Directors note from Charlotte Mungomery:

I grew up in regional Australia, surrounded by communities that carried both extraordinary warmth and quiet hardship. As a child, I witnessed family dynamics that often went unspoken. Homes where tenderness and violence lived side by side. Where people loved deeply, tried desperately, and still somehow failed each other. Those contradictions have stayed with me. With Plasticine Dad, I am not interested in pointing fingers; I am interested in circumstance. In the quiet systems that shape people and the way harsh environments can slowly deform even those with the best intentions. The film is told entirely through the perception of a child who cannot fully understand what he is witnessing, but feels everything. Children are often far more perceptive than adults allow. They are antennas for emotion, conflict, tenderness, fear. They absorb the unsaid. I want to plunge the audience into that state of perception, where time feels elastic, where cause and effect are blurred, where something heard behind a wall can feel bigger than something seen directly. Much of the pain in the film happens just out of frame. We hear it. Sense it. Anticipate it. But like Lenny, we are rarely given the full picture. Above all, I want to create a film that regards its characters with empathy. People who are flawed, alive, radiant, trying. People whose failures do not erase their humanity.

At the same time, DIY renovation YouTube channels had somehow infused themselves into my brain, and I realised they could be a great device for a found-footage horror story - a family films themselves renovating an old cottage for their fledgling online channel, but inadvertently begins filming a haunting.

The decision to make a found-footage film was partly pragmatic, it’s a genre that can be achieved on a very low budget, but I was also excited by its potential to be raw, spontaneous and intimate, and less confined by the rules of traditional filmmaking. We approached the project in that genuine spirit of low-budget filmmaking - embracing the resources, people and happy accidents we had at hand. We used just three principal actors and one extraordinary location, which itself began shaping the story. We discovered the cottage was full of swallow nests, so the swallows found their way into the mythology of the film. We used props, costumes and technical gear we already owned and allowed those limitations to become part of the creative process.

It’s also my first feature film as a writer, director and producer. After making many shorts and web series, this is my chance to take a big creative leap into long-form storytelling, alongside a small, passionate and talented Tasmanian team. It gives all of us the opportunity to build skills, gain feature-film credits and create something ambitious from the resources available to us here. Most of all, we want to make a distinctly Tasmanian film that can fly out into the world and find an audience.

Our rushes are now back, and we have an incredible film ready to enter its final stage: post-production.

We are seeking funding to complete the edit, sound, music and colour to the highest possible standard, and to support submissions to major international festivals, including Cannes and Berlin.

We believe this film has the potential to travel far, champion Tasmanian filmmaking, and elevate the careers of its remarkable cast and crew. This was our dream passion project, which we pursued for many years. 

Your support can help us finish the film and take it to the world.

Ursula Woods: Writer & Cinematographer

Based in southern Lutruwita/Tasmania, Ursula is a cinematographer and camera operator with extensive experience delivering work across film, television, music video, and art installations. Ursula brings an artistic sensibility to every project, and has a passion for experimental film techniques including hand processing in her home darkroom setup. In 2025, Ursula was awarded the Drew Llewellyn Scholarship by the Australian Cinematographers Society and was Film Artist in Residence at UTAS and Constance ARI’s Holding Space program.

The project has been conceived specifically for the landscapes, communities, and textures of the Huon Valley in rural Lutruwita/Tasmania.

This context houses the emotional and social architecture of the story. The Huon Valley carries a rare cinematic tension. Vast open landscapes sit alongside deep isolation. Extraordinary natural beauty exists in close proximity to economic hardship, generational labour, and communities shaped by endurance, self-reliance, and silence. These contradictions are central to the world of the film. We are interested in portraying this regional Australian context beyond stereotype or caricature. The landscape will function as far more than backdrop. It will saturate the mise-en-scène and operate as a participating element within the story. Wind through gum trees. Damp interiors. Rusting machinery. Long grass. Empty roads. The landscape mirrors the emotional terrain of the characters, at once beautiful, harsh, intimate, and unforgiving.