The Bedford Park campus has been transformed into the set of the new six-part comedy web series, Dear Diary, featuring a 1991 student protest scene that caught the attention of curious onlookers.

Flinders’ Bachelor of Performance and Film and Television students have spent the past fortnight filming the new series, which revolves around 18-year-old Daisy who travels back in time to 1991 to meet her mother, Tilly, as a teenager.

The series, created by Bachelor of Performance lecturer Tiffany Knight, is described as Back to the Future meets Freaky Friday. It’s produced by Bachelor of Creative Industries student Dani DiVittorio, who is using the production as her Honours project.

One scene, shot on campus on Wednesday 15 July, recreated a 1991 student protest against the Gulf War, complete with hand-painted banners, period signage and crowd staging. The scene drew genuine attention from students and staff passing by, several of whom approached the crew wanting to join in before being told it was a student film shoot rather than a live demonstration.

“It was kind of hilarious, in a way – it meant we were doing a good job,” DiVittorio said. “It was great to see support from people, even when they realised it wasn’t a real protest.”

The shoot began on 6 July and wraps on 24 July, with the production’s final week filmed on location. Both directors, Christian Hadgis and Kiara Skene, are Bachelor of Performance students, with production crew drawn from Flinders’ Film & Television and Creative Industries areas.

Flinders University Archives generously shared original images from the Empire Times student magazine to help inspire the production’s period artwork, while Nicholas Godfrey, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television, makes a cameo appearance in the protest.

Dear Diary is set to premiere at the Flinders Festival of Creative Arts in November.