Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload, the podcast Last Weep Their Life. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris and this
Speaker 1: is your podcast to get all the inside goss on
Speaker 1: the popular TV shows you may be watching from around
Speaker 1: the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part
Speaker 1: of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known
Speaker 1: about how our favorite shows get made. So each episode
Speaker 1: I find guests that want to dive just that little
Speaker 1: bit deeper into the shows they're currently making, so that
Speaker 1: you can hear all their exclusive stories and gain access
Speaker 1: to the biggest names in Australian television. I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast. I
Speaker 1: love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a
Speaker 1: comment on your chosen podcast platform. On today's podcast, I
Speaker 1: Have Riema, I heard the executive producer of the captivating
Speaker 1: new ITV series Alone, which starts this week on SBS.
Speaker 1: The show has been made all over the world, but
Speaker 1: this time ten Australian survivalists will be dropped into the
Speaker 1: remote wilds of western Tasmania, completely isolated from the outside
Speaker 1: world and each other, stripped of modern possessions, contact and
Speaker 1: comforts to self document their experience, where the last one
Speaker 1: standing wins two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Challenged by
Speaker 1: the force of nature, hunger, and perhaps the toughest challenge
Speaker 1: of all, loneliness, you won't want to turn away until
Speaker 1: the last person is left standing. The first episode of
Speaker 1: this highly anticipated survival series drops on Wednesday, the twenty
Speaker 1: ninth of March, which is tonight, and will no doubt
Speaker 1: captivate its audience. As the show goes well beyond any
Speaker 1: other show made in Australia, we will find out if
Speaker 1: these conditions could kill the alone participants. Rema will also
Speaker 1: share her greatest fears making the show and what kept
Speaker 1: her awake at night. I'll also find out how they
Speaker 1: found the right people for the show and what exactly
Speaker 1: they were looking for. Plus we'll get plenty of exclusives
Speaker 1: from behind the scenes of a loan. Anyway, let's bring
Speaker 1: Rima into the podcast. I love Reema and I really
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy this episode.
Speaker 2: Hirima, Hi Ben, I'm great.
Speaker 1: I feel so excited to be having this chat with
Speaker 1: you finally, because we've finally found a project that we
Speaker 1: can unpack together.
Speaker 2: I know it's been a long time in the making.
Speaker 2: I feel like a loan's brought you and I together finally.
Speaker 1: You know, I had people writing to me, people that
Speaker 1: listened to the podcast, but also people that you'd collaborated
Speaker 1: with over the years, saying, You've got to get Rima
Speaker 1: on the show. I can't wait to hear per episode.
Speaker 1: So I kind of had to stalk you a little bit.
Speaker 2: You did. I liked being stalked. It made me feel
Speaker 2: pretty special. It's the first time I haven't felt alone
Speaker 2: in a really long time.
Speaker 1: Case in point, so we're talking alone for people that
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast, and this show is so exciting. Obviously,
Speaker 1: people know about it because it is a global phenomenon.
Speaker 1: I don't think that there's anyone that owns a television
Speaker 1: that's not seen a few seconds of this show.
Speaker 2: It's one of those shows it's really hard to explain
Speaker 2: why its reach is so broad, but it's the most
Speaker 2: random people who will tell you that they love this show.
Speaker 2: And it sounds on paper or in pitch, it sounds
Speaker 2: like something that should have a niche audience, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: I mean, you think that it would be a really
Speaker 2: hard core sort of bear grill survivally kind of audience
Speaker 2: that would come to it. But it's none of the
Speaker 2: shows that we're used to, and it's just the most
Speaker 2: random people. You know, it's your hairdresser. It's often the
Speaker 2: people that say they don't watch television, but they do
Speaker 2: watch alone. I think it's one of those shows that
Speaker 2: it just grips you. You don't know that you're going
Speaker 2: to like it. You're not sure it's your kind of thing.
Speaker 2: You come to it, and one episode in you find
Speaker 2: yourself sat there still having watched five series by the
Speaker 2: end of the week and missed out on some work.
Speaker 2: There's something about it that is really compelling viewing.
Speaker 1: I love the quote. I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you were aware of that Stephen King quote, but I
Speaker 1: love the quote. You know, there is no harm in
Speaker 1: hoping for the best as long as you prepare for
Speaker 1: the worst. Were you familiar with that quote before working
Speaker 1: on this series.
Speaker 2: No, So that was one. You know, we spent some
Speaker 2: time looking at the quotes that we put in, but
Speaker 2: it's the perfect quote for this and that's the perfect
Speaker 2: quote to launch the series, isn't it. And it's so true.
