Sharp Shoot media talks to us about Chalet

We met up with Sharp Shoot media to discuss the production of our new series Chalet.

How was Chalet conceived and how did you go about turning it into a reality?

When we were producing Strada Stretta in 2015 we produced a couple scenes at the Chalet, where one of our characters went out on a date. From then on we decided that we should produce a series dedicated solely to Chalet. When GO approached us, we instantly started developing our story and doing some research. We auditioned a selected pool of actors to play our freshly baked characters and started building the Chalet on-site at Ghar id-Dud.

How many episodes will Chalet have?

Season 1 will have 8 episodes in total.

What would you say are the most attractive elements of this production?

The set of Chalet undoubtedly- it’s the biggest set built for a local drama. The Dimensions were 15 metres by 9 metres with a height of 6 metres. It is built to the exact dimensions of the original Chalet with some minor artistic tweaks. A team of around 10 people spent about 2 months to build it, and 3 days in total to set it up.

You state that compared to previous work, this was a major production. In what ways? Please elaborate.

Apart from the aforementioned set, we have a splendid sterling cast who added great value to this production. Some of them come from a theatre background whereas others are completely new to acting. Of course, we then have seasoned experienced TV actors.

The series walks us through 4 timelines (1930s, 1960s, 1980s and 2021), making it more logistically complicated in comparison to our previous dramas. Additionally we had to build more than 20 different periodical sets to visualise the story, which was quite intense in such a short period of time (2 months).

What were the most satisfying aspects of this production?

Post-production is always the most satisfying- bringing the story to life after merging all the individual components. It’s very rewarding to see the scenes comes together after all our hard work.

What were the main challenges you encountered throughout the production process?

The biggest challenge we encountered was the weather. The timing was slightly unfortunate as a huge storm hit our islands at the beginning of November. Apart from the fact that it was it difficult to film in these conditions (since the Chalet set was built on-site), the storm completely destroyed the set. We had to rebuild certain parts of the set it in order to continue filming the rest of the scenes at a point.

How did you decide to team up with GO?

We previously worked with GO when we decided to sell licences for some of our productions to be shown on GO’s video on-demand platform. After some time, GO approached us with the idea to produce a drama exclusively for GO originals; and Chalet was born.

How has GO’s support helped you tangibly?

GO helped us by financing the whole project. They have supported us through thick and through thin.

Visit our Chalet page for more information on our exclusive GO Originals production.