Tonight (Wednesday, 23 April) sees the premiere of the new six-part mini-series 'Innocent Times' on M-Net — it replaces 'Ella Blue' at 8pm.

I've haven't seen an episode but I've caught the "Making of it" and been chatting to people involved in creating it and from the looks and sounds of it it's an exciting must-see that's different and revolutionary when it comes to SA TV.

Over 55 percent of the show's been filmed using green screen and CGI effects — you may have seen the promos about it on M-Net. The idea's been to create a comic-book, top quality series that looks and feels like nothing we've ever seen before when it comes to local production.

According to the executive producer Geoff Newton, the show and story's "What you'd get if you set Tarantino free on a nice SA story." That's something I've been wishing someone would do for ages.

From the bits I've seen there's lots of violence in it — all with a Tarantino-esque sense of humour and commentary — and the story revolves around the character Gene, who's similar to Tarantino's shero's like 'Pulp Fiction's Mallory and The Bride of 'Kill Bill'.

Part of the action's set in the present — which is all filmed on location and the rest of the action's set in the past, which is where the CGI comes in.

Local shows always pay way too little (if any) attention to the importance of conceptual stylistic elements and the show seems to have them up the wazoo so it looks really promising.

Check out the images above from pre-and post-production that explain how the scenes have been transformed from a green screen acting context to the final product.

Fast facts

The white dotted lines you see in some of the green grabs are what's used to link up the CGI with the action. So the computers use the dots to create the imagery around them.

Actor Justin Strydom (who played Captain Leon Cutts in 'Snitch') is one of the show's creators. He's both a writer and producer on the show and plays one of the leads, Eddie Brok.

All the music for the show's been specifically written and recorded for it and features songs instead of mood music. The songs are written by Sean Fourie and musicians include Chris Chameleon, Zola, Wendy Oldfield, rapper Pharrel and the group Pickpocket Charlie.

The CD's going to be released at the end of May.

Other inspirations for the show include the graphic novel genre and the movie 'Sin City'.

The series cost R6.5-million to make and went over budget by R700 000 — a standard practice. Apparently most shows in the US go over budget by 10 percent guaranteed.

Using CGI effects to dress a background and set in TV shows isn't a cheaper option and can turn out more expensively.

There are 277 scenes in the series and 2800 special effects. To compare the numbers, there were 1000 special effects in the first season of 'Heroes'.