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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Jann

Links: Jann, Season 2

From Lauren Krugel of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Jann Arden’s messy alter ego returns for second season of Calgary-set sitcom
“I think she would have been feeling very sorry for herself and making everybody around her realize just how terrible life was for her.” Continue reading.

From Eric Volmers of Postmedia News:

Link: Jann’s back: Singer-songwriter returns to fictional version of herself in second season of hit sitcom
“She’s not empathic, she doesn’t understand how her actions are going to affect people. That’s where the humour lies.” Continue reading. 

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Jann Arden returns with the Jann we know and love in Season 2
“Season 2 sees all the people you’re familiar with, but they are forced into completely different situations.” Continue reading.

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Link: Arden v. McLachlan adds punch to 2nd season premiere of JANN
Season Two picks up right where Season One left off, and that is my one complaint with Jann — that it took too damn long to return. Continue reading.

From Debra Yeo of the Toronto Star:

Link: Sitcom success still blows Jann Arden’s mind as season two of ‘Jann’ arrives
On the face of it, Jann Arden seems to have made extraordinarily good use of her pandemic time. Continue reading.

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Awards, Industry News

Nominees announced for 19th Annual DGC Awards

From a media release:

It is our pleasure to announce the nominations for the 2020 DGC Awards for Feature Film, Documentary and Short Film. The nominees for Television Series, Movies for Television and Mini-Series were previously announced on September 3rd and are also included below. Winners in these categories will be announced at the 19th Annual Awards on consecutive nights beginning on October 24th, 2020.

We were pleased to receive over 300 submissions this year that represent a broad swath of the diversity and talent of the Canadian film & television industry.

“These nominees represent the inventiveness and perseverance of the Canadian film & television industry,” said DGC President Tim Southam. “The exceptional work that these filmmakers have created have earned them recognition not just in Canada but around the world. It is a privilege to be able to celebrate this talent year after year at the DGC Awards.”

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM
Charles Officer – Akilla’s Escape
Jeanne Leblanc – Les Nôtres / Our Own
Sonia Bonspille Boileau – Rustic Oracle
Daniel Roby – Target Number One
Vincenzo Natali – In the Tall Grass

ALLAN KING AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY
Yung Chang – This is Not a Movie
Michelle Latimer – Inconvenient Indian
Claude Guilmain – High Wire / Sur la Corde Raide
Charles Wilkinson – Haida Modern
Danielle Sturk – El Toro

DGC DISCOVERY AWARD SHORT LIST
Michelle Latimer - Inconvenient Indian
Tracey Deer - Beans
Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt - No Ordinary Man
Dusty Mancinelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer - Violation

BEST SHORT FILM
Andrew Moir - Take Me to Prom
Trevor Anderson - Jesse Jams
Tiffany Hsiung - Sing Me a Lullaby
Glen Matthews - Teething
Jesse Shamata - A Simple F*cking Gesture (formerly The Wave)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE FILM
François Séguin – The Song of Names
Craig Lathrop – The Lighthouse
Diana Abbatangelo – Akilla’s Escape
David Pelletier – Mafia Inc

BEST PICTURE EDITING – FEATURE FILM
Ron Sanders – Falling
Matthew Hannam – The Nest
Michele Conroy – In the Tall Grass
Jorge Weisz – Hammer
Michelle Szemberg, Orlee Buium – Queen of the Morning Calm

BEST PICTURE EDITING – DOCUMENTARY
Caroline Christie (with Roland Schlimme) – Meat the Future
Jennifer Abbott – The Magnitude of all Things
Lee Walker – Butterflies in the Storm
Caroline Christie – First We Eat
Nicholas Montgomery – No Roses on a Sailor’s Grave

BEST SOUND EDITING – FEATURE FILM
Robert Bertola, Marvyn Dennis, Kelly McGahey - The Education of Fredrick Fitzell
Dave Rose, David McCallum, Adam Stein, Claire Dobson, Krystin Hunter, Kevin Banks, Jean Bot, Christopher Alan King - In the Tall Grass
David McCallum, Dave Rose, Krystin Hunter, Amelia Chiarelli - Akilla’s Escape
Adam Stein, Joseph Bracciale, Kevin Banks, Rose Gregoris - Ready or Not
Faustine Pelipel - Things I Do for Money

