Find out what 2011 winners Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren had to say about their Optus ONE80PROJECT experience

Earlier this year Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren took out the 2011 Optus ONE80PROJECT with their entry ‘Sick,’ a tale of two brothers spinning a web of fantasy amidst a real life health crisis, which captivated the judges with its unique perspective and treatment. Since winning the competition the boys have been hard at work on pre-production and planning, and they’ve just this week wrapped shooting for their pilot which will air on MTV early next year.

We nabbed some time with the busy brothers to talk about their experience and get their top tips for anyone considering entering this time around…

Hi guys! Tell us, why did you decide to enter the Optus ONE80PROJECT?

Christiaan: We basically had written a bunch of stories about the situation that we both went through together a few years ago, which was the time that I spent in hospital.

Connor: We’d been home content creating for a while, and we were kind of filming ourselves, directing ourselves, doing everything ourselves, and we decided we needed some money! At the very last minute we decided to enter the competition, and we went on a four day editing bender and just got it in. But we’d actually seen ‘Dungoona’ just before we decided to enter and we really liked it, and we thought it was a really cool opportunity.

How did you find the experience?

Christiaan: It was good for us that there was public voting, particularly since the mechanism was based online, and online was where we’d been creating the content that we’d been working on together anyway. We had a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter that we could pump our entry out to.

Connor: But the actual process of the competition was really good as well. And on the day, meeting guys like Kieran Darcy-Smith who actually helped us out as our acting coach…guys like David Wenham, who was really into the idea and really enthused…

Christiaan: All the Blue Tongue Films guys were rad, Luke Doolan and Nash Edgerton…they were all very helpful.

Was it difficult to condense your ‘life in quarantine’ experiences and the story you wanted to tell into a 180 second trailer?

Connor: Oh absolutely, we had such big ideas! The whole process for us has been a funneling of all these vague ideas we had swimming around in our heads. You can probably see it in the trailer, there’s kind of a million ideas floating around in those three minutes.

What were the biggest problems you came up against?

Connor: We had mentioned things like armies! And armies became groups, which became people, which became one person. The biggest hurdle was our inexperience, biting off more than we could chew.

What do you think set your entry apart from the rest?

Christiaan: It’s unique I reckon. There are a lot of cop shows on Australian television, standard dramas, beachside ‘Home and Away’ type shows, and we came up with a way to tie something current like the world of the internet and the world of social media in with a story that’s real life…it tied in fantasy and music, and put together something quite unique.

Connor: It’s unique because at that stage we didn’t really know what it was. I think part of the appeal was that it was raw.

In what ways has your life changed since winning the Optus ONE80PROJECT comp?

Connor: We’re both broke…

Christiaan: …and our girlfriends have been threatening to leave us for the past 12 months!

Connor: But we’ve kind of had a practical film school basically. I think we’re also a lot more flexible about our ideas. We learnt you get so much more from collaborating and that it ends up being so much bigger than what you had in your own head when you involve other people creatively.

And finally, any tips for this year’s OPTUS ONE80PROJECT entrants?

Connor: Think big, and go for something unique. You’ve got the opportunity to get something on screen that’s whatever you want to make.

Christiaan: Enter something you’re passionate about, because if you win you’re going to spend the next 12 months working only on that, so you want to be passionate about it the whole way through the process. And I think it really shows in those three minutes of the trailer when it’s something that you’re passionate about and that you care about, and that you’re pouring a lot of energy into.

Connor: Don’t make something you think people want to see, make something you want to see.

On set photo care of Van Vuuren Bros.