Conception and development The show was developed by
Neighbours executive producer
Jason Herbison, who had wanted to create a
Neighbours spin-off for a number of years. Herbison commented, "It's great for teen-based and intergenerational stories with students, teachers and cranky parents." They had also wanted an exclusive programme for their VOD platform My5, after
Neighbours' ratings increased in July 2019, which Herbison said "was unusual because volume usually dips during a UK summer". Herbison described it as "an exciting opportunity to shine a light on one of our most iconic playing areas – the local high school. It's long been an ambition to delve deeper into some of our workplaces and the characters who populate them. Who knows what we might do next?" Herbison also confirmed that the cast would be familiar to viewers, as they were introduced during the main show a few months beforehand. The series also uses different cameras and lighting, and the scripts contain swear words. Actor
Benny Turland said this format helps to show how his character
Hendrix Greyson is really feeling beyond the "cool guy act" he puts on. He explained, "as he talks to the camera, you can see how things get to him. It makes it a lot more personal, and I think those video diaries are one of the things that make
Erinsborough High special." along with Grace O'Sullivan and Darius Amarfio-Jefferson as
Olivia Lane and Jeremiah Annan respectively. Stone reprised her role following her initial
Neighbours storyline, prior to returning as a regular cast member in 2020. O'Sullivan appeared in
Neighbours prior to her role in
Erinsborough High, leading in to the spin-off's storyline. Nikolai Egel and Mahalia Brown appear as teachers
Marty Muggleton and
Cherie Reyner respectively, characters who have both appeared intermittently in
Neighbours since September 2019. Ellmir Asipi also reprises his
Neighbours guest role of
Ollie Sudekis. Regular
Neighbours cast members Jemma Donovan (
Harlow Robinson),
Rob Mills (
Finn Kelly) and Sharon Johal (
Dipi Rebecchi) also appear, along with
Amanda Harrison (
Angela Lane).
Neighbours: Erinsborough High is produced and distributed by
Fremantle. The series was filmed at Fremantle's Global Television studios in
Forest Hill, Victoria, where the main show is also filmed. The episodes are directed by
Jonathon Dutton, produced by Natalie Lynch, LateNite Films Producer and Editor Chris Hocking told Ronny Courtens of
fcp.co that "The producers gave us a huge amount of freedom and trust to use whatever tools we wanted, and allowed us to design our own workflow." He said that he is used to an
Avid workflow and love certain aspects about it, but feels way more creative when using
Final Cut Pro X.
Editing and finishing The post-production process began in one of the spare production offices, with the LateNite Films Post Production crew Chris Hocking and Kevin Luk assembling the show starting from the first day of the shoot. The main show has a traditional paper-based workflow, and a maximum of two card dumps a day, while Hocking adopted a paperless workflow and ingested cards up to six times a day. The footage was synchronized through an automated process with third-party software, and Luk organised the files into ScriptSync-style keywords which he had prepared based on the script before the shoot. The process enabled Luk to assemble all five episodes in a couple of hours after wrapping the whole shoot. Chris Hocking continued the director cut in the LateNite office. He completed the rest of the editing process within
Final Cut Pro X, and some audio clean up which was done in iZotope RX7. Both Hocking and Luk did a few VFX cleanups in
After Effects & Mocha Pro, and Luk completed the grade within
Final Cut Pro X. Hocking recalled the audio mixing process within
Final Cut Pro X was more time consuming compared to using a DAW such as
Pro Tools or Logic Pro X. Still, he recognized the benefits for budget reasons and creative flexibility. "if I couldn't fix something easily in the sound design stage, we didn't have time to do
ADR for example, I could simply adjust the edit there and then." ==Broadcast==