TV Production Support

Overview

A major Mexican broadcaster commissioned a large global entertainment group’s Latin American partner to produce eight episodes of unscripted ‘adventure’ based TV. The format for the show had worked in a number of other European and Scandinavian countries previously but had never been tried in Latin America before. If successful it could mean additional series being created for a number of targeted LATAM markets.

Situation:

The premise of the show was to bring together a group of strangers that have varying physical disabilities and have them work together as a team to tackle an expedition unlike anything previously attempted. The eventual route of almost 200km would take the group through a number of contrasting eco-systems from the central plateau, over the continental divide at an altitude in excess of 14,000ft and eventually down to an area of large sand dunes North of Veracruz.

Apart from the risks associated with the varying terrain, water obstacles and the climate there was the additional security risks presented by the locations to be traveled. These in addition to the logistical concerns presented by a large production consisting of cast & crew living and working outside and constantly moving each day presented a complex challenge.

Solution:

Our team initially worked with production leadership remotely carrying out table-top studies of several possible routes in order to determine a short-list of routes that would provide the production with the required elements.

Once a route had been proposed in principle, the team set about conducting a thorough risk assessment to ensure all aspects of the production could be appropriately resourced and stay within budget. Now that everything was agreed in principle the route needed to be confirmed on the ground, to do this a senior consultant joined a small production & logistics team in Mexico to walk the majority of the route. This allowed for the team to assess the risks firsthand and confirm support for the larger production.

With the ground confirmation phase complete the team could finalize the safety & security plans, coordinate local assets and continue to advise the creative team with suggestions on how best to film certain elements safely during the actual live production.

Along with providing the expedition leader and safety personnel during the production we provided additional emergency and contingency plans to help coordinate an evacuation for any injury or illness experienced during the expedition.

The experience of the consultants working and leading production teams in remote and dangerous environments allowed us to remove the burden of safety from the production personnel allowing them to focus on creating and capturing great content. The final result was an International Emmy nominated production along with making some life-long friends.

More of this story can be found here - https://youtu.be/yhdjj2Ez_zs ‘La Expedicion’