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Renée Broome: working in the Home and Away script department
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Today’s episode features Renée Broome, an in-house Screenwriter and Script Editor at Home and Away, who's written dozens of episodes of the series and worked on more than 1,000 episodes in her various roles in the script department over the past nine years.
Throughout the episode, Renée talks through the script department and what each role is – from Script Coordinator to Storyliner and Script Editor - as well as her experience working in each. Renée also talks to what a typical week for her looks like on Home and Away, key skills she has learned working there, writing advice, and much more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgment
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Breaking Screen, a podcast about the Australian screen industry and the creative people within it. I'm your host, Caris Bizzaca I'm recording this podcast from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, where I'm very grateful to be a visitor and be able to work on these lands. Always was, always will be.
Introducing Renee Broome
00:00:21
Speaker
Today's episode features Renee Broome, a television screenwriter, script editor, and story producer. Renee is also one of the in-house screenwriters and script editors at Home and Away. She has written dozens of episodes of the series and helped produce more than 1,000 episodes in her various roles in the script department over the past nine years.
Roles in the Home and Away Script Department
00:00:42
Speaker
The Home and Away script department has a very clear pathway and throughout the podcast, Renee explains each of the roles and what they involve. Roles including script coordinator, storyliner, script producer and script editor.
00:00:56
Speaker
Renee also talks to what a typical week for her looks like on Home and Away, key skills she has learned working there, writing advice, and much more.
Renee's Career Beginnings
00:01:05
Speaker
Here's that chat.
00:01:09
Speaker
So we always start the podcast with the same question, and it's about inciting incidents. So what is the inciting incident of your career?
00:01:22
Speaker
Oh, well this is a fun one because I had to really go back almost 20 years, right? It's like we're showing our age a little bit here, but i when I was 19 and pretty much, you know, a year or two fresh out of high school, I decided to do a NIDA short course, a creative writing short course. And it was just kind of one of those ah six month ones that ran at, you know, at nighttime and I ended up meeting a really, really amazing woman there who was a production manager at the ABC. Her name was Lou Porter. And she said, hey, why don't you come and join us over on the Gruen Transfer? And I thought,
00:01:58
Speaker
okay, that sounds pretty cool.
From Journalism to Screenwriting
00:02:00
Speaker
I'll give that a crack. And um yeah, so that was my first ever television job was working for the ABC in production. And um I got to work with some really brilliant minds because it was co-pro'd with CJZ. So Andrew Denton and Anita Jacoby was producing at the time.
00:02:16
Speaker
And so that was brilliant. And yeah, I feel very really lucky to have that experience. Oh, great. And so what was it that made you go, i want to do this NIDA course and then kind of follow the writing track?
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, I guess growing up, I always really wanted to be a writer. Like I was kind of always writing poetry and prose, right? And, you know, I actually didn't even believe that you could really make money from having like this as a job of being a screenwriter as a job. So I really thought, okay, well, I can write articles, editorials, maybe go into journalism, that sort of thing.
00:02:55
Speaker
um And it really wasn't until I left broadcast journalism and I was working in development over in New Zealand and I was spending a lot of time around Weta and that's when I was getting my hands on some proper film scripts at the time. At the time they were shooting things like Zack Snyder's Superman, they' were doing the special effects there, they had like the Hobbit dailies that, you know, we may or may not sneak into to have a look at and, yeah, once I'd got my hands on like a proper drama film script,
00:03:22
Speaker
i I never looked back. I thought
Education at AFTRS
00:03:24
Speaker
this is exactly what I want to do. I want to be writing TV. I want to be writing movies and i want to be creating worlds. And so when I came back to Sydney, I actually enrolled in film school at AFTRS and I did two screenwriting degrees. I did screenwriting for series television with Holly Lyons. And I did script editing and development with Matthew Dabner and Gina Roncoli. And I learnt absolutely everything that I could learn there with those amazing teachers. And from that, I had springboarded straight into the land of drama, which is, you know, very different to other types of writing that I had been used to. So, yeah, it was quite a, it was a twisty, turny journey, but I eventually got there. And then now that I'm here, um there's nothing else that like has actually felt like it had fit so well.
