By Marsha Greene

After a jam-packed weekend at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, I went home feeling totally stretched — my mind from the insightful panelists, my voice from greeting and meeting industry folks, and my stomach from Caplansky’s grilled cheese sandwiches.

If you’ve talked to me or follow me on Twitter, it’s no secret that I was most looking forward to seeing Mara Brock Akil at the conference. She did not disappoint. One of her many insights from the panel was this: own your authority. When she was the youngest person in the room, she owned it to be the authority on the voices of the young characters. She was raised by a single parent, and she owned her ability to speak to that experience. It’s great advice in general, and especially for young writers trying to find their place in the room. If you haven’t seen her newest BET show Being Mary Jane, you should— it’s a masterclass in owning your vision, and there’s nothing like it on television right now.

Day 1 also included “Crafting Mythic Stories with David. S. Goyer,” who delivered a fine-tuned presentation that was the perfect blend of instruction and personal reflection. He spoke about finding the universal truths in mythic stories that connect with the audience on a human level, even if your subject matter is super-human. Goyer is a total pro, and it doesn’t hurt that from the middle of the theatre he looked remarkably like Stanley Tucci.

I was disappointed to have missed Corey Mandell’s “Creating a Successful TV Series Engine” in the afternoon. Call it the gift and the curse of free coffee — I took a bathroom break and by the time I returned to the theatre it was full. But I did manage to get highlights from the magical TSC Twitter Elves, who diligently captured each panel in a series of 140-character posts.

“Checking In with Eugene and Dan Levy” was the perfect start for a sleepy Sunday morning. They took us through their journey of bringing Schitt’s Creek to the screen, and it was super fun hearing the more personal father-son moments, like when Eugene said to Dan re: the show, “This isn’t Girls, Daniel.”

Jeff Melvoin’s panel “Running the Show: Moving from Writer to Showrunner” managed to terrify us with the responsibilities of showrunners and delight us with the best use of clip art since the early 80s. I left it thinking, “You have to be crazy to want to do this job!” Luckily, Melvoin implied being crazy is a prerequisite.

Day 2 ended with the hilarious Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair of High Maintenance, “The Greatest Show not on Television.” It was their first trip to Canada and they praised our politeness as a people (though I submit one ride on the TTC during rush hour would banish that opinion). While the success of their web series is probably not duplicable, they gave great insights on their collaboration with Vimeo and filmmaking on a budget.

All in all, it was a great weekend and I’m incredibly grateful to TV, eh? for the opportunity to attend the conference. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find out what moisturizer Mara Brock Akil uses.

A graduate of CFC’s Bell Media Prime Time Television program, Marsha has a degree in Creative Writing from York University and was the recipient of the Brian Linehan Award for Outstanding Artistic Promise from Humber’s TV Writing and Producing program. Marsha has lent her skills to scripted and factual productions for Discovery, Food Network, Family Channel, Global and the award-winning documentary Chinee Girl. Most recently, Marsha worked as a story editor for Global’s medical drama Remedy, and as the interactive writer for Epitome’s new teen drama series Open Heart. 

Join Greg and Diane every Monday as we debate what’s on our minds. This week: What to make of the news that Bell Media fired president Kevin Crull over his interference in his networks’ news coverage of the CRTC TalkTV decisions?

She said: 

It’s been a brutal few weeks in the Canadian media world, with more CBC job cuts announced, Shaw’s reorganization and PostMedia’s acquisition of Sun Media leading to layoffs, PostMedia announcing a $58 million loss, and Nova Scotia slashing its film and television tax credit. And then there was Kevin Crull’s non-voluntary exit from Bell. That one is harder to shed a tear over.

Bell did absolutely the right thing here. No apology could make up for the need for him to “relearn” the lesson of editorial control belonging to the news team, not the business team. Public confidence had to be regained but more importantly, I’d say, BCE and Bell Canada president and CEO George Cope’s and the news team’s confidence in their Bell Media president was irreparably damaged.

It’s hard to believe such news interference doesn’t happen elsewhere without becoming so public. I also don’t believe news stories about abrupt exits  can ever encompass all the straws on that camel’s back. Bell and the CRTC have been in a simmering feud since the acquisition of Astral, which was first denied and then approved with greater concessions than Bell had wanted to make. The CRTC’s recent and odd SuperBowl simulcast decision will cost Bell dearly. No broadcasters are happy with the pick and pay and other decisions designed to please consumers.

How much of the tainted relationship between Bell and the CRTC was placed at Crull’s feet? How much of Crull’s arrogance is what trickled down into a corporate brand that often oozes arrogance?

In any case, I can’t cheer over someone losing a job, but I can’t be unhappy over this one either. Canadian media is getting consolidated into fewer and bigger silos. Less competition, fewer people delivering the news, reduced revenues — the last thing our media needs is more proof that the public’s chance of getting accurate, unbiased news from them is getting slimmer too.

He said: 

I’m on the same page as Diane here and she’s pretty much said everything I was thinking. I did find it interesting that in the days following the story of Crull’s meddling in CTV News the network’s PR machine went quiet. The statement from Crull where he admitted he needed to “relearn” rather than say “I’m sorry” was expected but not the silence that followed for days afterward. It was almost as if they hoped the story would go away, but more likely meetings were held to decide what the heck to do.

The right decision was made. Crull had been butting heads with the CRTC and its head, Jean-Pierre Blais, for awhile and Bell Media needed to go back to the drawing board with a new face.