Feature
Issue No. 11 - June/July 2003
Working McLeod Land
Money can’t buy happiness. But in the case of Susan Bower it can motivate you to take a 180 degree career change that results in satisfaction, recognition and, yes, happiness.
As a full-time nurse caring solo for two young children, Susan’s life wasn’t so much day time drama as late night horror show. With too little social life, too little money and too many long hours, the outgoing woman born in to a family of raconteurs knew her skills were media-friendly.
Starting as a researcher/medical adviser for 55 episodes of ‘A Country Practice’ Susan then became a script editor and writer on the series for five years before moving to ‘All Saints’ as a script producer.
The role of Script Producer requires writing, re-writing and quality control of every script and its aspects. ‘Script producing is probably the hardest job in film and television,’ opines Susan. ‘Nothing is ever right and everyone always wants a piece of you – the actor, the director, wardrobe, sets – everything is constantly changing and being compromised. There is a very thin line.’
After 14 years in an industry she loves, Susan now is an Executive Producer of ‘McLeod’s Daughters’, a nationally applauded series about five women working the land. The series was the vision of Nine Network Director of Drama, Posie Graeme-Evans, Creator / Executive Producer. Susan started developing and script-producing the series with Posie co-operatively taking her vision and making it serious television.
As executive producer, Susan works closely with the creative producer to ensure the characters have personality continuity and remain believable. This involves taking scripts from ideas through drafts and in to production.
‘As a nurse, I met every type of person from every walk of life, ‘says Susan ‘so I’m fully equipped to handle this role. It’s also like I have a small television set in my head so the combination of the two is a bit unique....
