Lachlan and Austin Macfarlane are multi-disciplined filmmakers and content creators, whose creative work has amassed hundreds of millions of views online. After several years in the film and television industry, Lachlan and Austin took to social media to translate their filmmaking skills into engaging and shareable content.

They have travelled the world working with major brands such as Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and Amazon Prime, represented Australia at Cannes after winning the 2023 Cannes Young Lions Film category and recognised as the Most Influential Creators by the Australian Influencer Marketing Council Awards. In the ever-evolving landscape of digital entertainment, Lachlan and Austin Macfarlane are navigating the intersection of social and traditional media. Most recently, they participated in Screen Queensland’s Channel Lab: YouTube Accelerator initiative and have returned from international creator conference VidSummit in the US which they attended as part of the program.

What drove your move into online creation?

Our journey into online creation began in 2008 with our first YouTube video, Great Garage Battle, a lightsaber duel filmed by our Mum in our family garage. All throughout school and university we continued to make short VFX-focused videos and shared them on YouTube. But it wasn’t until 2022, when we were both working in the post-production industry, that our online content really started to gain traction.

Films are made to be watched by large audiences and nowadays most audiences watch media online. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok are the easiest places for creative work to be seen. The meritocratic nature of short form platforms means that young filmmakers can bypass traditional barriers and reach viewers directly.

The relatively short length of our videos means we can produce content consistently, which not only strengthens our creative skills but also encourages experimentation. And the length also gives us the freedom to be more ambitious with our ideas—it’s easy to maintain a high standard of VFX if the video only lasts for 20 seconds!

How would you describe the differences between traditional film and television production, and online production?

The key benefit of distributing your work online is that you can target a niche audience that would be too hard to reach with traditional means. In short, you can reach your audience.

Plus the interactive nature of social media means we receive instant feedback from our audience. This is so valuable to our growth as filmmakers, as we can see firsthand what resonates with our audience. This creates a sense of community that fosters a strong connection between audience and creator. While traditional media is expected to be polished and professional, audiences expect a level of authenticity from online creators.

You recently participated in our Channel Lab: YouTube Accelerator initiative with Changer, achieving amazing results. How did your channel grow over the course and what were your key takeaways?

Since joining the Channel Lab: YouTube Accelerator initiative, our subscriber count has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000. Beyond learning technical skills like optimising our titles and thumbnails, we’ve gained valuable insights into improving our creative workflow and building our brand. The program consistently put us in a great creative mindset—after each session, we’d come away feeling energised and ready to dive into our work.

What’s next for the Macfarlane Brothers?

We’ve been shifting our focus towards directing longer videos. We were fortunate enough to be selected for this year’s Screen Australia’s Skip Ahead initiative, where we’ve received funding to create our 6×5 minute comedy-horror web-series, The Worst That Could Happen. We’re incredibly excited to take this next step in our careers, allowing us to tell longer stories on a larger scale.

We are lucky to be partnering with Haven’t You Done Well Productions, a production company we really admire that specialises in online sketch comedy. Although we’re still in pre-production, we’re incredibly excited to get further along the process, as it’s a big step up from the self-produced work we’ve been making since forever.

We look forward to creating more exciting content, engaging with our audience, and applying the wealth of knowledge we have gained from the Youtube Accelerator initiative and VidSummit experience.