Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week Airline Welcome Back to
Speaker 1: TV Reload. My Dame's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast,
Speaker 1: I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television.
Speaker 1: Each episode you will get a front row seat with
Speaker 1: content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents,
Speaker 1: plus the talent that we all see on our screen.
Speaker 1: TV Reload reloads the shows that you are currently watching
Speaker 1: and gives you a better insight into our television industry
Speaker 1: and our streaming services today. On the podcast, I have
Speaker 1: executive producers Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford, who are known
Speaker 1: for their outstanding work at Aquarius Films, which has a
Speaker 1: brand new scripted drama, Savage River, now screening on the ABC.
Speaker 1: If you have missed the first episode last Sunday, do
Speaker 1: yourself a favor and catch up on ABC I View,
Speaker 1: as the second episode will debut this Sunday night. The
Speaker 1: series said in Country Victoria is directed by Jocelyn Morehouse
Speaker 1: and stars Katherine Langford, Virginia gay Jack, Colin Mackenzie and
Speaker 1: many other fantastic Australian actors. The story follows knives out
Speaker 1: actress Catherine Langford's Mickey Anderson, who returns to her hometown
Speaker 1: in rural Victoria after eight years in prison, intending to
Speaker 1: get on with her life. However, a murder is committed
Speaker 1: in the town and the townspeople suspect her. As she
Speaker 1: sets out to prove her innocence, We as an audience
Speaker 1: are enthralled. The story is way more than a Who
Speaker 1: Done It, with complex characters of a small town that
Speaker 1: we really care about. So today we will get some
Speaker 1: interesting insights into how the show was made, why Warburton
Speaker 1: was used for the fictitious small town at Savage River,
Speaker 1: and how two Aussie content creators saw the promise in
Speaker 1: two writers from Tasmania. However, let's get started with today's guest.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome Angie Fielder and Polly Stanford to
Speaker 1: TV Reload.
Speaker 2: I do think that that when you look at our work,
Speaker 2: it does have some sort of common thread that's really
Speaker 2: hard to explain.
Speaker 3: That homicide in Savage River. Since she did what she did.
Speaker 2: It's sort of like a classic Who Done It?
Speaker 1: In prison to manslide and you get out and two
Speaker 1: days later a man is dead.
Speaker 2: This is a story set in a small town where
Speaker 2: everybody has dark secrets.
Speaker 3: I didn't do anything. I'm going to be all over here,
Speaker 3: so I'll sign out.
Speaker 2: I think that's the that's the beauty of the show
Speaker 2: is that it goes beyond the genre element.
Speaker 1: I understand you can protect your daughter, but there are
Speaker 1: serious consequences for preventing the course of justice.
Speaker 3: It will end in a way that you didn't quite expect.
Speaker 1: Hi, girls, congratulations on this latest project. Must be very
Speaker 1: exciting for you both.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you very much. It's great to have it
Speaker 3: out there after I think what six years of development,
Speaker 3: so yeah, thrilled to have it finally on our screens.
Speaker 3: I think that time has been, you know, so great though,
Speaker 3: and going to kind of getting it to where it
Speaker 3: needed to get. And you know, it's a very intricately
Speaker 3: plotted mystery, and I think it needed that, you know,
Speaker 3: sort of gestation period.
Speaker 1: I suppose we have to say, this is very really
Speaker 1: special to be able to talk with you both, because
Speaker 1: I actually have seen a lot of your work, and
Speaker 1: I think you worked on Lyon, which is like one
Speaker 1: of my favorite films ever. But the both of you
Speaker 1: worked on the Other Guy, and I watched that whole
Speaker 1: first series in one go, and I'm still obsessed with it.
Speaker 3: Oh cool, that's great.
Speaker 1: Season two was even better because I'm obsessed with Claudia Carvent.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, she's great in it.
Speaker 1: How did you get Claudia to jump on that series? Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's like a good get.
Speaker 3: I think she just really liked the script.
Speaker 2: She thought it was really funny, and she wanted to
Speaker 2: relish the opportunity to do a bit of comedy.
Speaker 1: I think there's something very fresh in the way that
Speaker 1: your stories come to life. I don't know if this
Speaker 1: sounds a little bit contrived, but I feel like that
Speaker 1: you tell stories about real people and they are very contemporary.
