Mark Conway and Mike Nayna’s Fancy Boy is one of five groups of short sketches, from more than 70 created last year, that will be developed into a half-hour pilot in a joint Screen Australia-ABC initiative, Fresh Blood.
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- The cast and crew review a shot. From left to right: Mike Nayna, Stuart Daulman, Luke McGregor, Maggie Looke, Jay Morrissey, Nick Capper, Geraldine Hickey, Jonathan Schuster and John Campbell. Supplied by Fancy Boy.
In the third and final stage of Fresh Blood, one of the five pilots will be commissioned for a series that will air on iView.
Mark chats to us about developing the pilot for round two.
Screen Australia: How did you come up with the concept for your pilot?
Mark Conway: We’d been kicking around the idea since the first run of Fresh Blood. We wanted a format similar to sketch comedy just so we could work with a whole bunch of our comedian mates, but with a narrative arc to it. We want to expand on that arc for a series.
SA: How far into creating your pilot are you?
MC: We wrapped filming about three weeks ago, which was a beautiful moment of unadulterated joy (many hugs and kisses were shared between previous strangers). We’re now about a week away from our first cut of the pilot and sitting down with ABC to show them.
SA: What’s the main point of difference you’ve found between creating a sketch and a TV pilot?
MC: The workload. We wanted to bite off a lot more than the first run of Fresh Blood, so [we] raised the bar on ourselves as much as we could. Writing was considered a lot more and the amount of producing needed to pull it all together was a lot, lot bigger. The catering was also much better.
SA: If you could make a feature film, what would its one line synopsis be?
MC: You’ve seen Point Break. Now see the musical.
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Pilots will air on iView soon, but until then here’s a Fancy Boy sketch from Fresh Blood phase one:
