May June 2010

 CELEBRATING TWENTY-FIVE YEARS: 1985-2010 

Q+A with director LOUIS LETTERIER The most rewarding job at the Olympics: SHARING THE TORCH

CALLUM KEITH RENNIE is

Vancouver is WEB CITY

SHATTERED

CONTENTS

16 UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM Most producers of cop shows expect to sell their traditional show with a pilot in which the cops solve the crimes and jail the bad guys. Hugh and Debra Beard decided to make a show about a cop whose partners include his multiple personalities. After they showed the pilot to their broadcast partners it was decided to keep the cop and his personalities but to go back to the drawing board for everything else.

20 SHARING THE TORCH Vancouver-based Image Media Farm was given one of the toughest but, arguably, most rewarding jobs at the Olympics. The company shot the torch relay as it crossed the country. In a diary, they look back at the corporate innovations, the daunting logistics and the excitement of traveling through tiny towns that came to life when the torch passed through.

4

PRODUCTION UPDATE

5

BITS AND BYTES

10 BEGINNINGS 12 BEHIND THE SCENES 14 QUESTION AND ANSWER 15 EXPERT WITNESS 28 LEGAL BRIEFS 30 FINAL EDIT

24 WEB CITY Internet-based series are finding a home in Vancouver, a town that has a solid infrastructure when it comes to the producing of television shows. Some of the series were created to give their producers a place to show off their acting or writing talents while others were looking to follow the Vancouver-shot web-series Sanctuary to broadcast television.

COVER & CONTENTS PHOTOS: CALLUM KEITH RENNIE AS BEN SULLIVAN IN SHATTERED; PHOTOS BY CAROLE SEGAL. REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS A WHOLLY OWNED ENTERPRISE OF REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. IT EXISTS AND IS MANAGED TO PROVIDE PUBLICITY AND ADVERTISING THAT SUPPORTS THE GROWTH OF THE WESTERN CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY. EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER: SANDY P. FLANAGAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: IAN CADDELL. PUBLISHER: RON HARVEY SALES: RANDY HOLMES. CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ANDREW VON ROSEN. ART DIRECTOR: LINDSEY ATAYA. PHOTO EDITOR: PHILLIP CHIN. REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED SIX TIMES PER YEAR. SUBSCRIPTIONS CANADA/US. $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA). REEL WEST DIGEST, THE DIRECTORY FOR WESTERN CANADA’S FILM, VIDEO AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY, IS PUBLISHED ANNUALLY. SUBSCRIPTION $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO US). BOTH PUBLICATIONS $60.00 (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA) PRICES INCLUDE GST. COPYRIGHT 2009 REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. SECOND CLASS MAIL. REGISTRATION NO. 0584002. ISSN 0831-5388. G.S.T. # R104445218. REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. 101 - 5512 HASTINGS STREET, BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, V5B 1R3. PHONE (604) 451-7335 TOLL FREE: 1-888-291-7335 FAX: (604) 451-7305 EMAIL: INFO@REELWEST.COM URL: WWW.REELWEST.COM. VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3. PRINTED IN CANADA. CANADIAN MAIL PUBLICATION SALES AGREEMENT NUMBER: 40006834. TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 1-888-291-7335 OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.REELWEST.COM. REEL WEST WELCOMES FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS, VIA EMAIL AT EDITORIAL@REELWEST.COM OR BY FAX AT 604-451-7305. ALL CORRESPONDENCE MUST INCLUDE YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, AND DAYTIME TELEPHONE NUMBER.

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

3

PRODUCTION UPDATE

What’s coming. What’s shooting. What’s wrapped.

KERI RUSSELL STARS IN WILDE KINGDOM

Arnett, Russell Gone Wilde ‘Tis the season of the pilot and BC is still getting its share with several calling Vancouver home in March and April. The list was led by Wilde Kingdom, the proposed NBC comedy from Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz. It will star that show’s Will Arnett as a Hollywood show-off and Felicity’s Keri Russell as an environmentalist. It has Pe-

4

ter Burrell producing, Joe Russo directing, Jim Hawkinson as DOP, Eric Fraser as production designer, Tracey Jeffrey as production manager, Crystal Remmey as production coordinator and Kirk Johns as location manager. Brant McIlroy is in charge of special effects.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants screenwriter Elizabeth Chandler is

one of the executive producers of Betwixt, the story of mythological fairies who pose as humans to protect them.

The other executive producers are Paul Stupin and Carol Barbee while: Grace Gilroy is the line producer, Christian Duguay is the director, Rob Mclachlan is the DOP, David Wilson is the production designer, Yvonne Melville is the production

manager, Adrienne Sol is the production coordinator and Michael Roberts is the location manager.

The Damn Thorpes stars Sean Faris and ex-Spin City co-star Alan Ruck as rival ranchers in Wyoming.

It has Daniel Palladino and Amy Sherman-Palladino as executive producers with the latter also directing. Matthew Nodellas is the producer, Wayne Bennett is the production manager, Eva Morgan is the production coordinator and Ken Brooker is the location manager.

High School Musical co-star Ashley Tisdale plays a competitive cheerleader in Hellcats, which has Kevin Murphy and Smallville’s Tom Welling as executive producers with Jae Marchant producing, Colleen Mitchell as location manager, Allan Arkush directing, Glen Winter as DOP, David Wilson as production manager, Salia Edl as production coordinator and Neil Robertson as location manager.

Veteran TV actors Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace), Malcolm Jamal-Warner (The Cosby Show) and Anna Ortiz (Ugly Betty) star in True Blue, the story of a police precinct out to solve the murder of one of its officers. Its executive producers are Chris Brancato, Jon Feldman, Bert Salke and Peter Horton with Horton directing, Justis Greene producing, Matthew Budgeon as production designer, Heather Meehan as production manager, Jennifer Metcalf as production coordinator, Kendra Upton as location manager and Alex Burdett as special effects coordinator. continued on next page

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

BITS AND BYTES

EMANUELLE VAUGIER

Vancouver actor Emanuelle Vaugier will be doing double duty this fall. According to spokesperson Lesley Diana she is set to reprise her role as Charlie Sheen’s girlfriend on Two and a Half Men and was recently cast in the Showcase series Lost Girl. Diana said Vaugier will play a supernatural being who feeds on the energy of humans.

“The series takes place in a secretive world of drama and intrigue that occurs in the shadows, just out of our sight,” says Diana. “In this world lives Bo, a supernatural being who feeds on the energy of humans, sometimes with fatal results. Bo is a renegade who takes up the fight for the underdog while searching for the truth about her own mysterious origins.”

Diana said that in addition to the two series, Vaugier has been cast in the upcoming feature film Mirrors 2, a sequel to the hit 2008 film that starred Keifer Sutherland. The sequel stars Nick Stahl as a night time security guard at a department store who becomes a suspect in the murder of employees after he sees visions of a young woman in the store’s mirrors. Diana says Vaugier plays a woman who joins Stahl’s character in an effort to solve the mystery.

ON SET OF BEN HUR

Vaugier Sees Double

Ben Hur Rides Again A TV remake of the classic film Ben Hur recently completed all of its visual effects at Montreal’s Oblique FX. According to a spokesperson, Oblique was responsible for over 140 visual effects for the two-part miniseries. The series, an international co-production of Montreal’s Muse Entertainment, Spain’s Drimtim Entertainment in association with Zak Productions of Morocco, Akkord Film of Germany and FishCorb Films of Spain, aired in April on ABC Television in the U.S., CBC in Canada, Antenna 3 in Spain and ProSieben in Germany.

“I couldn’t have been more pleased with the work that Oblique did on this project,” said director Steve Shill, whose work includes the mini-series Rome, Deadwood and The Tudors. “I wanted to put the money on the screen where the audience could see it.” Along with period costumes and historical settings, Ben Hur features a sea battle, gladiator fights, and a chariot race.

Oblique, formerly the film division of Buzz Image Group, handled all of the shots in-house.

Shill said the facility did not attempt to replicate the look of the earlier film. He said the environment and the script were designed more “to reflect life as it was in ancient times.”

Dialect Dial-Up Tony Alcantar has had a good year so far. The Vancouver-based dialect coach admits that his phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the year began. In addition, his clients are winning awards. According to Alcantar, he was hired by Harper’s Island producer Grace Gilroy to dialect coach Ireland’s Elaine Cassidy, who starred as series lead character Abby Mills and to make her sound American. Last month Cassidy won the Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role for the series.

“While the saying, ‘Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan’ comes to mind”, says Alcantar, “ I can’t help but think I had a small part in her success. For 13 episodes Elaine had to convince millions of viewers that she was American. She pulled it off.”

More recently Alcantar was on the set of the series Human Target working with series lead Mark Valley as well as Kim Coates, Christopher Heyerdahl, Kavan Smith and Erick Avari. Concurrent with his work on Harper’s Island, he was the dialect coach for Halle Berry and Stellan Skarsgard on the Brightlight Pictures feature Frankie & Alice. In addition

Update continued from previous page

The Cartoon Network has its first live-action series with Tower Prep, which will be calling Vancouver home from April to August.

The show, about a rebellious teen who wakes up one day trapped in a mysterious, inescapable prep school is being produced by Peter Lhotka with Philip Linzey the DOP, Mark Freeborn the production designer, Jim O’Grady the production manager, Rhonda Legge the production coordinator, Greg Astop the location manager and Dan Keeler the special effects coordinator.

Two series returned to BC in March. Both Sanctuary and Eureka will be here until November. Eureka

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

has Jamie Paglia, Bruce Miller and Robert Petrovicz as executive producers, Rick Maguire as DOP, Brad Jubenville as production manager, Jared Howitt as production coordinator, John Alexander as location manager and Tim Storvick as special effects coordinator.

Sanctuary has Damian Kindler, Amanda Tapping and Martin Wood as executive producers, Lily Hui producing, Gillian Horvath as supervising producer, Gord Verheul as DOP, Bridget McGuire as production designer, Elaine Fleming as production coordinator and Darren Marcoux as special effects supervisor. 

to on-set work, Alcantar conducts dialect workshops at the Union of B.C. Performers and is resident dialect and improvisation coach at the Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Toon Boom Animation Boon Montreal-based Toon Boom Animate Pro recently announced the upcoming release of Toon Boom Animate Pro 2, a new version that a spokesperson, Karina Bessoudo, says “propels professional animators into a new world of creative freedom.” Bessoudo says Pro 2 is “the most complete professional animation software, offering superior content creation, animation and compositing toolset for any style of animation, all within a single desktop application.”

Chris Georgenes agrees. The art and animation director and author and owner of the Keyframer.com blog, says he felt compelled to know how to use the Pro 2. “I’m loving Toon Boom Animate Pro 2. Every once in a while a tool comes along that you just know you have to learn how to use because it just feels right. As an animator, Animate Pro 2 lives up to its name pure and simple. It’s a tool that oozes the technique of animating because it is developed that way. As you become comfortable with the Animate Pro workflow it becomes clear that this tool was designed by animators for animators. It boasts features that I always wanted and in some cases wish I had thought of.”

Bessoudo says Toon Boom Animate Pro can be used to create all styles of animation, traditional, Flash-style, cut-out or paperless and enables pros to draw digitally, scan paper drawings, colour, animate and synchronize sound.

