As a scriptwriter, there’s always a lot a pressure to truly capture the spirit of the places we create travel guides for. If we don’t get it right, the natives of that destination are very quick to let us know! Our various quality controls ensure we get things right most of the time. When we do mess up, it’s usually the little things, like a mispronounced landmark name. More often than not it’s a subjective quibble, such as a subscriber’s favourite landmark that didn’t quite make the cut, or a viewer suggesting that we didn’t get the regional music or voiceover accent quite right.
So you can imagine the slight feeling of trepidation I felt when I sat down to write the recent script for Australia’s Northern Rivers, a region renowned for its fiercely proud communities. That trepidation only intensified when my girlfriend, a long-time Byron Bay resident warned me with a smile: “You’d better get this right, or you’ll be hearing all about it.”
Yesterday we released our Northern Rivers Vacation Travel Guide, our first ever 4K video. So far the response and viewer comments have been overwhelmingly positive. But of course, the one viewer whose feedback I was anxiously waiting on was my girlfriend’s. I sent her the link and waited. Eventually my inbox pinged with her response, raving about the incredible colours, music and spirit of the video.
“There are two places that aren’t pronounced absolutely perfectly,” she added, “but next time you visit you can hold your head up high.”
We hope you enjoy our latest video. As for me, I’m going to have a good lie down before I start writing the next script, Jakarta. I hear the locals there are pretty vocal when it comes to civic pride too!
