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A Magazine for the Film, Television and Digital Production Industry.
Citation preview
BirdwatcherFSM
Love in the sixthnumb
patterson’s wagersuspension
S p o t l i g h t o n t h e b o S S o f b r i g h t l i g h t
Shawn Williamson
Whistler Film Festival2015
Ca
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Winter 2015/16 $5.00
film, tV, online and digital production
in WeStern canada
4 ANGLE ON
MARK LEIREN-YOUNG
9 LEGAL BRIEFS
NATE LYMAN
13 WESTERN TV, EH?
DIANE WILD
23 INDIE SCENE
PAUL ARMSTRONG
29 DIGITALLY YOURS
ERICA HARGREAVE
30 THE WINDOW
MARK LEIREN-YOUNG
ON THE COVER: SHAWN WILLIAMSON, president of Brightlight Pictures. PHOTO BY PHILLIP CHIN
REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS A WHOLLY OWNED ENTERPRISE OF REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. IT EXISTS AND IS MANAGED TO PROVIDE PUBLICITY AND ADVERTISING THAT SUPPORTS THE GROWTH
OF THE WESTERN CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY. EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER: SANDY P. FLANAGAN. EDITOR: MARK LEIREN-YOUNG. PUBLISHER: RON HARVEY. SALES: RANDY HOLMES,
ADAM CADDELL CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ANDREW VON ROSEN. ART DIRECTOR: LINDSEY ATAYA. PHOTO EDITOR: PHILLIP CHIN. CONTRIBUTORS (EDITORIAL): PAUL ARMSTRONG, NATHAN CADDELL,
ERICA HARGREAVE, TOM HAWTHORN, NATE LYMAN, DIANE WILD. COPY EDITORS: CAROLINE DYCK, HAYLEY COPPERTHWAITE. JESS EDWARDS. REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED FOUR TIMES PER YEAR.
SUBSCRIPTIONS CANADA/US $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA). REEL WEST DIGEST, THE DIRECTORY FOR WESTERN CANADA’S FILM, VIDEO AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY, IS PUBLISHED ANNUALLY.
SUBSCRIPTION $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA). BOTH PUBLICATIONS $60.00 (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA) PRICES INCLUDE GST. COPYRIGHT 2014 REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. SECOND
CLASS MAIL. REGISTRATION NO. 0584002. ISSN 0831-5388. G.S.T. # R104445218. REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. 2221 HARTLEY AVE., COQUITLAM, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, V3K 6W9. PHONE: 604-553-1335
TOLL FREE: 1-888-291-7335 EMAIL: [email protected] URL: REELWEST.COM. VOLUME 30, ISSUE 4. PRINTED IN CANADA. TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 604-553-1335 OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT REELWEST.COM.
REEL WEST WELCOMES FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS, VIA EMAIL AT [email protected]. ALL CORRESPONDENCE MUST INCLUDE YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, AND PHONE NUMBER.
6 A TAXING Q&A WITH NEAL CLARANCE Chartered Accountant charts the course for Canadian production funding.
10 BRIGHTLIGHT’S BOSS IN THE SPOTLIGHT Shawn Williamson shares his lifelong love of making magic from behind the scenes.
By Tom Hawthorne
14 CINEMATOGRAPHERS IN FOCUS The stories behind the looks of some of this year’s featured features at WFF 2015.
18 ZEROING IN ON ZOICAndrew Orloff on the ‘Eh’ to Z of Zoic’s BC boom.
By Nathan Caddell
20 PRODUCTION DIARY: LOVE IN THE SIXTHBC’s Jude Klassen takes her West Coast wit to Toronto.
24 PRODUCTION DIARY: FSM Melanie M. Jones wrestles with the 10K Challenge.
CONTENTS
Winter 2015/16
10
6NEAL CLARANCE and SHAWN WILLIAMSON accept honours from SHAUNA HARDY MISHAW, executive director of the Whistler Film Festival Society, at the Celebrate WFF - Vancouver Benefit event on August 28, 2015.
PHOTO BY KIM EIJDENBERG / WFF
@REELWESTMAG
FACEBOOK.COM/REELWESTMAG
3REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
ANGLE ON
Walking along the wa-
terfront at Cannes I
never expected to ex-
perience hometown pride, but when
I saw the huge poster for CBC’s new
made-in-BC series, The Romeo Sec-
tion, covering the front of a posh
hotel I couldn’t help grinning. Chris
Haddock’s latest CBC series was
looking very glam.
This was MIPCOM 2015—the
world’s major TV marketplace—and
producers from Albania to Zimba-
bwe were shopping their shows and
looking for the next big thing. Okay,
I’m not sure if anyone was there
from Zimbabwe, but with almost
15,000 delegates drifting between
sales tables it’s a fairly safe bet.
Despite the crowds featuring
pretty much everyone from every-
where, the western Canadian con-
tingent at Cannes was impressive.
And if you add the made-in-BC
presence, we stole the show with
the world premiere screening of The
X-Files that transformed thousands
of TV pros from around the world
into a gaggle of grinning X-Philes.
The lineup to watch the screening
in the Grand Auditorium began an
hour before the doors opened and
greeters were outfitted like FBI
agents, complete with fake Fox Mul-
der ID badges (which were present-
ed to everyone who attended the
packed screening that featured a
post show Q&A with series creator,
Chris Carter). The X that marked
the spot in Vancouver (and then
broke our hearts when it left to LA)
returned with local actor William B.
Davis back as the unstoppable ciga-
rette-smoking super villain and the
lower mainland playing the parts of
locales around the world.
Just before the X-Files launch,
Telefilm Canada hosted a party
for the Canadian contingent at
MIPCOM—and anyone wanting to
meet the Canadian contingent—
and people with dozens of exotic
accents ordered their free drinks
in English, French or via clever sign
language and caught glimpses of
the Canadian shows screening in
the background.
Veteran Vancouver producer
Tom Rowe told me he was up to
about twenty visits to MIPTV and
MIPCOM and that it’s always worth
the flight. “It’s a great way to stay
connected and get a sense of where
the marketplace is moving. The
breadth of the programming on
offer is remarkable and it’s great
to get a chance to see what other
countries are making, watching
and, of course, buying.”
He said his first market with his
company, Reunion, flying the Thun-
derbird flag was a definite success.
“It was Thunderbird’s first market
with all the new companies there—
Atomic Cartoons, that unsurpris-
ingly, makes cartoons, Great Pacific
Media that does factual program-
ming and us, doing drama.”
Fellow BC producer Nick Orchard
flew to France to pitch a new series by
BC writer Rick Drew. “We were work-
ing our CBC series in development, A
Fine Line and got lots of interest from
US, Canadian, UK and Australian
distributors,” said Orchard. “In the
end it looks like we might have a co-
pro deal with Sweden, which would
give the show so much of that Scan-
dinavian atmosphere.” This was Or-
chard’s tenth trip to the market. “It’s
like speed dating with much higher
stakes. It’s so good and so weird to go
from Ireland to Australia to England
in one morning.”
Canadian powerhouse eOne had
their own big booth at Cannes to
showcase their ever-growing Can-
con catalogue.
I used to cover trade shows, so
I’ve attended hundreds of them,
and I’ve never seen a trade show
like this. Countries, organizations
and production companies don’t
have displays, they have desks
where they can hold meetings and
talk turkey or talk with Turkey—the
festival’s featured country this year.
Other than TV screens showing
highlight reels, and one-sheets fea-
turing shows for sale, this was all
about meeting, greeting and mak-
ing deals. I met a man from England
whose job was playing matchmaker
and introducing potential partners. I
actually overheard someone with a
Bay Area accent tell the person he
was meeting, “next time you’re in LA
call me.” I was a bit disappointed he
didn’t call his new buddy “babe,” but
it still felt awesomely Hollywood.
The first time I stopped by the
Telefilm Canada booth—which was
big enough to house a Tim Hor-
ton’s franchise, always packed with
people doing deals, and looked a bit
like a Canada Day cake—a producer
from Germany’s public network
was at the front desk asking how
she could track down a wildlife cin-
ematographer from BC for a project
she’s working on. I introduced my-
self and after we talked about pos-
sibilities, I arranged to send her the
latest copy of Reel West Digest. n
Canadians Do the Cannes Can-Can
BY MARK LEIREN-YOUNG
I used to cover trade shows, so I’ve attended hundreds of them, and I’ve never seen a trade
show like this.
CBC’s new series woos the world at MIPCOM 2015
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/164
PH
OT
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HIL
LIP
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IN
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/166
OPENING REEL
REEL WEST: How did you end
up working in the film world?
NEAL CLARANCE: I was al-
ways interested in working in the
entertainment industry. I got my
CA degree primarily to have a good
business and finance base to fall
back on if things didn’t work out in
the entertainment industry. While
working towards my CA, I noticed
that there was a great need for busi-
ness skills and particularly finance
skills in the industry. So I decided
that was the way to get involved.
RW: What appeals to you about
the film world?
NC: I have always had a strong in-
terest in all things entertainment
(film/music/theatre). I’m a good
choice for anyone’s trivia team
when it comes to entertainment
questions! So it wasn’t only film. I
wanted to get involved in some as-
pect of the entertainment industry
and I saw that film in particular
could use the skill set I had. Financ-
ing film and TV can be quite a cre-
ative undertaking and I think work-
ing in an industry that I enjoy and
getting to be creative with what is
typically viewed as a pretty mun-
dane activity was exciting to me.
RW: How did you become involved
with the WFF and how has your in-
volvement shifted over the years?
NC: Shauna (Hardy Mishaw) ap-
proached me to join the board
ten years ago. She was looking for
someone with business skills to
compliment the heavy creative
component of the existing board
members. I don’t think my role has
really changed. I’ve always tried to
be at least one of the business voic-
es and sobering voice of reason on
the board
RW: Tell me about the origins of
the tax credit program.
NC: The tax credit program came
about as an alternative to the film
tax shelters of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The government wanted to see a
program that provided incentives
on a basis more directly related to
economic impact, industry growth
and job creation. The tax shelter
structures that preceded tax cred-
its were seen as structures that
resulted in financial benefits to
brokers, lawyers, accountants and
bankers and provided tax breaks
to wealthy taxpayers. However,
it wasn’t felt that enough of the
funds raised were actually ending
up in the hands of the producers
and ultimately in the industry. It
also wasn’t easy to determine, or
correlate what the real impact was
in industry growth and jobs creat-
ed, to the cost of lost tax revenues.