5

BRENT BUTT AND NANCY ROBERTSON STAR IN HICCUPS

WORK & LIVE IN CANADA Work

Permits

Permanent

Resident Applications

IMMIGRATION LAW GROUP Catherine A. Sas, Q.C. csas@millerthomson.com Robson Court 1000-840 Howe Street Vancouver BC V6Z 2M1 Telephone: 604.687.2242 www.canadian-visa-lawyer.com www.millerthomson.com

Registered Foreign Legal Consultant with the State Bar of California

Phebe Chan pchan@millerthomson.com

Alumni Gas Opposition Two series whose stars are Corner Gas alumni fared well with their March debuts. Hiccups, which stars Corner Gas’s Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson recorded the biggest launch for a Canadian film this season with 2.06 million viewers. Dan For Mayor, which has Corner Gas’s Fred Ewanuick in the title role, did almost as well, attracting 1,995,0000 viewers a half hour later.

The Saskatchewan-shot Corner Gas was considered to be the most successful Canadian comedy of all time, averaging over 1.5 million viewers a week. It was created by Butt who starred in the show. Ewanuick and Robertson were two of the show’s co-stars. Hiccups, which is shot in Vancouver, was also created by Butt and stars Robertson as a children’s author with anger management issues.

Two other Canadian series also debuted with over one million viewers in March. CTV’s The Bridge drew 1,220,000 million viewers while CBC’s The Republic of Doyle recorded an audience of 1,009,000.

Logo A Go Fourteen years after the release of Canadian punk rock mockumentary Hard Core Logo, cameras rolled in Saskatchewan on the sequel. According to a spokesperson, the bulk of filming was to be done in the small communities of Watrous and Manitou Beach, about 120 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.

The original Hard Core Logo starred Callum Keith Rennie, Julian Richings, John Pyper-Ferguson, Hugh Dillon and Bernie Coulson and told the story of a famous punk band as they reunite for a final tour.

The film won critical acclaim and a cult following when it was released in 1996. Director Bruce MacDonald said the sequel will feature Richings’ character and that he hopes the schedules of Rennie, the star of the

6

upcoming series Shattered and Dillon, the star of Flashpoint will allow them to make appearances in the new film. MacDonald said Richings’ character, Bucky Haight, is “a kind of rock and roll royalty. He’s like a Ron Wood from the Rolling Stones or a Johnny Thunder,” McDonald said.

He said Logo 2 also stars real-life rocker Care Failure and her band Die Mannequin.

The film is being produced by Foundation Features, the Vancouverbased company that is home to former Infinity Features Entertainment partners Dave Valleau and Rob Merilees. The producers are Merilees and Holly Baird while Valleau and Lindsay MacAdam are the executive producers. It was written by MacDonald and Dave Griffith.

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

Leaving Laughing Leave Them Laughing, a film about Vancouver comedienne Carla Zilbersmith’s battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) premiered at the recent Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. The movie,

by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker John Zaritsky (Just Another Missing Kid,) follows Zilbersmith from the time she was given less than four years to live and is described by spokesperson, Ingrid Hamilton, as “a 90minute pre-mortem of a life lived fully, but far too fast.” Hamilton says that the film has Zilbersmith vowing to exit the stage with “songs about life, quips about death, and a smile on her face.”

Hamilton says Zaritsky‘s previous documentary, The Suicide Tourist, inspired “heated debate” worldwide.

The film followed the last moments

of an assisted suicide and the case of a Canadian couple looking to legalize their suicide pact. Zaritsky says he met Zilbersmith in 2008, and immediately saw the film in his head.

“I jumped into high gear, knowing my time was limited to do justice to the canvas of Carla’s life,” says Zaritsky. “There was no time to wait for the usual funding process. For the first time in my career, I used my own money. That’s how strongly I felt about telling her story.”

The film was directed by Zaritsky with Zaritsky and Montana Berg the executive producers. The director of photography was Ed Matney while Scott Doniger and Justin Cousineau edited the film. The associate producers were Kelley Busby, Liz Karlsmark and Sandy Handsher.

Evil Doers Done A 13 episode SPACE Channel show about a teenager who will do anything to be a heavy metal star wrapped recently. Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil was shot over a ten week period on location in Winnipeg.

“Getting to make this series is proof that The Book Of Pure Evil is real and actually works,” says co-creator Craig David Wallace. “We’re super excited that SPACE is supporting our belief that ‘80s flavoured Heavy Metal and Black Magic are back, and more evil than ever.”

The series is based on a short film of the same title written by Wallace and Max Reid, and directed by Wallace. It was produced through the Canadian Film Centre’s Short Dramatic Film Programme, and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2003. The series was created for television by Anthony Leo, Charles Picco, and Craig David Wallace. Executive producers are Wallace, Leo and Andrew Rosen.

Leo, Rosen and Shawn Watson are the producers.

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

Easy Audio

ZOOM H4n Digital Recorder Great for HD - DSLR Audio “double system” Records on SD or SDHC cards XLR / Phono Inputs.

High res. 24 –bit/96 kHz USB 2.0 Hi-Speed N EW High quality preamps. uff Wind M le Filter & Limiter Availab 90 / 120 degree Stereo AC/DC Operation

Formerly Production Equipment Rentals

Aerial Lift, Material Handling and General Equipment Specialists

Telescoping Booms

Articulating Booms

Scissor Lifts

Personnel Genie Lifts

Straight Mast & Telescoping Forklifts

Proud members of MPPIA • 24 Hour Service Our own trucks for on time delivery Serving the movie industry for over 20 years

604-945-5004 (Port Coquitlam) 1-877-875-WEST (9378) www.westernone.ca

7

West Wins Four

JOHN P.H. NICOLLS ENTERTAINMENT & BUSINESS LAW • Rights Acquisitions/Options • Tax Credit Issues • Co-Production Agreements • Bank Financing • Distribution/Sales-Agency Contracts • Employment • Book Publishing/New Media • Copyright/Trademarks • Production Legal Work International Experience - Local Knowledge #800-1090 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC V6E 3V7 Tel: (604) 683-7454 Fax: (604) 683-8602 E-mail: jnicolls@grossmanstanley.com www.grossmanstanley.com

8

The BC production Fifty Dead Men Walking won two trophies at the recent Genie Awards, held in Toronto.

The film, which was produced by Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures won Genies for adapted screenplay (Kari Skogland) and art direction (Eve Stewart.) Vancouver native Joshua Jackson won the Genie for best actor for One Week while Winnipeg’s Cordell Barker, Derek Mazur and Michael Scott won the best animated short Genie for Runaway.

The evening was dominated by Quebec’s Polytechnique. The film, which tells the story of the infamous 1989 murders at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, won nine Genies, including best picture, director (Denis Villeneuve) actress (Karin Vanasse) and screenplay (Jacques Davidts.) It was followed by Quebec’s The Master Key with two awards (original score, makeup.)

Other films winning Genies included Before Tomorrow (costume design), Nurse.Fighter.Boy (song), Love and Savagery (best supporting actress, Martha Burns), A Hard Name (best documentary), The Delian Mode (best documentary short), Danse Macabre (best live action short), I Killed My Mother (Claude Jutra Award, Xavier Dolan) and De père en flic (Golden Reel Award.)

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

LULU KEATING

Keating Wins Prize Filmmaker Lulu Keating is the 2010 recipient of the Women In the Director’s Chair Feature Film Award.

The award was presented in Vancouver at the recent Creative Women Workshops Association at the Opening Gala of the 2010 Women In Film Festival.

Valued at nearly $100,000, the prize includes in-kind rentals for one week at North Shore Studios or The Bridge Studios; production equipment rentals from William F. White Intl. and post production support from Post Modern Sound and Deluxe Vancouver.

The award will support Keating’s romantic adventure comedy feature film Based On A True Fantasy.

“The whole design of this film was developed with this award in mind - a studio shoot to create a high concept, low-budget film. It will incorporate creative animation techniques with live action,” said Keating, “This award is absolutely the most thrilling thing that could have happened.”

Spokesperson Carol Whiteman said Creative Women Workshops Association works in partnership with a host of companies, individuals and agencies including The Banff Centre, ACTRA, Telefilm Canada, CTV, the Quebecor Fund, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, the Independent Production Fund, IATSE 669, IATSE 891, and the Directors Guild of Canada, BC District among others, “to help level the playing field for women screen directors in Canada” through the training program Women In the Director’s Chair and other WIDC initiatives.

Carroll No Fool Vancouver filmmaker Patrick Carroll’s I’m That Fool was the most recent winner of the A&E Short Filmmakers Award in the NSI Online Short Film Festival. A spokesperson said Worked For Me by Ken Simpson of Toronto received an Honourable Mention.

Jury members said they were unanimous in their choice of I’m That Fool as the winning film, calling it “engaging from beginning to end.”

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

“It stayed with us, a true testament to its impact,” said jury members Kellie Ann Benz, Mark Montefiore and Anna Tsoulogiannis.

The documentary tells the story of Steve and Roxanne, rockers who have played in bands for over a quarter century and follows their current band The Irises as they go back on the road. A spokesperson said NSI is currently accepting films for upcoming festivals.

9

PHOTO PHILLIP CHIN

10

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

BEGINNINGS

Dan Shea “I always wanted to be a hockey player.

Stunts were the next best thing...”

I

remember watching Hockey Night in Canada as a kid. My brothers and I each had to take turns standing on the roof holding the antenna so we could get the reception. Luckily there were three brothers, one for each period. I always wanted to be a hockey player. Stunts were the next best thing.

My career began when I crashed an audition for a beer commercial. Next thing I knew I was in Hawaii blasting around in shark-infested waters on a wet-bike. Can you say residual cheques?

It was definitely downhill from there. I tried stand-up comedy. I opened for Jose Feliciano and did an Olympic sit-up bit involving a handful of whipped cream. Jose, the blind guy, slipped on the whipped cream when he came onstage. The predominately middle-aged, cardigan wearing audience booed me off stage. I slipped into the back alley carrying my props and tripping over homeless dudes. There I said it. I was a props comic.

I tried extra work but I found myself in extra’s holding, which was nothing more than an unheated tool-shed with 50 extras jammed in there like POWS. We would shield our eyes from the light whenever the door opened. Our ultimate goal was to get on set and hope the director would say one word to us, so we could grieve for an upgrade. Every day at lunch we had to watch and wait as the entire cast and crew and office staff slowly filed past us in the meal line.

By the time it was our turn to eat, the Teamsters had devoured everything.

I finally got a job on a hockey-driven episode of MacGyver. That’s the reason I’d gotten into the biz in the first place. Remember the movie Ice Castles?

Actor Robbie Benson, 140 lbs soaking wet , skated down the ice on his ankles, in an NHL game, wearing a toque. So wrong.

I met Richard Dean Anderson, a Minnesota boy/hockey freak. I was from Hespeler, a small town in Ontario which made the best hockey sticks in the world. It was a match made in heaven. I became RDA’s stand-in. I didn’t even know what a stand-in was. The other stand-ins called themselves “worthless reflectors of light.” Part Time Pete, a male stand-in, was affectionately known as the “40 year old loser stand-in.” It was something to aspire to. RDA’s driver was Billy the Dogwalker. I became Coattail.

