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The series was shot over 28 weeks, initially on location at the Australia Telescope Compact Array, Narrabri – in the drama portrayed as the "Kaputar Tracking Station"<ref name=":9" /> – and then in studio in [[Melbourne|Melbourne, Australia]], with further exterior shoots all around the state of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite web|last=remotetalker|date=2018-10-28|title=An interview with Petra Yared (''Sky Trackers, Mirror, Mirror'')|url=https://remotetalk.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/an-interview-with-petra-yared-sky-trackers-mirror-mirror/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911150224/https://remotetalk.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/an-interview-with-petra-yared-sky-trackers-mirror-mirror/|archive-date=11 September 2020|access-date=2021-02-16|website=Remote Talk|language=en}}</ref> CSIRO reported filming commencing in June 1993,<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal|last=Wallace|first=Alex|date=August 1993|title=CSIRO - sky tracking across the universe and our television screens|url=https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/coresearch_1993.pdf|journal=CoResearch - CSIRO's staff newsletter|issue=354|pages=8}}</ref> and Petra Yared recalls the whole shoot taking "9 months".<ref name=":8" /> Production was completed in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sky Trackers (1994) - The Screen Guide - Screen Australia|url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/sky-trackers-1994/3155/|access-date=2021-02-16|website=www.screenaustralia.gov.au}}</ref> ACTF entered the first episode "Skating the Dish" into the [[1994 Australian Film Institute Awards]] (winners announced 4 November),<ref>{{cite news|date=5 November 1994|title=Muriel, Bubby scoop AFI pool|volume=70|page=1|newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]]|issue=21,751|location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130535538|accessdate=25 August 2016|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and ''Sky Trackers'' won [[AACTA Award for Best Children's Television Series|Best Children's Television Drama]], and Zbych Trofimiuk received the [[AACTA Award for Best Young Actor|Young Actor]] award.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Past Winners 1990-1999|url=http://www.aacta.org/winners-nominees/1990-1999/1994.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515114441/http://www.aacta.org/winners-nominees/1990-1999/1994.aspx|archive-date=2012-05-15|access-date=|website=Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA)}}</ref>
The series was shot over 28 weeks, initially on location at the Australia Telescope Compact Array, Narrabri – in the drama portrayed as the "Kaputar Tracking Station"<ref name=":9" /> – and then in studio in [[Melbourne|Melbourne, Australia]], with further exterior shoots all around the state of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite web|last=remotetalker|date=2018-10-28|title=An interview with Petra Yared (''Sky Trackers, Mirror, Mirror'')|url=https://remotetalk.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/an-interview-with-petra-yared-sky-trackers-mirror-mirror/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911150224/https://remotetalk.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/an-interview-with-petra-yared-sky-trackers-mirror-mirror/|archive-date=11 September 2020|access-date=2021-02-16|website=Remote Talk|language=en}}</ref> CSIRO reported filming commencing in June 1993,<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal|last=Wallace|first=Alex|date=August 1993|title=CSIRO - sky tracking across the universe and our television screens|url=https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/coresearch_1993.pdf|journal=CoResearch - CSIRO's staff newsletter|issue=354|pages=8}}</ref> and Petra Yared recalls the whole shoot taking "9 months".<ref name=":8" /> Production was completed in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sky Trackers (1994) - The Screen Guide - Screen Australia|url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/sky-trackers-1994/3155/|access-date=2021-02-16|website=www.screenaustralia.gov.au}}</ref> ACTF entered the first episode "Skating the Dish" into the [[1994 Australian Film Institute Awards]] (winners announced 4 November),<ref>{{cite news|date=5 November 1994|title=Muriel, Bubby scoop AFI pool|volume=70|page=1|newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]]|issue=21,751|location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130535538|accessdate=25 August 2016|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and ''Sky Trackers'' won [[AACTA Award for Best Children's Television Series|Best Children's Television Drama]], and Zbych Trofimiuk received the [[AACTA Award for Best Young Actor|Young Actor]] award.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Past Winners 1990-1999|url=http://www.aacta.org/winners-nominees/1990-1999/1994.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515114441/http://www.aacta.org/winners-nominees/1990-1999/1994.aspx|archive-date=2012-05-15|access-date=|website=Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA)}}</ref>