Speaker 2: It epitomizes everything about what it means to to go
Speaker 2: into this.
Speaker 1: Is that an accurate quote for the contestants that are
Speaker 1: taking part on the show or was that also an
Speaker 1: appropriate quote for the content creators behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: I think it was probably more for us than them,
Speaker 2: to be honest, it's rare that you work on a
Speaker 2: series where the cast actually know more about what they're
Speaker 2: heading into than you do. They were prepared for the wilderness.
Speaker 2: They knew what they were doing. We were hoping. We
Speaker 2: knew what we were doing as far as the wilderness went,
Speaker 2: but they were terrified about the documentary part of it,
Speaker 2: and we sent them into the wilderness becoming, you know,
Speaker 2: with cameras, asking them to shoot an entire series for us,
Speaker 2: and some of them had never picked one up before.
Speaker 1: Did you reach out to other executive producers from around
Speaker 1: the world that had been making this series? I mean,
Speaker 1: how did you start doing how did you even start
Speaker 1: to approach this project?
Speaker 2: Honestly, I have no idea how the first series was
Speaker 2: made and how that EP survived the experience. The first
Speaker 2: thing that we did was to speak to the EPs
Speaker 2: of the Scandinavian and the US version. We couldn't have
Speaker 2: done it without them. All the questions that you have
Speaker 2: sitting on the couch watching this show, multiply that by ten,
Speaker 2: and that's what we had, at least as producers going
Speaker 2: into it, going how do we do this? How is
Speaker 2: this done? And it seems simple from the outside when
Speaker 2: you go, oh, we're going to produce this series that
Speaker 2: just gives ten wilderness people ten cameras and ask them
Speaker 2: to go out and survive. Surely they can't be much
Speaker 2: in the production of a show like that. You just
Speaker 2: get them ready, you find the land, you put them
Speaker 2: on it, and off they go and then they bring
Speaker 2: back the footage. Simple. But it's not. No, it's really not.
Speaker 2: There's such a process that goes into every aspect of it,
Speaker 2: from finding the location to setting up your safety systems
Speaker 2: to mapping the whole thing, to be knowing exactly how
Speaker 2: you're going to respond in an emergency and in all
Speaker 2: the various response options that can pop their heads up
Speaker 2: as far as how they tap that red button. You
Speaker 2: just have to be prepared for absolutely everything going wrong,
Speaker 2: and not from a television point of view. TV takes
Speaker 2: a back seat. You're preparing for it from a very
Speaker 2: real survival p you. We have to make sure they
Speaker 2: stay alive, and we have to be prepared for worst
Speaker 2: case scenarios, and worst case scenarios are quite serious worst
Speaker 2: case scenarios here, so you start from that and then
Speaker 2: you work backwards into the TV. So we're all out
Speaker 2: of our comfort zone making this series.
Speaker 1: I was approached to do a series it's very similar
Speaker 1: to this. I can't say what it is because I
Speaker 1: signed an NDA, but you know, something very similar and
Speaker 1: I read the contract, and the contract blew my mind
Speaker 1: because you know that they're not going to kill you,
Speaker 1: but you could very easily be in a lot of danger.
Speaker 2: Well, we probably could kill you. I mean, it's the
Speaker 2: real deal. And I think that that's why I was
Speaker 2: a super fan. I'm pretty sure that's why most people
Speaker 2: are super fans of this show, because when you come
Speaker 2: to it and you fall in love with it, it's
Speaker 2: that touching, the void element of it. You know, you
Speaker 2: know how you watch a jackass going They're not going
Speaker 2: to do that? Are they are going to do it?
Speaker 2: They've done it. It's I think it's that same sort
Speaker 2: of thing. I've described it previously as jackass for intellectuals.
Speaker 2: There's something about it that is terrifying because you know
Speaker 2: that they actually could die. There's dead fall, there's wildlife
Speaker 2: that can attack you, there's hypothermia, there's starvation. All of
Speaker 2: these elements are very very real.
Speaker 1: Where does this type of a show for you fit
Speaker 1: into the realm of television? Is this docoreality? Like, how
Speaker 1: are you describing its genre?
Speaker 2: It really is a factual series, and the only thing
Speaker 2: that brings it over into reality, I think is the
Speaker 2: fact that there's prize money. So because there's that prize
Speaker 2: money that's awarded to the person who lasts the longest,
Speaker 2: it turns it into a reality series in some ways.
