Olive Adams: Meet the Warrnambool filmmaker behind web series Mabel and Switch

She’s the talented teen that has south west Victoria talking. Now Olive Adams is bringing her film making skills to the centre stage.

Olive Adams and Gareth Colliton at One Day Studios working on web series Mabel and Switch. Picture: Supplied

Wangoom 16-year-old Olive Adams is bringing her film making skills to the centre stage as part of the web series Mabel and Switch.

The Warrnambool College student began as a student at Warrnambool’s One Day Studios in 2020 to learn from their creative media programs.

Now Olive is the brainchild alongside producer and director Gareth Colliton in the new children's web series.

“I started as a student at One Day in 2020 because I was really interested in what they teach, and I got a bit older and I just I thought that I could branch out, I really wanted to get work experience — so I applied to work here and got the job,” Olive said.

“I was going to come in and do drawings for the show, I'm doing a lot of animation style stuff and drawings, the show is live action ... then it kind of branched out and now I’m also helping with the planning and writing of the story.

“This job I have now is basically my dream job just on a smaller scale, I'd love to be in the film industry.

“I really hope that when I go off to uni, and I’m looking for more opportunities, I can use this as my foundation knowledge and experience.”

Olive Adams from One Day Studios.

Olive has grown up with a love for the creative industry, recently watching her dad work on hydraulics and special effects for Mad Max films.

“(My dad) he's always been a welder and engineer in mechanics and last year he got the opportunity to work on the new Mad Max film — he does a lot of hydraulics and special effects ... it’s been cool that at the same time we’re both getting more opportunities.”

The Mabel and Switch web series will begin production in July this year, with Olive working on episode scripts and storyboards this week.

“Mabel and Switch is a small TV show about a girl who finds a broken robot in the rubble of an old factory set in a world where robots used to be the biggest thing and now something’s caused a recession and there’s not so much robots anymore ... it’s a story about this girl and her robot friend,” Olive said.

Olive Adams at One Day Studios working on web series Mabel and Switch

Olive Adams from One Day Studios working on illustrations of Mabel for web series Mabel and Switch

One Day Studios producer and co-founder Gareth Colliton said the web series was a fantastic opportunity for youth to show off their talent.

“The origins of Mabel and Switch were two years ago when we needed projects that enabled the students to come here to actually build something,” Mr Colliton said.

“You’re putting the student’s work out there for people to see, and the students can point at it and go — oh I did that when they’re applying to uni, or to a job.

“It gets the students excited, after our kickstarter, all the students are now asking to create robots and costumes for the show.”

The kickstarter campaign for Mabel & Switch received $19,400 in funding from the south west community which will contribute to paying production crew.

“We‘ve got a cinematographer and editor and we’re going to be seeking students who want to do that stuff, and show them every step of the way so that they can learn on the job — we want to be able to pay students as well,” Mr Colliton said.

The web series is set to film at Warrnambool locations including the Fletcher Jones factory which Mr Colliton said inspires futuristic themes in the web series.

“In 1939 (Fletcher Jones factory) was hugely inspired by the 1939 World Fair, in which there was the world of tomorrow. That big silver ball up above Fletcher Jones is a symbol of futurism, that’s a big part of Warrnambool’s identity, but it’s been kind of forgotten,” Mr Colliton said.