Career Progression at Home and Away
00:04:12
Speaker
So I'm fairly lucky, like this is where I'm supposed to be. This is what i'm meant to be doing, which is a good feeling. Yeah.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah. And that your time in New Zealand, that was post the Gruen. yeah Yeah. Yeah. So I'd left broadcast journalism and I'd gone over um to work in development in New Zealand. And yeah, I didn't want to be a journalist anymore. um Yeah, I thought the profession was going through some big changes and it wasn't working what we kind of had grown up thinking journalism was going to be. And yeah, I just, it it just was way more fun being in fake land with fake people. you know, like I, it was really hard being with people on the worst days of their lives as a journo, you know, I was in some pretty sticky situations with people and,
00:04:59
Speaker
And then when you're just in in fictional land, you're like, oh, this is so much this is so much better. This is so much nicer. You know, all it's all fake. There's no one actual emotions on the line. And, um you know, i didn't feel like if if something didn't happen, you know, it's okay. like Lives weren't um on the line, whereas, like, I felt like in my previous career as a journo, it was, yeah, it was tough. Yeah. It was a different world. Total reality, you know? yeah Totally different world. Totally different. So,
00:05:29
Speaker
You work at Home and Away. How did you come to work at Home and Away? Oh, divine timing, I think, is the short answer to that one because i i had just finished those degrees at AFTRS and I got a random phone call one day that said, you know, where we need to quickly fill someone to do the call sheets, like on the production desk, because someone had left quite abruptly And at this point, I hadn't done call sheets in 10 years, but I stuck my hand up and said, look, happy to jump in for a couple of months or weeks or whatever to help you get you through. i ended up staying in that position for a couple of months before a script coordinator position opened up in the script department. And yeah, once that happened, I made the move over and I've been there now for nine years.
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah. so So I obviously love it a lot and I've done quite a few roles in the script department now. Yeah. And it's just, it's great. I love it. It's the longest relationship I've ever had. And I think that's saying something.
00:06:27
Speaker
Well, you said something there about the different roles that you've kind of worked in, in the script department. Can you talk through those roles, uh, in the script department on Home and Away, starting from say like the most junior working up to the most senior roles? Yeah.
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, of course. So the most junior role in the script department would be the script coordinators, or I sometimes call them like a brain exchange because they are responsible for all of the incomings and outgoings of all of the scripts that are in all of their various stages as well of evolution. So, you know, you've got writer's drafts, director's release, shooting releases, edit drafts. So they're coordinating all of that. They're sending what pickups need to go out to the cast or, you know, what amendments need to be um going through. So yeah, they they're pretty much doing lots of formatting and proofreading for us. Very important central hub of that connection, especially to production. What I really loved about being a script coordinator was the connection you had with production. You were very across what was going on, what what scenes were being filmed, what scenes were being dropped. who's called in sick for the day and can't do their scenes anymore. So it's always changing and very high paced fun. And then so the next the next step above that would be the storyliners and they're part of the story team and they have a story producer in their team as well. So they kind of operate as a little quad and they are responsible for plotting all of the episodes. They do all the pre-plot. They send out the plot notes, have the writers meetings with the writers on their episodes that are allocated that that week.
00:08:05
Speaker
And then the next stage of that progress would be me and my team, which is the edit team. And yeah, we, we have a lot to do. Like we get the drafts like already written from our stable of writers. We've got about 10 in-house now, and I reckon about 15 freelance. That's five eps with about 18 to 20 scenes per episode. So roughly about a hundred scenes to analyze every edit meeting that we go into And our job is to really follow the story logic.
