by Dov Kornits
Aussie writer/director Jorrden Daley and producer Jill Kingston are well and truly rolling on their low budget horror flick Welcome Back to My Channel, where two online vloggers tangle with a family of cannibals.
“This film is really our calling card – proof that we could make a good film on time and on budget,” Welcome Back to My Channel producer Jill Kingston tells FilmInk. “Being micro budget and largely self-funded also gave us a real level of freedom, both creatively and logistically. We were hearing from both sales agents and distributors, as well as the government bodies, that, while they were excited by our slate, we needed more feature film credits to be seriously considered for funding and marketplace support.”
Like all good, tenacious, persistent filmmakers, producer Jill Kingston and writer/director Jorrden Daley didn’t let the small matter of a lack of funding get in the way of their found footage horror flick Welcome Back to My Channel. After all, they’ve got a concept to, well, die for: two vapid lifestyle vloggers who opportunistically head into the bush in search of a lost child and instead end up in the cruel, twisted sights of a family of cannibals. “I was driven by my deep dark belief that we’re actually all animals beneath our civilised facades,” says Jorrden Daley. “Any of us, under certain circumstances, could turn to cannibalism. I am also fascinated by influencers and their desire to expose themselves and the inauthenticity I perceive in themselves and their relationships with their partners or their families, and how they could even trust their own families when they seem to be pretending to be someone else all the time.”
The horror of Welcome Back to My Channel represents something of a gear-change for Jorrden Daley, who made her screenwriting debut with the dysfunctional family comedy The Longest Weekend, and then moved into the writing department for the hit TV series Bump. As well as the thematic and stylistic differences, the low, low budget nature of the shoot (thirteen days on just $60,000) represented a major challenge for Daley, though it also slotted in perfectly with the film’s “found footage” aesthetic. “Making the film in the found footage style didn’t even feel like a choice,” Daley says. “It was simply the most suitable format for the idea, given we’re following an influencer couple. It also felt like it really added to the claustrophobia and horror of the situation they’re in.”
Now a burgeoning filmmaking team on the rise (the duo met through director Molly Haddon, who helmed The Longest Weekend), Jill Kingston and Jorrden Daley are set to roll with their shared passion for film, and for filmmaking in general. “We quickly bonded over a love of horror films, and when Jill struck out with her own production company, a couple of my horror projects were the first scripts she optioned,” Daley explains to FilmInk. “When we had trouble getting those financed, both of us were eager to get our first credits, me for directing and she for producing, so we decided to go the microbudget route. And though it wasn’t without challenges, we found that we were a phenomenal fit.”
Adds Jill Kingston: “Jorrden and I have a great dynamic and were on the same page about so much of the film. And where we had differences of opinion, because we have so much trust and respect for each other, we were able to really hear each other’s opinions and make the best decisions for the film.”
And what are the duo’s hopes for the finished film? “I’m hoping that we get a great international premiere where we can get some major sales so we can have as large an audience as possible to enjoy this film we love so much,” Kingston replies. “And then we’d love an Aussie premiere, hopefully in Sydney, where our cast and crew can come together to celebrate what we’ve achieved. And I really hope it has enough success to propel us into our next film.”
Adds Jorrden Daley: “I really fell in love with directing on this film and I really hope this film does well enough to allow me to do it again because Jill and I have some really great scary material up our sleeves.”
Stay tuned for more on Welcome Back to My Channel.
