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