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Can Hunted please source better aerial shots next season?

Footscray? Beechworth? Emerald? Warragul? Or just something a few drone cameras grabbed along the way?

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Hunted wraps up a very successful first season tonight.

Well done to 10 for offering something different in the Reality genre and producers Endemol Shine Australia for taking a chance. It’s worked as a short sprint season, and I hope all parties resist the urge to drag it out, given the outcomes are kinda similar from one episode to the next.

But I hope next season (which there surely will be) that aerial shots reflect the area they are purporting to represent.

A 10 source tells me those used were accurate….. but I’m calling bullshit on that, and I’m not alone.

I don’t know anywhere in the high country of Beechworth where you can see the TV towers of Mt. Dandenong.

I’m pretty sure that Emerald, which is a particularly hilly part of the Dandenongs, doesn’t have much in the way of newish estates.

Inner Brunswick looks very modern, where are all the old terrace houses?

Does Oakleigh have streets with below-ground power lines like this aerial shot? Nah, it’s very 1950s.

And where does one stand in Footscray looking towards the CBD that has Port Phillip Bay on the left hand side?

These just didn’t pass the pub test for me.

How did it happen given the ground locations look authentic? It suggests not enough trouble was undertaken with drone photography, and post-production was all done in Sydney where a lack of familiarity led to hokey shots.

But when Melbourne is the country’s most enthusiastic television viewers that’s a problem that should be fixed next year.

33 Responses

  1. This is the only let down for me. Being Melbourne based, I share the same concerns as you David and those Twittering. Please fix the drone photography next season please!

    Maybe post-production in Melbourne will help???

  3. And when everyone is near Inverloch for the extraction and the hunters are ” searching the surrounding area” we’re shown footage of one team of hunters driving along Beaconsfield Parade near Port Melbourne.

  4. I think enjoyment of this type of show requires a certain suspension of disbelief, and obvious errors/laziness like this makes that much harder.

    I managed to get through the first series, despite all the ‘now, come on, that’s fake!’ moments. Note sure a second series will appeal to me and many others without some critical tidying up.

  6. We lasted for 4 episodes..the show just has too much nonsensical, unexplained action..it is too fake and manufactured for my liking. I know all reality shows craft the story to suit them but this show is next level!

  7. I mean, shout-out to the time MKR tried to pass off Eastland (in Ringwood) being the local shopping centre for a team from the Mornington Peninsula.

    The Emerald one is definitely not Emerald; even aside from the noticeably absent hills, from that sort of height you’d expect to at least see Puffing Billy’s tracks in the background somewhere.

    1. Hahah fair enough. If it didn’t happen so often in Hunted I might have had a wry laugh, but again the show wants viewers to believe what they’re seeing and 10 maintain it’s accurate. Just didn’t pass pub test for me. Part of running a personal blog is being honest with opinions -but no issue with you disagreeing with any of it either.

  9. Yep, 100% agree David, and that and quite a few other reasons we called bulldust on the show after 3 episodes, but plenty of people have been watching it nevertheless

    1. It’s all good fun (until somebody loses an eye). There’s a fair bit of fakery but the show does want viewers to believe what they are seeing. Aussie viewers may be a little more sceptical than Brits perhaps, dunno?

  10. This sort of thing happens with alot of shows though – if you’re very familiar with an area you see on TV, you quickly can tell when they have fudged it. One thing I notice alot with anything done for TV in Sydney, is quite often where people are driving to get to where they are supposed to be going doesn’t make sense, unless taking a very scenic route!

    1. Yeah every scene set in Sydney in any tv show or movie has to show harbour bridge!!!
      Just watched The Gray Man on Netflix (Seriously don’t waste your time- no realplot and just explosions for 2 hours). Showed a group of soldiers boarding a Hercules aircraft right on edge of Sydney Harbour with bridge in background!!!!🤣😁

  11. Whilst the show captured my attention, it has been really let down by the overhead shots that are clearly incorrect, Seeing Bendigo shown as Warragul was very poor. Have heard many people have just given up on it after a few episodes. I also what to shout out to Hunter HQ – you have worn the same clothes now for nearly 3 weeks, doesn’t look like there are too many windows in there, so hope you are all okay. Bet you are looking forward to a shower and change of clothes.
    I hope tonight all those already hunted are lined up to cheer on any who make it to the Extraction Point! ( Amazing Race Style)

  12. Loving the show, but I agree with getting the aerial shots correct. I have not lived in Victoria for many years and I saw the wrong shots. On another point I would like to see the hunted have a tag whether it is day one or day twenty one. I realise hard to edit but these guys are professional editors. Surely you would have current stock shots or better drone shots.
    Having spent a lot of years doing aerial photography I know that it is hard to get different angles of a town depending how high you fly, focal length of lens etc, but drones are quite portable and easy to get up in the air, and get shots quickly. After people have been seen in an area why not have a drone team get there and film after, so at least the area is authentic and get it right about the trains also. I remember that there was a display of a photograph of Melbourne until I pointed out that the photo had been printed in reverse, Mornington was on the wrong side and vice versa. Ooops !

    1. The last time I was living in Victoria was 1998 and still picked up on the incorrect photography for Beechworth. I thought it might have grown considering the large scale growth in places like Drouin. So I let it go at the time, but I should’ve trusted my instincts. A look at a map showed that it wasn’t what was purported.

  13. I can but into a lot of the constructed nature the format (CCTV cameras simulated by GoPro, Hunters wearing same clothes for continuity)

    But the areal shots do annoy me – and I’m not even Victorian … I just have a good sense of geography

  14. Something like arial shots – agree. They have time to shoot these again but them being in HQ, do you really think that it’s a one shot wonder for every single one of the 21 days? C’mon people, cut them some slack and if you aren’t going to, lets see you do better.

    1. it shouldn’t be rocket science for an experienced production company to have matching aerial shots and captions. I would think that’s pretty basic stuff. I get the logistics in getting aerial or drone shots for every location may be challenging but c’mon trying to pass off some leafy eastern suburb as Brunswick is really just taking the p.

      If they can’t get an aerial shot of Brunswick or wherever, surely they can get street footage or something as an alternative. Vision of a tram going down Sydney Road would paint a more realistic picture than an aerial shot of some faraway suburb with a caption that might as well say “Brunswick LOL”.

  17. Unless the Hunters in Hunter HQ are trying to break the world record for wearing the same clothes in every episode, currently being held by The Voice in the Blinds, I suggest they expand the wardrobe budget and change them up. Every time I see them, Palmolive Gold or Rexona Sport comes to mind…

    2. Isn’t that done just for continuity? 21 days, but 9 episodes. Not everything can be condensed to fit so nicely. Just give them a break. Sit back and enjoy the show.

    3. in regards to the clothes, not suggesting it is right, but I suppose it helps them slice and dice content and put it wherever they need to rather than where it actually occurred…poor form

      1. Most noticeable is the person in the Hunter HQ with bright red hair and a colourful dress. The men can probably get away with dark suits and ties each day without people noting the repetition but we are expected to believe the very noticeable (and quite nice) dress has been worn for three weeks straight. I hope everyone on set has nasal plugs.

  18. Noticed many errors in the footage involving Ballarat where i live. I also worked for railways:
    1) overhead shot of Ballarat showed intersection with a divided road that is nowhere here.
    2) train shown at station on a 3rd long platform that Ballarat doesn’t have and a train type that doesn’t operate to Ballarat!
    3) train was shown leaving platform 2 at Ballarat supposedly heading east to Melbourne. Footage was actually played in reverse with train coming into platform from east (Wendouree). Lights on train and driver in seat are a clear give away!!
    4) Authorities do not have live access to cctv at country stations. Need to come and look at recordings at country stations.
    Loving the show but editing is poor. No explanation of how some teams got to various country locations, move around, or got phones and other equipment!!!

    1. Also Ballarat based and the geography of the railway station and surrounds was dubious. I did see my own house flash by as the hunters were driving around so that was a little thrill.

    2. Maybe that is why Melton south station didn’t look like the area around Melton station at all. And there certainly isn’t a park across the road from it, there is one 2 blocks down but doesn’t look like that. So definitely we’re some suspicious shots v locations. But still doesn’t worry me that much.

  19. Excellent points as always David. Another valid reason why Melbourne shows shouldn’t be post produced in Sydney. Especially one that is sponsored by Visit Victoria, who surely can’t be too happy with this carelessness.

  20. It was probably on the first or second episode, I saw the drone shot of what was purported to be Beechworth. I thought, gee Beechworth looks much more populated and bigger than I thought it was. Either they must think viewers are stupid and treat viewers with contempt to not pick up on that, or just silly and ignorant to use random drone footage and pretend or purport it to be a place it’s not.

    I gave up on Hunted after 2 or 3 episodes, because not enough clarity was given during the show as to the finer details and accuracies, even if it could be done through narration. They’ll show a team being seen on CCTV in a remote town, then the next scene is the HQ saying they’ve got CCTV seemingly almost instantly without mentioning if there was a realistic delay before the footage was released to HQ. Hunted doesn’t have the level of attention to detail for me to appreciate it.

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