Bubbling Beluga! An interview with Sam Griffin and Genevieve Clay-Smith from Fizzy & Suds

If you’ve spent time with any pre-schoolers recently, you may have heard them say ‘Bubbling Beluga!” a catchphrase from their new favourite tv show Fizzy & Suds, now available on ABC iview. 

The series, from Tilt Media and supported by Screen NSW, follows two animated bubbles, siblings Fizzy and Suds, as they explore an exciting array of topics that children love, from the obvious like trucks and dinosaurs, to the more obscure like alpacas and sushi. These special passions of children are known as extreme intense interests (EIIs), and Fizzy and Suds expertly explore a new topic each episode, celebrating children’s creativity, curiosity and diversity. The series is designed to cater to all children, including those who are neurodivergent. 

Not only has Fizzy & Suds been a hit with children across Australia, the series was also recently nominated for three awards including Best Series (Up to 6 Years Non-Fiction), UNESCO Special Prize and the UNICEF Special Prize at the Prix Jeunesse Festival, the oldest children and youth television festival, celebrating the best in kids’ TV. 

To find out more about how this special series came to be, Screen NSW spoke to producer Sam Griffin and series writer and director Genevieve Clay-Smith about how they chose what topics to explore for Season 1, blending factual and animation genres, and the importance of having the series inclusively made – both in front of and behind the camera. 

Sam, Fizzy & Suds is inspired by young children’s extreme intense interests (EIIs). Can you tell us a bit about how the series came about and when you reached out to Genevieve Clay-Smith to come on board as series writer and series director?

Sam Griffin (SG): The series came about because I was talking with our commissioning editor at ABC, Mary Ellen Mullane, about how I was the baker in the family and had baked a lot of cakes for my nephews who always seemed to be obsessed with something different each time their birthdays rolled around. I had made an owl cake, a pirate chest, a rocket, a Minion, Spiderman. I discovered that there was a name for these passions that little kids had, and they were called Extreme Intense Interests. In a week of brainstorming and plotting myself, Jack Yabsley, Wendy Hanna, Michael Drake, Amanda Isdale from ABC came up with the idea of using animated bubbles (it was easier if we didn’t have to animate arms and legs), finalised our list of topics and created the series bible. 

With a little digging I discovered that not only were EIIs more prevalent in kids on the neurodiverse spectrum, but these kids also held on to those passions longer. We wanted to lean into inclusive filmmaking and obviously Genevieve’s been at the forefront of that for a long time, so I reached out to her to come on board the series.

Genevieve, what were your initial thoughts when Sam and Tilt Media approached you to work on Fizzy & Suds? What excited you about the project?

Genevieve Clay-Smith (GCS): “Bubbling beluga!”  So much excited me, and definitely the crowning glory of my career thus far has been penning a catch phrase where I can draw inspiration from my favourite animal; the brilliant beluga whale! 

Honestly, it was very exciting to be approached with a project where I had the opportunity to visualise the show, come up with the creative direction, set the tone, the look, the style and design the characters. Creatively it was a very rewarding project. I was able to tap into my own childhood and think about how I loved playing, so I came up with a very organic style inspired by a Montessori and Steiner style of play. 

One of my goals as the series director, was to ensure every episode would give representation to disability and diversity in front of and behind the camera. This project really allowed for that. Its genesis in development was around divergent thinking and neurodiversity so, I saw a lot of opportunities for collaborating with colleagues with disability and bringing my social economy onto the show. This was very exciting for me. Diverse and inclusive representation in the film industry has been something I’ve been passionate about since the start of my career and as the co-founder and former CEO of Bus Stop Films as well as the co-founder of Inclusively Made, it was wonderful to outwork this passion on the project. 

Fizzy & Suds is an animated children’s show that also works within the factual space – an interesting mix of genres. What was it like for you both bringing these two genres together?

SG: I had not worked in animation before so went into it a little naïvely, thinking “oh well, we’re not doing full animation, so it won’t be as difficult as a series that is fully animated.” But actually we were, in a way, making three shows – a live action factual series (with all the logistics that come with an eight week shoot in locations across NSW), a 3D animated series (animatics, long render times) and then we had to mesh those two elements for our final effect. It was a very steep learning curve, but I’m excited now to do more projects with animation.

