Tag Archives: Danielle Bryk

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Danielle Bryk renovates her family’s getaway in The Bryk Cottage

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When Danielle Bryk agreed to renovate her family cottage, she had no clue that—partway through the project—cameras would arrive on the scene to capture everything for a television show. She’d been consulting on the renovation of sister Terry and brother-in-law Norman’s dilapidated, outdated Georgian Bay property but Norman had been running the project. Then a television producing job came calling and Norman had to leave.

“He said, ‘Oh god, you need to take over. You need to help Terry out,” Bryk (Home to Win) says over the phone. “I’m the resident renovator in the family, so I couldn’t really refuse.” Then, totally by coincidence, Cottage Life came calling and asked if Bryk had any projects on the go. She mentioned the cottage reno and they jumped on board.

The Bryk Cottage, debuting Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life, isn’t your typical renovation series. This is a true documentary that, over the course of six episodes, shows Bryk organizing and executing the project under the watchful eye of Terry. Episode 1 introduces the folks involved and expectations; Terry and Norman bought the property years ago and it’s served as a homey getaway for the burgeoning family. Now it’s time for an upgrade. Terry has high-end plans for the home and it’s up to Bryk to keep costs down and the project on schedule.

“My sister is such a great sport,” Bryk says. “She has no filter. We finished filming one bit and she said, ‘Great, I’m probably going to come off as a total b-word!’ I said, ‘Dude, you knew they were rolling!’ She is a great sport and she knows it does make for great TV.” It certainly does.

But aside from the siblings butting heads over materials and budgets, The Bryk Cottage is educational. Constructing a passive building is explored for Terry and Norman. Bryk first heard of the concept about 20 years ago in a book by Sir Terence Conran. The idea of keeping a home heated or cooled passively stuck with her and she jumped at the chance to capture and utilize the sun’s heat to its full advantage through the use of windows and insulation. She recalls filming The Bryk Cottage through the winter and the building being nice and toasty thanks to just a small space heater the drywall guy was using. The Bryk Cottage is educational and entertaining, but it’s also telling a story many can relate to.

“The crux of all this is family and of connection,” Bryk says. “It’s so important these days to carve out spaces and time to do that kind of thing. To me, it’s the only thing that matters.”

The Bryk Cottage airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life.

Image courtesy of Blue Ant Media.

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Industry News

Blue Ant Media grows originals slate with six new commissions for its roster of Canadian specialty channels

From a media release:

Blue Ant Media, an international content producer, distributor and channel operator, announced today six new original commissions as well as a raft of digital content to air on its platforms in Canada, including Cottage Life, T+E and Makeful. The announcement supports Blue Ant Media’s ongoing commitment to the creation of Canadian series, also showcased through the company’s last round of Canadian original commissions and recent acquisition of Saloon Media announced earlier this year.

For Cottage Life, production has started on a brand new, documentary series, The Bryk Cottage, in which designer and contractor Danielle Bryk rebuilds her family cottage from the ground up. The channel will also see a new season of Bondi Vet: Coast to Coast that introduces four never-before-seen Australian vets to viewers. Additionally, new digital content featuring Cottage Life fan favourites, The Brojects, will roll out on Cottage Life’s online platforms. Slated to premiere on T+E, See No Evil delves into murder mysteries with surveillance video and gritty recreations, and fan favourite series Paranormal Survivor will return for a fifth season. The Makeful channel will see two new original series including Coolest Places to Stay, a documentary series about the current trend of turning everyday homes into short-term rentals, as well as Landscape Artist of the Year, a Canadian format of the popular British fine art competition series.

Blue Ant Media’s original programming slate includes:

The Bryk Cottage (6×30’;HD) is a documentary series that follows designer and contractor Danielle Bryk as she takes viewers on the real-life rebuild of her family’s old dilapidated cottage into a stunning vacation home that the entire family can cherish for generations. In this new documentary series, Bryk and a team of local Georgian Bay contractors undertake to complete this ambitious project. The Bryk Cottage is produced by Saloon Media and distributed by Blue Ant International. Danielle Bryk will appear at the Spring Cottage Life Shows in Toronto and Ottawa in March 2019.

