A group of Sydney friends are putting their embarrassing memories to good use in a new web series. Christian Berechree reports.

Every group of friends likes to sit back and reminisce about their times together. More often than not they’ll spend a bit of time laughing at the less than graceful things they’ve done and poke a bit of fun at some shared memories.

Sydney filmmaker Jonno Weir and his mates have taken this to a new level. They’ve made the bold decision to commit their memories to film in an original web series called Wasted Years.

“It’s a comedy-drama based around three guys that just finished high school who are trying to work out their lives, but at the same time everything seems to be going wrong,” Jonno says.

“Luck is never on their side. They’ve got this really strong bond and friendship between them but all three of them have these major flaws that get in the way of life being good for them.”

The “three guys” are Karl Bonner, Edward Stocks and Faraj Yusufov, the stars and co-creators of Wasted Years. The group developed the idea after observing that perhaps their lives were stranger than fiction.

“We talked about the quirky, funny situations that had happened in our lives and we realised some of that stuff was just as good as the comedy you see on TV,” Jonno says. He says none of them were afraid to portray their own misfortune on screen.

“Faraj in particular has countless bad date stories that are perfect for TV. So we just did that – exaggerated the flaws in all three of them,” he says.

The friends began writing the show in 2013, originally intending to pitch it to television channels. As it developed, however, they realised it was better suited to a web series format. They have already filmed almost two episodes worth of content and released a trailer and a short skit from the show. Jonno says funding is their main challenge at the moment, and they recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the remainder of the project.

“We need $8500 to do 5 episodes. We were originally going to do 10 but with everyone working and studying it’s impossible to do that many in a year,” Jonno says. “We’re about 28 per cent funded. You only get funded if it reaches 100 per cent.”

Funds will go towards equipment hire and storage, venue hire and catering for the remainder of filming.

Jonno says the series is more a passion project than anything else. He hopes audiences will see what makes the stories presented in the series so hilarious.

“If it was to make us money that would be amazing, but we just love entertaining people and making people laugh. When I screen anything that I make I always like to watch the people. I’m constantly watching the people watching it,” Jonno says.

Find out more about Wasted Years at wastedyearstv.com and visit their Kickstarter to support the project.