Share
Clip description
An introduction to the series via the opening titles featuring Peter Ramsay (John Hargreaves), Ray Turner (Serge Lazareff) and Cassie McCallum (Louise Howitt). The opening scene of this episode introduces us to Ernie Farrell (Edward Howell), an old-school grazier who believes in letting nature take its course.
Curator’s notes
This clip demonstrates how effective economical storytelling can be. Consider the opening titles, the standard introduction to every episode of the series. In less than a minute we are told why we would want to watch this show: beautiful scenery, cute animals, intelligent and caring heroes whose job entails driving speedboats, 4WDs, and generally living the sort of life most townies only get to experience on holiday. What kid wouldn’t want to watch that? What adult doesn’t at least occasionally fantasise about a tree change, or a sea change?
Then, another minute into the episode and we know exactly what this particular story will be about. Had you not tuned into the show before, you’d still understand immediately who Peter Ramsay is and what he does for a living. His competence, trustworthiness, tact and compassion are evident in the short exchange with Ernie about the failure of his breeding bull, Rajah. Similarly, Ernie’s character is laid before us in a few simple strokes. We see that he is an experienced farmer and certainly no fool, yet this is a dilemma he’s brought upon himself by refusing to admit that Rajah is past his use-by date. By the end of this first short sequence, writer Roger Simpson has got to the nub of a story that operates on at least two levels, without the need for expository dialogue or narration. Every child will understand that there is a problem here and the rest of the story will be about its solution; anyone older can also appreciate that Ernie is denying his own human frailty, raging – if one so taciturn can be said to rage – ‘at the dying of the light’.
The director’s contribution to this effective storytelling should not be overlooked. Pino Amenta frames the actors cleanly against the opalescent early morning skies so typical of South Gippsland. He makes the most of the location, yet at no time does the camerawork distract from the setting up of the story. If anything, the background with its far horizon, gentle slopes and the dark dramatic lines of the windbreak, speaks to us of lives, like Ernie’s, lived out under open skies: stoic, dignified by long days of hard work, often tranquil, but always wary of the impending storm.