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMATIC SERIES
Daniel Grou - Vikings, Episode 610, The Best Laid Plans
Dawn Wilkinson - Locke & Key, Episode 107, Dissection
Holly Dale - Transplant, Episode 101, Pilot
Stephen D Surjik - See, Episode 106, Silk
Ken Girotti - Fortunate Son, Episode 105, For What It’s Worth

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY SERIES
Daniel Levy & Andrew Cividino - Schitt’s Creek, Episode 614, Happy Ending
Jordan Canning & Aleysa Young - Baroness Von Sketch Show, Episode 401, Humanity is in an Awkward Stage
Adriana Maggs, Sarah Polley & Will Bowes - Hey Lady!
Bruce McCulloch - TallBoyz, Episode 101, What’s it gonna be, boys?
Joyce Wong - Workin’ Moms, Episode 405, To Lure a Squirrel

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FAMILY SERIES
Siobhan Devine - Gabby Duran & the Unsittables, Episode 118, Warm, Thick and Saucy
Bruce McDonald - Malory Towers, Episode 111, The Spider
Leslie Hope - Lost in Space, Episode 203, Echoes
Nimisha Mukerji - Gabby Duran & The Unsittables, Episode 116, Night Train and Vortex
Megan Follows - Heartland, Episode 1304, The Eye of the Storm
Felipe Rodriguez - Hudson and Rex, Episode 202, Over Ice

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
Michael Nankin - Chris Watts: Confessions of a Killer
Caroline Labrèche - No Good Deed
Nathan Morlando - Cardinal: Until the Night, Scott
Ali Liebert - Amish Abduction
Winnifred Jong - Mystery 101: Dead Talk

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – DRAMATIC SERIES
Britt Doughty - Impulse – Season 2, Episode 203, The Moroi
Armando Sgrignuoli - Frankie Drake Mysteries, Episode 301, No Friends Like Old Friends
Tony Ianni - The Expanse, Episode 401, New Terra
André Guimond - Transplant, Episode 101, Pilot
Ingrid Jurek - Titans, Episode 207, Bruce Wayne
Rory Cheyne - Locke and Key, Episode 101, Know what this is about?

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
Dennis Davenport - Cardinal: Until the Night, Robert
Britt Doughty - Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C. J. Walker, Episode 104, A Credit to the Race
Marian Wihak - Christmas 9 to 5
Jean Bécotte - Glass Houses

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – COMEDY OR FAMILY SERIES
Zoe Sakellaropoulo - The Bold Type, Episode 310, Breaking Through the Noise
Lisa Soper - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Episode 303, Heavy is the Crown
Chris Crane - New Eden, Episode 105, A Whole Lotta Buzz
Ian Brock - Utopia Falls, Episode 110, If I Ruled the World
Ciara Vernon - Hey Lady!

BEST PICTURE EDITING – DRAMATIC SERIES
Aaron Marshall - The Handmaid’s Tale, Episode 309, Heroic
D. Gillian Truster - Anne With An E, Episode 307, A Strong Effort of the Spirit of Good
Teresa De Luca - Coroner, Episode 208, Fire Part 2
Roderick Deogrades - Killjoys, Episode 501, Run, Yala, Run

BEST PICTURE EDITING – MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
Hugh Elchuk - Cardinal: Until the Night, John & Lise
Sandy Pereira - Cardinal: Until the Night, Scott
James Patrick - Chris Watts: Confessions of a Killer
Lee-Ann Cass - Christmas Chalet

BEST PICTURE EDITING – COMEDY OR FAMILY SERIES
David Wharnsby - Hey Lady!
James Patrick - Utopia Falls, Episode 109, Worst Behavior
Paul Winestock - Schitt’s Creek, Episode 613, Start Spreading the News
Mike Fly, Marianna Khoury, Aren Hansen, Sean Song, Nick Wong - Baroness Von Sketch Show, Episode 401, Humanity is in an Awkward Stage
Robert de Lint - Kim’s Convenience, Episode 413, Bon Voyage

BEST SOUND EDITING – DRAMATIC SERIES
J.R. Fountain, Dustin Harris, Jill Purdy, Dashen Naidoo, Craig McLellan, Kevin Banks - Locke & Key, Episode 110, Crown of Shadows
Nelson Ferreira, Alex Bullick, Dustin Harris, Craig MacLellan, Tyler Whitham - The Expanse, Episode 401, New Terra
David McCallum, Jane Tattersall, Brennan Mercer, Brent Pickett, Krystin Hunter, Yuri Gorbachow - The Handmaid’s Tale, Episode 309, Heroic
Nelson Ferreira, Alex Bullick, Danielle McBride, Dashen Naidoo, Gerald Trepy, Mitch Bederman - Altered Carbon, Episode 202, Payment Deferred
Tyler Whitham, Danielle McBride, Joe Bracciale, Joe Mancuso, Kayla Stewart - Anne With An E, Episode 306, The Summit of My Desires

