Mmmmm. Fresh From the Oven Banffy Goodness

OH YES, WILL DIXON, Mmm. Tell us of your parties and lunches with the hoity-toits of Showrunner stardom, like Friday Night Lights' Jason Katims:

As far as writing and producing the show, Katims spoke at length about the FNL process...which also fell into the groundbreaking category. As he told it, they have no standing sets or even swing sets. No sets...that's like unheard of for a TV series, no?! Apparently it's shot in small town Texas, and they just walk onto a location, light to shoot (not for 'shots' or 'coverage'), and off they go. No rehearsals...no marks...no measuring with tape measures...just 3 camera's roll as the actors start performing and they 'discover the blocking of the scene' as it happens.

They call their camera operators 'snipers' because they just have to find the shot and take it.

Cool.

Katims likened it in some ways to the shooting of The Office, but for a one hour ensemble drama filmed on location, it's pretty unique. And they move really fast. He said they had 8 days to shoot an episode when they began, took it down to 7 days last year, and are going to be shooting them in 6 days this summer. That's fast...and he attributed it primarily to the speed with which they can burn through scenes filming them in this way.

I know this style contributes to the authenticity and 'reality' of FNL, but I wonder if we don't see more and more drama shows being shot this way.

Mmm. Yess...Mmmm. Let's suck the marrow. Mmmmm. Goood..

In other news, looks like Little Mosque on the Prairie finally wrapped up not a U.S. sale -- but at least a U.S. Format sale, as reported by the Canadian Press:

The deal also involves another Westwind Pictures show currently in development; Fox will help Westwind develop the show and then determine if it wants to buy it.

The CBC show, about a community of devout Muslims living in a small prairie town, won't be changed drastically for an American audience, Darling added.

"It'll be 'Little Mosque in Minnesota,' if I have my way," the Minnesota-born Darling said with a laugh.

A year ago, U.S. cable network the CW debuted the critically acclaimed "Aliens in America," which explores Americans' cultural ignorance of the Muslim community.

Darling speculated that by securing the "Little Mosque" deal, Fox was "trying to broaden their horizons and become a bit more of a serious player."

Well, that's good news. Great to see Fox trying to become a serious player.

Fox.

As in, "Twentieth Century."

Jesus Martinez.

Well, that's it for Banff updates. I have to go to set now.

Serious player. Wow.