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Kevin White on the Toronto Screenwriting Conference and Canadian comedy

KevinWhiteKevin White (InSecurity, Dan For Mayor) is one of the speakers at the upcoming Toronto Screenwriting Conference on April 6 and 7. He shared his thoughts on the conference, the Canadian comedy sensibility, and our national batting average for TV comedies.

What do you want to convey at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference?

I think series are better when the creative and executive power of the show rests with the writer and creator. It may sound obvious but it doesn’t happen enough in this country. If you have a young untested writer with a great original script then pair them with a senior writer with showrunning experience who can execute the creative and train the creator to take over as showrunner in Season 2. Too often a creator is paired with a non-writing executive producer who show runs while the creator is relegated to ‘head writer.’ There he or she only deals with script creation, and not how the script is realized for television.

Creating a show is about having something to say. A lot to say. You want to drill down on a world and tell how the people in that world get through their day. If the creator doesn’t have the power to shape the telling of that story all the way along (from props to locations through to final cut and mix) then what’s being told? And why?

What do you hope to get out of it?

I find it very helpful to hear how other show runners approach their job managing writers and production. Particularly in this country where show runners have to get the most out of small rooms and tight budgets.

Have conferences like this played a role in your career development?

Hugely. The WGC once held a Directors & Writers conference at the CFC which I thought was great. They brought in top people from Canada, the US and Britain and I learned a ton. I never tire of hearing the insights and horror stories of other writers.

How did you get your start?

I had a few starts. CBC Radio, TVOntario, CBC’s Comics. But I feel like I started writing for real on This Hour has 22 Minutes. Mark Farrell took a flyer and hired me when I hadn’t done much. My first three weeks on the show were unremarkable and most of what I wrote was shit. But I gradually came to understand the tone of the show and got closer to the target. It was the best comedy writing training of my career.

Any advice for upcoming writers? Is it possible to specialize as a comedy writer in Canada?

My advice would be, listen. Write something, get people you trust to read it then shut up and listen. The shutting up part is important. You don’t have to agree with their comments but don’t defend it on the spot. Take in what they’re saying and sit with it a while. If, after your initial reaction, the note has merit, run it. If it doesn’t, don’t.

As for specialization, I remember a talented feature writer/director saying to me that he wanted to try his hand at comedy. I thought it was kind of presumptuous. I don’t think you can try your hand at comedy. You either look at the world a certain way or you don’t. I think comedy is about laughing at failure, evil and weakness. If that’s your outlook then I think your writing will tend to be comic. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not sure you have a choice. Who you are, what you want to say and how you like to say it, all dictate how you’ll specialize. In Canada or anywhere else.

You’ve been involved in at least a couple long-running successes – 22 Minutes and Corner Gas – that seem like very different forms of comedy. But do you think there’s an identifiable Canadian sense of humour?

I do and I don’t. Corner Gas, Rick Mercer Report, 22 and Republic of Doyle have all done very well. To me they share certain qualities. They all come from a very specific place – the prairie, the east coast, Newfoundland – and they give voice to that culture and point of view. They also have a very unpretentious, everyman quality to them. Regular people in regional settings. We live next to a big, loud, neighbour and I think we see ourselves as a quieter nation, wryly observing from the sidelines. Comedies that do well seem to embrace that ethos. Did I just say ethos? Clearly my everyman is a pretentious dick.

I have to ask the depressing question: what’s your take on why Canadian comedies haven’t had a lot of longevity lately? Every round of award nominations it seems all the comedy contenders have already been cancelled. Is it cyclical? Systemic? Something else?

On This Hour has 22 Minutes, you’d write maybe 10 to 20 jokes for every 1 that got in the show. I think that ratio is the same for shows.

Last year in LA maybe 40 or so comedy pilots were shot. Then how many of those went to series… 20? Then not all of those went to air. And how many of those were breakout hits? You’d be hard pressed to name one. Then in Canada we piloted how many scripted comedies… 2, 4? And we expect them all to be hits. And we’re doing it with half the budget and a much smaller, less experienced talent pool. So I don’t know. It’s number of at bats. And we won’t see more hits unless we produce more shows. And we won’t produce more shows as long as we can buy high quality US programming cheaply.

Bottom line – if you make 10 shows, you have a much better chance of a hit than if you make 2. So the math suggests that in Canada we’ll get a hit every 5 to 10 years.

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Continuum’s Simon Barry on his WGC Screenwriting Award Nomination

SimonBarry

This year’s Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award winners will be announced on April 22. We’ve been catching up with many of the writers nominated in the comedy and drama categories. First up, Continuum‘s Simon Barry, nominated for his episode “End Times.”

