Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. They might welcome back
Speaker 1: guys to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris, and on
Speaker 1: this podcast, I go behind the scenes with the biggest
Speaker 1: players in television. Each episode you will get a front
Speaker 1: row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors,
Speaker 1: and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on
Speaker 1: our screens. TV Reload reloads the shows that you are
Speaker 1: currently watching and gives you a better insight into our
Speaker 1: television industry and our streaming services. Today on the podcast,
Speaker 1: I am so excited to have a chat with Robin
Speaker 1: Butler and Wayne Hope. They have been a creative duo
Speaker 1: on a couple of shows which I have absolutely loved.
Speaker 1: Google their IMDb as I'm sure you've loved their back
Speaker 1: catalog two. They are here to discuss their latest project,
Speaker 1: Some a Love on the ABC and I'm thrilled to
Speaker 1: be unpacking this fantastic news series with them both. Some
Speaker 1: Love sees eight very different sets of people rent the
Speaker 1: same Airbnb at different times along the Great Ocean Road,
Speaker 1: capturing the collision between the dreamy enchantment of the beach
Speaker 1: and the clumsy reality of humans on holiday. There are
Speaker 1: so many relatable moments in this series for anyone who's
Speaker 1: ever taken a holiday with their mates, their partner, themselves.
Speaker 1: Basically eight different denominations of potential disasters wrapped up in
Speaker 1: the warmth of the idealistic setting for the perfect holiday.
Speaker 1: This show makes you feel seen. You will totally relate
Speaker 1: to one or more stories, but ultimately you will commiserate
Speaker 1: and laugh and have a few talking points with your
Speaker 1: friends and family the next time you see them. The
Speaker 1: acting is delicious, the team of writers is outstanding, and
Speaker 1: the music is the fitting bow that ties this phenomenal
Speaker 1: series together. It does launch this Wednesday, but by the
Speaker 1: time you hear this podcast, no doubt you will be
Speaker 1: able to catch the first episode on iView. We discuss
Speaker 1: why Wayne and Robin love the ABC, how the show
Speaker 1: was born, whether I am crazy with my whiteloatus reference points,
Speaker 1: and if you can actually rent this mind blowing Airbnb
Speaker 1: in real life. However, let's get started with today's guests.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome Robin Butler and Wayne Hope to
Speaker 1: TV Reload.
Speaker 2: Inevitably, human beings get together and go you know, oh yes,
Speaker 2: it's great and lovely, but you shit me a bit.
Speaker 1: One beach House.
Speaker 3: I was here first.
Speaker 4: I think there's a similar sense of bubbling turbulence.
Speaker 1: Eight Love Stories.
Speaker 2: I love you. I'm so glad you said that it
Speaker 2: will be worked very hard on the aesthetic.
Speaker 3: Sit back and relax.
Speaker 1: You'll be glad you came.
Speaker 4: It was very important for us not to speak for everybody.
Speaker 1: So All Love Stat's August thirty one on EBCTV and
Speaker 1: on EBC. I here.
Speaker 2: Those stories are coming from different perspectives, but that's another
Speaker 2: thing that ties them together.
Speaker 1: Hi, Robin and Wayne, how are you both excellent?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Then I have to say some of Love is fantastic.
Speaker 1: Are you excited for audiences to finally see it?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited that you've seen it. With that response,
Speaker 2: that's for sure.
Speaker 3: They all think that. Then yes, please.
Speaker 4: I think there's something, particularly having developed the project in
Speaker 4: lockdown mostly and across the pandemic, that to feel come
Speaker 4: out the other side of that feels particularly gratifying and exciting.
Speaker 3: And yes, so we are excited.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a bit like an Australian white
Speaker 1: lotus in some ways, mixed with some round the twist.
Speaker 1: I don't know if.
Speaker 2: I'd love to pitch that to a network as a thing.
Speaker 2: It's white loadus with Round the Twist, and just to
Speaker 2: see the response on potential buyers faces when they hear
Speaker 2: that no old will take that. I think the obvious
Speaker 2: Round the Twist references because it is the same lighthouse
Speaker 2: that appears in the show in the show's opening tired
Speaker 2: and within the house that we set the holiday house
Speaker 2: that the series is set in, you can see out
Speaker 2: one side of the house you can see the lighthouse.