00:08:37
Speaker
um Are the turning points working? Are the emotions of the characters anchored in their truth? Is the story weight accurately balanced? Are the voices landing? Are the commercial breaks punchy? Is the choreography correct? So we're kind of, we're looking at it as an entire script And then picking it apart and then seeing, you know, what's working and what's not. Because we're all working at a super fast pace as well. You know, every step is so important to the evolution of the script. And it's always changing. So even from then, from my edit draft will go into a over edit draft. And that is another script producer that will take care of that. And they then make sure all the continuity is like through all the episodes that's smooth through and then and do a like an over edit and then they will send that to the directors meeting.
00:09:27
Speaker
And then, of course, out of a director's meeting, we get more notes from directors, producers, um other arms of production, whether it be locations or art department. And then that forms a shooting release script. And then that shooting release script will go out to the cast and production ready for rehearsals the next week. So it's constantly moving, like ah you never get really time to slow down um and smell the roses. But Yeah, it's full on. It's a machine. It's pumping and everyone's got their role. And if it's, yeah, everyone plays such a key role as well that, yeah, we all wouldn't function without each other.
Script Editing Process
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. yeah It really is a machine. Yeah. yeah and And of course, at the at the helm of our ship is our um series script executive, Louise Bowes, who is just an amazing storyteller. And, you know, if anyone gets the privilege of being able to plot in a room with her, I'd highly recommend it She's a gun.
00:10:22
Speaker
Oh, great. and so you said like with your team, you're analyzing these scripts because Home and Away has, you know, it's on like every night, like how many scripts are you assessing at the, at the once? Is it just the one script and someone else has got another one? And how does that work?
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, the editors are on a three-week rotation. So we will pick up, um like one week I will go in and I'll pick up like a Thursday, Friday episode. We still call them by their weekdays, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, even though we know there's no home and away on a Friday. It's Thursday part two. But yeah, so I'll go in and pick up like the last two episodes of a block of five episodes. And then what I'll do is I'll pick up the following three episodes from the next block. So that continuity is all followed through and you'll have five scripts. Each editor gets five scripts and then, you you know, you're delivering them in their blocks and then it just all starts again. So you always have five scripts at a time that you're working on and it's hours and hours and hours of rewriting and you just hope that you're not stuck in a sea of blue revisions. But, ah yeah, it's just it's just nonstop. 230 episodes year.
00:11:38
Speaker
Oh, my
00:11:41
Speaker
oh my gosh Massive. Yeah. I think I looked on your IMDB and it had like that you'd worked on like over a thousand episodes in your credits, like the number of credits, which is just mind boggling to think how many individual
Uniqueness of Home and Away's Script Department
00:12:01
Speaker
stories that is. Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah. and in And in all different roles as well. So, yeah but yeah, when you're doing five eps a week and you've you've got a credit on pretty much everyone for a few of those years when I was in the story team, yeah, that really, really bumped up my credits. Yeah. Yeah. Did you find it was helpful to, because that
00:12:22
Speaker
script department is quite rare these days. Like it used to be very common in the nineties, but it's quite rare now. Did you find it useful to be able to, you know, start out, um, as the script coordinator and then move to story lining and then move into your role now? Like, was that helpful? Not only in terms of skillset, but like understanding the show.
00:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Because when you're a co-ord, you realise how the engine of the show works because you're so heavily communicating with production all of the time. So you're getting a feel for how things are shot, how much time stuff takes. you know, what crews are working on what.
00:13:09
Speaker
And you can, when you're then going into, you know, like writing an episode, I then as a writer still have that production experience where I know what what sets look like and I know what how locations are organised and Yeah, it's like the skills that you learn, ah you can't learn anywhere else. You're so right. We don't have any of those writers' rooms that we used to have like Water Rats and Blue Heelers and, you know, All Saints. ah You know, we had all of these fantastic shows where you used to be able to go and be a staff writer and and earn your chops. And now we we have Home and Away, which is great because it's such an important show and I do believe it it has such cultural significance for us as a country. But it is just a shame that there aren't those emerging opportunities where we used to have a really thriving television
Advice for Emerging Writers
00:13:59
Speaker
sector. yeah
00:14:01
Speaker
Like there's NCIS, but which is quite new in Australia. But, yeah, like you said, it used to be every show had that 20-something episode seasons. Yeah. yeah And that also doesn't mean that everyone that's going to be a script coordinator wants to be a writer as well. Like sometimes you just have really good story producers and, you know, they're not that so great on the script side of things or and vice versa. um And some people come in and think they can hack it and they can't because we're moving at such a fast pace. It's a real sink or swim environment. um and So you don't have a lot of time. Like if you're not...
