Me back in the day doing research interviews

Well, after almost exactly seven years ago, when I announced at an Australian Distillers Association conference in Tasmania to a room full of distillers, I’m thrilled to say that we’ve finally have the promo reel finished for my series about craft distilling and cocktail culture in the USA for pitching!

We are also finalising a 10 minute segment for an episode as a demo reel, and if the “sizzle” is any indication, it’s going to be both beautiful and engaging.

I got accepted a few years back into a LA based content incubator program with Voyage Media, and have a supervising editor and great support team who have helped bring my vision to life.  I had some  opportunities to get it made previous to that but between COVID and a few other variables, it had to wait until now to get the planets to align. I’ve learnt a lot along the way about production and am also a member of the Screen Producers Association of Australia now too, and can see why some projects do take years to get off the ground. But enough people in the business told me to keep going and that it was a viable and unique concept, so I kept the flame alive.

We had a three day shoot in Tasmania recently, which was a lot of fun (I paid for all that and post-production) and I didn’t end up too shabby in front of the camera as the host thank goodness.  I helped right the script, and prepare the shot list so we could hit the ground running and make the most of the time there.

I wish I could show you the clip but you’ll have to trust me when I say it is gorgeous and if that doesn’t get the series green-lit, I don’t know what will. My producer will now “shop” to platforms both in Australia and the US and at least I won’t die wondering if the thing had potential after all soon I expect.

me, being very serious!

If the series is picked up, it will have five x 45 minute episodes, with very high production values – think Chef’s Table on Netflix and will focus on the people and their inspiration that make them want to craft fine spirits.

I’ve a short list of over 40 possible distillers covering gin, rum, whisky, vodka and some others and they’ll be chosen for a mix of location, style of production, longevity as a business and their points of difference, so you’d get a great overview of some of the makers here in Australia now.  They’ll need to be interviewed by myself and the producer first to see their potential.

we had planes, cars, drones, the lot!

The show is also design to be international, so it’s an exciting time to be me!  Lots of late nights, and early morning calls of course, and the crew and post production editing team are top of their game here, and I think I’m in very safe hands.

So wish me luck and hopefully I’ll some good news soon.