Actress and filmmaker Alyssa McCelland and actor Ryan Johnson (who has just scored himself a regular gig on America TV drama Fairly Legal) have joined forces to create something very novel in the world of Australian entertainment: a series of short TV-style webisodes. While there is plenty of decent YouTube fodder coming out of Aus (we're looking at you, Jaydos), this is one of the first times people of McCelland and Johnson's profile have created a project this extensively realised online.
Written and directed by McCelland on a shoe-string budget, the webisodes were a labour of love, and stand as a testament to to her multitalented nature.
One Step Closer To Home is a series of eleven two to five minute shorts that are being released daily over the next week. Subtly lampooning the visual language of the Australian TV soap (and, for that matter, commercial), the show focuses on an oft neglected group in Aussie television: Nesters. Those in the awkward stage between the fun of 20s singledom, and the settled domesticity of life with kids.
Watching the laconic sketches, it becomes quickly apparent why no one has explored this transitional period before. The characters interactions revolve solely around the mundane process of carving out a 'srs adult' life, which is rendered hilarious by the abundance of pregnant pauses, and the lost, 'dying inside' looks that are ever-present in McCelland and Johnson's eyes. The whole thing serves as a warning to appreciate your youth more, and has already garnered a handful of famous fans, and including Jodie Gordon, who had this to say of the series:
There are already six episodes of the show up on the
One Step Closer To Home website. Our favourite so far is episode three, which you can watch below: