Post-apocalyptic series Sweet Tooth was a case of fiction mirroring reality for NZ production workflow solutions provider The Rebel Fleet.
The popular Netflix series, about a virus which kills most of the world’s human population as hybrid animal babies are beginning to be born, began just as the COVID virus shut down the world.
“All of a sudden it became, ‘We need to do this. How are we going to do it’?,” says Mike Urban, CEO and co-founder of The Rebel Fleet. “Getting those systems in place, making sure that we’re up to speed with content security enabling filmmakers to work in a distributed way but securely and connected – they were different hurdles.”
The premiere of Sweet Tooth‘s third and final season last month may mark the end of the series, but the New Zealand industry continues to grow despite also weathering the knock-on effects of the 2023 US writer and actor strikes.
Nonetheless, the mix of government subsidy, a low exchange rate, talented local crews, and spectacular locations within short distances is still attracting plenty of work, even if it is less than the recent boom period.
“The rush of 2018, 2019 is done,” says Urban.
“I don’t think we’ll see that again for a while or at all, but having an industry that’s sustainable financially is what we all want anyway. The next year or two is just trying to figure out as an industry globally, what does that actually look like?
“I’m excited about the future of entertainment as a consumer and as a person who works in the industry. Are we going to see the blurring of sport, augmented reality, scripted production, live entertainment? Where does gaming and film production start and finish? I think there’s plenty of opportunity for entertainment.”
The Rebel Fleet’s recent credits include features such as The Meg and Mulan, as well as Apple TV+ series Time Bandits, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, and season two of Our Flag Means Death (overseen by US post-producer Allen Marshall Palmer, who is featured in the recent NZ 101 publication).
Urban says every screen production has many nuanced differences, whether it’s the framing aspect ratio or how the producers want sound files created and ordered – it all underpins a smoother creative process.
“That’s really where we spend time as a company – probably about two-thirds of the work that we do is in pre-production and once we’ve implemented the job and it’s working, its over to the amazing freelancers we work with to execute it on set and help realise the vision for the filmmakers.”
On hit Netflix series Sweet Tooth, The Rebel Fleet provided video assist and dailies services and workflow management. The series has received critical acclaim, earning twenty nominations across its first two seasons at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, winning four.
“It was consistent work for a lot of crew – a great series that brought a lot of skills and expertise and money into the country. We pulled it off so I’m proud of that and all the work that everybody did – lots of visual effects, practical effects, a bit of virtual production, and a great crew.”