BEST SOUND EDITING – MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
David McCallum, Barry Gilmore, Jane Tattersall, David Caporale, Brennan Mercer - Cardinal: Until the Night, John & Lise
Jeremy Kessler, Ray Campbell, Steven Blair - Christmas 9 to 5
Faustine Pelipel - Christmas Chalet
Jill Purdy, Marvyn Dennis, P. Jason MacNeill, Steven Blair, Kelly McGahey - Escaping the NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Fight to Save Her Daughter
Claudia Pinto, Faustine Pelipel, Mark Gingras, Tom Bjelic - Matchmaker Mysteries:  A Killer Engagement

BEST SOUND EDITING – COMEDY OR FAMILY SERIES
Janice Ierulli, Bryson Cassidy, Matthew Hussey, Dave Johnson, Steven Roberts - Hudson & Rex, Episode 217, Graveyard Shift
James Robinson, John Smith, P. Jason MacNeill - Odd Squad: Mobile Unit, Episode 301, Odd Beginnings
David Caporale, David McCallum, Krystin Hunter - Hey Lady!
Danielle McBride, John Smith - Baroness Von Sketch Show, Episode 401, Humanity is in an Awkward Stage

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @DGCTalent. Use the hashtag #DGCAwards to join the conversation!

The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is a national labour organization that represents over 5,000 key creative and logistical personnel in the screen-based industry covering all areas of direction, design, production and editing. The DGC negotiates and administers collective agreements and lobbies extensively on issues of concern for members including Canadian content conditions, CRTC regulations and ensuring that funding is maintained for Canadian screen-based programming.

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Featured, Jann

Jann Arden’s clueless alter ego is back in town for Jann’s second season

Unlike her TV alter ego, Jann Arden is aware of her own good fortune. 

The iconic singer-songwriter and star of CTV’s hit comedy series Jann—returning for its second season on Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT—has been able to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic from the socially-distanced comfort of her rural Alberta home.

“I’ve got nothing to complain about,” she says during a phone chat from her house. “My nearest neighbour is a half-mile away. I usually work out here anyway, and I’ve done a lot of recording here. I have a big piece of land, a huge garden, and I’m here with a dog. I want for nothing.”

That isn’t to say the coronavirus hasn’t thrown Arden a few curveballs. For instance, her official induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame was scuppered when the JUNO Awards were cancelled in March, and her much-anticipated cross-Canada tour had to be postponed in May. Still, she’s taking it all in stride. 

“It was disappointing, but [COVID-19 has affected] all of my colleagues, everyone on the planet, every person that I know,” she explains. “Good things come out of bad things. I think it has actually taken the façade off of a way that we’ve been living that’s been so empty, and without a lot of merit, and truth, and vulnerability….I, for one, am grateful to have had the opportunity to slow the hell down.” 

As philosophical as Arden is about 2020’s setbacks, it’s safe to say her hilariously narcissistic TV namesake wouldn’t handle things so well.

“Oh, she would have been terrible!” Arden laughs. “Everybody in Jann’s family would have been made miserable, she’d be like, ‘You have no idea what I’m going through!’”

Of course, TV Jann—Arden’s less-successful, much more self-involved doppelganger—doesn’t need a worldwide pandemic to make people miserable. Her lack of self-awareness and desperate attempts to revive her career kept her family cringing—and viewers laughing—throughout Jann’s critically-acclaimed first season. 

Jann’s self-serving antics crescendoed in the finale when she left her mom Nora (Deborah Grover), who had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, on the doorstep of her pregnant, bedridden sister Max (Zoie Palmer) so she could go on tour with her on-screen nemesis, Sarah McLachlan.

This naturally caused some hard feelings. 

However, as the second season starts, Jann is sporting a new, family-first attitude. After finding out Max is in labour, she decides to ditch McLachlan’s disaster-prone tour—think food poisoning and exploding musical instruments—to make amends with her family and win back her ex-girlfriend Cynthia (Sharon Taylor). The problem is, no one is particularly happy to see her when she returns, and her knee-jerk selfishness trips her up at every turn.

