July - August 2010 : Reel West Magazine

Vancouver-based producerMarc Stephenson has gone

FROM THE FRINGE TO FOX

JUL / AUG 2010 $5.00

FILM, VIDEO, INTERNETAND DIGITAL PRODUCTION

IN WESTERN CANADA

PLUS: The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom Q&A: Robert Luketic Personal Stories Beginnings: Rob Sim

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3 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010

4 PRODUCTION UPDATE

5 BITS AND BYTES

10 BEGINNINGS

12 BEHIND THE SCENES

14 QUESTION AND ANSWER

15 EXPERT WITNESS

29 LEGAL BRIEFS

30 FINAL EDIT

16 KEEPING IT PERSONAL Western Canadian fi lmmakers have been writing what they know for decades. However,

the approach is different now. Instead of writing dramatic features based on memory, some fi lmmakers are telling personal stories about their own lives and those of their fami-lies through documentary features and shorts.

20 EXTERIOR MOTIVES Although interprovincial co-productions are one of the better ways of getting movies

made, Quebec fi lmmakers don’t usually need to leave home. The Quebec-based produc-ers of the prairie-set period piece The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom knew they couldn’t fi nd the appropriate exteriors at home but still had to shoot half their fi lm in Quebec in order to qualify for funding from SODEC.

24 FROM THE FRINGE TO FOX Executives at “quirky comedy” factory Fox Searchlight think The F-Word, which is sched-

uled for a 2012 release, will be a big hit. In his diary, Vancouver-based producer Marc Stephenson, who discovered the original script at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, looks back on the disappointments, the endless meetings and the day he realized the studio would be making him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

CONTENTS

COVER: VANCOUVER-BASED PRODUCER MARC STEPHENSON; PHOTO BY PHIL CHIN ABOVE: THE GREY FAMILY AT THE KITCHEN TABLE (THE YEAR DOLLY PARTON WAS MY MOM); PHOTO BY SÉBASTIEN RAYMOND FOR PALOMAR

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REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 20104

PRODUCTION UPDATE

What’s coming. What’s shooting. What’s wrapped.

If you ever wanted to hear theories

on the origins of two fi ctional icons,

you should probably pay attention to

the plots of a couple of new movies

calling Vancouver home this summer.

Rise of the Apes is being billed as “an

origin story” that looks at how genetic

engineering led to the development of

intelligence in apes and the onset of

a war for supremacy. Meanwhile, the

Little Red Riding Hood legend gets a

twist or two from veteran director

Catherine Hardwicke.

Hardwicke directs Amanda Sey-

fried in the latest version, Red Rid-

ing Hood, which tells the story with

a backdrop of a Romeo and Juliet

style romance between a young girl

and an orphaned woodcutter. It has

Jim Rowe as executive producer,

Jennifer Killoran and Julie Yorn as

producers, Mandy Walker as DOP,

Tom Sanders as production design-

er, Brendan Ferguson as production

manager, Nicole Oguchi as produc-

tion coordinator, Hans Dayal as lo-

cations manager and Joel Whist as

special eff ects coordinator.

Apes has Th omas Hammel as ex-

ecutive producer with Peter Chernin

and Dylan Clark as producers, An-

drew Lesnie as the DOP, Claude

Pare as production designer, Wendy

Williams as production manager,

Patricia Foster as production coor-

dinator, Catou Kearney as location

manager and Tony Lazarowich as

special eff ects coordinator.

Th e television pilot Th e Killing was

shot in May and tells three separate

stories against the backdrop of a po-

lice investigation into a murder. It

has Patty Jenkins directing, Veena

Sud, Mikkel Bondesen and Kristen

Campo as executive producers, Ron

French producing, Craig Forrest as

production manager, Jennifer Aich-

olz as production coordinator and

Kent Sponagle as location manger

Here in May and June was the

television movie Killer Mountain

which had Sheldon Wilson di-

recting, Chris Bartleman and Jeff

Schenck as executive producers,

Charles Bishop as producer, Trac-

ey Jardine as supervising producer,

Jamie Goehring as line producer/

production manager, Renee Read

as production designer, Alison Ste-

phen as production coordinator and

Jaime Lake as location manager.

Th e television movie Th e Fairly

Odd Parents was scheduled to spend

much of July in Vancouver and had

Savage Holland directing with Scott

McAboy and Lauren Levine as ex-

ecutive producers, Jon Joffi n as the

DOP, Richard Hudolin as the pro-

duction designer, Michael Potkins

as the production manager, Lisa Ra-

gosin as the production coordinator

and David Tamkin as the location

manager.

Th e USA network series Facing

Kate is about a lawyer who leaves the

family fi rm to become a mediator

after her father dies. It has Michael

Sardo and Steve Stark as executive

producers with Clara George as

producer, Ricardo Spinace as the

production designer, Erin Smith and

Geoff Teoli as production and unit

managers, respectively, Michelle

Parzentny as the production coor-

dinator and Monty Bannister as the

location manager. ■

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Fiction a fact of BC industry life


Olympics Treatment for LilithTh e Vancouver-based 2010 Lilith Tour will get the kind

of treatment reserved for the Olympics, according to

CTV. Th e network says the tour will be covered by

a multi-network consortium, much like the coverage

given the 2010 Winter Olympics. CTV spokesperson

Jennifer Corelli said that in addition to the main net-

work, coverage will include MuchMusic, MTV, Bravo!,

the CHUM radio net-

work and CTV News

network. She said the

tour will also receive

regular updates on

www.lilith.ctv.ca

Corelli said the

neworks’ support will

include the building

of awareness for the

tour’s charitable initia-

tives across Canada.

She said CTV is

producing and airing

a national 30-second

public service an-

nouncement. Th e

Lilith Tour is choosing a charity in each of the fi ve

Canadian cities to support during the festival. She said

that to date, Lilith Fair has raised over $10M for wom-

en’s charities across North America.

Th e Canadian leg of the tour, which runs through-

out the summer, will feature Sarah Mclachlan, Mary

J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson and Chantal

Kreviazuk, among others.

BITS AND BYTES

School Goes 3DThe Government of Canada recently announced it was giving Vancouver’s Emily Carr Uni-

versity of Art and Design $530,000 toward the purchase of equipment and the developing

of its Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) Centre of Excellence in digital media and fi lm technologies.

“British Columbia has a vibrant fi lmmaking industry and today’s investment will pro-

vide the necessary resources so this industry can remain competitive in the West,”

said Lynne Yelich, federal Minister of State for Western Economic Diversifi cation.

Western Diversifi cation spokesperson Lisa Hutniak said the S3D centre will be housed

in Emily Carr’s Intersections Digital Studios. She said the new initiative will “strengthen”

Emily Carr’s applied research and collaboration with industry and will result in the only

western Canadian S3D fi lm-making technology research and training program.

“We are grateful to the Government of Canada for recognizing the need for this

type of investment,” said Dr. Ron Burnett, Emily Carr President & Vice-Chancellor.

“This funding will allow us to grow the capabilities of the Centre and lead the country

in ground-breaking S3D technology research, education and training.” Hutniak said

the investment will give the BC fi lm industry “a leading position” through training and

applied research in production and post-production for S3D technology.

Distribution 360 Makes Change Canadian production company Distribution360 announced at the recent Banff Televi-

sion Festival that it is entering into the multi-platform entertainment distribution arena.

Spokesperson René d’Entremont said that the company’s mandate is “the full mon-

etization of television and interactive content.” She said Distribution360 focuses on

children’s, youth, drama and factual programming on traditional and emerging plat-

forms for distribution to international audiences.

“At Distribution360, we strive to provide the best possible client service to produc-

ers and broadcasters internationally,” said managing director Stéphanie Röckmann-

Portier. “We take a client-centered approach, which allows us to represent programs

and content to potential buyers in the most compelling way.”

Distribution360 was co-founded by two Canadian production companies: marble-

media and SEVEN24 Films. Dentrement said the company brings unique expertise to

the table from different areas in the entertainment industry, including a proven track

record within new media.

Restoration to ContinueThe Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television recently announced that it will contin-

ue the fi lm and television-related programming of the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust,

including the Astral Restoration Program. The Trust, which protected and promoted

Canada’s audiovisual heritage, folded in the fall of 2009.

“As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, it is particularly fi tting that we have been

provided this unique opportunity to broaden the scope of our work to include the res-

toration and preservation of Canadian fi lm and television,” said the Academy’s Sara

Morton. “Understanding and honouring our artistic heritage enhances our apprecia-

tion for the works we recognize annually through our Awards shows. We are proud to

continue the efforts of the AV Trust and look forward to preserving and promoting our

country’s rich and dynamic fi lm and television history.”

Academy spokesperson Judy Lung said the Astral Restoration Program, which

was introduced in 2000, has restored and re-released a number of fi lms including

Loyalties Les bons débarras, and Seul ou avec d’autres.

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Vancouver-based director John Za-

ritsky’s fi lm about a Vancouver stand

up comic dying of Lou Gehrig’s dis-

ease has won the Special Jury Prize

at May’s Hot Docs documentary fi lm

festival in Toronto.

Leave Th em Laughing follows Car-

la Zilbersmith in her battle with Lou

Gehrig’s disease. Th e jury said the

fi lm told the story of “an unimagin-

ably horrifying disease that draws us

in rather than making us turn away.

Th e subject is someone approaching

death, but the fi lm is about how to

live. We admire it most for bring-

ing us into an intimate relationship

between a mother and son without

feeling voyeuristic or manipulative.”

Sponsored by the Brian Linehan

Charitable Foundation, the award

features a $10,000 prize.

Th e fi lm was one of three Cana-

dian fi lms to fi nish in the top ten

for the festival’s audience award. It

fi nished fi fth while John Walker’s A

Drummer’s Dream fi nished second

and Juan Baquero’s Listen to Th is

fi nished seventh. Th e winner was an

American fi lm, Th under Soul. Ac-

cording to executive director Chris

McDonald, the festival showed 170

fi lms and brought more than 150

fi lmmakers and special guest sub-

jects to Toronto.

