Everything about Featured, eh?

Children's Programming, Featured

Potter and Gray cook up laughs in YTV’s Bruno & Boots TV-movie

1 Comment

Like many Canadians, Callan Potter grew up reading Gordon Korman’s adventures about two buddies, Bruno and Boots, their friends and the prep school they attended. Little did he know he’d end up portraying one of them.

“When I heard about the audition, I was excited because it was going to be a Bruno & Boots TV-movie,” Potter says. “That was before I even auditioned for the role.” But audition he did, landing the two-season Stratford Festival performer his first-ever television gig as Melvin “Boots” O’Neal in YTV’s Bruno & Boots: Go Jump in the Pool project airing Friday, April 1, on YTV. Based on Korman’s novel of the same name, Max & Shred‘s Jonny Gray plays Boots’ best bud, Bruno Walton; the pair hatch a plan to score money to build a swimming pool for their prestigious Macdonald Hall after some parents consider moving their sons to rival institution York Academy where there is a pool. The challenge? Coming up with creative fundraising projects to get the cash under the watchful eye of Headmaster William “The Fish” Sturgeon (Peter Keleghan).

What makes Bruno and Boots so appealing in the books is their chemistry. Yes, they constantly tease each other, their friends and prank everyone in sight, but they’re fiercely loyal to each other and their school. That bond is also evident on-screen between Potter and Gray, and began during their first screen test.

Bruno_Boots2

“We hit it off right away,” Gray says. “We have so many similar interests.” Admittedly, it is a bit jarring to see fictional characters brought to life in a television series or movie. After creating an image of them in my head while reading the books, it took a few minutes to adjust, especially The Fish, who I pictured as a thin, bald man. Peter Keleghan couldn’t be further from that, but brings an energy—and physical comedy—to Go Jump in the Pool that not only will cause viewers to laugh, but his co-stars during filming as well.

“I was in a scene with Peter and Scott [Thompson, who plays York Academy’s Headmaster Hartley], and I was just watching them, thinking, ‘This guy is a genius,’ and I missed my cue,” Gray admits. The physical laughs don’t just come from Keleghan, however. Gray and Potter, along with co-stars Hannah Vandenbygaart, Kiana Madeira, Joshua Kilimnik, Drew Haytaoglu and Isiah Lea, all participated in a cooking competition fundraiser that turned into a massive food fight.

“It was a free-for-all, it was ridiculous,” recalls Gray. “You’d have cupcakes and frosting mashed into a ball and smashed into someone’s face. We had flour and chocolate chips dumped on us.”

“We had to shower and shoot two scenes after that,” Potter says. “I had cake in my ears.”

Bruno & Boots: Go Jump in the Pool airs Friday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on YTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Industry News, Wynonna Earp

Toronto Screenwriting Conference announces WGC Writing Room Intensive with Wynonna Earp’s Emily Andras

1 Comment

From a media release:

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) has announced the WGC Writing Room Intensive program with Emily Andras, Showrunner/Executive Producer of Wynonna Earp. Six participants will work with Andras to create a ‘spec-script’ episode of Joss Whedon’s cult-classic, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. They will join Andras on stage during the TSC to present a session that explores the writing room process, and will share with the group their episode live on stage. The seventh annual Toronto Screenwriting Conference takes place on April 30 and May 1, at its new location, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“We strive to provide writers the opportunity to not only learn from the most-successful working showrunners and executive producers today, but to also how to apply these advanced tools in a practical manner. Andras’ intensive program does just that,” said Kent Robinson, Toronto Screenwriting Conference Producer. Adding, “In addition the Writer’s Room Intensive, we’ve developed other new conference sessions that will fully engage screenwriters including the creating a successful series engine, writing a pitch perfect script, writing a pilot (that sells), and breaking a season.”

The Boston-born, Calgary-bred Andras has a diverse list of television credits to her name. Currently, she is the Showrunner/ Executive Producer for the supernatural, modern-day western Wynonna Earp on SyFy.

Previously, she spent three seasons as the Showrunner and Executive Producer of Lost Girl, and recently worked as the Supervising Producer on Killjoys. Andras’ other credits include writer and Co-producer of the police drama King, and Showrunner and Executive Producer of Instant Star. She has written for numerous other series such as Degrassi: The Next Generation, Sophie, Total Drama Island, and 11 Cameras. She was also hand-picked by Nora Roberts to shepherd her New York Times’ #1 best-selling Blood Magick trilogy to series.

