by Dov Kornits
Robbie Hood, Homecoming Queens, The Tailings, A Beginner’s Guide to Grief, Iggy & Ace, Night Bloomers, Latecomers, and most recently, Moonbird, Warm Props and Moni. These are all the fruits of SBS (and NITV if there is a First Nations component) and Screen Australia’s Digital Originals initiative.
“It is a very unique format, six episodes x 10 minutes each,” says Nakul Legha, commissioning editor at SBS Scripted. “We are trying to replicate the scale for what a long form series looks like. We want to cultivate and build the muscle and experience in emerging creators of writing for episodic series. And what this allows us to do is to scale and replicate the cadence of delivering six episodes, writing to the hooks, the three act structure, the cliffhangers that each episode requires for primetime drama.
“It’s short form storytelling, but we really see it as having equal importance alongside our primetime slate. We are going to be producing three short form shows a year. I don’t think that there’s any other network or platform that is as invested and as committed to exciting emerging talent and giving them the resources and the platform to make ambitious stories.
“We’re able to lean into distinctiveness, specificity, boldness and really allow our creators to write to what they know best, and the stories that they want to tell. That kind of creative freedom really leads to exciting results on screen.”
He isn’t wrong, with Robbie Hood and Latecomers two of the best series that this country has ever produced.
“We can take some big swings and bet on new and exciting voices with Digital Originals. We look for authenticity – if you’re telling a story about a community, you’re telling it from an authentic perspective and through lived experience.”
The latest batch of Digital Originals to go live Warm Props, Moonbird which was selected for Series Mania, and arguably the best of the bunch, Moni.
It’s a Western Sydney Pacifica story, and this is his story, his community that he got that story from, he was the genesis of this entire thing,” Nakul says of Taofia Pelesasa. “He partnered up with producer Nicole Coventry and director, Alana Hicks, who is from PNG originally. For us, the key thing is ensuring that the lead voice, the creator, is supported, and that it has a perspective. It’s crucial that the production company is rooted in the community that the show is coming from.”
In terms of the audience, though, how does Nakul see these series consumed?
“When it goes out on our platform, SBS on Demand, it will be as 6×10 that people can binge, but on linear it will go out as one 60-minute hour of television that will fill up one of our primetime drama spots. It’s reflective of where we are as a network, which is that we have an incredibly exciting platform on demand that is digital first, but we also have really strong audiences on linear. This format allows us to reach audiences in both spaces.
“My observation with shows being available on digital platforms is that they are new to the audience the day that the audience discovers the show. There is an evergreen quality to drama, and there’s a long tail to the viewing of scripted drama on online platforms. It may be a show that’s come out a few years ago, like Latecomers or Appetite. But it is still an exciting proposition for an audience that’s coming across it now.”
Recently celebrating their 50th anniversary, SBS is rightly proud of the Digital Originals output. “I think it speaks to SBS’ history of innovation and backing new voices over the 50 years,” Nakul comments. “I think of Eat Carpet back in the day, which gave new creators exciting opportunities to tell bold stories. And here we are 50 years later, being able to do the same with our Digital Originals.
“There’s a world where short form content is something that its creators and writers have to go out, spend their own resources, their own money and time and hope that it gets picked up by the marketplace. The goal for us with the Digital Originals initiative is to replicate the full commissioned experience with these creators. We bring them into development, we are putting all our resources, expertise, and support behind these teams to develop scripts that are as distinctive, ambitious, and as critically excellent as we would expect our primetime dramas to be.”
Previously working at Netflix, as you can tell, Nakul is particularly excited about the prospect of supporting emerging talent. Born in India, he confesses that he didn’t realise that someone could make a living as a creative until his late twenties. “I come from a family of farmers and teachers in India and rural India, and I started out as entertainment lawyer. I thought that was the best and closest thing I could get to the thing that I loved most, which is film and television. When I came to Australia when I was nine, it was through watching TV that I learned English, learned about what this new country was all about. But I didn’t think that you could actually have a job helping make television. I’ve been fortunate enough to have opportunities to be in that space. Every day that I get to help and work with so many talented creatives and help bring stories to audiences, I know how it felt and how stories made me feel watching the television and how I found belonging through doing that.
“It’s absolutely not something that I had envisioned, but it’s something that I’m deeply passionate about. And I think one of the things that makes me think about is that there’s a lot of other people out there who don’t know what a pathway into the creative sector or into television and film can look like. And my hope is that what we try and do, especially with things like Digital Originals, is try and build those pathways and demystify what it is to work in our industry. Because it can feel really, I think the walls can look pretty high from the outside.”
All Digital Originals series are available now to view on SBS on Demand.