Laughing leaves them voting


A new Knowledge Network docu-

mentary fi lm about BC’s leading

artists explores how each artist’s

approach and style is infl uenced

by their location. According to a

spokesperson for cArtographies, the

fi lm examines both the challenges

and inspirations of their geographic

surroundings.

Katharine Brodsky says direc-

tor Brian Johnson profi les several

BC-based artists including visual

artist Stan Douglas, musician Jes-

se Zubot, singer-songwriter Veda

Hille, dancer and choreographer

Crystal Pite, writer Michael Turn-

er, fi lmmaker Fumiko Kiyooka,

theatre performer Paul Ternes,

and painter Renee van Halm.

Brodsky says Johnson

“uses performance, documentary,

and experimental fi lmmaking to take

viewers on a unique journey through

the worlds of these powerful artists.”

She says Johnson used four themes.

Th ey included Vancouver as a post-

modern utopia, the proximity of na-

ture, the freedom of the frontier, and

community. “cArtographies,” she says,

“responds to questions on why these

visionaries choose to live where

they live, how physical and cultural

environment might infl uence their

work, and how their varied processes

work,” she says.

Th e fi lm was produced and co-

written by Leah Mallen of Twofold

Films and edited and co-directed by

Brendan Woollard with music by

composer John Korsrud. Th e Know-

ledge Network’s Murray Battle was

the executive producer.

Doc Unveils BC Artists

Monster and FriendsA short fi lm about a girl’s journey to feed an elusive mon-

ster lurking in the woods is currently in post production.

Monster stars Jodelle Ferland, a co-star of Twilight Saga:

Eclipse and lead actress in Terry Gilliam’s Tideland.

According to director Debra Burns-Johnson the

fi lm’s script won the 3rd Annual Hot Shot Shorts Con-

test. Th e award includes $20,000 in in-kind services

and cash donations from the Vancouver fi lm commu-

nity. Th e contest also gives 100% of its proceeds to the

fi lmmaker for costs inevitably incurred in production.

Monster was directed by Burns-Johnson and pro-

duced by Timo Puolitaipale with Jon Joffi n the DOP

and Rich Johnson the editor and VFX producer.

Burns-Johnson said Monster is also utilizing online

crowd funding through Indiegogo and working with

Vancouver-based movieset.com on promotion.

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NEWREBATES

Winnipeg Appealsto CrowdWinnipeg was home to Oscar-nominated writer/

director Julien Magnat’s feature debut Faces In Th e

Crowd this past spring. Th e psychological thriller, a

Manitoba/Saskatchewan co-production, stars Milla

Jovovich and Julian McMahon. A spokesperson,

Richelle Bourgouin, says the movie was made with

key technical and creative personnel from both

provinces. “Principal photography took place in

Manitoba and post-production including all com-

puter generated visual eff ects will be completed in

Saskatchewan,” she said.

According to Bourgoin, Magnat’s script tells the

story of a school teacher (Jovovich) who is attacked

by a serial killer and survives, but is left to struggle

with a neurological disorder commonly referred

to as face-blindness (prosopagnosia). Only able to

recognize voices she fi ghts to adapt to her diagnosis

and the ever-changing faces of those around her.

Working with a detective (McMahon) she races to

identify her attacker. Meanwhile the killer is closing

in determined to eliminate the potential witness.

In addition to Jovovich and McMahon the cast

includes Michael Shanks, David Atrakchi, Sarah

Wayne Callies and Marianne Faithful. Th e fi lm is

being produced by Saskatchewan’s Minds Eye Enter-

tainment and Winnipeg’s Frantic Films with Fore-

cast Pictures and Radar Films. Th e producers are

Kevin DeWalt, Jean-Charles Lévy, Clément Mis-

erez, and Jamie Brown, Scott Mednick and Sylvain

White. Th e executive producers are Christopher

Petzel and Jovovich.

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REEL WEST WAS THERE in Vancouver on June 5th for the 2010 Leo Awards and in Banff June 13-16 for the Banff World Television Awards. Award recipients and attendees photographed by Phil Chin.

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2010 LEO AWARDS (AND THE WINNER IS...)2010 LEO AWARDS (AND THE WIINNER IS...) 1. Costume Design, Short Drama JENNIFER SHARPE 2. Direction, Dramatic Series BRENTON SPENCER 3. Male Suppporting Performance, Dramatic Series CHRISTOPHER HEYERDAHL 4. Direction/Storyboarding/Screenwriting, Animation PHILLIP IVANUSIC, DAVILA LEBLANC, ASAPH FIPKE, KEN FAIER, CHUCK JOHNSON 5. Musical Score, Documentary DAN GAGNON 6. Screen Writing, Documentary CATHARINE PARKE 7. Direction, Youth Program JB SUGAR 8. Direction, Documentary Program PETE MCCORMACK 9. Student Production DAWSON TOLLS 10. Feature Length Docurmentary Program DERIK MURRAY, PAUL GERTZ, PETE MCCORMACK and CREW 11. Direction, Short Drama ANA VALINE 2010 BANFF WORLD TELEVISION FESTIVAL2010 BBANFF WORLD TELEVISIONN FESTIVAL 1. Speaker/Presenter DAVID SUZUKI having fun with RCMP offi cers 2. Actor/Producer ILLEANA DOUGLAS 3. Multi winner for Life 4. Actor/Director JASON PRIESTLY and wife 5. Comedy Award Recipient RICKY GERVAIS 6. Actors ZAIB SHAIKH, KENNY HOTZ, ERIC MCCORMACK and JASON PRIESTLY 7. MARNI FULLERTON, SANDY FLANNIGAN and attendee 8. Green Grand Prize winner LOUIE PSIHOYOS 9. Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient WILLIAM SHATNER 10. Producers NIMISHA MUKERJI, JOHN RITCHIE, PHILIP LYALL 11. Grand Jury Prize PHILIPPE MULLER


Wapos WrapsOne of western Canada’s longest running animated se-

ries will be back this fall on APTN. According to Wa-

pos Bay spokesperson Tera McGuire the fi fth season

of the show recently wrapped production. “Th is year

we will have completed eight new episodes of Wapos

Bay,” said Dennis Jackson, the show’s producer. “We

have new sets and new characters, one of which will

be David Suzuki playing himself as an environmental

warrior in a futuristic post apocalyptic world.”

Th e stop motion series, which is set on a reservation in

northern Saskatchewan, was created by Jackson and his

wife, Melanie Jackson, and is based on Dennis Jackson’s

Cree culture and childhood experiences in Sandy Bay,

Saskatchewan. McGuire said the world depicted in Wa-

pos Bay originated in a short story Jackson wrote in high

school. She says that in his fi nal year of fi lm studies at the

University of Regina, Jackson took the story and made

a short fi lm that went on to win the Telefi lm Canada/

Television Northern Canada Award for Best Aboriginal

Production at the 1998 Banff Television Festival.

McGuire said the show’s list of awards includes three

Geminis, two Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival

Golden Sheafs, two Showcase Awards, two imag-

ineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Awards, a 2009

Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) Award of

Excellence, and a 2009 Elan Award for Best Director

for an Animated Production.

A BC production company recently

premiered a fi lm about an activist

and a retired sex worker who push

the legal limits of prostitution and

open a co-op brothel operated by

sex workers.

Th e Brothel Project, which was

nominated for a 2010 Leo Award for

best short documentary premiered

in June on the Global network.

Written by Gillian Hranowski and

directed by April Butler-Parry, it

follows Jody Paterson and Lauren

Casey as they challenge mainstream

thinking by opening their brothel in

Victoria.

Shot in New Zealand and Victoria,

the fi lm was narrated by Vancouver

actor Carly Pope and produced by

Force Four Productions.

Brothel Open


Although I was born in

Michigan where my fa-

ther was attending uni-

versity, I grew up on a

farm in the Ottawa Valley. I learned

about hard work from my parents

who, in addition to running a large

farm, were educators and sociologists.

I attended Sir George Williams Uni-

versity for two years where I was fi rst

introduced to television production.

But I couldn’t resist joining a friend in

San Francisco during the “summer of

love.” I made new friends in California

and somehow we came up with the

idea of going to Amsterdam. Th ere we

undertook an impossible dream.... the

building of a 55’ schooner. Along with

a small crew, I lived the hippie life on a

barge and at the same time organized

the construction of Th e Stone Maid-

en. I spent much of the 70’s sailing the

Mediterranean and when it was time

to wind down, we took her across the

Atlantic. It was now the late 70’s and

my partner and I decided to sell our

boat. It was the proceeds from this

enterprise that fi nanced the purchase

of my fi rst camera. It was around

this time that I met my wife Peggy,

while on a shoot in New York City. I

remember that I was in the process

of incorporating a company and try-

ing to decide on a name. Peggy said,

“Why not, simply, Sim Video Produc-

tions?” And so it was.

Freelancing was tough and we

were expecting the fi rst of our two

sons. I remember Peggy’s disappoint-

ment when I came home from a job

interview at the CBC with the news

that they would not hire me. But, as

time would prove, we made the best

of it! Our fi rst “offi ce” was a walk

up over a Roti shop in a run-down

neighborhood of Toronto. Th en it

was the basement of a small house in

the West End.

Right from the beginning, I was

privileged to work with many up and

coming television producers and high

profi le corporate clients. It was ap-

parent that there was a growing de-

mand for broadcast video equipment

rentals and most rental houses were

still focusing on fi lm. I took my small

nest egg and purchased the Ikegami

HL-79 which was the “hot” camera at

that time. I quickly spread word to let

all my contacts know I had a camera

available for rent. Th e response was

amazing and we found steady work

for it almost instantly.