The program was launched by [[Michael Lee (Australian politician)|The Hon Michael Lee, MP]], Minister for Communications and the Arts, at the Planetarium, [[Museum of Victoria]], on 20 February 1995.<ref name=":4">Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1995). ''Australian Children's Television Foundation Annual Report 1994-1995''. A.C.T.F. Productions Limited. {{ISBN|0-86421-121-X}}</ref> Also in attendance were Bob Campbell, Chief Executive of [[The Seven Network]], representatives of [[NASA]] and CSIRO, Sky Trackers cast and crew members, Staff and Board Members of The Seven Network and the ACTF, and representatives of the media.<ref name=":4" /> The series began screening nationally on The Seven Network and its affiliate, [[Prime Television]], each week across Australia from 18 March 1995.
The program was launched in Australia by [[Michael Lee (Australian politician)|The Hon Michael Lee, MP]], Minister for Communications and the Arts, at the Planetarium, [[Museum of Victoria]], on 20 February 1995.<ref name=":4">Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1995). ''Australian Children's Television Foundation Annual Report 1994-1995''. A.C.T.F. Productions Limited. {{ISBN|0-86421-121-X}}</ref> Also in attendance were Bob Campbell, Chief Executive of [[The Seven Network]], representatives of [[NASA]] and CSIRO, Sky Trackers cast and crew members, Staff and Board Members of The Seven Network and the ACTF, and representatives of the media.<ref name=":4" /> The series began screening nationally on The Seven Network and its affiliate, [[Prime Television]], each week across Australia from 18 March 1995.


[[Tamara E. Jernigan|Dr Tamara Jernigan]], a NASA astronaut who has spent more than 800 hours in space and orbited the Earth more than 400 times, visited Australia at the invitation of the ACTF in June 1995 and made a four day tour of schools in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.<ref name=":4" /> Travelling with her was Petra Yared, the 15-year-old star of Sky Trackers.<ref name=":4" />
[[Tamara E. Jernigan|Dr Tamara Jernigan]], a NASA astronaut who has spent more than 800 hours in space and orbited the Earth more than 400 times, visited Australia at the invitation of the ACTF in June 1995 and made a four day tour of schools in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.<ref name=":4" /> Travelling with her was Petra Yared, the 15-year-old star of Sky Trackers.<ref name=":4" />

Revision as of 04:03, 19 February 2021

Sky Trackers
Sky Trackers (VHS cover)
Created byJeff Peck
Tony Morphett
StarringPetra Yared
Zbych Trofimiuk
Emily-Jane Romig
Steve Jacobs
Anna-Maria Monticelli
Country of originAustralia
No. of episodes26
Production
Running time25 minutes
Original release
NetworkSeven Network
Release1994 (1994)

Sky Trackers is an 26-part science-based[1] Australian children's television adventure series, and a stand-alone children's television movie of the same name, which feature the adventures of children who live at space-tracking stations in Australia. Both series and telemovie were created by Jeff Peck and Tony Morphett, and executive-produced by Patricia Edgar on behalf of the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF).

The 1990 telemovie was shot at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, at Tidbinbilla in the Australian Capital Territory. The subsequent TV series, which had an entirely new cast fronted by Petra Yared and Zbych Trofimiuk, was shot at the Australia Telescope Compact Array[2] in the New South Wales outback near Narrabri. The series aired in Australia in 1995, on the Seven Network. Although the series and movie have characters in common, they do not share continuity.

Sky Trackers the series grew from a request by Australia's federal science agency (the CSIRO) to Patricia Edgar, the then director of the ACTF, to create a program that would help attract girls towards careers in science.[3][4] The resultant series aimed to popularise science for children through drama and to excite them about the opportunities science has to offer;[5] whilst demystifying the work and working conditions of scientists, and highlighting the potential of the science world for future career choices.[3]

Sky Trackers the series won the Australia Film Institute's Award for Best Children's Drama Series (1994), and Zbych Trofimiuk picked up its award for Young Actor. Sky Trackers also won at the Cairo International Film Festival for Children (1994) and the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) Awards (1995).[1]

Plot

Series

The Sky Trackers series is set in a space tracking station in the Australian outback. Combining adventure, teenage romance, and the cutting edge of science, the series centres around two single parent families with three kids who live and work beneath the gleaming white dishes of a space tracking station in the Australian outback.[6]

Nikki is 13 and into science. Her dream is to be the first person on Mars. She is an avid fan of Mike's father and has read all of his research.[5]

Mike is 14 and thinks 'science sucks'. Jimi Hendrix is his hero.[5]

Nine-year-old Maggie watches as Mike and Nikki fall in love and with the best intentions, just seems to get in everybody's way.[5]

