by FilmInk Staff
Australian production House launches a new documentary series being filmed in Sicily, One Euro Dream. A light-hearted mash-up of Grand Designs meets Clarkson’s Farm, the documentary follows the often humorous travails, trials, and tribulations of four young Australian men as they pursue the dream of home ownership in a foreign land.
Unheard of before, the show has gained a social media audience of almost a million followers before the show has even finished filming. The project is an example of Australian Production House’s (APH) unique approach to format, production, and building audiences.
With commissions getting harder and harder – requiring two territory deals, a celebrity attachment and docos on the rise with reality on the decline – APH decided a different approach had to be taken.
The four cast of characters includes three tradies: wild card Jack, dog loving Miles, hilarious stonemason and rock musician Ricky, and lawyer and self-proclaimed boss, Riley.
‘Over a year ago, when the boys pitched the idea of a heavily curated reality series with competition, sit down interviews and fake deadlines we knew there wasn’t a show without celebrity attachment for that format,’ says APH Executive Producer, Louise Schultze.
‘But after chemistry testing, adding a mate to the group (Ricky) that gave them TV quality, focus group feedback and analytics surveying we knew we had a different kind of show.
‘With the success of Clarkson’s Farm and Wrexham that focus on communities and characters, we found the data showed audiences love the authentic nature of storytelling,’ says Schultze.
‘They want to be introduced to characters in soundbites (social media) to entice them into a larger long form story (series). But it was still a huge risk for commissioners as what those other two shows have are A-List talent attached with existing audiences.’
‘From here, our job was to film them with an expert team on the ground in Italy (ALPS Studios) and after we started filming, let them post snippets of their journey on social media to build an authentic audience engagement, without too much production interference,’ says Schulze.
Part of the social media strategy included inviting influencers to a sponsors’ shindig in Salemi, hosted by APH’s Brand and Procurement Manager Minaxi Dalu-Chandu: recently joining the team from one of the biggest brand companies in the world, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
This event was shared virally by those influences, as the first post and the social media page blew up in the first week of launching it.
‘Now we have the audience, the intrigue, sponsors like Hard Yakka who saw the vision before launch, and most importantly, networks across the world bidding for a slice of the format and series,’ says Dalu-Chandu.
Australian and Global Executive heavyweight Paul Macionis (Grand Designs, Next Top Model) is a reality television expert and consults on the show.
‘This show has all the hallmarks of a tv smash, and is garnering significant interest globally, with buyers starting negotiations,’ says Macionis.
‘The returnable series could have the boys do this again in 3 other countries or could also have 4 other friends on a whole new One Euro Dream adventure.’
