Your work celebrates Sydney in all its glory and nothing is more symbolic of the city than the Opera House.

We have been fortunate enough to work with the Sydney Opera House for close to 12 years and like any great relationship, it has continued to strengthen over time. Being given the opportunity to conceive a work that is both an homage to the city we love and to one of the most significant cultural institutions in the world has…

Tell us about your collaboration with writer and performer Susie Kimnell and the origins of this wonderfully bizarre short.

The film was written by Susie, we have worked together as director and actor combo since our first film together called f r e d. We’ve been making what we call lofi films since around 2020, meaning they are made with little to no money, crew or resources, just what is available – often on older digital cameras with inexpensive lenses.…

What drew you to the world of false lives lived behind picket fences?

Will Abbot: I started writing Flattened during the pandemic with Hannah Levy and Grace Westlin, who also star in the short. We bubbled up and gathered during our evenings for movie nights. We quickly realized we were drawn to the same films, works that, sadly, we felt weren’t really being made anymore. With lots of time on our hands and a desire to escape the confines of…

You have a specific type of humour and have made some great, weird comedies with darker messages. I want to know about your style and preferences and how you think it allows you to tell the stories you want to.

I like flawed, messy characters. I like trying to dramatise the insane ramblings of the character’s inner world. Like, we have 1000 instant thoughts in the gap between experiencing something and then opening our mouths and saying something about it.…