WELL, THAT'S DAMN odd. And in another way, not at all.
As near as I can read the first reports of the CRTC's "comprehensive review of broadcast policy" the changes to the broadcast landscape are going to be...
...er...
...not much, really.
Canadian networks wanted cable co's to pay them for carrying the signal, so much per subscriber, just like the specialty channels get. They didn't get it. (Though they will be allowed to negotiate fees for carrying "distant signals." Ie: get ready to pay more for timeshifting. I'm sure Vancouverites will see this as more Toronto-bias. No more CSI at 6pm, dudes. Not unless you pony up!)
The Cable and Sat co's wanted to be able to bring in lots more U.S. signals and wanted an end to "genre protection" (ie: Space is the Canadian Sci-Fi channel, so they can't also offer the SciFi Channel from the USA).
CRTC said no to that. (Except in the case of Sports and News. I think.)
The big change for consumers is likely to be an end to "bundling" -- the practice of selling tiers of channels. Starting in 2011, viewers will be able to "pick and choose" beyond basic cable so long as their ratio of Canadian to American services remains 50% + 1 Canadian in origin.
This is going to be something that makes most cable subscribers happy. They've wanted the "a la carte" choice for years. Expect a lot of weak specialty channel failures over the next few years. Yes, I'm looking at you, History.
BDU's, as the Cable and Sat's co's are called, are also going to have to contribute 6% of revenues to a new fund designed for Local Programming. That will mostly wind up being local news, most likely.
They streamlined some approvals procedures, but other than that. It's... well...
...a whole lot of sturm and drang to get us to where we already were. How very, very, excruciatingly Canadian.
Am I misreading this? Anybody read this differently?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
So, Was It "Yes We Can" or "No, You DiH-nint?"
SO, HOW DID OBAMA'S infomercial do?
According to Gawker:
The early rating had to make the campaign happy: the half-hour ad scored a combined 17.8/29 (household rating/share) before Game 5 of the World Series on Fox. It bested the numbers of that game (the conclusion of the aborted Game 5 managed a decent 13.1/20) and most other regular programming. Since ABC's Pushing Daises did its usual poor number, most of the folks who watched the ad may have stuck with it rather than changing the channel.
The real question is whether the major audience was supporters tuning in for a glimpse of their favorite celebrity, or undecided voters who can be swayed by that kind of feel-good propaganda. With the narrow focus on economic issues, you can bet the campaign was hoping that single issue voter constituted good chunk of that 17.8 rating.
If you didn't watch and want to know what all the fuss was about, Salon runs down what you saw in the half hour.
And elsewhere on the same site, Joan Walsh pretty much sums up my feelings about the media day. The hopeful, "we're not helpless" tone of the paid ad was most effective just because it stands in such stark contrast to the increasingly ugly, desperate tactics and poison fulminating from the other side.
These are serious times. There is shit to do. When you've got one side saying, "we can do it, here's how" and the other side screaming, "socialist! communist! Vote for him and go to hell!" honest to Jesus, how can you possibly remain undecided?
Five more sleeps.
Finally, if you want to watch the whole program, here you go.
Canadian Queasy
SO THE CRTC today will announce its decision on the revamp of the Canadian Broadcast system. Supposedly, fees for over the air broadcasters are a mortal lock. So you know that consumer backlash will be awesome, and that somehow it'll all come back to be the fault of all the deadbeats making Canadian shows that no one wants to watch, even though I couldn't find ONE article that talked about homegrown production. Nope, this is gonna be all about giving the people whose entire model is based on protectionism through the rebroadcasting of dumped, cut-rate U.S. programming more bucks -- but the backlash will somehow be about the crumbs that go to the production community.
Sigh. I just don't feel up to this one. Congrats, broadcasters. If I can ask anything, it's this: peas. Please? Just a few peas in our gruel? That'd be great. Thanks.
I kid. I kid because I love.
Oh, and by the way, to the left, meet your new Minister of Canadian Heritage. Bye Bye Josee Verner. Welcome James Moore. 32 years old, MP from Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Don't know a thing about him. He was hard to find in the cabinet shuffle articles. Oh well.
I'm going to go chew a Rolaid and watch the Obama infomercial again.
Sigh. I just don't feel up to this one. Congrats, broadcasters. If I can ask anything, it's this: peas. Please? Just a few peas in our gruel? That'd be great. Thanks.I kid. I kid because I love.
Oh, and by the way, to the left, meet your new Minister of Canadian Heritage. Bye Bye Josee Verner. Welcome James Moore. 32 years old, MP from Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Don't know a thing about him. He was hard to find in the cabinet shuffle articles. Oh well.
I'm going to go chew a Rolaid and watch the Obama infomercial again.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Where The Truth Lies
FIRST THE FUNNY.
That's from The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror Episode this weekend.
Now the not-so-funny, courtesy of Nikki Finke:
It's hard to know where to start on this one. At that Playback conference yesterday, the three creators on the show panel had an interesting spectrum of reactions when I asked about the difference between developing "critical creative" hits and "audience number" hits.
You know your life is weird when you start linking to others' coverage of things you participated in, but Golick already wrote it up and I'm tired.
In short, the question I asked had to do with noise. Creative noise. Specifically, how much do you have to tell your story, and how much do you have to take your marching orders?
As the paroxysms of technology and business model continue to ripple through the creative side of the business, one of the great splits that only seems to be deepening is the line between "cable, quality" shows, and "audience pleasers" -- the kind of comforting, unchallenging, by the numbers shows that increasingly fill the networks' schedules. Meanwhile, the Emmys, the ink, the admiration, and whatever's left of the "water cooler" factor goes to the former type of show.
I mean, if you were to exclusively read this blog, or other writer blogs, or even your smarter entertainment magazines like Entertainment Weekly, you might conclude that Dexter, Mad Men, Rescue Me, and The Shield were all great big hits. In reality, if what any of us wrote was representative of wider audience taste, you'd see a lot more about NCIS, Law & Order: SUV, or CSI: 31 Flavors. John Doyle clocked this phenom a couple months back, and I offered my own thoughts. But in the wake of confusing data like the median age of all network TV viewers being over 50, while they all fruitlessly still chase younger demos -- there is a whole lot of noise and conflicting stuff going on there.
(A similar, less talked about corollary to this split is the back and forth over serialization. Yup. Networks love shows that are standalone since viewers can drop out and in at any time. But you know what the problem with that is? Can you guess? The data seems to suggest that those kinds of shows suffer more from, um...well, people dropping in and out. You want loyalty, you have to reward it. In the current environment, if you make your show eminently missable, people are going to do just that.)
When Tassie Cameron said that, with Flashpoint, both CTV and CBS had extensive knowledge of their demos and timeslot needs, I saw that as a very positive development -- and maybe a nice change of pace. Most people pitching Canadian channels over the last few years -- found network executives who set the impossible task of wanting shows like "Six Feet Under", "The Sopranos," or "Rescue Me" that somehow drew CSI or Grey's Anatomy numbers. Never mind that that was an impossible task. That's what we want.
The collaborative nature of TV abhors pulling out a bad old phrase like "auteur driven" to describe cable series. But there is something to be said for that label, when applied to certain shows. Flashpoint, ultimately, is a show that was created by two new screenwwriters, guided by an experienced third screenwriter, but ruled over by its nonwriting producers. But Mad Men has always been sold as Matthew Weiner's show. Just as no one could really have pictured The Sopranos without David Chase at the helm, I can't for the life of me imagine Don Draper and co. without Weiner steering them. When I say I can't imagine it, what I really mean is : I would have zero desire to watch it.
But something like that is very hard to quantify.
When Aaron Sorkin left The West Wing, there was that John Wells year of awfulness before they compensated by stacking it with all manner of other senior screenwriting talent. I'm one of those who drifted back in Season six, where the West Wing found its feet again as a very changed, somewhat diminished, but still interesting show.
On the other hand (and I'm not speaking from personal experience here, because I didn't watch it,) but I don't know a single fan of Gilmore Girls who had a good thing to say about the last, Sherman-Palladinoless season.
The eternal fight will always be between those who think of these series as product, and those who think of them as art. There are 'art' series that perhaps don't deserve the label, and there are 'product' series that are equally enjoyable even when other people take them over. (I don't watch it, but I can only mock lightly those people who are still hooked on E.R., all these years later. I went back to it for a season a few years back, after dropping out originally when Anthony Edwards' Mark Green character died.)
The WGA strike last year exposed some ugly, ugly faultlines in Hollywood over the whole showrunner culture. It's like there's been a counter-revolution against creative power for a while now. So while to fans of the show, the idea of a Weiner-less Mad Men might be anathema, in reality it's all part of a much bigger fight. Rudderless shows are becoming more common, but no matter how many Bionic Womans there are, there doesn't seem to be a recognition that they had things right in the first place: hire a showrunner. Hire the right showrunner. Let them make the show. Instead we get Diane Ruggiero walking from the Ex-List, followed by a quick limp to cancellation. Now, who wears that failure?
How do you tell a show that can't survive without its creator from one that could carry on blithely with others at the helm? It's not as simple as cable vs. network, is it?
Maybe it's like that famous line about Pornography: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."
Man, I hope this is just sabre rattling. Because Mad Men without Matt Weiner is... well, it's the fastest Tivo delete I've ever contemplated. The show may have put AMC on the Map, but....you know, that map can change, kids. Fast.
Depressing.
That's from The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror Episode this weekend.
Now the not-so-funny, courtesy of Nikki Finke:
I've confirmed that Lionsgate execs are calling Hollywood agencies looking for a showrunner to replace Matthew Weiner, the brilliant creator of Mad Men. The reason is that they think Weiner's agents at CAA are asking for too much money for him. I hear CAA wants a multi-year deal that pays Weiner $10 million a year. (As opposed to what people tell me is the $2.5 million he should probably pocket...) Plus he wants control over promotion and advertising. Now that's consistent with a big hit on pay cable and what Darren Star or David Chase made on HBO.But it's way, way rich for a Lionsgate show on AMC, and execs are telling CAA it can't pay that. "The 'ask' was insanity," one insider tells me. "It's preposterous. AMC is a basic cable network. The economics don't support this. It's why Lionsgate is throwing their arms up in the air. And, remember, they got a two-year pickup for the show with or without Matt Weiner."
