.png)
Cast Net Productions (est.2013) is an Australian screen partnership of Danny Loyden and Samantha Lovejoy.
We are passionate about making films – about rural, regional and urban people and their environments.
We work and collaborate locally, to share real and imagined stories to diverse global audiences.
We are based in the beautiful Clarence Valley, NSW and produce short films – documentary, drama and animation + music videos and digital media.
Our Story
Danny has been playing around with video cameras since the early 90s and Samantha has been writing stuff since she was a kid.
This led to some short eco films, then short documentaries and music videos while travelling around Australia in 2012. We pulled up in the Clarence Valley, did some study in 2013 and created Cast Net Productions. At first, CNP focussed on producing short films about people and their passions.
2013
Diploma of Screen & Media – North Coast TAFE
2013
Thrill of the Hunt -antiques dealer/collector
2014
Nelly Steele talks about her Gambling Addiction
2016
Keep on Riding Jimmy Loyden - cycling (Danny's Dad)
Following on from a projection art project with Grafton Regional Gallery, we were awarded a fellowship to travel to NYC in 2015. We met up with instagram contact Victor Lucia, the President of the Brooklyn Fishing Club and spent a week following him around the little known urban fishing spots of New York and delving into the
serious charter he has created.
2014
Light Up the Valley – multi-venue projection art
2015
Yulgilbar Travelling Fellowship $10,000
2016
Midnight Out of Brooklyn
Danny's own passion for cycling led to a short documentary which uncovered Grafton's track racing heros of 1940s-1970s. We expanded on this theme with Bike Town, a multi-media project to capture, preserve and celebrate Grafton's rich cycling history, which included Cadence, a short animation film.
We received some substantial funding and collaborated with other Northern Rivers creatives over a 2 year period. Cadence previewed in May 2019 as part of the Plunge Art & Culture Festival, before going through some changes and a final sound mix to be film festival ready in 2020.
This year, we plan make a short documentary featuring an amazing cycling memorabilia collection, and then leap into our next animation project...which is patiently waiting on the drawing tablet.
2017
Wheelmen of the Clarence
2018
Local Heritage Strategic Projects grant $98,688
NSW Office of Environment & Heritage
2019
Bike Town – multi-media exhibition
2020
Cadence – short animation