Exhibit #1: When she finds Max and brother-in-law Dave (Patrick Gilmore) cradling their newborn baby in the opening minutes of the premiere, she indignantly cries, “You couldn’t friggin’ wait for me?”

Things don’t get much better over the next few episodes, as Jann finds out her former manager Todd (Jason Blicker) has signed a hot new talent (Nia Taylor) and her new manager Cale (Elena Juatco) keeps pushing her outside her comfort zone.

“Things really pick up where they left off,” Arden says. “You kind of got to know everyone in the first season, and I love the new situations that the writers have put them in.”

She’s also pleased with Season 2’s stacked guest-star lineup, which includes k.d. lang, Elisha Cuthbert, Keshia Chanté, and in the first episode, McLachlan—who gamely skewers her nice-girl image to settle a score with Jann.

“She’s fantastic, and she’s such a good sport,” Arden says of McLachlan, making it clear that the Jann/Sarah rivalry doesn’t extend to real life. “Half of the stuff you see was her idea.”

As in the first season, Arden’s natural comedic timing and willingness to take the piss out of herself help keep Jann likeable even when she’s at her worst. Meanwhile, Grover’s whimsical and tender handling of Nora’s Alzheimer’s journey continues to provide emotional depth. 

Arden’s real-life mother passed away from Alzheimer’s complications in 2018, just after the first season wrapped. When asked if that loss made shooting Season 2 more difficult, she says it was actually the opposite. 

“You know what? It was a delight,” she says. “I got to live in a world for the five or six weeks when we were shooting where my mom was alive. And Deborah reminds me so much of my mom. My mom was hilarious. She was very intrepid; she wasn’t precious about dying.”

Arden says she’s thrilled that Jann allows her the opportunity to educate the Canadian public about Alzheimer’s and dementia.

“I think to be able to see a main character in a contemporary, modern scripted comedy on a major network, to see that in your living room is so accessible, and it’s been really important,” she says.

During Season 3—which has already been ordered and set to go before cameras in January—Arden plans “to keep the pressure up” with Nora’s journey.

“There are so many great things that we can do with the story, and it makes it interesting,” she says. “You have to have pathos to have humour, right?”

Meanwhile, Arden says there are no plans to include COVID-19 stories in future seasons.

“We’re not addressing it, we’re not mentioning it,” she says. “In TV Jann’s world, it never happened.”

For the sake of Jann’s family, that’s probably a good idea.

Jann airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Industry News

OMNI goes kosher with new Jewish late night talk show

From a media release:

Canada’s newest late night talk show, CANADIAN JEWISH TV (CJTV) kicks off Thursday October 1st, 2020 at 11:30 PM on OMNI 1. Hosted by Canadian poet Ieden Wall, the show will feature interviews and performances from some of Canada’s most notable Jewish figures.

In keeping with Wall’s background, CJTV will also feature a spoken-word short-film series based on new poems from Wall’s upcoming book, The Wisdom of the Wall 2. His first book of poetry, Wisdom of the Wall has sold over 30,000 copies and continues to impress.

With the loss of established Jewish media like The Canadian Jewish News, CJTV is aiming to fill the void with a “traditional” style Jewish show that avoids getting hung up on extreme sides of the political spectrum.

The guest lineup for season 1 is a “who’s who” of the Canadian media and entertainment industry, including Robert Lantos, Paul Godfrey, Mark Breslin, Dan Shulman, Libby Znaimer, Heather Reisman, and an appearance from former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
CJTV will make its season debut on Thursday Oct 1st @ 11:30 PM on OMNI 1 across Ontario.

About Host Ieden Wall
Ieden Wall is a poet, journalist, host and media producer, living in Toronto. Wall burst onto the scene in the 90’s with his reality/comedy series called The Dream Chaser. Mayor David Miller called his show a brilliant mix of humour and humanity. Since then, he has kept busy producing docs, medical marketing videos and commercials for his own production company. In 2016, Wall self-published a book of lyrical poems entitled The Wisdom of Wall. The book sold over 30K copies and caught the attention of several luminaries, including Robert Lantos and Valerie Pringle. In 2018, he started taking poems from his book and turning them into spoken-word short films. His first collection of spoken-word films aired in Australia and The UK. Wall is set to host and produce Canadian Jewish TV for Omni TV, making its debut on October 1, 2020.