It's hard to know where to start on this one. At that Playback conference yesterday, the three creators on the show panel had an interesting spectrum of reactions when I asked about the difference between developing "critical creative" hits and "audience number" hits.
You know your life is weird when you start linking to others' coverage of things you participated in, but Golick already wrote it up and I'm tired.
Where the differences between the writers’ experience was most evident came when they discussed the stories their series tell. While AMC gives Mad Men creative freedom, the Canadian series are very much shaped by their networks. Veith was adament and clear. On Mad Men, “we tell the stories we want to tell. We do it our way.” Cameron aknowledged that her two networks knew their audience and the time slot and it was up to her to find the stories that worked for that audience. Chehak said “I’m a writer for hire. I’m working for a network that wants a hit. We still want to tell a good story. But we have to be aware of what time we’re on and who’s watching.”
In short, the question I asked had to do with noise. Creative noise. Specifically, how much do you have to tell your story, and how much do you have to take your marching orders?
As the paroxysms of technology and business model continue to ripple through the creative side of the business, one of the great splits that only seems to be deepening is the line between "cable, quality" shows, and "audience pleasers" -- the kind of comforting, unchallenging, by the numbers shows that increasingly fill the networks' schedules. Meanwhile, the Emmys, the ink, the admiration, and whatever's left of the "water cooler" factor goes to the former type of show.
I mean, if you were to exclusively read this blog, or other writer blogs, or even your smarter entertainment magazines like Entertainment Weekly, you might conclude that Dexter, Mad Men, Rescue Me, and The Shield were all great big hits. In reality, if what any of us wrote was representative of wider audience taste, you'd see a lot more about NCIS, Law & Order: SUV, or CSI: 31 Flavors. John Doyle clocked this phenom a couple months back, and I offered my own thoughts. But in the wake of confusing data like the median age of all network TV viewers being over 50, while they all fruitlessly still chase younger demos -- there is a whole lot of noise and conflicting stuff going on there.
(A similar, less talked about corollary to this split is the back and forth over serialization. Yup. Networks love shows that are standalone since viewers can drop out and in at any time. But you know what the problem with that is? Can you guess? The data seems to suggest that those kinds of shows suffer more from, um...well, people dropping in and out. You want loyalty, you have to reward it. In the current environment, if you make your show eminently missable, people are going to do just that.)
When Tassie Cameron said that, with Flashpoint, both CTV and CBS had extensive knowledge of their demos and timeslot needs, I saw that as a very positive development -- and maybe a nice change of pace. Most people pitching Canadian channels over the last few years -- found network executives who set the impossible task of wanting shows like "Six Feet Under", "The Sopranos," or "Rescue Me" that somehow drew CSI or Grey's Anatomy numbers. Never mind that that was an impossible task. That's what we want.
The collaborative nature of TV abhors pulling out a bad old phrase like "auteur driven" to describe cable series. But there is something to be said for that label, when applied to certain shows. Flashpoint, ultimately, is a show that was created by two new screenwwriters, guided by an experienced third screenwriter, but ruled over by its nonwriting producers. But Mad Men has always been sold as Matthew Weiner's show. Just as no one could really have pictured The Sopranos without David Chase at the helm, I can't for the life of me imagine Don Draper and co. without Weiner steering them. When I say I can't imagine it, what I really mean is : I would have zero desire to watch it.
But something like that is very hard to quantify.
When Aaron Sorkin left The West Wing, there was that John Wells year of awfulness before they compensated by stacking it with all manner of other senior screenwriting talent. I'm one of those who drifted back in Season six, where the West Wing found its feet again as a very changed, somewhat diminished, but still interesting show.
On the other hand (and I'm not speaking from personal experience here, because I didn't watch it,) but I don't know a single fan of Gilmore Girls who had a good thing to say about the last, Sherman-Palladinoless season.
The eternal fight will always be between those who think of these series as product, and those who think of them as art. There are 'art' series that perhaps don't deserve the label, and there are 'product' series that are equally enjoyable even when other people take them over. (I don't watch it, but I can only mock lightly those people who are still hooked on E.R., all these years later. I went back to it for a season a few years back, after dropping out originally when Anthony Edwards' Mark Green character died.)
The WGA strike last year exposed some ugly, ugly faultlines in Hollywood over the whole showrunner culture. It's like there's been a counter-revolution against creative power for a while now. So while to fans of the show, the idea of a Weiner-less Mad Men might be anathema, in reality it's all part of a much bigger fight. Rudderless shows are becoming more common, but no matter how many Bionic Womans there are, there doesn't seem to be a recognition that they had things right in the first place: hire a showrunner. Hire the right showrunner. Let them make the show. Instead we get Diane Ruggiero walking from the Ex-List, followed by a quick limp to cancellation. Now, who wears that failure?
How do you tell a show that can't survive without its creator from one that could carry on blithely with others at the helm? It's not as simple as cable vs. network, is it?
Maybe it's like that famous line about Pornography: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."
Man, I hope this is just sabre rattling. Because Mad Men without Matt Weiner is... well, it's the fastest Tivo delete I've ever contemplated. The show may have put AMC on the Map, but....you know, that map can change, kids. Fast.
Depressing.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Mad Writers
JUST RETURNED FROM a half day conference put on by Playback magazine at the St. Lawrence Centre's Bluma Appel Theatre.
The conference, dubbed Playback Innovations: The Technology Revolution and sponsored in part by the Canadian Film Centre and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, was a toe dip into the world trod by things like the Banff TV Festival. As a first step it had the usual growing pains. The afternoon was built around four main sessions: a conversation between Bill Brioux, Freelance TV writer of TV Feeds My Family fame, and James Manos, Jr., the creator of Dexter. a panel on Reality TV, another digital panel, and arguably what was the day's main draw: a panel titled "Flashpoint! Mad Women at Work."
That panel was supposed to feature Robin Veith, (Mad Men,) who went from writer's assistant to creator Matthew Weiner's assistant to Emmy nominated screenwriter, for her part co-writing the first season finale "The Wheel," and Tassie Cameron, who ably steered the writing room for Mark Ellis & Stephanie Morgenstern's Flashpoint in season one. But in the big misstep of the day, attendees arrived for some reason to find that Tom Chehak had been added to the roster to talk about The Listener.
No offence to Chehak, who was charming and funny; but no one has seen the show, and what's more, it's an industry crowd -- so most people in the audience have probably heard the rumours that The Listener has been famously troubled. Chehak admitted that he came on late in the process. There are probably a lot of interesting stories one could hear about The Listener. But they weren't about to be told in that auditorium, and in the absence of anyone seeing the show, there simply was no context for Chehak's remarks.
Also, simply by virtue of math, adding another guest suddenly brought each guest's time to speak down from a half hour to 20 minutes. Combine that with a truncated question period, and the fact that the woman up from Los Angeles speaking about the buzz show spoke about four times, and you've got a panel that was a tremendous disappointment, and a seriously missed opportunity.
Other short thoughts:
I paid full freight for this conference. It was decidedly NOT worth the money.
That being said, some interesting tidbits:
Robin Veith on the Mad Men research:
"People spoke differently back then." Once they get a script in they sit around and they flag any language that might sound too modern. Then they have a group of research interns (oooh, imagine that!) who search out the references and confirm through first hand accounts of the day, the usage. (This sticks with me because I just saw a scene in the U.S. Life on Mars where somebody was talking about discriminating against someone on the basis of "sexual orientation." Man. That was like...BUMP.)
Also, students: please note: Veith: "Wikipedia is not allowed. It is not a credible source."
In terms of Pitching, at the beginning of the season the Mad Men writers spend two weeks in the room. Matt Weiner comes in with the beginning and the end of the season. The staff then goes away and in four days have to come back with twenty story ideas.Veith pitched hers last, as she has the least seniority, so she'd come up with 25, anticipating that others would have come up with some of the same ideas. The ideas have to be fully formed with beginnings, middles and ends. They pitch orally to Matt Weiner, and if he likes something, the writer's assist makes a note, and it goes on a card. The writers (4 last season) live and die on whether their idea makes it onto a card, and then again when they see if their card makes it onto the wall.
Apparently, every one of the writers independently arrived at the idea of Betty's Dad having a stroke in Season two. There you go, spec monkeys and fanficcers -- it's not just you.
Veith also lifted the veil on the Matt Weiner method of structuring a season, which he inherited from David Chase. In structuring the season, here's the formula:
On Mad Men's chances on being shown on Network TV in the USA:
Apparently NBC was thinking about it around the time Dexter was showing on CBS. Veith said "You can stab people in the face, but you can't have a smoke and a drink."
Tassie Cameron on Flashpoint's first season:
"Basically, they asked us to make 13 pilots." That's how little crossover/serialization/carryover they wanted. The thought of that made me queasy in my seat. What a fucking LOT of work that must have been! I can't help but think that if FP was a writer-showrunner driven show, they might have had a better appreciation of just how much work that really was. You can ask for the moon if you haven't really internalized the process, I guess.
James Manos Jr. on Dexter, and research for Dexter:
"Three percent of the world are sociopaths. They will run over your kid without a second thought. There are three hundred million people in the USA, which means there are 9 million of those people walking around."
Nice. I wonder how many of them work in Television.
Manos had a falling out with partners on Dexter, and wasn't involved after the pilot. He said that in his original conception of the first 12," you were going to find out that Doakes, the cops -- all were crazier than Dexter. He was, in a weird way, the sane one."
That's interesting. I always felt there was something a bit off about Dexter's 1st season in that it went exactly where you thought it was going to go. In retrospect, you can see how Manos' vision was set up in the pilot with the Captain's sexual harassment of Dexter, and Doakes' obsession really being at 11. It's in there. Shame. As good as Dexter may be now, that would have been an interesting show.
I appreciated a lot of Manos' sentiments about the craft. He said that the number one thing for him is to not work with assholes. Life's too short. "There's a certain honor in the work that you're doing. At the end of the day you want to wake up, shoot 12 hours, have a drink, screw something, then go to sleep and get up and do it again."
And when asked if he preferred finishing the script or seeing the finished product he chose the latter.
"Finishing the script is more like bad sex. Did I really do that? And now I have to do it again?"
I'll write up further tidbits from the forum later.