Can you describe the episode “End Times” and how it fit into the Continuum season?

“End Times” brings together many of the threads we set up in season one and resolves them while also setting up new questions and threads that carry over into season two. It also sets up some new characters and some new dynamics for established characters.

What was the biggest triumph in this particular episode?

I’m not sure there was anything worthy of the description “triumph.” I could say that one of the goals was to find the balance between a satisfying finale and an intriguing tease. I think we accomplished that goal and challenged ourselves to make an entertaining episode.

What does this recognition mean to you?

It’s great to be recognized by fellow writers who appreciate how difficult it is to get ideas from your imagination onto the page and then on screen intact. It’s great that a new show has found support in the first year and I hope we can live up to the expectations of the audience and my fellow Guild brothers and sisters.

If there was one Canadian show that is no longer on the air that you could see honoured at this year’s awards, what would it be? (If you have a specific episode, even better).

SCTV – one of my favorite all time shows. The episode where they parodied Ingmar Bergman was sublime brilliance.

Continuum is currently in production on season two, which will premiere on Showcase on April 21, 2013.

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Carrie-Lynn Neales – Seed’s Rose Blooms

Seed

“We have so much more to explore, plus I’ll have delivered the baby.” That’s how Carrie-Lynn Neales, who plays Rose on the Canadian comedy Seed, feels about the opportunity to continue for another season. “Renewal is still up in the air, but we have a great fan base and the audience is growing, so everyone is pretty hopeful.”

Although this is Neales’ first time as a regular on a TV show, her two years spent with the Classical Theatre Project has taught her how to breakdown a script and really find the rhythm of her character’s words. She talked about how great writing is the first step in that process and that Seed has great writing: “All the characters have richness.”

Neales also raved about the cast. In fact, as she walked away from her audition with Adam Korson, who plays Harry, she said it struck her how fun it had been. Not the usual audition experience at all.

“I was surprised at how quickly and how well all the cast members connected. At the first table read, Amanda Brugel, who plays Michelle, had me in stitches.”

Neales says she knows her experience is rare. “Everyone in the cast and the crew are amazing and offer great support to really play. It’s a fun set, which is important because the days are long – 12 to 14 hours.”

Neales said her character Rose had impeccable instincts, but is very guarded. If she was going to offer Rose any advice as she embarks on motherhood it would be to trust her instincts and enjoy every moment. Neales says that she and Rose are frighteningly similar.

As for shooting on location in Halifax, she found the people there lovely. Her brother obtained his Masters at Dalhousie University so she had previously spent some time there. The long days didn’t leave a lot of free time to enjoy the local music and arts scene. However, she did find a favourite coffee spot near her hotel, where she consumed too many cups of coffee as she poured over her scripts. Neales hopes to return to the comfort of that coffee spot and the opportunity to play again with the cast of Seed for another season.

Seed airs Mondays on City.

By Ann MacDonald

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Rookie Blue’s Tassie Cameron on cross-border diplomacy & cool tool boxes

TassieCameronTassie Cameron (Rookie Blue, Flashpoint) is one of the speakers at the upcoming Toronto Screenwriting Conference on April 6 and 7. She shared her thoughts on the conference, cross-border diplomacy, and keeping the rookie in Rookie Blue.

What do you want to convey at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference?

I don’t really have anything to convey, beyond the fact that one can actually have a career as a Canadian screenwriter: I’m just happy and proud to be there, in such great company, representing for Canadian content, series and writers.

I’d rather answer questions any day then try and tell people what I think they should hear. But I guess I’m hoping I can help demystify the process — encourage great new writers that it’s possible to get a series on the air that you’re proud of and part of — and help share any shortcuts or helpful hints that might make life as a screenwriter in this country a little easier.

What do you hope to get out of it?

While I’d love to meet the other guest speakers — many of whom are heroes of mine — my only real agenda is to be as honest, open, informative, and helpful as I can be: to give back to the city I love, to the amazing new writers that are out there, and to the community that nurtured me.

Have conferences like this played a role in your career development?

I was lucky enough to go to the Canadian Film Centre — so conferences and speakers like this were part of the daily fare. But yes, every time I got to meet or listen to an honest, interesting human being who was doing this for a living, it both relaxed and inspired me. It’s not brain surgery, right? It’s just cool people, telling stories, fighting the good fight, working insanely hard for what they believe in, and trying not to be jerks along the way.