00:14:35
Speaker
If you're not catching up real fast, you're going to be left behind. And with the voluminous amount of continuity that we have to contain you know in our brains, um yeah, if you're not on top of everything, you're going to slip behind and it's going to show in your work. And so, yeah, a lot of people do get burnt out quite quickly because they just can't keep up. it's it's it's a tough gig it is yeah but like you said you love it like I love it it's so fun um I work with some of the best yeah team that I'm I enjoy going to work and yeah and you really do have to love it because if you didn't love it because you spend so many hours doing it yeah you will fail you have to love it and you have to love the characters you know
00:15:17
Speaker
And you said um how there's a story producer and like a team of storyliners and they work as a little, I think you said quad. Is there just one team made up of a story producer and storyliners or is there like a bunch of different ones working at the same time?
00:15:36
Speaker
No, there's just the one. So you've got Holly Lyons and the story producer for us at Home and Away. And obviously we have. Who did the afters. Yeah, who was my afters lecturer, right? And this is the thing about going and doing courses and meeting people who are in the industry, right? Because they're to be your colleagues eventually. Mm-hmm. Because the industry is so small. Yeah. But Louise is our main plotter. She like puts us up for the direction of the stories and then we execute that direction and that vision. And Holly's in charge of executing that vision. And then she will have, she has two storyliners underneath her. that help take all of those plot notes and execute those plot notes. And we also have a script department associate at the moment who tracks a lot of continuity and helps with plotting and stuff as well. So there is that kind of, there's some backup, if you will. Yeah, but there's just that one team of them and they're doing 100 scenes in two days pretty much. Wow. Yeah, and then so that will then go to the writers and they have their writers meetings. Like you do those Monday, Tuesday, you're plotting, right? You've got Wednesday to clean up those plot notes to make a 30-page document absolutely make sense because you're going to meet on Thursday and Friday, you're going meet with five writers and have to explain those plot notes to those writers and can then go away and spend four weeks writing. executing those plot notes into a draft so then I can have that draft and I can edit that draft.
Challenges and Joys of Writing for Home and Away
00:17:02
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like everything is very deadline specific. But so you said what a typical week would look like for someone in that Storyliner team. What does a typical week look like for you?
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, my my typical weeks can vary depending on which work I'm picking up that week. So if I'm picking up a script to write in that block, often I will go to the plot on a Monday or a Tuesday and and sit in the plot for those episodes and help craft the plot. um So then I can go away and write the episode. And if not, usually I'm doing a whole lot of reading. I'm reading shooting releases. I'm reading plot notes. I'm reading a scene breakdown potentially. I'm reading pickup scenes that, um, a pickup scene essentially is when we do have a short episode and we need to write like a one minute scene to like pop in or like a filler scene. And I would have never ever seen that scene before because that will come from Louise probably. And then I'll be like, Oh, that's a great, that's a brand new scene I've never seen before. So I'm looking at all these for my own continuity. So I'm looking at all this stuff that's coming to life and that's existing. I'm watching playouts on Dropbox. I'm watching performances. I'm going, oh, you know, i kind of imagined that scene a bit differently or wow, that's so much better than I ever imagined that scene to go. And then lots and lots of rewriting, lots of editing, lots of revisions, lots of reading. You've got to love reading. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:18:31
Speaker
That's a lot of scripts. Yeah. It's a lot of scripts. Yeah. And I, and I try to time it. I kind of go, okay, if a script takes me more than 45 minutes, I know that's probably, it's bumpy and it's got a little, got a few issues. Um, but if I can read a good script in about 40, 45 minutes, then I know um it's going to be a good one.