I began to notice that if I set up RDA for a goal, the next episode I would be magically upgraded to Actor. Two goals: Principle. One episode after setting him up for a hat trick, I was elevated to the status of his stunt double. (It wasn’t quite like that, but close.) It was another hockey episode and his regular double was from California and couldn’t skate. Unfortunately, just before we were about to shoot I injured my ankle. It blew up so big I couldn’t fit it inside my skate. This was my Chuck Yeager moment. I grabbed another skate that was two sizes bigger, jammed my foot in it and took the pain.

The first time I donned the infamous MacGyver mullet, with the pins digging into my skull and skated around the ice, was one of the proudest moments of my life. I got clothes-lined by Dick Butkus at center ice! I got thrown through tempered glass by Lyle Alzado, all under the watchful eye of Vince Deadrick Jr, the Stunt Coordinator and Godfather to us all.

RDA’s stunt double had shoulder-length, bleached-blond hair. He drove a black Mercedes convertible and spent as much time in the gym and under the sun lamp as he did on set. He was beautiful! And he made more money from residual cheques alone than all three of us stand-ins combined!

So I started training! We would rent cars and go up to Cypress Mountain and practice slides and 180s in the parking lot. You would have about 10 minREEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

utes before security would chase you out of there! Then you’d return the rental with absolutely no tread left on the tires, reeking of burnt rubber!

We’d practise high-falls in abandoned construction sites downtown but we’d have to bolt before the cops got there because we’d always attract crowds of onlookers thinking there was a “jumper.” I would work on set for 14 hours and then get the crap beat out of me at karate. Then I would play hockey with RDA until 2am. Six years later I got my black belt.

I would concentrate on learning about all the departments. I would bug the camera department about lenses, continuity about screen direction and props about guns, all the while writing screenplays that were always rejected or sent back unopened because they were unsolicited. They were always about hockey. Sometimes they were returned with scathing readers reports: “He shoots!

He scores! The crowd yawns.” (I still have that one.)

I finally became RDA’s official stunt double after MacGyver was cancelled. It was on a television movie called Eyes of a Stranger in Toronto. Luckily I got my first stunt-related injury. My foot was almost crushed by enormous industrial textile rollers. I say lucky because, like on Reservoir Dogs, every stunt person must have a stunt story. It’s completely mandatory! Stunt people spend hours regaling us with anecdotes about how they lost a digit or a testicle and how hilarious it was. It’s kind of like the shtick Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest’s characters Frankie and Willie did on Saturday Night Live. “You know what I really hate? Getting fire retardant gel mixed up with the accelerant.” “Hate it when that happens!” I made more money on disability than I had in my entire life!

And it led to more work. Months later, after my foot had completely healed, I pretended to limp into an audition for the same director who had felt responsible for my injury. I got the part! I was working on Call of the Wild in BC with my own room and a TV that worked, sporting a beard. Then I’d shave, fly to Toronto for the hockey movie Gross Misconduct, which was directed by Atom Egoyan in Maple Leaf Gardens. Then I would fly back to BC for Call of the Wild, hoping the beard would grow back in time.

Whenever I acted I always got looped. My voice was always replaced by that of a trained Shakespearian actor or a dude with a deep southern drawl. I guess that’s why I do stunts.

I spent the next 10 years paying my dues: coordinating, acting and stunt performing on various features, television movies and series with the list including Net Worth, Hat Squad, Cobra, Outer Limits, Dead Man’s Gun, First Wave and Andromeda.

Then the gravy train came back to town! Richard Dean Anderson and (MacGyver producer) Michael Greenburg were back with a new series called Stargate SG-1. I spent the next decade working as the show’s stunt coordinator and RDA’s stunt double with a recurring role as a character named Sgt. Siler.

I also worked on other shows: Smallville, Supernatural, Fantastic Four, I, Robot, The X-Men 2, Shooter, The Incredible Hulk, Watchmen, 2012, The A-Team etc. Career highlights include doubling for Steve Martin in The Pink Panther and listening to him play the banjo for the crew; carrying Danny Virtue’s porta pits (mats) on my back on Hawkeye; working with my two daughters Stephanie and Joey; doing a high fall as a gunslinger at the Bordertown set on a western episode of Pscych and totally missing my pad; double dipping on Stargate continued on page 28

11

PHOTO PHILLIP CHIN

12

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

BEHIND THE SCENES

Tivoli Caterers Appetite for learning key to success

W

hat do Brent Butt, Isaac Hayes and Halle Barry have in common? As diverse as their names may look on a list, the three actors have all called out food orders to the staff of Tivoli Caterers. The company, like all on-set catering companies, isn’t concerned about who is in a film or even where it is located. If they can get there they will take the job. However, it hasn’t always been easy to get there.

Michael Levy, who co-founded the company in 1996 with his wife Aase and Amanda Richards, says that there have been times when he wondered whether the catering trucks would make it to the set.

“When we were shooting in Prince George and working in temperatures of -35C all four wheels of the catering truck froze fast in the ground,” he says. “We had to have the Teamsters come to dig us out so we could free the truck to change locations. The vegetables had to be stored in hot food carriers in order to keep them from being destroyed by the freezing temperatures in the trucks. Our buffet tables were set up in a heated tent. The fruit salad still had to be put in a heated chafing dish to keep it from becoming a different type of dessert.”

The company was Richards’ idea. Levy says she brought it to the Levys and they could see its potential “The company name came from a poster of Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens hanging in Amanda’s kitchen,” says Levy. “We started with one catering truck and our garage as the ‘warehouse’ for storage and deliveries. We got our second truck before the first year was out and the third truck 18 months after that. There were no shortcuts to success. We worked hard.

Amanda and I were cooking on the trucks and Aase, a CGA, was doing the bookkeeping and smiling convincingly at the bank’s loan officers.”

Richards left the company after four years. Aase Levy continued to oversee the company’s accounting programs and Michael Levy took on the responsibility of running the business on a day to day basis. He says that it’s not the easiest job in the business. “It means long days. You are responsible for laundry, purchasing, restocking the warehouse, administration and, of course, you have to go out and get the business. I worked on the catering trucks for the first seven years. I was cooking all day for the show I was working on and overseeing the operation of the other trucks. Eventually I stepped back from REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

cooking and now I devote most of my time to supporting the chefs, liaising with production, picking up specialty items, keeping the warehouse stocked and overseeing truck maintenance.”

It’s never going to be simple. Levy says that you can’t control every aspect of any shoot. He says that you can feel like a high school student banished to the principal’s office when you receive a call from the production manager.

“I remember a few years ago when we were just starting a huge show, XMen 2, for (production manager) Stewart Bethune, whom we hadn’t worked for in the past. It was summer and all three trucks were working. The first two weeks we were shooting in Victoria and I had gone there to oversee the project and to help the crew. Everything seemed to be going great and then we got this call that there was a problem with the catering and I needed to go into the production office asap. I got the call right before I went into a little shop to get my passport photo. I looked like a deer in the headlights for five years. Immediately after the photo was taken I got a second call. There had been a misunderstanding. Stewart thought the producer was unhappy about the catering but it was actually a problem with a limo driver.”

Levy believes that while there have been some difficult days, the company’s infrastructure has been solid and Tivoli has managed to hire the best people available. “The good news for us is that we have been able to attract great chefs and cooks. Chefs are artists and film catering allows them to practice their art. They have to create new and varied menus daily for a captive audience that works long hours. But things have really worked out well. We have good, healthy food beautifully presented by happy talented people in modern clean trucks. Those elements have gone a long way in making us competitive and successful.”

Side dish (Things you learn while catering films): 1. Chocolate fountains do not do well in the wind.

2. Actresses on very special diets will still eat bacon and help themselves to the center of the chocolate cake.

3. Five star food tastes just as great in a one star parking lot.

4. When buying pallets of bottled water it is entertaining to make other Costco patrons believe that film producers use only bottled water to fill their hot tubs.  13

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Louis Letterier Director... and artist, musician and renaissance man

T

he next great action film director could be the son of a French philosopher who was encouraged, by his parents, to leave Paris and attend the prestigious Tisch school of Performing Arts in New York. Louis Leterrier returned to Paris and worked with filmmaker Luc Besson who was producing a movie called The Transporter. Leterrier moved from assistant director (AD) to the top job within a matter of hours.

From there he went on to direct Transporter 2, the Jet Li film Unleashed, the comic book movie Hulk and, most recently, the remake of the classic B-movie Clash of the Titans.

In March, Reel West’s Ian Caddell talked to him about trying to get away from labels and his desire to take a movie from the early stages to completion.

14

You went to the Tisch School to be a director but you ended up working in almost every other area before you got to direct. How did that happen?

“I went to NYU and the first day they said ‘who wants to be a filmmaker?’ and everyone raised their hand. I looked around and thought ‘I will never become a director’ so I decided to learn everything. I learned to be an editor and a director of photography and all that stuff. Then I went back to France because my visa had run out with all this knowledge and I became an assistant director and a Steadicam operator.”

How did you go from being an assistant director to making your directing debut?

“The weekend before principal photography began on The Transporter (director) Cory Yuen came to my room and said ‘I am exhausted. You

have to start the movie and I will pick it up afterwards.’ I said ‘Cory, I have never directed anything like this and I don’t know anything about cars or karate. I don’t have a car. I have a bicycle. I am not that guy.’ He said ‘no, you have to start tomorrow.’ The next day at 7am I went to set and said ‘let’s put the camera there.’ I was still hoping he would show up. I said ‘let’s do a tracking shot and wait.’ At 10:15 the other AD said ‘you have to go.’ I said my first ‘action’ and I was forced to direct the movie.”

But you didn’t get the credit for it, did you?

“I got the credit for Japan and France and Cory got the credit in the US and most other markets. Suddenly I was considered to be an action director and the film had done pretty well so for three years I was getting Transporter on a bike and Transporter on

a plane and I said ‘guys, I don’t want to do that stuff.’ I like to create universes. I draw, I paint, I am a musician, I am a renaissance man but I wasn’t the action guy. Luc Besson was very nice to me. He said to me ‘I am producing this little film called Danny the Dog’ (which is now called Unleashed in America.)’ He said ‘it is a weird movie, set in a weird poetic universe. But if I do this for you, you have to do Transporter 2.’ He understood me. Suddenly I was working with actors like Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins and Jet Li and I was really directing. I was directing them and it was fantastic. It was a personal movie to me. There was karate because of Jet Li but I thought ‘I will do the karate thing’ because the rest of the story was good and the music was great. So then Transporter 2 happened and I thought ‘what can I REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

movie but it could be the one that gives you the kind of cachet you need to have a long career in the industry. Are you happy with the direction it will probably take you in?

“Yes, I am. The Transporter movies are great but they aren’t mine. This movie is more my vision. But I am still not at the point that I can bring all the ideas that I have for movies to the studios. Maybe Clash will change that or maybe it won’t and I will have to do Transporter 7. If you say ‘Louis Leterrier’ people don’t know who I am. But I am hoping that if they see my movies they might think ‘they were all successful in the US and he comes from France and he is only 36.’ That would interest them a little. But I know I have to be proactive if I am going to get to where I would like to end up.”

Is there a perfect movie for you to direct?