So the tax credit program was de-
veloped on the theory that films
created employment for cast and
crew and in turn generated taxes
to the government that would oth-
erwise not be collected if the film
wasn’t made. Therefore, it was rea-
sonable to effectively refund a por-
tion of those taxes collected back
to the producers/studio.
RW: How is the film/TV world
unique in terms of its relationship
to tax law?
NC: It isn’t. Many industries have
tax legislation that benefits them
in one way or another.
RW: What are some of the film/
TV related projects you’ve had the
BY MARK LEIREN-YOUNG
Accounting for Changes in the
Development of Canadian Film & TV
The Canadian film and TV industry was created by artists and accountants. Producers
don’t just have to raise funds, they have to navigate tax laws, tax credits and regional
incentives. In 2015, the Whistler Film Festival honoured long-time board member,
chartered accountant Neal Clarance (President of NG Clarance Inc.) for his contribu-
tions to the fest’s success. An expert on media money, Clarance works with govern-
ment and industry and was a lead consultant and architect of the BC and Federal Film
tax credit programs. In 2011, Clarance was honoured with a lifetime achievement Leo
Award for his work with the BC film and television industry. Reel West asked Clarance
to answer a few taxing questions about the past, present and future of the industry.
7REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
most fun working with (and why)?
NC: I don’t think my involvement
in fi lm falls into the “fun” category,
really. I enjoy what I do and the
challenge of trying to fi gure out
how to get fi lms fi nanced and in
the most effi cient way. I’ve worked
on lots of fi lms and TV series and
with companies that I am proud
to have been associated with. But
probably the most enjoyment and
satisfaction I have had in my career
was working on the report and rec-
ommendations that led to the cre-
ation of the BC tax credit program
and the subsequent DAVE credit
addition because I knew what the
impact of these legislations could
mean to the industry in BC.
RW: How do you think tax laws
have shaped the Canadian fi lm in-
dustry?
NC: Tax-related incentives have
been instrumental in the growth
of the fi lm and TV industry in this
country. They have been the prima-
ry reason why Hollywood started
coming to Canada, which in turn
resulted in creating jobs, building
facilities, infrastructure and the
expertise needed to not only at-
tract more US based production,
but also create the talent and ex-
perience needed to grow our indig-
enous industry.
RW: Is there any law or loophole
you think worked particularly well?
NC: I won’t comment on “loop-
holes.” I believe that the federal
and provincial tax credit programs
have been the largest contributors
to the industry’s growth. The fact
that this basic structure has been
copied all over the world is a testa-
ment to that fact.
RW: Is there any law or loophole
that completely backfi red?
NC: “Loopholes” always ultimately
backfi re because they are taking
advantage of an unintended gap
or error in the legislation. Develop-
ing mechanisms to exploit loop-
holes has rarely led to the making
of quality fi lms or any sustainable
growth to the industry.
RW: What advice would you give
to a new producer?
NC: If you can’t sell it, don’t make
it! There is no such thing as a fi lm
that “needs” to be made, or a story
that “needs” to be told. If you can’t
sell it and very few people will ac-
tually see it, will you really achieve
your goal?
RW: What advice do you fi nd
yourself giving repeatedly to more
seasoned producers?
NC: An extension of the above
advice... budgeting and fi nancing
a fi lm should never be a compro-
mise, or fall back to a budget that
matches the funds available. Keep
asking yourself, do I really have
enough money to make the fi lm
I want to make—a fi lm that I will
be properly compensated for and a
fi lm that will fi nd an audience and
market.
RW: How has the fi lm industry
evolved over the last 25 years?
How have festivals like WFF con-
tributed to these changes?
NC: This is far too big a question to
answer in a paragraph or two. The
industry and how fi lms are made,
marketed and sold has completely
changed over the past 25 years,
as technology and public needs
and demands have changed and I
expect that will only continue to
evolve and change even more rap-
idly and dramatically in the future.
Festivals will need to constantly
stay on top of those changes and
adapt to stay relevant in the years
ahead. n
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REEL WEST WINTER 2015/168
D eveloping a fi lm or televi-
sion project is a collabora-
tive process. Bringing an
original idea to reality often begins
with a small group of committed in-
dividuals who combine their skills
and lend their creativity. With any
luck, the fi rst draft of a script is writ-
ten and used to generate further in-
terest in the project. Unfortunately,
sometimes a project becomes de-
layed indefi nitely and never realizes
its full potential due to the confl icts
between those fi rst collaborators.
Differences in artistic vision and
business control can prompt each
person to claim they have sole own-
ership over the script. In reality, it
is likely the individuals are in a co-
owner relationship and the script is
a work of joint authorship.
Under the Canadian Copyright
Act, a “work of joint authorship”
means “a work produced by the col-
laboration of two or more authors in
which the contribution of one author
is not distinct from the contribution
of the other author or authors.” Mo-
tion pictures have contributions from
many distinct authors (i.e. literary,
dramatic, cinematographic, musi-
cal, etc.). Typically, each assign their
distinct copyright to the producer
who becomes the single owner of
the copyright in the fi lm. However,
joint authors of a screenplay share
the same copyright, making each
contributor a co-owner. How can you
determine whether someone’s con-
tribution deems them a joint author?
It is not a matter of who registers the
script with the Canadian Intellec-
tual Property Offi ce, which in itself
does not determine authorship. One
of the leading authorities in defi n-
ing joint authorship is the British
Columbia Supreme Court decision
in Neudorf v. Nettwerk Productions Ltd.,
where the court stated that the con-
tribution of each joint author must
be “signifi cant or substantial.” How-
ever, the court stated that there is no
“bright line test” for what constitutes
a signifi cant or substantial contribu-
tion. Mere suggestions to the writer
of a screenplay will likely fall below
that threshold; however, any form of
contribution that is capable of hav-
ing its own copyright (e.g. a page of
dialogue) might be suffi cient. If the
contribution is found to be signifi -
cant, a court will look at whether the
parties intended that the contribu-
tion be merged into the screenplay,
and whether the parties intended the
other to be a joint author.
On a practical level, a participant
in the creative process of a screen-
play could claim to have an interest
in the copyright of the material. As
a result, the threat of a copyright
infringement claim by a disaffect-
ed contributor or collaborator can
block the development or produc-
tion of the project because that kind
of liability exposure is unacceptable
to most distributors, broadcasters,
fi nanciers and insurers.
In absence of going through a
court proceeding to have a judge rule
on whether someone’s creative con-
tribution amounts to a co-author-
ship, it is prudent for all contributors
to enter into a written agreement
clarifying the nature of the project
and their respective contributions.
This can be done in several ways.
It is recommended that the con-
tributors enter into a collaboration
agreement that outlines each con-
tributor’s proportional share in the
work. If such proportions are not
indicated, the copyright would be
shared equally. Such an agreement
can also assist in defi ning the roles
and responsibilities of each contribu-
tor for the project and indicate which
party has creative control, business
control, and how any revenue is split.
Collaborators who delay clarifying
their copyright in the joint work do so
at their own peril. Over time, the rec-
ollection of individual contributions
can differ and opposing yet honestly
held positions as to each person’s
contribution can halt the project.
Writers and producers ought to be
mindful of the individuals whom
they engage to assist in the develop-
ment of an idea, as the threshold of
co-authorship can be easily crossed. n
LEGAL BRIEFS
Collaboration and Joint Authors
BY NATE LYMAN
Expert AdviceBrought to you by Chubb Insurance
Key individuals in your production?Cast coverage - not just for on-screen talent.
Ensure the key individuals in your production are adequately covered.
Please note that the above is advice only. Coverage is determined exclusively by your insurance policy wording.
Nathaniel Lyman is an associate at
Chandler Fogden Aldous Law Corpora-
tion. He practices in the areas of fi lm,
television, digital media and music.
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9 REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
PH
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HIL
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REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1610
PROFILE
Shawn Williamson was still a teenager when he got his dream
job working behind the scenes at the Arts Club Theatre on
Granville Island. A dream job except for one provision—his
apprenticeship meant he had to appear onstage. Tread the
boards? He only wanted to build them.
“I was petrified,” he says three decades later, the anxiety not difficult to
recall.
He was cast as a waiter in Passion, a play about adultery and betrayal.
A part without dialogue. (Phew.) His duty was to merely offer red wine to
the actors. Easy peasy. At one performance, the 19-year-old shuffled out on
cue, wine delicately balanced, when—disaster—he spilled the contents on
actress Kim Horsman.
It was live theatre. She played off the incident, her annoyance with a stum-
blebum teenaged waiter expressed in most heartfelt and believable fashion.
“She was less than happy,” Williamson said. “I’m sure I looked mortified.”
The tyro actor survived the stage debacle on his way to becoming a wun-
derkind of his industry. In 2001, he co-founded Brightlight Pictures, which
develops, finances and produces countless feature films and television se-
ries for the national and international market. He’s on the phone and he’s
in meetings. He’s finding scripts and he’s raising money, a challenge in a
country where capital is happier to cut something down or dig something
up than to make art (even if the art is entertaining as hell).
When projects are in production, “I spend my time putting out small
fires,” he said. Resources are finite while demands seem infinite, so it is his
duty to allocate resources while multi-tasking, making Williamson a juggler
with balls in the air that are each worth millions of dollars.
On occasion, he gets away from his office at the Bridge Studios in Burnaby
to be present at an exotic shooting locale. Often, he gets to attend industry
events, such as the Whistler Film Festival, on whose board of directors he
sat for a decade. Williamson, 50, who with his well-cut suits and omnipres-
ent smile looks a bit like a front-office Trevor Linden, also plays host at red-
carpet parties for both the Vancouver International and Whistler festivals.
He’s so successful—more than 90 productions to his credit—that he has
a publicist with whom one negotiates before the telephone rings one day
with an assured “Mr. Williamson on the line,” and after a few confused “hel-
los” at both ends and an awkward explanation that the conversation is to
be taped (fat good that will do, with my dog barking and an incessant buzz-
ing on the line), the conversation begins. Told I have ten minutes, I begin a
rapid-fire scattershot of questions — Where are you calling from? What are
you doing today? What’s on the walls of your office? What mementos are
on your desk?
I want to set the scene, the important background for the story to be told,
when Williamson takes the opportunity of a deep inhalation of breath from
his interlocutor to ask, firmly but with genuine puzzlement in his voice,
“Just what is this story about?” Why the hell are you asking me, one of the
Canadian filmmaking poobahs, a busy guy of the kind who has someone
place his calls so as to not waste valuable time, what is on my desk? Oh,
sorry, I explain. A profile. A look at your career. I’d like to see you in the
natural habitat of your office, but I can’t, so please tell me about yourself
through what you’ve got on your (gulp) desk. The air cleared, he couldn’t
be nicer, or more helpful. The minutes roll by long past the allotted time.
