Working with dinosaurs

“It feels like it’s a return to an American family show,” says UK actress Shelley Conn.

“We watched the first hour at my place and turned off the lights and all sat around and the youngest person watching was about 5 years old and the oldest person was in their 60s. You could see that it had a broad appeal within every age range.”

It was nearly a year ago that Conn filmed the pilot for the Steven Spielberg action adventure series Terra Nova for the FOX Network.

The Gold Coast hinterland doubled as Utopia 85 million years ago, give or take a few million years. As Elisabeth Shannon, matriarch of a family from 2149, Conn plays a trauma surgeon in a colony searching for ways to build a civilisation more at one with the environment. For TV viewers, we’re just lucky they went back far enough through their time portal to a land of CGI dinosaurs.

“The special effects have done a great job in developing new technology to make that work. It’s movie-scale stuff but on a TV budget and schedule. So they’ve got to make sure they can get the dinosaurs done on a weekly basis,” she says.

“But there’s a lot less green-screen than you’d imagine. It tends to be used when you’re sharing the space with the dinosaurs. So as long as we’ve got the right eyelines and a little help from the director then it’s just fun. It’s like being a kid again and using your imagination.”

There are also animatronics for smaller dinosaurs, which have been built in Australia. After his success with the Jurassic Park franchise, surely it was only a matter of time before Spielberg served up a small screen counterpart. Having filmed The Pacific in Australia, Queensland served as a perfect location for the new series, but Conn says he hasn’t visited production yet.

“He’s very much an Executive Producer and it’s Dreamworks that are making the show. If you look at Steven Spielberg’s list of projects that he’s attached to it’s enormous and he probably spends most of his time on his actual directorial projects,” she says.

“But we get feedback and notes from him and he has a say in everything from the casting to the storylines to some of the tiniest details of the props. So you can feel the Spielberg influence.”

The Queensland shoot didn’t come without its challenges, especially from the elements. Queensland’s reputation for sunshine came under serious threat and the rising Australian dollar sent costs up.

“We shot the 2 hour pilot last November / December and it rained a lot so we felt very put out that our schedule was interrupted but of course we went home for Christmas and then the real rain and floods hit. So we felt terribly spoiled that we’d been moaning about our TV show when lives had been affected. Some locations we’d used were underwater and it was crazy to watch,” Conn explains.

“We came back in May to shoot the series and the spirit of the Queensland people was so inspiring and very humbling. They’ve looked after us very well, I have to say.

“So there’s been a bit of rain that’s interrupted us but that’s true of any show when you’re on location.”

But there were also benefits in filming so far away from the frenzy of Los Angeles and the potential risk of meddling execs.

“I’m really proud that we’ve created something in a very collaborative manner and I think it’s great to have been in Australia and away from Hollywood because we’ve been able to create something between ourselves. I think that’s the best product, where people concentrate on what they’re doing and then it’s released to an audience rather than trying to second-guess what an audience might like, or listen to too much hype.”

Conn and co-stars Jason O’Mara, Landon Liboiron, Allison Miller and Naomi Scott haven’t been in the US to promote the series at launch which is unusual for such a high-profile Fall series. But they recently took time out for the Television Critics Association press tour.

“We’re still filming so we won’t be able to do that. But myself and Jason went to the TCAs about a month ago. Jason went to the Emmys and Steven and I went to ComicCon so we made a pre-emptive strike when it came to the Press,” she says.

“There’s much more interest than I could have possibly imagined. The trailers are everywhere, people are texting me from all over the world saying they’re watching them. So it’s a big launch.”

TEN is fast-tracking the series to Australian audiences, just days after its US premiere. The debut netted 9.2m viewers, considered respectable but lower than anticipated given the show’s mega-budget.

Conn, who was interviewed prior to its US premiere, took a pragmatic approach to the show’s hype and the expectations of joining The X Factor as FOX’s big hope for the Fall season.

“Everyone keeps saying that but it doesn’t feel any different to any other show, you want people to like your work. But there’s nothing we can do about it,” she says.

“It’s got the sci-fi and time travel and fantasy and the dinosaurs. But there are serious issues, a touch of humour and romance, so there’s something in it for everyone.”

Terra Nova airs 8:30pm Sunday on TEN.