Speaker 2: But in reality, there is no sense of competition for
Speaker 2: anybody who's actually in it. The participants have no sense
Speaker 2: whatsoever of who's in the competition, who's left, how they're going,
Speaker 2: how they're faring in relation to anybody else. So all
Speaker 2: of that information, all of that data that would normally
Speaker 2: feed into strategizing or helping you last one more day
Speaker 2: or deciding whether or not to tap out, none of
Speaker 2: that information is available to you. It's one of those
Speaker 2: weird things because everything about the series is factual. You've
Speaker 2: got ten people shooting ten documentaries, about an experiment that
Speaker 2: they've signed up for. Essentially, that's what it is, and
Speaker 2: we stitch it together into ten episode or eleven episodes
Speaker 2: in this case, that ties them all together. But there's
Speaker 2: this prize money that confuses things. So as much as
Speaker 2: everyone wants to call it a reality series, it's factual
Speaker 2: or it's reality in the very first incarnations of reality television,
Speaker 2: back in the days when it was genuinely just observational
Speaker 2: documentary with no producers prodding and probing and doing double
Speaker 2: takes or setting scenes up or sometimes frank and grabbing,
Speaker 2: grabbing everything everything together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think it's really interesting because people fell
Speaker 1: in love with reality television for the very fact of,
Speaker 1: you know, they wanted to see reality.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Now audiences want things faster and packaged up, so yes,
Speaker 1: we are getting things, you know, edited with an inch
Speaker 1: of their lives. But I still feel like the essence
Speaker 1: of reality television is exactly what a lot and capsulate
Speaker 1: do you want?
Speaker 2: I one hundred percent agree, and I think that's a
Speaker 2: I think that's the big draw card again, it's the
Speaker 2: fact that it's so raw and it's so immediate. I mean,
Speaker 2: I look back to Big Brother and that was really
Speaker 2: my introduction to reality television, and I fell in love
Speaker 2: with it and I was watching I was watching people
Speaker 2: sleep on an old NOCKI or I think it was
Speaker 2: when you could, you know, subscribe to optis just I
Speaker 2: think I even changed providers just so that I could
Speaker 2: watch that unfiltered reality television. And that's what this feels
Speaker 2: like in many ways, because there's nothing in between the
Speaker 2: person sitting on the couch and the person who's going
Speaker 2: through that experience in the wilderness. There's no narrator, there's
Speaker 2: no producer pulling them off to the side to ask
Speaker 2: them questions. It's just you and them. It's you and
Speaker 2: the participants, and it's as raw as it gets. And
Speaker 2: you know that because it's a warts and all series.
Speaker 2: You get to see all the mistakes they make. You
Speaker 2: get to see them fluff up the camera angles or
Speaker 2: you know, fall over. All the mistakes that they make
Speaker 2: are there, and all of the winds you're right there
Speaker 2: with them. So it's there's some kind of immediacy and
Speaker 2: intimacy to these series that we all love about reality TV.
Speaker 1: Obviously, reality TV contestants say that they didn't go back
Speaker 1: and watch their series I obviously did and watched it,
Speaker 1: and so I could see that the parts that really
Speaker 1: resonated over that series with the times where the camera
Speaker 1: was really left on me the longest to say the most,
Speaker 1: without any chance of really frank and grabbing, and that
Speaker 1: was where I was. It's a dawned on me that
Speaker 1: people love reality television when it feels like they're there.
Speaker 2: I think you've nailed it. It's so true, isn't it.
Speaker 2: It's the camera not moving. I don't think I realized
Speaker 2: that until you just verbalized it. Then You've articulated something
Speaker 2: that I've known but haven't been able to actually grab before.
Speaker 1: Well, it's the currency you're sitting there on the couch
Speaker 1: and you think I'd do that better, or why are
Speaker 1: they doing that? You know what I mean? Like, there's
Speaker 1: this currency of feeling like you're a part of their
Speaker 1: experience because you can really recognize as real.
Speaker 2: I think we've all asked ourselves the question, more so
Speaker 2: since the pandemic and interesting we all sit on the
Speaker 2: couch with an opinion about what we'd do first. I mean,
Speaker 2: I remember screaming at someone who was building a chair
Speaker 2: as their first thing in one of the US series
Speaker 2: just going build a shelter, build your shelter. And we've
Speaker 2: all got, you know, we've all got our opinions on
Speaker 2: what we would do first, or what we'd prioritize. And
Speaker 2: I think, I don't know, I think there's it's so relatable.
Speaker 1: I have to ask you. I'm getting ahead of myself.