That’s the kind of guy he is. Halt a production mid-disaster, garner
enough information to identify the problem, reset course. All done in ami-
able fashion. No wonder he’s been called “one heck of a nice guy” by scene
chronicler Lynne McNamara.
Born at Vancouver General Hospital, he grew up in the Lynn Valley neigh-
bourhood of North Vancouver. His father was a ship’s captain who was of-
ten at sea working in the Arctic. Like many of his generation, the boy en-
joyed light American situation comedies (Happy Days, Three’s Company, Mork
and Mindy) on television and blockbusters (Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters of
the Third Kind) at the cinema. One movie that made an impression was John
Huston’s The Man Who Would be King, a swashbuckler starring Michael Caine
and Sean Connery.
Young Shawn was in grade six when he helped stage his elementary
school’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He did
the same backstage at Argyle Secondary, finding he liked working switches
and making things happen behind the scenes, an Ozian wizard who, in his
own words, otherwise “had no identifiable talent.”
A brief, unhappy stint at university was followed by the Arts Club gig.
While still living at home with his parents, he traveled from North Vancou-
ver to Granville Island by bus six days a week for a job that paid the princely
sum of $40 per week.
BY TOM HAWTHORN
Shining a Brightlight on
Shawn WilliamsonBEHIND THE SCENES WITH ONE OF CANADA’S
MOST PRODUCTIVE PRODUCERS
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NEW CLIENT INCENTIVES FOR 2015ask about our
He had been an apprentice stage
manager only to be pushed aside
for being too young for a job in
which he was expected to corral
much older and more experienced
actors. Meanwhile, he learned the
basics of backstage operations from
painting to electrical, from being a
stagehand to a spotlight operator.
At age 23, he was hired to be pro-
duction manager of the Variety Club
Telethon, a 22-hour live broadcast
on Vancouver station BCTV. Next
came a stint with Shari Lewis, the
ventriloquist and puppeteer who
was returning to television in 1991
with Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, a chil-
dren’s show produced in Vancouver
and Los Angeles and airing on YTV
in Canada and PBS in the United
States. While the children’s enter-
tainer had a reputation as a harsh
taskmaster, Williamson found her
to be more of a straight shooter
than a tyrant.
“She wasn’t tough at all,” he in-
sists. “If you knew what you were
doing, you were fi ne. If you didn’t,
you were okay if you didn’t pretend
to know something you didn’t know.”
Still a novice at television pro-
duction, Williamson was straight-
forward with Lewis, admitting to
her when he needed to get more
information to complete a job. He
asked questions and then he asked
more questions. To this day, even
as he handles multi-million-dollar
budgets instead of sock puppets, he
makes a point of not pretending to
know what he doesn’t know. He be-
lieves in fessing up instead of offer-
ing baffl egab.
Producing the children’s show
gave him the background he needed
as he began working on productions
in Vancouver.
He eventually joined Shavick En-
tertainment, becoming president.
Williamson and company chairman
James Shavick were in Los Angeles
on June 25, 2000, when the com-
pany’s False Creek studios burned
down in a spectacular fi re. Sets, cos-
tumes and a video library of stock
shots were lost in the three-alarm
fi re in the warehouse district at
Second Avenue and Quebec Street.
Among the losses were entertain-
ment souvenirs, including photo-
graphs and memorabilia from his
time with Shari Lewis.
A little over a year later, William-
son launched Brightlight with direc-
tor Stephen Hegyes. Their industry
debut was to be a splash at the To-
ronto International Film Festival in
2001, which opened on September 6.
Of course, business was put aside in
horror and mourning fi ve days later.
That inauspicious launch was
overcome in time with success in
matching fi nancing with projects.
He’s been responsible for shoots in
places as far afi eld as Australia, Sin-
gapore, and South Africa, as well as
Croatia and Romania. One Balkan
adventure involved a pre-dawn ex-
pedition to fi nd a faux Irish pub at
which it was believed a satellite sig-
nal for some sporting event would
be available. Instead, the hapless
crew wound up in an unwanted
confrontation with Bulgarian police
after being pulled over. A demand
for passports did not seem to as-
suage the gendarme’s suspicions.
As tensions thickened, Williamson’s
director, accustomed to relying on
his troubleshooting executive pro-
ducer ordered, “Shawn, make them
go away.” A stint in a Sofi a cell was
avoided though, in the end, the ex-
pedition was a failure, as the café
refused to serve even a single pint
of Guinness, the match turned
out to be a dud, and the only cof-
fee available had been brewed the
previous evening. Suffi ce to say life
as a Hollywood North mogul is not
all red carpets and black ties, not all
hobnobbing with Nicholas Cage and
Anne Hathaway.
Last year, Williamson was induct-
ed into the Star Walk on Granville
Street, an achievement for someone
who had at the time yet to reach
the half-century mark, though he
had spent more than half his life in
show biz.
He’s a globetrotter, but in his
offi ce you will fi nd a mix of per-
sonal objects and business papers,
photographs of his son and of his
girlfriend and knick-knacks from
his different projects. Pinned to a
board are tickets to Whitecaps soc-
cer and Canucks hockey games.
He helped develop, package and
produce Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe
Story, a biopic that aired on Hall-
mark and CBC. The drama tells
the story of an ageless player who
survives devastating setbacks and
remains at the top of his game long
after others predict his inevitable
downfall. The attraction of the sto-
ry is obvious. n
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1612
WESTERN TV, EH?
Quality, Quantity and Creative Questions for the CRTC
BY DIANE WILD
If Jean-Pierre Blais were a televi-
sion writer instead of the chair-
man of the Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC), every show he
wrote would be gold. Apparently.
Earlier this year Blais summa-
rized the findings of the Talk TV
hearing in an “Age of Abundance”—
his more charitable description
of today’s “peak TV,” FX CEO John
Landgraf’s epithet for what he sees
as a content bubble where “this is
simply too much television.”
Blais is nothing if not optimistic
though. He thinks he has found a
way to make less, better. From his
speech to the Canadian Club of Ot-
tawa as released to the media: “We
want creators and distributors to
choose quality over quantity. Such
an approach creates a virtuous
cycle where the industry invests to
create better programs, which in
turn bring more value into the sys-
tem, which in turn generates more
money to re-invest in content made
by Canadians. More importantly,
it creates an environment where
Canadians want to watch content
made by our creators—not because
it is forced upon them, but because
it’s good. Indeed, because it is great.”
Isn’t that cute? It’s like it never
occurred to him that you don’t get
quality without quantity. That if you
look at the most successful televi-
sion industry in the world, an aver-
age of about 65 percent of new shows
are cancelled in their first year.
Plus, how do you measure qual-
ity? Are we talking low-rated The
Wire, one of the best TV shows of all
time, or are we talking high-rated
NCIS that appears on few “best” lists?
However you define it, it seems
evident that quality TV is a by-prod-
uct of the mass production of TV.
Since it’s not evident to Blais, for one,
science can provide the evidence.
Writer Jonah Lehrer—whose in-
terests lie in the areas of psychol-
ogy, neuroscience and the rela-
tionship between science and the
humanities—pointed to a recent
experiment published in Frontiers in
Psychology: “Quantity yields quality
when it comes to creativity.”
The psychologists and neurosci-
entists involved gave their subjects
a graphic and told them to write
down as many things as they could
that the drawing suggested to them,
with the answers scored for their
creativity. The researchers gave
each subject intelligence and per-
sonality tests and measured their
cortex and, after all their sciencing,
they concluded that the quantity of
ideas was related to the creativity
of the ideas—those who came up
with the most ideas also had better
ideas.
Earlier, psychologist Dean Keith
Simonton had proposed the equal
odds rule: “the relationship be-
tween the number of hits and the
total number of works produced in
a given time period is positive, lin-
ear, stochastic, and stable.”
The people with the best ideas
have the most ideas... as well as
some of the worst ideas. Deadwood
and John From Cincinnati came from
the same brain. Pablo Picasso cre-
ated more than 20,000 works of art.
Hollywood’s Golden Age was also
one of the most prolific periods for
studios, who created a lot of dross
along with the gold.
The CRTC’s Blais points to suc-
cessful international dramas such
as Australia’s The Code, the UK’s
Downton Abbey and Denmark’s Bor-
gen and The Killing as proof that bril-
liant content could happen here. He
doesn’t mention the terrible shows
those countries produce because,
being terrible, they haven’t made
their way to Canada. He does men-
tion, but doesn’t connect dots, that
Canadian shows such as Slings and
Arrows, Rookie Blue and Murdoch Mys-
teries are mentioned worldwide as
quality shows.
Just as the quality problem as
identified by Blais misses the mark,
so too do the CRTC’s Talk TV solu-
tions. Blais proposes making more
adaptations of Canadian literary
hits, because you can never go
wrong with a literary adaptation,
apparently. Should we break it to
him that for every Book of Negroes
that garners huge ratings is a Best
Laid Plans that doesn’t? Another Talk
TV pilot project is to prioritize high-
budget dramas—high enough to
exceed Downton Abbey and Borgen’s
budgets.
As Canada’s broadcasters merge,
we have a smaller quantity of
broadcasters buying shows and
therefore a smaller quantity of
shows. As CBC cuts their season or-
ders we have a smaller quantity of
episodes of each show. Never mind
that the Canadian content quotas
currently in existence already allow
Global to have no scripted Canadi-
an shows for half the year. How can
our regulator think quantity is even
a factor in our industry?
Lehrer sums up the research on
creativity like this: “high levels of
creative output are often a prereq-
uisite for creative success. Put an-
other way, throwing shit at the wall
is how you figure out what sticks.
More shit, more sticks.”
There’s a strange arrogance to
the Talk TV conclusions: Blais seems
to think Canadian TV can beat the
quality odds that plague every other
creative endeavour. He’s wrong. n
The people with the best ideas have
the most ideas...
Diane Wild is the founder of the TV, eh? website (www.tv-eh.com), cov-
ering news, reviews and interviews
about Canadian television shows.
13REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
Behind the Scenes on Shooting the Scenes for Six WFF Features
SPECIAL FEATURE
PATTERSON’S WAGER
“It was very challenging to shoot a feature film in twelve days with only one camera. Our ap-
proach to the film was to focus on what was essential to the scene, without any excessive cam-
era movements. This more simplified style supported the performance of the actors. In general,
that led us to use soft bounced light, with hard hits of sunlight to help build a natural look.”