“I have two of them in the back of my mind and they are great because they are stories I want to tell. I love genre but I feel it doesn’t suffice for me as an audience member. There are stories and characters I want to explore and there are new things and also on top of that there is a

EXPERT WITNESS

Jay Baruchel with Kat Dennings in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

do now? I want to make a movie that is personal.’ I had read all these comic books so I went to Marvel and I said to them ‘I know that on my resume there was nothing that says I can do this but I would like to direct Hulk’.”

Are you the kind of director who makes the movie in the editing room or are you a storyboard guy.

“I come in with a plan saying ‘I have a storyboard and a shot here’ but maybe the actor offers me something else or the prop explodes so you have to change that direction.

I am really excited. I love camera moves and actors and when something snowballs into an avalanche of ideas I love those ideas.. But the plan is covered and I have lots of coverage, which makes the studio crazy. I tell them ‘if you like the plan I have one but I can make six different movies in the (editing) room if you want.”

You are unique in that you have both a technical and creative background.

“Actually, I feel like I am the norm now. It is rare that you have people who come in as directors for hire and say ‘give me the screenplay and I will put my camera over here.’ They are rare these people. I am the new

“I have people in LA who work their asses off to make sure that I can make movies at home. My agents have said to me ‘if you are doing an independent film it is going to be in Canada. You do big movies here and small movies in Canada. You are not going to do independent films in America. That is what Canada is for.’ What is amazing is that they are just as psyched as I am. They all make their way to the Toronto festival or to (the Sundance alternative festival) Slam Dance or wherever the films premiere to show their support. They take those films just as seriously as the American films because they know they are just as important to me as something like Tropic Thunder.

If people keep hiring me I will keep going back to make films in Canada.” Montrealer

“I love camera moves and actors and when something snowballs into an avalanche of ideas I love those ideas...”

Jay Baruchel on how he is able to move easily between small Canadian films and larger American movies.

“In French jails there are Corsicans and Arabs but the idea was to have a battle for power between different communities. It could be Chicanos or blacks which is quite universal but after that the specifics of the groups are interesting because the more local you get the more universal you become, which is the theory of American films.

‘The more they are about us, the more they talk to the world.’ There was some worry that our choice might be controversial and when we were at Cannes (where the film won the Grand Jury Prize) one of the Corsican leaders said we had put them in a bad light. But he hadn’t seen it. Since it opened in France we haven’t heard anything so I think they (Corsicans) are fine with it.” A Prophet’s Oscar-nominated director

norm. I guess the directors of the 1990s were told ‘this is the screenplay. Don’t touch it. That is someone else’s job.’ I like to be hands on.”

You want to be organic but you haven’t really had the opportunity yet, have you?

“Well, I feel like I kind of did that with Clash because I went through the whole script and just went for it and started all over. But I am young.

Most directors start making movies at my age and I have already done five of them in my career. I have to take a break. If I keep going from one movie to another I won’t get the chance to be creative or write. So what I need to do is take a break and start to write and finish something.”

Clash of the Titans is your fifth REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

technology that hasn’t been used or seen that goes with these two particular stories. It’s something new.

It’s the addition of all the stuff that has been done and it’s almost like you wait ten years for the technology to arrive and to be right and it is right now. It was a projecting problem because of reels but now I have something that will solve that.” What do you think you are going to be offered after Clash?

“Well, I realize that you can’t wait on your couch asking ‘when will they call me? ‘When are they offering me my Oscar?’ I knew after Hulk that I had to be proactive about my career so I am actually writing tons of stuff that is quite different from anything that you are seeing out there.” 

Jacques Audiard on making a prison movie that both European and American audiences could relate to.

“Up in the north of Scotland a lot of villages have Viking names. They took plenty of us with them, mostly the chicks. They say that 50% of Iceland is Celtic blood because of all the females they stole from us which is probably why our country only has dogs left. By the way, that’s a joke.” Actor Gerard Butler on why it made sense that the animated film How to Train Your Dragon had Scottish actors voicing the main roles.

“I was on the cusp of 30 and I woke up and looked in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw. I sold the mirror and everything else. I call it ‘control delete’ where you just reboot yourself because you can be defined by what you own. I had a great career in Australia. I worked fourteen years solidly but I didn’t like the position I was in. So I sold everything at auction to my friends at my house. I even sold the gavel in the end.

It is like the Rudyard Kipling poem. If you can risk it all in pitch and toss, then you are a man. I got in the car and drove and thought ‘something has got to give, something has got to crack.’” Avatar star Sam Worthington on taking risks.

Excerpted from interviews done by Reel West editor Ian Caddell.

15

16

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOVIESET.COM

Story by Ian Caddell

Unconventional Wisdom The conventional wisdom is that the making of a television pilot is the best way to get a series on the air. If a network feels comfortable with the concept, the show is green-lit, the cast returns and episodes are shot that follow the hypothesis introduced in the pilot.

Of course, sometimes it’s slightly more complicated. Hugh and Debra Beard’s two year journey to get a show called Shattered on the air began with a brief conversation. It in turn became a concept that was made into a pilot for a series that is now ready to air on Canwest Global. While it sounds somewhat traditional, the road has been bumpy, which makes sense given the original premise, an unlikely combination of Sybil and the traditional police drama.

The show almost never got made. Beard recalls that he and his wife and longtime partner in Force Four Entertainment were organizing the pitches they were taking to the 2008 Banff Television Festival when he remembered a conversation he had had with a Vancouver writer named Rick Drew.

“I had run into him and he said ‘I have this idea about a cop who has multiple personality disorder’ and I said ‘I like that. Give me a one pager on it.’ That was in March or April and Debra and I went away for a while and came back just before Banff. We were getting ready for it and setting up meetings but in the back of my mind I was thinking ‘there was something I liked that I don’t have.’ That was on Friday and we were leaving for Banff on Sunday. So I phoned Rick and said ‘where is that one pager. I need it by Saturday night.’ He sent me one page and I reworked it and pitched it and it was bought by Canwest right there at Banff.”

That turned out to be one of the easier stops on the odyssey. Almost as easy was the choice of an actor to take on the lead role. Callum Keith Rennie was the Beards’ first and only choice to play the part of the cop. Fortunately, he had just wrapped arcs on the TV shows Californication and Battlestar Gallactica and was impressed by the pilot script that Drew had supplied. Then things changed. The network and the co-producing company, Toronto’s E1 Entertainment, felt that the pilot didn’t deliver the potential of the concept. They wanted the Beards to go back to the drawing board and create a series that kept Rennie and his multiple personalities but abandoned almost everything else.

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

”We shot the original pilot and we discovered that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was really tricky,” says Beard. “It was an interesting approach but we had crippled the character too much in the original pilot. In it, he was a guy who had witnessed his wife and child being murdered and he snapped. He was locked in that place and yet when he changed to his alters (alternative identities) and went out he was a different person. However, as a day to day character we had taken him too far. We said ‘okay let’s change it so that the DID happened a long time ago when his son was kidnapped.’ Now he (the son) is still alive and the stress thing is not as severe as losing his wife and child.

“He is still a cop but one who came back to work because that had been the best way to find his son.

That is his driving force. When we went to pitch the network to pick it up as a series they bought that and we ended up just optioning Callum and not the rest of the cast because Canwest didn’t want us to be locked into the (original) characters. We had a fresh start and we came to it from a different direction that wasn’t encumbered by the back history of the pilot which had never been shown and won’t be shown. At that point we started moving forward.”

While the network and the Beards were happy, they had given Rennie new challenges with a character that was already one of the more complicated cops in the history of the genre. He would now have to play each alter individually on screen which took the challenges to another level. Rennie, who also has a producer credit on the show, says he was ready and willing to make the leap but admits it turned out to be one of the more intimidating experiences in his lengthy career.

“The only way the show would work is if your lead actor was playing all these characters,” he says.

“It has been daunting. It has been hard figuring it out on your feet with as much history as you can put on it. You are depending on the writers to elaborate and find devices because it is an exploration of the question ‘how does he exist?’ because the

conceit of the show is that it takes place in a police station. So how far can you go? I can’t start speaking Slovakian without drawing too much attention and so you have to think about how it fits into his normal behavior. We are all different people in different situations so what locks in place for any particular alter? If it appears during a moment of action, Ben may not appear to be any different than he was before the change. If it comes as a moment of intelligence how do you portray that and make it seem real? So it has been hard. The great thing about it for an actor is that you like to do different things. Usually if you are locked into a series where you play the same thing over and over again you think ‘that is going to kill me’ but this gives me a different kid of opportunity. The energy changes for different alters whether they are lighter or smarter so that is a relief because you think ‘well, at least I don’t always have to be the same guy.’”

By the fourth episode, it became obvious to everyone involved that some help was needed. E1 and the Beards brought in one of Canada’s more distinguished show runners, Jeff King, to write scripts and fine-tune the original concept. King, who had worked on shows like Stargate SG-1, The Black Donnellys and Relic Hunter, says that he could see the show’s potential but also knew that its reach might have exceeded its grasp.

“I saw a fabulous cast with Callum and the physical thing was great and I responded to all that but what I had seen was that the heart of the show hadn’t been located. That often happens on series.

I have been on things where you shoot a bunch and everyone sits down and reflects on things that have been done and they say ‘it wouldn’t have occurred to us at the beginning but we need to make a few adjustments.’ So what I did was to focus in on a few story line threads that had been pulled and teased but weren’t part of the main rope. I wanted to focus on Ben as being a cop who is trying to manage his problem. Any profession requires responsibility and in this case he has a personal re17

“ The best thing about dealing with this particular premise is the opportunity to constantly change it because it is so unusual and complex... ” - Shattered writer, Jeff King

The Definitive Producing Workbook For the producer, the world of independent film and television production is often surrounded by a sea of paperwork. The contracts, documents and requirements of agencies are constantly in flux. Nothing is definitive, every contract has its own set of particulars and every deal is different.

"Boilerplate" agreements are open to negotiation. Rules can be flexible.

The PW4 will help guide a producer through some of the overwhelming volume of documents involved in the world of independent film and television production. Legal writers review the standard clauses and reveal issues of concern to producers negotiating contracts. Many sample agreements are included for reference. The book provides a comprehensive overview of national and provincial funding bodies and engaging stories and words of wisdom by seasoned producers.

Order your copy today: 604-685-1152 info@womeninfilm.ca

18

sponsibility to his partner (Camille Sullivan) and others. Now try putting a gun in one hand and a badge in the other and a rule book to impose on people. You have challenges. You have alter egos that might emerge at any given time depending on the situations and the stress you are under.

How do you manage coming back from what appear to you to be blackouts and dealing with that? There were a lot of ideas and influences that had been brought into the series and I said ‘that (recovering from the blackouts) is the focus. This is what interests me and what I would like to write about.’”

King was also interested in the reaction of those who were working around the lead character. If he shows up at work as himself and becomes different people throughout the day, what is the consensus of his fellow officers? How does he keep his job when he is continually blacking out? Do the people around him notice or do they rationalize their way through his episodes? He says that he tried to find ways of allowing Ben to be aware of his problems while keeping his colleagues in the dark.