For the fi rst while, Peggy and I han-

dled everything ourselves, operating

the company right from our home.

Peggy would take bookings and handle

client calls while I would check equip-

ment and make sure it was ready for

the next job. I also continued to work

as a freelancer going out on jobs with

our camera packages, using any extra

income to invest in more cameras,

lenses and accessories.

By 1989, our business was growing.

At this point, we had two full time

employees and four camera packages

and we were physically outgrowing

the confi nes of our basement opera-

tion. We knew we had to seek out a

BEGINNINGS

Rob Sim President & CEO, Sim Video International Inc.


more functional offi ce space for our

staff and one that would allow us to

increase our inventory.

Making the move to secure a more

suitable location and taking on a

lease, overhead and all the costs asso-

ciated was a tough decision to make.

Th e 80’s were a diffi cult time for many

small businesses and interest rates

were at an all time high at 18%! As

trying as these times were, we knew

that we couldn’t hold off on making

the move. However, we were very

careful to not overextend ourselves.

We found a small offi ce in downtown

Toronto where we decided to set up

our fi rst shop and it felt incredible to

put our sign above that door.

Once we moved in we were able to

better service our clients. With a lot

of hard work we were able to secure

contracts with many of Canada’s

leading broadcasters, cameramen

and production companies like CBC,

CTV, Global, Alliance Atlantis, In-

sight, Shaftesbury and Barna Alper

Productions (all of whom we are still

doing business with today). Our cli-

ents were extremely loyal and it was

these relationships that helped us

weather through the recession and

still grow in the process. We con-

tinued to acquire more equipment,

more staff and more clients than any

other video equipment rental house

in the city.

By 1991, we were approached with

our fi rst expansion opportunity. Pro-

duction was booming in British Co-

lumbia and we decided that it would

make an ideal location for another

Sim Video offi ce. From there, we ex-

panded our inventory to include Avid

post technologies, off ering the fi rst

non-linear editing systems available

for rent in Western Canada. Our fi rst

post project was Far From Home: Th e

Adventures of Yellow Dog, which was

sadly the late Phillip Borsos’ last fea-

ture production. In 1994, Sim Video

West capitalized on the increased

demand for specialized playback

services by securing multiple season

contracts with high profi le shows

like Th e X-Files and went on to claim

its place as a leading provider of play-

back services in Vancouver.

More and more Hollywood proj-

ects began shooting in Vancouver

and using our services. With our LA-

based client list growing, our next

logical step led us to open an offi ce

in Hollywood and by 1999 we were

offi cially operating in three of the

world’s busiest production centers.

Around that time, the introduc-

tion of high defi nition cameras rep-

resented our most pivotal moment

as a company. Th e technology was

innovative and the picture quality

was like nothing we’d experienced

in the video world before. We knew

that HD would defi nitely change the

landscape of production and that we

had a small window of opportunity

to become leaders in this area. Th at

is, if we could master the equipment

quickly enough.

Sony’s fi rst digital high-defi nition

camera, the HDW-700, carried a

steep price tag but we wanted to be

at the forefront of this digital revo-

lution. We invested immediately

and became the fi rst rental house in

Canada to off er these cameras, pro-

viding two 700s for the world’s fi rst

HD television series, Lexx for Salter

Street Films in Halifax. Even though

there was a huge learning curve we

knew our early adoption would pay

off . We had two very skilled engi-

neers working for us (who still work

with us today) and we knew that

their work would be pivotal in ensur-

ing clients felt comfortable using the

new technology. Sony was also very

supportive when it came to ensuring

that clients using their cameras were

well taken care of.

Sim Video then went on to provide

Sony F900 camera packages to shoot

Earth: Final Confl ict; the world’s fi rst

24P HD production. After that, we

were seen as leaders when it came

to HD equipment. Th at’s when our

real growth began! Both shows re-

ceived a lot of press coverage for us-

ing ground-breaking technology and

as their service provider our name

quickly spread through the industry.

Beyond our inventory, which was

second to none when it came to both

SD and HD products, clients came

to us for the level of service we of-

fered and our knowledge in support-

ing digital technology. Our expertise

landed us gigs on complicated and

highly technical productions includ-

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PH

OT

O P

HIL

LIP

CH

IN


BEHIND THE SCENES

Almost twenty years after it made its professional debut at a maxi-

mum security prison in Montreal, the Vancouver-based Under-

ground Circus is an established member of the Canadian entertain-

ment scene. And it has also blossomed into a regular contributor

to the western Canadian fi lm scene through stunt and dance work.

Th e Circus was created by Peter Boulanger and Ninon Parent, two former

members of Cirque Du Soleil, and alumni of Montreal’s L’école National du

Cirque. Boulanger says they started it as a way of training friends who were

interested in the circus arts. “We started out just sharing our skills for fun,”

he says. “However, after a couple of years, a few of our friends had developed

their skills to the point where they asked us if they could join in our shows.”

Boulanger and Parent moved Th e Underground Circus to Vancouver in

1992. Th ere seemed to be a strong interest in the Vancouver community for

a circus group and Th e Underground Circus almost immediately developed a

reputation for strong technique, innovative apparatus, and attention to detail.

Some of the fi rst connections they made in the fi lm industry were through

the stunt community. “Some great BC stunt performers did shows with us when

they were fi rst getting into fi lm,” says Boulanger. “Th ere’s a lot of similarity in the

risk and physical skills involved, plus, of course, the emphasis on performance.

Ninon and I still work in stunts, and we’re very glad that our circus training has

helped us with the general movement sense that’s so critical for stunts”

Training is still a priority for Parent and Boulanger but the company is

involved in every aspect of its shows. Boulanger says they don’t leave any-

thing to chance. “We train people who are passionate about the circus arts,

to raise their skills in performance and acrobatics to a professional level but

we also build the circus apparatus and explore movement and performance

in these new environments. We create the circus productions, either working

in partnership or alone. And we have a range of shows. We can provide small

one or two act shows and we can create elaborate corporate spectacle.”

Naturally, there are many stories that have developed after almost 20 years

of circus life. “We have taken the show on the road a lot,” says Parent. “We

were one of the main acts on the outdoor stage at (the Montreal comedy fes-

tival) Juste Pour Rire and we did a birthday party for a Malaysian Princess in

Hollywood. We’ve performed with 12 diff erent symphony orchestras and last

Christmas we were doing shows in Hong Kong.”

There have also been a few crazy days in their home province. “One

show idea Peter created had me and three other women doing a synchro-

nized silk act over the wing of a Boeing 737 for the BCIT Aereospace

Campus,” she says. “We were doing hand to hand balancing on the wings

too, which was wild. There was another time that we floated a contor-

tionist inside a transparent sphere on one of the pools at the Vancouver

Aquarium. That took a lot of testing. We had to be very careful not to

freak out the fish. If they get scared, they forget there’s this giant glass wall

in front of them…”

Under the heading of grand spectacle you can fi nd the creating of a huge

puppet for the opening of the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. “I

designed and built a 10 meter high puppet,” says Boulanger. “It was a mari-

onette. Th e cool part is that we made it capable of picking up circus acts in its

hands. It’s the largest marionette in North America, and the only one in the

world designed to carry circus acts.”

Parent says the Underground Circus was very active during the recent Van-

couver Winter Olympics. “We did the circus entertainment for both the Sam-

sung and Coca Cola pavilions at the David Lam Park Live Site,” she says. “We

programmed several nights at the Commodore, including one mass fl ash mob

dance of over forty dancers. And we poured vodka from one of our circus ap-

paratuses at the Russian pavilion in Science World. I think we ended up hiring

almost 90 performers during the Olympics”

Boulanger admits that the creating of specialized events takes a lot of re-

hearsal. He says the group recently opened their own facility to develop new

concepts and to rehearse the company. “We love our space”, says Boulanger.

“Our fl oors are all semi-sprung. Th ere is just enough spring to reduce impact,

without losing stability. It’s got high ceilings, and any kind of rigging we want

to put in. And it’s not just for us. We intend that it be used for the perfor-

mance community for anything involving rehearsal and production in circus,

dance, theatre, fi lm, stunts. If it is movement related, we can host it.”

Parent says the future looks busy. “We’re writing a show that we hope to

have in BC theatres this autumn and we’ve got a string of corporate shows be-

fore then that we’ll have to do a lot of prep for. We’re going to keep developing

our space, putting in diff erent rigging and equipment. And we will be training.

We’re always training” ■

Practice made perfect for Underground Circus

portunities. As the technology con-

tinued to evolve, cameras like the

Sony F900R, F23 and F35, Phantom

HD and RED ONE convinced pro-

ducers who traditionally shot fi lm to

make the switch to digital faster than

we ever anticipated. Th is ultimately

pushed our move to even bigger of-

fi ces in Toronto, Vancouver and Los

Angeles and led us to open two more

Sim Video offi ces, in Halifax and Bei-

jing, to keep up with demand.

In 2009, we discovered a small

company while we were on-set pro-

viding 57 RED ONE cameras for a

Nike commercial shoot. Th e com-

pany, Bling Digital, reminded us of

how we started our own company

many years ago. Th ey had found a

niche market providing digital and

tape-less workfl ow solutions for RED

camera productions and they were

really making a good name for them-

selves in the industry. We found that

Bling’s on-set data management and

digital dailies services were highly

developed and accurately addressed

the needs of today’s producers. We

also recognized that their services

complemented our core business

and fi lled the grey area that existed

between our camera and post rent-

als. With all of this in mind, we ap-

proached Bling about the possibility

of combining our services and fi nally

made our plans to merge offi cially in

November last year.

Now, with over 28 years of indus-

try experience behind us, we’d say

that Sim Video’s success has been

based on a lot of hard work and prep-

aration, following our gut instincts

and building a team that shares our

passion for technology and service.