- Graham Talbot
“To achieve the late 1800s look, we stretched nylon across the lens to create a softer image
with blooming highlights. We decided to create the effect practically, rather than digitally,
because of the texture the nylon created. We utilized unmotivated light and backlight to
develop the whimsy and fantasy of the flashbacks.”
- Nelson Talbot
Patterson’s Wager is the second
collaboration between writer/
director O. Corbin Saleken and
twin cinematographers Nelson and
Graham Talbot. The Talbot twins’
other credits include indie hit,
Lawrence & Holloman.
How does a cinematographer make a movie cinematic? How does a Director of Photography
work with a director? What are the creative challenges—and artistic advantages—of creat-
ing a unique look with no budget? Reel West asked the eyes behind the images at some of
the films featured at the 2015 Whistler Film Festival to take us behind the scenes for an inside
look at how they brought their fest features to the big screen.
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1614
Shawn Seifert’s a cinematographer who prefers to operate
his own camera whenever possible. Recent credits include
TV movies Dying to Be Loved, Newlywed and Dead and
another feature debuting at Whistler 2015 - FSM.
FSM
“With a budget smaller than most short films, I wasn’t sure how we were
going to pull it off. But somehow we did and I’m so ecstatic with what we
created.
For me the script always called for a natural feel in the cinematography. I
didn’t want it too polished and sleek, nor too gritty and dark. So I strove
to keep the lighting natural and motivated by reality. Due to our limited
budget, tools such as Steadicam and dollies were not available to us, so
the director and I worked closely during the blocking to find creative and
interesting angles to help tell the story, without relying on heavy camera
movement. Other filmmakers in this circumstance might have chosen to
go all handheld, but I felt that would feel too crude for a dialogue heavy
film. I really wanted the camera to get out of the way and just find the
right place to tell the story from. In fact, I believe there are only three
dolly moves in the whole film and only the underground party scenes are
handheld. The rest was done just on a tripod.
Perhaps the biggest single shooting challenge were the underground
party scenes, where Sam would be DJing. In the script these were all
supposed to be different locations and to take place at different times
throughout Sam’s journey, but in our schedule we only had one loca-
tion and had to shoot all four scenes on the same day. That was over ten
pages of partying to shoot in a twelve hour day! So each different party
was given a different colour palette and we changed up as much of the
practical lights as we could. We got very creative during that day. For
instance, we hung bare bulb kinos along one wall and to create the party
lasers I took a digital projector that we just happened to have on set and
pointed it towards camera. After adding a bit of smoke, we ended up with
a very exciting underground party.”
- Shawn Seifert
SUSPENSION
“The look of Suspension was heavily guided by the two dis-
tinct worlds of the film: the reality the characters lived in and
the comic book world that Emily escapes into. The director
(Jeffery Lando) and I set out to start the film with these two
worlds looking as different as possible; however, as the story
progresses and the two worlds started to blend together, so
did the styles. This resulted in creating a third distinct look
for the ending of the film. Needless to say, when shooting a
movie out of order, it wasn’t uncommon for everyone on set
to struggle to figure out which world any particular scene re-
sided in. To achieve the distinct looks, I used different styles
of lighting and framing.
The real world was kept mostly natural, with softer lighting
and more traditional framing and lensing. For the comic book
world, I made the lighting much harsher and heightened the
contrast, while trying to make the framing mimic the style of
a comic book. During the colour correction stage, it became
evident that these two worlds needed to be pushed even
farther apart and so the comic book world was taken in an
even more stylized direction, with heavy desaturation and an
unnatural colour tone.”
- Shawn Seifert
PHOTO BY GEOFF WEBB
PH
OT
O B
Y D
EE
GR
AP
HIQ
UE
SP
HO
TO
BY
SH
AW
N S
EIF
ER
T
15REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
BIRDWATCHER
“The title Birdwatcher suggested that a lot of the story would be told within the Pacific Northwest environ-
ment so that lush forest greenery would be a given. However, the deterioration of Saffron’s condition, Lucy
and Jona’s loss of a safe and loving home and Birdy’s isolated environment would pose other challenges.
A challenge that worked in our favour was the relatively low budget that forced us to come up with simple
solutions that were much more grounded and in keeping with the authenticity of the characters. Gratuitous
crane shots, long Steadicam sequences and other obtrusive camera technology would have drawn attention
to the camera and possibly have served to distract viewers from the story.
We used a relatively small, but very capable Canon C300 Camera and Zeiss prime lenses which allowed
us to fit into tight spots such as mobile homes, tents and cramped apartments. The lenses were crisp and
sharp and no diffusion filtration was used to enhance or tone down the reality of faces or environments.
Throughout, the colour palette changes slightly with Saffron’s deterioration.
In the beginning Saffron’s home is warm, colourful and inviting, sunlight streams through windows and
she looks vibrant at work and elsewhere. As the end nears, cool bluish overhead lights are used and
lower contrast is employed. Luck played a role as well. On the day we shot the scene where Birdy opens
up to Saffron and tells her why she gave her up for adoption, Mother Nature served up a cool cloudy and
dreary day, allowing us to place the characters in a grand setting of ocean and mountains that dwarfed
them, yet seemed to bring them intimately together.
- Peter F. Woeste
Rob McGee was a BC-
based fashion and wedding
photographer before
moving to Toronto where
he shot Jude Klassen’s talk
shows and music videos.
Love in the Sixth is his
feature debut.
PH
OT
O B
Y J
ER
EM
Y G
ILB
ER
T
Peter F. Woeste (csc) has worked
on countless projects for TV and
film. He was Director of Photography
(and a director) on the made-in-BC
TV sensation, Stargate SG-1.
PH
OT
O B
Y S
TE
PH
AN
IE N
ILE
S
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1616
LOVE IN THE SIXTH
“My initial plan was to shoot using almost exclusively natural light. As the story evolved, it be-
came clear that the film would require night shoots and interiors ranging from freight elevators to
cramped bathrooms. I used a combination of natural and artificial light that included anything from
handheld LED lamps to larger stand-mounted halogens. I captured the images I wanted—although
sometimes I had to implement unorthodox methods.
For the musical numbers we ended up using saturated colour to delineate the departure from the
black and white storyline. One song sequence, Up Late Talking, was the toughest to shoot and the
most “produced” part of the film. As each character appears the camera slowly travels towards
them. I used a tripod-mounted tracking device, but opted for a shallow depth of field to capture a
certain onscreen intimacy. The down side was I had to adjust the camera’s focus while rolling—that
was a bit brutal—but worth it.”
- Rob McGee
NUMB
“Story is always the principle motivator in the decisions I make to develop the look of a movie. Numb’s
four principle characters are driven by greed to find millions of dollars in gold by battling a snowy, cold
and very rugged environment. This environment is very much the fifth principle character in Numb. That
was not unlike what we were facing in trying to visually tell this story. Given the shooting schedule of only
eighteen days and the difficult environment, I found the handheld camera to be very organic. This would
provide a subtle energy to the visuals while making the logistics of moving crew and equipment more
manageable. I used wide-angle lenses to incorporate the environment as much as possible. To accentuate
the cold, I chose a cooler colour palette for the exterior scenes searching for the gold. This was contrasted
by a warmer palette used for the interior and less threatening scenes at the beginning of the story.
Making a motion picture is a very collaborative exercise. I strive to support and partner with the director
on each project I do. The basic elements I employ in visually telling a story are light and shadow, composi-
tion, camera movement and texture (all of the other technical tools available for visual enhancement). I
find managing these elements manifests itself differently on each project, as each project is unique in its
story, personnel and financial requirements. My overriding touchstone is to stay positive.”
- Jan E. Kiesser
Jan E. Kiesser (csc, asc) is a freelance cinematog-
rapher with over thirty years experience in motion
pictures, television, commercials and music videos.
An Emmy nominee for Door to Door, other credits
include Such a Long Journey, Choose Me and Fido.
PH
OT
O B
Y J
ER
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Y G
ILB
ER
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17REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
D emon Island was re-
leased in 2002 to
limited fanfare. It
was a horror film
starring a bikini-
clad Jaime Pressly about teens
trapped on a haunted island that is
inhabited by a demon hidden inside
a piñata. It was a sort of Sharknado,
without the irony. The film was criti-
cally panned and didn’t make any
sort of mark at the box office. It
was, however, the first feature film
to have Andrew Orloff as its special
effects supervisor. So, in some ways,
the film helped launch a multi-mil-
lion dollar studio that is now home
to some of the biggest film and tele-
vision projects in the world.
Thirteen years ago, Zoic Studios
had twelve employees. The idea in
the beginning was to change the way
visual effects were being done. Back
then it sounded like a monumental
task, but slowly and surely it began
to happen. That same year that saw
Pressly prance away from a childen’s
party game, Orloff and his crew at
Zoic became involved in the special
effects production for both Firefly
and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Originating in a small studio in
California, Zoic made the move to
Vancouver in 2006 and also holds
an office in New York. The boom in
post-production in Vancouver has
necessitated that Orloff, who is both
a co-owner and co-founder, work
out of the Canadian office. Today
Orloff is working from home. “We
were doing it with a core group of
dedicated artists and technicians,”
says Orloff, on the phone with Reel
West from his home office in Bell-
ingham, Washington, just south
of the Canadian border. “We’ve all
evolved from being artists to being
creative directors and managers,
which is a different thing. And now
we’ve transformed into a company
that can spread that vision among
a large group of people, so we’ve
become much more organized and
spent a lot of time on upgrading and
being really creative with our tech-
nology.”
Ah yes, the technology. Because
Zoic works between two different
studios, developing a way to work
together between the two became
imperative. Enter ZEUS (Zoic Environ-
mental Unification System). “What
we found is that we were being asked
to do a lot of this work in a traditional
way in shooting green screen and
marking areas on the ground where
the virtual walls weren’t giving our
clients the creative feedback they
needed to really make a production
work,” says Orloff, explaining why
ZEUS became necessary. “Virtual
production is all about integration of
the virtual environment with actors
and the blocking and the lighting,
so we decided that it was important
to design a system that was sort of
a start-to-finish workflow for virtual
sets, particularly for television. In
the planning process, we developed
our own program which allows our
clients to load in their own virtual
environments and basically do a tech
scout inside of that environment.”
The Zoic team is able to take
sets from the art department and
quickly generate them as 3-D assets
so the studio’s clients can get a feel
for what the sets are going to be be-
FEATURE STORY
BY NATHAN CADDELL
ZEUS Helps Zoic Zoom in BC Post Boom
Included in Zoic’s long list of credits is ABC’s Once Upon a Time.
