After jolting the film industry awake with an online launch campaign that promised to revolutionise filmmaking models, renegade film production The Tunnel has received an Australian Directors’ Guild award nomination in the interactive media category.
This is the first time the ADG has recognised directorial skill in online media, as separate from directing categories such as film, television and animation. Ahmed Salama, of creative agency DLSHS, received the nomination in the Cross Platform Interactive category for his groundbreaking work on the film’s interactive components, including an innovative website which acts as the chief financing model for the film.
With this nomination, Salama joins ADG-acclaimed directors in other mediums, such as David Michôd (Animal Kingdom), Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae), Robert Connolly (Balibo), Peter Andrikidis (East West 101) and Michael James Rowland (My Place).
Since launching its production in June, The Tunnel has cut a broad swathe through established filmmaking models, first with its proposition to online communities that they help fund the movie by buying individual frames of film, and second with its promise that the movie was to be distributed online, for free, on the bit-torrent piracy networks.
The Tunnel has gone on to win support from one of the most trailblazing forces in television, Andrew Denton – and his production company Zapruder’s Other Films. Challenging the way things are traditionally done, the film has sparked heated debate across the Australian film industry and from worldwide online media about the legitimacy of piracy networks as a legitimate distribution medium.
“The nature of this project has indeed rustled some feathers due to the way we have chosen to distribute the film. Being creative is about taking risks, and it’s great to see that our peers are recognising us for that,” Salama says.
“We will be seeing many more online cross-platform narratives take the main stage in the coming years. The future is all about richer, more accessible, forms of storytelling, enabling a feeling of ownership for the audience”
Written and produced by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey and directed by Carlo Ledesma, The Tunnel follows a group of journalists investigating a story about the underground tunnel networks that really snake under Sydney, Australia, and the horror that unfolds when they discover something is waiting for them down there in the darkness.
“When Julian and I initially pitched the 135k frame-selling concept to Ahmed and his team at DLSHS we were more than confident they would be able to successfully execute the campaign. The results have exceeded our expectations and we’re ecstatic the ADG has acknowledged Ahmed’s work – it’s reassuring to see an organisation like the ADG looking to the future and recognising the online community” said Enzo Tedeschi.
The ADG Award winners will be announced this Thursday, 23 September.