Bondi Vet: Coast to Coast (10×60’;HD) Fan favourite series Bondi Vet has been revamped and will introduce four new Australian vets from across the continent Down Under who offer a myriad of exciting animal stories, ranging from the exotic and wild to our favourite domestic creatures. Meet exotic animal expert Dr Peter Ricci, emergency specialist Dr Alex Hynes, private practice owner Dr Lewis Hunt and recent graduate Dr Danni Dusek as they continue Bondi Vet’s tradition of telling great stories about Australia’s unique population of pets, and the lengths that dedicated vets will go to care for them in their hour of need. This new commission is the product of a treaty co-production between Saloon Media in Canada and WFTN in Australia. Bondi Vet will be broadcast on Channel Nine in Australia and will premiere exclusively in Canada on the Cottage Life Channel in Spring 2019.

See No Evil, Season 5 (16×60’; HD) tells spine-chilling stories of murderers caught on tape. Using genuine CCTV and other secured surveillance footage from a variety of sources, each episode will seamlessly mix elements of real footage and gritty recreations to give viewers a shocking front-row seat to the darkest depths of our not-so-secret lives. See No Evil is co-produced with Saloon Media in Canada and Arrow Media in the UK. See No Evil will premiere on T+E in Canada in spring 2019 and on Discovery ID in the U.S.

Paranormal Survivor, Season 5 (10×60’; HD) is the latest season of the popular series about spirits that features survivors of harrowing supernatural experiences who share their hair-raising tales on screen. Produced by Our House Media, each episode will take a deep dive into the eerie encounters, depicted with a mix of real testimonials and dramatic re-creations. The series will air on T+E in Spring 2019 and is distributed by Blue Ant International.

Coolest Places to Stay (working title) (6×30’;HD) is an exciting new documentary series that explores the trend of regular people turning their homes into short-term rentals for travellers on the go. In each episode, self-taught house flipper and design enthusiast, Katie Herbert, explores unique spaces that centre around a common theme to discover interesting and unusual approaches to crafting the perfect respite for vacationers and locals alike. Coolest Places to Stay is produced by Architect Films and will air on Makeful during the channel’s freeview in April 2019. The series will be distributed by Blue Ant International.

Landscape Artist of the Year aims to uncover new artistic talent in a competition open to both professional and amateur artists in Canada. The original series, which is a fan favourite on Makeful, is coming to Canada and modelled after the UK format, which will see one talented competitor be crowned Canada’s Landscape Artist of the Year. The group of painters take on different landscape painting challenges, which showcase their unique artistic talents. Throughout the painting sessions, expert judges circulate among the artists, assessing their talents and skills and each week a winner will be chosen to progress to the semi-final. Time-lapse segments ensure viewers will not miss a moment in each artist’s thoughtful and creative progression from blank canvas to finished work. The UK format is distributed by Banijay Rights.

New DIY Online Content for Cottage Life

Coming Spring 2019, there will be a plethora of brand new original DIY-themed content for the Cottage Life website financed in support from the Canadian Media Fund. This includes 30 short form videos, 70 non-video content items and 15 episodes of a web series featuring the Brojects, Kevin and Andrew Buckles, produced by Farmhouse Productions, with some of the webisodes in partnership with Timber Mart.

Blue Ant Media is a privately held, international content producer, distributor and channel operator. From our production houses around the world, we create content for multiple genres including factual, factual entertainment, short-form digital series and kids programming. Our distribution business, Blue Ant International, offers a catalogue of 3,000+ hours of content, including the largest 4K natural history offering on the market. Blue Ant Media’s international channel business offers a portfolio of media brands such as Love Nature (International), ZooMoo Networks (International), Smithsonian Channel Canada, BBC Earth (Canada), Blue Ant Entertainment (International), Blue Ant Extreme (International) and HGTV (New Zealand). Blue Ant Media is headquartered in Toronto, with operations in Los Angeles, Singapore, Auckland, Dunedin, London, Washington, Sydney, Beijing and Taipei.

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