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1618
fore they get into them. This allows
for shots that wouldn’t be possible
without ZEUS, says Orloff: “We can
make really cool camera moves that
can come off castle towers and dive
down into ballrooms, stuff that you
could never do with traditional vir-
tual set methodologies. So that was
really helpful on set and on the back
end, we’re capturing all that camera
data, organizing it and linking it to
the editorial process in a way that’s
special for ZEUS.”
In an industry that’s continu-
ally evolving, having a leg up on the
competition is huge. Building from
their original success with shows
like Battlestar Galactica and the
aforementioned Firefly, Zoic keeps
adding to their collection of high-
end fantasy hits with programs like
The 100, Once Upon A Time and Arrow.
The studio is also gearing up for
some highly anticipated feature
films including the Jon Hamm ve-
hicle Keeping Up with the Joneses and
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: The
Green Legend. There are also some
“super double top secret new pilots
that I can’t talk to you about,” ac-
cording to Orloff.
Of course, having studios in
the hot spots on both sides of the
border doesn’t hurt either. “We’ve
spent a lot of time and investment
in communications software that
lets us view everything on all of our
servers simultaneously,” explains
Orloff. “Working at Zoic, it’s almost
like, between our New York, BC
and LA offices, it’s more like you’re
in the next room rather than in a
separate office. You can pick up the
phone and dial anybody’s worksta-
tion, screen share, synchronize dai-
lies and all that stuff. A lot of our
shows have communication on the
LA side, some of them don’t and
all of those are in BC. A lot of the
production work is being done in
BC and it really varies from show to
show.”
It’s clear that Zoic has carved out
a spot for itself in an ultra-com-
petitive market. Orloff gives credit
to the early work he and his core
crew did in order to get them to this
spot where they are personally now
overseeing more than creating. “Bat-
tlestar and Firefly, those shows, with
the innovative camera work and
people really saying ‘Wow, you can
do this for TV,’ put us on the map
as the go-to-place for our television
department,” says Orloff. “Those
were really defining and we’ve con-
tinued to work on those types of
shows. Once Upon A Time is one of
those shows, CSI was one of those
shows… when you need a unique
visual style for your TV show, you
come to Zoic. What we’re really
about is pushing the limits of what
can be done.” n
“We developed our own program which allows our clients to load in their own virtual environments and basically do a tech scout inside of that environment.”
19REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
Jude Klassen is a Canadian indie Queen. Since the former Reel West correspondent’s recent move east to Toronto, she’s showcased Canadian talent through events like Judecast Live and Jude’s Martini Thinktank and appeared in numerous satirical viral videos as her alter ego Tasha James. After helming the hit BravoFact short Do Not Bend (starring Anna Silk and Peter Keleghan), it was inevitable that the writer-direc-tor would take her small-scale approach to the big screen. In her production diary for her musical comedy Love in the Sixth, which is bringing her home to BC, Klassen shares some of the secrets of movie making on a microbudget.
PRODUCTION DIARY
Jude Makes Love on a Microbudget
DIARY BY JUDE KLASSEN
JANUARY 24TH, 2014: THE
INCITING INCIDENT
I’m on the College streetcar in To-
ronto, heading to the Royal Cinema
to watch the Butler Brothers latest
flick, Mourning Has Broken. They’ve
made it for a grand and I’m think-
ing about the myriad of ways I have
pissed a thousand clams away in
my life. Imagine if you had a film
after slapping down such relatively
small coin? A feature film with no
interference. The exact film you
wanted to make. One thousand loo-
nies.
I’m surprised to feel ambition
slicing through the melancholy be-
cause lately my brain imagery has
been pretty bleak. I’m a nature-lov-
ing west coast girl in an icy mono-
chrome city. It’s stupidly cold, the
TV writing gigs are being scooped
by the usual suspects, the magazine
I’ve been writing for has been swal-
lowed up in a corporate merger, and
despite my cool new film & TV col-
umn it’s only a matter of time be-
fore I become “redundant.”
And… I’ve just broken up with
my boyfriend.
I feel the sad buzz of the phone in
my pocket as he texts me from the
Toronto Pearson tarmac in the final
moments before his plane takes off
for Germany. It’s not forever, just a
two week gig with his band, but it
has the heft of finality. We just can’t
make it work.
I’ve been indulging my secret sad-
girl and running this internal foot-
age that’s basically the opposite of
an affirmation. I’m inside of a bar-
rel that’s filling with water, the sides
are slimy and I can’t climb out. The
phone buzzes again as we pull up in
front of the theatre—I put my hand
on it, and almost pick up, but sud-
denly the thought of making a movie
presents itself like a pocket of oxy-
gen above my head. I dog paddle to
the top of the barrel and suck it in.
JANUARY 26, 2014: THE
FIRST RECRUIT
My DOP Robert McGee has the same
reaction to the Brother’s flick. He’s
on the phone to me as soon as he
leaves the theatre, “They shot the
whole thing on a Canon 5D!”
That’s the same camera Rob’s
been using to shoot my popular po-
litical satire videos, Tasha James &
Fast Ford Nation. We decide within
seconds to shoot a feature film. No
funding applications, no permission
to move forward, we are just going
to leap in—the exact method we’ve
been applying to the Tasha songs.
At this point neither of us intends
to make a musical… that happens
organically on week two of shooting
when we have our first and only dis-
agreement. Rob is worried it’s going
to become a feature length Tasha
video—like that’s a bad thing!
Rob, a successful fashion pho-
tographer, has been filming my ce-
lebrity interviews and live Judecast
shows since we met in 2011. Also a
Vancouver expat, Rob has the easy
energy I like to be around. He also
has an extremely forgiving and to-
tally sarcastic British wife, Emma,
who is willing to look after their ba-
bies while Rob works his arse off on
the film for no financial return.
Where do I find a wife?
T.C FOLKPUNK and JUDE KLASSEN on set of Love in the Sixth.
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1620
APRIL 29TH, 2014: BATGIRL
BEGINS
I decide to tart up an original TV se-
ries pilot I’ve had no luck in getting
made—hell, I’m only forty pages
short of a movie—how hard could
it be? The series is called Mancation
and the concept is this: a frustrat-
ed entertainment journalist/single
mom decides to get off the man-
crack and finally embrace her po-
tential. Each episode has her falling
off the Mancation wagon and getting
involved with the wrong man: “A
last chance for no romance.”
So I’m at an Easter party/jam ses-
sion at my musical collaborator Asher
Ettinger’s house and I’m recruiting
people for my movie. This hunting
ground is rife with possibility—it’s the
scene in Toronto that most resembles
Vancouver’s Commercial Drive. The
painters, the singers, the composers,
the freak-flag fliers—these are the
people who have rescued me from
begging for scraps beneath the Upper
Canadian round table. These people
are my west coast spirit mammals.
If they lived in Vancouver they’d be
building giant lanterns and dancing
the conga line around Trout Lake, and
not surprisingly they love the idea of
spontaneously making a film.
Since we have no money what-
soever I decide to cast people as
slightly heightened versions of
themselves, and the fact that I wrote
my Mancation characters with some
of these folks as models makes that
a snap. At this party I meet singer/
songwriter T.C. Folkpunk. T.C. gigs
around town and has a Billy Bragg/
Elvis Costello vibe that’s very cool.
We jam on a couple of tunes togeth-
er and discover our voices mix nicely.
We talk about T.C. contributing a
few songs to the soundtrack—long
short—he ends up being my co-star
and we write several songs together
for the movie that range from punk
to surf to heart-breaking ballads.
Oh, have I mentioned that I cast
myself as the main character and
my politically-minded eleven year-
old daughter as my character’s
politically-minded eleven year-old
daughter? Hey, I can afford me—and
Mika is brilliant beyond her years.
Seriously, sometimes I feel like Jodie
Foster in Little Man Tate.
JUNE 28TH, 2014: MY INNER
ANDY WARHOL
Our first day of shooting was actu-
ally June 21st, but that turned out to
be a false start. The script was com-
pletely reimagined by the following
week (and it wouldn’t be the last
time). But for that first shooting day,
Asher wrote an incredible song that
was to be the title track, Mancation.
I asked for a tune that smacked
of feminist pioneer, Lesley Gore’s
fab hit, You Don’t Own Me-- an em-
powering grown-ass lady song with
wicked back-ups. Asher, as always,
delivered large. He’s… you know…
Phil Spector without the creepy.
After Asher delivered that incred-
ible tune, I couldn’t help but beg for
more. I started watching musical
numbers on YouTube and wistfully
mentioning ideas to him. Within
three days we had our second tune
for the film, a sweetly cynical Grease
parody called Fucking Love. The ear
worm on this one is crazy.
By the time we gathered to per-
form the kicky tune on Asher’s
back patio, I had my phenomenally
talented cast in place. Jason and
Brett Butler—the talented bros
who inspired me to make what
would eventually be called, Love in
the Sixth—had come in for a cameo
and stayed on as main characters.
They also ended up being both my
story and picture editors. Oh, and
co-producers with their company
Subprod.
Here’s the main cast breakdown/
dynamic:
My character, an over-thinking
single mom/entertainment journal-
ist named Dani, leans heavily on
her young bestie, Mavis.
Mavis is a cheeky, polyamorous
feminist who’s always calling BS
on Dani’s whinging and justifying.
Mavis is having a deeply shallow
relationship with both of the But-
ler Brothers that Dani just doesn’t
grasp.
I discovered the woman who
plays Mavis, the astonishingly tal-
ented Wendy Sinclair, in the school
yard. She was dressed as a for-
tune teller at the school fair and
she looked badass beautiful, like a
tiny gorgeous rabbit: She has great
chompers. But I digress…
We started hanging out and I
discovered that Wendy had studied
acting, dance, writing and she could
wield a make-up brush. Perfect! A
very important element in making
a successful indie film is finding
brilliant people who can multi-task.
And they can’t be assholes. Mostly,
Wendy isn’t an asshole…
I also wrangled my awesome,
kooky designer pal, Shay Steinberg
to play a lesbian version of herself,
the cell-phone addicted Qalie. And
another Vancouver expat, (former
editor of Taxi) Lisa Santonato to play
Shay’s cunning, corporate girlfriend.
I should mention that the sound
equipment makes up about half
the budget of the film. My long-
time West Coast pal, Mitch Swan-
son, flew to Toronto to become my
sound man and tech advisor… and
shrink, and grip, and driver. Mitch
had never done sound before, but I
have learned that if you give an in-
telligent person an interesting chal-
lenge they will always rise to it.