Speaker 1: But you know, if you were going into this experience
Speaker 1: knowing what you know now, and you're allowed to take
Speaker 1: these items in there, what items is a must as
Speaker 1: far as you were concerned.
Speaker 2: I really couldn't do it, Ben, I really couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: That goes against the whole thing of you know, what
Speaker 1: do they say, you know, if you're a really good manager,
Speaker 1: you know, never get your staff to do something you
Speaker 1: wouldn't do yourself. Well, obviously that rule has been thrown.
Speaker 2: Right out the window. I'm so in awe of all
Speaker 2: ten of them. But I'll tell you what. I would
Speaker 2: definitely take a sleeping bag. And I can tell you
Speaker 2: that all but one participant took a sleeping bag. And
Speaker 2: almost in every series that you see, people take sleeping bags.
Speaker 2: And I should do some research to find out if
Speaker 2: it's the world first. But we did have one who
Speaker 2: chose not to.
Speaker 1: And do you try and change or offer any suggestions
Speaker 1: to maybe you need a sleeping bag. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you just have to let these people make these mistakes?
Speaker 2: Honestly, you have to let them make the mistakes. But
Speaker 2: I do believe I asked several times, are you sure? No,
Speaker 2: I can't. There is no chance I could do it.
Speaker 2: I don't think I could even do a night.
Speaker 1: You know, the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is
Speaker 1: obviously luring people into it. You're collaborating with the delightful
Speaker 1: Ben on this project. What's your relationship been like with
Speaker 1: him previously? Because I believe you'd work on you'd have
Speaker 1: worked on quite a lot of shows with him at
Speaker 1: ITV studios.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I think Ben and I have worked on
Speaker 2: almost everything I think together at ITV. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: we have. We've done I'm a Celebrity right from the start,
Speaker 2: So from the very first series all the way through
Speaker 2: to now Love Island. We've done Factul together. We've done
Speaker 2: Keeping Australia Safe, Keeping Australia Alive. We've done The Chase together,
Speaker 2: we launched that together. I think I've always worked with Ben.
Speaker 2: Now that I come with.
Speaker 1: He was one of the people that slipped into my
Speaker 1: DMS and said to me, I think I screen grabbed
Speaker 1: that to you on Facebook. So you felt obliged to
Speaker 1: do the podcast. But Ben actually wrote to me and
Speaker 1: was like, you've got to get remitted to do this.
Speaker 1: You've got to get it to do the podcast is alone?
Speaker 1: You know? Is that a bigger challenge to some of
Speaker 1: the other shows because you before mentioned all these other
Speaker 1: shows that you've worked on, and some of them are
Speaker 1: really glossy shows, you know, and then you're coming back
Speaker 1: to something very stripped back. Are you still able to
Speaker 1: access all the things that you've learned from some of
Speaker 1: those other shows or are you kind of throwing things out?
Speaker 2: Bit of column, a bit of Colin b. Well. I
Speaker 2: borrowed heavily from reality in terms of how I prepare
Speaker 2: for a series and in terms of how we prepare
Speaker 2: participants for a series. There's there's a lot of principles
Speaker 2: that are one oh one, you know, making sure that
Speaker 2: everyone understands what they're getting themselves into, making sure that
Speaker 2: everyone's prepared, background checks and casting that process and shooting
Speaker 2: backstories that all borrows heavily from reality and heavily from
Speaker 2: the experience that I've had. But we go from working
Speaker 2: on a show that has a show like I'm Mielebrity,
Speaker 2: where we have about five hundred crew members down to
Speaker 2: a show like a Loan where they're about twenty. The
Speaker 2: job going into series is enormous, and there's so much
Speaker 2: adrenaline and so much pressure in the leader to getting
Speaker 2: them ready to go in. And that's from finding the
Speaker 2: locations and getting all of your stakeholders on board to
Speaker 2: ground truthing where we actually have to comb all the
Speaker 2: area and make sure that it's all good and we've
Speaker 2: checked it all. We know that it's all safe, we
Speaker 2: know what it looks like. There's prepping participants and checking
Speaker 2: their gear lists and checking their ten items, and putting
Speaker 2: them through medical and psych and survival workshops to make
Speaker 2: sure that they're fitting ready in every possible aspect. So
Speaker 2: all of that borrows from reality until you get to
Speaker 2: actually making the series and you go through boot camp,
Speaker 2: and that's a week of intense preparation. It's this huge
Speaker 2: pressure cooker where we're teaching all the participants about what
Speaker 2: they can and can't do on the land, all the parameters.