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Featured, Industry News, Podcast

The Women on Screen Out Loud podcast offers a unique conversation

I listen to a lot of podcasts, including several about the Canadian TV and film industry. Writers Talking TV, from the Writers Guild of Canada, is excellent, as is Sabrina Furminger’s YVR Screen Scene. If you haven’t already, listen to past episodes of the TV, Eh podcast by clicking on it in the top banner.

The latest podcast I’ve added to my subscribed list is Women on Screen Out Loud: The Podcast Essays. Hosted by Lara Jean Chorostecki (X Company) and Jennifer Pogue (Endlings), the podcast—now in its second season—sets itself apart from the podcast genre in a couple of ways.

First, it spotlights female voices from all sides of the camera. Secondly, each upload features a personal essay composed and read aloud by the interview subject, followed by a brief interview that delves deeper into their words and career journey. The result is can be a personal experience, a work of fiction or even a stream of consciousness.

We spoke to Lara Jean Chorostecki and Jen Pogue about the podcast, how it came about and what they hope to achieve with each episode.

Jen, can you give me the background on how the Women on Screen Out Loud podcast began? Is it part of a Women on Screen initiative?
Jen Pogue: Lara Jean and I were both associate producers for Women on Screen and have helped out with some of their programs that they’ve run and presentations they have each year. It was LJ’s idea to come up with this notion for a podcast, and she basically said, ‘Hey. You produce things and make things happen sometimes. I have this idea. I want to make it happen. Let’s have a coffee.’ And we had a coffee, and I was like, ‘Yeah, it sounds great. Let’s figure out how to make a podcast.’ So that’s kind of how it came to be.

LJ, was it something you’d been thinking about for a while? 
Lara Jean Chorostecki: As Jen mentioned, we were associate producers with Women on Screen with Lauren MacKinlay, Farah Merani and Ciara Murphy. I was doing the casting for their showcase with the web incubator that they do.

I’d been working with them for a while, and I was trying to figure out a way, in my limited spare time, that I could have another passion project to kind of get into. I was listening to a lot to NPR kind of podcasts, and this kind of a truncated format came to mind for me, where something that you could—back when you had to travel to work—that you could listen to on your way to work, or you’re doing half an hour on the treadmill, or going for your jog in the park. I really liked the long-form interview style, but I was really attracted to these short things that I would listen to while I was doing exercise or making breakfast or whatever it was.

Then I was thinking about how Women on Screen could get involved with this kind of very contained podcast idea. So, instead of an interview where you just talk to people forever, it’s got a focus. That’s the idea of the essay, which I’ve heard in a couple of other podcasts, where someone talks about what they do in their own words, and then you focus in on what they say. So that was the idea, that instead of this long interview, we would interview people in the Canadian landscape, in front and behind the camera, female-identifying, and talk about what they want to talk about. Instead of what I or Jen as the interviewer wants to talk about, it’s like, ‘OK, what have you written about? I’m so curious.’ So it’s a platform for people to tell their own stories, essentially.

I was listening to Kanietiio Horn’s podcast, and thought, ‘This is unlike anything that I’ve heard before,’ and followed that up with Stephanie Morgenstern’s, which had a totally different tone.
JP: We do our best to approach people of all different vocations of the camera. We really want to represent all that. A lot of them aren’t necessarily given this opportunity to speak or write too often. It’s been great.

How important was it to get a mix of people from all different parts of the industry?
LJC: Really important to us. I know the next episode that’s coming up is Alicia Turner, who’s a stunt coordinator. When we started, I think stunt coordinator was one of the first ones that we put on there that we were like, ‘Really want that.’ Giving a platform to women in the industry who challenge…

JP: Challenge, motivate and inspire…

LJC: …On all sides of the camera. That’s not our mandate, that’s actually the Women on Screen mandate, so we just took it and ran with it. Of course, there’s going to be writers and directors, and actors, because quite frankly, they’re the ones who love to write anyway. But these jobs that we don’t really know much about, like editors… we kind of understand what they do, but we don’t. Stunt coordinators. We have Lindsay Somers on this year, who’s an intimacy coordinator, which is a brand new job she kind of is spearheading it and inventing it as she goes along.

It was really important for Women on Screen, and for what Jen and I were passionate about, that the people who listen are able to be inspired in a way that shows them you don’t just have to be in front of the camera, or you don’t just have to be a director, to fulfill your passion of making films and making TV.

Download Women on Screen Out Loud: The Podcast Essays from your favourite podcast catcher.

Images courtesy of Women on Screen Out Loud: The Podcast Essays.

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