Speaker 3: It's funny, like Lega asked this a lot about you know,
Speaker 3: sort of where our ideas come from and sort of
Speaker 3: how a company started, and you know what we look for,
Speaker 3: and it's a really sort of it's a pro that's
Speaker 3: that you almost don't understand until you're looking backwards and
Speaker 3: you sort of you look at the slate of things
Speaker 3: you've developed and you go, oh, okay, there is a
Speaker 3: pattern there. But I don't think it's a conscious thing.
Speaker 3: I think it's a subconscious thing that inevitably we had
Speaker 3: drawn to certain kinds of stories and characters. And yes,
Speaker 3: we love real life and you know the drama and
Speaker 3: the comedy and you know the thrills that come from
Speaker 3: real life. But I don't think we set out with
Speaker 3: a sort of conscious you know, this is what we
Speaker 3: want to do. I think it's just evolved over the years.
Speaker 2: And I think we have broad tastes in that, in
Speaker 2: that we are genre agnostic in terms of what we
Speaker 2: like to watch and therefore what we like to bring
Speaker 2: into the company. We're fairly genre agnostic. But I do
Speaker 2: think that that when you look at our work, it
Speaker 2: does have some sort of common thread that's really hard
Speaker 2: to explain. We kind of just call it the aquarius aspect,
Speaker 2: you know, but we just know where we read it.
Speaker 2: Is it a world that you want to be in
Speaker 2: for five years as well? And are these people that
Speaker 2: you want to work with for five years? There's a
Speaker 2: whole sort of.
Speaker 1: Thing, you know. Well, maybe because I'm an aquarium, maybe
Speaker 1: this is a work an aquarium. Is that where the
Speaker 1: name comes from? Or you're both aquarians?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, well that's why we get along. You know that
Speaker 1: aquarians get along with other aquarians.
Speaker 2: It's like thing, Yes, they always find each other at parties.
Speaker 2: If they are aquarians at a party, you'll just find
Speaker 2: them all in the corner talking about how great aquarians are,
Speaker 2: like just like we're.
Speaker 1: Doing now exactly. This isn't a podcast about star signs,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of fitting.
Speaker 3: Interestingly, we have like again it's that sort of you know,
Speaker 3: thing that you look back on later, but actually we
Speaker 3: were looking recently at kind of what are some aquarians qualities?
Speaker 3: And actually those things do appear in our projects in
Speaker 3: our business, like you know, we think outside the box.
Speaker 3: We're unorthodox, and they're all traits of aquarians.
Speaker 1: So, sorry, what's your dog's name?
Speaker 3: This is Bob.
Speaker 1: Bob. We'll just have to credit Bob in the podcast.
Speaker 1: If he barks again, we'll just credit him. You know,
Speaker 1: if you look on iTunes, we'll just see Bob listed.
Speaker 1: We'll get a little photo of him. How did Aquarius
Speaker 1: Films come together? Like, how did it come about for
Speaker 1: you both?
Speaker 2: So we were working together at the same company, at
Speaker 2: a company called Inside Film.
Speaker 3: There was an event that Inside Film used to run
Speaker 3: called the IF Awards. I don't know if you remember that.
Speaker 2: And Paully and I just ended up working there together.
Speaker 3: And while we were.
Speaker 2: There, a then little known but subsequently well known Australian
Speaker 2: director David Micho he was also working there and he
Speaker 2: had written a short film and asked us to produce
Speaker 2: it for him, which we did, and then we went
Speaker 2: on to produce a few other short films together because
Speaker 2: we found that we worked really well together, and we
Speaker 2: started a various as the company to kind of make
Speaker 2: those shorts through. And the shorts did really well. They
Speaker 2: want loads of awards. They premiered at Sundance and Venice
Speaker 2: and sort of put us on the map in terms
Speaker 2: of being producers to watch. So then we decided to
Speaker 2: start developing long form longer form content and eventually got
Speaker 2: our first features up Wish It Were Here, Berlin Syndrome, Line,
Speaker 2: and it all just sort of started.
Speaker 3: Snowballing from there.
Speaker 2: And around that time, around the time that we were
Speaker 2: doing Line and Berlin Syndrome, we started to branch out
Speaker 2: into TV as well, and so The Other Guy was
Speaker 2: our first TV.
Speaker 1: Commission, spending six years work on this project. You must
Speaker 1: be really excited for audiences to finally have seen episode
Speaker 1: one last Sunday night, and for people to sort of
Speaker 1: sink into it. How do you describe this kind of
Speaker 1: drama when you tell people what you've been working on.