Over 26 adventurous episodes, the children experience a world of the past, present and future: searching for the bush rangers' treasure; tracking meteorites; listening to signals from outer space; exploring hidden caves; and they discover themselves.[5]

Cast

Series

Lead cast

Recurring adult cast

History

TV movie

Tidbinbilla Tracking Station (now called Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex), the setting for Sky Trackers movie

The 1990 Sky Trackers telemovie was produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) in association with The Disney Channel, and was written by Tony Morphett from a concept by Jeff Peck, and executive-produced by Patricia Edgar and produced by Anthony Buckley,[8] and directed by John Power.[9] It starred Pamela Sue Martin (as Dr Spencer Jenkins), Maia Brewton (as Ali Barnes), and Justin Rosinak (as Mike Masters). The story was located and shot at NASA's Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, (now called the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex).

The movie was re-screened in advance of the series on The Seven Network at noon on 11 March 1995.[9]

TV series

Sky Trackers the series grew from an idea by Australia's federal science agency – the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – to ask Patricia Edgar of the ACTF, if it could develop a series that would help attract girls to seek a career in science.[3][4]

One of the telescope dishes of the Australia Telescope Compact Array, seen in orientation used for Sky Trackers episode "Skating the Dish"

Funding from the Australian Film Finance Corporation was secured on 29 July 1992,[10] and pre-production began on 15 February 1993.[11] Filming was set to take place at NASA's Tidbinbilla Tracking Station again, however Tidbinbilla station baulked at the episode 1 scene of roller-blading on a tracking dish, and so the entire shoot was relocated to the Australia Telescope Compact Array[2] at the CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility outside Narrabri, in New South Wales, where the rollerblading scene was felt to be OK.[12]

The series was shot over 28 weeks, initially on location at the Australia Telescope Compact Array, Narrabri – in the drama portrayed as the "Kaputar Tracking Station"[13] – and then in studio in Melbourne, Australia, with further exterior shoots all around the state of Victoria.[6][14] CSIRO reported filming commencing in June 1993,[13] and Petra Yared recalls the whole shoot taking "9 months".[14] Production was completed in 1994.[15] ACTF entered the first episode "Skating the Dish" into the 1994 Australian Film Institute Awards (winners announced 4 November),[16] and Sky Trackers won Best Children's Television Drama, and Zbych Trofimiuk received the Young Actor award.[17]

The program was launched in Australia by The Hon Michael Lee, MP, Minister for Communications and the Arts, at the Planetarium, Museum of Victoria, on 20 February 1995.[9] Also in attendance were Bob Campbell, Chief Executive of The Seven Network, representatives of NASA and CSIRO, Sky Trackers cast and crew members, Staff and Board Members of The Seven Network and the ACTF, and representatives of the media.[9] The series began screening nationally on The Seven Network and its affiliate, Prime Television, each week across Australia from 18 March 1995.

Dr Tamara Jernigan, a NASA astronaut who has spent more than 800 hours in space and orbited the Earth more than 400 times, visited Australia at the invitation of the ACTF in June 1995 and made a four day tour of schools in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.[9] Travelling with her was Petra Yared, the 15-year-old star of Sky Trackers.[9]

Other media

Educational resources

The Australian Children's Television Foundation produced three Sky Trackers teaching packages for use in schools in the form of three Curriculum Packs:[9]

  • Sky Trackers: The Environment by Annemaree O'Brien and Noel Gough[9]
    • covered environmental activists, waterways. human intervention and protecting your planet[6]
  • Sky Trackers: Space by Annemaree O'Brien and Noel Gough[9]
    • covered rockets, space phenomena, radio telescopes and microwaves, SETI, science and culture, ethics and values.[6]
  • Sky Trackers: Family and Self by Don Edgar and Annemaree O'Brien[9]
    • covered family relationships, grief, domestic violence, family breakups and adoption.[6]

These packs contained three Sky Trackers episodes on videotape, with background notes on the topic and suggested questions and activities for students. They were designed for use by teachers of upper primary and junior secondary school (years 5-8).[5] These Sky Trackers stories are a dramatic blend of stories about science, deep space, the environment and family life.[5] They explore a fascinating range of issues, encouraging viewers to ponder, debate, discuss, question and investigate further.[5] On 30 June 1995, 329 packs had been sold.[9]

Novel

Penguin Books Australia published a tie-in novel based on the series, also titled Sky Trackers, written by Amanda Midlam.[3]

Video sales

Village Roadshow distributed the video of the telemovie and by 30 June 1995 758 videos had been sold.[9]