The conference, dubbed Playback Innovations: The Technology Revolution and sponsored in part by the Canadian Film Centre and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, was a toe dip into the world trod by things like the Banff TV Festival. As a first step it had the usual growing pains. The afternoon was built around four main sessions: a conversation between Bill Brioux, Freelance TV writer of TV Feeds My Family fame, and James Manos, Jr., the creator of Dexter. a panel on Reality TV, another digital panel, and arguably what was the day's main draw: a panel titled "Flashpoint! Mad Women at Work."
That panel was supposed to feature Robin Veith, (Mad Men,) who went from writer's assistant to creator Matthew Weiner's assistant to Emmy nominated screenwriter, for her part co-writing the first season finale "The Wheel," and Tassie Cameron, who ably steered the writing room for Mark Ellis & Stephanie Morgenstern's Flashpoint in season one. But in the big misstep of the day, attendees arrived for some reason to find that Tom Chehak had been added to the roster to talk about The Listener.
No offence to Chehak, who was charming and funny; but no one has seen the show, and what's more, it's an industry crowd -- so most people in the audience have probably heard the rumours that The Listener has been famously troubled. Chehak admitted that he came on late in the process. There are probably a lot of interesting stories one could hear about The Listener. But they weren't about to be told in that auditorium, and in the absence of anyone seeing the show, there simply was no context for Chehak's remarks.
Also, simply by virtue of math, adding another guest suddenly brought each guest's time to speak down from a half hour to 20 minutes. Combine that with a truncated question period, and the fact that the woman up from Los Angeles speaking about the buzz show spoke about four times, and you've got a panel that was a tremendous disappointment, and a seriously missed opportunity.
Other short thoughts:
- why douse the house lights? It made it impossible for people to be seen trying to ask questions, and certainly made the speakers feel isolated.
- In terms of framing the correct questions -- it would have been helpful when registering, or on entering, to provide cards on which people could ask a question that then could be collected and shown to the moderator. That way the moderator could know the level to pitch the discussions at. These things always run the risk of skimming the surface, but this one was particularly guilty of that.
- Also, four sessions without a lot of crossover interests scheduled sequentially with no alternative program does not work. There's no way that I was going to sit through a reality TV panel, and judging by the lobby full of people with me, I wasn't alone.
I paid full freight for this conference. It was decidedly NOT worth the money.
That being said, some interesting tidbits:
Robin Veith on the Mad Men research:
"People spoke differently back then." Once they get a script in they sit around and they flag any language that might sound too modern. Then they have a group of research interns (oooh, imagine that!) who search out the references and confirm through first hand accounts of the day, the usage. (This sticks with me because I just saw a scene in the U.S. Life on Mars where somebody was talking about discriminating against someone on the basis of "sexual orientation." Man. That was like...BUMP.)
Also, students: please note: Veith: "Wikipedia is not allowed. It is not a credible source."
In terms of Pitching, at the beginning of the season the Mad Men writers spend two weeks in the room. Matt Weiner comes in with the beginning and the end of the season. The staff then goes away and in four days have to come back with twenty story ideas.Veith pitched hers last, as she has the least seniority, so she'd come up with 25, anticipating that others would have come up with some of the same ideas. The ideas have to be fully formed with beginnings, middles and ends. They pitch orally to Matt Weiner, and if he likes something, the writer's assist makes a note, and it goes on a card. The writers (4 last season) live and die on whether their idea makes it onto a card, and then again when they see if their card makes it onto the wall.
Apparently, every one of the writers independently arrived at the idea of Betty's Dad having a stroke in Season two. There you go, spec monkeys and fanficcers -- it's not just you.
Veith also lifted the veil on the Matt Weiner method of structuring a season, which he inherited from David Chase. In structuring the season, here's the formula:
- Ep 5....you have to give something big back to the audience for sticking in that far (Ie: in 5 this year we find out how Don advised Peggy post-baby, and this was the Car Crash with Bobbie)
- Ep 7&8 ... do it again -- something big.
- Ep 12 ... the climax of your season.
- Ep 13 ... denouement, tie up any loose ends not dealt with in 12.
On Mad Men's chances on being shown on Network TV in the USA:
Apparently NBC was thinking about it around the time Dexter was showing on CBS. Veith said "You can stab people in the face, but you can't have a smoke and a drink."
Tassie Cameron on Flashpoint's first season:
"Basically, they asked us to make 13 pilots." That's how little crossover/serialization/carryover they wanted. The thought of that made me queasy in my seat. What a fucking LOT of work that must have been! I can't help but think that if FP was a writer-showrunner driven show, they might have had a better appreciation of just how much work that really was. You can ask for the moon if you haven't really internalized the process, I guess.
James Manos Jr. on Dexter, and research for Dexter:
"Three percent of the world are sociopaths. They will run over your kid without a second thought. There are three hundred million people in the USA, which means there are 9 million of those people walking around."
Nice. I wonder how many of them work in Television.
Manos had a falling out with partners on Dexter, and wasn't involved after the pilot. He said that in his original conception of the first 12," you were going to find out that Doakes, the cops -- all were crazier than Dexter. He was, in a weird way, the sane one."
That's interesting. I always felt there was something a bit off about Dexter's 1st season in that it went exactly where you thought it was going to go. In retrospect, you can see how Manos' vision was set up in the pilot with the Captain's sexual harassment of Dexter, and Doakes' obsession really being at 11. It's in there. Shame. As good as Dexter may be now, that would have been an interesting show.
I appreciated a lot of Manos' sentiments about the craft. He said that the number one thing for him is to not work with assholes. Life's too short. "There's a certain honor in the work that you're doing. At the end of the day you want to wake up, shoot 12 hours, have a drink, screw something, then go to sleep and get up and do it again."
And when asked if he preferred finishing the script or seeing the finished product he chose the latter.
"Finishing the script is more like bad sex. Did I really do that? And now I have to do it again?"
I'll write up further tidbits from the forum later.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Get Your War On
LOOK, IT'S NOT that I don't want to post, it's just that with eight days to go, I simply find myself unable to think, read, process, or talk about anything other than the upcoming election. I'm sorry. It's just not possible. All this will soon be over and then maybe we can talk about the TeeVee again.
In the meantime, however, did you know that the hilarious Get Your War On was now an animated series of shorts? I bet you didn't know that. Well, now you do.
In the meantime, however, did you know that the hilarious Get Your War On was now an animated series of shorts? I bet you didn't know that. Well, now you do.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Writer's Holiday
OH THERE ARE a few. There's Bloomsday, of course. And there's the day that the new moleskins come out in stationary stores. But for my money, the beef supreme of writerly celebrations has to be the Season Finale of Mad Men.
Mmm. Joan Holloway.
To warm up, here's the funniest sketch from Jon Hamm's host stint on Saturday Night Live this week:
Less funny - but with still some funny bits (and guest stars, too!) is the Mad Men parody from the same show:
Mmm. Joan Holloway.
To warm up, here's the funniest sketch from Jon Hamm's host stint on Saturday Night Live this week:
Less funny - but with still some funny bits (and guest stars, too!) is the Mad Men parody from the same show:
Saturday, October 25, 2008
True. True.
REMEMBER THIS? OH, I'M SURE YOU DO.
Well, it's Eight Years Later.
How freaking awesome is that?
Well, it's Eight Years Later.
How freaking awesome is that?
OMIGOD! They mentioned us! They DID they DID!
EXHIBIT #25235, COLONIZED CULTURE DIVISION, SPURIOUS REFERENCE AS NEWS, (see: Nation as sad, local reference, not as sophisticated as one would believe; see also, "How can you be superior if you're also this needy?")
Huzzah, Canadians. Take it to the battlements, please! The Americans have referenced Canada once more! On a hit show! And it's BIG, BIG, BIG NEWS! YAAAAAYYY! YAAAAY!
Seriously. I just threw up in my soul a bit.
So, you know, go read THE FULL NEWS ARTICLE about Michael Scott on THE OFFICE mentioning Winnipeg and we'll wait.
Great. .
Hey, you know what else? Did you catch this bit of the article?
Awesome.
BTW, Less Than Kind, a comedy series shot, set, and at least partially lived in Winnipeg -- continues Monday at 10:30 on CityTV.
Do try to watch. Unless you're busy affixing that maple leaf patch to your Europe-bound rucksack or something.
Huzzah, Canadians. Take it to the battlements, please! The Americans have referenced Canada once more! On a hit show! And it's BIG, BIG, BIG NEWS! YAAAAAYYY! YAAAAY!
Seriously. I just threw up in my soul a bit.
So, you know, go read THE FULL NEWS ARTICLE about Michael Scott on THE OFFICE mentioning Winnipeg and we'll wait.
Great. .
Hey, you know what else? Did you catch this bit of the article?
Of course, the cast never actually was in Winnipeg, but parts of the episode are set there. (emphasis added)
Awesome.
BTW, Less Than Kind, a comedy series shot, set, and at least partially lived in Winnipeg -- continues Monday at 10:30 on CityTV.
Do try to watch. Unless you're busy affixing that maple leaf patch to your Europe-bound rucksack or something.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Super Series Junkie?
QUIETLY, WITHOUT LOOKING it seems, Super Channel, the also-ran PayTV channel that almost nobody has heard of, has become something I'm seriously considering adding to my cable package.It's okay if you haven't heard of Super Channel. They've done a terrible job of promoting it. Some cable systems don't even carry it. Shaw's pulling their usual sneaky Shaw bullshit in trying to bury it. Arguably, right now, the only thing that anybody's talking about in the world of Canadian pay tv is the launch of HBO Canada, which really is nothing more than a simple re-brand of one of the plexed channels of TMN and Movie Central. Oh yeah, sure. And Bill Maher. That'
s new. Yawn. Point being, if you subscribe to Pay, you already get most of what HBO Canada is promoting. It proves at least that somebody in Canada can think strategically in terms of marketing, but not much else.But that's not true with Super Channel. They actually do have stuff that nobody else in Canada has.
Interestingly enough it was a piece of marketing that got me thinking anew about Super Channel. They're hosting the premiere of the Starz original series Crash (based on the over-praised Paul Haggis movie) and so they put it up as a stream on their website. Now, I hated that movie, but I love me some Dennis Hopper, so that creates what we call a wee bit o' dissonance.
I haven't yet had the time to go watch the stream, but I did check out some of the other series offerings, and -- holy cow! There are like 20 series on there that aren't available anywhere else.