Speaker 2: We're teaching them how to use a camera, how to
Speaker 2: use multiple cameras, how to work with cards, and how
Speaker 2: to file your data, how to connect your mic and
Speaker 2: sync it with your vision, all of those things. It's
Speaker 2: a massive crash course which all of those things borrow
Speaker 2: from all of the experience that you've had before, but
Speaker 2: nothing prepares you for that moment where you've dropped them
Speaker 2: all off and then everything stops, and then you sort
Speaker 2: of go, actually, I don't know what, what do we
Speaker 2: do now? So you drop them all off and you
Speaker 2: come back to the office and everyone's sitting there going, oh,
Speaker 2: that's the point where you normally where everything fires up.
Speaker 2: You've got your cameras on, you can actually see what
Speaker 2: they're doing. In this scenario, it's the opposite. As soon
Speaker 2: as the series begins, it all goes very very quiet,
Speaker 2: and then you just sit there and you wait. You
Speaker 2: wait for someone to tap out, and you wait for
Speaker 2: the footage.
Speaker 1: And do you only get access to that footage once
Speaker 1: they've tapped out?
Speaker 2: No, we do. So they have drop boxes where they
Speaker 2: leave their things at a certain point and we will
Speaker 2: go out every few days or however, God.
Speaker 1: You'd ask to check in with me and I'd have
Speaker 1: had my lens cap on for the whole thing, and
Speaker 1: fuck you, Ben Norris, You've ruined our entire production.
Speaker 2: You know. Oh, there were some doozies. We've had some
Speaker 2: good laughs about various mistakes that they've made, including one
Speaker 2: participant who blessed gave us a sink clap and went, oh,
Speaker 2: that's for a couple of days ago when I forgot
Speaker 2: to give you one.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, and then what do you do? Do you
Speaker 1: bring your therapist? Do you have a panetole? Like I
Speaker 1: don't understand this. This show seems very high stress.
Speaker 2: If you ask me, it is massively high stress. I
Speaker 2: don't think I slept well for the entire time that
Speaker 2: we were out there, and I had my satellite phone
Speaker 2: literally on my pillow every night, just waiting for a
Speaker 2: call in the middle of the night to go out there.
Speaker 2: So it's high stress for everyone involved. The editor systs
Speaker 2: would go crazy if they didn't get a sink clap,
Speaker 2: because you can imagine trying to tee up cameras and
Speaker 2: audio cards that don't have any kind of common denominator
Speaker 2: to tie them together. But you know, you're scared. You're
Speaker 2: scared that they're going to be okay. You're scared that
Speaker 2: they might die. You're scared that they will have forgotten
Speaker 2: to record. You're scared that they won't have recorded enough.
Speaker 2: You're scared that nothing is happening out there so there
Speaker 2: is nothing to record. You're scared that they'll all tap
Speaker 2: out too soon. You're scared that they'll go for too long.
Speaker 2: You're scared that there won't be enough content for ten episodes.
Speaker 2: Everything about it is absolutely terrifying. Honestly, it's just can
Speaker 2: you imagine pitching a show like this?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it's one thing to come up with
Speaker 1: a show like this, it's another to actually convince people
Speaker 1: to get it. Could be really hard to convince people
Speaker 1: to want to do this. But you've managed to get
Speaker 1: a very interesting cast, which I have to segue into
Speaker 1: I think this show wouldn't work if we didn't somewhat
Speaker 1: like these people. Is that a part of the process
Speaker 1: of picking someone is that they've got a very high watchability.
Speaker 2: Definitely, we start with trying to make sure that they
Speaker 2: can all They all have a competency level that allows
Speaker 2: us to sort of sleep at night. You need to
Speaker 2: know that they can stay live. But more importantly, we
Speaker 2: want good communicators, we want storytellers, We want people who
Speaker 2: know themselves in a comfortable being themselves. But it's really
Speaker 2: important that they're engaging. If you're going to watch someone,
Speaker 2: as we spoke about before, if you're going to watch
Speaker 2: someone potentially sit there and not say much for a while,
Speaker 2: you need to connect to them. You need to connect
Speaker 2: to who they are, and you need to be able
Speaker 2: to sit with them in silence in the same way
Speaker 2: that you know you can sit with your bestie or
Speaker 2: you can sit with your partner in silent and that's
Speaker 2: okay because you sort of know what they're thinking. We
Speaker 2: needed people that we could do that with, and I
Speaker 2: think we get that with all ten of them. They're
Speaker 2: very very different people. They're very authentic humans. They know
Speaker 2: who they are, and I can really hand on heart
Speaker 2: say that they weren't doing it for the money. These
Speaker 2: are all ten people who were genuinely invested in this experiment,
Speaker 2: genuinely doing it for the purpose of pushing themselves for
Speaker 2: whatever their personal motivation was. But they all wanted to
Speaker 2: see how far they could go, regardless of prize money.