Speaker 2: Well, this particular one is kind of easy to explain
Speaker 2: in that it's sort of like a classic who Done It?
Speaker 2: There's a murder that happens, which happens in episode one,
Speaker 2: so I can say it now because it's gone to air,
Speaker 2: and the rest of the series is about the characters
Speaker 2: and the audience trying to work out what happened, who
Speaker 2: was responsible.
Speaker 3: But it's so much more than that as well.
Speaker 2: So this is a story set in a small town
Speaker 2: where everybody has dark secrets, and the murder sort of
Speaker 2: there are certain events that happen that sort of bring
Speaker 2: all of those dark secrets to the surface, and everybody
Speaker 2: is interconnected in some way. There are alliances, and there
Speaker 2: are conflicts that are deep seated and go back many years,
Speaker 2: and so it's really a very character driven story about
Speaker 2: this group of people and how they're connected. And it's
Speaker 2: also a story it's very very much a story of
Speaker 2: redemption and forgiveness as well. So you know, it's sort
Speaker 2: of a you know, who Done a framework, but there's
Speaker 2: a lot more going on under the surface.
Speaker 1: Growing up every weekend, my family loved a murder mystery.
Speaker 1: We were always watching murder mysteries, whether it was murder.
Speaker 1: She wrote, Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, I'm curious about the
Speaker 1: two of you. Did you two both enjoy watching murder
Speaker 1: mysteries growing up?
Speaker 3: I can't. I can't think specifically about any murder mysteries.
Speaker 3: I mean I loved loved film and TV growing up,
Speaker 3: Like that's all I did watching watching film and TV.
Speaker 3: But I think certainly in my sort of twenties and thirties, yeah,
Speaker 3: always loved a good who Done It?
Speaker 1: And a good murder mystery.
Speaker 3: And you know, when we were developing the series, things
Speaker 3: like The Killing and Happy Valley and lots of British
Speaker 3: shows were certainly references for us.
Speaker 1: Jocelyn is a huge name with some fantastic credits to
Speaker 1: her name. I actually studied proof in media studies, and
Speaker 1: I loved the dressmaker. What made her right for this project?
Speaker 1: I mean, you, as producers would be looking for the
Speaker 1: right director to harness and bring this story to life.
Speaker 1: What was it about her that made you want to say,
Speaker 1: let's do this together.
Speaker 2: You know, we love all her films and she's kind
Speaker 2: of like a screen veteran, so experienced and very good.
Speaker 2: Everything she makes is always very very good and at
Speaker 2: a very high level. And we also knew that this
Speaker 2: show is very performance based. You know, it's a big
Speaker 2: ensemble cast, like twenty key roles, and you know, we
Speaker 2: really knew that we were going to need some really
Speaker 2: good actors and some really great direction, and so yeah,
Speaker 2: we we just you know, decided to send.
Speaker 3: It to her.
Speaker 2: And she loved it and loved loved the kind of
Speaker 2: themes and the material, and you know, and actors do
Speaker 2: love her. You know, like we didn't have a lot
Speaker 2: of trouble casting the show at all because I mean
Speaker 2: the script spoke for themselves. I you know, everybody was
Speaker 2: really drawn to the material. But also Josson was a
Speaker 2: big draw card for the cast as well.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to get a director that stays on the
Speaker 1: whole series so that they can make sure that the
Speaker 1: tone and feel is right. You know, back in the
Speaker 1: day with television, you would have different directors. I think
Speaker 1: it was like big little lies around that time that
Speaker 1: we got to see a director come on and do
Speaker 1: the whole series. And now people like, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're going to get someone amazing, you've got to get
Speaker 1: to do the whole thing, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we just felt that because Avid River
Speaker 3: is a murder mystery and so every episode kind of
Speaker 3: has flashbacks and sort of interconnects, and we really wanted
Speaker 3: a very strong singular vision for the show. So it
Speaker 3: was always our intention to have one director across the
Speaker 3: whole thing, which is a huge undertaking to do six
Speaker 3: hours of television, huge shoot, you know, a huge amount
Speaker 3: of preparation, but we really felt strongly that they needed that.
Speaker 1: And then with the writing team, I mean, it's an
Speaker 1: amazing writing team that are working on this. I mean
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of their work with like Glitch
Speaker 1: and other Australian made content. How did they come up
Speaker 1: with this story and how did it come across your desk?
