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Case study · Original series
Cheers
To Failure
We did not shoot a podcast for somebody. We built one. The show, the set, the look, the first two seasons — developed, constructed, filmed and cut in-house.
The job
Everything a
show needs,
before episode one.
Most production companies are handed a format and asked to point cameras at it. Cheers To Failure did not exist. There was an idea about talking honestly about failure, and nothing else — no set, no look, no run of show, no episode structure.
We took it from there to a published series. That meant developing the format, designing and physically building the set, lighting it, working out the camera pattern that would survive twenty episodes without looking repetitive, then shooting and editing seasons one and two.
It is the clearest answer we can give to a client asking whether we can run their series: we already did it for one of our own, twice.
What we did
Four jobs in one.
Developed the show
Format, episode structure, run of show and the guest brief that makes a conversation go somewhere rather than meander.
Built the set
Designed and constructed from nothing — shelving, backlit signage, seating, styling and a lighting plan that holds up on camera for a full shoot day.
Shot two seasons
Multi-camera, radio mics, consistent framing episode to episode so the series looks like one thing rather than a collection of recordings.
Edited and delivered
Full edit, colour, sound and the social cutdowns that carry each episode after it publishes.
The set
Built, not booked.
Warm practicals, backlit shelving, a signage piece as the anchor of the wide shot, and seating placed for a two-camera conversation. Nothing here was hired for the day.
The Cheers To Failure set, mid-session. Two-metre softboxes overhead, backlit shelving carrying the signage, greenery to break the depth behind the guest.
Episodes
Watch it.
Tbo Touch on money, mistakes and meaning
Cheers To Failure
Shado Twala on walking away from a life that looked perfect
Cheers To Failure
Khudu Pitje on turning a R500,000 break into a billion-rand legacy
Cheers To Failure
Delivered
What came
out of it.
- A permanent set, still standing and still shooting
- Two full seasons, filmed and finished
- Long-form episodes published to the channel
- Short-form cutdowns from every episode
- A repeatable production process we now run for clients
What it proves
We can run
your series.
A podcast is easy to start and hard to keep publishing. The failure point is almost never the first episode — it is episode nine, when the novelty has gone and somebody still has to book the guest, light the room and cut the edit.
Cheers To Failure ran two seasons because the process behind it was built to run without heroics. That is what you are buying.
Next step
Want something like this?
Send us the brief and we will tell you what it would take.