“A lot of the research I did pointed me to different conclusions. One of the conclusions was that for the most part multiple personality disorder is not easily discernable. You could look at a blackout or see someone who snaps too easily and might say, as some of his colleagues do, ‘that’s drinking’ because the behaviour (of an alcoholic) is very consistent with the various clinical and homeopathic approaches to people with multiple personality disorder. You are probably going to find many other things that it could be before you get close enough to the person to figure out that it is actually an alter ego that you are dealing with. So I thought that was a key to making the show inter-

esting and wanted to focus on it.”

There is no airing date as yet but it is expected that it will be on Canwest’s specialty network Showcase this summer. King says not having an airdate has been a boon to the show.

Having been involved in the series late in the process, he says that he has never felt he missed too much because he has been able to move episodes around and even to change things within individual episodes that had already been shot.

“There are small changes within the greater universe of the choices that were made that I might differ with but overall I am very proud of the work we have done. I am very happy with it. I have no regrets in the rear view mirror. The best thing about dealing with this particular premise is the opportunity to constantly change it because it is so unusual and complex. I also know that if we get green-lit for a second season I will have no problem coming up with more ideas. He is so many people and there are so many aspects of his character that can be discovered and uncovered. It is a big trailer that we haven’t filled. So there is lots of room to grow.”

According to Beard, the addition of King to the process has turned things around for the series. “It has been an interesting ride,” says Beard.

“I just screened an episode I wasn’t supposed to see. I accidentally saw a majority of one episode that he did.

It is absolutely terrific and he did a fantastic job. It was written by Frank Borg but Jeff ’s hand was on it. We gave him a mandate to look at the show and say ‘let’s sweep away what is not working and fix it’ so we are making changes to the individual episodes. We are airing the shows out of order now so we had to put a jigsaw puzzle together. But the process of doing that is making the

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

show stronger. If you are rolling and something is not working you can’t go back and fix it if you are establishing something. So the fact that we could shoot a few episodes and go back and re-jig it has been an interesting exercise.”

When E1’s Noreen Halpern saw the pilot for the series, she liked it as a stand-alone show, but she was concerned that it would not be something that would inspire loyalty with viewers. She says that while it had merit and Rennie was well cast, she didn’t feel it would be must-see television.

“There is a reason why pilots can be made but series are hard to create. It’s not just about one hour on television. It is about setting out on a journey that will hopefully last several years. A show like this is, by its nature is very sophisticated and complicated and challenging. When we saw the pilot we all realized we had a great concept and a stunning actor in Callum but there was still work to be done. So we began the process of a re-envisioning the show. What happened at that point was that everyone recognized that there needed to be a holistic approach to the material and that this idea was so high concept the way to make it work was to be very grounded. The show that has resulted through time and the involvement of very smart minds is something that is extraordinary and powerful and very different. Everyone has always asked ‘what is the new take on a cop franchise?’ and I think this is it.”

If it does work for an audience on a long term basis, it will be because Rennie managed to take an unlikely character and make viewers care about him. Much of the potential for success for Shattered is reliant on Rennie’s ability to take the script and make it work for the audience. Halpern says that she could see his potential from the first time she saw him on screen, in 1994’s Double Happiness.

“Getting him was a huge break for the show. Anything he is in he elevates hugely. He is a stunning actor.

I remember watching him on Double Happiness and thinking ‘I would like to work with him someday.’ It is extraordinary how much he cares about the people who work with him and having him as a producer is great because he questions things, he challenges things and he understands the character better than anyone. He is a brilliant force of nature. From the

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

minute he started working on this show he immersed himself in the world of DID and worked with doctors and read books. He has such a passion and commitment to the role and to the show.”

That commitment has been necessary. Rennie admits that had he not felt completely enthused about the concept and its potential as a series it would have been hard for him to make it work. He says that the key to getting the role right was to make sure that each of the character’s alters had a personality of their own.

“I created the alters out of different places,” he says. “For one guy, ‘Harry,’ I picked someone I knew who had qualities that fit the idea. However, it is only one idea on paper and the character could have a multitude of alters. So you have to ask ‘how do we figure out a couple and play those out and have them work within the storylines?’ Another alter was based on another person I knew. I think all of them have something that I recognize. Sometimes it is a cinematic quality. For instance, one could be Clint Eastwood, an alter who is involved in action. He has little to say but does great damage and there is another one who tries to over-speak and find clever solutions to things.

They are all part and parcel of how he is able to function as a cop. I try to solve it from an intellectual place because you can say what you think you can do to people but eventually you have to play it.

“Hopefully the audience will pick up the intention of what you are playing. In some ways it is easier for me because I am reading the script and it says ‘an alter appears’ and then I just have to figure out how I want to play it. I am fine with that as long as he is given a good reason for his appearance and he isn’t there to solve the plot of the show. That could happen at some point but we are not there yet. The other thing the writers are trying to do is to find authentic triggers. The question that keeps coming up is ‘is this believable as someone acting out qualities of himself?’ which makes sense but it could take away from the mystery of it which is the question ‘are we connected, some of us, to a collective unconscious that just floats in different information depending on how your brain is operating or not operating?’ So it isn’t easy but I think we have made a lot of progress.” 

Broadcast Evolution.

XDCAM PDW-700

PDW-HD1500

PDW-U1

The Imagemaker’s One Stop Shop #SPBEDBTU t 1SP 4IPQ t .FEJB 4BMFT t 3FOUBMT t 4FSWJDF A DIVISION OF

123 W 7th Ave., Vancouver, BC t (604) 875-6301 t www.matrixvideo.ca

19

A diary from Image Media Farm

Sharing the Torch EARLY IN HIS TENURE as CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC) John Furlong said of the Torch Relay: “We want these Games to be about the entire nation – to let everybody in…. to bring Canadians together, igniting something in our hearts and souls that makes us better. Somehow, the Olympic Flame has the power to do this.”

In January of 2009, when VANOC selected Roger Williams and his Image Media Farm (IMF) team to chronicle the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays, it became obvious to IMF that it would be up to them to share this vision with the world. In what would become an emotionally charged, transformative journey, the IMF team traveled over 45,000-kilometres shooting nearly 15,000 Torchbearers over 116 days under every winter weather condition imaginable.

Meanwhile, the remaining members of the IMF team completed five overlapping and interlaced Olympic Games-related productions, including 14 short features for the Canadian Tourism Commission and CTV and 30 profiles of over 100 British Columbia communities for the BC Olympic Secretariat. During the Games, IMF also shot Stephen Colbert’s special, Vancouver 2010 - Defeat the World, for the Comedy Network. IMF’s Regan Blakesley says the spirit of the Games swept up the entire team. The following is a diary of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games Torch Relays written on behalf of IMF by Blair Shakell (with Regan Blakesley.)

JANUARY, 2009 VANOC selects IMF to document the Torch Relay in digital stills and HD video.

Furlong had said he wanted the Torch to “come within a one-hour drive of 90 percent of Canadians.” To achieve this, planning for the Relay had begun in 2003, when Vancouver was selected to host the 2010 Winter Games. The Relay evolved dramatically during the ensuing six years to eventually become the longest ever staged within a single 20

country. To rise to the logistical challenges of such a monumental event, IMF must devise innovative solutions to generate the necessary deliverables for VANOC and the Relay’s presentation partners, The Royal Bank of Canada and Coca-Cola.

IMF must shoot the runs of each of the thousands of individual Torchbearers, while covering special Torch celebration events in hundreds of communities all across the country along a route that has not

yet been finalized. Each and every day, its traveling production team must acquire, capture, log, store, and process thousands of still images and hours of HD video footage. Beyond this, the IMF team, both on the road and back at the production office, must work continuously to cull the thousands of digital stills shot daily to just 60 daily highlights and produce a daily regional video highlight packages of 30 seconds to five minutes. Daily B-roll footage and weekly Torch featurettes must also be catalogued and produced. All of this media must then be transmitted from remote locations and made accessible to accredited international media through the Flame section of the Vancouver 2010 website.

As well, imagery of designated Torchbearers representing Relay sponsors; RBC and Coca-Cola must be transmitted to each respective company and their social media outlets.

With no ready, off-the-shelf solutions available, IMF executive producer Roger Williams immediately begins to develop the means by which IMF will meet the production, transmission and distribution challenges required to share the magic of the Flame and feed the voracious appetite of thousands of broadcasters from around the world.

MARCH VANOC releases its Olympic Torch Relay route. To this point, production planning for the coverage of the Relay has been premised on a westward cross-Canada journey, more or less parallel to the Canadian-US border, beginning in St. John’s, Newfoundland and passing through all the provinces and territories en route to Vancouver. However, the route map issued by VANOC calls for the Olympic Flame to begin its journey in Victoria, travel up Vancouver Island, then hop-skip-and-jump by air to northern REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DAY 33 – TORCHBEARER 18A PATRICK TREMBLAY CARRYING THE FLAME IN RAGUENEAU, QUEBEC. PHOTOS CARE OF IMAGE MEDIA FARM

communities in Haida Gwaii, Yukon, NWT, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Quebec and Newfoundland-Labrador, before setting out on a 90day trek to Vancouver. IMF must now contend with the many additional, unanticipated logistical challenges created by the expanded route.

MAY IMF partners with Banis Media to manage the web-based distribution of the daily digital stills and HD video highlights of the Torch Relays to the world media. A track record of six years of successful collaborations with Banis Media gives Roger Williams the confidence to sit down once again with Banis principal Ford Sinclair to work out how the huge amount of data that will comprise the Torch Relays Chronicle can be made accessible through VANOC. Since the HD video will be uncompressed, rather than employing a traditional FTP solution, a new, on-demand, web-based application must be developed to facilitate downloads, without delivery delay, to over 10,000 users simultaneously. Sinclair tells Williams that Server DAM, his company’s digital asset management and distribution software can meet the challenge.

AUGUST IMF fabricates a Mobile Media Editing Vehicle. Roger Williams purchases a 30-foot motor home large enough to accommodate the personnel capacity and power requirements of IMF’s traveling editing studio. Western Bus undertakes the physical conversion in North Vancouver and IMF’s technicians install four Final Cut Digital HD Editing stations with solid state drives that enable editing while the vehicle is moving. Finally, a CalDigit Raid Array Server with 16-terabyte storage capacity is installed to store every moment recorded in digital still and HD video assets.

On top of this, Williams comes up with the idea of installing a robotic camera to shoot backward from the VANOC vehicle that will precede the Torchbearers, a safety measure to insure that not a single moment of the Relay is missed. Fortuitously, a solid working partnership is established with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), which ofREEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

fers the use of its state-of-the art uplink facilities for the satellite transmission of Relay stills and video during the northern Canada phase of the Relay.

IMF, however, is still looking for a mobile satellite uplink partner capable of providing SD and HD video feeds across North America, as well as highspeed data transmission, while up-linking from different transmission sites twice daily during a Canadian winter. Williams finds the guaranteed connectivity he’s looking for with SIS LIVE, Europe’s largest independent uplink provider. SIS LIVE’s fully automated, uPod uplink system enables IMF to push a huge amount of Relay still and video data over a satellite link to Intelsat’s Mountainside teleport in Maryland and on to Server DAM in Vancouver via fiber optics.

SEPTEMBER A full Olympic Relay test run is conducted from the 21st to the 24th, between Hope and Abbotsford. During this 80-kilometre dress rehearsal, IMF’s equipment and production processes perform admirably. The robotic camera installed to

insure that no Relay activity is missed performs so effectively, in fact, that CTV decides to “run with it.”

