Heights Of Hype - H&a + Neighbours Article

[Andy]

HEIGHTS OF HYPE

The Newcastle Herald

15 April 2005

Neighbours and Home and Away, Australia's longest running TV programs, have been producing more than their fare share of hype in the past few months.

Now they are approaching their own kinds of climax.

Neighbours is in the process of celebrating 20 years on air, bringing back favourite characters for a special week of episodes in July.

Home and Away is approaching the end of one of the show's most dramatic storylines ever and in the next few weeks fans will finally discover the identity of the "Summer Bay stalker".

The stalker mystery has been running since January with only a handful of crew members privvy to the stalker's identity.

"Only a handful of people knew who the stalker is," Home and Away producer Julie McGauran said.

"The cast and crew weren't told until the last minute, not even the writers knew."

Now the revealing episodes have been shot, all cast and crew have signed confidentiality agreements.

But one thing McGauran is more than willing to release are the show's ratings figures, which placed them ahead of NBN drama McLeod's Daughters in the first week of ratings after Easter.

Home and Away's ratings are averaged out over five nights, which places them lower than if their most watched episodes were listed.

Last Tuesday, when the Summer Bay stalker planted a bomb at a murder mystery party, Home and Away (1.56million) beat Australia's number one drama McLeod's Daughters (1.41million) in the national ratings.

The show also had a healthy average of 1.26million viewers a night in the six weeks before Easter, a figure which McGauran said had been rising steadily thanks to the 'stalker line' as it is known amongst cast and crew.

"Avid fans will be starting to work out who the stalker is by now, there have been subtle clues ever since January," McGauran said. "The episode where it's revealed is amazing."

Neighbours' July celebrations will follow a milestone for the 18-year-old Home and Away, which will mark its 4000th episode on July 8.

Any sort of comparison between the two is misleading, with timeslots and lead-in programs having a significant impact.

But Neighbours' average of 807,000 viewers a night in the 6.30pm timeslot is quite acceptable.

And with TV show life-expectancies rarely longer than a season, these two dramas are bucking the trend.

In doing so, they're showing no signs of slowing down.

McGauran: "If we keep rating 1.5[million] we're not going anywhere."

NEIGHBOURS, WEEKNIGHTS, 6.30PM, SOUTHERN CROSS TEN

HOME AND AWAY, WEEKNIGHTS, 7PM, PRIME

[Andy]

"The cast and crew weren't told until the last minute, not even the writers knew."

The writers didn't know?

"Avid fans will be starting to work out who the stalker is by now, there have been subtle clues ever since January," McGauran said. "The episode where it's revealed is amazing."

She does know how to hype it up doesn't she.

[Di]

The stalker mystery has been running since January with only a handful of crew members privvy to the stalker's identity.

"Only a handful of people knew who the stalker is," Home and Away producer Julie McGauran said.

"The cast and crew weren't told until the last minute, not even the writers knew."

Now the revealing episodes have been shot, all cast and crew have signed confidentiality agreements.

Last Tuesday, when the Summer Bay stalker planted a bomb at a murder mystery party, Home and Away (1.56million) beat Australia's number one drama McLeod's Daughters (1.41million) in the national ratings.

"Avid fans will be starting to work out who the stalker is by now, there have been subtle clues ever since January," McGauran said. "The episode where it's revealed is amazing."

McGauran: "If we keep rating 1.5[million] we're not going anywhere."

HOME AND AWAY, WEEKNIGHTS, 7PM, PRIME

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well who wrote it then ? if the writer's don't know ?.

all cast and crew have signed confidentiality agreements Well what happen's if they spill the bean's ? by accident , i bet there dying to tell someone, i wonder if the local church is busy with them going in to confess there sin's , and get it off there chest cause who ever they speak to on the other side of that curtain they can't say a word can they confidentiality and all that

[msf]

Guys you've got to understand how a soap is written.

The storylines are devised by the storyliners.

The dialogues are written by the writers who write from home and have no real contact with the production crew.

Here, only the storyliners knew the identity of the stalker.

This is how Shortland Street works but all Aussie/NZ soaps are produced the same way :

The script department

Among those with the greatest creative input into Shortland Street are the writers. Writers work in three groups: those who storyline the programme, those who write the dialogue and those who edit the scripts. At present five story liners, two script editors and a script supervisor are employed full-time. Dialogue writers usually write one episode each month.