Two days before we shoot the
second song and two other pivotal
scenes from the film at Asher’s,
Mitch and T.C. figure out the new
gear and formulate a plan that in-
cludes T.C. taking over as my main
sound person when Mitch returns to
his real life on the west coast. Since
T.C. is in most of the scenes this oc-
casionally proves challenging—but
what are neighbours for if not for
holding boom poles and diffusers?
The recruitment of talented
“I have learned that if you give an intelligent person an interesting challenge they will always rise to it.”
WENDY SINCLAIR and JUDE KLASSEN on set of Love in the Sixth.
21REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
friends who have never actually
worked in fi lm continues. For sec-
ond cameraman I put in a call to
Flikr star Jeremy Gilbert, another
incredible stills photographer who
has captured famous images used
by major newspapers including
Terry Fox running in the streets of
1980s Toronto. I have collaborated
with Jeremy before and know that
he will capture amazing angles and
moments. Between Rob and Jer the
look of the fi lm evolves gorgeously.
Because we shot the major scenes
on June 28th in the afternoon, and at
a real party in the evening, the actors
who participated that night included
several local musicians like the love-
ly and talented Collette Savard. Sa-
vard ended up being integral to the
project, her haunting song, Up Late
Talking, became an amazing mon-
tage in the fi lm and she also plays a
punk chick hurling in the gutter in
the opening credit sequence.
A random party-goer from Calgary
was recruited on the spot to play my
character’s ex-lover—who fl irts with
Dani outside of the bathroom. He
was fantastic - great eyebrows.
JULY 1, 2014: SURVIVING
CANADA DAY
Without the coin to go ACTRA, I
search out celebrities who can add
a little glam to my picture. Because
the story revolves around an enter-
tainment journalist who shoots in-
terviews at home, I decide to recre-
ate a few real life experiences. Since
I interviewed Survivorman for one of
my 10 Questions spreads in Movie En-
tertainment Magazine, I decide to ask
Les Stroud if he’d be up for doing
the same thing—but as part of an
indie fi lm. Les is totally up for it and
I have to say, it’s one of my favourite
parts of the movie.
I tell Les I basically want a per-
formance that would not be out of
place on The Larry Sanders Show—he
gets my analogy and plays it to-
tally deadpan. Stroud keeps it real
throughout a pretty surreal scene.
Dennis Trainor, as a Survivorman
super-fan, pops out of the foliage
to pepper Les with questions. Then
Les has to deal with my character’s
boyfriend showing up with a decid-
edly hostile vibe. As usual, we all go
off-road from the script by the third
take and fi nd terrifi c and complete-
ly unexpected moments.
Most memorable Canada Day
ever… (OK, that’s a lie, but I can’t
write about the other one until cer-
tain people are dead. Me included…)
AUGUST 29, 2014: GETTING
THINK TANKED WITH JOHN
DOYLE & MIKELA JAY
Since author and Globe and Mail col-
umnist John Doyle has been sup-
portive of my alternative style in
the past, I ask him if he’s possibly
up for playing himself in a Mar-
tini Think Tank scene in my fi lm. He
agrees to read his scene and think
about it. I quickly hammer out a
scene that involves an angry publi-
cist, an “actorvist” and Doyle. Doyle
digs it and suggests a couple of lines
that I integrate into the script.
OCTOBER 2014: THERE’S A
LITTLE PROBLEM WITH THE
MANCATION THING…
To be honest, I’m not sure of the
exact date here because I went
into a bit of a spiral. My steadfast
editors the Butler Brothers have
pointed out a problem with the lat-
est script—my character doesn’t go
on a Mancation until the very end of
the fi lm. Oops. Also, the term Man-
cation has been co-opted by internet
dudes who go on manly, chick-free
vacations that involve head-butting
and peeing in the sink. We go back
to the cards.
The heart of the story—raising a
climate activist twelve year-old girl
in the Sixth Extinction while negoti-
ating a dysfunctional romance—
pops to the surface. I’ve had this ti-
tle kicking around in my brain since
I read Elizabeth Kolbert’s alarming
book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatu-
ral History, on the bio diversity crisis
we humans have caused.
So we have a cast and crew title
debate between Love in the Sixth Ex-
tinction and Fucking Love. It’s almost
a tie, but the former wins. Brett sug-
gests we drop extinction and call it
Love in the Sixth. There you have it.
THE PRESENT
Not surprisingly the fi rst enthusias-
tic call I get from a programmer is
for a BC festival. I’m being offered a
premiere at the Whistler Film Fes-
tival! It’s a heady experience. I had
discussed festivals at length with
the Butlers, T.C. and Rob, and Whis-
tler was our fantasy get. The one I
could picture clearly when I closed
my eyes after a day of churning out
applications. A kooky musical about
the Sixth Extinction set against a
backdrop of BC beauty.
Sometimes, life works out. n
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OT
O:
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KE
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SL
EY
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1622
INDIE SCENE
Devine Birdwatching, Carlyle’s Legend and Getting Comfortably Numb at WFF 2015
BY PAUL ARMSTRONG
C elebrating its fifteenth year,
the Whistler Film Festi-
val has once again pro-
grammed a strong selection of inde-
pendent BC films.
The Legend of Barney Thomson, a
black comedy about a Scottish bar-
ber who accidentally becomes a se-
rial killer, directed by and starring
Robert Carlyle as well as Emma Thompson, is no exception.
The producer, Kaleena Kiff, start-
ed development almost five years
ago when Canadian Rich Cowan
adapted the screenplay based on a
series of Scottish novels. Kiff and fel-
low producer John Lenic had worked
with Carlyle on Stargate Universe and
“this seemed like the perfect chance
for us to collaborate with him,” says
Kiff.
She got Carlyle on board by “en-
couraging” (aka pestering) him to
read Cowan’s version and hinted
that maybe he should make it his
feature directing debut. Luckily, Car-
lyle was game.
Once Carlyle was on board, Emma
Thompson signed on within three
days of reading the script. Kiff then
had to quickly finance the film with
a mixture of private equity, Telefilm
Canada, Creative Scotland, and pre-
sales. Filmed in Glasgow, Scotland
last year, the film was the opening
gala film at the Edinburgh Festival
followed by a seventy screen UK the-
atrical release.
Kiff choose to screen at Whistler
because “it has such a cool vibe and
it’s a great mix of both art and indus-
try. Plus, I always eat very well at the
Festival. The Legend of Barney Thom-
son will fit right in.”
Another film finding a home at the
Festival this year is The Birdwatcher
written by Roslyn Muir, directed by
Siobhan Devine and produced by
Crazy8s producer Ines Eisses.
The film is the story of a single
mother played by Camille Sullivan,
with terminal cancer on a quest to
find her birth mother played by Ga-brielle Rose. Garwin Sanford, Jakob Davies and Matreya Fedor also star.
For Devine the appeal of the script
was personal. “Having survived my
own brush with cancer I was struck
by how pervasive the illness is and
how it seems so random who sur-
vives and who doesn’t.”
The film was financed through
the Women in the Director’s Chair
Feature Film Fund, Telefilm and Indi-
egogo, with many of the crew coming
from Capilano University’s Indige-
nous Independent Digital Filmmak-
ing Program.
Devine is looking forward to pre-
miering at Whistler as “The Birdwatch-
er is a small, intimate film which will
be better suited to a smaller intimate
festival as there is a better chance of
getting noticed.”
For Numb, directed by Jason R. Goode, WFF is also an ideal choice. “It
fits the ethos of Whistler: Numb is an
outdoor survival thriller, shot in the
Okanagan. It just feels like a Whistler
Film Festival Film” explains Goode.
“It’s an industry-driven festival
which is more helpful in terms of
sales for a film like ours. And because
of the Borsos prize, Canadian films
are really well highlighted at Whistler,
again helping a small film like ours
get attention and find an audience.”
The film, starring James Bamber,
Marie Avgeropoulos, Aleks Paunovic
and Stefanie von Pfetten is about a
couple in financial distress who dis-
cover GPS coordinates that promise
to lead to stolen gold. They partner
with a pair of mysterious hitchhikers
to enter the remote winter wilder-
ness and recover the coins.
Numb was written by Andre Hard-en and produced by Dylan Jenkinson
and Robyn Wiener, who says the big-
gest challenge was “when shooting a
film where the weather is as much a
character as the ones scripted, you
have little to no control over those
elements.” Nothing that a little bit of
movie magic and a strong team can’t
overcome.
In Suspension, directed by Jeffrey Lando and produced by Sage Brock-lebank, a highschooler and her little
brother are terrorized by a psychotic
killer who is more than meets the eye.
Financed through equity inves-
tors and a generous crew, the film
was about to go to camera on 35mm
a decade ago when their lead actress
was bought out by 20th Century Fox.
But Lando was determined to tell this
story and revived the project last year.
The film is getting a theatrical re-
lease in eleven cities across the US
through 8 Films To Die For and then
on VOD and Netflix soon after. “There
is no waiting period any longer and
we love that” says Lando.
The deciding factor in screening
at Whistler? “As a Vancouver-based
filmmaker Whistler is sort of our big
Christmas party, a great way to share
the movie with our community.
There’s also a strong industry pres-
ence which makes screening there
all the more valuable.” n
Paul Armstrong is a film producer who
also produces The Celluloid Social Club
and the Crazy8s Film Event.
“Canadian films are really well highlighted... helping a small film like ours get attention and
find an audience.”
23REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
The behind-the-scenes story of Melanie M. Jones’ debut feature, the indie romance,
FSM (Female Seeking Male) is an action-packed tale of PSM (Producer Seeking Money).
The shocking plot twist—the movie had to be completed with a maximum budget of
$10,000. Jones was the first BC filmmaker selected to compete in Avi Federgreen’s 2014
Indiecan 10K Challenge—an event designed to help launch and mentor eight new
filmmakers. The writer-director-producer shares the challenges of raising $10,000—
and making a micro-budget feature—as she prepares for FSM to seek out its audience
when it debuts at the 2015 Whistler Film Festival.
PRODUCTION DIARY
Melanie Jones Conquers the 10K Challenge
DIARY BY MELANIE M. JONES
“The enemy of art is the absence of
limitations.” – Orson Welles
I t’s not impossible to make a
feature film for 10K.
