A surreal web series pilot, Dick, has been selected from more than 150 entries as one of the top 10 applications for a new initiative from TVNZ - the New Blood Web Series Competition - and two WIFTers are involved.
Dick is a simple story about a man who wakes up on his birthday sporting a vagina where his penis would usually be. It's created by WIFT member Aidee Walker (along with actor Wesley Dowdell), and WIFT member Shoshana McCallum is on the writing team.
Over the month of June, New Zealanders can visit the TVNZ OnDemand website and vote on their favourite of 10 web series pilots. At the end of the month the team with the most votes will be awarded the grand prize of $100,000 from TVNZ and NZ On Air, and thus get to turn their pilot into a full season of content for TVNZ OnDemand.
Aidee describes it as "a kind of feminist fairytale for women and for men. We all have that one friend who's always making a slightly inappropriate joke, but is 'only messing around'. In Dick we take away that guy's dick, and then get to have a bunch of fun exploring how we all have so, so much to learn about each other. Dick is intended to be silly and serious. It'll make you think, but not before it makes you laugh."
Dick is one of many projects for long-time friends/collaborators, Aidee and Shoshana. In the past they have worked together on the pilot Animals, short film Break in the Weathe', and another webseries being released imminently, as well a couple of features currently in development. But Dick is very close to their hearts.
"It's funny because it seems like we've written a story about a man, when we are both all about championing women in the industry, hard," says Shoshana, "But in his search to find himself, this man will discover what it means to be a man, or even a human, has very little to do with what's in his pants."