Speaker 1: On the hill, which is the lighthouse from a Round
Speaker 1: the Twist for people who might not know Arias inlet
Speaker 1: you know, was where they filmed Around the Twist over
Speaker 1: many different seasons of that, which did one of you, well,
Speaker 1: what if you in Round the Twist? Or am I
Speaker 1: making that up?
Speaker 2: You're not making that. I was Ronnie the Rat in
Speaker 2: Around the Twist three hundred and fifty five years ago.
Speaker 2: I have fun memories of going down there and shooting
Speaker 2: and getting up and being on set, having breakfast on
Speaker 2: the cliff face as the sun came up over the ocean,
Speaker 2: and I thought, what a gig this is? Yeah, And
Speaker 2: we got to do that every day and Summer Love
Speaker 2: is have the same experience, which was magical.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe I'm tapping into that, Maybe I'm tapping into
Speaker 1: a past experience, and maybe some a love has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with Round the Twist at all, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know, the White Lotus thing for me was
Speaker 1: sometimes the music at times had the dry to sort
Speaker 1: of build tension in the same way that that happened
Speaker 1: in Whiteladus. So I wondered whether or not was there
Speaker 1: any inspiration or have I just completely made that up.
Speaker 1: There's no correlation.
Speaker 4: We've written o as before we saw Whiteloadus obviously, but
Speaker 4: we absolutely loved and we are obsessed with Mike White
Speaker 4: as well, which.
Speaker 3: Is assessed everything he does he.
Speaker 4: Does, from School of Rock to Enlightened Like it's just
Speaker 4: he's just so incredible.
Speaker 2: And shares we think. No often you watch other international
Speaker 2: artists and you go, I'd love to have them over
Speaker 2: for dinner, even though you can't, but there's something in
Speaker 2: their work that you sense. I think we get along,
Speaker 2: and we've always pictured that he'd be one of those
Speaker 2: people that we should be having for dinner.
Speaker 3: But I think you're.
Speaker 4: I think there's a similar sense of bubbling turbulence that
Speaker 4: happens when you are away from home, that things come
Speaker 4: to the surface. I mean, obviously in White Loatus there's
Speaker 4: a lot of staff involved there as well, that things
Speaker 4: are bubbling to the surface therefore, but I think White
Speaker 4: Lotuses kind of darker than our show, but we certainly
Speaker 4: don't shy away from dark elements, I.
Speaker 2: Guess, and you picking up on the soundtrack, it was
Speaker 2: definitely a conversation we had with our composer, Craig Pilkington,
Speaker 2: who's been the composer on all of our or nearly
Speaker 2: all of our work over the years, as an example
Speaker 2: of how dominant the soundtrack is in White Lotus and
Speaker 2: how much of a feature of the drama it is.
Speaker 2: And I really liked that, and we would talk with
Speaker 2: Craig about that that rather than a traditional comedy which
Speaker 2: may just have tags at the end of the scene
Speaker 2: into the next scene, which is the traditional way to
Speaker 2: kind of loop you through, something we talk about some
Speaker 2: I love having more of a sustained soundtrack throughout, which
Speaker 2: came with the idea too that often when you're having
Speaker 2: your summer holiday, you often play music a lot in
Speaker 2: the holiday house, you read books, you play music, you
Speaker 2: have this experience that you don't have time for during
Speaker 2: the year, and so we thought the soundtrack should be
Speaker 2: quite present throughout the show. So glad you picked up
Speaker 2: on that.
Speaker 1: But also the soundtrack did have there was a real
Speaker 1: warmth to it as well, So like whilst whiteladus used
Speaker 1: the drums to build tension, which I think you've leaned
Speaker 1: into a little bit. You know, there is a warmth
Speaker 1: that comes from the composer who put this music together.
Speaker 1: It was a feature. It's something you walk away from
Speaker 1: the show and you kind of remember the music.
Speaker 4: I'm so glad you've you've said that, And we won't
Speaker 4: tell Craig because it goes straight to his head.
Speaker 3: He's not good with.
