By Eli Landes
“I think we’re living in a sci-fi present,” jokes young filmmaker, Stuart Willis. After his success with his online short, Payload, Willis’ new 60-minute film, Restoration, has just been picked up to screen on the Nine Network and the subscription video-on demand service Stan later in 2016. “We’re thrilled to have closed a deal with one of Australia’s leading free-to-air commercial television networks and with Stan,” says producer, Toby Gibson. “We’re very pleased that Restoration will be seen by a wide Australian audience.”
In the vein of Her and Transcendance, which touch on the potentially alienating effects of technology, the sci-fi-series explores a near-future world where people are offered the service of having their memories downloaded for back-up. After a routine backup, Oliver Klein (Grant Cartwright) wakes up to find that his memories have been uploaded into someone else’s body. Stuart Willis constructed the idea over his own anxieties with technology. “It’s this strange experience,” he says. “You can go through five iPhones and it still feels like the same one.” However, his exploration of alienation helped develop the idea further. “When you come back home after being away,” he says, “you kind of feel like a stranger in your own house and a stranger to your own friends.”
Like many independent projects, Restoration – which also stars Craig McLachlan and Nadia Townsend – tapped into the world of crowd funding, with Willis’ team raising funds via on Kickstarter. “It’s about engagement,” he says, “and it’s about letting them become part of the process and having a sense of ownership.” Toby Gibson, meanwhile, proved to be a truly industrious producer, organising a space in Melbourne’s Docklands Studios. “It made everything easier,” says Willis. “We could spend our energy on making the film as opposed to just conquering the logistics. It’s unusual that a project like this has a big role for the set. I’m hoping that it will do reasonably well.”
For more information on Restoration, head to the official website.
