Tag Archives: Industry News

Video: Canadian Screenwriter Simon Racioppa: Telling Canadian Stories

From the Writers Guild of Canada:

Telling Canadian Stories. Telling Canadians Stories. On all screens.

Canadian screenwriters write for all screens bringing a Canadian point of view to Canadian and worldwide audiences. If we don’t tell our own stories, who will? In this video, Canadian screenwriter Simon Racioppa talks about why our stories matter.

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Link: Netflix tells Canadian Heritage it makes ‘substantial’ investments in Canada

From Victoria Ahearn of The Canadian Press:

Link: Netflix tells Canadian Heritage it makes ‘substantial’ investments in Canada
Netflix makes “substantial” investments in film and TV productions in Canada and should not face regulation, argues the streaming company in a submission to Canadian Heritage’s public consultation on homegrown content in a digital world.

The submission, filed Thursday, comes two years after Netflix suggested to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that its service did not fall under the Broadcasting Act since it is not a conventional broadcaster. Continue reading.

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The CRTC wants Canadians to take back control of their TV services

From a media release:

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today set out best practices for TV service providers to ensure Canadians are offered real choice regarding their services and have information about their options.

To follow these best practices, providers should, among other things: provide information about the new choices that will be available as of December 1, 2016; keep their offers simple and transparent; offer deals and discounts regardless of the entry-level package selected; provide online tools allowing subscribers to easily add or remove channels; and offer different options to obtain a set-top box.

The CRTC is also renewing the licences of most TV service providers for one year, rather than the usual seven-year term. This will enable the CRTC to closely monitor the TV providers’ practices as they implement the new TV choices.

These new options will enable Canadians to create their own package for TV services. Canadians are encouraged to shop around to ensure they are aware of what is available in the market if their service provider’s offers don’t meet the needs or the budget of their household. There are many online tools on the CRTC’s website to help Canadians find the best services and negotiate with their provider.

Quick Facts

  • Since March 1, 2016, all licensed television service providers must offer a basic package priced at no more than $25 a month (not including equipment).
  • Some smaller providers like Access, Zazeen, Rangtel and Beanfield have been offering the small basic package at less than $25 a month without having to subscribe to other services.
  • Since March 1, 2016, Canadians also have more options to add to that basic service, as TV service providers must offer channels either individually or in packages of up to 10 channels.
  • Starting on December 1, television service providers will have to offer both pick-and-pay and small packages.
  • The service providers’ actions regarding these new TV choices will be closely monitored in the year to come to ensure that they respect the best practices highlighted by the CRTC.
  • As a result of the CRTC proceeding, some providers announced plans to change practices that were not consumer friendly.
  • Canadians have multiple options to watch TV programming, which can include a combination of the new basic package, individual channels, small packages, free over-the-air stations and Internet streaming services.
  • Canadians are encouraged to use the new CRTC online tools to help them identify their needs and budget, shop around and negotiate for TV services.
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Link: Canadian cable TV pioneer Israel “Sruki” Switzer dies at 87

From Etan Vlessing of The Hollywood Reporter:

Link: Canadian cable TV pioneer Israel “Sruki” Switzer dies at 87
Canadian cable pioneer Israel “Sruki” Switzer, who built and consulted on cable systems from the U.S. to Hong Kong and New Zealand during the 1970s and ’80s, died of a heart attack on Wednesday at his winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 87. Continue reading. 

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Gary’s written another novel? Blame Canadian TV.

By Gary Pearson

I’ve written a lot of TV, for shows like MadTV, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Corner Gas. I’ve had a hand in creating shows too, like That’s So Weird, and Sunnyside, which I created with Dan Redican. Sunnyside was the show that was “as brilliant as it was canceled,” as in “completely.” I’ve won some awards too. Check it out on IMDB. I look at my page there about twice a day.

Where do I get my ideas for TV shows? I have no clue. What I do know is, I have no shortage of them. I have ideas in the shower, I have ideas when running, I even have ideas when watching other TV shows—although sometimes those ideas are like, “I know—how about an ad agency in the 1960s where the lead character is a handsome alcoholic womanizer with a mysterious troubled past?”

Watch, I’ll come up with an idea right now: The Burger Burgher. The private life of the A&W commercial spokesman—there’s much more to him than telling people his meat doesn’t have hormones! And that’s just what I was able to think of while sitting in this A&W restaurant.