Speaker 4: Compliments, so we're going to keep We'll just keep that
Speaker 4: to ourselves and everybody listening if you could keep that
Speaker 4: to yourself. But no, his work is just beautiful in
Speaker 4: this and it's and it also the other reason I
Speaker 4: think it's important is because it is a unifying sound
Speaker 4: for the series when you keep needing to you need
Speaker 4: that connectivity all the time between the episodes to make
Speaker 4: it the same show, to make sure people are watching
Speaker 4: the same show.
Speaker 3: Each week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it does. It pulls the tapestry toga,
Speaker 1: which is great. This isn't a podcast just about music.
Speaker 1: By the way, We're now going to go into something else.
Speaker 3: That's good because I'm out. That's all I.
Speaker 1: Got tapped out. I've tapped out. Where did this idea
Speaker 1: come from? Because I mean, I'm a big fan of
Speaker 1: a lot of your work, and tonally, there's some elements
Speaker 1: that you know is always a part of the creative
Speaker 1: that you guys put together. But for this show, where
Speaker 1: did this idea come from?
Speaker 4: It was born out of the dark and gloomy Lockdown
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty, the first one and when, and I
Speaker 4: think have been moving just tonally a little bit into
Speaker 4: different areas. We still love we still want to make
Speaker 4: hard comedies and do that kind of end of the spectrum,
Speaker 4: but we also have been.
Speaker 3: Moving into drama.
Speaker 4: The thing we were working on at the beginning of
Speaker 4: twenty twenty was quite complex and quite dark, and after
Speaker 4: a couple of months, we just felt it was just
Speaker 4: not what we wanted to be working on, and we
Speaker 4: didn't think anybody would want to be watching it either
Speaker 4: at the end.
Speaker 3: Of this period, and so so.
Speaker 4: I had come up with this idea of an anthology
Speaker 4: set in a holiday house twenty four years ago. That
Speaker 4: was basically just the bones of it, just different people
Speaker 4: hire the house, and probably we all acted in it
Speaker 4: and took turns in playing the parts of the different visitors,
Speaker 4: and we said, why don't we just think about that again,
Speaker 4: Let's think about some warmth and hope, and if it
Speaker 4: weren't for the pandemic, we wouldn't have brought this show.
Speaker 3: Back to life.
Speaker 2: No, And then putting on top of that, if we
Speaker 2: have an overarching theme of love, is that sits within
Speaker 2: all of these stories. So for those that don't know,
Speaker 2: it's eight episodes set in a holiday house. Each episode
Speaker 2: somebody different high as the house and with a theme
Speaker 2: of love, which could be anything. It could be sisters,
Speaker 2: it could be friendship groups coming together, that could be romantic,
Speaker 2: could be however that takes place. And we really liked
Speaker 2: that and felt like, yeah, that's something. As soon as
Speaker 2: Robin said it, I thought, oh, that's a show I'd
Speaker 2: love to watch. And that's a good feeling when you're
Speaker 2: creating something that you feel like it just often can
Speaker 2: happen with us. Is that when we start talking about
Speaker 2: an idea, we either get enthusiastic really quickly, which is
Speaker 2: a great sign to go, oh, that's something I want
Speaker 2: to be involved in. I want to spend the next
Speaker 2: two or three years, you know, rolling that around in
Speaker 2: our heads and spending devoting time to So it was
Speaker 2: from there really that from that we went, yeah, this
Speaker 2: is great, and we started seeing the Sherbet songs straight
Speaker 2: away some.
Speaker 3: Love that's music again.
Speaker 4: And the other important thing I think, Ben was that
Speaker 4: we had an opportunity to put different voices into the
Speaker 4: show and different perspectives. And the thing that we really
Speaker 4: love about the idea that I love twenty four years
Speaker 4: ago was the idea of the visitor's book And who
Speaker 4: are all these people who stay in the place that
Speaker 4: you're staying in, But they've got a completely different set
Speaker 4: of circumstances and backgrounds and personalities and everything else. What's
Speaker 4: their version of living here? And it just felt like
Speaker 4: a really appropriate time to say, what's in zen Hussey's
Speaker 4: experience of the beach? It all felt symmetrical, didn't Yeah?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? I mean the humor, I mean it is a dramaedy,
Speaker 1: and so it is a drama comedy, and I mean
Speaker 1: you really do laugh out loud as much as there's
Speaker 1: some awkward tension that gets created and some fantastic performances.