Speaker 2: They really were invested in the experiment, and they were
Speaker 2: all willing to be open and raw and honest, and
Speaker 2: that was really really important in finding them. But where
Speaker 2: we're really lucky is that we got ten people who
Speaker 2: could do all those things, but they were markedly different,
Speaker 2: all ten of them. I don't know about you, but
Speaker 2: when I watch the American series sometimes I'd be like, Oh,
Speaker 2: which one's this? Is this that one? Because once you've
Speaker 2: got a beanie on and he next dumper and a
Speaker 2: khaki jacket, people start to look the same. But with
Speaker 2: all ten of these, I think they're really stamped. They
Speaker 2: really stamped themselves as ten distinct individuals. All of the
Speaker 2: people that made it into the final series were people
Speaker 2: who walked into the room. First of all, with their
Speaker 2: casting video, we ask everyone to give a thirty second introduction,
Speaker 2: so there was something obviously that grabs us in that.
Speaker 2: But then they all walked into the room when we
Speaker 2: did our casting one on ones, and there was something
Speaker 2: about each of them and it's the same thing. Some
Speaker 2: of them were instant. There was an energy about them
Speaker 2: as they walked in where we went, Okay, we're in
Speaker 2: the presence of someone pretty amazing here. And some of
Speaker 2: them walked in quite unassuming, and some of them even
Speaker 2: walked in, not necessarily in the final few actually, but
Speaker 2: some could sometimes walk in a little bit cocky or
Speaker 2: a little bit more arrogant, but and slowly you warmed
Speaker 2: to them or there was something about that that really
Speaker 2: grabbed you and drew you in. So there was that
Speaker 2: X factor. All of them had it, but it wasn't
Speaker 2: in your face all of them.
Speaker 1: How rough was Tasmania. Is Tasmania as rough as some
Speaker 1: of the other conditions that we've seen in some of
Speaker 1: the other series around the world.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Yeah, it was really important that we chose that
Speaker 2: we made this a real challenge, and so we deliberately
Speaker 2: set out for Tazzy, and we deliberately set out for
Speaker 2: West coast Tazzy. I don't know if you know too
Speaker 2: much about the geographical differences between east and west, but
Speaker 2: there's a significant difference in the terrain and the weather.
Speaker 2: On the West coast. You've got the roaring forties winds
Speaker 2: coming in. You've got crazy amounts of precipitation, so the
Speaker 2: rain's just coming in constantly. The ground is wet, the
Speaker 2: days are short, the ground is It's really tough. Wilderness
Speaker 2: genuinely is. And it was the most equalizing landscape and
Speaker 2: the most equalizing wilderness we could think of in all
Speaker 2: of Australia for a tough winter that could take ten
Speaker 2: participants from completely different areas and have them all be challenged.
Speaker 2: And it definitely did that.
Speaker 1: I could see that, but I think it was an
Speaker 1: immediacy of when I first tuned into the show, I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh no, I don't think this is going
Speaker 1: to be as terrible, and then as it goes on,
Speaker 1: like as you go from for people listening to this,
Speaker 1: as you go from episode one to episode two, there
Speaker 1: seems to be a very big transition from the conditions
Speaker 1: into oh, yeah, this is going to be pretty hectic.
Speaker 2: There's something really magical about that landscape in that it
Speaker 2: does transform. And I don't want to say too much,
Speaker 2: but the difference in the way that it looks and
Speaker 2: it feels and the way it invites you in when
Speaker 2: the sun's out as opposed to when she's angry and
Speaker 2: raining and windy and gray, it's remarkable. It's and I
Speaker 2: don't think I've seen a landscape transform as much as
Speaker 2: I've seen that one transform, and maybe I've never looked
Speaker 2: at one for long enough to know what it does.