An avid athlete, Andras grew up figure skating and playing rugby. These days, she lives in Toronto with her husband and two small children…but what Emily really wants to be remembered for is being pulled onstage to dance with Bruce Springsteen. Which totally happened.

Joining Andras on the speaker roster are Master Class speaker, Glen Mazzara (Damien); Stephen Falk (You’re the Worst); Kenya Barris (Black-ish); Senior VP of Series Development for FX, Nicole Clemens (responsible for developing FX dramas including Man Seeking Woman, The Strain, You’re The Worst, Baskets); award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Corey Mandell; and former NBC & CBS studio exec. Jen Grisanti (author of Story line: Finding Gold In Your Life Story).

The WGC Writing Room Intensive is for registered TSC delegates who are WGC members in good standing. The selection process will be juried. Deadline to apply is Monday April 11, 5pm ET. For complete details, please visit torontoscreenwritingconference.com.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Industry News

Thoughts on Branded Entertainment

Brands are increasingly shifting their ad spend from broadcast to digital platforms because a) more detailed measurement is available from those platforms than from broadcast and b) because audiences are increasingly shifting their viewing to digital platforms, many of which either allow the audience to skip ads (PVR) or strip the ads out (Netflix, Shomi and CraveTV).

So what to do to capture those online eyeballs?  For a few years now brands have been experimenting with branded entertainment or branded content.  Content can be any non-ad content created around a brand, such as a recipe or web series, while entertainment is specifically scripted content like that web series.  TV people, particularly web series producers, have in turn dabbled with financing from brands resulting in a few crossovers such as the web series “Carmilla” funded by Kotex and produced by Shift2, a division of Shaftesbury.  Many more are contemplating this funding model.

Recently I attended the BCon Expo conference put on by Brunico to bring together brands, agencies and creative to discuss best practices in branded content, to get a better idea of what was going on in this branded content world.  It was eye-opening to watch marketers discover concepts of storytelling that have been known to any form of media content creator since well, forever.   Examples:

  • If the characters are relatable, the audience will watch
  • Begin strong
  • Have a fresh concept
  • Get good at content creation and then optimize the platform (or in other words, adapt the content to the platform)

It seems to me that the advertising industry needs to talk more to people in the television and digital media content industries instead of trying to invent the wheel all over again.

The conference did present an example of that kind of collaboration. Shift2 talked about their latest web series employing what I think of as the “Carmilla” model.  Shift2 convinced the Royal Bank of Canada that a web series was the best way to reach millennials and created the 20 episode web series “V Morgan is Dead”.  Similar to “Carmilla”, “V Morgan” is first a drama series aimed at engaging its audience rather than selling to them.  The sales pitch is delivered with branded extensions on other platforms.  RBC conducted research which demonstrated to them that the strategy worked by driving traffic to RBC sites and increasing brand awareness within the audience.  Unlike “Carmilla” though, which has been renewed twice, RBC has not yet decided if it was successful enough of an experiment to warrant a renewal and a second season.

It is not yet clear whether this model is limited to the millennial demographic or can perhaps be replicated in the kids market or even older adults.  Over lunch brand marketers who I talked to were definitely interested in exploring the model but questioned whether branded entertainment could drive purchase decisions as well as increase brand awareness.

This kind of cross-pollination is of concern though to the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (“CAVCO”), which has been seeing a trend of more and more branded content on broadcast television.  When does a sponsored television show stop becoming entertainment and instead is advertising, and therefore ineligible for tax credits?  CAVCO has launched a public consultation for assistance with guidelines to ease the process and review for both CAVCO and producers.  In another consultation they are also exploring whether online distribution of linear productions can be a trigger for tax credits (currently a production must be licensed by a broadcaster or theatrical distributor), which would open up web series to the question of entertainment or advertising, in at least certain circumstances.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Schitt's Creek

Review: Schitt’s Creek season two finale

8 Comments

The Roses show some growth in these last two episodes. In episode 12, the penultimate of this second season, David negotiates a huge financial windfall for the owner of the Blouse Barn by daring to stand up to a large conglomerate. And when he is rewarded for his efforts with a $40,000 cheque, he is the responsible one saying they should save it. Sure it takes him a few tries to get the word out, but he eventually does.