Speaker 1: But I felt like the humor is so accessible and
Speaker 1: so accurate for our time. I guess is that the
Speaker 1: goal that you were trying to do was you were
Speaker 1: trying to reflect or give someone, give everybody something that
Speaker 1: they felt seen by.
Speaker 2: Absolutely that was and not only that, but feel ultimately
Speaker 2: some form of connection within that. You know, That's what
Speaker 2: we're interested in, is people, even if it is dramatic
Speaker 2: or it is painful emotionally, people are ultimately connecting. Those
Speaker 2: stories are coming from different perspectives, but that's another thing
Speaker 2: that ties them together.
Speaker 4: You might feel seen, but I might not know what
Speaker 4: that experience of you that you're connecting to is. But
Speaker 4: I'm getting an insight into that. I'm feeling like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'd did't know that.
Speaker 3: Was the way life was for you. I didn't know.
Speaker 3: That was privilege.
Speaker 4: It was an absolute privilege to sit down and work
Speaker 4: with the different writers to kind of go, what do
Speaker 4: you want to talk about? And our special skill I
Speaker 4: think as sort of story editors and showrunners across it
Speaker 4: was to be able.
Speaker 3: To go that's interesting what you're saying.
Speaker 4: But I think the thing that you're trying to actually
Speaker 4: talk about here that we're going to bring to the
Speaker 4: front here is this thing and being able to help
Speaker 4: guide their points of view to the front, you know,
Speaker 4: which it was fascinating for us, wasn't it.
Speaker 2: We loved that part of the process.
Speaker 1: I feel like the show really unpacks the way in
Speaker 1: which we currently struggle to be normal when interacting with
Speaker 1: people socially.
Speaker 2: That's interesting.
Speaker 3: It's a really interesting take.
Speaker 2: I mean, we also thought that it's embedded in the
Speaker 2: idea too, is that holidays hold such high hopes for
Speaker 2: us all like it is our we pin our hopes
Speaker 2: on these times times. You know, in January, I've booked
Speaker 2: a house for three weeks and you know, my friends
Speaker 2: are coming down and it's going to be the best,
Speaker 2: and the weather's going to be unreal, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to be skinny, and we're going to eat well and
Speaker 2: it's going to like the steaks just go up and
Speaker 2: up and up, and of course we're human and it's
Speaker 2: not going to be that utopia. And in some ways,
Speaker 2: going to what you said about the awkwardness there, that's
Speaker 2: what comes with you know, when the stakes are so
Speaker 2: high that inevitably human beings get together and go, you know, oh,
Speaker 2: yes it's great and lovely, but you ship me a
Speaker 2: bit and we have to talk about that.
Speaker 4: And I think that's that's true, particularly after the pandemic,
Speaker 4: because the steaks couldn't be high.
Speaker 3: You're putting so much into it. I remember we had.
Speaker 4: One Zoom with Cody Bedford and Beyond Stuart, who have
Speaker 4: written Charlie and Zeke one of the episodes, which is gorgeous,
Speaker 4: but we were laughing together because we were all sharing stories.
Speaker 4: When we go on a holiday, we get an AIRB
Speaker 4: and B or something and you walk in and you go, well,
Speaker 4: this isn't as good as the picture, and of course
Speaker 4: you know, half an hour lady, you go, of course
Speaker 4: it is. It's wonderful, it's fantastic. But the stakes are
Speaker 4: you know, impossibly impossibly high.
Speaker 1: But also in life, you know, we plan a holiday
Speaker 1: and then we run over our own dog on day one.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't foresee the mentalness that happens in
Speaker 1: our lives, do you know what I mean? Like we
Speaker 1: just want to plan a to B and that it
Speaker 1: never works out like that. It's the perfect setting for
Speaker 1: people to behave selfishly. If you ask me, you know,
Speaker 1: an upmarket seaside rental where you know, sort of compromise
Speaker 1: and common ground are. Ultimately it's a two way streak.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a breeding ground for some really
Speaker 1: unusual stories.
