This is the first video I edited for Furever.ca
Rob was kind enough to give us lots of footage of his dogs. The stuff he shot at the beach is beautiful!
It’s been a lot of this for me recently.
I made this last week for a possible upcoming project. I haven’t used photoshop in a little bit, so I’m happy with how it turned out. Using CS6 was very familiar too.
And there’s a storyboard that we more or less followed for Pitch Please!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about making a TV show, it’s all of these things simultaneously.
Starlight TV decision has little to do with potential viewers
At the recent CMPA Primetime in Ottawa convention in early March, I had the opportunity to chat with one of the promoters (let’s call her Red) of the proposed Starlight all-Canadian feature film channel. Though Red and I were face-to-face for several minutes in a heated discussion, I don’t think we were speaking the same language.
She said that the CRTC should accept Starlight’s application for mandatory carriage (hearings begin on April 23). I argued that Starlight was destined to fail because of changing viewer habits. I think we were both correct in our arguments.
Clash of the titans
Our conversation was following a panel discussion in which Starlight’s Robert Lantos – a successful producer of many films – got into a debate with Rogers vice-president, regulatory Pam Dinsmore about whether the CRTC should approve the channel’s application for mandatory carriage. More on that showdown here.
I just did a mock-up of a possible cover for my original series bible. Obviously, the show is called Temps. What do you think?
Canadian TV writers podcast is pretty great
While in Toronto a couple weeks ago, I was able to attend a WGC event about running a webseries at the Lightbox Theatre. The event was recorded to be part of one of my favourite podcasts, Writers Talking TV. Prominent Canadian writers and showrunners talking about how their shows work and how they managed to get them on the air in the first place.
So far, I’ve listened to Martin Gero talk about The LA Complex, Simon Barry discuss Continuum and Bob Martin lecture about Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays. Each one has had insightful bits about how Canadian TV gets made from the pitching to the production.
Quick notes on Toronto trip
The Pitch Trip (#pitchplease) was a gigantic success. Learned so much about what sorts of Canadian TV shows work for broadcasters and what they’re looking for in the future. I’ll put down the easy-to-digest notes here:
- Writing for demographics and particular markets (duh). Most important for children’s TV shows.
- Lack of TV stars demands concise story and character objectives.
- Some broadcasters looking for half-hour shows and others looking for hour-long.
- Consider whether the single-cam comedy can work as multi-cam.
- 32 is a magical age for characters. 20-somethings can relate to the age, while 35+ can look back with good humour.
- Most broadcasters looking for episodic shows; HBO is 100% serialized.
- Pitching is always better when you know the show and can tell them about it without the pauses and hesitation of memorizing a speech. Know the pitch, the strengths of the show, the episodes.
- More to come.
So good. Can’t wait for the new season.
That’s the plan, Ron.
Some great Canadian shows featured at CMPA Primetime today.
The World Today and my time in TO
I spent a week in Toronto with Hisham Kelati (pictured) and the QB Kids Productions crew. I co-wrote the script for The World Today (Feb. 22, 2013) and shot a sketch that I conceived and wrote a couple months ago.
So what did we learn?
- It takes a long time to come up with jokes. You have to examine these news items from every angle.
- Even for a very straight-forward format, editing is a big part of the comedy. Just selecting which take to go with, picking music, and cutting away has an impact on the show.
- I had to fight for a couple of jokes, namely the Die Hard and Kareem ones. Totally worth it.
- Thanks to Hisham, I learned a lot about annotations and tagging youtube videos.
- I actually like Toronto now.
180 views on the youtube vid so far. Hopefully the momentum keeps up. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to do it again (maybe in the summer?!)
This is the The World Today episode that I wrote, along with great help from Matt Dodge and Hisham Kelati. I’m really happy with how it ultimately turned out, and the process of putting it together was a ton of fun too.
Feedback is back
You might recall that earlier this month, I sent my first short film script to some friends to get feedback. I was happy to get my first original work out the door and I naturally wanted to see what others thought.
The results were appropriate, I think. First of all, I think I chose the right two people to hand it to; People who would respect my effort and also offer valid criticism.
I got some positive feedback in terms of the creative effort and the tone, which I was extremely pleased to hear for my first work. Hisham and Travis, my reviewers, are among my best friends and - with similar life experiences - I guess they could relate to settings and arcs that I put directly into our 20-something world.
