Ahead of Melbourne WebFest 2014 we are profiling all the series in the Official Selection as well as the “Second Look” series. 

Noirhouse follows a hard-boiled detective, sultry femme-fatale, and a sentimental Russian thug as they all share a house in present-day Australia. They would have killed one another already, but the dead don’t pay the rent.

This is a share house full of flying bullets, steamy looks, and split bills.

Sky Machine were inspired to create this web series by the melodramatic behaviour people succumb to over the tiniest things when living in share houses. They thought it’d be amusing to take some unbelievably serious and dramatic characters, and put them in the midst of share house melodrama.

They say the series is funny, sexy and full of suspense and plot twists.

What do you want people to take away from your series?

Some good laughs, and maybe an itch that can only be scratched by being a little more hard boiled. What underpins Noirhouse is the idea that maybe these old school heroes have something we’ve lost. Maybe their blunt action rather than passive aggression is something we can learn from. Maybe our constant drive for something new has made us forget what cool really is. Maybe more of us should wear awesome hats.

Why make a web series?

We love serial narrative content. It’s hard to get the money to make a TV-length series, but doing short episodes on a tiny budget is feasible. It also gives us a way to try ideas and have control in a way not possible with broadcast TV.

How do you finance your series? 

We made the first three episodes with a small grant from Screen Tasmania. We’re now in post-production on six more with backing from Screen Australia, Screen Tasmania, and the ABC.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?

Shooting stylised film-noir scenes in such a short time span. We shoot roughly an episode per day. It’s only possible because our cast and crew are damn heroes.

How do you reach your audience?

Like most we use social media quite a lot. We’ve also been lucky enough to get Noirhouse into a lot of festivals internationally – Italy, France, Canada, and a bunch in the USA – which has helped spread the word.

Is it an ongoing project? If so, can you give us some clues about what comes next? 

Six more episodes will be hitting ABC iView and YouTube later this year. The events of the first three episodes have left our heroes entangled in something far larger, and far more sinister.

Trivia: please tell us a quirky and/or interesting fact about yourself or team that’s unrelated to your web series.

Sky Machine’s Nathan Spencer (actor and producer, plays the Detective in Noirhouse) is a NIDA trained actor who once punched Sam Worthington and kissed Toni Pearen in an episode of JAG.

Noirhouse on the web:

Website: www.noirhouse.com

Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/noirhousetv

Facebook: www.facebook.com/noirhouse

Twitter: @noirhousetv

Keep up to date with Melbourne Web Fest on twitter: @MelbWebFest

La Trobe University is a festival sponsor of Melbourne WebFest.