AFTRS’ Class of 2023 celebrated the completion of their studies at the School’s official Graduation Ceremony on Friday 17 May.
For the special occasion, Heartbreak High Creator and Showrunner Hannah Carroll Chapman gave the Alumni Commencement Address. In 2009 Hannah graduated from AFTRS with a Graduate Certificate: 3D Animation, and again in 2012 with a Graduate Certificate: Screenwriting.
Here is the speech, followed by the transcript.
“Good afternoon everyone, thank you to the Australian Film Television and Radio School for having me here today. I feel so honoured to be standing here to mark this incredible moment for all of you graduands of 2023. I’m going to make this short because I know what it feels like to be sitting at graduation waiting to hear whether you’ve won the AFTRS Kenneth B Myer Award for Project Development that you’re shortlisted for and have to sit through a bunch of speeches only to find out that you’ve lost to Lucy Gaffy, but that’s totally fine honestly I don’t even think about that any more, it was 10 years ago it’s all in the past. How great.
I graduated from AFTRS about a decade before you all have, in the Grad Cert in Screenwriting. Before that, I completed a degree in 3D Animation here, and spent years as the poster on the AFTRS website for their old 3D animation course, with a gorilla I had built in the 3D software program MAYA. My animated gorilla looked cool but if you tried to make it move, it’s limbs and head glitched so badly it resembled the girl in the exorcist, so it was a deeply personal work. And that’s also when I learned that maybe I was better off being a screenwriter. I spent most of my time here writing horror and apocalypse stories, because I thought that was cool, and I felt like mining my own life was about as embarrassing as admitting that I still listened to Limp Bizkit. My most memorable moments of being in this place included having my screenwritten words filmed for the very first time by the awesome AFTRS cinematography students and local Nida actors, and marvelling at the fact I had made them say the word “fart” three times. That and the equally important fostering of friendships with people that I would continue to work with for years to come.
Somewhere between making my exorcist gorilla and finishing up on the second season of Heartbreak High, I’ve learned a few things which I’d like to share with you. Please use what speaks to you.
I want to admit something to all of you. Sometimes I felt competitive with my fellow students here at AFTRS, fearful they were better than me, that they wrote better than me, jealous that they hadn’t overplucked their eyebrows like me. But what really happened was that when we left the safe confines of this school, we started getting each other jobs. My friendship with Warren Clarke, whom I graduated with from AFTRS, turned into him hiring me on his show The Heights, which he got up a few years after we graduated. It was one of the most wonderful working experiences I’ve ever had, I learned so much, and a total of three people watched the show when it came out, so that was awesome. Working on The Heights, I met Que Minh Lu, the co-creator, who liked my writing, and who after that become the head of Netflix Australia. She put me forward to be the creator for the newly rebooted Heartbreak High that Netflix were putting together, and that’s pretty much why I’m standing in front of you today. Two other people from that year at AFTRS, Jess Paine and Keir Wilkins, are now writing on Heartbreak Season 3, and they definitely had better eyebrows than me, and I still helped them get those jobs. So try not to look at your fellow cohort as your competition. See them as the people who will be hiring you. The people who will be helping you up the ladder of this industry. In turn, help them up the ladder of this industry. And pay special attention to those who did not start on the same rung as you.
Be kind to yourself and to those you work with.
That seems really obvious but I think it’s easy to forget that deep down we are all just little kids walking around with a poo in our pants. What I mean by that is: we all have something wrong with us. I’m kidding. What I really mean is, I encourage you to be as gentle on others and their ideas as you would like people to be with you and your ideas. This is important – this industry is really weird, when you think about it. We’re presenting our hearts on a platter, constantly, and asking people to give their opinion on it. This can make you feel absolutely crazy. It requires a weird combination of resilience and sensitivity, and losing either of those things will render you either a basketcase or a bully. Remember that feedback is just feedback, it’s not going to kill your family or kick your dog, so try to be open to it.
Try to find the note behind the note. Above all, be the person that people want to work with. Remember that you are far more likely to get a job because people think you are awesome, than because people think you might be a great auteur and you use the phrase “cinema verité” in casual conversation.
Please believe that you can do things that at the time feel impossible. When Netflix asked me to come on as creator of Heartbreak, I had a 4 month old baby whom I was still breastfeeding. I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I could balance writing the show, then being on set whilst keeping a tiny human alive. And I didn’t balance it, a lot of the time. I messed up, I cried a lot, I got this weird eye infection…? but we got it done, and now my kid is four, and yesterday, he told me that my bumhole is the size of an elephant, so he is going to be taking over from me in the running of Heartbreak season 3 because clearly he is ready.
Don’t forget to return to the Well. And what I mean by that is, don’t forget to live your life. That is where so many of your ideas and inspiration will be coming from. Yes, you need to work. But you also need to go out, be in the world, see your friends, meet new people, fall in love, and get dumped outside this very building. True story. Look at me now, “William”! Anyway. What I’m saying is: if you end up accompanying your mum on a magic mushroom trip whilst attending your cousin’s soul bonding ceremony, don’t feel bad that it’s interrupting your work flow – it is your work flow. I am not encouraging you all to do mushrooms.
But I’ve found that the best stories that you will tell, will be ones that are linked to you intrinsically. Those are the ones that will sing. Those will be the images and sounds and ideas that capture an audience. Because truth has a way about it, authenticity has a way about it, that makes people sit up and listen. Have adventures in your own life, then make them into something.
…Just again clarifying that you don’t have to take magic mushrooms to do this.
Work with your friends, and make friends with the people you work with. The work will be better if you look at your co-workers and think – yeah, I would totally give them a kidney. The work will be better if you are having fun. That’s one of the best parts about this industry, which I’m sure you already know. But doing our jobs is fun as. It’s the best industry in the world. The writer’s room on Heartbreak High became my family, and it made the show better. We wrote ourselves and our truths into the show because we trusted each other and were on the journey together. We came to the table with our stories – our stories of having our hearts broken by our best friends, our stories of being autistic, queer, asexual, non-binary and First Nations. The things that landed with people all over the world, were the most personal of contributions. Not just from the writers, but the actors, the directors, the producers, the cinematographers, the locations people – all levels of the crew. Our crew loved each other. Every department had each other’s backs. I truly believe that made the show better. Shout out to the soundies in here by the way – whenever I’ve shown up to a set it is the sound people who are always the kindest, most welcoming crew members. Soundies, please continue that tradition.
Finally – have hope. There’s a lot of talk about the state of the industry at the moment. There always has been, there always will be. Our industry is one in a state of perpetual change. The companies change, the formats change, the technology and the screens and the politics. But what doesn’t change, and what never will, is our insatiable human appetite to see and hear and feel our stories told. Know that the worldwide hunger and interest in Australian stories is out there. If a bunch of Americans have to Google what an eshay is, even better. You’re educating people. Remember that audiences want authenticity.
Don’t change your voice to suit what you think people want. Be bold, take risks, steer your ship towards the uncomfortable, the funny, the things that make you angry and tearful and the things that make you laugh out loud.
Steer with courage towards the truth.
I for one cannot wait to see the things that you all make.
Thank you for having me.”
