Suzanne Ryan: Producer Profile

L-R: SUZANNE RYAN, ZENO GABING AND JUHAIDAH JOEMIN

SLR Productions has announced the cast for its futuristic series, Space Nova. But what does it take to get to this point? Come behind the scenes to find out about the extraordinary three-year journey to develop and finance a children’s series.

Thanks for joining us, Suzanne. SLR is well known for series based on book adaptations, but Space Nova is an original idea. How did the concept for Space Nova come about?

Space Nova was created in-house by SLR’s executive team, Jo Boag (Creative Director), Melanie Alexander (Head of Development), and I. Super RTL had asked me when I was at MIPCOM in 2016 to create a new show that was like The Skinner Boys (a 52 x 24-minute series we produced with Super RTL and Nine). The directive was to bring them a show that again featured a family of adventurers for the same target audience of six to nine-year olds. 

As the new Australian space agency was current news, I thought space would be a great topic.

So, Jo, Mel and I set about creating an Australian space show with an Aussie astronaut family. From there, we pitched the initial concept and then Super RTL and the ACTF came on board for development. I then pitched the show to the ABC who also came on board for development shortly after. The show really resonated with everyone because it could be created with main Australian characters and appeal to international audiences.

What are you hoping Australian children will
particularly love about this series?

There are some
great themes and topics in Space Nova that I can see
Australian audiences loving. Women in science, Australians in space and
Indigenous astronomy (our main Indigenous character, Janali, is an astronomer).
We have an entire Australian space unit living on an International
Space Station called Luna Port, with the Australian team looking after the EMU
telescope. There is a strong sense of Australian characters, particularly through the
main family - the Novas, and their spaceships: the Eureka, the Cicada and the
Sugar Glider.

There are
low-level alien findings and a cool serial arc that I can’t give away, but
let’s just say some high-level aliens will be revealed. We visit
exciting planets and find out about amazing space phenomena and
science. Exploring the ideas of ‘what if...?’ is at the core of our stories. There
is thrilling action and great comedic moments. Overall, our
Aussie intrepid family will discover some pretty amazing stuff.
We are also set in the future, in 2162. So we have made
every effort to bring in as much future technology we can think about.

We also have
Karlie Alinta Noon as our space and Indigenous consultant. Karlie
is one of Australia’s leading astronomers and astrophysicists, she works
with the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian
National University and the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science unit.

Why is Australian content important to you?

Australian
content is about audiences hearing and seeing their own culture reflected
back to them. It is important, and of course relevant, for Australian
audiences to have their own content available. A show like Space Nova is
aspirational and very current. Who knows, it might inspire a future
Australian astronaut or scientist to travel beyond the stars.

SLR’s content has now sold in more than 165
countries. How do you expect Space Nova will fare with international
audiences?

I keep my
fingers and toes crossed that it will. Space Nova is a show that
will hopefully inspire all audiences, because space is fascinating and we
all want to know if aliens exist, right?

You have multiple pre-sales and distribution partners
on this series (congratulations!). How hard is it to finance a kids’ series
these days?

Space Nova is partnering with Super RTL, one of Germany’s leading
children’s broadcasters, along with Australia’s best — the ABC and
Nine. Internationally, the distrubution is represented by ZDF Enterprises
and locally in Australia and New Zealand by the ACTF. We are also
partnering with one of the world’s highly reputable CGI companies in Malaysia,
Giggle Garage. Screen Australia and Create NSW are also principal
investors. SLR has invested into this series as well.

Financing a show
of this magnitude is not easy and you have to drive it and work with
everyone’s needs and timing. But once you get it over the line, there
is sense of satisfaction — finally you have a green light. This show has
been in the making since October 2016, and while that might not seem too
long ago, the financing side did take some dedication.

One of the terrific parts to working with such amazing partners is that we have an entire team of people all supporting us from the networks, from the distributors to (of course!) our own creative team.

Financing takes time, and you need everyone on board to really make it happen.

Are all those partners very actively involved in
development? It must be quite a feat to juggle all that feedback?!

Yes, every
single partner is involved in the show editorially. We developed the series
with the ACTF, Super RTL and the ABC. We had some initial brainstorms
for the show in 2017 with some fabulous writers attending the brainstorming
sessions. We engaged Thomas Duncan-Watt to write the first script in
2017. Thomas is now the head writer of the series. Pablo de
la Torre is the series director and is the vision driver for the
overall look of the show. We have an awesome creative and
editorial team.

The ACTF provided script development funding to SLR
Productions for this project (and has done for a few other SLR productions over
the years). How does that support help the project and/or your business?

Without the development support from the ACTF, we just couldn’t have achieved the early development we needed to really prove the concept to everyone.

The development funding is a great help because with it, we developed two 24-minute scripts, designed two main characters and some locations, and made a short pilot. This was the proof of concept that enabled the show to be greenlit.

Where do you see Australian kids’ TV in the future?

Australian kids’
TV will always be needed and will always have a place for its
audience. There are always new and exciting stories to be told, and
fantastic people and companies coming up with shows. We have some
of the world’s best shows, crews, producers and creatives. It’s
an exciting time now and in the future to be making content.

For this project, you’re working with Malaysia’s Giggle Garage Animations. Can you explain your process for working collaboratively on Space Nova?

Giggle Garage
are the animation partner for Space Nova. The pipeline between
SLR and Giggle is purpose fit to make sure we meet the specific CGI needs
of the show, so regular contact and collaboration is a must.

The team in Sydney handles all the pre-production: from scripts, designs, storyboarding and animatics to voice recording, while Giggle deals with all the production matters, such as: CGI modelling, layouts, animation and final comp. Then, it’s back to SLR for post-production with sound design, music, and a final mix — then we’re ready to deliver to broadcasters! SLR employs about 65 people in Sydney for Space Nova.

So that's three years to get to this point! When will we get to see the show on TV?

We don’t have a fixed air date yet but it will be on the networks in the near future.