Speaker 3: So I think that's.
Speaker 4: A really interesting observation too, because you have you behave differently,
Speaker 4: and that's one of the attractions to the concept you
Speaker 4: behave differently when you sort of feel like no one
Speaker 4: is watching or Yeah, there's an anonymity that comes with
Speaker 4: going away, And it's interesting what you're saying that we
Speaker 4: felt like too. There's a real pressure in that half
Speaker 4: hour standalone episode for something to happen because you can't
Speaker 4: just have the one where they go to the holiday house.
Speaker 4: We don't know who these people are. We don't know
Speaker 4: who they are, so you have to set them up,
Speaker 4: set their dilemma, up set their expectations, thwart their expectations,
Speaker 4: and then solve them, give them some kind of resolution,
Speaker 4: whether it be a happy one or a melancholy one.
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of pressure to sort of give
Speaker 4: to make an event happen really in the episode.
Speaker 1: But you do, and it's in thirty minutes, Like that's
Speaker 1: what I loved. I mean, it was just it's one
Speaker 1: of those shows where I feel like I've got to
Speaker 1: rewatch that scene where Sybylla Budd says this or that
Speaker 1: look that Stephen Curry has. Just so much of it
Speaker 1: is rewatchable.
Speaker 4: It's complex, it has to be complex, So I think
Speaker 4: there's something in that. There's a lot of depth. Can
Speaker 4: we just take a moment, though, to talk about Sybylla Bud.
Speaker 3: How funny and wonderful is she?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: My god? Talk about he says, we're obsessed with her?
Speaker 1: But how different was this character to Gabrielle who we
Speaker 1: knew from Secret Life of Us, who we felt like
Speaker 1: we had ownership over because that character really lifted back
Speaker 1: in the day. So she's in the zeitgeist as that
Speaker 1: character and for so many people. I mean, I've seen
Speaker 1: her at the MTC Theater productions, and you know, I've
Speaker 1: been in Sybilla Bud's audience as we all have, but
Speaker 1: more so for me as a bit of a super fan.
Speaker 1: She was really different and she was really funny.
Speaker 4: We had the gorgeous feeling we'd never worked with her before,
Speaker 4: and we had that feeling when she walked on set,
Speaker 4: was like we've just known her forever.
Speaker 3: It's just one of those things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was so good. What you said too about
Speaker 2: watching them, watching them through, because one of the big
Speaker 2: challenges with an anthology is you are starting a new
Speaker 2: story each week, and you do need to The challenge
Speaker 2: is I know these characters, I'm coming back next week
Speaker 2: to see them. You're trying to get people to come
Speaker 2: back to something, to a feeling. It's quite a challenge,
Speaker 2: and our thing was to get the tone of the
Speaker 2: show somehow feeling the same each time, even though the
Speaker 2: stories are different, the characters are different, there's an overall
Speaker 2: feeling that you'll have or an experience that we'll feel like,
Speaker 2: I want to do another one because they feel satisfying
Speaker 2: in the same way. So you know, you're the I
Speaker 2: think one of the first people to say you kept watching.
Speaker 2: So that's music to our ears.
Speaker 1: It's like buying a six pack of beer as far
Speaker 1: as I'm concerned, because I have one, and then I
Speaker 1: drank them all when I was drunk. So I'm hoping
Speaker 1: that that's how.
Speaker 2: Our quote on the poster, What did you make of
Speaker 2: Luke and Olie that episode written by Nath Valvo and
Speaker 2: Jade Masureley.
Speaker 1: Well, I love nath Valvo's writing. I love his comedy,
Speaker 1: and I could feel his comedy in it. And the
Speaker 1: weird thing was that I didn't know that he was
Speaker 1: writing for the show. I hadn't done the research, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I spoke to a friend of Todd
Speaker 1: Abbots who said to me, oh, you know that Nathan
Speaker 1: wrote the gay episode. And I was like, I thought
Speaker 1: of him, like I thought of that humor. This is surreal,
Speaker 1: So well done to him and being able to have
Speaker 1: his magic transcend into this format.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of things for people listening.
