creatives looking to move into more traditional spaces.
“Certainly the broadcasters interest in this pathway has grown in recent years, with multiple projects being picked up as is or developed to an increased episode length, most if not all broadcasters and streamers now creating original short-form content, and a number of initiatives run by broadcasters aimed specifically at that format,” says Simpkin.
Whilst the digital space continues to grow into new terms, Simpkin is excited to see how creatives will evolve – particularly around the interaction between social media platforms, creators and its viewers. “… New streaming platforms like Quibi which embrace the continual rise in people consuming short form videos,” says Simpkin.
“Audiences are consuming more and more short-form and online content, with shifting viewing habits caused by a feedback loop between audiences becoming used to new forms of storytelling and the technology evolving. I think whether as a pathway to more traditional TV or film work, or as a frontier for new forms of creativity and audience engagement, online content creation is a fast-growing and evolving component of our industry which will only become more important in the years to come.”