A taste of Hollywood: How this Perth startup got its tech in front of A-lister Liam Neeson

Aussie tech is increasingly attracting interest from overseas, and Perth startup Work Metrics has had its first taste of Hollywood.

The startup was contracted to work on a blockbuster movie starring none other than Liam Neeson, getting its tech in front of the stars, and even earning a mention in the credits.

Filmed across locations in the US and Australia, the movie, Blacklight, was released in cinemas this month.

Work Metrics’ flagship OnlineInduction.com software was used to provide COVID-19 safety briefings for the cast and crew on the movie.

The product is used in all kinds of workplace scenarios, founder Jeremy Nunn tells SmartCompany.

The business has more than 1000 organisations using OnlineInduction worldwide, with more than 2.2 million individual users.

COVID-19 safety inductions have emerged as a use case for the tech over the past couple of years, Nunn explains. That has led to considerable growth for the bootstrapped startup, particularly in the US and the UK.

But this was the first time Work Metrics had been approached for use on a feature film, he says.

The inductions covered safety processes and hygiene tips, and were used to educate the team around cast and crew ‘bubbles’; how contact tracing would work; and rules for interaction with people making deliveries, for example.

Users included all full-time and part-time staff and all management, even the A-list cast members.

“The whole purpose was to try to minimise cast and crew exposure to COVID-19 and ensure that production can continue,” Nunn explains.

Once the credits rolled, Work Metrics had earned itself a mention — a first for the startup.

“It’s really great for a Perth company to have that sort of exposure,” the founder adds.

Work Metrics in the Blacklight movie credits. Source: supplied.

A Perth startup’s Hollywood break

According to Nunn, securing the contract with a Hollywood film wasn’t much different to securing any other. The production team approached the business directly, he says, and they built out the solution from there.

As for whether this was Work Metrics’ big break — the startup’s chance to make it in Hollywood — “who knows”, Nunn laughs.

“We hope so,” he adds.

“It’s a really exciting use case to apply our product to … hopefully there will be more movies to come.”

The contract makes for “fantastic exposure” for the Perth company, says Nunn, but it also marks a recognition of Australian tech — and Western Australian tech — in general.

Over the past few months, we have seen more high-profile overseas investors backing Aussie tech, suggesting the eyes of the world are turning to Australia and the products being built here.

The fact that a film production company turned to an Australian tech company for what was an international implementation “is really showing that Australia is on the way up”, Nunn says.

“There’s no question about it.”