Speaker 4: It's, you know, a gay couple are kind of struggling
Speaker 4: with societal expectations of what they're supposed to be as
Speaker 4: a gay couple, who they're supposed to be as a
Speaker 4: gay couple. But I think, what we strove to do.
Speaker 4: We thought, you know, we have a Muslim episode, and
Speaker 4: we have an episode. We have two Aboriginal writers written
Speaker 4: episodes written that came out clumsily. We have two episodes
Speaker 4: written by Aboriginal writers, and it was very important for
Speaker 4: us not to speak for everybody when we wrote those things.
Speaker 4: You know, the gay episode is not supposed to speak
Speaker 4: for all gay people. It's two characters who are gay
Speaker 4: and they are experiencing this moment in their life. And
Speaker 4: that's a very, very important because otherwise we're really undermining
Speaker 4: the diversity that we're trying to achieve by saying we've
Speaker 4: done it, guys, We've just we've spoken for everybody, We've
Speaker 4: ticked everybody, everybody's boxes. It's not that they're just characters
Speaker 4: who perhaps aren't represented on television in the way that
Speaker 4: they should be.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: But it's interesting Miranda Tapsul has written an episode which
Speaker 4: is so far away, so different from what Cody Bedford
Speaker 4: and Beyond Stewart have written in their episode. It's just like,
Speaker 4: because they're all just writers with imaginations and things to say,
Speaker 4: So the idea that you can just speak for everybody
Speaker 4: is ludicrous.
Speaker 1: These episodes don't really hold back in a lot of
Speaker 1: the conversation that we're having at the moment. Do we
Speaker 1: want to have kids? Have we lost ourselves with our kids?
Speaker 1: Who are we in this relationship that we've been in
Speaker 1: for four years or twenty years? You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of those conversations that these characters were having felt to
Speaker 1: me like they're the conversations I'm having in my life,
Speaker 1: and I feel like a lot of people are having.
Speaker 2: It's really good to hear. I loved in Randa Tapsl
Speaker 2: and James Collig's episode that discussion that they have around
Speaker 2: the kind of micro racism that Miranda expressed that's felt
Speaker 2: that and with her partner in real life. Yeah, that
Speaker 2: they were discussing that, and it was fascinating and it
Speaker 2: was a real insight, but it was felt really relevant.
Speaker 2: It's at that level of a discussion that I felt, yeah,
Speaker 2: I know this, this feels like something I know, but
Speaker 2: it hasn't been articulated. And I love it when that happens,
Speaker 2: when it's kind of in the air, but no one's
Speaker 2: expressed it in a creative form yet. I think they
Speaker 2: did with that episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure they have expressed it, but.
Speaker 2: It hasn't come to life. No.
Speaker 1: It is a show that I think people should watch
Speaker 1: with other people because there's a lot of looks that
Speaker 1: you can give that person like, oh god, I've said
Speaker 1: that to you. I love the community element of shows
Speaker 1: where you can watch something and then I unpack up
Speaker 1: with someone and this series is a lot like that
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 3: I mean that's the goal.
Speaker 1: I wonder why ABC was the home that you took
Speaker 1: this to. Was there a reason why you thought ABC
Speaker 1: was the right home for this sort of content.
Speaker 2: Look, we've had such a long relationship with the ABC.
Speaker 2: They've supported our ideas for a long long time. So
Speaker 2: it has been for us a place where we felt
Speaker 2: tonally was right. We've had nothing against any of the
Speaker 2: commercial networks at all, but realistically what the shows that
Speaker 2: we've created don't necessarily fit on those places. So it's
Speaker 2: always a home to go to. That's changed a little
Speaker 2: bit in the with the streamers coming on board, and
Speaker 2: there's many more places now that and possibilities for us
Speaker 2: and for other creatives to have a different shows and
Speaker 2: different voices have a home for them.
Speaker 4: I would just jump into and just say that Todd Abbott,
Speaker 4: who is the executive producer from the ABC this show
Speaker 4: his Head of Comedy, that's his actual title. Apologiest to
Speaker 4: Todd for not remembering. He just got this from the
Speaker 4: word go. He hadn't been long there.
Speaker 2: No, it's only new to the job when we took this.