Speaker 3: It was actual brought to us by two Tasmanian writers there,
Speaker 3: a husband and wife writing team called Friends, Dodie and
Speaker 3: Belinda Bradley. So they brought us a very sort of
Speaker 3: almost like a one page concept document for you know,
Speaker 3: a small town mystery, and we loved it and we
Speaker 3: sort of worked with them a little bit to kind
Speaker 3: of develop it. But we felt that because they hadn't
Speaker 3: hadn't done TV before. As their first project, we really
Speaker 3: wanted to pair them with a more experienced TV writer,
Speaker 3: so we brought on Heilor Sandler, who's fantastic and has
Speaker 3: done lots of TV and you know, her wheelhouse is
Speaker 3: really mystery thrillers, so she really knows the sort of
Speaker 3: intricacies of how to you know, plot something like that.
Speaker 3: So she came on board, and Angie and I also
Speaker 3: joined the writing team. So the five of us sat
Speaker 3: in a room over many many weeks and months and
Speaker 3: intricately plotted and you know, talked at length about all
Speaker 3: the characters in the world and the mystery and you know,
Speaker 3: who is the killer and why and it changed a
Speaker 3: number of times. Yeah, we wanted to keep the team
Speaker 3: quite small because you know, I think sometimes there's too
Speaker 3: many voices in the room, and I think it was
Speaker 3: just great to have the five of us, you know,
Speaker 3: consistently across the whole the whole show.
Speaker 1: Friends and Belinda must be like, no, no, no, you
Speaker 1: can't do that to those characters or you know, having
Speaker 1: their own attachment to the story and would want to relinquish.
Speaker 3: That colaborative they're amracing and Frans. You know, Franz worked
Speaker 3: in a big work for many years, so he brought
Speaker 3: all that incredible knowledge about what it was like working
Speaker 3: in that, you know, in an avatar and all the
Speaker 3: kind of you know, intricacies of you know, what happens there.
Speaker 3: And they both live in a small town in Tasmania,
Speaker 3: so they've sort of experienced firsthand lots of the sort
Speaker 3: of themes of the show. And yeah, and we had
Speaker 3: lots of fantastic story consultants as well that we brought
Speaker 3: in from all different backgrounds to help us research characters
Speaker 3: and research certain parts of the plot. So it was
Speaker 3: a really fantastic collaborative room.
Speaker 1: You know. When it comes to murder mysteries, I read
Speaker 1: somewhere that even with Scooby Doo back in the back
Speaker 1: in the day, they would have the person who was
Speaker 1: the killer at the start of writing the script, you know,
Speaker 1: so they kind of always worked backwards, was there A yea,
Speaker 1: you know, interesting to see that's how they would do
Speaker 1: murder mysteries. Where for you, I think you just were
Speaker 1: saying that you changed who the killer was a couple
Speaker 1: of times. Did the did the actors all know once
Speaker 1: they signed on or was it like the movie screen
Speaker 1: where they just wouldn't give them the final page of
Speaker 1: the script. Did everyone know when it went into prit action.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we did think about for some time going
Speaker 3: on maybe as a way we could do that thing
Speaker 3: where they don't know. But actually, because we shot it,
Speaker 3: you know, because be shot in one block, so six episodes.
Speaker 3: It was kind of like a feature film where you're
Speaker 3: shooting out location, so you know, inevitably you end up
Speaker 3: shooting the ending in the first few weeks or whatever,
Speaker 3: so you can't you kind of can't get away with
Speaker 3: keeping it secret.
Speaker 1: Funnily enough, I watched it in Warburton, right which is
Speaker 1: very bizarre because we were watching the first episode and
Speaker 1: I was like, just for people that are listening to
Speaker 1: this right now, the Savage River is actually fictitious town.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the filming was done in Warburton,
Speaker 1: So you know, here I am in Warburton sitting by
Speaker 1: the fire watching episode one, and very quickly I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's the.
Speaker 3: Chemist's I know that bridge. I know that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such an iconic bridge if anyone knows
Speaker 1: that part of the region. But yeah, here I am
Speaker 1: watching this series and it was just interesting to be
Speaker 1: able to see it. Why did you choose Warburton by
Speaker 1: any chance, are you able to We actually shot not.