First, there's Sons of Anarchy, the biker-based series I haven't had a chance to check out by other means.
Then the other night I'm out saying goodbye to the wonderful Daisy Beaumont, a British actress who's just finished up a wonderful little arc in Season 2 of The Border. She was talking about a series she filmed in Mumbai awhile back called Mumbai Calling. I'm wondering where I can see it.Super Channel.
Then there's Burn Notice. And The Closer. And Skins. The UK series Peep Show.
Suddenly it looks like I may have a little more research to do...
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Vera Santamaria Hates Swiss Chalet
IT'S TRUE. That's just one of the shocking things that came out at Table 23 at the Geminis last night. "Hate" is a strong word, an ugly word, so I gave her ample time to walk that sentiment back. But nope. She stuck by it. Hates. Swiss. Chalet.
Worse, in her defence, she suggested that KFC was somehow superior. KFC! I know! There were hoots of derision all around, of course. When the subject of the Swiss Chalet barbecue sauce came up, I pointed out that I have been known to dab a little behind the ears to feel sassy, while Rob Sheridan (Little Mosque, Corner Gas) insisted that the extra sauce was the only way to go. Not the 4 oz. Oh no. The muthafuckin 12 oz. cup. Word.
It's a good thing Vera's such a great writer. Because, seriously.
Anyway, the Meridian Artists table had plenty of the fun, but none of the annoying bling. Jocelyn Cornforth and I (up for writing for Across the River to Motor City) watched as the category and the trophy went to the very, very fine script for Mayerthorpe by Andrew Wreggit. It stings less when you enjoyed the competition.
Which is what I said to console the dapper Alan McCulloch, whose Stargate: Atlantis came up short against my favorite Canadian show last year, Durham County, in a well-deserved series writing win for Laurie Finstad Knizhnik.
The promised hair-off between Al Magee and Glenn Cockburn never happened. But the award for most patient spouses go to Glenn's wife Stephanie, and Marla Rosebush Kaye, who were taking care of the brand-new-bambino coproductions at home while Cockburn and Marvin Kaye (Less Than Kind) pressed the flesh at the Liberty Grand. Glenn Cockburn was last seen lighting out to take the midnight shift.
Didn't see as many Writer Mafia types as last year, but there were standbys like Jill Golick, and Pete Mitchell. Graham Clegg waxed magnificent about the old Alliance days, when "night two was the night it all went crazy." Sadly, these are sobering times for TV, so the spirit of the party was subdued, but it was nice to see everyone all spiffified. Ken Girotti was in the house, a bit of time off before starting work on a pilot in Hamilton on Monday. "We're shooting the Hammer for the Hammer!"
Imagine such a thing.
And though my fave speech had to be Chris Szarka's pithy and exuberant acceptance for comedy directing winner T.W. Peacocke (Rent-A-Goalie,) my favorite moment of the night was watching Jonas Chernick accept his much-deserved award for playing the hell out of Heironymous Slade on The Border.
As my colleague Sarah said after, "Our Jonas beat Sam Neill."
Quite.
It's no secret that I love writing some of Slade's many disquisitions and outbursts -- it's the best part of my job writing The Border, because I get to write things that make me laugh and watch as he sells them, brilliantly. But those great moments when Jonas finds the humanity behind the character and makes you care about the guy -- that's all him.
Christopher Donaldson also picked up hardware for editing The Border, and the fine sound team for Across The River to Motor City picked up an award for their work on that show, too.
So I guess it's all over until..groan...night 4 in November.
Maybe they'll serve Swiss Chalet.
Worse, in her defence, she suggested that KFC was somehow superior. KFC! I know! There were hoots of derision all around, of course. When the subject of the Swiss Chalet barbecue sauce came up, I pointed out that I have been known to dab a little behind the ears to feel sassy, while Rob Sheridan (Little Mosque, Corner Gas) insisted that the extra sauce was the only way to go. Not the 4 oz. Oh no. The muthafuckin 12 oz. cup. Word.
It's a good thing Vera's such a great writer. Because, seriously.
Anyway, the Meridian Artists table had plenty of the fun, but none of the annoying bling. Jocelyn Cornforth and I (up for writing for Across the River to Motor City) watched as the category and the trophy went to the very, very fine script for Mayerthorpe by Andrew Wreggit. It stings less when you enjoyed the competition.
Which is what I said to console the dapper Alan McCulloch, whose Stargate: Atlantis came up short against my favorite Canadian show last year, Durham County, in a well-deserved series writing win for Laurie Finstad Knizhnik.
The promised hair-off between Al Magee and Glenn Cockburn never happened. But the award for most patient spouses go to Glenn's wife Stephanie, and Marla Rosebush Kaye, who were taking care of the brand-new-bambino coproductions at home while Cockburn and Marvin Kaye (Less Than Kind) pressed the flesh at the Liberty Grand. Glenn Cockburn was last seen lighting out to take the midnight shift.
Didn't see as many Writer Mafia types as last year, but there were standbys like Jill Golick, and Pete Mitchell. Graham Clegg waxed magnificent about the old Alliance days, when "night two was the night it all went crazy." Sadly, these are sobering times for TV, so the spirit of the party was subdued, but it was nice to see everyone all spiffified. Ken Girotti was in the house, a bit of time off before starting work on a pilot in Hamilton on Monday. "We're shooting the Hammer for the Hammer!"
Imagine such a thing.
And though my fave speech had to be Chris Szarka's pithy and exuberant acceptance for comedy directing winner T.W. Peacocke (Rent-A-Goalie,) my favorite moment of the night was watching Jonas Chernick accept his much-deserved award for playing the hell out of Heironymous Slade on The Border.
As my colleague Sarah said after, "Our Jonas beat Sam Neill."
Quite.
It's no secret that I love writing some of Slade's many disquisitions and outbursts -- it's the best part of my job writing The Border, because I get to write things that make me laugh and watch as he sells them, brilliantly. But those great moments when Jonas finds the humanity behind the character and makes you care about the guy -- that's all him.
Christopher Donaldson also picked up hardware for editing The Border, and the fine sound team for Across The River to Motor City picked up an award for their work on that show, too.
So I guess it's all over until..groan...night 4 in November.
Maybe they'll serve Swiss Chalet.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hola Spiffy
IF YOU'RE GOING to the Geminis tonight, be sure to come up and say, "Hi."
Unless you're a stalker of some sort, in which case, I'm pretty sure I just saw Paul Gross go thataway. And I'm sure he'd LOVE to read your script...
Kidding. I love Paul Gross. Geez.
Unless you're a stalker of some sort, in which case, I'm pretty sure I just saw Paul Gross go thataway. And I'm sure he'd LOVE to read your script...
Kidding. I love Paul Gross. Geez.
Return to Durham!
I DON'T USUALLY just pimp the press releases, but since Durham County was one of my favorite shows of last year, and one of my favorite Canadian shows EVER, has started shooting its second season! More creepy goodness from Laurie Finstad Knizhnik and the good people at Back Alley Film Productions.
coming to TMN in 2009! Awesome!The second season follows Mike Sweeney (Hugh Dillon) and his family as they try to come to terms with the anguish they suffered as a consequence of their encounter with serial killer Ray Prager in the former season. Durham County 2 continues on its visceral journey through the human psyche as the main characters battle with the issues and demons left behind from the aftermath of season one.
“We’ve once again created an ensemble drama that combines pace and suspense with complex psychological characterization that will leave the audience on the edge of their seats,” says Finstad Knizhnik.
“Michelle Forbes plays a brilliant but troubled forensic psychiatrist who develops a very intense bond with Mike Sweeney,” says Director/Executive Producer Adrienne Mitchell (Durham County I, Bliss).
“We’re thrilled with the success of season one of Durham County. The Gemini nominations and the international sales reaffirm that a series like this can travel beyond Canada’s borders,” says Executive Producer Janis Lundman (Drop the Beat).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Rent-A-Travelogue
BILL BRIOUX's up with a further entertaining account of his cross-country Hockey promo trip with the Rent-A-Goalie boys, and some good skinny from Phil Esposito, too.
When you bitch about the lack of promo for Canadian shows, take a look at these guys. THAT is going the extra mile, mes amis. Also, I am contractually obligated here to point out once more that Chris Szarka is the Tallest Man In Canadian Show Business.
Rent-A-Goalie airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on Showcase.
The most breathtaking scenery was found up the coast. Eight of us squeezed into a van and drove through Gros Morne Provincial Park. This is where the nickname "The Rock" truly resonates. Massive cliffs thrust out into the ocean. Small towns like "Cow's Head" are scattered between the rock and fields, with small white houses and hundreds of lobster nets dotting the landscape. Dudes sit on rooftops, next to their dogs, drinking beer. This is Canada.
Executive producer Chris Szarka came prepared; dressed in shorts, he waded into the ocean down by the spot where, in 1919, "the worst storm ever" capsized the S.S. Ethie, a beauty of a ship according to the official park marker.
When you bitch about the lack of promo for Canadian shows, take a look at these guys. THAT is going the extra mile, mes amis. Also, I am contractually obligated here to point out once more that Chris Szarka is the Tallest Man In Canadian Show Business.
Rent-A-Goalie airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on Showcase.
What Kind of Day Has It Been?
NOT OFTEN DO you get a day as odd in scope as I had on set yesterday.
First up was the filming of the first sex scene I've ever written and had shot. Or at least it was the first scene with dialogue. It has so little to do with the lovin, does these sorts of scenes. All camera and flip the hair and clear the frame and closed set and careful this and don't look goofy that. And since I wanted something about fun, and intimacy, all I can say is that when people are laughing and joking through the whole thing, it does a heart good. Such a weird and amazing skill, this acting thing. It's amazing how something so utterly unlike the thing you're portraying -- a touching, intimate moment -- can be made to seem that way through performance, and blocking, and the right film stock and handy Directorial skill.
And the dialogue was charmingly, winningly delivered. Yay.
Then I got interviewed by Rick Mercer, who was spending the day learning how to fight and get shot on set. Director Brett Sullivan was charming and funny and great. I was...scared. Oh man, when you realize that Rick Mercer is there, and you're going to be... Mercered, the Catholic in me just bubbles up. Into your hands, I commend my spirit, oh Trickster.
That airs on next week's Rick Mercer Report. Yay.
