Last year, Playtime’s James Chappell had the exhilaration of being hand-picked by Channel 7 creative director, Graham Donald, to direct the promo for The Voice on the strength of two ARIA award-winning Guy Sebastian videos. It was a huge honour. Channel 7 had taken over from rival, Channel 9, and had a lot to prove. This year, Chappell and Channel 7 had the pressure of outdoing their own triumph. 2021 was the most successful series of The Voice Australia since 2015 and was the only series to deliver over one million metro viewers per episode. They are hoping for the same repeat ratings success.
What was that like, James?
James Chappell: This time there was much more pressure and a much tighter schedule. All those elements made it a bit more fraught. Last year we were getting to know each other. This year there was familiarity but the stakes were higher, the expectations were higher, and people were worn down from the constant Covid situation. In 2021, Australia was virtually Covid free. We had masks but there were fewer restrictions and less anxiety about spreading Covid to deal with.
The Stable: 2021 was a remarkable year for The Voice.
James Chappell: Donald had a great idea for the promo to do a big rendition with all the coaches and that proved to be such a huge success with sky high ratings. At Channel 9, the show was getting a bit old and dusty; their viewership was down. Channel 7 came in and designed a tighter show format but put a lot of love into the promo. I think this year they wanted to show that they were coming back with something spectacular and fresh again. They wanted to repeat the excitement last year.
The Stable: How did the new promo develop?
James Chappell: It came about in an organic way because I have a good shorthand with Channel 7. We started formulating ideas back in July. Graham and I fixed on the idea that while last year was all about introducing the new coaches this year would be all about the coaches’ teams coming together in celebration. Last year, we had a two-day shoot; this year was one big day. Last time we had the huge neon V; this year we built a massive V shaped neon stage. This year was somewhat simpler but in its own way grander. We had 130 extras, so that scale enhanced the excitement. Inspired by the El Nina weather, we went for the summer thunderstorm aesthetic. Lastly, [said with a smile] my choreographer, Alex Miedzinski, and I were living our Step Up dream with the big dance element.
The Stable: There must have been challenges?
James Chappell: The biggest challenge was Covid really. Omicron had hit Sydney in a big way. I was trying not to get Covid before the shoot, so my partner and I drove down the south coast and we kept hopping around to get away from everyone we knew who was getting Covid. There was a lot of pressure for me not to get Covid so that I wouldn’t be stuck in a car somewhere with a monitor. That was the fallback idea, but it wouldn’t have been very fun or productive. So, there was a fair bit of anxiety leading up to the shoot. We had a big testing unit on the shoot that all of the extras had to go through. A few tested positive and were turned away but considering the odds, we actually came out on top. The other challenge was rain with 250 people on set. El Nina was baiting us. It had been raining every day before the shoot and it rained the day after but for the shoot day, the sky didn’t drop on us. Ironically, we had rain scenes, but couldn’t have rain all the time because everyone would have been freezing. Even with the rain machines that we brought in, the extras were shivering within the hour. Also, we couldn’t get the coaches wet so we had to create a wet look through make-up and hair and create the illusion they were also getting soaked. To have rain falling in the foreground and the background we had to move those heavy rain machines around in different configurations, each very time-consuming. So, there was a lot of moving puzzle pieces including me triggering the pyrotechnics to hit certain beats in the song (although the pyromaniac in me got a kick out of that part). Our first AD, Naomi Enfield, was a godsend. She had worked on The Matrix and was able to pull us through in one piece.
The Stable: What about post production?
James Chappell: Last year we had the luxury of eight weeks post. This time we had a week, so it was a very stressful experience – especially for me, a perfectionist. I would have loved another couple of weeks. But that’s always the case with VFX – there’s never a feeling of being 100% finished.
The Stable: What’s next?
James Chappell: Haha, we’ve all asked if we do a third year how can we possibly top what we’ve already done. The first promo I went all-out. For the second one, I wondered what on earth I was going to do – but we managed to set the bar high again. We refined the formula and made it even better. To do it again and do it better a third time? Well, you can’t go bigger than this one. We’ve joked that you’d have to take everyone up into space. Of course, we could also do something very simple – four coaches sitting in a room could be the go.