Speaker 3: Just in Warburton, but also in Myrtleford and bright the
Speaker 3: is of Ourpane region. But we had an amazing location
Speaker 3: team and they just sort of scouted the whole of
Speaker 3: Victoria are looking for, you know, we needed a town
Speaker 3: that had a river. We needed to sort of like
Speaker 3: we like the idea of one main street with cluster
Speaker 3: of shops. We wanted to feel very kind of valley
Speaker 3: like with you know, beautiful hills around, and even though
Speaker 3: we're shooting in summer, we wanted that really lovely, green,
Speaker 3: luscious feel. So we just did a lot of scouting
Speaker 3: and saw, you know, every river in the state, and
Speaker 3: we just thought Wilberton had that beautiful kind of quality
Speaker 3: to it. It was, you know, it's a beautiful small town,
Speaker 3: very point. The river's gorgeous, the bridge is fantastic, and
Speaker 3: it suited our story and matched really well with the
Speaker 3: locations we shot in Mortorfood.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful part of town. You know. I have
Speaker 1: to say Mayor of Eastbown really lifted the bar with
Speaker 1: the genre and you know, we are seeing more complexities
Speaker 1: when creating the world that these characters live in. Is
Speaker 1: that something that you also wanted to make sure was
Speaker 1: that those complexities were there, that we're not just solving
Speaker 1: a murder mystery, but we're actually invested in these characters
Speaker 1: and they have their own real worlds. Is that something
Speaker 1: that was in your.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely very much. So, yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was essential for us that it was very much
Speaker 2: about the characters and not just about the murder mystery.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, I don't want to give
Speaker 2: anything away, but I think the journey that Mickey in
Speaker 2: particular goes on, but also Rachel, it ultimately becomes surprising.
Speaker 2: And I think you probably if you haven't watched episode six,
Speaker 2: you're probably not even there yet.
Speaker 3: But their their their journey, their their emotional arcs.
Speaker 2: They sort of end up going to a place you
Speaker 2: didn't quite accept them to, and I think that's the
Speaker 2: that's the beauty of the show is that it goes
Speaker 2: beyond the genre element and it's really like a character
Speaker 2: study of small towns and secrets and family relationships and
Speaker 2: alliances and betrayal and how far you would go for
Speaker 2: another person and all of this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But also I think the themes in this was really
Speaker 1: good as well. Like I kind of liked the whole
Speaker 1: you know, the protagonist feeling ostracized, but then also all
Speaker 1: of the themes that sort of would happen in a
Speaker 1: small town. You know, there's a bit of domestic violence,
Speaker 1: there's those complexities that exist in every single town. Was
Speaker 1: that a focus that you were like, Okay, well, these
Speaker 1: are the themes that we're going to build into it.
Speaker 2: To be really honest, it really all came from the characters.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I know that sounds like a really script textbook
Speaker 2: theme to say, but we really sort of had come
Speaker 2: up in the early stages of development with these ideas
Speaker 2: for all of these great characters and relationships, and then
Speaker 2: it was really about just working out what they would do,
Speaker 2: and so the characters kind of almost build a life
Speaker 2: for themselves, and so that the themes kind of evolved out.
Speaker 3: Of the characters.
Speaker 1: I just think you've been so lucky with this cast.
Speaker 1: Embarrassingly enough, I was at the logis and I saw
Speaker 1: Virginia Gay walk past, and I quickly confessed to her
Speaker 1: that I was like, I just want to tell you
Speaker 1: that I love you we were amazing, so, you know,
Speaker 1: she's fantastic for Rachel.
Speaker 3: Virginia actually won the role fair and square.
Speaker 2: So we actually tested a lot of people for Rachel
Speaker 2: because it was really important to get that role right
Speaker 2: and it is. It is a tough role because it
Speaker 2: is a sort of an iconic character, the tough, no
Speaker 2: nonsense female detective, but we also wanted her to be
Speaker 2: so much more than that, and as the character in
Speaker 2: the show, she has so much more going on for
Speaker 2: herself than just that. So we tested a lot of
Speaker 2: really amazing Australian actors and household names, and Virginia was
Speaker 2: just hands down, you know, did the best tests and
Speaker 2: just she just you know, often when you're testing actors
Speaker 2: as well, someone just you just see them and they
Speaker 2: just are the role.
Speaker 3: They just somehow embody.
Speaker 2: I mean not that not that Virginia is anything like
Speaker 2: Rachel in real life, but she just somehow embodied the
Speaker 2: character for us when.