IMF agrees to supply the camera, while CTV personnel manage the shoot and direct a continuous feed of the Torch’s journey for web access via CP24. com and CTV.ca. This connection will enable anyone, anywhere in the world, to experience the Relay online in real time.

OCTOBER, 2009 The Olympic Flame is ignited and begins its journey from Olympia, Greece.

IMF’s production team heads to Olympia, the ancestral home of the Olympic Games. They record the official Lighting Ceremony where the Olympic Flame is ignited by focusing the sunlight with a parabolic mirror. This Lighting initiates the 8-day, 2,180 kilometre Greek leg of the Torch Relay, which involves 600 Torchbearers and 36 community ceremonies. On October 29th, IMF and the Torch arrive at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens where the Flame, safeguarded within a lantern, is handed-over officially to John Furlong. A 30-hour journey to 21

Victoria ensues aboard a Department of National Defense aircraft.

OCTOBER 30 (Day 1) When the Canadian leg of the Relay commences in Victoria on October 30th, the IMF team realizes immediately that the full-on chaos of the actual Relay is well beyond what the September test run in the Fraser Valley had led everyone to expect. Thousands upon thousands of flag-waving, cheering Canadians crowd the Inner Harbour as Chiefs from the Four Host First Nations—Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh—along with the Esquimalt and Songhees peoples, arrive bearing the Flame in a flotilla of hand-carved cedar canoes. The Olympic Cauldron on the lawn of the Provincial Legislature is set ablaze and Olympic medalists Catrina Lemay Doan and Simon Whitfield hand off the Torch to Silken Laumann and Alexandre Despatie, inaugurating the 4-day leg of the Relay up Vancouver Island. As the Torchbearers move out through the throngs lining Government Street, every media outlet imaginable has their crews on site. Amid this chaos, shoot planning will prove to be a continual challenge. By improvising on the fly and focusing squarely on the task at hand, the IMF team successfully weathers this “baptism by fire.”

NOVEMBER 4 (Day 5) When the Torch arrives in Campbell River IMF’s production team divides to go, temporarily, their separate ways. The Northern Production Unit flies to Haida Gwaii, and on to Whitehorse. The rest of the team travels in the Mobile Media Studio to Comox where they disassemble and steel-case all the electronic equipment while on board the ferry for the mainland. Following yet another characteristically long day they arrive at the CP Rail freight depot in Coquitlam at 4:00 AM, 22

just in time to load the vehicle onto a rail car for immediate transport to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

IMF’s six person Northern Unit travels by plane from one remote northern community to another.

Comprised of a producer, two videographers with SONY XDHD cameras, two still photographers with Canon 5D Mark II cameras, and an editor with a portable HD video editing system, they work untiringly under extremely challenging winter shooting conditions, editing as they go. The media is finally transmitted to Server DAM from APTN facilities in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit.

Flanked by a 45-member VANOC Torch Relay Organizing Team, the Northern Unit is able to capture the glowing Olympic Spirit that is warming the hearts of the isolated populations of these arctic communities. The intimate images of the Torch’s journey across the North, shown throughout Canada and around the world, ignite growing excitement and bring a sense of participation to Canadians everywhere.

NOVEMBER 5 (Day 6) T What IMF discovers in the remote hamlet of Kuglutuk on Nunavut’s Coronation Gulf, 600 kilometres north of Yellowknife is a world apart, in many more ways than one. It is a perfect, -35 degree (C) day. The Relay of just four Torchbearers is trailed every step of the way by hundreds of boys and girls wearing handmade gold medals hung around their necks on string. The Torch is carried first on a dog sled and then handed off to a young Inuit mother, Helena Bolt, who joyfully passes it on to her neighbor, a young Inuit father surrounded by a cheering section of his own children. The final Torchbearer, Terry Kuliktana, is the Cauldron Lighter for this community of 1,400. Visually impaired, Terry’s upturned face is radiant, as he proudly holds the Torch aloft. There is none of the pomp and cir-

cumstance that attends the Torch in the cities of the south; this is a simple celebration shared among family. What makes the day so memorable and such an eye-opener for the IMF team is how they are so readily welcomed, accepted, and immediately swept into the swirling exuberance of a community dance. It is impossible for them to remain detached observers; no one can resist becoming a participant. Something of the magic of the Olympic Flame and the vision of the Relays is revealed here, in this unique place, in this shared moment.

NOVEMBER 6 (Day 7) The Torch, the VANOC team and IMF’s Northern Production Unit puddlejump across the Northwest Territories, through northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba touching down briefly on the tip of Ellesmere Island, where the arrival of the Torch is celebrated by the entire population of Alert Bay: the 56 “Frozen Chosen”. From Iqaluit on Baffin Island (Qikiqtaaluk) in Nunavut, the Relay touches down in Quebec’s Gaspé Bay and Labrador’s Happy Valley-Goose Bay, before finally arriving in St. John’s Newfoundland, where IMF’s Northern Unit is reunited with the other members of their Mobile Media Team.

NOVEMBER 16 (Day 18) Meeting under the Giant Fiddle in Sydney, Nova Scotia, IMF’s entire team comes together for the first time with the arrival of SIS LIVE’s uPod mobile uplink. On the westward journey of the Torch, the IMF team travels in convoy with VANOC’s complete 260-member Relay Organizing Team, which includes officials, transportation personnel, advance and accommodation teams, logistics crews, communications officers, a physician, Flame attendants and security. This “traveling circus” works to a precise cadence, within a detailed schedule that holds everything together.

NOVEMBER 18 (Day 20) The pressures and challenges faced by IMF come into clear focus when the chaos of an exuberant crowd of 60,000 Nova Scotians is stirred to frenzy in anticipation of the appearance of hockey hero and favorite son, Sidney Crosby. As IMF shooters and producers position REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: THE VANCOUVER 2010 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY ROUTE. DAY 5 – COMMUNITY CANOE TORCHBEARER 3 PERCY WILLIAMS. DAY 75 – FLAME BLESSING IN MOOSOMIN, SASKATCHEWAN. DAY 66 – TORCHBEARER 53 KAILIE KERNAGHAN-KEAST AND TORCHBEARER 54 DAKOTA SAGUTCH AT THE TERRY FOX MONUMENT IN THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO. DAY 20 – TORCHBEARER 186 SIDNEY CROSBY RECEIVES THE FLAME IN HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. PHOTOS CARE OF IMAGE MEDIA FARM

themselves to capture Sidney lighting his Torch from the one held out by the young, wheelchairbound Kirk Boudreau, enthusiastic fans press in from all sides, engulfing the two Torchbearers and the IMF crew at the lighted centre of a swirling vortex of unrestrained adulation. While VANOC vehicles cautiously advance the Relay through the throng, Roger Williams dodges through the maelstrom with the tape of the Torch exchange and races it to the Mobile Media studio, parked near the docks. Here, a crash edit is executed and the Crosby footage is satellite up-linked within thirty minutes to waiting news and sportscasters. And so it goes… one day closer to Vancouver.

DECEMBER As the Torch winds its way through populous Quebec and southwestern Ontario and onto the prairies, the IMF crew is by now a seasoned team, working daily in a well-oiled routine. Rising each morning at 4:00 AM to prepare for their shooting and production day; they often edit until 2:00 AM the next morning to fulfill their daily responsibilities.

One shooting team focuses on the Torchbearers and the handoffs, while another captures the excitement of the crowds lining the road. This second team also records the vibrant community celebrations and conducts candid interviews with participants, capturing serendipitous magic moments and incredible stories along the way. The still photographers rove about, filling their cameras with thousands of dazzling images every day. The video editors, stills editor and data technicians begin processing material as soon as it is received from the field, working toward the deadline for the first daily satellite uplink through SIS LIVE to Server DAM, which is scheduled to meet the Eastern news media’s 6:00 PM broadcast time. Sixty stills highlights, updated video features and B-roll packages incorporating new footage shot each afternoon are up-linked around 10:00 PM each evening. IMF’s Mobile Media Crew works 16 - 22 hours every day, seven days a week, without a break throughout the Relay.

JANUARY 3, 2010 (Day 66) Thunder Bay TorchREEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

bearer Kaillie Kernaghan-Keast is a cancer survivor.

She has beaten the same kind of cancer that took the right leg and eventually the life of Terry Fox. Unbeknownst to her, VANOC has planned a surprise by changing the length of terrain she is to run with the Torch. As she slowly climbs to the crest of a long hill, she catches sight of the next Torchbearer waiting for her—in front of the monument to her hero, Terry Fox. Neither Kaillie nor the assembled crowd and crew can hold back the tears.

JANUARY 9 (Day 72) Many months of diplomacy and planning by VANOC come to fruition at 4:00 PM on January 9th, when, on the road between Brandon and Regina, the Olympic Flame creates a bridge of brotherhood between three neighbouring First Nations. Long estranged, the three communities have had little contact in recent times. In the Spirit of the Flame, Elders from the Moosomin, Saulteaux and Cochin First Nations bless the Torches of their respective, representative Torchbearers: Cody Kahpeaysewat, Tasyonna Tipewan and Dione

Kardynalin. Then in a ceremonious sign of unity, the three Torch Bearers come together and, for the only time in the Relay, three Flames merge. This long-awaited mutual gesture of harmony marks a new era of cooperation and healing between the three Nations.

FEBRUARY 2 (Day 96) During a rare moment of respite and reflection on the sea voyage to Bella Bella, the IMF team suddenly realizes that this is the calmbefore-the-storm. The hoopla and celebration they will soon face in BC’s Lower Mainland will mark the beginning of their home stretch. The Team members have naturally come to have a certain sense of attachment, even possessiveness around the entire Torch experience, despite having already shared the Flame with millions around the world. Now, they must face, with decidedly mixed emotions, the imminent end to their long and winding road together. Once in Campbell River, their journey comes full circle.

FEBRUARY 12 (Day 106) The final Torch sets continued on page 28 23

Story by Ian Caddell

WEB CITY Two years after the Vancouver-shot web series Sanctuary used its Internet popularity to move to the US science fiction channel Syfy, Vancouver has become a leading centre for the production of webisodes. It makes sense.

The city has a large cast and crew talent pool, a production structure fashioned by more than a quarter century of hosting and producing broadcast television and a collaborative relationship between local film and television producers and supply companies that has always been significant.

ON THE EVE of the 31st annual Banff Television Festival, which has been recognizing webseries work with Rockie Awards since 2007, there are almost a dozen Internet-hosted shows calling Vancouver home. They range from low-budget comedies like The Jim and Rise n Shine Og to the acclaimed science fiction series Riese which recently won four nominations at the Streamy Awards, the web series equivalent of TV’s Emmys.

Since there is no broadcast license involved and few funding options, the smaller series heavily depend on volunteers and the benevolence of equipment suppliers. Fortunately, they have been successful in procuring both. Anita Smith, who created the five-part Og and stars as the lead character, a British immigrant with self esteem issues, says that when she went looking for a way of finding work for herself, she had an idea and a lot of support but no money.

“We rented most of the equipment from (Vancouver-based) Cineworks (Independent Filmmakers Society) and our DOP had a camera that we could use.

