Where in Fiji is the Love Island Australia villa 2019? - NEWS.com.au

It’s an hour before host Sophie Monk records her Love Island Australia opening lines, and a stylist carrying a bundle of frocks has just narrowly dodged a freshly-painted kitchen cupboard.

Easily the focal point of the set — which says a lot given it’s in the middle of a literal palm-tree-dotted paradise — Monk stuns in a statement cocktail dress, her blonde hair cascading down her back while last minute makeup touches are applied before she takes position behind camera.

But weaving around the TV personality’s long, tanned legs are about 12 barefoot, frantic crew members armed with vacuum cleaners, stray cushions and paintbrushes in desperate attempts to perfect the Love Island aesthetic before its every crevice falls under the lens.

Anyone who dares set foot on the outdoor kitchen’s tiled floor with shoes on is scolded, and there’s the smell of wet paint in the air. Only a fool would wear a white dress on a set visit.

It’s difficult to grasp that the chaotic surrounds in which I’m standing, observing, trying to be as little of a nuisance as possible, will be what hits our screens in a day — the hundreds of workers to vanish as though they were never there to begin with.

Majella Wiemers, head of entertainment at ITV Studios, which makesLove Island Australiafor Channel 9, tells me these last-minute touch ups are crucial.

“Everything has to be perfect because there’s 60 cameras, so we can’t take any chances with details,” Wiemers says.

Harder still to wrap my head around is the fact that this was once a rental property decorated like a typical Fijian resort, not a near mirror-image of the villa we saw on our screens last year.

“It’s a big process,” Wiemers explains.

“First you have to find a villa that can actually be transformed the way we need it, so we have multiple reccys to the location, where we bring anyone who has a creative say, so we get a lot of opinions.”

The result, she says, is unrecognisable.

“The amount of infrastructure we have to put in there, not just facade-wise, but we actually put full lighting into the walls and the ceiling, and there’s 60 microphones embedded within the villa walls,” she says.

Once filming has wrapped, the property — completely redesigned and rebuilt — is given back to the owners as “back to normal” as possible.

“They might want to keep some of what we’ve done. We put in a pool so we’re assuming they’ll want to keep that, but they’ll probably want to get rid of the microphones and cameras.”

Preparing Love Island HQ takes a village, but the hard work has only just begun.

“At the moment we’ve got 256 crew on the ground, but that’s just here in Fiji, that doesn’t include the teams that we still have working back in Sydney.”

We still have a crew of casting agents back in Sydney who are selecting contestants while the show’s on air to come into later episodes.”

“It’s going to be easier having the villa in Fiji this year,” she adds, “we can be more reactive and send someone in within 48 hours if we think they’d be good for the villa.”

Last year, the program was filmed in Mallorca, Spain, which meant it could take up to 40 hours to get a fresh contestant behind the camera.

With a 24-hour turnaround, staff will work around the clock to deliver what we’ll be glued to each night starting Monday, including Eoghan McDermott, the Irishman whose voiceovers make the program iconic — weaving in his comedic gold hours before it hits our screens.

“During a normal filming day the heart and mind is the control room,” Wiemers says.

“They’re looking at storylines, they’re looking at camera angles, the post-production team are there starting the edit, processing those storylines into a cut. That’s where it all comes to life.”

Standing in the villa, there are cameras in every corner you look, and though the hideaways are still open while cameras are being repositioned, it’s easy to forget there’s a huddle of producers watching your every move from the control room — about a five-minute walk down a gravel path on the property.

The only place of refuge from cameras, I’m told, is inside the toilet cubicles. Yes — even the outdoor showers are equipped.

Wiemers says it’s the “dry run” that helps the team figure out the ideal camera placement for the juicy bits we know and love.

Much like a dress rehearsal, they’ve had a group of people in the villa filming mock-show, acting as though they are on their own quest for love.

“We test everything with stand-in islanders — and run it like a real version of the show with challenges and everything,” Wiemers explains.

“Because we pump out an episode every 24 hours, we need to make sure everybody knows what’s going on and all our processes are in place.”

As for the real contestants, they’ve been in lockdown, with no phones and no contact with the outside world, for the days leading up in resorts nearby — spread out so not to bump into each other at the breakfast buffet.

“It’s a military operation,” is what I’m told from almost every person involved — and with Aussie holiday-makers filling every single resorts, they’re not wrong. The minders have their work cut out for them — one wrong turn at any given time, or one loud fellow resort guest, could result in two contestants knowing what they’re about to walk into.

I’d spoken to some of them while they packed for the villa, and almost every single one of them shared a feeling: “It still hasn’t hit me yet.”

This, Wiemers explains, is why they have a dedicated support crew on site.

“For some people it doesn’t really dawn on them that they’re coming into Love Island until they’re actually here and it’s all happening, so we want to make sure when it does dawn on them, that they’ve got that support around and the ability to ask all the questions they need and they’re absolutely confident in their decision.

“Obviously being cut off from your family and friends for an extended period of time can make for heightened experience and sometimes people do get a little bit anxious or upset, so we make sure we do have the processes in place.”

She adds that before filming, there’s an “open and honest” policy when it comes to what the islanders might find after their stint on the show.

“We’re very open that Love Island may not bring you your 15 seconds of fame that you’re after, so to make sure their decision to join the show has to be a considered and measured one.”

Love Island Australia airs Monday night at 8.45pm on Channel 9

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