Moira shows the nasty side of politics by “creating a stir” around someone stealing her campaign signs (she threw them out). Sneaky and underhanded for sure – but it turns out that Roland was even sneakier, using his position as mayor to force people to put up Jocelyn’s campaign signs. In the end, Jocelyn steps down, leaving Moira the winner. She’s thrilled until Johnny points out she will be working with Roland every day.

There were some great lines in this episode, but I didn’t laugh much, and the opening scenes with Moira and Johnny in the cafe, and later Johnny and Roland in the street fell flat. A bit cheesy slapstickish.

The season finale on the other hand was a winner. It’s Johnny and Moira’s anniversary and they narrowly escape a dinner out with Roland and Jocelyn. They run into snobby friends from their past (Beth and Don) and are laughing and having a good time at the restaurant when Roland and Jocelyn turn up. Not the kind of people Moira and Johnny would normally call friends and you can see they are a bit mortified to have them join them, even more so when Roland mentions the coupons.

But after Don and Beth have thrown one too many insults about Schitt’s Creek and the restaurant, Johnny realizes that Roland and Jocelyn have actually been better friends to them than Beth and Don were after they lost everything. And he tells them that, along with the fact that they live in Schitt’s Creek.

Meanwhile, Mutt is throwing a party and watching Alexis meet his new girlfriend is awkward. But for Alexis it makes her realize the pain she caused Ted. She finally comes out of her self-absorbed focus to truly see someone else. We also see a bit more of Stevie and David together in this last episode. The chemistry between them is fantastic as they both vie for male attention. And David running back inside to find Stevie after Jake (new hot guy on the scene) kisses him is laugh out loud funny.

The show ends with Moira, Johnny, Jocelyn and Roland crashing the party and insisting on a family dance as they express their love for each other. They truly have come a long way. It was a brilliant ending.

The show and the characters have evolved and it comes through in these last two episodes. They also set the stage for some interesting story lines in season 3. Moira will be on town council and David might have a new love interest.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, The Nature of Things

The Nature of Things delves into the cost of keeping our pets healthy

How far would you go—and how much would you spend—to ensure the health and welfare of your pet? Speaking from experience, a lot. Our previous cat, Scout, was a mixture of Maine coon and other breeds and needed costly surgery to repair a wonky left hip. Six months later, we paid to have the right side fixed. Later in life, Scout needed daily injections to combat diabetes and when he passed away we paid to have him cremated and his ashes put into an urn. I don’t know how much we spent on his health from birth to death, but it wasn’t cheap. The thing is, mine is a common story.

Thursday’s instalment of The Nature of Things, “Pets, Vets & Debts,” explores the billion-dollar industry behind keeping our furry companions healthy. First, a few stunning stats: more than half of Canadian households own a pet. That means six million dogs and eight million cats. In the United States, more homes have cats and dogs than children. And, like their human owners, pets suffer from the same ailments as we do, including top killers cancer and kidney failure for felines and congenital issues, cancer and trauma in canines.

Cameras follow veterinarians and their staff into the high-tech Toronto Veterinary Hospital, speak to owners about how far they’ll go for their animal friends and those who view our beast besties as simply animals we shouldn’t become emotionally attached to. Seeing doctors quickly assess the health of Dexter the 12-year-old golden retriever is impressive, but it’s hard to watch the owners’ process the information and make a hard decision about the dog’s future. As his owners, Jonathan and Melissa state, Dexter is like their first child, a constant companion through the years.

On a more positive note, it’s simply amazing to see what’s being manufactured to help pets lead better lives. Take the case of Oliver, a dog born without front legs. Though he’s doing just fine, Oliver’s owner wanted to improve his life, so she had prosthetic front legs made for him by Derrick Campana of Animal Ortho Care. Oliver was a little reluctant—and shaky—at first, but was soon bounding around on the ingenious apparatus.

Canadians spend over $2 billion on vet bills. Is it worth it? Are we caring too much about our pets? Tune in to “Pets, Vets & Debts” and let me know what you think in the comments below or via @tv_eh on Twitter.

The Nature of Things airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail