The Empire Takes Flight

The Empire takes flight into long form territory with new Flight Centre "The 48 Hour Destination" TV series.

We here at the Empire never like to stray from a challenge, so when our long time clients and friends at Flight Centre came to us a little over 12 months ago to discuss their ambitious idea of creating a 13 part destination travel series, it took very little convincing for us to totally jump on board (pun completely intended).

From its inception, The 48 Hour Destination TV Series dreamt up by Luke Wheatley (Head of Creative, Flight Centre) had some lofty goals. To shoot a fly-on-the-wall experience of some of the worlds most desirable destinations within a incredibly limiting timeframe of 48 hours. Shooting in true guerrilla style with a 5 person production crew and utilising in house talent as the Series Host had us both terrified and exhilarated for the unchartered territory that lay ahead for us here at The Empire.

With implicit trust placed in us by the brave and brilliant team of creatives at Flight Centre and many late nights and espressos later, production on The 48 Hour Destination was underway, beginning in one of the worlds most desirable destinations: Queenstown in New Zealand’s picturesque South Island. Working alongside Director/DOP Rich Wang and the tight knit production team headed up by Luke Wheatley, we’re the first to admit it didn’t take much convincing to get Digby to tag along, providing Creative Consultation on the project from the outset. Mostly unscripted, but with a clear and concise story flow for each episode, all footage was shot and rushes returned to The Empire directly upon the Production teams return to Australian shores before swiftly moving onto their next destination. While our powerhouse team tirelessly pulled in hours worth of footage, selecting takes and editing together a seamless product episode after episode, there’s no doubt that seeing the series come together had every one of us dreaming up our next international adventures come project completion.

But there’s no rest for the wicked here at The Empire. Weaving together footage of some of the most extraordinary experiences, our go-to-gal Georgia Mackay (or GMac for those in the know) not only ingested, synced, logged and edited, but conjured and created the integral travel diary transitional element: a key creative concept that became the very basis for effortless story flow. Hand illustrating each element from scratch, GMac worked closely with Danika in our animation team to bring her renderings to life in a fun and engaging way. With Rosco on sound design and working from our in-house studio, our team was put through their paces, pulling together what we truly believe is a compelling and completely watchable new TV Series offering in the Travel genre.

While every single member of our team here at The Empire deserves one, the quiet achiever award of the project has to go to new and previously inexperienced lead talent and series host Greer Gardiner. Greer’s ability to naturally deliver an authentic and engaging narrative made our jobs a breeze, and makes The 48 Hour Destination highly relatable to audiences of all ages. Best of all, Greer is a bonafide Flight Centre Travel Consultant by day, so the minute we get the chance to take our next break, we know who we will be calling.

The 48 Hour Destination airs in Australia on Network Ten on Sundays from 3:30pm EST and is also available at tenplay.com.au