Each week, hundreds of thousands of us lock in to watch some of the country’s best talent compete on The Voice Australia.
I, New Idea’s Entertainment Writer, am one of them.
Although the show’s main focus is a singing competition, there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to make it all come together.
As a big fan, I wanted to know how important these behind-the-scenes decisions are for the look and feel – and success – of the series.
I spoke with The Voice‘s supervising executive producer, Chloe Baker, who filled me in on all their important decision-making.
“This show is massive and I don’t think anyone realises how much goes in to make it,” she tells me, adding “I always laugh because my mum, I think, just thinks that the show just appears on the screen when she watches it at home because she can’t get her head around the fact that there are so many months of planning and filming before it actually hits the TV screen!”
Chloe has worked on eight series of The Voice – and prior to her current role (which she has been in for the last three years), she was the co-EP.
So what makes this year different from last?
Well, aside from the star-studded coach line-up of Richard Marx, Mel C, Ronan Keating and Kate Miller-Heidke, this year the set has all changed to be bigger and better than it’s ever been.
She says in previous seasons of the show, they had two sets – one for the blind auditions, and a different set for the final phases.
“When we were in the planning stages for this series, my co-executive producer and I were looking at all the sets from other territories and looking at our set and going, ‘how can we make a real visual impact that will say we are the biggest entertainment show on Australian television?’,” she says, adding they took inspiration from other overseas series such as The Voice France and The Voice USA.
“We like to be progressive and groundbreakers in technology. So we wanted to find a way to make the space look as big as possible,” she says.
She tells me they pieced together all the elements they liked from the other overseas series and used Photoshop to come up with a design, with the hero of the set, of course, being the four red chairs (that I know we’ve all dreamed of sitting in and spinning around on – right?!).
But – hilariously, Chloe confesses that they don’t actually know what the shape is!
“We constantly joke we’re not actually sure what the shape is. It used to come in like a point at the front. And now it has sides around it, but we all stand there and go, well, has it got eight or seven sides?” she says with a laugh.
She reveals that the new screens took inspiration from The Voice France.
“So what they did in France was they fanned out their side screens – and we took that, and we implemented it into our space as it gives you a sense of infinity because the wings of the screens go up towards the rigging, and it creates a greater scale when you are looking at the set,” she reveals.
“We have gaps in the screen so the cameras can shoot through,” she says, adding there is a big split down the middle, “so the doors open and the artists walk out through the gap into the middle of the stage”.
One thing that always stands out to me when watching The Voice (aside from the high-skill level of the singers) is the lighting – it can sometimes feel like you’re watching a concert.
Chloe confirmed that the lighting is “unbelievably important”.
“We have an amazing lighting director and an amazing creative team. In fact, they are some of the best at what they do in the world, and we all liaise together to get the best possible outcome for every single performance on that stage. So there are hours and days of work that go into every performance, and it’s from what the artist sings to what is in the content on the screens, and how that combines with the lighting to give the best possible visual experience for the viewer,” she explains.
Not only has the stage changed, but so has the mentoring space, where the coaches spend their one-on-one time with the artists in their team.
“We have an amazing art department, and we liaise with them through every step of the process. We want it to feel as current as possible and in line with the vibe of the coaches that we have on the panel for whatever series it is,” she reveals.
“This year we’ve got photos of the coaches on the wall which we think is lovely because not only do the artists walk in and see this room for the first time, but they’re meeting their coach for the first time as well, and then they’re seeing their photos emblazoned on the wall, and that’s when they go, ‘okay, I’m with a really big star now’,” she says.
“The feedback is that we’ve hit the brief, which is we have created a global set that is really impactful,” Chloe says.
Are the blind auditions edited?
I wanted to know more about how the filming and editing side of things worked when it came to the blind auditions.
“We have a director who sits in the truck with a team of people there, and I’m in a flyaway control room within the studio with another team of people,” Chloe says, adding “and the director does what we call a line cut – so he will call the cameras live and put that cut to the line and then we take it into post-production and we essentially finesse what is already there”.
Chloe confirms there are 22 cameras rolling across the studio and reality.
“There’s not only the main set in operation, there are many other studios operating all at the same time,” she reveals.
Most of all, Chloe has such high praise for her team – all 300+ crew members.
“We are such an amazing team, and that’s why the show has been going for 14 seasons, because everyone knows what they do and they do it so well,” she says with a smile.
What about malfunctions?
Chloe did tell me, though, that as much as they try to avoid any problems, there are always malfunctions here and there – especially with the chairs!
“I do remember in the past that we’ve had to stomp down to make sure that the chairs are spinning because if they’re not spinning, we’ve got a real problem!” she says.
But interestingly, they never re-film.
“These blind auditions have to be authentic,” Chloe confirms.
Catch The Voice on Seven and 7plus.
