Ben McKenzie is best known as a recent contestant on Australian Idol 2007. He was widely tipped to win the competition, and despite leaving the show in 7th place, a recording career seems assured, with an album and singles expected in the second half of 2008. As evidence of Ben’s popularity, recent footage of him performing live was captured and posted on YouTube. These clips were among the most viewed nationwide for the week; and weeks after his departure from the show his popularity only seems to grow stronger rather than wane.

Various Industry commentators are also sure we have not seen the last of Ben. As Mary Kiley of TV Week wrote – “Benny boy will clearly be OK. He can go into the lucrative business of making movies about people being dispatched in a variety of horrible ways in the Aussie outback, and he can do the whole Clint Eastwood/Renaissance Man thing of doing the music for it too.”

This is exactly what Submerged is setting out to do. Ben will write and perform several songs for the film’s soundtrack, as well as perform one of them (on stage) in the film; music that will tie the film to his forthcoming album.

Despite his tender age (17) Ben is not inexperienced as a filmmaker, having Written, Produced and Directed a number of short films, which have appeared in local Film Festivals and won some minor awards. He has even directed a full length feature already - A Murder of Crows – currently in post production. 

But it is with Submerged that Ben McKenzie will take on the world. And to help in this challenge he has drafted the services of experienced filmmaker Phil Moore

Lyn McKenzie, aside from being Ben’s mother, brings to the project years of experience in account keeping and office management for a variety of businesses, making her an ideal choice to handle day to day affairs of staging and organizing a production of this sort. She has also been instrumental of course in getting Ben’s previous film efforts produced, but it is her tenacity and management abilities that make her an invaluable part of this team.

Phil Moore of Virtual Worlds has partnered with Dreams Unleashed to help produce Submerged. He has recently completed production of the feature film Mortal Fools, which he Wrote, Produced and Directed. This film saw Aussie film industry icon David Hannay as Executive Producer and is awaiting release.

Prior to this Phil has worked on a wide range of short films, music videos, corporate and TV work – as Director, DOP, Composer, Editor, Sound Designer, Actor and just about every other role conceivable. He is also widely regarded as an expert in HD technologies and post production tools due to his work as a journalist and industry commentator; and teaches these disciplines at TAFE and other private colleges throughout NSW.

His company, Virtual Worlds, aside from producing Mortal Fools, was also responsible for most of the 500 visual effects shots the movie demanded, the Dolby Digital surround sound mix, and much of the music production. All done at their in-house facilities.

Phil brings a wealth of experience and know-how to Submerged, and as well as being Producer will act as DOP during production and be involved in every step of the process, assisting Ben to realize his vision.