Then, of course, was the fight scene. Graham Abbey getting thrown around the set, and a stunt guy bashing into all the breakaway pieces, and Randy Butcher's cool fight choreography. And Nick Campbell coming in with a late hit with a bat. Kapow.
Man, that is going to be one fun sound effects session. Like a wet fish hitting a snare drum. Or something. Anyway. Great fun, yay.
Wrap at 8:30. Last day for the B Script Supervisor and Both A.D.'s, last day for my eps of Season 2 of The Border. Made it.
Glad to be done with the 7:30 calls (you mean the crew does this every day?) but tremendously happy that I get to do this for a living, whatever the bumps along the way. It is a lot of work. But when the work is good, and the people are good -- it's worth it. It is.
I think.
Now. I have about six months of phone calls to return...
First up was the filming of the first sex scene I've ever written and had shot. Or at least it was the first scene with dialogue. It has so little to do with the lovin, does these sorts of scenes. All camera and flip the hair and clear the frame and closed set and careful this and don't look goofy that. And since I wanted something about fun, and intimacy, all I can say is that when people are laughing and joking through the whole thing, it does a heart good. Such a weird and amazing skill, this acting thing. It's amazing how something so utterly unlike the thing you're portraying -- a touching, intimate moment -- can be made to seem that way through performance, and blocking, and the right film stock and handy Directorial skill.
And the dialogue was charmingly, winningly delivered. Yay.
Then I got interviewed by Rick Mercer, who was spending the day learning how to fight and get shot on set. Director Brett Sullivan was charming and funny and great. I was...scared. Oh man, when you realize that Rick Mercer is there, and you're going to be... Mercered, the Catholic in me just bubbles up. Into your hands, I commend my spirit, oh Trickster.
That airs on next week's Rick Mercer Report. Yay.
Then, of course, was the fight scene. Graham Abbey getting thrown around the set, and a stunt guy bashing into all the breakaway pieces, and Randy Butcher's cool fight choreography. And Nick Campbell coming in with a late hit with a bat. Kapow.
Man, that is going to be one fun sound effects session. Like a wet fish hitting a snare drum. Or something. Anyway. Great fun, yay.
Wrap at 8:30. Last day for the B Script Supervisor and Both A.D.'s, last day for my eps of Season 2 of The Border. Made it.
Glad to be done with the 7:30 calls (you mean the crew does this every day?) but tremendously happy that I get to do this for a living, whatever the bumps along the way. It is a lot of work. But when the work is good, and the people are good -- it's worth it. It is.
I think.
Now. I have about six months of phone calls to return...
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sorry! I Enjoyed Myself! Sorry!
LONGTIME READERS KNOW that I talk a lot about how creatives shouldn't respond to their negative reviews. And I mean that. So let me take the spoonful of sugar with this apparent contradiction (although it's not really a negative review, so there!) to say that I appreciate that Kate Taylor took her column to write about Canadian TV today. She had some nice things to say about Rent-A-Goalie, and about my episode of The Border.
In fact, the whole point of this Border episode was to see if the show could stretch enough to not take itself too seriously. You'll have a chance to judge for yourself how well we succeeded tonight at nine.
But the question I have to ask is this: is it just me, or is this, again, a very Canadian review. You can't say, "I enjoyed this," because it has to be qualified at all costs. Just seems rather...odd. That's all. And not funny-odd like the Torontoist review of a couple weeks back.
I'm pretty sure these kinds of reviews say something about this country. It might even be something endearing. And I think it has a lot to do with the kinds of shows we end up making. But I'm no longer sure what. I think it might have something to do with the phrase "pumped up facsimile" -- because really, isn't that what TV drama is supposed to be?
In any case, whether it's a qualified and measured mention from Kate Taylor, or another pan from John Doyle, the P.T. Barnum in me steps up to embrace the important thing: you mentioned the show, and you got the time right.
So a big, heartfelt thanks from me!
In fact, the whole point of this Border episode was to see if the show could stretch enough to not take itself too seriously. You'll have a chance to judge for yourself how well we succeeded tonight at nine.
But the question I have to ask is this: is it just me, or is this, again, a very Canadian review. You can't say, "I enjoyed this," because it has to be qualified at all costs. Just seems rather...odd. That's all. And not funny-odd like the Torontoist review of a couple weeks back.
The Border (CBC, 9 p.m.), on the other hand, takes itself pretty seriously. Too seriously, sometimes; like most crime shows out there it is rather too full of tough cops delivering self-important lectures on impending threats through narrowed eyes. They always remind me of security-system salesmen, all in the job of manufacturing fear. I can't say James McGowan's work as the troubled detective Mike Kessler is growing on me: The guy just looks unhappy most of the time. What a relief whenever the darkly funny Jonas Chernick appears on screen as the unit's resident hacker and intelligence geek, Hieronymous Slade.
What draws me to The Border, however, is how effectively its writers keep it rooted in the here and now. Sure, its notion tonight that some FLQ terrorist is going to come out of hiding 30 years down the road to track down a Quebec premier may be far-fetched, but the way this plot is woven into the story of a Quebec-Vermont border town is delicious.
The town is supposed to be one of those places where Canadians and Americans live happily side by side, with the local doctor in Canada and the drugstore in the U.S., while a red strip along a barroom floor represents the border. But when a Canadian border guard with orders to be extra vigilant delays the local fire brigade with a passport check and a house burns down, angry residents show agents Hourani and Lipinski just how they feel about recent increases in border security.
The tough Toronto agents can't believe this place where a terrorist could cross the border as easily as he could cross a street - and, of course, in this paranoid universe, this is where Mr. FLQ is going to show up.
It's nice to occasionally see ourselves - or at least some pumped-up facsimile thereof - on the tube.
I'm pretty sure these kinds of reviews say something about this country. It might even be something endearing. And I think it has a lot to do with the kinds of shows we end up making. But I'm no longer sure what. I think it might have something to do with the phrase "pumped up facsimile" -- because really, isn't that what TV drama is supposed to be?
In any case, whether it's a qualified and measured mention from Kate Taylor, or another pan from John Doyle, the P.T. Barnum in me steps up to embrace the important thing: you mentioned the show, and you got the time right.
So a big, heartfelt thanks from me!
Yo, Pimp My Ep!
FURTHER TO THE below– I’m pretty excited because Rick Mercer’s going to be on set of The Border all day today, for a bit that will air in a few weeks. And speaking of The Border, although I’d love you to watch Gas and RAG, I think maybe I’d like you to tape them more.That way you can watch my second episode of THE BORDER, tonight at 9 on CBC. This one is a bit of a departure for the show. I wrote about it back when it was gestating and shooting. This is our first attempt at a comic subplot. Some funny stuff from former Second City ‘er Mark Wilson, and guest stars Matthew Deslippe, Reagan Pasternak, and Bruce Hunter. Definitely a stretch for the show.
Tune in and let me know what you think.
Oh, and if you tune in to the Canadian TV podcast, you can hear an interview with "Slade", Mr. Jonas Chernick, halfway through. He does a good plug for the episode, but doesn't mention my name. Man. What were those twenties for anyway, Chernick?
Doyle'll probably hate it. Ah well.
Canada's Comedy Crown
DON’T LOOK NOW, but comedy isn’t dead on TeeVee. In fact, if you’re in Canada, it’s in better shape than it’s been for some time.
Call it the Corner Gas effect (if you must.) After six seasons, they may be calling it quits. But the legacy is undeniable. Despite a host of new simulcast-driven timeslots over the years, a million and a half Canadians find the show each week. They buy the DVD’s and they celebrate Brent Butt’s everyman Brent Leroy with loyalty and affection. Affection. For a Canadian show.
It’s been a couple of years since you heard any real carping about Corner Gas. Next to the almost unheard of feat of actually making it through six whole seasons, the show seems also to have outlasted the curious subset of self-hating Canucks who wished to criticize it. Seems that, however grudgingly, like the lumberjack shirt, hockey hair or the toque, people are used to the idea that it’s okay to laugh at a show made by Canadians, for Canadians. Even the show’s export to the USA last year (where it airs on Chicago superstation WGN) caused a smaller than expected ripple. No, Canadians like Corner Gas because they like Corner Gas. Period. And nobody has to tell them it’s okay to like it.
Many have speculated about why this show made it where so many other attempts failed. The usual reasons, trotted out by we who are concerned about such things, go like this: the show’s rural setting speaks to how Canadians like to view themselves, as folksy, rural and not particularly uppity; the humor (sorry, humour) is gentle and not dependent on people suffering or being particularly mean to each other (except for maybe Oscar, and he usually gets his comeuppance) or maybe it’s just that Brent is so laconic and easygoing that he seems the kind of guy a good Canadian might want to have a beer with. A strong, Canadian beer. You know what I’m talking about.
There’s a behind-the-scenes host of reasons why this show flourished where so many others failed, too, of course. Corner Gas was blessed in its early days by a bit of benign neglect from the network, where the (now departed) CTV exec Louise Clark was really the only one putting her fingers in the pie. The Producers, led by Virginia Thompson, ran a tight ship, hired the best writers, and rather than try to make them extensions of some frustrated creative will – actually left them alone to do the writing. Finally, Butt kept the whole thing grounded to his comfort zone, his comic persona.
I dare say that if more shows ran the way Gas did, we’d have no end of comedy hits. Which is why it’s of some comfort to know that the lessons learned from Gas might help birth a couple of other new shows. Not only is Butt developing a new show for CTV starring his wife and co-star Nancy Robertson, but Former Gas Showrunners Kevin White, Paul Mather, and Mark Farrell have teamed with Gas alum Fred Ewaniuk in a pilot called Dan for Mayor. Both pilots have a shot to become a series in 2009.
As for the current crop, the obvious inheritor of the Gas effect was Little Mosque on the Prairie. In its first groundbreaking season, Mosque got all the attention for its novel concept, but viewers and critics were underwhelmed when it came to the actual comedy. The show was laboured and forced, more concerned with “teachable moments” than making people laugh. (Exactly the opposite of the Gas approach.) In a way it was a throwback to a bad old, melodrama-style of CBC show. Whereas Corner Gas was light and enjoyable, Mosque seemed preachy and fitfully plotted.