Speaker 4: To him, and he got it and understood what we
Speaker 4: were doing. And I think it appealed to the broadcaster
Speaker 4: in you know, in the authentic representative representation of diversity.
Speaker 4: I think that was a real bonus. But I think
Speaker 4: he and he's just been terrific the whole way through
Speaker 4: as our executive on this, he's been great, So I
Speaker 4: think that was a huge part of it.
Speaker 2: I think it's for the ABC to you know, a
Speaker 2: serious set at a holiday house. It's such a common
Speaker 2: Australian experience. It's a global experience, but it's very very Australian,
Speaker 2: the summer holiday, that sort of thing, and they've got
Speaker 2: that they need to cater to a very broad audience
Speaker 2: on the ABC, and so the overall idea, I think
Speaker 2: Tod could very quickly see oh yeah, this is this
Speaker 2: is good. It's an idea that you can communicate very quickly,
Speaker 2: and so they were drawn to it early. So we're
Speaker 2: always going to always going to go there.
Speaker 1: Well, there's nothing better than collaborating with somebody who gets
Speaker 1: your work and it obviously understood it and protected it
Speaker 1: from the journey from the start of where you guys
Speaker 1: took it. I mean, you guys must be so proud
Speaker 1: of this, and so then to have someone support it.
Speaker 1: To get it to that place must feel pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it does. We are incredibly proud of it.
Speaker 2: We are. And Todd was terrific. He has been terrific
Speaker 2: to work with throughout the process he's made. He's been
Speaker 2: a producer himself, so he understands the bones of making
Speaker 2: a show and that really helps. Because's very far. It's
Speaker 2: got a great eye. It was a pleasure to work
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: How did you find this house though? I mean, this
Speaker 1: house is like it's like something from the most beautiful
Speaker 1: looking house I've ever seen. And the lighting and the
Speaker 1: set design and everything that you created, it was just
Speaker 1: so every frame looked like it could be in a
Speaker 1: photo book. You know, it could win an award.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you said that. We worked very hard
Speaker 2: on the aesthetic. It's very challenging that to people listening.
Speaker 2: We're on in this magnificent house down on the surf
Speaker 2: coast of Victoria that is right on the water. It
Speaker 2: has a one hundred and eighty degree view of the
Speaker 2: ocean and it's stunning. You walk up the stairs of
Speaker 2: this house and you naturally just walk towards this huge
Speaker 2: pane of glass and stare and everybody that went into
Speaker 2: the house just dared and went silent and has that
Speaker 2: impact which that coast does. When you stand on anywhere
Speaker 2: along that coast, you're a bit gobsmacked by it. In
Speaker 2: this house kind of encapsulated that. We found it through
Speaker 2: our production designer, Penny Southgate, who very cleverly went out
Speaker 2: early because we knew everyone in Victoria would be booking
Speaker 2: a holiday down at the coast over summer, so we
Speaker 2: knew we had to nab it early. And she actually
Speaker 2: researched via architects that have built houses along the coast
Speaker 2: because she knew she was interested in getting something esthetically
Speaker 2: interesting to film in, and so she cleverly went to
Speaker 2: see what architects had built different places along there, and
Speaker 2: this was one of the first places that she found.
Speaker 2: And interestingly, off the initial pictures, we went, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that kind of looks okay, But there are other houses
Speaker 2: that we thought via photos, which is what you normally
Speaker 2: see first before you go on wrecky them. But then
Speaker 2: we went to wrecky this house and we had that
Speaker 2: exact thing. We walked in and went, oh, my god,
Speaker 2: there is something absolutely incredible to be in this space. Also,
Speaker 2: it is perfect for filming. It's generous in its size,
Speaker 2: which you need when you're going to put eighty people
Speaker 2: in a room. And it was beautiful. It's very challenging
Speaker 2: to film in because there's so much natural light coming in.
Speaker 2: But our DP Dan Maxwell, worked very hard to get
Speaker 2: the look and I'm so glad you think it's beautiful.
Speaker 2: We did too, and we wanted it to make We
Speaker 2: want it to be.
