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Short film Abbie to screen on Qantas

Press release from Taylor Litton-Strain

The charming, unpredictable short film Abbie has taken to the the skies as it screens nationally to QANTAS domestic passengers during February and March.

QANTAS picked up Abbie after an airline employee attended a cast and crew screening of the whimsical short film and recommended it for acquisition.

For young filmmakers Erin Good (25) and Taylor Litton-Strain (20) this is an exciting start to their film-making careers. They made “Abbie” after being awarded funding from Metro Screen’s 2010 First Break program.

Abbie is the pair’s first professional collaboration, since they graduated from the inaugural AFTRS Foundation Diploma class of 2009.

The short film follows the endearing and unconventional Abbie as she embarks on her first day at work in a dystopian corporate office. Abbie was shot in High Definition and mixes live action with animation. The shoot followed months of pre-production, employing a professional cast and crew of over 50 people, including AFTRS peers .

The year of toil paid off for director Erin Good and producer Taylor Litton-Strain when they held an informal screening for cast and crew.

“The screening was intended as a reward for everyone who worked on the film, as well as supporters. It was an exclusive screening before we started sending copies to festivals,” Litton-Strain explains.

“One of our guests happened to be an employee from QANTAS. The airline contacted us shortly after to ask for a screener and then offered to acquire the film for their in-flight entertainment program.”

Good and Litton-Strain plan to continue making films together and are currently in development on a new short. Whilst making Abbie, Good was an intern at Porchlight Films, her slate included television series Laid and feature The Hunter, while Litton-Strain was working at SBS and enjoying the success of her previous short film Driven, which has screened at the Bondi Short Film Festival and New Zealand’s Show Me Shorts festival.

Abbie will screen with other Metro Screen First Break films at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington on Wednesday 23rd February from 4pm.