Now the problem is, Canadian TV simply isn’t big enough to contain all my brilliance. Or, frankly, the brilliance of dozens of other writers and creators I know. You’ll be surprised to learn that I have had literally dozens of ideas turned down by networks and production companies over the years. Pitch after brilliant pitch. Some of them were even better than that pure gold A&W idea you just read.

So, what’s a writer to do if you can’t convince a TV network that it is worth spending a million bucks a half-hour on one of his poorly-conceived whims? Write it as a novel and put it out yourself. Some people will read it and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your idea saw the light of day—if not actually in the form it was originally intended. I have now done this three times.

My first book started as a pitch to CBC, that I crafted along with Geri Hall. You probably are familiar with Geri, the hilarious red-head best known for her stint on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. At the time, she was hot on the heels of being arrested by the RCMP for approaching Prime Minister Stephen Harper while armed with her wit. She was the most famous handcuffed Canadian since Conrad Black. Geri had a development deal with CBC and somehow I convinced her that I should create a show with her.

Geri and I threw many ideas at CBC, but the one that stuck was called “Slapshot of Love.” I had just watched the reality TV show, The Bachelor and frankly hated everything about it. I wanted to peel the artifice back and see what really went on with so-called reality TV. I wanted to see what it would be like if a smart and funny woman, modelled after Geri Hall herself, were to be on a show like that, instead of the usual air head TV wannabe models.

CBC loved it … at first. Then the executives at CBC changed. The new regime didn’t want to do an idea that was developed before they came in the door. Here’s a hint for you aspiring TV creators out there: try to get your TV show made before the executive in charge of your development moves on. It has happened to me twice.

web-book_marooned-in-space

So, I had something I really liked and nowhere to go. So, I wrote the planned 13 episodes of TV, as a novel instead, and put it out myself through Amazon. Anyone can put a credible-looking book out now, for not too much money. I plugged the hell out of it on Facebook as anyone who used to be my Facebook friend will tell you. Something weird happened—a lot of people bought the book. Turns out “sports romance” is a hot category for Kindle eBooks from Amazon. Who knew?

This all happened between 2010 and 2013. Now there is a backstage at a reality dating show drama on TV called Unreal. Maybe the writers had the idea before me, but I doubt it. CBC could have been there first. But I suppose they are doing fine without the likes of me.

Then, later in the midst of the Rob Ford crack scandal, I wrote another TV pitch called “Me and the Crack Mayor.” It was about a young speech writer who gets entangled in the world of a corrupt Mayor of Toronto who blatantly smokes crack, drives drunk, speaks profanely, fondles women, lies constantly and hangs out with gun-toting gang members. You know, fiction. Canadian networks wouldn’t touch it. Too dangerous. So that became book No. 2.

Now Canada lately has done some great science fiction shows, and I’m supposedly a comedy expert, so my next pitch was for a sci- fi comedy. I wanted to do a story about real, average people, not the Captain Kirks of the world, but the regular joes, getting marooned in space. I called it “Marooned in Space!” The exclamation mark makes it more exciting. I pitched that one to a few production companies but they assured me that no Canadian network would be interested in such a show. Nobody makes science fiction comedies. How about movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, or Deadpool? How about Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or the new Supergirl, or Dr. Who—they certainly go for comedic moments in those ones. And anyway, shouldn’t we do something original, as opposed to stuff that everyone else is doing? “Not in Canada,” they said.

So that became my third book—Marooned in Space! If you’re out there TV network types, I’d still happily adapt it to TV. When you read it, you’ll see it has a nice open ending, perfect for an ongoing television adventure—you’d get 100 episodes out of these funny and relatable characters, without breaking a sweat.

“When you read it!” Ha! I certainly do have an active imagination.

Before you get too far into your novel, I should tell you, I didn’t get rich, from any of this, but I did have artistic satisfaction. And there is always the hope out there that your book will be like Fifty Shades of Grey or The Martian, the billion-dollar properties that began life as modest self published books.

Hold on to your dreams, folks! People are always knocking the Canadian TV network system for not producing enough original content to reflect our great writers and creators, but in this case, you have to give Canadian TV the credit, or the blame, for making me a three-time novelist.


All of Gary Pearson’s novels, including his new one Marooned in Space! are available all over the world from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats. Ancillary rights to Marooned in Space! for film, television, streaming and merchandise are currently available.

 

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