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Screen Australia and Google Australia have announced $500K in funding for five online creative teams to ‘skip ahead’ their YouTube careers.

Now in its fifth year, Skip Ahead will provide production funding to for her project YouTube Famous, for The Not So Social Networks, for Love, Guns and Level Ups, for Crossing The Line and for Nevernight.

The Skip Ahead initiative supports Australian online content creators, who have YouTube channels with a substantial existing subscriber base and/or content which has reached significant viewership, to expand their vision and create more ambitious content to grow their audience.

The projects this year represent a range of voices from across Australia, with creative teams from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

Since 2014, Skip Ahead has supported the likes of , , and to help them take the next step and build their careers in the screen industry. In total, the videos made from the program have received over 40 million views on YouTube.

This year’s recipients will participate in a workshop in Sydney later this month to develop their projects, which include a range of comedy, drama and documentary series.

Lee Naimo, Online Investment Manager at Screen Australia said: “Skip Ahead has a proven track record of launching the careers of some of Australia’s best online content creators, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Google Australia to support five teams again this year. Each of these teams are already producing unique and engaging content that is resonating with audiences, and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to take their projects to the next level.”

Daniel Stephenson, Content Partnerships Manager, YouTube Australia and New Zealand said: “Heading into our fifth year, we continue to be blown away by the calibre of ideas and projects YouTube creators are developing for Skip Ahead. It’s exciting to be able to support them in this journey to create longer form, quality videos, to further drive their careers and garner recognition globally.”

Completed projects will be released on YouTube later this year and include:

• Crossing The Line: An eight-part factual series investigating perspectives on offensive comedy, featuring an audience who are delivered a string of jokes and then deem at which point they ‘cross the line’. Comedian Neel Kolhatkar brings his unique cultural perspective and unapologetic sense of humour to this project, and Toni Malone and Damian Davis from Cordell Jigsaw Productions () will produce the series.
• Love, Guns and Level Ups: An eight-part series about a couple, Bree and Elliot, who meet in the online world of video games and then discover the challenges of a real-world relationship. This is the first action adventure rom-com from creative team Fury Fingers, who have an impressive track record of making high quality skits about video game culture.
• Nevernight: A 10-part webseries from Piéra Forde who will present a live action adaptation of the best-selling fantasy series The Nevernight Chronicles by Australian author Jay Kristoff. The series will follow heroine Mia Corvere, a fledgling killer who joins a school of assassins and seeks vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.
• The Not So Social Networks: A four-part investigative documentary series looking into the polished world of online influencers, where inauthentic social content is abundant. This project will be presented by popular fitness vlogger Chloe Ting, who will dive into current social media trends and examine the impact of influencers who prioritise profits over people.
• YouTube Famous: A 10-part comedy series about YouTube “celebrity” Chloe Morello, who is desperate to have it all – money, beauty, fame. Chloe Morello will parody her own experience of running a beauty advice YouTube channel with over 2.6 million subscribers, poking fun at the sometimes ridiculous lifestyle of being famous online.

More information on these projects is available

Chloe Morello and Piéra Forde

Skip Ahead Alumni

Fury Fingers