Speaker 2: But there's really it's it becomes this magical wonderland and
Speaker 2: it turns itself around. And I think that's the pushbull
Speaker 2: that the participants play with. You know, there's times where
Speaker 2: it's just awful and she's look trowitory saying get out,
Speaker 2: I don't want you here, and then other days and
Speaker 2: as soon as you go, okay, that's it, I'm done,
Speaker 2: she goes, hang on a second, let me just turn
Speaker 2: up the heat for a sec. And the light comes
Speaker 2: out and it just looks like this magical wonderland and
Speaker 2: suddenly she draws you back in again. And the transformation,
Speaker 2: that flip flopping of weather and you know, sunlight versus
Speaker 2: your great I mean, you see the character development come
Speaker 2: in and out with the weather and their connectedness to
Speaker 2: the weather, and the land becomes this crazy thing where
Speaker 2: you just where they are. You know, they get so
Speaker 2: tied in together that you can that you know that
Speaker 2: they can just hang in there for a bit longer.
Speaker 2: The sun will come out again.
Speaker 1: You know. I was talking to a super fan while
Speaker 1: I was doing some research today before talking to you,
Speaker 1: and some un pointed This person pointed out to me
Speaker 1: that they came across the show because it helped them
Speaker 1: with grief. And I know this might sound strange to
Speaker 1: you to hear, but you know what an interesting thing
Speaker 1: that this show draws people in who you know are
Speaker 1: suffering from grief they and that it does something really
Speaker 1: quite powerful and helpful for them.
Speaker 2: I've heard that a lot from our participants going in.
Speaker 2: A lot of them told us that nature was a
Speaker 2: healer for them, and a lot of them feel safer
Speaker 2: or healthier, or clearer or straighter when they're in nature.
Speaker 2: And it sounds like a cliche, doesn't it, But it does.
Speaker 1: It feel uncomfortable to say it, but I still think
Speaker 1: it's a huge part of the currency of the show.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it sounds horrific to put these
Speaker 1: people into these situations, but you know, look they do it,
Speaker 1: and that there's something quite hopeful for the viewer, something
Speaker 1: quite magical.
Speaker 2: I really think there is. And there's there's something about
Speaker 2: nature that reminds you of your place in the world
Speaker 2: that's really humbling, and I think as crew, we've walked
Speaker 2: away with something with some really valuable lessons. It's changed
Speaker 2: us in ways that again sound a bit cliched and
Speaker 2: uncomfortable to say, but this show has a profound effect
Speaker 2: on people. You hear lots of cases in the US
Speaker 2: that where this show has actually influenced sustainable living culture
Speaker 2: in ways that is unprecedented, and it's directly related to
Speaker 2: watching this series. People want to get back to nature.
Speaker 2: People are leaving and we're already in that mindset anyway.
Speaker 2: I think again, the pandemic has taught us that we
Speaker 2: can we can work remotely, and we can get back
Speaker 2: to nature. And I think that this is just feeding
Speaker 2: into that, and the two are feeding off each other.
Speaker 2: But there's some really strong healing messages about what nature
Speaker 2: can do for you. Well.
Speaker 1: I hope people listening to this right now are drawn
Speaker 1: to watching this show because I think this show really
Speaker 1: does deserve to have a lot of eyeballs on it,
Speaker 1: because it's an amazing show that you should be really
Speaker 1: proud of.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm so super It was a privilege to be
Speaker 2: the EP of this series. Genuinely say that. I mean,
Speaker 2: how often do you get to make a show that
Speaker 2: you're a massive fan of. But it's a privilege to
Speaker 2: just work in a format that is just so honest
Speaker 2: and authentic and that puts people in the spotlight that
Speaker 2: we don't normally see they're really genuinely ten wonderful, wonderful
Speaker 2: human beings, and you don't. You won't and see, you
Speaker 2: won't want to see any of them tap out. You'll
Speaker 2: love every single one of them, and they'll just get
Speaker 2: under your skin.
Speaker 1: But did you have to choose between like did David Mott?
Speaker 1: Did Marty say to you, now you're not doing I'm
Speaker 1: a celebrity next year? You know you're going to be
Speaker 1: doing alone? Did you have to become Did you have
Speaker 1: to make a decision with some of these projects? There's
Speaker 1: some of these staples that you work on every year,
Speaker 1: Like well, I.
Speaker 2: Had to make the decision as to what to do
Speaker 2: with celebrity. But there was a no brainer. I as
Speaker 2: soon as I heard that we were that we had alone,
Speaker 2: I went straight to the top. I went straight to
Speaker 2: Madi and Bepon said I have to work on this.
Speaker 2: I have to work on this. I may have threatened
Speaker 2: I just had to. I just knew I had to.
Speaker 2: And I was lucky enough that they said, okay, here.
Speaker 1: You go, do it rightfully. So that He's given you
Speaker 1: such an interesting and challenging project for you to utilize
Speaker 1: your skills on Oh.