An injection of two writers (Paul Mather and Rob Sheridan) from the Corner Gas stable in time for the show’s second (much longer) season, brought some of Gas’ light touch – better gags and structure, a surer focus on the ensemble, and an expansion of the world beyond its one-idea premise. People who had written off Mosque slowly drifted back. The show built its audience steadily over the second season, finishing at or around the million viewer mark. For the third season, some of those viewers have fallen away (TV viewership across all channels is down) but there are signs that Mosque’s 700 000 or so viewers might have some room to grow. The show is now closer in tone to Corner Gas – not quite the same level of goofy whimsy, and maybe a little preachier and staler than season two, but with stories that are competently plotted and amiable in their appeal.
Another show is vying for the Corner Gas comedy crown, though, by going for a different tone that still has a Canadian cant to it. Less Than Kind (Mondays, 10:30 Citytv) follows the misadventures of a Jewish family in Winnipeg, as seen primarily through the eyes of their whip-smart, socially awkward, hefty 16 year old son, Sheldon. (Jesse Camacho). Less than Kind eschews the quiet whimsy of Corner Gas for more of an urban – come – suburban take. This family yells, and bickers, and has sex and cheats on their income taxes. It’s a bit like The Wonder Years, but with swearing and psychological conditions like pyromania, and situational narcissism. You have to give credit to a show that shoots Winnipeg for Winnipeg in the winter. That snow aint potato flakes, people.
As much as Less Than Kind goes for the edge, though, there’s still something kind of sweet about it. The relationship between Sam Blecher (Maury Chaykin) and his wife is affecting. There’s a scene where the wife blows up at Sam and he wanders the streets, not knowing what to do. He’s lost without her. Aww.
Less Than Kind also benefits from some truly lucky and superb local casting. You know how sometimes it seems like Canadian shows use the same ten actors? Well, not Less Than Kind. For every Shaun Majumder who shows up, there’s a spectacular newcomer doing a brilliant comic turn. As run by Mark McKinney and created by Chris Sheasgreen and Marvin Kaye, you could call Less Than Kind a quirky delight, except that word ‘quirky’ has been so abused in Canadian film and TV circles that it’s more like an albatross around the neck than a compliment. So let’s just call Less Than Kind what it is: a delight.
With no new season of Trailer Park Boys, the guns and weed and strangely sweet, profane lo-fi sensation, your other pick for Canadian comedy tonight is the premiere of Season 3 of Rent-A-Goalie. RAG doggedly takes on their own promo to try and spread the word on this very Canadian show – it’s Canadian down to its DNA, so much so that format sales are probably the only way this show would export. From the cameos by NHL’ers to the multicultural, not melting pot treatment of ethnicity (the show posits a heightened vision of Toronto where Russians, Italians, Irish, African Canadians and every other ethnicity rub shoulders and don’t subsume who they are – kind of like the real Toronto) this take on the workplace comedy has an egalitarian streak a mile wide. Cake (Christopher Bolton) is a reformed bad boy. Sometimes he’s a genius, sometime’s he’s a knob. But he lives by a code and tries to treat everyone fairly. Even his enemy isn’t such a bad guy – and it’s clear that they have a bond. (Try imagining a drunken convo between Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader where they hug it out instead of going to the sabres.)
RAG mines the territory of the gross-out boy joke, with a bit of gratuitous sex and stupid violence thrown in. It’s like the Farrellys on five, instead of eleven. Someone always gets hit in the nuts, but never too hard, and they always manage to skate it off. People are accepted for who they are – be they lesbians, agoraphobes, sex-crazed councillors, gassy goalies, sex addicts, or Byelorussian goons with attachment issues.
Like the best of the Judd Apatow stuff, though, the gross out stuff is misleading. Every once in a while you’ll catch a joke or a riff that’s entirely more literate and elevated. Hockey, sex, and shenanigans – all performed by an exuberant and likable cast. This is a group that really has life by the pucks. (Disclosure: I helped plot season 2 of RAG and wrote early drafts of two episodes, but I look forward to season 3 merely as a fan.)
So three – count’em -- Canadian comedy shows, all with something to recommend them – airing on the same night. Not bad. There’s only three U.S. sitcoms I watch with any regularity, and they’ve got what, ten times the population?
But of course, we’re not even done. Because as I’ve written before, Canada’s topical sketch tradition continues, thanks to CBC.
Both The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes have come back incredibly strong this year – thanks to an election, and perhaps, a bit more boldness and sharpness in the satire. Mercer and 22 have also continued to evolve apart, with Rick going more for his experiential bits as 22 falls back, with a rejuvenated cast – on its strengths – strong desk jokes and short sketch parodies.
Contrast that to CTV’s attempts to float a sketch show – the horrible Comedy Inc, the underwhelming Popcultured, Jessica Holmes – and you’ll see that taking care actually does make a difference. You can’t write 84 sketches and shoot them all. Something’s gotta hit the floor.
Every few months, it seems, some Canadian journo gets it in their head to do a “why are Canadians so funny?” article, usually based around this or that Canadian who’s gone south for fame and fortune. Most comics and comedy writers you talk to will struggle with the question publicly, and often denounce it as bullshit privately.
Comedy is hard. There’s no question about it. And if Canada has produced a series of substandard comedies in the past (and it has,) maybe that’s because comedy is so delicate, so fragile, so hard to get right – that the catalogue of ways you can screw it up has proven to be a huge hill to climb.
There’s the writing itself. Producers or Execs that want to “fix” the writing. People in power with no sense of humor. Inexperienced cast who oversell every line, or mug, or refuse to throw away a line to make it land, because they don’t trust the material; Directors who don’t stage the scene correctly, or get the right coverage. Editors who don’t give it the right pace – and all this before you get to the P.R. campaign that manages to sell it wrong. Ugh.
Then and only then, if you’re lucky, do you get to be judged by an audience. Who may or may not get you. Most every comic writer I know dreams of getting to that point. They’d rather take their chances with the audience than watch their baby strangled in the crib. (Or worse, being forced to strangle it themselves.)
Yup. It’s hard. Which is one of the reasons why I think the way the Comedy category is administered in the Gemini Awards is a joke.
This Wednesday, the Gemini for Best Comedy writing will be handed out in Toronto. EDIT: A correction... apparently Comedy/Variety writing is on the Gala night, Nov. 28. Look. I got one of the FOUR NIGHTS OF GEMINIS confused! Bizarrely, Corner Gas and Mosque – inarguably the two most successful (in terms of audience) scripted comedies on Canadian TV – received zero nominations.
This could have something to do with the fact that the category is actually called Comedy/Variety. Which means that shows like Gas (or nominees Billable Hours and the low budget IFC show Cock’d Gunns) find themselves up against 22 Minutes and The Mercer Report.
That’s just wrong. I’m sorry. I know there’s a little unintended comedy in asking for there to be actually MORE categories of Geminis. But if you look over the list, you’ll see about four or five awards for what amounts to ‘Best Host.’ There are several different flavours of documentary awards to choose from. Even the category I’m nominated in, Best Writing in a Dramatic Movie or Miniseries, doesn’t have to also absorb entries from the Drama Series category.
A brilliant Rick Mercer field bit, a sublime 22 Minutes desk joke, and a great episode of Corner Gas are all funny. But they’re funny in different ways, for different reasons. Comedy is subjective and difficult to judge anyway. Why would you make the process harder?
There should be a variety or sketch category, and a comedy series category. Fullstop.
In any case, audience, there you go. There are three great Canadian comedies to choose from tonight. With another Reforma-Tory government in play, and an economy about to crater, all I can say is: lucky you. Pull up a chair and laugh til you cry.
Call it the Corner Gas effect (if you must.) After six seasons, they may be calling it quits. But the legacy is undeniable. Despite a host of new simulcast-driven timeslots over the years, a million and a half Canadians find the show each week. They buy the DVD’s and they celebrate Brent Butt’s everyman Brent Leroy with loyalty and affection. Affection. For a Canadian show.It’s been a couple of years since you heard any real carping about Corner Gas. Next to the almost unheard of feat of actually making it through six whole seasons, the show seems also to have outlasted the curious subset of self-hating Canucks who wished to criticize it. Seems that, however grudgingly, like the lumberjack shirt, hockey hair or the toque, people are used to the idea that it’s okay to laugh at a show made by Canadians, for Canadians. Even the show’s export to the USA last year (where it airs on Chicago superstation WGN) caused a smaller than expected ripple. No, Canadians like Corner Gas because they like Corner Gas. Period. And nobody has to tell them it’s okay to like it.
Many have speculated about why this show made it where so many other attempts failed. The usual reasons, trotted out by we who are concerned about such things, go like this: the show’s rural setting speaks to how Canadians like to view themselves, as folksy, rural and not particularly uppity; the humor (sorry, humour) is gentle and not dependent on people suffering or being particularly mean to each other (except for maybe Oscar, and he usually gets his comeuppance) or maybe it’s just that Brent is so laconic and easygoing that he seems the kind of guy a good Canadian might want to have a beer with. A strong, Canadian beer. You know what I’m talking about.
There’s a behind-the-scenes host of reasons why this show flourished where so many others failed, too, of course. Corner Gas was blessed in its early days by a bit of benign neglect from the network, where the (now departed) CTV exec Louise Clark was really the only one putting her fingers in the pie. The Producers, led by Virginia Thompson, ran a tight ship, hired the best writers, and rather than try to make them extensions of some frustrated creative will – actually left them alone to do the writing. Finally, Butt kept the whole thing grounded to his comfort zone, his comic persona.
I dare say that if more shows ran the way Gas did, we’d have no end of comedy hits. Which is why it’s of some comfort to know that the lessons learned from Gas might help birth a couple of other new shows. Not only is Butt developing a new show for CTV starring his wife and co-star Nancy Robertson, but Former Gas Showrunners Kevin White, Paul Mather, and Mark Farrell have teamed with Gas alum Fred Ewaniuk in a pilot called Dan for Mayor. Both pilots have a shot to become a series in 2009.
As for the current crop, the obvious inheritor of the Gas effect was Little Mosque on the Prairie. In its first groundbreaking season, Mosque got all the attention for its novel concept, but viewers and critics were underwhelmed when it came to the actual comedy. The show was laboured and forced, more concerned with “teachable moments” than making people laugh. (Exactly the opposite of the Gas approach.) In a way it was a throwback to a bad old, melodrama-style of CBC show. Whereas Corner Gas was light and enjoyable, Mosque seemed preachy and fitfully plotted.
