For Your Satisfaction

For Your Satisfaction is a female-lead drama-comedy series about the messiness of grief. It follows three women across three generations, as they deal with the death of seemingly perfect daughter.

For Your Satisfaction | The Story

Asta (played by Acacia O’Connor) has left her home town, after the death of her younger sister, and is trying to fill the hole in her life with meaningless sex and petty fights so she doesn't have to confront herself and grow up.

Her estranged mother, Trudy (played by Hera Dunleavy, 'In Dark Places,' 'The Gulf') has had a complete re-invention and turned to abstract art and a Spanish self-proclaimed sex-guru. Their unusual wedding could be an opportunity for the family to reunite, but Asta refuses to go. So, Grandma Dollie fakes her own death in an attempt to get this healing ball rolling.

But even with the best intentions, the secrets and lies stack on top of each other and forgiveness seems impossible. After all, no one can hurt you more than the ones you love.

The Creators | Our Story 

In July of 2021, new friends, Acacia O’Connor & Nina Reed, sat down for a casual coffee to discuss creativity… and sparks just flew! ‘Creative soul-mates' – when you know, you know!'

It was like the two were already speaking the same language for what was to become For Your Satisfaction. Since then, Acacia and Nina have worked closely to create and finalise the script for the pilot episode.

We pulled our creative team together and by September 2021 had our dates locked to shoot. But then the country went into lockdown again, and we seized the opportunity to continue story development.

We kept having to reschedule and after many misalignments, we were finally able to shoot our pilot in January 2022.

A Work In Progress. 

We had three day shoot wtih a cast & crew of 30 people, and a tiny budget to pull off this big and beautiful vision. And, was it ever beautiful!!!

Pulling this team together was a dream come true for Nina and Acacia! All key roles in the crew are held by women, queer & non-binary folk, we had a cast of vast diversity, and we led our team aligned in tikanga Māori, aroha and respect for the mana of one another, and the planet.

Every single person gave so much of their time, talent, and creativity. When we shoot the entire series, every one of these humans will be coming along for the ride, for we are whānau now!

The Ask | Where YOU, your LOVE, AROHA, and your opportunity to SUPPORT this kaupapa come in:

We are currently in the post-production phase – we have our editor (another rad female) working with Nina to craft this story in preparation to release to the world!

We have our Sound Designer, and various musicians coming together to weave their magic into this story.

We have our Sound Mixer, and Colour Grader, and we have Acacia and Nina working to pull together all the people, storylines, documents, social media content, meetings with executive producers and organisations, in preparation to release our PILOT EPISODE, and continue the process of applying for larger funding so we can create the full series.

But, for now, we need a bit of help so we can complete our post-production process so we can make it to the NEXT FINISH LINE!

Help Us Create The Whole Series!

Completing this pilot to the best possibly quality is our chance to be able to put our best foot forward in order to get the green light to shoot the entire series.

This story means so much to us – it’s a story of depth, exploring grief in the human experience, but also a story of humour, because life can be very funny. We had so much fun making this pilot episode, and we are having just as much fun in the post-production process.

This project has been fulfilling on so many levels, and that is what we will carry forward as we continue the development of the larger series.

Our Team:

Director : Nina Reed

Writers : Nina Reed and Acacia O’Connor

Producers : Nina Reed and Acacia O’Connor

Cinematographer : Bayley Broome-Peake

Production Designer : Mary Poor

Costume Designer : Katelyn Nelson

Art Director : Sophie Jackson

Props Master : Jasmine May Dodson

Makeup : Sarah Gally, Tayla Bennett and Alice Tate-Davis

1st Assistant Director : Myles Knowles

1st Assistant Camera : Ainsley Calderwood

2nd Assistant Camera : Dominique Rio De Silva

3rd Assistant Camera : Adam Ferris

Gaffer : Bode Riis

Best Boy Grip: Cameron Sly

Sound Operator : Joey Siasoco

Boom Operator : Denis Wagner

Manakitanga : Te Arohanui Way-Korewha and Tuakoi Ohia

Editor : Erin Geurts

Cast:

Asta : Acacia O'Connor

Trudy : Hera Dunleavy

Dollie : Kathy Walker

Ti : Awa Puna

Nikau: Richard Te Are

Geoff: Anatonio Te Maioha

Honje : Daniel Fernandez

Guy 26 : Biku Wernick

Sweet Girl : Ruby Love.

Plus: Jennifer Freed, Te Arohanui Way-Korewha, Alice Tate-Davis, Will Tate-Davis and Denis Wagner

We are all crossing our fingers and toes that we can make this pilot the best it can be so we can make the biggest possible splash to get this seen by funders and producers nationally and abroad.

Follow us on @fys_series on instagram to get to know us more!

Thank you so much for your support!

P.S. For Your Satisfaction is a passion project for everyone involved.

Some of us are passionate about telling stories about messy grief, others about sex through a female lens, and others about putting trans wahine in the spotlight, but all of us are committed to creating in a joyful, sustainable, satisfying way where everyone is seen, heard and respected.

We are very proud to be telling a story that highlights three fremale lead characters of different generations, and having a diverse team woman, non-binary, sexually diverse people to carry the creation of this story.