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‘ The Wild’ was essentially created by three strangers, ������������������������������������������������������� Rohan Dickson( head writer), Bronwyn Berry( executive ���������� ���� �������� �������� ����������� ����� ����� time I met Bronwyn and Rohan was after we were all on board. Our brief was to create a daily drama series that was shot in HD on location on a game farm. We had about 18 months to set it up … that’ s it.”, he replies.
In the previous year, before he was aware that they ��������������������������������������������������������� to a series of blue sky workshops with several top industry professionals. Essentially, these ����� ��������� ������ ������ ���� able to mine information from them on different imaginary production scenarios. Discussions that in ���������������������������������� what they wanted to do, and help them determine if it was feasible.
“ A few months later I got a call from a good friend of mine, who asked me to send my CV ��� ������� ���������� �� ����� ���� �� ���� my own production company and ������� ����������� ��� �� ���������� ���� ��� ������� ���� I trusted my friend and in the end sent them the CV.”
���������������������������������������������������� to Richard that the project was to shoot a daily soap on location on a game farm.“ I think they were still sceptical about whether it was possible, but I immediately rose to the challenge. I knew it could be done. It was one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in television. When they offered me the gig, how could I say no?”
Putting his company to one side for 18 months, Richard agreed to pick up the producer reins with Bronwyn Berry, and set about creating history with what was to ����������������������������������������������������������
�������������������������������������������������� production of this scale internally … there were a lot of corporate systems I kept hitting my head against. Some
22 | WGSA MAG June 2013
There were a lot of corporate systems I kept hitting my head against
things that wouldn’ t normally be a sweat at all became a big sweat.” The internal structures were not designed ��� ������� ���� ����������� ���������� ����� ����� ������ day when producing television drama, and although Richard had been told that part of the exercise was for ��������������������������������������������������� there was very little space for independence once he ���������������������������������������������������������
Simple things were complicated.“ For instance, the setting is a game farm, so to me it’ s logical that we’ ll need to see animals in the background of some of the shots. We know we’ re setting up for the long term, so it makes sense for us to have some tame Zebras which we can heard in and out of the background of shots at will. Zebras cost about R5 000.00 each to purchase, maintenance is negligible coz we’ re on a farm – their natural habitat.”
���� ��� ������ ���� ������ ����� go out and buy some Zebras because that is the best, cheapest, solution to a long term problem.
����� ������ ������ �������� ����� owning game was not part of their core business, so we couldn’ t buy ���������������������������������� an alternative”. The alternative for the production was to rent a Zebra, but it costs nearly R25 000 a day to rent a Zebra because now you have to pay every time you need it for the hire of a trained animal, its handler, specialized transport there and back, permits, etc.
���� ���� ����� ��� ������ ������� ��������� ���� purchase of the animals, we’ d lost a lot of valuable time.”. As a result the handlers didn’ t have enough time to tame the animals that were eventually �������� ��� ��� ���� ����� ��� ���� ����� ���� ���������� ����� won’ t see too many animals in the background.
Richard had to come up with creative ways of ���������������������������������������������������� offs between corporate structures and production necessities were time consuming and frustrating.“ To keep within our tight schedule and budget, I found myself making a lot of deals and calling in favours. While our solutions were pretty much run of the mill in