How Disc came to Lift-Off
Looking for further opportunities out there with Disc and Nicola future projects she applied for the Film Market representation at TIFF with the hope to build relationships with sales agents and producers.
We will be taking Disc to the market as a script in its final stages with the look to find a sales agent with the same synergy to launch this project from paper to the big screen.
About the project
MAX and ODIE, a young couple sexually and emotionally distanced from one another by Max's recent battle with cancer, travel to a remote forest to escape the noise of modern life and get their relationship back on track. They hire ADAIA, a feral woods-woman, to take them upstream, far from civilization. They fall asleep under the stars, but their peace is crushed at 3am by thumping dance music. A stranger, CONRAD, is dancing round their camp fire. He's just out of prison, drunk, with only a case of beer and a ghetto blaster. When he passes out, Max and Odie pack up quietly to leave but before they can get away, there's a deafening roar from the sky and an earth-shattering smash. A small metallic disc has crashed into the earth. It's on fire, in the middle of a crater. In order to survive, Max, Conrad, and Odie have to work together to put out the flames. As the disc cools, the oppressive atmosphere in the forest increases and they become paranoid and suspicious of each other. The trio cannot decide if the disc is a harmless anomaly or a threat, unaware of the influence it is already beginning to have on them - what they don't realise is, they have started to hear each other's thoughts. Conflict builds as questions about the disc become entangled with questions about their own sexuality, morality and capacity for violence. It finally becomes apparent that the disc is active, warping the very elements around them, and seeming to threaten not just their lives, but the fabric of reality. During the terrifying climax, Odie stabs Conrad and the couple flee. Max and Odie have an epiphany during the night and the next day return to find Conrad, and the disc, vanished. Ultimately, Max and Odie rediscover who they really are and see the gulf that exists between them. They leave the forest transformed, with their eyes open and heading in different directions. When they rejoin their recalcitrant guide Adaia for the boat trip home, they realise that the trip may not, in fact, be over.
The Writer
Nicola was born in England, grew up in Australia and returned to London 15 years ago.
She’s being mentored by Lee Magiday, producer of The Favourite, through WFTV and is on the DUK Inspire program – shadowing on the German TV series SOKO Leipzig under Robert Del Maestro. Nicola’s short films have screened in festivals all over the world. Her latest short film Prawn was made with Directors UK, Arri, and Technicolour sponsorship. It premiered at Triforce at BAFTA. Her script, The Attendant, won JETS in Berlin/EFM in 2018 and she was invited back with DISC this year. Nicola was a resident character on Home and Away, appearing in shows for Channel 7, Channel 9, SBS, the BBC in Radio and TV. She toured with Sydney Theatre Company in The Crucible and did an 18 month Australian Tour of Hair.