A little luck and happy clients hasn’t

hurt either! ■

Beginnings continued from page 11


Like many Australian fi lm-

makers before him Robert

Luketic attracted Holly-

wood’s attention with an

award-winning fi lm. In his case it

was the short fi lm Titsiana Booberi-

ni, the story of a girl who discov-

ers facial hair removal after being

ridiculed by other women. He was

brought to the US to direct Legally

Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon

in the summer of 2001. Th e movie

made over $100 million domesti-

cally and earned Luketic the right to

direct more American comedies.

Two years later he followed up

with Win a Date with Tad Ham-

ilton! In 2005 he made Monster In

Law with Jennifer Lopez and Jane

Fonda, who came out of retirement

to make the movie. He switched

to drama to make 21, starring

Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess but

switched back last year for The Ugly

Truth starring Katherin Heigl and

Gerard Butler. In 2010 he brought

Heigl back for a second comedy,

Killers, which also starred Ash-

ton Kutcher and Tom Selleck. The

movie, which was released in June,

is expected to be out on DVD this

fall. In May, Reel West Executive

Editor Ian Caddell talked to Luke-

tic about Kutcher and his Killers,

comedy’s risks and the slow death

of the DVD.

Ashton Kutcher brought you into

the fi lm. How did that process

evolve?

“Lions Gate called me and told me

they had a movie with Ashton in it

and I didn’t know that he was a pro-

ducer until I took the meeting. So I

took the meeting and they said ‘you

have to meet Ashton.’ So I went to his

house and we had two meetings. I

wanted to see what kind of producer

he would be and he is a very smart

kid. He is probably one of the best

producers I have worked with. He is

involved but also passionate. He will

waive his hours because actors have

a certain turnaround time that they

have to work and he is just there all

the time. He worked like a dog on

this movie and I will gladly direct

anything else he wants to produce.

He is great. He is super smart and a

real entrepreneur.”

Does he get in the way at all?

“No, he takes direction. He will try

anything you want him to try. He

just wants it to be good. He wants to

learn. He wants to expand himself,

so there was never any tension I can

honestly say.”

Can you talk a little about the high

risk of making comedies? We know

it is all subjective and there will al-

ways be people who don’t get the

joke. Do you ever feel uncomfort-

able or take it personally?

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Robert Luketic Comedic director and risk-taker

Kat

herin

Hei

gl a

nd A

shto

n K

utch

er s

tar

in L

uket

ic’s

Kille

rs


EXPERT WITNESS

“It’s hard to be full of yourself in Canada. If there was a motto in Canada it would be ‘who

do you think you are, eh?’ I think it is very good training to just be a person growing up

in Canada. People say a lot of things about Canada, that it is boring and stuff but if you

look around the world there is something to praise in boring. It is a very civilized world to

grow up in and I am very proud of it.” Mike Myers on being Canadian.

“When Kevin (James) texts me I laugh for fi ve minutes. I don’t write that ‘lol’ because

I am a comedian and I think other comedians will say ‘are you kidding me?’ So I just

write back ‘good one.’ (Chris) Rock is one of the funniest guys I have ever met in my

life with just summing up something and having a different slant on it where you just

think ‘that is amazingly accurate. I can’t believe that he ever thought that.’ His comedy

is just genius. There was a lot of adlibbing and a lot of jokes these guys brought. I

wasn’t shocked by anybody. Friends of ours said they loved Spade and I think that is

because they are used to the rest of us doing good work but they aren’t used to David

doing anything good.” Actor Adam Sandler on hiring his comic friends to co-star

with him in Grown Ups.

“Twitter gives me freedom of expression more than anything. I can say whatever I want

and it is unedited. I don’t have to depend on anyone else to deliver my message. I think

it gives me a connection to what people are thinking and feeling and what they are inter-

ested in and it makes me better at my job. I will have someone post things on my Face-

book fan page occasionally but I post everything on my Twitter page. People on Twitter

keep it real. For instance, if you are complaining about something that is not something

to complain about people let you know. There is always someone there to keep your

ego in check which I really appreciate.” Actor Ashton Kutcher, who set a record last

year for the most Twitter followers, on his relationship with social networks.

“I like working with young people and I like working with fi rst time directors like (Harry

Brown’s) Daniel Barber. There is something about the freshness. The young actors

that were on this fi lm were excited and prepared, sometimes too excited but it’s so

great working with young people. I was taught the Stanislavski method, which is that

rehearsals are the work and the acting is just a result of that and that’s not really a big

thing now. But I do believe in working as a team. If someone fl ubbed a line I would

fl ub mine. I think that is appropriate.” Actor Michael Caine on working with a young

cast on Harry Brown.

”The people who work forever in this business are usually the people who do the same

thing all the time. It’s much more diffi cult this way where you take a movie where you

have an accent and then you are playing a cop. They can’t pigeon hole you which is

good but they can’t say ‘this is what he does so let’s hire him for this role’ so it works

both ways. I follow my desire but this journey is tricky. It is a grind because the movies

I want to do are not the things people with money want to do.” Actor Don Cheadle

on making choices.

“I used to take what people were writ-

ing about me very personally but I

just learned to not do that anymore.

Someone must like them. Th at is all

I care about now but I used to be

very upset about reaction. I became

very dark about things. I was so op-

timistic when I came to Hollywood

but I found myself becoming bitter

and I have turned that around be-

cause I realized there was no need

for that. People are going to write

what they are going to write. Critics

are important. Th ere is a place for

them in the world but I can’t make

things for them because that would

be wrong. Th ey have to fi nd it them-

selves. But people like my movies. I

have been very successful commer-

cially but not critically.”

Ashton Kutcher says he likes to

make changes in the editing bay as

a producer. Do you supply a lot of

coverage so that producers and edi-

tors can have control over the fi lm?

“Th ere is not a lot of coverage in my

movies. Th at is something that you

learn as you go along, that you don’t

shoot a library of things for people

because they will say ‘let’s look at it

this way.’ You can control the struc-

ture of the scene or what it means by

being specifi c. I don’t do a lot of cov-

erage although some of the action we

have to shoot over and over again. A

dialogue scene is what it is and there

is not much you can change. You can

cut words out but that is about it in

terms of the way I like to shoot stuff .”

When DVDs fi rst came out there

were so many extras but that is less

and less true now. How do you ap-

proach the DVD?

“No-one buys DVDs any more. Th e

DVD market is terribly depressed.

People are looking online and they

want immediate access. Th ey don’t

want to hold on to something. Th ey

want something that they can watch

when they want on their personal

device. You don’t have to take any-

thing with you. You can download

it. DVD has had its day. Th ere are

exceptions like Avatar. I don’t think

I will ever do a DVD commentary.

I would rather shoot my brains out.

Does anyone listen to those things?”

You don’t save things for the

DVD then?

“No, I will do that because there are

things you want to share with people

whether they are interested or not.

Th ere are things you thought were

good. We shoot more than we need

and there are scenes where the actors

were really good and that of itself is a

great thing to share with people. In

an action fi lm you don’t get to see the

way it is going to be because there

are eff ects that you don’t put money

into. So you end up with something

that is not worth showing people

with green screen.”

What makes you laugh? What do

you fi nd funny?

“I like it when two people discover

things about themselves or make

themselves feel uncomfortable. I like

when people are uncomfortable or

hysterical. Th e discovery of secrets is

very funny to me. I like it when you

are in a relationship and you think

you know someone but you don’t

know them. Th ere are things we keep

secret in our relationships for a rea-

son. You don’t tell everything to your

spouse. Th ere are some things that

will be forever just for you and I like

exploring those things.”

Is there a Luketic style that you see

when you watch the fi lms?

“I never watch my movies after the

premiere because I don’t feel like it

belongs to me any more. I haven’t

watched Legally Blonde since I did it.

If it comes on television I will watch

the fi rst fi ve minutes and then skip

the rest. I just don’t personally want

to watch it because it is all compro-

mise from the moment you start

making it.”

You use the backdrops as a charac-

ter. Is that important in establishing

character and humour and drama?

“It is very important because it is the

stage in which your play unfolds so

attention to that is as important as

the cast you put into it. It informs

how the actors are going to behave

and how we are going to feel when

we are there. It has always been im-

portant to me to establish where we

are. When you are doing a play the

backdrop and the set are the fi rst

layer, the foundation on which you

build everything else. We go through

an exhaustive location process for all

the movies.”

How tough is it to keep a balance

between comedy and drama?

“It’s hard but necessary because life is

not all laughs. Sometimes you need to

stop and feel things which help high-

light moments of levity and lightness.

You need to have both because life

is not all happiness and it is not dra-

matic and sad either. I think it makes

sense to have emotional connection

in a comedy that is farcical. It is value

added so it is not all stupidity.” ■ Excerpted from interviews done by Reel West editor Ian Caddell.

Mik

e M

yers

in T

he L

ove

Gur

u


CLOCK WISE FROM TOP: Jochen Schliessler, on location in the Yukon; Allison Beda, during the fi lming of How to be a Model; David Hauka on location near Palm Springs while shooting his upcoming fi lm Awkward; An image representing Anne Marie Fleming’s fi lm Long Tack Sam


WHILE THAT APPROACH to fi lmmaking will al-

ways be with us, writing what you know can also take

other forms. Vancouver-based fi lmmaker Jochen

Schliessler has made several fi lms for German tele-

vision that followed the journeys of his father Mar-

tin, a documentary fi lmmaker. David Hauka chose

to use diff erent narrative approaches to look back at

his own life and the death of his parents and grand-

parents in Certainty. Meanwhile, Ann Marie Flem-

ing and Allison Beda are putting themselves into

their own fi lms through both short and long stories,

in documentary and fi ctional form.

