Tag Archives: Mysticons

Spiral, Anne, Letterkenny and Cardinal top 22nd Annual WGC Screenwriting Awards

Writers for Spiral, Anne, Letterkenny and Cardinal were among the winners at the 22nd Annual Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards in Toronto on Monday night.

The event, held at the Telus Centre for Performance and Learning’s Koerner Hall, celebrated the country’s screenwriting talent in television, web series and film. Spiral writer Karen McClellan (pictured above) won in the Shorts & Webseries category for her script “The Girl in the Dream.”

“Writers don’t get here on their own,” McClellan said. “I want to say a special shout-out to some writers who have taken a chance on me in the past: Susin Nielsen, Shelley Eriksen, Bruce Smith and a dear friend who is not here tonight but always in my heart, Denis McGrath.”

Letterkenny‘s Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney won the TV Comedy category for their Season 2 script, “Relationships,” while Cardinal‘s Aubrey Nealon took home the TV Drama trophy for the Season 1 episode, “John Cardinal.”

Gavin Crawford, comedian, writer and host of CBC Radio’s Because News hosted, starting the night off with a surprise appearance by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne a.k.a. Crawford. As Wynne, Crawford extolled the virtues of Canadian television and film writers while taking a jab at recent adaptations of Anne of Green Gables and Alias Grace.

“I’m particularly excited about Kale & Prune, a six-hour CBC miniseries adapted from a Margaret Atwood’s Whole Foods receipt,” he joked.

Alison Lea Bingeman, Marsha Greene, Rachel Langer, Joseph Kay, Cynthia Knight, Adriana Maggs, Elize Morgan, Jiro Okada and Sugith Varughese presented the night’s categories.

Mark Ellis was the recipient of The Denis McGrath Award for his service to the Writers Guild of Canada, Michael MacLennan was given The WGC Showrunner Award, Sarah Dodd the Sondra Kelly Award and Sherry White the Alex Barris Mentorship Award. WGC president Jill Golick, whose term has ended after eight years, had the final say of the night with an impassioned plea to the group’s members.

“Stories are the best way to change hearts and minds,” Golick said. “Keep writing my friends. Keep finding ways to bring truth to light. ”

The category winners are:

Shorts & Webseries
Spiral, Episode 101 “The Girl in the Dream,” written by Karen McClellan

Children’s
Mysticons, Season 1 “Sisters in Arms,” written by Sean Jara

Movie of the Week & Miniseries
Alias Grace, written by Sarah Polley

Best Script from Season 1
Anne, Season 1 “I Am No Bird, And No Net Ensnares Me,” written by Moira Walley-Beckett

TV Comedy
Letterkenny, Season 2 “Relationships,” written by Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney

TV Drama
Cardinal, Season 1 “John Cardinal,” written by Aubrey Nealon

Tweens & Teens
The Stanley Dynamic, Season 2 “The Stanley Cheer,” written by Matt Kippen

Feature Film
Entanglement, written by Jason Filiatrault

Documentary
The Hundred-Year-Old Whale, written by Mark Leiren-Young

 

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TV Eh B Cs podcast 77 — Elize Morgan vs. Alpaca vs. Llama

Elize Morgan is a writer of TV, games and digital series. She worked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins, was part of the Season 1 team for girls action animation series Mysticons, and is currently pitching for her co-created series Alpaca vs. Llama for the Independent Production Fund.

https://youtu.be/n3eRJsv1cNk

She created and produced two digital comedy series, Pretty In Geek and The Gate. She was also the editor of How to Make a Web Series (free on iBooks).

Elize wrote for the CSA-winning convergent project Grojband: The Show Must Go On and has been nominated for a WGC Award for her script “Heart of Gold” for the girls action series Mysticons.

Elize has worked on animated and live action properties for kids, including CBC’s Ollie: The Boy Who Became What He Ate, Rusty Rivets and Bagel & Becky. Elize has an MA in Popular Culture and is a graduate of the CFC’s Prime Time Television Writing Program.

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Baroness Von Sketch Show, Alias Grace and Andrew Phung take home trophies during Night 2 of Canadian Screen Awards

The writers on Baroness Von Sketch Show, Letterkenny, Orphan Black, Odd Squad, and Kim’s Convenience co-star Andrew Phung and Schitt’s Creek‘s Emily Hampshire were among the winners in the Creative Fiction Storytelling categories during Night 2 of the Canadian Screen Awards.

Hosted by Kim’s Convenience‘s Andrew Phung, the non-televised celebration honoured 42 categories in the guest performance, writing, directing, photography, editing, production design, visual effects, sound, limited, variety and sketch comedy.

“On the count of three, I want you to shout out what you had for breakfast!” Phung yelled at the crowd before calling out Schitt’s Creek‘s Daniel Levy for not answering. “Now I want you to shout out your favourite Canadian production, but it cannot be your own project!” He then called his mother on his cell phone for advice on how to host the show.