Not impossible, just hel-
la challenging. When my
film, FSM, was selected to
represent BC in the inaugural INDI-
ECAN10K Challenge, I never doubted
it would be hard. The word challenge
appears in the title of the competi-
tion. I have always felt that limits
create opportunities to problem-
solve and discover better ideas.
There is a special kind of crucible
involved in pushing past obstacles,
re-imagining your initial ideas,
trusting your gut and your team to
come through the other side with
something that is transformed
by the pressure. It’s part of what
makes the journey worth it – know-
ing that you persevered, faced your
fears and got it done. Looking back
at the path that brought me here,
I am proud of the milestones and
obstacles I’ve met and faced. Like a
good protagonist, I had a clear goal
(make the movie) and faced my ob-
stacles to arrive at the resolution of
the story of making this film.
This initiative is aimed spe-
cifically at emerging filmmakers
embarking on their first feature
film and comes with mentors and
sponsors I wouldn’t have access
to otherwise. So let’s call it limi-
tations with a security blanket.
Here’s a peek into the process of
MELANIE JONES (right) directs SEAN AIKEN and VANESSA CROUCH on set of FSM.
PHOTO BY JOSHUA WRIGHT
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1624
making an indie feature for 10K in
just over a year.
WRITING THE SCRIPT
JAN 19, 2014 I’m currently in
the throes of writing a new feature
script titled FSM (translation: Female
Seeking Male.) It feels as though it’s
writing itself at the moment. I’m
drawing a lot from my personal ex-
periences, observations of friends
and musings I’ve had about the
modern dating environment. I want
it to be a sort of “anti-romantic
comedy”—definitely funny but also
raw and honest.
I’m already at the forty page
mark and I’ve only been putting it
down for about two weeks. I’m ex-
cited about it because it feels like
“the one,” the script that could be
my first feature as a director. It’s de-
signed to be shootable, set in Van-
couver locations that I am certain
I can get access to, no stunts, just
a lot of character work, scenes be-
tween two people. It feels like I am
saying something important with
this one. It certainly resonates with
my experience as a thirty-some-
thing trying to navigate love, rela-
tionships and heartache in modern
society with all the games, confu-
sion and technology in the way.
MARCH 9, 2014 Writing update:
I finished the first draft on Feb 10th—
103 pages in just 38 days! Submitted
it to the Indiecan10K Challenge on Feb
16th. It always helps to have an ex-
ternal deadline pushing you to finish.
I think I’ve written almost every day
for the past month. Discipline is far
better than waiting for inspiration or
motivation to strike at random.
I’m heading into draft two right
away.
INDIECAN10K CHALLENGE
APR 1, 2014 BIG NEWS. This cra-
zy little movie is going to be made
this year! I met with Trish Dolman
this week and she and Avi Feder-
green selected me as the BC win-
ner of the INDIECAN10K Challenge!
(seven films from across Canada
have been selected in total).
Now begins the exciting and terri-
fying prospect of actually making the
film. This begins first and foremost
with rewrites to the script, but before
you know it we’ll be casting, location
scouting and crowd-funding.
Winning the INDIECAN10K
means mega resources—Avi has
tapped some incredible support for
us to make our first features. Every
team benefits from a local mentor
and production and post sponsors –
ours are Trish Dolman (mentor) Wil-
liam F. White, Finalè Editworks and
The Mix Room.
In addition we all have sponsor-
ship from Indiegogo (helping us
crowd-fund), Front Row Insurance
(production insurance), The Rights
Company (script clearance), Bren-
da Blake (legal counsel), Agency 71
Inc. (trailer and marketing consult-
ing), Instinct Entertainment (music
supervision), Juice (online distri-
bution), The Media Concierge and
Red Square Motion (deliverables
including DCP.) We may be making
this film with just $10k cash, but
the sponsorship is priceless.
CROWDFUNDING
JUNE 2, 2014 We launched our
crowd-funding campaign today. It’s a
brash thing, unabashedly asking for
cash and support from your circle of
friends. All of INDIECAN’s winners
are campaigning at the same time,
so there’s the added stress of watch-
ing other teams do well while yours
potentially does not.
It’s way more work than anyone
can imagine if they’ve never done it.
Practically a full-time job!
Every morning I get up and start
posting and this continues through-
out the day. It’s the only way to keep
your campaign fresh in people’s
minds, to get shares and re-tweets
and to properly thank your con-
tributors.
I decided to post an individual
thank-you on Facebook for every
donation—that means on a good
day, with lots of contributions com-
ing in, I might be creating personal-
ized thank yous every hour.
Coming up with unique perks is a
challenge, but absolutely essential
to a good campaign. Some people
will want the film or soundtrack,
but these perks can get tired - es-
pecially when people know they
could be waiting several years to
get their perk.
More immediate perk gratifica-
tion is needed. You want them to be
fun, interesting, worth the money
you’re asking people to donate, but
“It certainly resonates with my experience as a thirty-something trying to navigate love, relationships and heartache in modern society with all the games, confusion and technology in the way.”
Hatchback-turned-police-car on set of FSM.
PHOTO BY JOSHUA WRIGHT
25REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
there is no sense in raising 10K to
make a film and then spending 10K
to fulfill your perks.
JULY 10, 2014 Heading into our
last week of crowd-funding, we’ve
raised $6670.00 so far. Still pretty
shy of the goal of $10k. I can’t say
I’m not worried. Convincing strang-
ers to invest in your film before its
even made is not easy. Getting your
project in the spotlight, raising your
voice above the constant hum of
crowd-funding, is not easy. Espe-
cially in BC where so many talented
filmmakers are clamoring for sup-
port from the same tight film com-
munity.
Even if we don’t raise any more
money, it’s still more than I’ve ever
had before to make a film. With the
talents and tenacity of my team,
I’m confident we will find a solu-
tion to the problem of our “missing”
4K. We will just have to be more
creative, more daring, have smaller
crews, shoot faster and dirtier. Be-
cause this is my first feature. And
I’m going to fight for it, to make a
film no matter the obstacles.
JULY 12, 2014 We have a crowd-
funding Angel! Someone donated
$2500 today and took us to our goal.
Still a few days left and I can’t be-
lieve it, but we may actually end up
exceeding our 10K goal. With our
cash goal met, and several local
businesses sponsoring us with items
for props, wardrobe and set dec, we
might just be able to pull this off!
CASTING
JULY 2, 2014 The casting pro-
cess on this project is a challenging
one for us. With a forty-plus char-
acters cast (why oh why did I write
so many!), including a lead role that
has to carry the entire film (Saman-
tha is in every scene). We have to be
strategic about our process, allowing
us to see as many people as possible
in an efficient way. My alma mater
Langara College Film Arts stepped in
to provide us a casting space free of
charge and we powered through sev-
eral days of tight auditions. The char-
acter breakdowns went out to agents,
Vancouver Actors Guide, and on our
Facebook feeds. I’m no casting direc-
tor and it certainly would have been
a huge help to have one, especially in
finding our leads, but I do know what
I’m looking for. I tend to cast by in-
stinct and try not to bring preconcep-
tions into the room. We cast several
of our smaller roles right away, but
still haven’t found Sam.
AUG 7, 2014 Who is Samantha?
The protagonist of my film—the “fe-
male” who is seeking a male, the girl
who is both an up-and-coming DJ
and a fragile soul trying to under-
stand what she wants and why the
world keeps throwing her curve balls
when it comes to love and dating.
The film hinges on this girl, on the
audience understanding and empa-
thizing with her and her believable
relationships. And brutally, honestly,
on her ability to carry this film. This
is not a decision to be made lightly.
AUG 10, 2014 I found her! The
universe brought me the gorgeous
Vanessa Crouch. Now to squeeze in a
table read and a teensy bit of rehears-
al this week so she can meet her cast
mates and get into the role of Sam.
We start filming in just five days.
THE DAY BEFORE THE FIRST DAY
AUG 14, 2014 It’s 24 hours till
we start principal photography and
already I can’t sleep. Today was a
whirlwind of prep—from props and
wardrobe shopping and equipment
pickups to printing and even last
minute rehearsals. Since we are
filming the majority of the movie
inside my apartment, I will liter-
ally be living and breathing the film.
Most days I will be going to sleep
and waking up in the set.
AUG 15, 2014 First day jitters, a
few missing props meant we had to
shuffle some scenes around so we
could still make a full day’s shoot.
Falling in LOVE with my lead, Van-
essa and her face on camera, em-
bodying this very personal story.
Can’t wait for day two!
AUG 16, 2014 Filming our ‘awk-
ward online date’ scene this morn-
ing and moving to Culprit Coffee
this afternoon. Daniel Arnold is a
gem—he’s brought a ton to his char-
acter—one of Sam’s online matches.
AUG 17, 2014 We’re shooting all
of the big Underground Party scenes
today. Fifteen numbered cast on the
call sheet, plus extras. Lasers, pro-
jections, DJ Gear, lots of important
emotional beats for Sam. One of
the days I was most worried about
carrying off. We shot six and 7/8
pages (three separate parties, seven
dialogue sections) and we wrapped
ON TIME. On top of that the shots
looked absolutely stunning and
Shawn Seifert (DOP) made twelve
extras somehow look like a hundred
party-goers! Kasey Riot and Howl
Sound are on set today and both
will be providing music for the film.
After today, nothing else on this
shoot fazes me. The authenticity
and production value of this film
just rose exponentially.
AUG 18, 2014 Filming in the
King’s Head Pub. Indie Tip to save
on location fees—pick a pub that
isn’t too busy during the morning
(but already open for business) and
don’t ask them to close for your
shoot. What you lose in a little back-
ground noise you gain in production
value without spending a dime.
AUG 19, 2014 Filming at the
beach and my first day with one
of our child actors. Audrey Alvarez
plays Sam’s niece in her first-ever
speaking role. Shooting the “sister-
fight” this afternoon with the in-
comparable Jessica Heafey.
AUG 20, 2014 Summer Camp!
Pugs! Running in Kitsilano! Pickups!
At the end of today we’re halfway
done the shoot - wow. Granville Is-
land Tea Company surprised us on
set with Iced Chai Lattes and Iced
Tea Lemonade for the entire crew. I
love this town.
AUG 22, 2014 First day back af-
ter our break. Heavy scenes today
for Sam and the climax of the film.
Also one of my favorite shots of the
entire film. I’ve been dreaming of
this shot for eight months.
AUG 23, 2014 Four days left on
the shoot. Hard to believe it’s al-
most over!
AUG 24, 2014 BMX bikers on set
today, yet again the power of Face-
book comes to our rescue. Also,
can’t afford to rent a picture car for
your police station exterior? Rent
the police light bar from HollyNorth
and put it on top of your tiny Mazda
hatchback. If you only show the top
of the car driving through frame, no
one can tell.
