Greater Melbourne Area
Passionate about community-driven storytelling, Oliver Ross has worked on over 170 creative projects across film, theatre, live music and community work. Working above and below-the-line as a developer, writer, programmer, project coordinator, designer and local roadie, he's interested in audience reception, worldbuilding, and cast & crew welfare. Oliver studied at the University of Melbourne (English, Theatre & Ancient Worlds) and its Union House Theatre, getting to be involved in 3 committees, 5 technical mentorships, and 20 productions. He later trained in story development in film and musical theatre through Untapped (Australians in Film), Originate (SBS/Arenamedia/Film Victoria), Salty Theatre and Eleven O'Clock Theatre. Following being selected as one of 11 creatives for Screen Australia's 2019 Developing the Developer, he undertook a scripted development placement with ABC's comedy & drama departments, and has done consultancy work with Fremantle & Audible. He has experience in programming and assessment through Screen Australia, tilde, Union House Theatre, Queer Screen, Mardi Gras, MQFF and IAWTV, and designed and produced across Melbourne Fringe, MICF, Midsumma, La Mama, Theatre Works and fortyfivedownstairs. He did rough cut consultancy on the feature film The Dry, and has written for Screen Australia and Global Creatures. He spent two years working on TGV & the Department of Premier and Cabinet's $1 million peer support program, coordinating support and $230,000 of funding for 80+ community projects. He now works as a full-time administrative assistant with Screen Careers, focused on supporting crew below-the-line, including work on VicScreen industry projects and facilitating placements on major productions with Netflix and BBC Studios. He has a background in producing and various forms of management - events, festival, production, assistant stage & company. As a freelance designer he has worked on 40+ shows in lighting, and 30+ in costume, props & production/set, including work at VCA and RMITV in television and internationally screening shorts. He's also worked with Gig Power crewing on 70+ large scale concerts including AC/DC, P!nk, Kendrick Lamar, Katy Perry, The Weeknd, Coldplay, Green Day, Kylie Minogue, Twice, Billie Eilish, Jay Chou, Hozier, Snoop Dog, Taeyang, A.R. Rahman, Hans Zimmer, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Burna Boy, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, JJ Lin, Kylie Minogue, Olivia Rodrigo, Oasis, Ultra Music Festival, Cirque du Soleil and Taylor Swift.
Screen Careers is Australia’s only national not-for-profit organisation dedicated exclusively to Below-The-Line crew. - Admin work on Location Offset crew traineeships on incoming international productions, including with Netflix, Screenwest, JAM TV, and BBC Studios - Work with VicScreen around the Film Friendly Guidelines, focused on fostering more dialogue between the location managers and permitting officers. Including production support for filming of elearning video modules and events work on regional and metropolitan workshops. - Booking accommodation, flights and venues, arranging interviews and training sessions, longlisting applications and giving feedback on written material and video rough cuts, outreach and callout distribution, training tracking and reporting
Working on load ins/load outs for 70+ large scale international entertainment events in Melbourne. Experience working on some of the highest grossing tours of all time, including Metallica's M72 World Tour, P!NK's Summer Carnival, The Weeknd's After Hours Til Dawn Tour, Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour, and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. - Inductions for Marvel Stadium, MCG, Melbourne & Olympic Parks, Sidney Myer Music Bowl/Arts Centre, Crown Casino, MCEC, Forum Theatre and Docklands Studio - Working in teams of 20 - 100+ local crew members, and following the instructions of both local supervisors and international touring crew - Ability to work quickly and safely in a rapidly paced construction site, working around heavy machinery, crowds, and changing conditions, and to quickly adapt to a variety of departments/equipment INCLUDES WORK BY DEPARTMENT IN; AUDIO (Twice, Iron Maiden, Olivia Rodrigo, Tems, Hozier, Taeyang, Luke Combs, Green Day, Roxette, Ultra Music Festival, Gracie Abrams, Oasis, Lenny Kravitz, Lady Gaga, Pulp, Hilltop Hoods) VIDEO (The Weeknd, Stray Kids, A.R. Rahman, Travis Scott, Karan Aujla, Jay Chou, Twenty One Pilots, Billie Eilish, Falling in Reverse, Katy Perry, Tyler the Creator, Burna Boy, David Tao, Metallica, Kendrick Lamar, Kelsea Ballerini, Lorde) LIGHTING (Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Maneskin, Fred Again, Troye Sivan, Chase Atlantic, Aurora, Keshi, Li Ronghao) PYRO, LASERS & SPECIAL EFFECTS (P!NK, Travis Scott, Zhou Shen, JJ Lin, Jelly Roll, Rufus du Sol) BACKLINE (Maneskin, 50 Cent, The Killers, Cliff Richards) CARPS/SET (Taylor Swift, Matchbox 20, Stray Kids, Melbourne Fashion Week, Kylie Minogue, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) LOADER (Jonas Brothers, Sodagreen) DRESSING ROOMS (Stray Kids, Coldplay) POWER (Tems, Hozier, Snoop Dog) PUSHER (Jorja Smith, Miriam Yeung, Hans Zimmer, Cirque du Soleil, Teddy Swims) STEEL (AC/DC, Ed Sheeran)