“Oh my god,” she said. “You should just do your best.”

Special awards were given to the late Denis McGrath (Margaret Collier Award) and Jay Switzer (Academy Board of Directors’ Tribute Award), and Bell Let’s Talk (Humanitarian Award).

Here are the winners in several of the key categories:

Best Supporting Actor, Drama
R.H. Thomson, Anne

Best Supporting Actress, Drama
Allie MacDonald, Cardinal

Best Guest Performance, Drama Series
Steven McCarthy, Mary Kills People

Best Pre-School Program or Series
Paw Patrol, TVO Kids

Best Animated Program or Series
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, YTV

Best Children’s or Youth Fiction Program or Series
Odd Squad, TVO Kids

Best Performance, Children’s or Youth
Ella Ballentine, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew

Best Performance, Animation
Martin Short, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About Halloween

Best Writing, Variety or Sketch Comedy
Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor, Jennifer Whalen, Jennifer Goodhue, Monica Heisey, Mae Martin, Zoe Whittall — Baroness Von Sketch Show, CBC

Best Writing, Comedy
Jacob Tierney, Jared Keeso — Letterkenny, CraveTV

Best Writing, Drama Program or Limited Series
Sarah Polley — Alias Grace, CBC

Best Writing, Drama Series
Graeme Manson, Renee St. Cyr — Orphan Black, Space

Best Writing, Children’s or Youth
Adam Peltzman, Tim McKeon — Odd Squad, TVO Kids

Best Writing, Animated
Sean Jara — Mysticons, YTV

Best Supporting or Guest Actor, Comedy
Andrew Phung, Kim’s Convenience

Best Supporting or Guest Actress, Comedy
Emily Hampshire, Schitt’s Creek

Best Sketch Comedy Program or Series
Baroness Von Sketch Show, CBC

Here is the complete list of winners from Wednesday night.

 

 

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Strong girls battle evil in YTV’s animated adventure Mysticons

When it came to finding a critic for his new series, Mysticons, creator Sean Jara didn’t have to go far. He turned to his young daughter.

“She is definitely a fan,” he says with a laugh. “We started watching the animated storyboards and she’s seen every iteration of them … she’s getting a crash course in animation school.” Jara, whose resumé includes writing for Degrassi: The Next Generation, Falcon Beach, Naturally, Sadie and Johnny Test has made a splash with the high-profile animated fantasy program Mysticons, about a quartet of fierce girls who become legendary heroes and battle a dangerous foe.

Airing Sundays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on YTV, Mysticons comes from Corus Entertainment’s legendary Nelvana and promotes strong, confident, smart and funny girls. The 40-episode series boasts the voices of Alyson Court as Arkayna Goodfey, Drake City’s princess who just wants to be a regular teen; Nicki Burke as Zarya Moonwolf, a street-smart gal with charm (and a pet foz named Choko); Evany Rosen as Emerald Goldenbraid, an engineer and Arkayna’s best friend; and Ana Sani as Piper Willowbrook, an optimistic street kid who is best buds with Zarya.

And while Mysticons is aimed at young girls, the project didn’t originally start out that way. At its inception, the project was boy-centric to focus on a male audience.

“I was hired because I’m one of the go-to people when it comes to boy’s action, but after a few years of development Nelvana saw an opportunity to develop a more girl-centric show,” Jara explains. “We talked about it, made the decision and went full-steam ahead with this new point of view.” Jara says his original idea—based on the game Dungeons & Dragons—was scrapped and he thought, “What would my daughter watch?” The result is something that became much more special and awesome.

(l-r) Piper, Zarya, Arkayna and Em

“It was about giving girls a really good adventure show,” he says. “And then we focused on the friendship between the heroes. You don’t often have that in a hero group; you usually have four or five guys and one girl.” Jara also overhauled his writing room once the gender shift happened, hiring on scribes like Shelley Scarrow, Amanda Spagnolo, Sandra Kasturi and Elise Morgan to get key insight into female friendships and break thrilling stories.

There is a lot jammed into Mysticons‘ first episode. We quickly establish the futuristic world of Drake City and are introduced to our quartet of future warriors. Turns out there was once a group of Mysticons who fought evil but they’re no longer around. That’s when evil descends on Drake City in the form of Baron Dreadbane (voiced by Mac Heywood) and an army of skeletons bent on taking over. Arkayna, Zarya, Em and Piper—after getting their hands on the fabled Dragon Disk—are transformed into a new team of Mysticons who defend their fair city and its citizens.

“It’s a fast-moving pilot and I’m really proud of it,” Jara says. “There is an A and a B story running simultaneously … I’m really happy with the way it came out.”

Mysticons airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on YTV.

Images courtesy of Corus.

 

 

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