00:18:48
Speaker
m And what do you enjoy from the writing side of things? What do you enjoy about writing for a series like Home and Away? My favourite thing about writing for Home and Away would be all the genres you get to play with.
00:19:03
Speaker
I think if you can do gut-wrenching drama alongside rom-com, alongside thriller, alongside a road trip, alongside coming of age, alongside all all of them. I think we just don't do sci-fi and horror really. It's just not in our world, like the rules of our world yeah of engagement. Yeah. And, yeah, so I really like the big range of stories that we do tell because, you know, we do tell some pretty bananas stories but we also tell really important ones, I think. And it's it really, it's important to us that we know that if we're invited into your living room at 7pm primetime you
00:19:45
Speaker
that we can probably show you something that you may have experienced or someone you know is going through something, if you can resonate with a storyline, if we can have a warning about something topical that's happening in our in our world at the moment. And that's why I think Home and Away is really important to our culture because it's like creating snapshots in time of what life is like and the discussions that we're having. And, and yeah and I think...
00:20:12
Speaker
I will love going back in another 10 years' time and watching these episodes and being like, oh, yeah, that's what we were doing back in 2026. Yeah. That's some of the slang we were using or that's what we used to dress like and, yeah. Yeah.
00:20:27
Speaker
It is like a, yeah, it's a time capsule in a way. It's a time capsule, yeah. I think people really underestimate that. But I think that's, I think it's quite amazing.
00:20:39
Speaker
And also I enjoy that the story is always changing so you never get time to get too bored, which is bad. Yeah.
Creative Problem-Solving in Scriptwriting
00:20:44
Speaker
that And so for you, what was one of the most fun storylines you've personally been able to write in an episode, but ah flowing on from what you were just saying then, is there also one that was kind of like emotionally resonant to you?
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah, i might well, my favourite one, my favourite script that I've ever had to write to this day has still been when Justin was kidnapped by the Vita Nova cult and he got crossbowed in the leg um because that was action and I love writing action. yeah. I think it's really fun. Yeah.
00:21:21
Speaker
yeah Action and romance are probably my two favourite genres if I get to pick them. Like i I remember being over COVID and, you know, we're all in lockdown and I just became obsessed with Sons of Anarchy and I was in the story team at the time and I'm like, that's it, the bikies are coming to Summer Bay, let's do it.
00:21:39
Speaker
And then we were just all obsessed with Sons of Anarchy at the time and... So, you know, that stuff is really fun. yeah um was Is there one that's really resonated with me emotionally?
00:21:52
Speaker
Look, all of the ones really recently, i can't say too much because they're not coming out for a little bit, but there's one that got me recently over... Well, spoilers, no spoilers. no but yeah Stay tuned, everyone. There was one where I was definitely crying that will be coming up. Yeah, okay. yeah But otherwise, I usually pick a fun episode. Like if I get to pick an episode to write, I'll pick something fun. Yeah. yeah That's got a lot going you know? Yeah. Oh, cool. And um what would you say, I'm just thinking from the writing point of view, so what are the big challenges do you find from a writing point of view, whether that's like plotting or time constraints or you said something about um like the rules of engagement for the world? Like what are some of the big challenges?
00:22:46
Speaker
ah Well, all of those are huge challenges. um i Look, I don't like to call them challenges, Karis. I like to call them creative curveballs. Well, it's kind of, I mean, creativity flourishes within constraints. So it's kind of like the constraints, I suppose, from which you can yeah be creative. Yeah. So Home and Away has 22 cast members, about eight sets that you can pick from for a block and three location days and Murphy's Law. Anything that can happen will happen. So when you get thrown a creative curveball, yeah, you're right, because you're sitting down to really have to think about the solution and come up with something super creative,
00:23:30
Speaker
you often end up with something so much better than what was originally intended because you're coming up with the stuff so quickly that when you do come across a problem and you're like, right, how do we fix this? We really need to like, yeah, we really need to nut it out. And then it's just like so much better than you ever imagined. Mm-hmm.
