With Grace

With great support from the Balmain community, award winning web series amazing Grace was filmed locally over seven years. The series follows Grace through daily life without her dad and reflects her real experiences of seeking her Dad’s advice in life’s critical moments. In the third and final season, Grace is studying for her HSC.

When Grace was 10 years old, her Dad suddenly died, and soon after, Grace started to lose memories of him. Drawing on her Mum’s experience as a TV and film director/producer, they decided to create a web series to keep these memories alive. Grace says, “I’ve had an opportunity to get to know Dad better, because in writing the series I’ve heard stories from friends and family about Dad that I never knew before.”

The community of Balmain has been involved in the series over the whole seven years. Julie says, “Jeff was known and loved in the community and his death affected not just us, but everyone who knew him. When we launched the first fundraiser for the first episodes the community jumped in to help us with contributions and support for catering, use of locations and volunteering as crew and extras. Over the years this has grown even more and is something we are in awe of and truly grateful for.”

This final season is more hectic than previous ones as Grace is studying for her HSC. Overwhelmed by the experience, everything you see on screen is depicting what Grace went through off screen. “That chaotic studying was all part of my experience leading up to the exams. I went down a rabbit hole and during my first exam I panicked. It was a challenging time for me because I’d loved school and the subjects I studied, but I just became overwhelmed. Writing this new series was a way for me to move forward.”

Since the beginning of the series, Grace has always had the opportunity to write for her own character. However, in the final season, Julie encouraged her to step up and be the lead writer. “When it came to plotting series three, many of the scenes were clear in my mind. We had a whiteboard in the dining room we would work on. As the three episodes developed, Mum said it was my story to tell. I loved the writing process, because it allowed me to articulate the thoughts and feelings I had swirling in my head.”

There wasn’t always meant to be three series but after a road trip together, Julie and Grace decided they had one more story to share. Julie says, “The series was always evolving, and we wanted it to be ongoing as we watched Grace grow up. We thought we were done after series two, but when Grace finished her HSC and shared her experience, a friend joked that it sounded like an episode of amazing Grace. So, on a road trip just after the exams we talked about it and thought it was a new story we wanted to tell. But you never know, there could be other stories in the future that could become episodes. Never say never.” amazing Grace has inspired Grace to pursue a career in the creative industry and she’s currently studying a double degree in Advanced Science and Arts at UNSW. “I am passionate about science (something I inherited from my Dad, I think) and I love writing and performing. My current aspiration is to be a science communicator, so that I can keep exploring all the areas of science that I’m curious about and I can share what I’m learning with an audience.”