GCS: Prior to my joining the show, Sam had been working with Amanda Isdale and Mary Ellen Mullane from ABC Kids to come up with the format of the show. So, when I came along the format had been set and I thought that approach was clever. It would allow children to engage in fact finding with Fizzy and Suds but then take a break and enter realms of imagination, creativity and play which is what makes it so engaging. Ultimately while the show is factual, it’s not just about facts. It’s about curiosity and all the angles to be found in a topic of interest.  

One of my favourite parts was writing the scripts and in particular writing the ‘thought bubble’ segments. These are segments in the show which are divergent and they ‘riff’ off the main theme of the show - and were produced by my husband Henry. They’re executed through 2D animation, stop motion, motion graphics and the lyrical editing of stock footage. Coming up with divergent ideas was so fun, and a great way to keep children engaged in factual content. The segments are surprising and challenge children to work out what the connection is between the thought bubble and the topic of the episode they’re watching. 

I think another really nice way to engage children in the factual content is seeing children on screen play games and create art in the theme of the topic of the episode. Coming up with the different arts and crafts activities and games for them to play was fun and working with the kids on the day was rewarding. These segments are called Kids Create and Kids at Play, and they are a fun and fresh way to keep the preschool audience engaged in a factual show. My goal was that kids would want to finish watching the episode and then go and play the same game or make the same artwork that they saw on the show. 

Each episode guides viewers through a different topic and you explore 26 topics of the series. Can you both tell us how the topics were chosen and what discussions you had when choosing the creative techniques to explore each topic? 

SG: Fizzy & Suds has always been about exploring kids’ passions so that was our starting point for choosing the topics. We started out with a list of more than 100 topics. Some were very obvious such as trucks, trains and dinosaurs, and others were much less obvious, such as toothpaste and shoelaces, but were fascinating, nonetheless. We then had to test them against all the format beats. So firstly, could the topics be broken down into three bite-size chunks that would tell three distinct stories or show three unique sides to that topic? Then, how would we explore that topic via the other storytelling techniques? How would we show kids playing or creating in a way that was an extension of that topic? Finally, the easiest and most fun part was the Thought Bubbles. By definition those segments were extremely divergent so, in a way anything goes – we can approach just about any topic in an extremely divergent manner. The other, more practical factor when choosing topics was, “can we shoot all three documentary segments in one day at one (or occasionally) two locations?”

GCS: The topics were chosen by Sam (Griffin), myself and Mary Ellen Mullane. We shortlisted topics and interrogated them and looked at what children are generally most interested in, and we finally settled on the 26 after a little bit of toing and froing. 

The discussions around how to explore the topics were really driven by the series bible and I often went back to the bible when developing ideas for the games, craft activities and thought bubbles. Laura Stone, who is the Early Childhood Education Producer at ABC, gave some wonderful feedback and brought lots of terrific ideas on how to explore the topics in a way that would be engaging and inspiring for children too. Mary Ellen, with her wealth of experience, also gave lots of brilliant feedback on the scripts and the ideas we were putting forward. There was a lot of discussion and exploration that’s for sure. 

Sam, the series was shot all over NSW, from Surry Hills to Casino to Parkes. What attracted you to filming in so many different areas, particularly regional areas?

SG: Tilt Media is a Northern Rivers-based company, so we always knew that we wanted to do a certain amount of filming around Byron Bay, Lismore and Ballina Shire, but it was also important to have geographic diversity visually in the series. We knew we wanted to shoot at The Dish (the Parkes Observatory) so once we locked that location in, we were then able to schedule a week of filming in Central Western NSW where we shot the episodes for Alpacas, Buses and Buildings. With Genevieve directing, it also made sense to film as much as we could in the Blue Mountains where she lives. And of course, there were some things that could only be shot in Sydney. We definitely put some kilometres on our cars over the course of the eight-week shoot!