AUG 25, 2014 Filming in my be-
loved Clark Park today—some re-
ally fun scenes between Sam and
her best friend. Also our first night
shoot. To save money we didn’t or-
der a port-a-potty—we’ve sacrificed
some scheduling to drive people to
the closest gas station instead.
AUG 26, 2014 Second day at
the park and we have my ‘trekkies’
on set as well as Déjà Vu Couple.
Shawn let me operate the camera
for one shot today. And he even
liked my shot.
AUG 27, 2014 Filming in two East
Van houses provided by friends to
get our ‘band house.’ Excited to fi-
nally film the song South of Bloor
generously gave us for the film. Our
Martini shot is a night pickup of Sam
and before I know it IT’S A WRAP.
AUG 28, 2014 The actors and
crew have gone home, the fridge is
empty, the grip and lighting gear
have been returned and the truck
keys handed in. I’m alone in my
apartment—the hub of so much
activity for the last fourteen days—
now quiet again. I lost count of how
many times I called “Action” and
“Cut,” but every single time I was
living my dream, holding my breath,
focused on this story I wanted to tell
and the people who came together
to help me tell it. Budget is irrele-
vant. There is no greater validation
for a creative person than seeing
their ideas resonate with others—to
feel that the ideas or experiences
that they are drawing from might
mean something to someone else.
Truly, having big dreams isn’t stu-
pid. It’s life-changing. n
“I’m no casting director and it certainly would have been a huge help to have one...”
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1626
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In observing the approach tra-
ditional broadcasters and pro-
ducers take to social media sto-
rytelling around their films and TV
series, it’s clear they often lack cre-
ativity and personality in the social
media content they share.
Much of this disconnect in their
online storytelling is the result of
them trying to control it and every
single message that goes out, usually
putting it into marketing speak. Un-
fortunately, while this may be what
they are used to in marketing their
projects offline, it is not received as
well on social media. It comes across
as inauthentic, insincere and as
marketing spam. On social media,
people want to feel like they are get-
ting more than just the controlled
marketing materials that the pow-
ers-that-be decide that they should
have. They want to engage with the
story and have the story engage with
them—knowing the storytellers are
as passionate about the content as
they are. They want to have fun with
it and to feel a part of the story.
What does this mean to the broad-
caster or the producer?
Firstly, that you need to stop being
so precious about who is sharing the
content around your film or TV series.
Secondly, you need to be passion-
ate about your content and share
that passion around the stories you
tell on social media. This second
point sounds like a given, but when
controlled marketing speak drives
the social media, this passion is often
lost in translation.
Enter my good buddy Ed Hat-
ton. Ed is a keen observer and ex-
perimenter who was working in post
production on the TV series Dust Up,
when he realized he’d missed out
on a social media win by empower-
ing his crew to help share the tales
of the farmers and harrowing crop
duster pilots of the Canadian Prai-
ries. In his defence, digital media
around TV shows was still relatively
unchartered territory and producers
and broadcasters were still feeling
out what to share and when.
In the case of Dust Up, that was
next to nothing before the series
launched, forcing Ed to build a buzz
of anticipation by engaging people
around pre-existing content on crop
dusters, Saskatchewan, and farming
on the social media platform and
in digital niche communities. As it
turned out this was a win, as it cre-
ated a community of super fans that
felt connected to the series and in-
vested in it. Ed took note.
So when Ed was hired as the Su-
pervising Producer for Polar Bear
Town, a new series on OLN, he re-
membered his experience from Dust
Up. He encouraged his crew to share
their polar bear photos and side
videos with their online audience
with the hashtag #PolarBearTown.
He didn’t tell them how or what to
say, just to occasionally mention the
broadcast time and channel.
He reached beyond social media
to digital niche communities of po-
lar bear and Northern Canada fans,
as well as to blogs, and he reached
out to online influencers. He did this
above and beyond the planned mar-
keting around the series, as he knew
that his crew would be the most en-
thusiastic storytellers around the
series, as they’d just gotten to spend
a year shooting polar bears and a
Northern Canadian community!
This was their opportunity to
share snippets of their experience
with their community, and really
who wouldn’t want to brag about
hanging out with polar bears or
share their polar bear selfies. It’s the
cool Canadian thing to do, eh!
Despite there being Facebook, Twit-
ter and Instagram feeds for Polar Bear
Town, it’s the #PolarBearTown hashtag
and content coming from Ed and his
crew that I watch for and wistfully
taunt myself with daily, as these posts
share the real enthusiasm and quirky
humour of the storytellers involved.
While you may not be so lucky as
to have the privilege of working with
polar bears, the same rings true on
non-fiction, scripted series and mov-
ies. I was impressed when I saw Strange
Empire send out a memo to their cast
and crew inviting them to share their
photos online with the series’ hashtag.
There were certain things they did not
want shared online—potential spoil-
ers—and they were very clear on that
in a memo to their team.
After watching the cast and crew
in the filming of a recent movie share
stories online, I’d suggest that such a
memo be shared at the beginning of
production - to begin building a buzz
slowly and allow cast and crew to
share snippets of the work that they
are excited about, while avoiding any
spoilers from being released. Then as
the cast and crew are able to share
more, closer to broadcast, additional
memos can go out, inviting the show’s
team to be a part of the digital story—
creating a win-win for both produc-
tion and the cast and crew.
It is amazing how much further
stories spread when you empower
others to share them
On that note, we’d love for you to
be a part of our story by connecting
with us at @reelwestmag. n
DIGITALLY YOURS
Letting Go and Empowering Your Crew to Become the Social Media Storytellers
BY ERICA HARGREAVE
@reelwestmag
Erica Hargreave gets her kicks out of
weaving stories across platforms, and
teaching at BCIT.
This was their opportunity to share
snippets of their experience with their
community
PREMIERE
PARTNER
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PREMIERE
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CONTRIBUTING
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29REEL WEST WINTER 2015/16
THE WINDOW
What convinces millen-
nial audiences to tune
in to a TV show? One
of the answers is what happens off-
screen or, since they’re likely not
watching your show on a TV, on
the same screen. And what’s hook-
ing them may not be an official, or
even officially sanctioned, part of
the show.
The Allure of Escapism: Engaging
Millennials, a panel discussion at
MIPCOM 2015 hosted in October by
Telefilm Canada and the Canadian
Media Fund, suggested that genre
was a big hook for younger view-
ers. But when the teams behind
made-in-Canada sci-fi sensations
Between and Killjoys shared the se-
crets of their success, they kept
coming back to the same theme:
the way their shows engage with
the audience. “We’re very much in
a recommendation economy,” ex-
plained John Young, Managing Di-
rector of Temple Street Productions,
which produces Killjoys. “The stats
are showing that sci-fi has a bigger
reach to millennials, but that may
go beyond content into the market-
ing approach.”
The best marketing has always
been word of mouth, but an audi-
ence getting their word of mouth
from the many-mouthed beast that
is social media requires unleashing
cast and crew to share selfies on In-
stagram and Tweeting about what’s
happening on screen and behind
the scenes.
Having interviewed thousands
of actors over the years, their com-
ments have traditionally been as
predictable as post-game inter-
views with hockey players. Instead
of “we gave it 110 percent,” the stan-
dard actor repertoire includes, “this
is the best cast/crew/director I’ve
ever worked with,” and a variation
on, “I knew I had to do this as soon
as I read the script” which, almost
without fail, they were unable to
put down.
But in the Twitterverse, cast and
crew aren’t just set free to talk
about their work, their process and
their lives, but urged to do so. Cast-
ing and acting agents admit the size
of a social media following is now a
factor in landing roles. With actors,
writers and other creative crew be-
ing encouraged to live Tweet shows
and produce endless behind-the-
scenes B-roll, social media savvy
is likely becoming an ever-growing
factor too.
David Cormican, producer of
Between, described his show’s fans
as “great detectives” and was im-
pressed with how followers created
their own trailers and memes based
on what little they knew about up-
coming plot lines. “We’re going to
be a lot more engaged on set now
that we know we’ve got people who
want that.” He turned to his cast on-
stage and added, “We’re going to be
encouraging these guys to do a lot
of teasing and photos.”
One of his stars, Jennette Mc-
Curdy streamed her own commen-
tary during episodes. “I loved do-
ing Periscopes during commercial
breaks as a way to engage fans, keep
them interested and keep the con-
versation going.”
After the panel discussion was
over, actor Aaron Ashmore told Reel
West, “I think if you want the best
out of actors you can’t treat us like
children. That’s not the world that
we live in anymore.” A Canadian
Comicon icon courtesy of roles in
fantasy phenoms like Smallville, Ash-
more (who has over 30,000 followers
@AaronRAshmore) says the trick to
fan engagement is engaging without
a nervous publicist looking over his
shoulder. “I think that’s why there’s
so much fan engagement, because
as actors we can engage with them
truthfully instead of, ‘We were told
just to say these talking points.’ Peo-
ple can see right through that now.”
His Killjoys co-star Hannah John-
Kamen (@hannahjk1), who spends a
lot of time Facebooking fans, chimed
in: “Trust us… We live Tweet with our
show and it’s just wonderful because
it’s very conversational with our
fans. It’s a nice forum for them to
engage with each other and for us to
have a conversational connection.”
John Young agreed. “I think in
this day and age that authenticity
is huge to the group of people that
we’re appealing to.” Asked about
the shift away from traditional in-
terviews with pre-approved talking
points, Young dismissed the con-
cept as outdated. “It doesn’t work
anymore. The fans want to hear
from these guys in terms of char-
acter and in terms of who they are
and you couldn’t police that if you
tried. The writers and the stars of
the show are the ones the fans re-
ally want to hear from.”
Young also wants to see story-
telling evolve so the focus shifts
from the medium to the messages
and building the brand beyond the
broadcasts. Says Young, “I’d love
to see us move into a world where
we’re dropping story ideas and sto-
rylines and new characters in a
very non-traditional way, perhaps
in a comic, perhaps getting into a
little bit of a storyline that diverts
a bit from the main story. I’d love
a new character to emerge on a t-
shirt. That’s where I see this brand-
building and world-building hap-
pening.” n
Sci-Fi Producers Share the Trick to Making First Contact
with Millennial AudiencesBY MARK LEIREN-YOUNG
“The fans want to hear from these guys in terms of character and
in terms of who they are and you couldn’t police
that if you tried.”
.
REEL WEST WINTER 2015/1630
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