New Territory
Territory director Greg McLean takes DQ inside Netflix’s Australian drama about the battle for control of the world’s largest cattle station, where he spent its special effects budget and how he was inspired by Top Gun: Maverick. When it comes to television shows that rely on special effects, Territory isn’t one of them. Blending elements of Succession, Yellowstone and even Game of Thrones, the Australian series is set on the world’s largest cattle station as a generational clash for its ownership threatens to tear the Lawson family apart, leaving rival cattle barons, desert gangsters, Indigenous elders and billionaire miners all eyeing up the prize. Yet there was one very specific issue that meant director Greg McLean and his VFX team had a lot of work to do in post-production before the launch of the Netflix series in October. “There’s not that many effects in the show, but the biggest visual effect was taking out the reflection of the sunglasses,” McLean tells DQ. “We had all these characters wearing sunglasses because we thought it looked really cool, but then we had 560 visual effects shots to take out the crew standing in the [reflection] of the sunglasses. If there’s a season two, there’s definitely gonna be a mandate from Netflix saying no more sunglasses on characters.” The filmmaker is best known for his work on series such as Scrublands, Jack Irish, The Gloaming and Wolf Creek – a series sequel to the pair of horror films set in the Australian outback … Continue reading New Territory