Speaker 2: Look, honestly, I don't think I'm prouder of anything then alone,
Speaker 2: it was just and the team that works on it
Speaker 2: as much as I mean, you can imagine, it's a
Speaker 2: small team, a team of about twenty to twenty five,
Speaker 2: just depending on which part of the series we're talking about,
Speaker 2: but a small team of people who are also living
Speaker 2: extremely remotely under not great circumstances, with not great coffee
Speaker 2: or food options, who are away from their families and
Speaker 2: living you know, this incredible journey with these incredible people.
Speaker 2: But there's a separate, alone series that happens behind the
Speaker 2: scenes as well, with all these people who are working
Speaker 2: for you but don't have an end date. None of
Speaker 2: us know when it's going to end. So you say
Speaker 2: goodbye to your families and they you know, and your friends.
Speaker 2: You can't tell them where you're going, and you can't
Speaker 2: tell them how long it's for. So there's an incredible
Speaker 2: sacrifice on behalf of this incredible team that I got
Speaker 2: to work with. So I'm so I'm proud of every
Speaker 2: single person that was part of it from behind the
Speaker 2: scenes two on screen, it's just what a show like it.
Speaker 1: I was so lucky for you, Like you know, to
Speaker 1: be able to sink your teeth into something like that.
Speaker 1: Everyone who joins the podcast that I asked them this question,
Speaker 1: what is something from behind the scenes, something that we
Speaker 1: won't see, that might be a bit of an interesting
Speaker 1: story or a funny story from you know, your particular
Speaker 1: experience of making this series of a Loon.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you about the fact that we
Speaker 2: were all that we were literally in a log cabin
Speaker 2: where we had to chop wood to keep ourselves warm.
Speaker 2: As producers. We had electricity connected, but it wasn't connected
Speaker 2: very well, So we lived on a diet of anything
Speaker 2: that could be made in a microwave, a toaster, or
Speaker 2: through boiling a kettle. But you couldn't use either of
Speaker 2: the three at the same time because if you tried
Speaker 2: to plug in two at the same time, the whole
Speaker 2: building shut down.
Speaker 1: All does it make you get does it make you
Speaker 1: get to know the other producers better? Like? Do you
Speaker 1: walk away with a better relationship them or a worse
Speaker 1: relationship with them?
Speaker 2: Oh? We are bonded through Is it Stockholm syndrome? Yep?
Speaker 2: I think we're all. Our DNA has fused. We've been
Speaker 2: down there that long and lived that Groundhog Day for
Speaker 2: such a long period of time eating that. How long
Speaker 2: were you there for?
Speaker 1: That?
Speaker 2: All up? Like all up?
Speaker 1: How long were you there for?
Speaker 2: I can't tell you that without giving away how long
Speaker 2: it went for. I can tell you that it was
Speaker 2: for more than one hundred and twenty days for me.
Speaker 1: Okay, you can tell me that you're not okay and
Speaker 1: you've been in therapy since I'm not okay.
Speaker 2: I came back, haven't stopped being, haven't stopped eating? Because
Speaker 2: how good's flavor when you're not having a white bread
Speaker 2: sandwich on noodles? And so yeah, look it's it's I'm
Speaker 2: a little bit broken, but I'm humpty dumpty now, so
Speaker 2: all good.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. Some of these experiences can really rupture
Speaker 1: where you are in your life, and when you return
Speaker 1: to the real people in your real world, they're kind
Speaker 1: of a little bit like, oh, you're broken, can I
Speaker 1: send you back?
Speaker 2: I think I should have been sent back. I came
Speaker 2: out of there and went to Hobart and suddenly there
Speaker 2: were too many people. It was really hard to adjust.
Speaker 2: And it was Hobart, you know, it wasn't Sydney yet.
Speaker 2: So I'm really glad. I had about a week and
Speaker 2: a half in Hobart before I flew home to Sydney
Speaker 2: because it was a massive culture shock. I really wanted
Speaker 2: to just go straight back to the cabin. That's when
Speaker 2: you know you're broken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's definitely but you had the red wine at
Speaker 1: Salamanca and that basically you've eased you back into the
Speaker 1: real world. Can I just say I've had you for
Speaker 1: much longer than I anticipated, and I'm so grateful for
Speaker 1: your generosity with your time. I knew that this was
Speaker 1: going to be a fun episode for me, and you
Speaker 1: were hilarious, so well spoken, and I just really appreciate
Speaker 1: you sharing the behind the scenes of a loon.
Speaker 2: I really love talking to you. I've been wanting to
Speaker 2: talk to you for such a long time.