Hauka came to a trio of personal stories (Cer-

tainty is the fi rst of three with Awkward and an-

other as yet unnamed fi lm scheduled to follow)

from a career in Canadian dramas and US service

work. He had produced Whale Music, directed

Impolite and had been the production manager on

several American movies and television shows in-

cluding Eight Below and Th e Five People You Meet

in Heaven when he decided to look back at his own

life and times using music, collage and narratives

that would take the viewer through the images of a

generation. He says that the toughest part of mak-

ing personal fi lms is that you are forced to dredge

up memories that you had been happy to leave

behind. Th e best part is that you can usually fi nd

universal truths in your own personal stories.

“It is a very hard process creating these pieces,

because you fi rst have to get to the truth of it and

then pare it down to something that is not just ex-

pansive endless prose or nostalgia or self-serving

treacle. When you rip it down to something that

is personal it becomes universal because everyone

has had these experiences whether we are talking

about death in the case of Certainty or about the

evolution of love, which is the theme of Awkward.

Any one of these things is incredibly diffi cult to

talk about. I think the closer you move towards

your real experience the more universal the sub-

ject matter is and the more accessible it becomes

to a viewer.”

Th at said, he admits that there is an inher-

ent danger of naval gazing. He says that trying to

fi nd the common denominators in your own life

and those of others without crossing the line into

self-indulgence can be tricky. “You have to be ex-

tremely careful about that (self indulgence.) When

I was developing Certainty, I had to be very care-

ful about getting maudlin or going someplace that

was not being hard on myself. It is like self analysis.

I am not saying that you do this (making personal

fi lms) to avoid psychiatry or anything like that but

people involved in those things say that it (Cer-

tainty) is valuable for their patients to see because

it isn’t self-indulgent. Instead, it is saying ‘this hap-

pened.’ Th is is not about me bathing myself in self-

indulgence it is more like an acid bath. It is not a

place I want to go personally but it is a place I am

going as a fi lmmaker. So I think that yes, being

perceived as self-indulgent is a huge danger. Th e

checks include being constantly self aware of what

you are doing but also showing the work in prog-

ress - which is something that I had never done be-

fore - to people from a wide array of backgrounds,

including people who don’t know me and people

who have known me for years and won’t cut me

any slack. Th at was all part of the process.”

Fleming has been making personal fi lms for

over 20 years. Her fi rst short fi lm, Waving, played

the fi lm festival circuit in 1988. She says that when

she decided to look back at the life of her Chinese

great-grandfather and the roots of her family it

was diffi cult for her relatives to understand why

she was interested in the life of a man who had

died before she was born. Th e fi lm, entitled Th e

Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, is an exploration of

his life on the road in the early 1900s as an acrobat

and magician. She says her relatives expected that

she might be judgmental or maudlin but that she

has always worked hard to keep away from both

elements. And she says that she too was able to

fi nd universal appeal in something that began as a

personal journey.

“Th ere were a lot of things that I chose not to

represent in the fi lm,” she says. “I wanted to hint at

issues without being provocative for the sake of it.

My family was not interested in this story for the

fi rst couple of years. Th ey couldn’t understand why

I was digging things up but when they saw the his-

torical relevance that this man had and the impact

on cultures, they changed and became interested.

I spent fi ve years on it and I now feel that if we

all spent that much time caring about people who

were alive it would be a better world. I found it

to be a painful process, particularly learning about

my grandmother who I spent 24 years with and

these huge lives that were not appreciated. I was

aghast at my own ignorance but all over the world

that fi lm brought people together, people who

thought they had nothing in common historically.

We were very similar in a larger picture and we

were living out these stories that we didn’t know

about so it was very moving and it was a very posi-

tive thing.”

Fleming has made 18 fi lms now, ranging in

Some of the best known western Canadian fi lms have been personal stories told through a somewhat fi ction-alized narrative. The school of “Write what you know” brought us Sandy Wilson’s My American Cousin and American Boyfriend, Anne Wheeler’s Bye Bye Blues, Mina Shum’s Double Happiness and Julia Kwan’s Eve and the Fire Horse all of which owed their existence to the nostalgia of their writer/directors.

Keeping it Personal

Story by

Ian Caddell


length from fi ve minutes to 90 and

from quirky dramatic shorts to fea-

ture documentaries and the 2003

dramatic feature Th e French Guy.

She says that telling stories that aff ect

the people in them can only work if

they feel that there is respect behind

the camera.

“I deal a lot with my own family

so I have to take a distance stance in

my storytelling. It is interesting mak-

ing that choice. It helps me deal with

issues that I might feel too close to.

I am an odd duck in that I put my-

self in a third person distance with

my own work. I think that if you are

choosing to exploit something you

have to have a lot of respect for the

subjects because they are sharing

something with you.”

Schliessler’s father involved his

family in the making of his docu-

mentaries and eventually both his

sons, Jochen and Tobias, went on

to become fi lmmakers in their own

right while his daughter Tina worked

as a sound editor before becoming

a portrait photographer. Jochen de-

cided to literally follow in his father’s

footsteps by retracing his journeys to

places as far fl ung as South America

and Alaska. Th e documentaries he

has made about his well-known Ger-

man fi lmmaker father have fared

well when shown on German televi-

sion. He says that when he makes his

fi lms he often fi nds himself wonder-

ing how his father managed to do

the same work a half a century ago

considering that travelling to remote

regions is a tough enough task in the

early part of the 21st Century.

“When we went to South Ameri-

ca, it was so hard, with a small crew.

Th e gear alone was tough in terms

of transportation. I would think

‘my god, how did my father do this.’

Th ere was so little communication

back in the 1960s compared to now.

You never knew what was going on

with him on his travels because it

would take three weeks to get a let-

ter and you would only know he was

fi ne then. He was gone so much and

he wasn’t an easy person. I think it

was very diffi cult for him to live the

kind of adventurous life he lived and

then come home and be a father fi g-

ure. It is very interesting for me to

try and feel what he was feeling out

there and then take that home. Th e

more I do the closer I feel to him and

what he must have felt going through

this. Th at is a challenging process.

Th at is where it gets a little deeper

for me and that is where it is not just

comparing old footage with the new.

Th ere have been moments where I

have met people who worked with

him and I showed them old footage

on my computer and they see them-

selves or family members and there

is this incredible thing where it is

almost like I rejoined my dad with

people and they connect and I have

felt that we have created a bridge.”

Th at “bridge” has been rebuilt in

several places. Schliessler says that

the key to the success of his “foot-

steps” documentaries has been

showing the world of his father’s

time against that of his own. And he

says he learned a lot about the times,

the places and the man he felt he had

never really known.

“My dad’s fi lms on Alaska started

in the 1950s with the natives doing

traditional drumming and dancing. I

went back there and went hunting on

the ice with the Inupiat (the Ameri-

can term for Inuit) shooting every-

thing for the fi rst part of a two part

series on Alaska. We went through

Alaska doing vignettes. He had been

there when the oil pipeline was built

at Prudhoe Bay and had done a story

about bush pilots who landed climb-

ers up there and he did a movie in

Sitka. I took little clips out and high-

lights of archived footage. Th e story is

the son following his dad’s footsteps

so we blended my footage and the

archival footage. We did two parts in

Alaska and two parts in South Ameri-

ca. We went to Ecuador where he had

worked with bush pilots and to Peru

and then to Bolivia where he did a

little short fi lm. It helped me so much

to know more about him and to feel I

knew who he was.”

Like Hauka, Allison Beda has

moved from US service work to

making her own fi lms and back

again. Between 2007 and 2009 she

worked as a camera operator on the

TV series Aliens in America and as

a director on the Canadian lifestyle

series Th e Shopping Bags while mak-

ing four personal shorts of her own.

She says that she has never felt par-

ticularly comfortable about talking

about things to people in her life but

has made several movies that com-

municate her feelings.

“It’s interesting because in some

way (making personal fi lms) feels saf-

er than talking to people one on one,”

she says. “I think it’s a way for me of

having intimate relationships with-

out having to be there. I have a hard

time talking about feelings which

isn’t necessarily a good thing because

I thrive on intimate connections and

the idea that you can tell everything

to family members and friends.

However, I have had a hard time do-

ing that so that is a way of making

those connections. I think that if you

are passionate about something you

make it happen. I am totally passion-

ate about making my short fi lms. It is

the thing I will always do no matter

what my circumstances are.”

In 2003, after making short per-

sonal movies with provocative titles

like Be Zero Be and You Are Not the

LEFT TO RIGHT: A scene from David Hauka’s fi lm Certainty; Jochen Schliessler, on location; Peggie LePage and Allison Beda, during the fi lming of How to be a Model; An image representing Anne Marie Fleming’s fi lm Long Tack Sam.

“I am an odd duck in that I put myself in a third person distance with my own work. I think that if you are choosing to exploit something you have to have a lot of respect for the subjects...”

- Ann Marie Fleming, Filmmaker


Boss of Me and Look Who Is F***ing

Sorry Now she made a feature length

documentary based on her fi rst ca-

reer called How to Be a Model (A 12

Step Plan.) She says it took her ten

years to get around to making the

feature, which she says came from

answering so many questions about

her own life as a model.

“When people would fi nd that I

modeled they would react with hor-

ror as though I was involved in pros-

titution. So I knew I wanted to do

something on that but I kept going

back and forth on the possibility. I just

think there is always something that

gets me worked up or passionate.”

Th e four short fi lms she has made

in the last three years have seen her

telling her personal stories through

tennis (30 Love), bicycling (One Day

LA), a phone call (9-1 Mom) and a

day at home (Just A Minute.) She

says that they usually spring from the

pages of her journals.

“I prefer making personal fi lms

like 30 Love where there are actors

I can work with and I like having a

director of photography with great

ideas that are diff erent and actors

who can bring something into it.

It doesn’t always happen that way

though because how often can you

ask people to do things for free? I

write a lot of journals and sometimes

they come from that. For instance, I

was asked to make a little segment

for the Northwest Film Festival in

Seattle. I was going to do a dance fi lm

and that fell apart because I couldn’t

put the people together in time and I

had this little thing I had written and

I thought maybe I could do ‘a day

in the life.’ Eventually I called it One

Day LA. I wasn’t going to be in it. I

came down to LA and asked for help

and no one could do it. I had to shoot

myself and then was stuck with ‘how

do I shoot myself on a bike.’ I asked

my friend Marya Delver to shoot me

and that is how it came together.”