00:23:47
Speaker
But yeah, like locations fall through all the time, like actors call in sick. I remember writing an episode where there was no location to it. And so when I was trying to write the big print, I was just like, am i in the bush? Am i near the water? Like i just I just had to wing it because we were just trying to lock down a location right up until the last minute. Yeah. And you just have to get super creative.
00:24:12
Speaker
and the And then the process allows you because there are so many processes and you do have amendments and everything that kind of allows you to finesse and evolve the story along the way. But yeah, yeah. Problems always. Anyone that works on a film and TV show will tell you that like, yeah, there's always solving.
00:24:29
Speaker
yeah It's always problem solving. But when you're in a writing room, you really need to have a brain that enjoys solving puzzles and word games like a Rubik's Cube, you know, and if puzzles and drama are like Gatorade that fuels you, then you're going to be
Skills Developed in Fast-Paced Writing
00:24:44
Speaker
a great writer. Like get in there and they start throwing shit at the wall and see what sticks and and just kind of have to work around it.
00:24:52
Speaker
And so a standard season, i think you mentioned earlier, 230 episodes, which is wild. um What do you think that writing on a series like this teaches you as a writer? We've kind of covered this a little bit, but I'm wondering if there are any skills in particular, whether it's like structure, you know,
00:25:14
Speaker
AB storylines, like that writing fast, deadlines, like what are some of the skills that you think you develop working on home and away? ah Yeah, all of those things are definitely the pacing and and working quite fast and to deadlines. And a lot of people say to me, well, hang on, what happens if you sit down to write something and like nothing's coming out or it's a blank page? I go, well, firstly, I never sit down to a blank page. I make sure my formatting is done. So I'm over that hurdle straight away.
00:25:43
Speaker
yeah Highly recommend to anyone who doesn't want to sit at a blank page. And then I go, well, if I was here to sit at a blank page and had nothing in at 5pm, I'm going to get fired. So like like that, that's a luxury, ah you know, that I'm kind of lucky to not afford. But at the same time, yeah, what else, what have I learned? Like what skills have I learned? I think it really is just your story brain, right? Like your story engine brain.
00:26:10
Speaker
Like that is a muscle and you need to work it. And if you're not coming up with story, if you're not coming up with creative solutions, if you're not writing every day, even if it's just one page a day or 10 minutes a day, that muscle is not going to grow. So when I say I'm able to kind of sit down at a blank page and just go like that's because I do it every day. you know, you need to get the practice in and the more you do it, the easier it will become for you And I think a lot of people don't understand that it is a muscle and you need to work it. But, yeah, structure as well was another awesome one. You know, we're still kind of old school in a way that we're still on network television, structuring to commercial breaks. That's kind of not really common yeah anymore because a lot of people were straight to streaming, right? But at the same time same time, that's taught me a lot because how often do I sit down to... watch a pilot on a streaming service and it goes for an hour and there's no build. And I'm like, there's no build because they haven't structured it. Because back in the olden days, people used to go to the bathroom or quickly heat up their snack in the microwave and you wouldn't want to miss, you know, you had the commercial breaks you want miss, you want to come back. And so getting people to come back and keeping an audience to stay with you is like the hardest thing to do. So yeah, if you're not writing to kind of an old style commercial break
00:27:27
Speaker
structure, um your pacing is going to be off. I think that's a common problem that I see with a lot of streaming pilots at the moment. o I was wondering if you could explain for anyone that's like not super clear what you mean about like writing to ad breaks, like what you, what you mean from a structure point of view.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, so every every story needs build, right? We need tension and we want to keep the audience coming back. Like you want to finish a scene and then be like, I want to come back and know what happens to the scene after that. And so what I find is, especially with half an hour of television,
00:28:09
Speaker
the way we do it at home and away is the first seven scenes is probably about 15 pages and that's going to give you eight to nine minutes of content. And then something really big has to happen at the end of that, that seven or eight scenes or that, you know, that eight minutes. And then,
00:28:24
Speaker
because it's still commercial break on network television, we would probably do another four to five scenes and another big thing will have to happen at the end of those four or five scenes. So you're kind of setting up little mini cliffies along the way before you get to your big penultimate and your big cliffhanger at the end of the episode. And all of those little builds will create tension in your story. And they're going to keep people wanting to know what happens next. And as a writer, our job is to make you care. And so I find a lot of those points need to be either emotional or they need to be action. And question, you want to be lingering on a lot of questions as well because you want to come back. I want to see how that is answered.