An injection of two writers (Paul Mather and Rob Sheridan) from the Corner Gas stable in time for the show’s second (much longer) season, brought some of Gas’ light touch – better gags and structure, a surer focus on the ensemble, and an expansion of the world beyond its one-idea premise. People who had written off Mosque slowly drifted back. The show built its audience steadily over the second season, finishing at or around the million viewer mark. For the third season, some of those viewers have fallen away (TV viewership across all channels is down) but there are signs that Mosque’s 700 000 or so viewers might have some room to grow. The show is now closer in tone to Corner Gas – not quite the same level of goofy whimsy, and maybe a little preachier and staler than season two, but with stories that are competently plotted and amiable in their appeal.
Another show is vying for the Corner Gas comedy crown, though, by going for a different tone that still has a Canadian cant to it. Less Than Kind (Mondays, 10:30 Citytv) follows the misadventures of a Jewish family in Winnipeg, as seen primarily through the eyes of their whip-smart, socially awkward, hefty 16 year old son, Sheldon. (Jesse Camacho). Less than Kind eschews the quiet whimsy of Corner Gas for more of an urban – come – suburban take. This family yells, and bickers, and has sex and cheats on their income taxes. It’s a bit like The Wonder Years, but with swearing and psychological conditions like pyromania, and situational narcissism. You have to give credit to a show that shoots Winnipeg for Winnipeg in the winter. That snow aint potato flakes, people.As much as Less Than Kind goes for the edge, though, there’s still something kind of sweet about it. The relationship between Sam Blecher (Maury Chaykin) and his wife is affecting. There’s a scene where the wife blows up at Sam and he wanders the streets, not knowing what to do. He’s lost without her. Aww.
Less Than Kind also benefits from some truly lucky and superb local casting. You know how sometimes it seems like Canadian shows use the same ten actors? Well, not Less Than Kind. For every Shaun Majumder who shows up, there’s a spectacular newcomer doing a brilliant comic turn. As run by Mark McKinney and created by Chris Sheasgreen and Marvin Kaye, you could call Less Than Kind a quirky delight, except that word ‘quirky’ has been so abused in Canadian film and TV circles that it’s more like an albatross around the neck than a compliment. So let’s just call Less Than Kind what it is: a delight.
With no new season of Trailer Park Boys, the guns and weed and strangely sweet, profane lo-fi sensation, your other pick for Canadian comedy tonight is the premiere of Season 3 of Rent-A-Goalie. RAG doggedly takes on their own promo to try and spread the word on this very Canadian show – it’s Canadian down to its DNA, so much so that format sales are probably the only way this show would export. From the cameos by NHL’ers to the multicultural, not melting pot treatment of ethnicity (the show posits a heightened vision of Toronto where Russians, Italians, Irish, African Canadians and every other ethnicity rub shoulders and don’t subsume who they are – kind of like the real Toronto) this take on the workplace comedy has an egalitarian streak a mile wide. Cake (Christopher Bolton) is a reformed bad boy. Sometimes he’s a genius, sometime’s he’s a knob. But he lives by a code and tries to treat everyone fairly. Even his enemy isn’t such a bad guy – and it’s clear that they have a bond. (Try imagining a drunken convo between Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader where they hug it out instead of going to the sabres.)RAG mines the territory of the gross-out boy joke, with a bit of gratuitous sex and stupid violence thrown in. It’s like the Farrellys on five, instead of eleven. Someone always gets hit in the nuts, but never too hard, and they always manage to skate it off. People are accepted for who they are – be they lesbians, agoraphobes, sex-crazed councillors, gassy goalies, sex addicts, or Byelorussian goons with attachment issues.
Like the best of the Judd Apatow stuff, though, the gross out stuff is misleading. Every once in a while you’ll catch a joke or a riff that’s entirely more literate and elevated. Hockey, sex, and shenanigans – all performed by an exuberant and likable cast. This is a group that really has life by the pucks. (Disclosure: I helped plot season 2 of RAG and wrote early drafts of two episodes, but I look forward to season 3 merely as a fan.)
So three – count’em -- Canadian comedy shows, all with something to recommend them – airing on the same night. Not bad. There’s only three U.S. sitcoms I watch with any regularity, and they’ve got what, ten times the population?
But of course, we’re not even done. Because as I’ve written before, Canada’s topical sketch tradition continues, thanks to CBC.
Both The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes have come back incredibly strong this year – thanks to an election, and perhaps, a bit more boldness and sharpness in the satire. Mercer and 22 have also continued to evolve apart, with Rick going more for his experiential bits as 22 falls back, with a rejuvenated cast – on its strengths – strong desk jokes and short sketch parodies.
Contrast that to CTV’s attempts to float a sketch show – the horrible Comedy Inc, the underwhelming Popcultured, Jessica Holmes – and you’ll see that taking care actually does make a difference. You can’t write 84 sketches and shoot them all. Something’s gotta hit the floor.
Every few months, it seems, some Canadian journo gets it in their head to do a “why are Canadians so funny?” article, usually based around this or that Canadian who’s gone south for fame and fortune. Most comics and comedy writers you talk to will struggle with the question publicly, and often denounce it as bullshit privately.
Comedy is hard. There’s no question about it. And if Canada has produced a series of substandard comedies in the past (and it has,) maybe that’s because comedy is so delicate, so fragile, so hard to get right – that the catalogue of ways you can screw it up has proven to be a huge hill to climb.
There’s the writing itself. Producers or Execs that want to “fix” the writing. People in power with no sense of humor. Inexperienced cast who oversell every line, or mug, or refuse to throw away a line to make it land, because they don’t trust the material; Directors who don’t stage the scene correctly, or get the right coverage. Editors who don’t give it the right pace – and all this before you get to the P.R. campaign that manages to sell it wrong. Ugh.
Then and only then, if you’re lucky, do you get to be judged by an audience. Who may or may not get you. Most every comic writer I know dreams of getting to that point. They’d rather take their chances with the audience than watch their baby strangled in the crib. (Or worse, being forced to strangle it themselves.)
Yup. It’s hard. Which is one of the reasons why I think the way the Comedy category is administered in the Gemini Awards is a joke.
This could have something to do with the fact that the category is actually called Comedy/Variety. Which means that shows like Gas (or nominees Billable Hours and the low budget IFC show Cock’d Gunns) find themselves up against 22 Minutes and The Mercer Report.
That’s just wrong. I’m sorry. I know there’s a little unintended comedy in asking for there to be actually MORE categories of Geminis. But if you look over the list, you’ll see about four or five awards for what amounts to ‘Best Host.’ There are several different flavours of documentary awards to choose from. Even the category I’m nominated in, Best Writing in a Dramatic Movie or Miniseries, doesn’t have to also absorb entries from the Drama Series category.
A brilliant Rick Mercer field bit, a sublime 22 Minutes desk joke, and a great episode of Corner Gas are all funny. But they’re funny in different ways, for different reasons. Comedy is subjective and difficult to judge anyway. Why would you make the process harder?
There should be a variety or sketch category, and a comedy series category. Fullstop.
In any case, audience, there you go. There are three great Canadian comedies to choose from tonight. With another Reforma-Tory government in play, and an economy about to crater, all I can say is: lucky you. Pull up a chair and laugh til you cry.
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Sounds of Silent Cocktails
SO YESTERDAY THERE was a little cocktail-party-y thing on the set of The Border. Ostensibly, this media event by the PR company Media Profile was put together to try to bump some coverage for the show, post-launch – and also to celebrate an addition to the cast of The Border, Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica.)
Having the thing in situ was a reasonable idea. There’s something about sets that are kind of funky and cool if you’re not around them all the time. And the “ICS Locale” -- really the disused Port Authority Rochester Ferry Terminal (now used for its primary purpose – passenger unloading and customs, only a couple times a year) does have a pretty spectacular view of the Toronto skyline.
Unfortunately, we were running a tiny bit behind yesterday. Director Brett Sullivan and the crew were working hard to get coverage of the monitors in the tech area right after crew lunch – the first half hour of which overlapped with the cocktail party.
So now you have to picture the scene: there are servers and a bartender, and some of the actors who aren’t in the scene are meeting and greeting the intimate group of attendees. (this was not the usual Toronto PR clusterfuck where, you know, you’ve got people with no connection to the biz rubbing shoulders with that P.A. from the dance station, the blogger from Boats & Fish.blogspot.com, that dude who was the host of that thing about ten years ago, the PhD student from Concordia, the random agent who reps ten people you’ve never heard of, that guy in the hat, and the fugly sociopath who writes for [insert publication here]
Oh, and then the drag queens arrive and nobody can quite figure out what they’re doing there.)
So, you’ve got Gillian on walkie there at the entrance door to ICS, and every few minutes she says, “Rolling, quiet please” and the chatter on the floor, as people just sip their wine, just stops. Dead. At a cocktail party.
It was one of the funniest, most gloriously Canadian things I’ve ever seen. Somebody tells a group of people – who all are drinking alcohol, remember – to please be quiet for a minute, and lo and behold, it happens. Silence. You could hear a pin drop. One of the servers had just been asked what the so-and-so was, and I swear to Mike I saw her try to explain what was on the tray entirely in mime.
I told a couple of people that it wasn’t a cocktail party at all – that they were now part of some art installation. Somebody said they saw Banksy outside with a few cans of spray paint.
The crew got their takes, and moved on to another part of the terminal, dressed to look like an airport lounge.
Meanwhile, back at the soiree, I was now into full field spotting mode. For those of you making your way gently in the early stages of your media career, here is the field spotting guide to Canadian P.R. events:
In the corner, you will find scriptus serius. These are the common TV writers. They are there only for the command performance aspect of it. They talk mainly to each other, about other things, blissful in the knowledge that there is absolutely no way whatsoever that anyone will wish to speak to them. There is much dissection of the various types of hors’ d’oeuvres, and the relative merits of each. Eventually, the writers will scatter – one will go to a play, one to a screening, and the remaining one will toddle back to set having had two (ish) glasses of wine to guiltily watch the crew work. The buzz will wear off somewhere around nine, when he will find himself shivering outside on Cherry Beach, watching Nick Campbell smoke.
Interviewus Big Getus is the star people are there to talk to. She will be charming, and introduce herself when there’s no one there to lead her. She will disappear to do one on ones every few minutes with this camera crew or that one, and just generally show how it’s to be done. The writers in the corner will look upon her as an exotic and different species, because, let’s face it, she is. The relation between the two groups is only similar on the DNA level.