Each week the story liners meet to devise the storylines for a block of episodes. Rachel Lang, former story editor, describes some of the limitations facing the group. 'We have certain practical considerations: certain characters are out, like the actor is on holiday; we've got a certain number of guest characters and there are stories that we have to pick up from last week ? our cliffhangers. We make a list of the new stories we might want to bring through - something funny or other stories - but we are seeking five cliffhangers which will give us our structure. You can end up with clusters where everything comes at once and that's unfortunate but it's an accident of the way stories sometimes develop. Often a story will go faster than we'd like; we might have to speed it up because we need a cliffhanger on Tuesday. Essentially, though, it's instinctive; there are no set guidelines.'

The storylines are fleshed out into a synopsis of each episode and a detailed scene breakdown. The synopsis and scene breakdowns are then sent out to five dialogue writers ? one per episode. When the dialogue scripts are written they are submitted to the script editors who check them for character and storyline continuity.

Script editor Paul Hagan describes some of the work that goes into script editing. 'We serve the storylines by making sure the dialogue scripts are the best possible interpretation of what the story liners intended. In a good week we have five excellent scripts and we just make sure they come in to time. One episode might be very full and the following episode might be slightly under time and content so we might shift scenes. The writers may not have fully exploited the storyline to get the most drama out of it or they may have gone too far in the other direction and overdramatised something. Sometimes, especially with new writers, they tend to put too much of themselves or their own ideas into the episode so we have to keep an eye on that and make certain the characters speak with their own voices not the voice of the individual writer.'

One script editor will edit the Monday and Tuesday scripts, the second the Wednesday and Thursday scripts. The script supervisor will read all four edited scripts and edit Friday's. The script supervisor looks out for continuity glitches between the work of the two script editors and has overall responsibility for editing. It is also the script supervisor's job to make certain practical considerations are adhered to. These involve, for example, keeping to the designated limits of exterior location shooting ? from seven to ten minutes but sometimes up to twenty minutes per block. During rehearsals the director may find an episode is too long, in which case the script supervisor decides what can be cut without viewers losing the thread of the story. When episodes run under time the script supervisor writes new scenes which can be incorporated into the story.

The writers are assisted by a medical advisor who advises on the accuracy of medical jargon and procedures. The medical advisor checks the scripts after dialogue is written and before they go to the script editors. They also negotiate with suppliers for the hire or loan of equipment and liaise with the make-up department if any special effects such as bruising or blood are required. When medical scenes are being rehearsed the advisor goes on to the set to make certain any medical equipment is used properly and procedures are carried out in an appropriate way within the limitations of the budget and the set. Former medical advisor Megan Brownhill acknowledges the compromises involved. 'It's not so much making sure that everything is correct down to the last thing, it's being able to know when, how to cheat something. Obviously you can't see someone giving an injection so you have to look at the monitor and say, "This is going to make it look more realistic."?

http://www.shortlandst.com/info/production_story.htm

[Di]

Home and Away producer Julie McGauran said.

"The cast and crew weren't told until the last minute, not even the writers knew

God i was only replying to what was said it the newspaper arlicle.

[msf]

The actors, the dialogue writers and the filming crew didn't know who the stalker was.

The storyliners did, obviously.

[starlet_girl]

It's just a weird way of doing things, tis all. And how were the writers supposed to put in all the 'subtle clues' etc. if they didn't know who it was? Did someone else put them in? Strangggee.

LOL at Di- can just imagine them all in a little church somewhere, and the priest rubbing his hands with glee.

[msf]

It's just a weird way of doing things, tis all. And how were the writers supposed to put in all the 'subtle clues' etc. if they didn't know who it was? Did someone else put them in? Strangggee.

LOL at Di- can just imagine them all in a little church somewhere, and the priest rubbing his hands with glee.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We don't know what the clues are, it's not necessarily something someone says. And anyway the scripts are edited after the writers have sent them to the production company. It's easy to add something to them.

Actually it's a very common practice to keep writers and actors out of the loop, that happens even in top American dramas. In America they sometimes even film 2 different season finales and no one knows which one is going to go to air until the last minute.

I don't think the actors care that much about who the stalker is, the way TV shows are filmed (fake sets, cameras and people everywhere, scenes not filmed chronologically...) , it's impossible to get excited about a show if you're in it.

[sir drinks alot]

Neighbours and Home and Away, Australia's longest running TV programs,

Don't you have any shows that have lastet more than 20 years ?

[Krazy Karl]

As far as what would happen if they spilled the beans, well I wouldn't be surprised if they went back and shot some scenes having them bumped off!