Fleming too started out making

small movies that told personal sto-

ries against relatable backdrops. She

says that while she has approached

fi lmmaking from diff erent direc-

tions, if there is a common thread

it is the acknowledgment of life’s

experiences.

“I have made a lot of fi lms in dif-

ferent ways,” she says. “Th ey are so

diff erent but when I see them to-

gether there is an amazing cohesion.

I guess the fi rst time I was conscious-

ly involved in self exploration would

be (1989’s) You Take Care Now and

Waving. Th ey set the tone that I still

see in my personal work. It’s not

confessional or judgmental but it is

acknowledging experiences and put-

ting personal experience out there

in a universal context so that people

can relate to you. Th ey are more

about observations and statements

and exploration about what might

have been as opposed to what is.”

Hauka says that he can’t imagine

making a personal fi lm if he didn’t

feel passionate about the subject.

However, he will also do whatever he

can to make it resonate with people

who may not have had the same ex-

periences but understand the con-

text. “Certainty was about death and

grieving and it was about personal

loss and parents and grandparents

but it could just as easily be about

the loss of friends. We all have close

friends who passed away when we

were young or now and that passion

is raw. I think it (passion) has to be

there because if it isn’t there then you

are not anchoring the work with any-

thing that is true.” ■

The Definitive Producing WorkbookFor the producer, the world of independent film and television production is often surrounded by a sea of paperwork. The contracts, documents and requirements of agencies are constantly in flux. Nothing is definitive, every contract has its own set of particulars and every deal is different. "Boilerplate" agreements are open to negotiation. Rules can be flexible.

The PW4 will help guide a producer through some of the overwhelming volume of documents involved in the world of independent film and television production. Legal writers review the standard clauses and reveal issues of concern to producers negotiating contracts. Many sample agreements are included for reference. The book provides a comprehensive overview of national and provincial funding bodies and engaging stories and words of wisdom by seasoned producers.

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Th at change began when two Montreal-based

Anglo fi lmmakers found themselves on Genie jury

duty in Toronto. On the way home Tara Johns, a

writer-director who had grown up in Alberta and

Saskatchewan, pitched Quebec native Barbara

Shrier on an idea that she had for a movie set in

the provinces of her youth. Several years later Th e

Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom has wrapped

principal photography in rural Manitoba.

It has been a strange pan-Canadian journey, one

that has taken Johns and Shrier from their fi rst meet-

ing in Toronto through communication with all four

of the western provinces and back to Quebec. Along

the way they discovered that if you are a fi lmmaker

who wants to commute between Quebec and anoth-

er province there is good news and bad news. Th e

Quebec funder, SODEC (Société de développement

des entreprises culturelles), will off er strong support

but if you are shooting in another province to capture

the fl avour of the script, you will still have to shoot at

least half of your fi lm in La Belle Province. Although

Johns’ script was set in the prairies, she would have to

fi nd a way to shoot almost every interior in Montreal.

Th at would be diffi cult enough under most circum-

stances but Johns had used her memories of grow-

ing up in the prairies in the mid-1970s. Th at meant

the show was a period piece that had to fi nd ways of

moving from one province to another while staying

true to a bygone era.

Shrier says that once they had decided that they

would apply to their home province, their options

were limited. “Tax credit laws in Quebec are strin-

gent,” she says. “You have to have 75% of the shoot

in Quebec and when you are crewing up there are

six or seven conditions and one was not possible.

Th at was the cast. It was very diffi cult to cast the

fi lm in English because you can only use Quebec

actors. Th at was put in place so that they wouldn’t

be replaced by actors from France which is easy to

do in Quebec. Th ere are not many English actors

so I told SODEC that it would be diffi cult. Th ey

said to dilute my copyright and create a co-pro-

duction. So we had to shoot the interiors in Que-

bec and then go out west for exteriors.”

Shrier has made nine fi lms in Quebec includ-

ing Jutra and Genie winners and nominees. But

although she is English, she hadn’t tried to put to-

gether a co-production with any English-language

fi lmmakers. She says that she was wary of leaving

her home province but knew that she had to go

west in order to get the movie made.

“I work with people who trust me in Quebec but

in English Canada they don’t know me or Tara and

the traditional challenge is that if you are a Que-

becer you can’t make movies without SODEC and

Telefi lm. You need both of them. Th e fi rst challenge

was it was set in Calgary so it was a western story

about a young girl in the prairies. We needed to

stick to the story, which was not about Quebec, and

in English. And we needed to get money from SO-

DEC, which traditionally supports French-language

fi lms. It usually takes four rounds of going back to

them but I got a ‘yes’ from both SODEC and Telefi lm

in my fi rst meetings and more money from SODEC

than Telefi lm. So while everyone is going to think

that it was made in western Canada and there is not

a trace of Quebec in the fi lm, anyone who knows

me will know that I am the Quebec trace.”

Interprovincial co-productions have been an asset for Canadian fi lmmakers for several years. However, there was still one boundary that had not been crossed.No-one had thought about making an English-language co-production between Quebec and western Canada.

Exterior Motives

Story by

Ian Caddell


Having made that decision they had to fi nd the

place that worked best for the fi lm and for the

restrictions that would come with working with

the SODEC regulations. Shrier began to send out

the script to the fi lm commissions of the western

provinces. Eventually they found Buff alo Gal, the

Winnipeg-based production company that has

brought several co-productions to Manitoba.

“I was looking for a partner I could trust and a

strong production company that would take care of

me and would work within the same value system.

I set my standards high. I believe it is important to

work with people with similar philosophies so that

you feel you are spending the money in the right

place. You want to make it a pleasant experience.

For instance, I have a very stringent green philoso-

phy. When I started talking to people Buff alo Gal

kept coming up and I came to the conclusion that

(producer) Liz Jarvis was like me. We came out and

scouted the locations and we were impressed.”

Jarvis was impressed with the script but says

that while it may be an inter-provincial co-produc-

tion, there were several aspects that made it feel

more like an international agreement. “It’s actually

structured diff erently than most inter-provincial

agreements,” she says. “Most of the co-produc-

tions we do are with Ontario and they are looser

than the one we made with Quebec for this fi lm

because of some of the rules on tax credits. For

instance, the use of key creative personnel is more

of an issue than it is with other provinces. Th e

tough part is trying to balance the ‘spend’ in both

provinces, which impacts on the tax credits. If you

work with Ontario and shoot in Manitoba and you

meet a minimum spend of 20 percent (in Ontario)

you are still eligible for the Ontario credit and not

just service (industry) ones. When you work with

Quebec you are working with a formula that in-

cludes key creative personnel (from Quebec.) It is

a bit more complex because you have to maintain

the exact balance in the spend. So we had to shoot

15 days in Quebec and 14 here. Travelling around

was a challenge on the budget but it was challeng-

ing overall because you have two provinces and a

period piece. But I feel as though we put it all on

screen and kept within our budget.”

Th e story that Johns wrote centres on an 11 year

old named Elizabeth Alison Gray (Vancouver’s Ju-

lia Stone) who decides to run away from home to

fi nd her real mom when she fi nds out her parents

(Macha Grenon and Gil Bellows) adopted her as

a baby. Having lived in Calgary before moving to

Saskatchewan as a teenager, Johns says she always

knew that the movie would be set on the prairies.

She didn’t know that being on location would make

an impact on a cast and crew that included several

people from her adopted hometown of Montreal.

“I lived in Calgary until I was 14,” says Johns.

“When I was writing the story I was drawing from

my own experiences living on the prairies. I didn’t

get reconnected with that until we were out in

Manitoba scouting for locations. I don’t think I rec-

reated anything from that time. It was an evocation

of what I lived and what I knew from way back then

and I think that part of what made it so powerful

was that I was surrounded by people who were new

to these places, people who had never experienced

this before and were discovering something. Th ey

were blown away by the freedom that you feel in

the middle of the open dramatic sky and the bald

prairie and they were grateful and appreciative to

have this experience.”

Jarvis says that the scouting was extensive. She

says that it was decided early on that it would be

easier to create interiors that matched the script

than to fi nd the right exteriors. “Manitoba was the

primary setting so the locations in Quebec hinged

on the locations that were found in Manitoba. Th ey

had to fi nd a house that was from the same period as

one we found here (in Manitoba) and they needed

the general geography and interiors that matched

our exteriors.”

Th e 15 days of interior scenes were shot in

Montreal in April. Almost two months later, the

show moved to Manitoba. Quebec supplied most

of the key crew as per the SODEC regulations. Th e

director of photography, Claudine Sauvé, produc-

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Elizabeth watches Dolly on TV; Photo by Sébastien Raymond for Palomar. Elizabeth, her bike and the sky; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. Julia Stone as Elizabeth; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. FOLLOWING PAGE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Quebec boom being anchored in the crazy prairie wind by Manitoba grip; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. Barbara Shrier and Tara Johns in Manitoba; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. Canadian Café sign being shot by DP Claudine Sauvé; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar.


tion designer Normand Sarazin and

costume designer Marianne Carter

were all from Montreal. Th e art di-

rector, Larry Spittle, and the set dec-

orator, Bill Macinnis, were among

those who were hired in Manitoba.

Shrier used Quebec crew that she

had worked with before and brought

key crew from Manitoba to help fi g-

ure out how to make the transitions.

“Th e fact that we had so much

more money from SODEC than

Manitoba meant we had to bring in

a lot of people,” says Shrier. “Our DP

was from Quebec but we had crew in

both places. We were in Winnipeg at

a busy time and we had some trouble

crewing up so we invited some of the

crew I use and they came with us. We

shot in Montreal in early April and in

Manitoba in May and we didn’t have

much prep time. We did prep of four

weeks in both places which is tough,

especially for a period piece.”