But it was all-consuming. I would work on it from 24

the time I woke up until the time I went to bed. My career as an actor became secondary to it. I would think ‘I could go to this audition but I also have this other huge thing on the go.’ I am really proud of the way it came out but I was most proud that I was able to get such an awesome cast and crew. Everyone volunteered their time. That was the best part. We were able to take something that was my crazy idea and, working together, we managed to make something we could all be proud of.”

The Jim’s Ryan Cowie and Nelson Carter-Leis also found a lot of support in the production and acting communities. Their series about an ex-athlete who runs a gymnasium was self-funded. The two men are the co-stars and executive produce the show with Elfina Luk. “We have had tons of help,” says Cowie “We got lucky in that a lot of people came on board. Our director, Jon Morris, brought crew side and he was affiliated with a film supply company that had been looking to shoot something. They shoot commercials and music videos and they wanted an episodic.

They liked the material and it was great because we

had green screen and bumper shots that tied the show together and a full crew and then we actually developed the website ourselves with a lot of help.

From gaffer to grip it was all volunteer.”

Taryn O’Neill is working on her second webseries, the Vancouver-shot Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate. The first, After Judgment, was nominated for six Streamy Awards. O’Neill was a co-producer and co-star of After Judgment and says it was inspired by Vancouver’s longestrunning web series, Tiki Bar TV, which made its debut in 2005. O’Neill’s first series told the story of a world where no-one dies and everyone is in search of the entrance to paradise.

“One of my partners, Michael Davies, had rewritten a feature length script into a five season web-series after becoming friends with (Tiki Bar TV creator) Jeff MacPherson. I was aware of the growing popularity of video podcasts and also interested in the opportunities that the space allowed for indie original content. Mike and I were co-writing a project that had gotten too big for us to shoot on our own (on an indie budget) so Mike sent me the scripts for After Judgment. After reading the first 30 episodes in one sitting I threw myself into learning as much as I possibly could about the players in the web-series world and the web as a platform for content in general. We shot the first season three months after that.”

When they had wrapped After Judgment they took what they had learned from it and started to work on a second show. Hurtling Through Space stars Davies and Stuart Papp as two men who realize that their apartment has become a spacecraft. O’Neill says that she and Davies and a third After Judgment partner, Stephanie Thorpe, learned a lot about making a web series from their earlier experience.

“I think the two most important things we learned were the power of a passionate online fan base and identifying your niche. If you have the time to build REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

SCENES FROM WEBISODES OF (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) VATELLA, THE JIM AND RIESE

a site (and the finances) that first introduces your show’s ‘world’ and offers a community platform to bond with before its release, you have a built-in word-of-mouth marketing system. For Hurtling, we had less than four weeks from the time we were green-lit to deliver the first episode. Being a skeleton crew, Michael and Stephanie and I didn’t have the time to do the sci-fi community outreach that we would have liked, but with the show launching on (distributor) Babelgum, there was already a fantastic online audience that trafficked the site and that found the show. We’re looking forward to re-launching the show on a home site that really reflects ‘the world’ and can be a place for the audience to interact.”

They were also able to find funding through Babelgum, a British internet video platform company with offices in the US. The budget allowed them to shoot six episodes on multiple cameras and incorporate a number of VFX shots into each episode. “We shot six episodes in six days,” she says. “It was a gruelling schedule. We were shooting ten to 13 pages a day.”

Damon Vignale had been writing and directing TV series and films for several years when he decided to look for financing for a web series. The result is The Vetala, a show about a mythological spirit who inhabits several people. Vignale didn’t quit his day job. He continued to write episodes of the APTN series Mixed Blessings but says that he wanted to get into new media and saw the opportunity with The Vetala. He managed to find private financing for it and says that he is beginning to see opportunities for filmmakers to make the move to the web.

“I am really excited about this medium,” he says. “I think we are going to see more and more of it. There are companies who are looking to partner with it and to use the shows as part of their brand. When we started we went into it with expectations because we saw that things were happening and that there was a move to watching shows on mobile phones and content on smaller screens. I think ultimately TV is going to come REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

to the Internet and that there will be no difference between a computer and TV. The web content creators will be there beside the old media creators so building content now is a good investment in the genre.”

There are also an increasing number of ways to drive traffic to the new medium. Cowie says that American web-series that are prospering are using social networks to bring people to their shows.

That in turn has encouraged web sites and software companies like Simio Simulation to move into the medium.

“We are following the American model and using Twitter and MySpace and Facebook and emailing people in order to promote the show, which is broadcast on blip.tv using Simio software. You upload to their site and they will set up advertising and the web site company makes money and so does the show, based on the number of hits and advertisers. However, you have to get in the high hundreds of thousands of hits before you can get any revenue. We get about 20,000 hits but there is the potential to make money.”

If there are different ways of financing web series, there are an equal number of ways of getting into the medium. Anita Smith was looking for a way of getting exposure for her acting talents, while The Jim’s producers felt that their own acting experience would be an asset to the making of their show.

Riese’s Ryan Copple and Damon Vignale had the same mindset but needed an outlet for their writing while Thwacker’s Geoff Richardson was an animator who liked video games and saw the web as a way of melding the two together.

“As a writer/director I still get to exercise the muscles and tell a story,” says Vignale. “There are just more places available for me to do that now. I am really happy with the feedback and the reviews have been great but it’s a lot of work to get a show out there and build an audience. You have to be active in forums to get bloggers to write about the show and you have to provide things in your web-

site to make the impressions stick, and try to link through (to social networks) and become interactive within the show.”

Smith moved to Vancouver from her native Saskatchewan to find work in 2008 after appearing on several locally shot shows including Corner Gas and Rabbit Fall. At an acting class she was told by one of the students to check out a web series that he was involved with.

“I checked out the site and I thought ‘I could do that.’ I think I wrote the first script two days later. I thought ‘this is a good chance to show people what I can do’ because I was having problems getting people to see me act. So rather than telling them to see me in a play I thought this would be a good way of approaching it. We made all five episodes and sent it out to casting. No one has said to me ‘they are bringing you in because of the show’ yet but I’m optimistic.”

It was also no accident that the creators of The Jim are also its co-stars. Like Smith, Cowie and Carter-Leis are actors by trade. Carter-Leis had moved to Toronto and was spending most of his time in auditions when Cowie asked him if he wanted to combine talents and produce a show.

They just had to come up with an idea.

“We thought ‘why don’t we do something for the web?’ So we came up with the idea of having this guy own a gym,” says Cowie. “We are both athletes and you would just need one location and stories walk in the door. We started with a boxing gym but there are so many different characters (there) and we wanted to do a show that everyone could relate to. We wanted to blend the humour in with the gym but make it fun and easier to watch. All the characters have their individual idiosyncrasies. We came up with ideas that we have seen in the gym over the years. We knew they existed so it felt comfortable.”

Thwackers, which tells the story of two young men who dream of playing video games for a liv25

“We are following the American model and using Twitter and MySpace and Facebook and emailing people in order to promote the show...”

- The Jim’s Ryan Cowie on using social networks to promote their web series

ing, came from the minds of Geoff Richardson and Ryan Pears. Richardson says that while he himself was as dedicated to video games as the characters in the show, Pears had never been involved in the culture. They did make one mistake. They thought they could find the actors for the pilot on Craig’s List and soon discovered that if they were going to make the series watchable and worth the investment they were going to have to make the characters more believable.

“I corrupted Ryan’s mind with games,” says Richardson. “I took him to the PAX Gaming Convention in Seattle which attracts about 70,000 people each year so that he would know our market. He learned it quickly and we felt we were ready to shoot the pilot. We had these kids show up but when we were finished I was ashamed to put it on the web.

We revamped it and rewrote it and got actors from agencies. We like the shows we have now but we are waiting to see what the reaction from the gamers is before we commit money to the next seven episodes.”

Sanctuary, which is set in a futuristic world in which monsters roam the earth, became the inspiration for Riese’s Ryan Copple. His show about a woman hunted by a religious cult needed to find early support from science fiction aficionados if it was going to have a chance to emulate Sanctuary’s success. He says that he and co-producer Kalena Kiff wanted to take it to broadcast television but realized that, as the producers of Sanctuary had before them, that sci fans are just as apt to watch a webseries as they are a television show.

“It started off with a short,” he says.

“I wrote a fun vignette of this anachronistic world and I showed it to (producer) Kalena Kiff. We decided to take it from that concept to broadcast television. We went through the REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

usual process and made a bible of the show. Then, when it came time to shoot it we thought ‘science fiction fans live on line, so why not take it directly to them.’ Sanctuary was the model for that because it was before its time. I mean, it was out before YouTube was popular! So we felt we had options. We could keep making web shows and have complete control of the creative, or we could eventually go to television. The financing wasn’t the hardest part. Once we laid out the model people bought into it.

I think maintenance is tough because it becomes all consuming. It requires being connected and creating a community. Generally, when you have a web series you can’t afford a huge staff. We take on a lot of roles and learn 100 things a day.”

Vignale wants to go where most web-series have yet to venture. He says that once a series finds an audience on the web, it has the potential to follow the route taken by broadcast shows and movies. “Some of the things I am currently in talks about include having the series play in some fashion on television. Equally important is an eventual move to films, to gaming, and perhaps a graphic novel.

I think the web is just creating new opportunities for content creators to reach a broader audience.”

O’Neill says that greater opportunities will occur if respect comes from advertisers. That would come with an increase in both the quality of web shows and their audience. “There are a number of web-series out there that are fantastic,” says O’Neill, “both in the look and quality of storytelling.

Some of the series are more high-end than others because they have either brand sponsors or studio financing behind them. But the more strong shows there are that get high viewing numbers the better it is for everyone who wants to get involved.” 

FOR ALL YOUR TRANSPORTATION NEEDS IN WESTERN CANADA CALL 604-668-7233 27

LEGAL BRIEFS

Music crucial to movies but licensing can be complicated Music can be the element that turns a good movie into a great movie.

However, music can often be the trickiest part of clearing rights for a production. Whether you are producing a low-budget documentary, a sitcom, or a theatrical film, there will likely be at least one piece of music that fits perfectly. Unfortunately, it is usually a piece of music that is well-known and hard to get. Make sure you are aware of the basic issues involved in acquiring music rights before you finish the production or hang your hopes on a particular song; otherwise, you could be facing disappointment or even a lawsuit.

Generally speaking, unless you have hired a composer to create music specifically for your production, music cannot be used unless you obtain at least two licenses. First of all, you will require a “Master Use” license. This will be licensed to you by the owner of a particular recording (or master) of the song you have in mind. Usually this will be the composer or the composer’s record label.

Second, you will require a “Synch” license. This license will come from the publisher of the music, and gives you the right to use the actual musical composition (i.e. music and lyrics) in synchronization with your production. Where a composer has retained publishing rights to their music, they will generally assign their publishing rights to a publishing house, so you will have to track down the publisher or publishers who handle the music written.

Each song may, however, require you to deal with multiple parties, and can include the composer, the performer, the record producer, the record label, the publisher, and, if a soundtrack is being produced, the record company releasing the soundtrack. The rights in and to a musical work or recording could potentially have multiple owners, each of whom must agree to grant the necessary rights before the music can be included in your production.