Advice for Aspiring Writers
00:29:03
Speaker
m Yeah. Could we could you talk a little bit about what advice you would give to emerging writers more broadly? Absolutely. Well, i think I've already touched on it in our chat tonight. ah My advice is if you're thinking about going and doing that short course, go and do it. If you're thinking about going and joining a writer's group, go and do it. It's so hard to put yourself out there creatively, let alone knowing where to even start. And I remember walking into my first room of writers and just being like, wow, wow. this is insane how do I meet people how do I network how do i become one of you and really the answer is is you go to those things and you meet the writers and you say that to them and they go hey that's great here's what you do and I am part of the New South Wales Writers Social Committee and we put on right night events they're a great opportunity to come down and meet people listen to pictures We also often have guest speakers. But, yeah, go and do the course. Go and do that course you've been looking at and you're thinking, should I do it? Yes, even if it's a weekend one because you never know who you're going to meet.
00:30:13
Speaker
They could change your life. Yeah, 100%. That brings us to our final segment of the podcast, which is the pay it forward segment. um This is where you're asked a question from the previous guest and then you come up with a question for our next guest. So our previous guest was producer Danielle Redford. Danielle's question was. I'm curious about the little joys. So the exciting moments are the big ones, but what are the... You know, for me, it it is that moment at the end of day one where no matter how tired or how hard, I'm just utterly beside myself with the joy of like playing make-believe with 50 people all day.
00:30:51
Speaker
So my pay it forward question is what are those minute joys that you collect along the way and how do you keep them in your back pocket as fuel for the next time when it feels just a bit shit?
00:31:04
Speaker
yeah That's a really good question. Thank you so much for that question. One of my one of my little joys, i don't know, it's a little joy, maybe it's a medium joy, but I really enjoy the feeling of breaking story, like when you're stuck and you're just like, what if I go this way? No, dead end. What if I go this way? No, dead end.
00:31:24
Speaker
And then you just go, what if I go over it, you know, and then you just... know, that's it. That's the solution. and I don't think there's a better feeling than actually finding that break in the story that then allows the rest of it to flow. Because when you're in a room, like sometimes that can hold you up heaps and you're feeling really hamstrung. And yeah, it's a good feeling to to lift to lift that off and be able to run with it. um Also, the people, I wouldn't be able to do what i do without my amazing team. I think they're so funny and they're so intelligent and they're so professional and I learn so much from them every day. We're always teaching each other about the world and about life and about everything, the conversations that we have, the giggles, you know. um
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, they're they're a really good team, really good bunch of people to work with and that would be so much harder.
Conclusion and Credits
00:32:18
Speaker
I think the jobs would be so much harder to do if you didn't have the right support in your own team.
00:32:23
Speaker
yeah. Oh, ah yeah ah that's lovely. Well, that was all my questions. We will leave it there. But thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and talking all about home and away.
00:32:40
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome. That was Home and Away screenwriter and script editor Renee Broome and a huge thanks to Renee for chatting on the podcast. This episode was produced and edited by myself with logo design by Shira Parsons and music by Seb Sebotaj-Gavrilovic. If you enjoyed listening, please hit that subscribe button and leave us a review.
00:33:02
Speaker
See you in a fortnight.