- BA (English/Theatre & Ancient Worlds) from the University of Melbourne, focusing on character, adaptation and audience reception - 5 years reviewing for Shakespeare Oz (see below), including documenting Petra Kalive and Jean Tong's 2016 work "Macbeth + macdeath: a coda" - External assessment for Screen Australia for development submissions - Pre-screening, programming and awards jury work for Queer Screen & Mardi Gras Film Festivals, tilde, and the International Academy of Web Television - One of 12 creatives trained and mentored in script consultancy for Screen Australia's Developing the Developer (see below). Further story development training in Australians in Film's Untapped masterclasses, and Originate through SBS, Film Victoria and Arenamedia - Rough cut consultancy work for Robert Connolly's feature film 'The Dry', providing a written report and talking with the director, producer and editor after watching the early edit to give feedback on character, pace, tone and visuals - Lyricist for 11 O'Clock Theatre's 'The Breaths in Between', working with a team of writers, composers and performers to workshop untold stories in musical theatre - Commissioned writing around TGD cast and crew, including an article for Screen Australia's 'Authentic Storytelling' series and as an interviewer for Global Creatures' 'Meet the Bohemiams' cast features - Committee work for the University of Melbourne Theatre Board and Union House Theatre Awards Committee,
30+ projects of costume, set and production design and art department work in feature film, short film, webseries, drama and dance. Recently interned with Salty Theatre in set design with Madeline Nibali, and have completed stage carpentry and set design mentorship with Union House Theatre's stage carpenter, Allen Laverty. Currently working in costume design for a VCA short and set design for an RMITV comedy series. Art department and best boy work in independent feature 'Rage' (Prima Lux & La Rosa Productions), and production design and wardrobe supervision for three shorts ('Resilience', 'It's Warm Inside' and 'A Normal Day') for WeDeserve's TGD domestic violence awareness and prevention campaign. Work in designing sci-fi, including prop and costume for pilot of webseries '2121' (with prop of AI, Counsel, used in completed series) and collaborating with VFX artists for incorporating green screen when doing production and wardrobe for RMITV's short 'Lisa and Three'. Costume design for the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals ('The Will To Be', 2019), Mudfest Regeneration ('Medusa', '¡Freak Out!') and Melbourne International Fringe Festival ('Our Father'), often doubling as lighting designer. Location scouting work for music video 'Mana' while producing on two locations for the Famili project. Top Acts Shortlisted for costume design (The Witch, 'Into the Woods') and costuming an ensemble of 100 with an expanded cast of the '39 Steps' (Girton Grammar) as the first student to take design rather than performance.
Work across 40+ productions in a variety of genres, including classical and contemporary drama, musical theatre, sketch revue, devised work, cabaret, live music and dance. Design, operation and technical management at La Mama, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Midsumma Festival and Mudfest Regeneration. Currently doing lighting design for 'Catching Jack' (Big Big Big, MICF) after a season at La Mama with 'Breeders' Three design & technical mentorships (2018-2019) with independent designer Lisa Mibus, Union House Theatre Head Technician Clyton Jones, and Additive Lighting's Paul Lim, including basic rigging, plotting and operating. Greatest familiarity with ETC Element/Nomad, but experienced with a range of manual and programmable desks, and experience rigging/programming/troubleshooting movers, complying to OH&S and managing installations. Attained White Card (CUAWHS302 & CPCCWHS1001) with Arts Centre Melbourne, covering basic construction site safety. 4x Nominations for Most Outstanding Lighting Design, Union House Theatre (Lear, MUSC, 2017; The Cake, Melbourne University Law Revue, 2018; Inkling (co-design), Floor Work, 2019; Our Father, Feral Cat Theatre, 2019)