Producers, especially of documentary films, can find themselves in situations where a subject of a 28

documentary or a cast member just starts singing a few bars of a wellknown song. Although it is often assumed that this music doesn’t need to be cleared, since it is not the original artist, nor is the whole song being sung, it is important for filmmakers to understand that the music still needs to be properly licensed.

You wouldn’t have to worry about a master use license because it’s your own recording, but you still require a performance release from the person singing the song, and a synchronization license from the publisher for the use of the actual song. Despite the popular misconceptions out there, you will need licenses for all music that can be heard in a film, with only a couple of exceptions.

These include: incidental inclusion; music in the public domain; and music owned by the producer.

Incidental inclusion is a very narrow exclusion under the Copyright Act that allows for the incidental and not deliberate inclusion of one work in another work. This does not, however, necessarily protect you against a claim where you can hear background music or where you have included only small excerpts of musical compositions. Music in the public domain consists of music that is not “owned” by anyone (i.e. the copyright has expired, or the songs never had a copyright owner), and music owned by the producer consists of music specifically commissioned by or created by the producer for use in the film.

It is important to note that these exclusions are narrow, and caution should be exercised when relying on an exclusion to include music in your film. When in doubt, consult your favourite entertainment lawyer.

Lori Massini’s practice focuses on the entertainment industry, assisting clients with all aspects of entertainment law from drafting agreements and negotiating the hiring of actors, writers, and directors to advising musicians and recording artists.

Lori is actively involved in the arts, and is an accomplished dancer and musician. 

Beginnings continued from page 11

SG-1 and Paycheck and picking up both paycheques at 4 pm on Thursdays; getting ringside seats in Vegas for championship fights with Michael Greenburg and his brother Ross, the president of HBO Sports, and flying all over the world appearing at Stargate conventions. I even had an opportunity to dust off bits from the old Torch continued from page 23

ablaze the cauldron at the Aboriginal Pavilion of the Four Host First Nations, and IMF’s coverage of the Torch Relay comes to an end. In this culminating moment, members of both the IMF and VANOC Torch Relay Organizing Teams, who during their time together have come to see each other as a band of brothers and sisters, realize that they will not be greeting each other the next morning. Tomorrow will not be “business as usual.” It is a difficult moment, one that every production inevitably faces. The project and their time together is over.

During the Canadian journey of the Olympic Torch, IMF generated over 1.2 million digital still images and over 800 hours of HD video, capturing the participation of every single Torchbearer. The commemorative publication, A Path of Northern Lights: The Story of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay is designed around and assembled from IMF images, while the Event is still unfolding. It is published on February 18th; just six days after the Winter Games begin.

MARCH While the successful 2010 Olympic Winter Games is folding its tent and the athletes of the world are beginning to turn their attention to 2014 in Soichi, Russia, IMF is flying east to document the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games Torch Relay, a dramatically smaller event compared to the long trek of the Olympic Torch.

Organized around concentrated community celebrations, this Torch Relay begins on March 3rd in Ottawa and over the next 10 days visits Quebec City, Toronto, Esquimalt and Victoria, Squamish, Whistler, Lytton and Hope, and finally tours throughout Greater Vancouver. Two IMF crews comprised of a videographer, still photographer, editor and producer, leap-frog each other as they travel west covering the celebrations on alternate days.

Celebrating the vision of bringing all Canadians together set out by

stand-up routine to entertain the science fiction freaks. But no props.

I’m presently starting my fifth season as the Stunt Coordinator on Psych. I now watch Hockey Night in Canada on a flat screen with 400 channels in HD! (No more going up on the roof unless it’s to do a high fall with lots and lots of pads.) 

Furlong before the beginning of the Relays, the Paralympic Torch Relay reflects the diversity that makes Canada what it is. For instance, the Torch is lit each day by representatives of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples.

For instance, in Ottawa, the Paralympic Games Cauldron on Parliament Hill is ignited from the fire lit by the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn and Kitigan Zibi Anishina. And the first thirteen Torchbearers in the Capital represent all of Canada’s provinces and territories. Subsequently, Community Torchbearers are designated in different communities each day, the biggest of which sees 250 Torchbearers participate in the Relay. On the final day in Vancouver, a 24-hour Relay that begins in Robson Square finally carries the Torch to BC Place for the Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympic Winter Games to showcase yet again Canada’s immense strength in diversity.

EPILOGUE Perhaps the most objective measure of the impact of IMF’s work in chronicling the Torch Relays is revealed by the records of Server DAM, which show that the global media accessed over 357,000 online previews of videos and stills during the 116 days of the Relays and, as a result, initiated over 17,860 downloads for newspapers, television, radio and news media forums. But, the true legacy of the 2010 Torch Relays may ultimately be unquantifiable. In the end, the most profound effects of the Flame may well be felt in the deep and private hearts of those touched by the Torch Relays, their vision and their ultimate legacy.

As IMF executive producer Roger Williams asserts: “Every member of our teams agrees on what a deeply gratifying and intensely rewarding personal experience it has been to contribute to the success of a global event that has left such a lasting impression on so many Canadians. Tempered in a crucible of fire, we have come of age as a national broadcast production partner and look forward to doing so many more great things.”  REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

JOIN HOLLYWOOD’S PROFESSIONALS IN

2010

June 4-5, Expo and Premier Seminars June 3-5, The Film Series & Competition June 6, Master Class Seminars The Studios at Paramount, Hollywood, CA phone: 310.472.0809 fax: 310.471.8973 email: info@cinegearexpo.com

www.cinegearexpo.com

FINAL EDIT

TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

all-spend incentives. As proven in the past, this new spend incentive will stimulate further growth in Manitoba’s film industry and infrastructure.

With this increase, the provincial government has demonstrated that the film and television sectors are worth continued investment. We are very excited of what’s to come as a result and very thankful for the continued support from the province.”

According to Tara Walker, the executive director of On Screen Manitoba, the industry contributed $365 million to the province’s economy from 2003/04 to 2007/08.

Yorkton Announces Jury

Year of the Blockbuster Final numbers from the BC government show that the film and television industry worked on less productions but increased revenues by more than $100 million. The final total of $1.3 billion that the provincial government announced in March included 239 productions. The breakdown was 84 foreign productions with 37 feature films, 14 television series, 24 television projects and nine animated series or projects. There were 155 domestic productions including 19 feature films, 34 television series, 90 television projects and 12 animated series or projects.

A spokesperson said that the increase came from foreign feature film production. He said that while there were 260 productions in 2008, the total of 2009 expenditures was $640

million, an increase of $200 million over 2008. Features shot in 2009 included the big budget movies The A-Team, Tron 2, Twilight Saga: New Moon and Eclipse, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Sucker Punch.

The government announced that 2009 also saw the Services Tax Credit on labour costs for foreign productions increase to 33 per cent from 25 per cent, the Digital Animation or Visual Effects tax credit bonus increased to 17.5 per cent from 15 per cent and the cap on qualified B.C. labour expenditures increase to 60 per cent from 48 per cent of production costs.

Manitoba Hits Heights Manitoba recently announced it has introduced a new tax credit that will give producers the option to take ei-

ther a 30% tax credit on all eligible local expenditures, including labour, or use the existing 65% labour tax credit.

According to Carole Vivier, the CEO of Manitoba Film and Sound, the option will be available for productions that start principal photography after March 2010. In addition to the introduction of Manitoba’s new tax credit which she says, is the highest “allspend” credit in Canada, the province also renewed the existing labour credit which was set to expire March 1, 2011 for another three years.

“Manitoba was the first in Canada to introduce a Frequent Filming Bonus, along with a labour tax credit that is the best in Canada,” said Vivier.

“As the world’s economic situation continues to shift; we have to be readily competitive with other jurisdictions that have amended or added

The Yorkton Film Festival recently announced the makeup of its 2010 Golden Sheaf Awards adjudication jury. The 13 jurors will preside over the awards selection for films in official competition, deciding the nominees and winners in 21 genre and three craft categories and the recipients of four special awards.

Western Canadians include Winnipeg’s Jeff Newman, Regina’s Mark Bardley Edmonton’s Eva Colmers, Saskatoon’s Mike Gossedin, Vancouver’s Anita Adams, Ileana Pietrobruno and Charles Wilkinson and Calgary’s Brent Kawchuk The remaining members are Halifax’s Kent Nason, Montreal’s Germaine Ying Gee Wong and Toronto’s Donna Dudinsky, Hillary Armstrong and Alberta Nokes.

The Festival, which celebrates its 63rd year, is the longest running film festival in North America. It runs from May 27-30. 

Announcements and Appointments Vancouver filmmaker Vic Sarin was recently honoured with the Kodak New Century Award. He was chosen by his peers at the Canadian Society of Cinematographers to receive the award at the 2009 CSC Awards Celebration in Toronto on March 27. Sarin’s latest film, A Shine of Rainbows premiered April 9… SCN, the Saskatchewan Communications Network, has been shut down after 20 years. SCN’s assets will be transferred to SaskTel this spring, with the SCN Corporation expected, at press time, to cease broadcast operations by May… Susan Millican, the CEO of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI) since 2002, recently advised the organization’s board of directors of her intention to step down from the position. The NSI said Millican will remain CEO until a committee completes a national search for her successor…The 2010 edition of the Vancouver Short Film Festival will run from October 28-29, 2010 at the VIFC Vancity Theatre. It will feature shorts by students, professional filmmakers, award-winning international films, an industry panel, and a showcase of the best five years of the festival. Accepted are films by postsecondary students and professional filmmakers from across BC. Films must be under 15 minutes, including credits.

The deadline is Sunday, August 1, 6:00pm. For further information contact www.vsff.com/Docs/vsff2010faqs.pdf 30

REEL WEST MAY / JUNE 2010

ONFILM DAV I D M OX N E S S , c s c

“As a boy, I saw film as an opportunity to explore and escape into my own world. In many ways, film has become a part of me. It offers the ability to create emotion and a feeling of escape.

Film can be so complex, and yet so simple; it can be soft and subtle, or hard and dark.

That versatility is important. On a recent episode of Fringe, we used an old adapted Mitchell camera in which the film actually wanders loose through the gate, creating a blurred imaged. We are using a camera from many years ago and combining it with the latest post technology for a modern television show with lots of production value. I think that’s wonderful! You couldn’t do that with some of the newer technologies. Film is also archival and very valuable to us as history. I can still go to my parents’ basement and dig out the 8 mm movies I made as a kid, and they are going to be pretty much just as they were when we first shot them.”

David Moxness, CSC was born in Jasper, Alberta, and raised in a small town in British Columbia.

When he was still a teenager, a stop-motion film he made with friends won first prize at the British Columbia Student Film Festival. He studied theater and film at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, and started as a production assistant at a commercial house. He became a gaffer for Rene Ohashi, ASC, CSC and eventually earned his first narrative credit as a director of photography on the television series Earth: Final Conflict.

His credits include the feature film Alien Trespass, and the television productions Witchblade, Veritas: The Quest, Tru Calling, Reunion, The Listener and Fringe. He was nominated for a CSC Award for his work on the series Kevin Hill and Smallville, and a Gemini for his work on Earth: Final Conflict.

He won an ASC Award for Smallville in 2006.

For an extended interview with David Moxness, visit www.kodak.com/go/onfilm.

To order Kodak motion picture film, call (800) 621 - FILM (3456). www.kodak.ca © Kodak Canada Inc., 2010.