About

After two hugely successful years, the OPTUS ONE80PROJECT project is back giving hopeful TV makers a shot at the small screen – this could be your chance to crack into the notoriously tough film and TV industry with the ultimate leg up thanks to MTV, OPTUS and LG.

The project is a national competition inviting anyone with a good idea for an hour long drama to submit a 180 second pilot and an accompanying treatment. This is then judged by an expert panel of industry specialists to ultimately be produced and aired on MTV in Australia, online and on mobile.

What's a drama?

A drama is any scripted, acted narrative that has a beginning, middle and end and represents a certain level of emotion (Reality TV isn't a drama).

What's a pilot?

In the case of OPTUS ONE80PROJECT it's a short program no longer than 3 minutes and no shorter than one minute produced as a prototype of a drama being considered for production by MTV. Your pilot should sum the theme, plot and tone.

What's a treatment?

For OPTUS ONE80PROJECT we also need your treatment to accompany your pilot. Your treatment should be a preliminary outline of your drama laying out the key scenes, special effects, characters, scripted dialogue from main scenes with screenplay notes and locations. It should ultimately give us an insight into the finer details of your drama.

What are we looking for?

The drama is being produced with the MTV production team. Think great Australian Drama, anything from Neighbors to Love My Way but made with the MTV production team.

The judges and the public will be viewing your pilot on small screens, both mobile and online so take that into consideration with your framing of shots. (Braveheart and style field battles probably won't work so well.)

You have up to three minutes to capture your one-hour, it doesn't seem like a long time, but it actually is. Feature films can get the plot, theme, cast, and the funniest lines across in a 30 second trailer. So keep it up beat and punchy to hold people's attention and to stand out.