New Netflix release Territory faces some big expectations. The global streaming platform revealed this week how 15+ Australian Netflix titles have appeared in the Global Top 10 since the list launched in July 2021.
With the six episodes of Territory available globally from today, viewers will be voting with their remote controls.
The new series comes with a good pedigree. The series was co-created by Ronde’s Ben Davies and writer Timothy Lee.
Davies has teamed with Australia’s hottest production house Easy Tiger to make the series, filmed in the Northern Territory and South Australia.
Taking control of directing duties across all episodes is Greg McLean. When it comes to portraying outback Australia there is no one better than the busy filmmaker.
McLean pitched to work on the project after he overheard Easy Tiger producer Ian Collie talking about the forthcoming project.
Director has a fascination with Northern Territory
“I heard them discussing something about a show in the Northern Territory,” McLean told Mediaweek. “I’d made a movie in the Territory in 2007 called Rogue, and I have a fascination with the Northern Territory and the landscape and the wildlife.
“I just pestered them until they told me what it was. They told me they had an idea for this huge, sprawling drama series set in a cattle station.
“I don’t think I was originally who they were thinking of, but I eventually convinced them that I was the right person for it.”
McLean has depicted outback landscapes across his career. Apart from the movie Rogue, he’s made films and TV series for his Wolf Creek franchise.
“I grew up in Bendigo on a farm, so I’ve always been drawn to landscape and nature and always just loved being outdoors in the Australian landscape.”
Helping McLean develop his eye for the outdoors was five years of studying landscape painting at art school.
“That’s translated into a lot of my storytelling where I tend to tell stories about characters surviving nature or being in nature and also finding ways to tell stories where the environment is a huge part of the drama.
“My film Jungle is about a character who’s trying to survive the Amazon jungle. I like stories that use the environment as a key part of the storytelling.”
Greg McLean. Top image: McLean with producers Ben Davies and Rob Gibson
Still calls Australia home
McLean has worked internationally, but he likes working near home.
“I love being in Australia. We are a very lucky country just because where we are geographically, we’re shielded from so much.
“I’m very patriotic. I love Australia. I love showing Australia to the world. I know it’s not that cool, but I’m just very patriotically Australian. I love showing the landscape and people.
“We used to have, and probably still have, a bit of cultural cringe in Australia, and it used to be prevalent enormously in the arts. I’m very proud, anti-cringe.”
From the opening shots of the landscape in Territory, it is clear McLean has delivered parts of Australia in a way not seen on TV before. What helped him achieve that look?
“We had the resources to be able to get the teams together to capture the landscape in that way. We had the best drone pilots in Australia, probably the world. We also had cinematographer Simon Duggan. He’s one of the best cinematographers in the world. He’d never done TV before.
“We had an A-list crew from Australia and put them onto the show and said, ‘We want to do create a blockbuster feeling for the story. We want it to sit competitively with anything else in the world in terms of production value.’
“We wanted to capture how epic this landscape is, how intense the drama is, take the audience right into the action of the cattle musters. We wanted to do it in a cinematic way – like we were making a big movie as opposed to doing a TV series.”
Helping the consistency was the fact McLean was engaged to direct all episodes of Territory.
“When you do the whole thing, you can choose the crew, and you take it all the way through.”
Having worked on movies and TV, and lots of them, McLean is well versed in working quickly and having to do more with less.
“One of the things we do well in Australia is working on smaller budgets. We have to learn how to be resourceful here.
“Famously many Australian cinematographers have gone to Hollywood and said, ‘Oh my God, you gave me two lights. I’m used to working with one.’
“We’ve had a series of Academy Award-winning cinematographers who come from Australia because they can’t believe when they get the resources, what they can do with it.”
First time working with Netflix
When it comes to streaming platforms, McLean has worked a lot with Stan – from the Wolf Creek TV series to Easy Tiger’s Scrublands. This is his first time with Netflix.
“It was an interesting experience,” he said. “It’s been fantastic working with them because we couldn’t have made this show with anyone else because of the size of the show. It’s huge, it’s expansive. They said, ‘Don’t pull back. In fact, go further.’ It was exciting as a filmmaker to have that kind of backing and support.
McLean also enjoyed the experience of working with Ronde’s Ben Davies and Easy Tiger’s Ian Collie and Rob Gibson. “They are the best around. I love those guys. They’re super smart. They’ve just got great taste and they’re just really good people.”
McLean wasn’t able to direct season two of Scrublands as it clashed with Territory.
“I couldn’t do it because I was already committed to this show, but they got Ben Young to direct it – a fantastic WA director.”
McLean hinted that he could be working more with Easy Tiger again soon. “There are a couple of things in the pipeline.”
While McLean was impressed with the cast, he hadn’t worked with them all.
“I’d worked with Rob Taylor, Jay Ryan and Kylah Day on Scrublands. Rob was also in my film Rogue. I’m a huge fan of Jay’s and he was amazing as the priest in Scrublands.
“Michael Dorman was someone I wanted to work with forever. I’m also a huge fan of Sara Wiseman and Jake Ryan. Jake was in season one of the Wolf Creek series. There is also a bunch of incredible new talent too.
“I was just reminded again of how incredible these actors are. I can’t wait for people to see them because they just do such an incredible job of bringing these characters to life. The acting is some of the best I’ve seen.”
The discussion ended with McLean explaining what keeps him motivated to stay so busy. His IMDB entry lists no less than seven projects in development. Sounds like there might be even more than that.
“I’m always looking for great stories. I’m fascinated by stories and how stories work. Every time I do something, I feel like I’m practising to get better. I’m constantly learning from working with actors and learning about acting from watching great actors.
“I love working with writers ’cause I’m a writer myself. Seeing how they create the magic that they do. I consider myself a student of filmmaking and I always will be.”
See also: Territory preview screening for cast and crew of next big Netflix Australian original