Speaker 4: Warm, and we wanted to really emphasize the epic beauty
Speaker 4: of the coats like not. You know, we use a
Speaker 4: lot of drone shots and we use a lot of
Speaker 4: those epic shots because that's how you feel when you're
Speaker 4: down there. You feel you know, that speck in the
Speaker 4: universe feeling you feel, you know, which is the reason
Speaker 4: all these things tumble out.
Speaker 3: For you on holiday. So we tried to.
Speaker 4: Be as truthful as we could in representing how that feels,
Speaker 4: you know, which is very challenging for the camera department,
Speaker 4: but they did well.
Speaker 1: Well. Everyone's going to want to know, can you rent
Speaker 1: this place? Is it even possible? Can you go there
Speaker 1: on an airbanb?
Speaker 2: I think not now, I don't think so. Yes, I
Speaker 2: think it's after we've had it.
Speaker 4: I think they're a new owners since we've and so
Speaker 4: I think that they're quite happy to be just settling in.
Speaker 1: For good, except for the fact that you've made it
Speaker 1: like a Ramsey Street location, because now everyone's going to
Speaker 1: want to drive up and have a look at it.
Speaker 1: Because I know that, no, you should.
Speaker 2: Say that we did hire I think about twenty eight
Speaker 2: other houses in the area for the cast and crew
Speaker 2: to live in. So if any listener wants to go there,
Speaker 2: there are lots of wonderful houses in and around that
Speaker 2: house are.
Speaker 1: The beautiful places, and lead those people that live there alone.
Speaker 3: Please don't pester them.
Speaker 1: You know, I can imagine just before you go. I
Speaker 1: can imagine having these eleven you know, before you go.
Speaker 1: How do you want audiences to feel about this show everything.
Speaker 4: We've been talking about, I think having that feeling of
Speaker 4: warmth and.
Speaker 3: Hope.
Speaker 4: I mean, even there are some melancholy endings in a
Speaker 4: couple of the episodes, but you know that that's inevitable.
Speaker 4: You know that everybody's going to be better off because
Speaker 4: of the decision that people have made. It's not like,
Speaker 4: oh no, we never wanted that to happen. It was like, no,
Speaker 4: this had to happen and you're going to have better
Speaker 4: lives now. So we want people to walk away feeling
Speaker 4: sort of happy and hopeful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look. We love watching I love getting to
Speaker 2: the end of something and looking at Robin and smiling,
Speaker 2: going I loved that. I love that that feeling. That's
Speaker 2: that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1: Guys. I'm at a better mood this week from watching
Speaker 1: the show. I don't even know if that's possible, Like
Speaker 1: throw away your antidepressants whoever's listening to this, because all
Speaker 1: you need to do is don't throw away your antidepressants.
Speaker 3: Do that well tightly as you watch the show.
Speaker 1: The last thing I will ask you is something I
Speaker 1: ask everyone who joins the podcast. What is something from
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, something that we as an audience won't see,
Speaker 1: kind of a behind the scene secret, something that happened
Speaker 1: or went down that you can share from making someone up.
Speaker 4: I was going to say that there were in the
Speaker 4: first episode, there were two mollies, not one, little twins
Speaker 4: that we had to snip around and move in and out,
Speaker 4: and there was quite a little bit of slicing and dicing.
Speaker 2: In the ed is nobody knows that now you know that,
Speaker 2: So if you're watching, see if you can pick the
Speaker 2: two miles.
Speaker 1: They're just I just have to say that conversation about
Speaker 1: do you want me to hit her? You know, I
Speaker 1: was just so funny. I just there's just so many
Speaker 1: funny moments in that first episode. And it's such a
Speaker 1: great first episode to have because I think people once
Speaker 1: they've seen that, they'll feel compelled to keep watching.
Speaker 4: It's just so good. They are, all the four of it.
Speaker 4: It's like being in gold class with those four.
Speaker 3: They're incredible.
Speaker 1: You know that feeling when you go and see theater
Speaker 1: live and you're like, wow, this is so amazing and
Speaker 1: it feels so unique and I don't believe I've got
Speaker 1: to see that. That's what someone love is for me.
Speaker 4: That's so great. Ben, thank you so much. That's so
Speaker 4: generous and kind. Really really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for your generosity, to the both of
Speaker 1: you for being here and talking about this show, which
Speaker 1: people will no doubt watch