Shrier says that while the fi lmmak-

ers were always aware that matching

the interiors to the exteriors would

be diffi cult, there were enough good

ideas to get through the more diffi cult

days. “Initially when we were break-

ing down what would be shot where

there were some obvious things. We

had to capture the period and we had

to fi nd the exterior street and then

match it in Montreal and then we had

to fi nd the Montreal split level that

matched the Manitoba exterior. We

found the right house but when we

scheduled the shot we thought ‘what

about when there are people at the

door and the kids are outside and the

mom’s inside?’ We thought we could

do the ‘mom’ part inside in Montreal

in March and turn it around and do

the exterior in May in Manitoba but

then it became a question of what

do we do with the light and what do

we see inside. Our DP was brilliant

and so was our production designer.

When we went back to Winnipeg we

thought ‘this won’t work.’ So the pro-

duction designer built a swing door

to the kitchen and we decided to

shoot the back half of the house and

upstairs in Montreal but the front of

the house was in Winnipeg. It was

the only way to go because the door

could be opened and you could see

behind it. We brought the swinging

door back to Winnipeg and so we

had a natural movement of actors.”

Art director Larry Spittle had

worked on many movies in Manito-

ba, the list including New in Town and

Th e Lookout. He knew going in that

this fi lm would not be like anything

he had done in the past. He would

be working with people who would

be shooting in Montreal and then

moving to Winnipeg to complete the

scene. “Th ey were shooting the exte-

rior of our (Winnipeg) concert hall,

Centennial Hall, to match the con-

cert scenes in Montreal which was

somewhat challenging. But I think

the biggest challenge was recreating

a border crossing that matched the

interiors of the building they had in

Quebec. We found a defunct border

crossing but we didn’t have access to

the building itself. It had become a

holding area for cattle and pigs but

Normand (Sarazin) wanted to dress

it so that it would look like the one in

Montreal from the outside.

“In the scene we needed, they

would not give us access to the build-

ing and he wanted it to match. So we

just picked her (Stone’s character)

where she is exiting the border sta-

tion. Th en we had to shoot the actual

car crossing booths. Liz had talked

to a location scout here and she sent

photos of a structure covered with a

canopy and it was gorgeous. How-

ever, when we got down there it no

longer existed. So we had the set built

and then you see the canopy above a

guy in the booth. We must have done

a good job because we designed it well

enough to fool people who handed

their passports to our guy.”

Marianne Carter oversaw the mak-

ing of the period costumes for the fi lm.

Like the character, she was a child in

the mid-1970s and says that one of the

challenges of making a movie about

an era that is in the recent past is that

many people in the audience can re-

member what they were wearing dur-

ing the period. She says that while she

has created costumes for several peri-

ods there is something more interest-

ing about designing clothes for a time

that you can recall vividly.

“It is somewhat diffi cult to create

costumes for the 1970s because ev-

eryone has pictures of themselves.

However, we are still in the movie

world so for me it was important to

please Tara because it is her vision.

At the same time when you create a

costume it is nice to have a feeling of

the world during that period. It was

the fi rst time I was able to express a

period that I lived through. When

you speak to people who grew up in

the 1980s they have no idea of this

period. We did a lot of research of

the prairies at that time because it

was such a specifi c world. By look-

ing at where the people are living you

can start to imagine a way of putting

all those pieces together.”

Th e Montreal-based Carter went

west to make sure that the costumes

she had designed from pictures

worked with the exteriors. “Th e fi rst

time I was there we fi t all the actors

and some of the extras from Winni-

peg. We got the show organized in

my four days there and Meg (Win-

nipeg costumer Meg McMillan)

came to Montreal to work with me.

Th en she went back to continue the

project in Winnipeg so that we could

have someone there to make sure

there was continuity. I felt that con-

sidering the challenges we were well

organized and that it looks like it was

all done in one place.”

Th e most challenging shots

may have taken place in Montreal.

Th e café that the Manitoba loca-

tion scouts had found in the small

town of Marquette, Manitoba fi t

the prairies look of the fi lm but was

not going to be easily matched in

Montreal. Shrier says that the best

they could come up with was a café

by the highway. Th at meant mak-

ing sure that the traffi c noises were

muted so that audiences wouldn’t

think big city when they were look-

ing at a rural restaurant.

“Th e Montreal location was noisy,”

she says. “We tried to slow down the

traffi c but there were still so many

sounds that the sound designer said

‘if we shoot the (Manitoba) exteriors

in a sleepy town, we can establish that

“They were blown away by the freedom that you feel in the middle of the open dramatic sky and the bald prairie and they were grateful and appreciative to have this experience.”

- Writer-director Tara Johns on her cast and crew experiencing the praries for the fi rst time

Exterior Motives continued on page 28



PH

OT

O P

HIL

LIP

CH

IN


APRIL 2004 I am coming off my second feature fi lm

and still basking in some of the glory of the critical

success the fi lm has garnered but also trying to fi g-

ure out what kind of producer I really am. I have

now produced two feature fi lms about the homeless

(Heater) and disenfranchised (On the Corner) and

need to look at more commercial fare.

A friend of mine, Trish Williams, suggests I read

a play called Toothpaste & Cigars which was writ-

ten and performed by some friends of hers. Trish

thinks it would make a good fi lm. I am sceptical as

most plays do not translate well to the screen. I read

the play, however, and fi nd it immediately appeal-

ing. Toothpaste & Cigars is not a fully fl eshed out

world but it has two very strong features: a univer-

sal theme and some excellent dialogue. It is a cross

between Before Sunrise and When Harry Met Sally.

A man and woman meet at a party and hit it off

only to discover that the woman has a boyfriend

and they must navigate their genuine aff ection for

one another even though one of them is in a com-

mitted relationship. Can men and women really just

be friends? Interject some very, very clever dialogue

and witty banter and it seems like a hit.

I get in touch with the playwrights, Michael

Rinaldi and Ti-Jon (TJ) Dawe. We meet up at Ha-

vana on Commercial Drive and over mojitos I tell

them about myself and give them the pitch about

how I see the development of the project. Basically

I would want to get them to write a draft of the

screenplay and see how it pans out. It would be fi -

nanced with funding from Movie Central, BC Film

and Telefi lm. I would be looking to involve a story

editor and a director consultant.

MAY Th ey go for it. I think they are both excited about

working on a fi lm project and seem to really enjoy the

possibility of writing a screenplay. While I get the op-

tion purchase agreement in place I still need to raise

the funds for the writing. I also need some help.

JULY As usual the summer drags on with this and

that while I search for the right team to join our

crew and develop this play. I bring director James

Genn on board as a story consultant. James is a

great creative mind and I really enjoyed his short

fi lm Th e Dog Walker. He seems to get the tone of

a romantic comedy and can be a real asset as a

consultant. I also have to bring on a story editor. I

know Elan Mastai from the Vancouver fi lm com-

munity. He had been the assistant Canadian Pro-

grammer at VIFF and he was hard to miss with his

white guy dreadlocks and infectious laugh. I have

read one of Elan’s scripts and know his sense of hu-

mour would provide a useful contribution to the

development of the project. I hire him as the story

editor contingent on getting development money.

SEPTEMBER I arrange for a meeting with Movie

Central’s creative executive in Vancouver, Shelley

Gillen. Shelly had licensed On the Corner and is a

great supporter of Western-based producers. We

meet at Starbuck’s in North Vancouver and I bring

along James to help with the pitch. I fi nd for my own

personal style it’s important to bring a creative along

with you for any pitch. I’m great with the fi nanc-

ing and management but a creative can really help

you sell a project in the room. Shelly has read our

intentions for the project and has seen the reviews of

the play (it received incredible reviews all across the

country and around the world as a travelling Fringe

Festival play) but she still needs to be convinced that

fi rst time screenwriters can pull this off . Th e play-

wrights have basically produced a draft that simply

adds action to the dialogue and is almost line for line

a version of the play. James and I do our best Laurel

and Hardy act and she is convinced. She will support

the project. We have a development deal!

I do all the rest of my development applica-

tions and am off to the races with the playwrights.

Telefi lm, BC Film along with Movie Central are

on board. I make a relatively low rate deal with the

playwrights, as it is their fi rst crack at being screen-

writers, but it means I can aff ord a story editor and

a story consultant, which is somewhat unusual.

JANUARY 2005 Michael and TJ’s second draft

continues to maintain much of the language from

the play. Th ey both see the connection to the clas-

sic romantic comedies of the past and have tried

to recreate imagery from When Harry Met Sally

as an homage to that fi lm. It is a good fi rst stab but

it needs help. We try another draft with James and

Elan’s help. It is quickly becoming apparent that

Michael and TJ are not going to get the screenplay

where I want it. We all agree that an experienced

screenwriter is what is needed. I ask Elan to take

on more and more in terms of his infl uence in the

drafts. Based on Elan’s sense of timing and charac-

ter the answer is staring me in the face. Elan needs

to be the new screenwriter.

I begin the negotiation with Elan’s agent, Rena

Zimmerman, to lock down Elan as the writer.

I am fortunate that Elan isn’t WGC when I sign

him as I can fi t him into my development budget.

I know he won’t be non-union for long. He is too

good for that. Elan and I are now the core team for

Marc Stephenson was an award-winning Vancouver based, Winnipeg-born producer when his chance read-ing of a successful Fringe Festival play, Toothpaste & Cigars turned into a six year development odyssey that found him knocking at the gates of the Hollywood stu-dios. The adaptation of the play, The F-word, is gear-ing up to shoot in the fall of 2010 for Fox Searchlight. In his diary on his journey from the Fringe to Fox, he looks back on the meetings, the disappointments and the day he realized the studio was going to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

From the Fringe to Fox

Diary by

Marc Stephenson


the fi lm and I go for 1st to 2nd draft

money from Movie Central as well

as Telefi lm and BC Film. I part ways

with James Genn on the project. He

was an excellent contributor but Elan

does not need the extra support.