Printus Reportorius just keeps jotting everything down in his notebook. He never looks up. Ever.
Savvius Thespius is the cast member who always manages to be talking to the most important person in the room. They also get in all the pictures. It’s uncanny.
Flackus Professionalus are the P.R. people. They all have ponytails. They smile a lot and are enthusiastic and nice when you talk to them. They have suspiciously nice teeth. They guard their screener DVD’s like leprechaun’s gold. (They are also not to be confused with Communicatoris Directorius, who works directly for the Production and who I apparently owe a burger at that-watering-hole-I-like-to-go-to.)
Classiest Beenaroundtheblockius is the cast member who asks you to borrow twenty bucks, only to go over and put it in a glass in front of the Bartender to tip them and all the servers. Classy. (Especially when he indeed repays the 20, as promised, the next day.)
Networkius Promosaurus are the promotion types at the network. They are wonderful and mythical creatures who always have clean, strong teeth and perfect hair and shower lots and lots and lots of shiny promo time on the show like beneficent and golden gryphons. They may also provide ad copy to the papers. The cutlines are always awesome, and the names of the shows’ characters are always spelled right.
So, there you go. Promo in action. It’s a dirty business, but hey, it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
Wish you could have seen the silent cocktail party. That was something else entirely.
Having the thing in situ was a reasonable idea. There’s something about sets that are kind of funky and cool if you’re not around them all the time. And the “ICS Locale” -- really the disused Port Authority Rochester Ferry Terminal (now used for its primary purpose – passenger unloading and customs, only a couple times a year) does have a pretty spectacular view of the Toronto skyline.
Unfortunately, we were running a tiny bit behind yesterday. Director Brett Sullivan and the crew were working hard to get coverage of the monitors in the tech area right after crew lunch – the first half hour of which overlapped with the cocktail party.
So now you have to picture the scene: there are servers and a bartender, and some of the actors who aren’t in the scene are meeting and greeting the intimate group of attendees. (this was not the usual Toronto PR clusterfuck where, you know, you’ve got people with no connection to the biz rubbing shoulders with that P.A. from the dance station, the blogger from Boats & Fish.blogspot.com, that dude who was the host of that thing about ten years ago, the PhD student from Concordia, the random agent who reps ten people you’ve never heard of, that guy in the hat, and the fugly sociopath who writes for [insert publication here]
Oh, and then the drag queens arrive and nobody can quite figure out what they’re doing there.)
So, you’ve got Gillian on walkie there at the entrance door to ICS, and every few minutes she says, “Rolling, quiet please” and the chatter on the floor, as people just sip their wine, just stops. Dead. At a cocktail party.
It was one of the funniest, most gloriously Canadian things I’ve ever seen. Somebody tells a group of people – who all are drinking alcohol, remember – to please be quiet for a minute, and lo and behold, it happens. Silence. You could hear a pin drop. One of the servers had just been asked what the so-and-so was, and I swear to Mike I saw her try to explain what was on the tray entirely in mime.
I told a couple of people that it wasn’t a cocktail party at all – that they were now part of some art installation. Somebody said they saw Banksy outside with a few cans of spray paint.
The crew got their takes, and moved on to another part of the terminal, dressed to look like an airport lounge.
Meanwhile, back at the soiree, I was now into full field spotting mode. For those of you making your way gently in the early stages of your media career, here is the field spotting guide to Canadian P.R. events:
In the corner, you will find scriptus serius. These are the common TV writers. They are there only for the command performance aspect of it. They talk mainly to each other, about other things, blissful in the knowledge that there is absolutely no way whatsoever that anyone will wish to speak to them. There is much dissection of the various types of hors’ d’oeuvres, and the relative merits of each. Eventually, the writers will scatter – one will go to a play, one to a screening, and the remaining one will toddle back to set having had two (ish) glasses of wine to guiltily watch the crew work. The buzz will wear off somewhere around nine, when he will find himself shivering outside on Cherry Beach, watching Nick Campbell smoke.
Interviewus Big Getus is the star people are there to talk to. She will be charming, and introduce herself when there’s no one there to lead her. She will disappear to do one on ones every few minutes with this camera crew or that one, and just generally show how it’s to be done. The writers in the corner will look upon her as an exotic and different species, because, let’s face it, she is. The relation between the two groups is only similar on the DNA level.
Printus Reportorius just keeps jotting everything down in his notebook. He never looks up. Ever.
Savvius Thespius is the cast member who always manages to be talking to the most important person in the room. They also get in all the pictures. It’s uncanny.
Flackus Professionalus are the P.R. people. They all have ponytails. They smile a lot and are enthusiastic and nice when you talk to them. They have suspiciously nice teeth. They guard their screener DVD’s like leprechaun’s gold. (They are also not to be confused with Communicatoris Directorius, who works directly for the Production and who I apparently owe a burger at that-watering-hole-I-like-to-go-to.)
Classiest Beenaroundtheblockius is the cast member who asks you to borrow twenty bucks, only to go over and put it in a glass in front of the Bartender to tip them and all the servers. Classy. (Especially when he indeed repays the 20, as promised, the next day.)
Networkius Promosaurus are the promotion types at the network. They are wonderful and mythical creatures who always have clean, strong teeth and perfect hair and shower lots and lots and lots of shiny promo time on the show like beneficent and golden gryphons. They may also provide ad copy to the papers. The cutlines are always awesome, and the names of the shows’ characters are always spelled right.
So, there you go. Promo in action. It’s a dirty business, but hey, it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
Wish you could have seen the silent cocktail party. That was something else entirely.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
My Next Border Pony. Um. No. Episode. Right. Episode. I don't secretly love Ponies. Really.
OH HERE'S SOMETHING. This is the preview for my next episode of THE BORDER, on CBC this coming Monday night at 9pm. Like the first ep I did, Ep.2, this one's directed by Michael DeCarlo, who I also worked with on ACROSS THE RIVER TO MOTOR CITY.
That's an interesting promo because it doesn't really reflect the change of pace ep this is supposed to be. Almost like CBC promo was afraid of it. Something else they were afraid of? Three letters: FLQ.
That's right. Next week on The Border, we actually tackle a domestic Canadian terrorist group.
Funny how that's not in the promo.
(by the way, just to be clear....I know why it's not in the promo. I just think it's interesting.)
That's an interesting promo because it doesn't really reflect the change of pace ep this is supposed to be. Almost like CBC promo was afraid of it. Something else they were afraid of? Three letters: FLQ.
That's right. Next week on The Border, we actually tackle a domestic Canadian terrorist group.
Funny how that's not in the promo.
(by the way, just to be clear....I know why it's not in the promo. I just think it's interesting.)
The Old Rumply Bumply
SO. OVER THE next few days it strikes me that I'm going to hit a milestone. Something I've never done before. The first sex scene I wrote is going to be committed to film.
Well, I mean, it's not the first one. It'll be the first one produced. But, you know what? It's not even that much of a milestone.
Because what I learned was this:
Writing a sex scene is like writing an action scene. Which is to say it's like being the date of a supermodel.
Oh man, it is so NOT about you.
Sex scenes, action scenes, they're directors' areas. The only voice the writer really has in any of that, is context. What does it mean?
I'm not concerned about what happens, who does what, goes where, holds whatever, what the motion is, exactly how the earth moves, or the bedspread tears, or the breakaway bed shatters, or anything else like that in the whole world. I just. don't. care. I care about context. I can so far as to say something like, "I want this to be about two people who have been together a few times, and it's not just sex anymore, and that's a little scary." But then, I'm done. To me that scene is about what the actors and the director wants to bring about it. I don't know. Is that weird?
In any case, Jill Golick's got a good post up about some memorable sex scenes in TeeVee. Well worth your read. Go and comment.
If you think I'm vamping, oh yeah. I am. Guilty. Day six of eight for my last ep of The Border, but from here on in we're at home base. I'm happy to be winding down. And I love being on set. My God, people work so very, very hard. I have thoughts on the writer on set and how they can be un-useless, and even improve their stock by learning to be production friendly... but those posts will start next week.
I am giddy at the thought of sleep, and free time, and also, um...I don't know...socializing. We'll see.
For now...Handwaving, handwaving, handwaving...
Well, I mean, it's not the first one. It'll be the first one produced. But, you know what? It's not even that much of a milestone.
Because what I learned was this:
Writing a sex scene is like writing an action scene. Which is to say it's like being the date of a supermodel.
Oh man, it is so NOT about you.
Sex scenes, action scenes, they're directors' areas. The only voice the writer really has in any of that, is context. What does it mean?
I'm not concerned about what happens, who does what, goes where, holds whatever, what the motion is, exactly how the earth moves, or the bedspread tears, or the breakaway bed shatters, or anything else like that in the whole world. I just. don't. care. I care about context. I can so far as to say something like, "I want this to be about two people who have been together a few times, and it's not just sex anymore, and that's a little scary." But then, I'm done. To me that scene is about what the actors and the director wants to bring about it. I don't know. Is that weird?
In any case, Jill Golick's got a good post up about some memorable sex scenes in TeeVee. Well worth your read. Go and comment.
If you think I'm vamping, oh yeah. I am. Guilty. Day six of eight for my last ep of The Border, but from here on in we're at home base. I'm happy to be winding down. And I love being on set. My God, people work so very, very hard. I have thoughts on the writer on set and how they can be un-useless, and even improve their stock by learning to be production friendly... but those posts will start next week.
I am giddy at the thought of sleep, and free time, and also, um...I don't know...socializing. We'll see.
For now...Handwaving, handwaving, handwaving...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Then, At Least, We Could Have Bought Our Own Sweaters.
FIFTY-EIGHT PERCENT of Canadians bothered to vote yesterday. 58. Lowest total ever. On the one hand, can't blame them. We've had three federal elections in four years. That's not great. But it does raise the question, with twenty-one million eligible voters, and an election campaign that costs about 240 million dollars a pop, wouldn't it just have been easier to give everyone who voted last time twenty bucks?
Just sayin.
See you in the election of 2010. Or not.
Just sayin.
See you in the election of 2010. Or not.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Vote you Varmint
NO POST TODAY. Go the polls. Do your duty, or don't complain about anything that happens starting tomorrow.
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