REEL Entertainment began selling Sky Trackers series videotapes to the general public in June 1995, and to 30 June 1995 reported sales of 1,640 videotapes.[9]

International release

Sky Trackers the movie was sold to Showcase Television in Canada and EuroArts International Gmbh in Germany in 1996.[18]

Sky Trackers the series performed particularly well in Europe where it was sold to ARD Germany, Danmarks Radio, NRK Norway, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Slovak TV, RTSR Switzerland, AVRO in the Netherlands, and RTE Ireland who aired it from 28 August 1995.[9][18] A contract with France 2 was also negotiated in 1995.[9] In 1996, Telepiu, a pay television channel in Italy, acquired a one year window of the series, and Canal Plus Poland acquired a two year window.[18]

The series has also been sold to the Philippines, Nigeria, Turkey, Slovak Republic, Israel, Iceland, Cyprus, Arabic-speaking territories, Honk Kong, Mexico, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka;[6] and to the Encore Media Corporation, for its WAM! teenage channel in the United States.[18]

Awards and nominations

Awards and Nominations
Year Nominated Work Award Event Category Result Reference
1994 'Skating the dish' Sky Trackers episode Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, Melbourne, Australia Best Children's Drama series Won [9]
1994 Zbych Trofimiuk playing the role of Mike Masters Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, Melbourne, Australia Young Actor's Award Won [1]
1994 Sky Trackers series Cairo International Film Festival for Children in Egypt Golden Cairo for TV Programmes Won [1]
1995 Sky Trackers series Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) Awards, Melbourne, Australia Best Children's Television Series Won [1]
1995 Sky Trackers series Bavarian State Ministry for Education, Culture, Science and Art in Munich International Competition of the MediaNet Awards Selected [1]
1994 'Skating the dish' Sky Trackers episode Banff Television Festival, Canada Banff Rockie Award for Best Children's Program Nominated [1]
1996 Sky Trackers series Prix Jeunesse, Munich Children's program, Age 7-12 Finalist [1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Edgar, Patricia, 1937- (2006). Bloodbath : a memoir of Australian television. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 0522852815. OCLC 224730166.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ a b "The Australia Telescope Compact Array – Fast Facts" (PDF). CSIRO. February 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c d Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1995). Care for kids: Television News, The newsletter of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Issue No. 50, p. 1-4. ISSN 0813-3727.
  4. ^ a b Cockington, James (13 March 1995). "Young love to lure girls into science". The Sydney Morning Herald: 51.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1995). Care for kids: Television News, The newsletter of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Issue No. 48, p. 1-4. ISSN 0813-3727.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1994). Care for kids: Television News, The newsletter of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Issue No. 47, p. 1-4. ISSN 0813-3727
  7. ^ Yared, Petra (2001). "Interview with the Petra Yared Website". The Petra Yared Website. Archived from the original on 12 July 2004. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  8. ^ Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p143
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1995). Australian Children's Television Foundation Annual Report 1994-1995. A.C.T.F. Productions Limited. ISBN 0-86421-121-X
  10. ^ "Australian Film Finance Corporate Decisions". Cinema Papers (90). MTV Publishing Ltd: 65. October 1992.
  11. ^ "Production Survey". Cinema Papers (94). MTV Publishing Ltd: 69. August 1993.
  12. ^ O'Brien, Annemaree. "Sky Trackers on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online". Australian Screen Online - An NFSA website. Archived from the original on 3 April 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  13. ^ a b Wallace, Alex (August 1993). "CSIRO - sky tracking across the universe and our television screens" (PDF). CoResearch - CSIRO's staff newsletter (354): 8.
  14. ^ a b remotetalker (28 October 2018). "An interview with Petra Yared (Sky Trackers, Mirror, Mirror)". Remote Talk. Archived from the original on 11 September 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  15. ^ "Sky Trackers (1994) - The Screen Guide - Screen Australia". www.screenaustralia.gov.au. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Muriel, Bubby scoop AFI pool". The Canberra Times. Vol. 70, no. 21, 751. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 5 November 1994. p. 1. Retrieved 25 August 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Past Winners 1990-1999". Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). Archived from the original on 15 May 2012.
  18. ^ a b c d Australian Children's Television Foundation, (1996). Australian Children's Television Foundation Annual Report 1995-1996. A.C.T.F. Productions Limited. ISBN 0864212739
  • "The Australian Film and Television Companion" — compiled by Tony Harrison — Simon & Schuster Australia, 1994
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