What a year for this little web series that we shot in a box at the end of the 2020 lockdown! Written and directed by the phenomenal, award-winning Kerry Drumm, ‘Incoming: Words of War’ is a 6-part web series about soldiers confronting the difficulties of their lives in a warzone. The 7 characters open up about their families and relationships, as well as sharing the daily hardships of their unique profession.
After shooting with a small team in Williamstown, Melbourne, this heartfelt series has been all over the globe in 2021! It premiered at SeriesFest (USA), and then went on to screen at the Seoul Web Fest, Baltimore Next Media Web Fest, NZ Web Fest, British Web Awards, Worldwide Women’s Film Festival, and finally, at the Asia Web Awards. For everyone else, you can see it here through Little Red Fox productions:
We’ve been honoured with 14 nominations and 4 wins across those festivals – what an accomplishment for the whole team! I’m incredibly humbled to have picked up one of those awards with a Best Actress win from the British Web Awards. It’s really lovely to get this acknowledgement for my performance, especially when surrounded by so many other talented people in this production (seriously, have you watched Liam O’Kane in episode 4? He delivers a spectacular 6-minute monologue that perfectly demonstrates how an actor can recall a heartbreaking memory while playing anger and frustration, instead of sadness and self-pity. Watch it – he’s so good!). Due to the absolute truckload of amazing talent on this shoot, we’ve been nominated for Best Ensemble three times. The British Web Awards gave our ensemble a win, and I think it’s pretty well-deserved, even if I do say so myself!
I was fortunate to have worked with Kerry Drumm previously, and when she asked me to take on the role of Captain Laura Mantle in ‘Incoming’, I didn’t need much convincing. Kerry’s the kind of person that I love to work with: not just a talented writer, but someone with vision, smarts, energy. The kind of person who provides you with background material about your character, who makes projects happen, and who knows how to assemble the best possible team around her (Emma Hunt, producer, is obviously one of these ‘best possible’ people).
I wish I could say that I’d been involved in lots of other acting projects in 2021, but with Melbourne shuffling through three more lockdowns and having a very busy year as a VCE Theatre Studies teacher (ugh, remote learning…), I couldn’t really do anything else. But the recognition that this web series has received, especially as an ensemble, is a great reminder to me that it’s probably time to get back out there and do some more work! It’s a little incentive to keep working with all of those other wonderful creatives, and to recognise the collaborative nature of theatre and film. It feels difficult after two years of restrictions to crawl out of my little hermit hole and seek out friendly faces, but I think that’s what it’s time for.
Here’s to the little web series that could: thanks for the amazing experience, thanks for the wins, and let’s see where Incoming goes next.
Want to watch the full series? All episodes are available to watch here.
Samantha Hill 