Speaker 3: She did the test. So, and like you, we've been
Speaker 3: huge fans of her for a long time. Yeah, I've
Speaker 3: been kind of wanting to work with her, so it
Speaker 3: was so exciting to see her test and to go, yes,
Speaker 3: she's perfect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, were you both aware of bern and Curry. How
Speaker 1: well did you know bern and Curry before passing him
Speaker 1: in this? Because I live in Turek and Melbourne and
Speaker 1: there used to be a pub down the road called
Speaker 1: the Armadh Pub and he used to sing in a
Speaker 1: band called Johnny Wonder.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: And I this was obviously before it came out. It's
Speaker 1: a very closeted gay man living in Melbourne and I
Speaker 1: would go and watch every single Tuesday night just to
Speaker 1: see Berna Curry.
Speaker 3: So funny story. So one night we were shooting in
Speaker 3: Murderford and should a Mertleford, but it's a very small
Speaker 3: town in the Alpine region and not much going.
Speaker 1: On at night.
Speaker 3: It's very quiet. Yeah, and we finished filming quite late
Speaker 3: and you know, we had lunch on set but no dinner.
Speaker 3: So I was kind of walking through the town going
Speaker 3: I wonder if there's anything open to grab something to eat,
Speaker 3: and I could hear music and singing and I thought,
Speaker 3: oh no, there's something going on the plump and I
Speaker 3: walked into the pub and Bernie Curry was singing like
Speaker 3: he'd managed to get a microphone and a guitar and
Speaker 3: you know, had this whole stage thing going on and
Speaker 3: he was. He was doing a whole set and like
Speaker 3: half the costant crew were there, and Virginia Gay got
Speaker 3: up one point and did some singing and it was
Speaker 3: just the most incredible impromptu like Savage River concert.
Speaker 1: That was awesome, But jealousy inside me that I missed.
Speaker 3: No, I mean we've we've obviously known of the Curry
Speaker 3: brothers for years and he's definitely Yeah, he's been on
Speaker 3: fantastic actor and I think he was I think he
Speaker 3: was actually one of our cost brilliant costing agent's ideas.
Speaker 3: Because you know, I can't country.
Speaker 1: Spoilers, but yeah, something, we'll talk about it on the
Speaker 1: next podcast. It's fine, It's totally fine, but well done.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for bringing beern carry. I think
Speaker 1: anyone making any TV in film put Bernard Curry in it.
Speaker 3: He's amazing, Yeah, really good, fantastic and just a really
Speaker 3: really lovely person to work with as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and getting Catherine Langford back to Australia after you know,
Speaker 1: such an amazing run of Thirteen Reasons Why Love Simon
Speaker 1: and Knives Out. You know, that must have been a
Speaker 1: huge celebration.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, she she was. We were so lucky to
Speaker 3: get her.
Speaker 2: I mean, she was the first person that we offered
Speaker 2: the role of Mickey two, and I guess she just
Speaker 2: really kind of connected.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is a great character. It's a great
Speaker 3: character for an actor to play because she.
Speaker 2: Starts in one place and she up in a completely
Speaker 2: different place and goes everywhere in between. You know, there's
Speaker 2: a huge range in Catherine's such a capable actor, and
Speaker 2: she's very very truthful and honest and grounded in her performance.
Speaker 2: And she also for us, like she really embodies a
Speaker 2: combination of vulnerability and toughness that we wanted for Mickey.
Speaker 2: You know, she's been in prison for a long time,
Speaker 2: so she's got a real toughness and she's got her
Speaker 2: armor on and her guard up. But she's also still
Speaker 2: in many ways, she's still fifteen years old because she
Speaker 2: went to prison at age fifteen, and she's sort of
Speaker 2: a bit emotionally stunted in that sense, so you know,
Speaker 2: and Katherine was somehow able to embody all of that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, she's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Is it important to get a name like that these days?