GCS: It was such a delight to bring the show to the Blue Mountains. We shot all the Kids at Play and Kids Create segments in the mountains. Our episodes Pizza, Ballet, Trains and Chickens were shot in the mountains too. A lot of the talent on screen and crew were from the region as well. 

Genevieve, the show was inclusively made and was certified as ABC’s first Inclusively Made production under the Inclusively Made guidelines. Can you tell us about why you are passionate about inclusivity and diversity both in front of and behind the camera and what that looked like while you were making Fizzy & Suds? You collaborated with some fantastic creatives.

GCS: It's really important that the industry has a standard when it comes to inclusive production. Inclusive filmmaking isn’t just about on-screen representation, it’s holistic. 

It was a joy to bring Jerrah Patston, a neurodiverse musician and one of my regular collaborators, onto the team. He composed the theme song and worked with the amazing Club Weld, a project created by Autism Spectrum Australia, to bring the song to life. The audition process was inclusive and welcoming to neurodiverse kids, with a view to eliciting authentic performances that celebrate the child mind. I appreciated working with my friend and long-time collaborator, Director of Photography Kent Marcus, a neurodiverse cinematographer to develop a cinematic style of shooting that was nimble enough to allow us to capture a dynamic range of coverage to expose diverse layers of the subject matter. When it came to executing the thought bubble segments, we brought various creatives with disability on board to design the animations including Digby Webster, Ricky Gamble, Freya Whelan and Evie Atkins. 

Equally important was ensuring our sound designer was briefed to create an accessible sound design so that the show could be enjoyed by children who are neurodivergent. This was heavily supported by the work of my dear friend, director’s attachment and neurodiversity consultant with lived experience, Ramana Dienes-Browning.

Sam, the series was nominated for three awards at the Prix Jeunesse International 2024 Festival – congratulations!  You attended the event in Munich in May – what was it like being nominated and joining so many creators of children’s content at the festival?

SG: It's an incredibly prestigious festival so we were so excited to be finalists, but what was especially rewarding was the recognition from both the UNICEF and UNESCO nominations which acknowledged the diversity and inclusivity throughout the series. Prix Jeunesse is a unique event – not like any other festival or conference that I’ve ever attended. It was a fantastic opportunity to watch the best of the best of children’s television from around the world, then discuss creative, ethical and production insights with the shows’ producers and commissioning editors.

Can you both share what the audience response has been like for Fizzy & Suds? 

SG: Audience response has been terrific – both the numbers and anecdotally. It’s so amazing when people send pictures of their kids or grandkids watching the series. ABC have told us that the first season of Fizzy & Suds is the #3 Australian ABC Kids season for minutes viewed on ABC iview in 2024. We’re all pretty excited by that! And when we did a call out on Facebook for ideas for Season 2 the response was incredible – kids had such interesting, and sometimes obscure, passions that they wanted us to explore.  

GCS: Many of my friends have children who are the target audience for the show, so they text me pictures of their children watching the show, they let me know their kid’s favourite episode and they text me when their kids request the show. It is so rewarding to get those texts… I just need to get my kids, who are actually IN the show, to watch it.  My twin girls play the character of Suds, but all they are interested in watching at the moment is Octonauts!

What is next for you both?

SG: We’re currently in development on Season 2 of Fizzy & Suds, so we’re having a fun time hearing from kids what they’d love to see revealed in a Fizzy & Suds episode. We’ve been on the road researching exciting new topics and locations around our state.  Our feature documentary Aquarius is currently doing the film festival circuit before a cinema release later in the year. We’ve also got a slate of other scripted and unscripted projects.

GCS: While I won’t be returning to Season 2 of Fizzy & Suds, I have no doubt the team will create another beautiful series and I’m thrilled that the success of Season 1 has secured a second season for the team.  I’m currently focused on the scripted space. I am in development on some exciting new projects and I look forward to seeing where those projects take me. 

You can watch Fizzy & Suds on ABC iview here.

Image: Fizzy & Suds producer Sam Griffin, and series writer and director Genevieve Clay-Smith.