THE comic duo responsible for producing the internet sensation film This Is Perth have taken aim at Fremantle in their latest instalment.
The pair became household names in the local film industry with This Is Perth, a 3½ minute short film that provides an overview of Perth in the style of a tourism video aimed at international visitors.
Wrapped in affable satire, the film plays on the ‘dullsville’ tag, depicting the city as a sparse entertainment hub struggling for patronage.
Now, filmmakers Vincenzo Perrella and Dan Osborn have given Fremantle a dose of the same medicine in the production Hello, It’s Freo.
“This is partly echoing the sentiment from like-minded people who are our age,” Perrella said.
“We like to indulge that absurd style of humour and satire and it’s not always a style of film that is easy to sell.
“This is a way of exploring a different way of making films exciting.
“We get a bit of a kick working out how to create films that are energising and we like working out how to engage audiences.”
Hello, It’s Freo features many familiar hotspots of the port city, creatively packaged into four minutes.
The pair met at university and worked as teachers before moving into filmmaking.
“Working in a duo gives you the flexibility to do exactly what we want,” Osborn said.
“I guess we never want to be completely obvious in what we are doing.
“What we have done is fresh and satirical but without the insult – what we set out to do is something that’s more affectionate.
“We have found that people have really adopted it and the response we have had from the This is Perth film has been positive.”
Hello, It’s Freo was among 14 films recently selected as a finalist for the Film and Television Institute’s Bohemian Shorts: Fremantle’s First Film Competition last Saturday.