Speaker 1: When making austraying content? Like do you feel that you
Speaker 1: get more dollars or you get.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think the combination having Catherine on board
Speaker 3: and also Jocelyn that helped us, you know, assemble a
Speaker 3: really fantastic cast around her. And I also think in
Speaker 3: terms of international sales, it also really helps because you know,
Speaker 3: even though Australia is an English speaking terror, I think
Speaker 3: sometimes in the rest of the world was sort of
Speaker 3: seen as a foreign market. So I think having a
Speaker 3: big starlight katherin Noble definitely helps sell the show into
Speaker 3: other territories. But having said that, we were just talking
Speaker 3: earlier today about you know, for me personally, like I
Speaker 3: actually love discovering new faces in shows. I just watched
Speaker 3: The Bear and I just love that show so much
Speaker 3: because they're all people I haven't seen, you know, in
Speaker 3: millions of shows. So there is something really nice. I
Speaker 3: think it's a balancing act. I think it depends on
Speaker 3: the show, and I think for something like this, you know,
Speaker 3: we really wanted that sort of star name in the
Speaker 3: key role.
Speaker 2: I think it's also at the other end, when you're
Speaker 2: marketing it, it just you know, you make a show
Speaker 2: because you want people to watch it, and you want
Speaker 2: as many people as possible to watch it, and so
Speaker 2: sometimes in order to compete with everything else that's out there,
Speaker 2: and as we all know, there's so much content out there,
Speaker 2: it's so hard to decide what you want to watch.
Speaker 2: That having that big piece of cast or that director
Speaker 2: that people recognize might make them decide to watch your
Speaker 2: show above something else.
Speaker 1: So you'll get a lot of eyes on it as
Speaker 1: well internationally, which is great and so exciting. You know,
Speaker 1: so much work has been put into the project. You know,
Speaker 1: we've watched episode one. You know, it's just played, and
Speaker 1: you know, we've got a body and a few shady
Speaker 1: characters and all the right ingredients are there for people
Speaker 1: to continue to tune in. What should people expect from here?
Speaker 1: We've seen episode one?
Speaker 2: Well, look, I think I think one of our one
Speaker 2: of our actors said it really well in his ep
Speaker 2: K interview, which was James McKay who plays Simon, which
Speaker 2: is that it's just a genuinely twisty turny plot, like
Speaker 2: you go down one avenue and oh, that's not it,
Speaker 2: and then you go down this way and you get
Speaker 2: taken off with these characters over here on a completely
Speaker 2: different storyline, and you know there's just a lot going on,
Speaker 2: and so you're just going to get taken.
Speaker 3: On a wild ride, really and it will end. It
Speaker 3: will end in a way that you didn't quite expect.
Speaker 1: You Know. Something I ask everyone who joins the podcast
Speaker 1: is what is something from behind the scenes, something that
Speaker 1: audiences won't see, but something we might enjoy as a
Speaker 1: bit of a behind the scenes story. Is there anything
Speaker 1: that you can share from the making Savage River?
Speaker 3: Oh, this is sort of an interesting thing. I think
Speaker 3: it's paving for viewers, which is that most of the
Speaker 3: interiors of the show were actually shot in.
Speaker 2: Melbourne, four different places, Melbourne, Wooton Bright and Myrtleford and
Speaker 2: actually actually also at the Avatar that we shot.
Speaker 3: So we shot all of the scripted, like all of.
Speaker 2: Our stuff with actors and everything and extras in a
Speaker 2: decommissioned abatoire in Myrtleford, But then we needed to we
Speaker 2: also needed to shoot inside a real avatoire and kind
Speaker 2: of intercut that footage, you know, to make it believable.
Speaker 3: So all there's a combination of.
Speaker 2: Fake footage with fake carcasses and fake offul and fake blood.
Speaker 2: And then there are a number of shots that are
Speaker 2: real carcasses and real blood and real off ball that
Speaker 2: were shot in a real the Meatworks, and then we
Speaker 2: had to match the footage.
Speaker 3: So that I can't remember where that meatworks was now
Speaker 3: the real Nicho. It was somewhere in Victoria, far far
Speaker 3: from the east.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so the whole thing's kind of been cobbled
Speaker 2: together out of five different locations really.
Speaker 1: But there's also a real place called Savage River right
Speaker 1: in Tasmania, Yeah, which.
Speaker 2: Is which is where we borrow the name from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean the two writers that started it,
Speaker 1: they're from Tasmania.
Speaker 2: From Tasmania, and we what a great name for a
Speaker 2: town that you're going to set a murder mystery and
Speaker 2: like Savage River so brilliant.
Speaker 1: It's brilliant. It's brilliant for anyone that is listening to
Speaker 1: this right now. Is a fantastic murder history. You know.
Speaker 1: I really hope that people listening to this will go
Speaker 1: to Savage River and just enjoy. You know, what you
Speaker 1: guys have been able to make for us. It's amazing.