You’ve had a diverse career in various genres and formats – is that what it means to be a working writer in Canada?

Yes, definitely. Unlike the US, you’ve got to be a jack of all trades up here, if you want to work on a regular basis. And I’m starting to think that’s our national secret super-power. Because you can’t be too specific up here if you want to work consistently, it means you have to be — get to be — pretty solid, fast and informed about a bunch of different genres. Which teaches you new skills, keeps you flexible and open, and gives you tons of different kinds of experiences to draw on. Nothing’s ever wasted — it all just becomes part of your tool-box. Which means you end up with a pretty damn cool tool-box.

You’ve also spearheaded a couple of the major cross-border successes — what do you think it takes to work successfully with an American broadcaster in the mix?

Big, open, diplomatic ears. You need to listen really carefully to what your US partner is looking for — figure out how it aligns with your primary Canadian broadcaster — and then forge whatever creative peace needs to be brokered in between, making sure both networks feel heard and answered to. It’s a delicate dance, but when it works, it’s magic. Ideally both networks are on the same creative page from the beginning, which makes life a lot easier.

What would you say is the legacy of Flashpoint’s success?

Flashpoint opened the doors for all of us working in this country. It was smart, emotional, polished, prime-time storytelling that not only grabbed Canadian viewers, but crossed a bunch of borders and raised a bunch of bars. And it looked and sounded gorgeous. It was huge for Canadian television.

What’s new for Rookie Blue this upcoming season? How do you keep it fresh as the core cast loses some of their rookiness? Has the balance shifted at all in the serialized vs episodic elements?

There’s lots of new stuff in store for this season: new characters, new dynamics, new revelations. We’re trying to keep it fresh by not being afraid to change a little bit as we go along — and we’re trying to keep it honest by changing in the way that our rookies do. They’re growing and learning and shifting, and we’re trying to reflect that growth within the series. We also seem to be adding a new “rookie” every season, which helps refresh our premise.

And I think we’ve maintained a pretty steady balance between episodic and serial storytelling. All our episodes try to tell at least one good crime story, beginning to end; but at the end of it all, we’re a character-driven show, and we let our main characters drive the narratives, as we always have.

Anything else you want to add?

Nope …  just excited to see you all at the TSC!

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Review: Thandie Newton is the weak link in Rogue

Rogue

Rogue: If this were porn it would win a Woody!

Entertainment One and the UK’s Greenroom Entertainment have teamed up to bring us this little romp through Oakland’s seedy underbelly, shot in Vancouver in 2012. Rogue premieres April 3 on Movie Central/The Movie Network in Canada and DirecTV in the US.

Thandie Newton plays Grace, billed as “a morally and emotionally conflicted undercover detective who is tormented by the possibility that her own actions contributed to her son’s death.”

In pursuit of the murderer she turns her back on the police force and goes “rogue” by re-infiltrating Jimmy Laszlo’s crime family. Her home life begins to breakdown as she and Jimmy set their sites on flushing out the mole in his organization who, incidentally, could also be her son’s killer.

Unfortunately, Newton is the weakest link in an overall good series. Her character is complex and swings between despondency, abrasiveness and outright hostility in the space of a minute. The actress, however, is unconvincing and wooden at either end of the emotional spectrum, and the overall effect is confusion with a hint of high school drama class flair.

Though Newton is the headliner, it is supporting actor Marton Csokas who shines as Jimmy Laszlo, the multifaceted gangster/devoted father/romantic interest. His delivery is gritty and intense, especially in contrast with his co-star’s insipid performance. That, combined with the decent writing and supporting actors, makes this reviewer hopeful that Newton can pull it together in the next few episodes.

For those of you who need a more compelling reason to watch, I suspect Newton has signed on for X number of breast shots this season as they were gratuitous in the first 2 episodes alone. Not only do we get an artistic overhead shower view, but they throw in a porn-style shaky-cam zoom-in nipple shot for good measure. In fact I wish this were a porn, because then I could call her acting top notch.

The only thing we see more of than her breasts are her shoes. Seriously, what is with all the close ups of her shoes? There are at least 3 shoe shots per episode. Is this a metaphor for Grace’s journey, or is the fact that she prefers high-heeled wedges for dangerous undercover work important to the plot?

You can decide yourself because episode 1 is available free-of-charge on demand and at www.moviecentral.ca and www.themovienetwork.ca. The Rogue web series rolls out online beginning March 29 and the show debuts with a special two-hour TV event on Wednesday, April 3.

By Martha Marcin

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