Taking the long way home
This is New Zealand’s first attempt at ‘slow television’. It lasts for 12 hours. Glenn McConnell checks it out.
Most viewers will see just 1 per cent of the huge collection of footage shot for New Zealand’s first attempt at ‘‘slow television’’.
Go South, a 12-hour slow television journey of New Zealand, is by all accounts a television epic. Even then, only a tiny fraction of the material filmed for the series will make it to screens. Series producer Spencer Stoner says they captured a whopping 320 hours of film for the show.
This marathon of a television show isn’t just an elongated tourism advert, he says. According to Stoner, it’s experimental programming which he hopes will change the way we think about television.
‘‘It’s not like anything else out there,’’ he promises.
But, before we get ahead of ourselves, what exactly is this 12-hour show?
For those new to ‘‘slow television’’, it’s an emerging genre of broadcasting which features long, near real-time displays. I say ‘‘displays’’ because there’s no traditional narrative. There’s no hook nor dialogue. There are, normally, no actors. Spencer says slow television aims to be ‘‘meditative’’ and ‘‘hypnotic’’, rather than dramatic and exciting.
‘‘We wanted it to be an open book for people to engage with, that’s why there are no interviews and no music,’’ Spencer says.
Following on from the success of slow television series offshore, Go South takes viewers from Auckland to Milford Sound. It features no interviews, no voice-overs and no captivating dramas. Instead, Go South takes viewers on a road, rail and sea trip from the Strand Railway Station in Auckland City, to the Tasman Sea just out of Milford Sound.
While that may, at first, sound like a dull watch, Spencer claims preview audiences have become ‘‘hooked after the first few seconds’’.
As they travelled across New Zealand, Spencer says the team rigged eight cameras to capture every moment on each mode of transport. Travelling with a drone and a 360-degree camera also meant the film crew were able to pick up strange, quirky and hard to notice sights across New Zealand.
‘‘It’s amazing the things you capture people doing as you travel through the country. From towing a truck with a four-wheel-drive, to people going about their daily lives, we filmed a lot,’’ Spencer says.
Prime-time viewers will see a shortened threehour version of Go South, which will screen on Prime next Saturday. But diehard slow television fans can watch 12 commercial free hours of the journey, from 1am to 1pm on Sunday.
New Zealand On Air gave the producers $263,750 for the project. But the taxpayer agency did not respond to questions asking why it decided Go South was worth that amount of funding. Online, it said the show would give viewers ‘‘a real-time road trip showcasing the unique and beautiful landscape of New Zealand’’.
Spencer says his programme isn’t actually a ‘‘real-time road trip’’, unlike other slow television shows. If it was, then the broadcast would last at least 40 hours.
Instead, Go South is more of a highlights package of the best and most meaningful parts of a long journey across most of New Zealand.
As well as the pretty pictures, the documentary is dotted with text and graphics informing viewers about interesting facts and sites of importance.
‘‘When we first pitched this show, we said it was like going on a road trip with a really, really smart and interesting friend who’s constantly pointing out things to you on the way.’’
Spencer says viewers can take or leave the narrative and facts along the way, if they want to. ‘‘The narrative is really subtle, and people can engage with it at whatever level they want to.’’
Although it’s a strange and seemingly uncommercial show – after all, it’s 12 hours of no commercials – Spencer said he was confident the idea would get across the line.
‘‘I knew the concept was solid, and I knew it would be stunning.
‘‘But it’s a very bold move to fund this, certainly it’s a first for New Zealand and NZ On Air. It’s exciting, because globally you see a lot of networks moving to a more risk averse position.’’
Although it’s new for New Zealand, a similar Australian programme which followed The Ghan train across the Outback turned out to be hugely successful. SBS screened an extended 17-hour programme and a three-hour version, with the shorter documentary pulling in the channel’s biggest audience of 2017.
The New Zealand journey, however, was far harder to film, Spencer says. While most slow television shows focus on a specific thing, such as one train ride, Go South travels on three trains, a
four-wheel-drive and ship.
‘‘They all had to be handled in completely different ways and also narratively, the story changes. You’ve got a very different type of history travelling through the North Island, compared to Milford Sound,’’ he said.
Being the first New Zealand slow television producers also meant Spencer and his team had to rethink how they worked and what they thought television was. ‘‘That’s really what drew people to this project,’’ he said.
‘‘There are not many opportunities like this, where you have a chance to completely recreate your job.’’
In the end, it’s unclear how viewers will respond to this programme. Spencer says he’s left it up to them to take from it what they want, but he hopes the landscapes will ‘‘tell the story’’ of New Zealand.
If there’s one thing he hopes will come from this project, he says he wants New Zealanders and television makers to ‘‘rethink and reimagine how we watch television’’. That’s no small goal, and no small programme, either.
Go South is on from 1.30am on Sunday, January 20. The shorter, three-hour version starts 9.30pm on Saturday, January 19 on Prime.