Our Projects
Hartveil Studios is here to redefine what independent genre storytelling looks like in Australia. We’re building a new wave of high-concept sci-fi, grounded fantasy, and emotionally charged narratives—crafted with style, ambition, and cinematic intent. Our focus is on original, voice-driven stories that push the boundaries of what’s expected from local creators. This isn’t just about content—it’s about carving out a bold, imaginative space in the national landscape and beyond.
Hartveil is where genre gets personal—and where the future of Australian storytelling begins.
Echo
A high-concept micro short exploring the unnerving power of sound, Echo follows an older man as his quiet domestic routine is interrupted by a subtle fracture in reality. As everyday noises begin arriving seconds before the actions that cause them, time and logic start to break down. There’s no dialogue—only the dissonance of a world coming apart through desynchronized audio.
Shot entirely in a single location, Echo is built on restraint and control. The film uses precise sound design, minimal camera movement, and grounded performance to explore tension without spectacle. It’s a compact experiment in unease—where the ordinary becomes otherworldly, and the familiar stops making sense the moment you hear it too soon.
The Fourth Turn
The Fourth Turn is a short-form sci-fi thriller produced in Far North Queensland as part of an emerging anthology series titled Liminal. Filmed entirely in Cairns with a local cast and crew, the project showcases the region’s storytelling talent and creative potential.
Blending psychological tension, minimalist design, and a looping narrative structure, the film follows one man trapped in a mysterious time loop, exploring memory, perception, and control. Backed by a team of early-career filmmakers enrolled in Screen Queensland’s F.I.S.S program, the production is treated with full professional standards—balancing bold creative direction with resourceful, high-impact visuals.
This project is the first of six stand-alone episodes, each diving into surreal, genre-driven concepts grounded in Australian voices and vision.
Offering
A gothic dark fantasy microfilm, produced with a minimalist approach and a maximalist mood. Shot under moonlight in the forests of Cairns, this 30-second short blends saturated color, ritualistic imagery, and practical texture to evoke an ancient, dreamlike unease. The film leans heavily on visual storytelling—no dialogue, no exposition—just atmosphere, rhythm, and intention. With handcrafted costume, symbolic body art, and torchlit mise-en-scène, Offering is a love letter to physical filmmaking in its rawest form: elemental, strange, and steeped in shadow.