MAY Elan produces his fi rst draft of the

script. It has a very distinct style and

begins to introduce other characters

and broaden the world from the basic

two-hander in the play. Th e process of

multiple drafts can be a time consum-

ing one. Th ere is of course the process

of notes and phone calls and dissection

of the material, but there is the delay in

getting money from the various funders

in order to maintain the process. We de-

cide to call the fi lm Fool’s Gold based on

the Elvis sandwich found in the script.

A hollowed out baguette stuff ed with

peanut butter and a pound of bacon

makes Fool’s Gold – mmm greasy.

One of the requirements of my op-

tion agreement with the playwrights

is that I secure a director by a certain

date. Th ey want to be sure that the

project is moving forward and not

simply languishing in development. So

I need to start pressing ahead in fi nd-

ing a director for the fi lm. While it’s

nice to churn out drafts in a vacuum,

at some point every project needs to

lock down a director. It turns out there

is not an over- abundance of romantic

comedy directors in Canada. A fi lm I

had recently enjoyed, however, was

Aubrey Nealon’s, A Simple Curve. Au-

brey’s light touch with comedy and the

fact that he has done a feature with a

substantial romantic comedic element

means he is a great candidate. I know

him socially and believe I could work

with the guy. I speak to Aubrey’s agent

and bring him on board as a director

for the picture. We continue with the

development. Aubrey is bringing a

new dimension. As a writer himself

his notes are excellent and three of us

are working well as a team. It takes the

next eighteen months of development

to get the fi lm to a new level. It’s ready

to be shopped.

DECEMBER We need to begin think-

ing about distributors. I contact Ma-

rie-Claude Poulin at Equinoxe Films.

Equinoxe Films had some fantastic

success with My Big Fat Greek Wed-

ding and is a player in the distribution

scene. I have known Marie-Claude

for some time and she is always a

straight shooter and has excellent

taste. I know she will be in Whistler

for the fi lm festival and send her the

script. Marie-Claude loves the project

and agrees to meet in Whistler. She

will give me a letter of interest. I move

full steam ahead with applications for

packaging from our various sources.

Movie Central, Telefi lm and BC Film

all graciously come on board.

SEPTEMBER 2007 We have changed

the name of the script to Th e F-word.

Elan’s wife Samantha comes up with

this excellent name. It has a lot of vari-

ous meanings: “F” for friend and espe-

cially the word you might say when a

girl you like calls you that.

We follow up with Marie-Claude

at the Toronto International Film Fes-

tival in September. She is after some

hard answers in terms of fi nding for-

eign fi nancing. Th is fi lm needs to have

a substantial budget and can’t be done

just with Canadian money. Marie-

Claude wants to see a minimum of a

$5 million dollar budget. She gives me

the names of some mid-sized distrib-

utors and sales agents with money in

the US. It’s time to get down to work

in terms of fi nancing.

OCTOBER I am co-producing the

feature fi lm Edison & Leo and we are

working in Mission BC, an hour’s

drive outside of Vancouver. Th e fi lm

is stop-motion animation and con-

sequently takes a long time to com-

plete. Since I am heavily involved in

the physical production of the fi lm

I am spending a lot of time out in

Mission. Th e year and a half of pro-

duction takes its toll on maintaining

development and I am feeling out of

the loop and a little depressed. When

your head is in one fi lm so much it

can be diffi cult to keep up with all

your other projects.

I get a call from an old friend of

mine, Mark Costa, who is a produc-

er in LA. He has just started a new

company called NHO Entertainment

with his partner Ford Oleman. Th ey

both worked at New Line for years

and have good connections with

many of the LA agencies. I met Mark

on my fi rst fi lm job in Vancouver. I

was the offi ce production assistant

and he was the co-ordinator for New

Line Television. He came up to Van-

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“Aubrey’s light touch with comedy and the fact that he has done a feature with a substantial romantic comedic element means he is a great candidate...”

- on locking down Aubrey Nealon as director


couver a few times over the course of

the shoot and we maintained a good

relationship. NHO was looking for

primarily genre pictures and asked

me if I had anything good. I sent

them a horror script that Elan wrote

with the producer’s permission. Th e

fi lm didn’t work out but we have es-

tablished a good working relation-

ship. Although not exactly what they

are looking for I know I have a very

good asset in Th e F-word and send it

over to NHO for their thoughts.

Not surprisingly they like it. Th ey

send it out for a couple of private reads

with some development executives

and get very positive feedback on the

script. We do a shopping deal and they

are on board as executive producers.

MARCH 2008 I start using the

packaging funds from Telefi lm and

I employ a casting director in LA. I

am making more trips down to Los

Angeles this year. I meet with a few

casting directors and settle on Moni-

ka Mikklesen. She is a total character

who is worth her weight in gold in

terms of who is the hottest new tal-

ent. We get the script out to some

high profi le A-list talent including

Natalie Portman and Ryan Gosling.

Having a casting director opens so

many more doors than I could and

you get taken seriously as a moving

force in Hollywood. Th ey suppos-

edly like the script but they are also

passing on the project. Show me the

money! I’m having fun getting to

know Los Angeles. I have been here

before on business but usually for

another producer’s work. Could Th e

F-word be a Hollywood picture?

JUNE Th e script has been shopped

around to the various agencies and

is generating a lot of momentum in

Hollywood. Elan has now picked up

an agent off the heat the project is

getting. Frank Wuliger at the Gersh

Agency is an old school agent and a

source of insider information on all

things that pass through that town.

He suggests that he come on board

as a producer’s agent to help negoti-

ate deals that seem imminent.

JULY Montecito Pictures has taken a

strong interest in the show. Th ey are

Ivan Reitman’s company and certainly

know comedy. Elan and I meet with

their executives along with Mark and

Ford and have a great meeting. I give

them the run-down of the development

of the picture and they are interested in

representing the picture to talent and

the studios. I tell them about Aubrey

and the results are not good. Th e hard

truth about having a Canadian direc-

tor who is not in the Los Angeles mix is

they mean nothing to US studios. Th ey

basically tell me I have to lose Aubrey or

face the reality that the fi lm will not get

made with US funds. I have to make the

hardest call I have ever made. Aubrey is

a friend and to ask him to step aside for

the good of the project is tough work.

He takes it like a champ and I assure

him he will be well-compensated if we

go to camera.

AUGUST I am in the fi nal stages of

post production on Edison & Leo. We

are in a dark room in Technicolor

working on the digital intermediary

colour correction. I get a call from

Jeremy Steckler at Fox Searchlight! He

introduces himself as the executive

for Juno and (500) Days of Summer.

Jeremy tells me he loves the script

and wants to send it up the fl agpole

to his bosses. I am bleary-eyed and

confused from going from the dark-

ness of the D.I. suite to the sun of a

summer afternoon. Th e one studio I

would love this picture to be with is

calling me! I say “yes, yes of course he

can do what he likes with the script!”

I call Frank and tell him what I think

is good news and get the serious smack

down. Th ey want to package the fi lm

so the studio can’t say no - not just

hand it over! I get my fi rst Hollywood

lesson. Never make a decision without

your agent approving. Still, it’s too late

and it’s now in the mix with Search-

light. Mark and Ford lessen my con-

sternation. Th is is what we want!

NOVEMBER Th e fi lm has made the

Black List for 2008. Th ese are the

best of the un-produced scripts for

the year in Hollywood as voted on by

readers and development executives

from the various agencies. Scripts

that have been on the list include

Lars and the Real Girl, Juno and In-

glourious Basterds. I fl y down to LA

to meet with Jeremy and a possible

production partner the studio likes,

a production company called Mr.

Mudd. Th ey are John Malkovich’s

production partners and have pro-

duced fi lms like Juno and Ghost

World. I get invited to have lunch

with Jeremy, Russ Smith and Lianne

Halfon from Mr. Mudd and bring

along Ford. For the kid from Winni-

peg having lunch on the Fox lot and

eating in their cafeteria where the

walls are littered with staff photos

FOR ALL YOUR TRANSPORTATION NEEDSIN WESTERN CANADA CALL

604-668-7233Th e Fringe to Fox continued on page 28

Catherine A. Sas, [email protected] Foreign Legal Consultant with the State Bar of California

Phebe [email protected]

Robson Court1000-840 Howe Street Vancouver BC V6Z 2M1Telephone: 604.687.2242www.canadian-visa-lawyer.comwww.millerthomson.com

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from their multitude of fi lms over

the years it’s pretty exciting. Holy

crap! I’m in the studio! Th e lunch

goes great and I like the producing

partners that Fox is suggesting. Russ

and Lianne are real creative produc-

ers and know everyone.

Now things are moving at a real

pace. Searchlight confi rms they are

interested in the script and would

like to make the project. My amaz-

ing lawyer Juliet Smith is brought in

to face off with Fox. Th e negotiation

is exhaustive. It takes months of back

and forth negotiation. Frank and Juliet

work to get the best deal they can for

me. It’s not easy. As a “fi rst time” pro-

ducer in Hollywood the off er is lean

but the upside is the fi lm will be made

by a major studio and will potentially

be on thousands of screens. Th e ex-

posure is worth the tough deal.

MAY 2009 Whew! We fi nally have a

deal. What a marathon! Now we can

fi nally get down to the business of fi nd-

ing a director and casting the fi lm.

JULY (500) Days of Summer is coming

out and has a similar tone and feel to

our fi lm. Its success will aff ect the prog-

ress of Th e F-Word. (500) Days of Sum-

mer does okay but not as well as they

would have liked. Elan is working on a

new draft with notes from the studio.

OCTOBER Still no real movement. No

director and no cast yet. Searchlight is

unhappy with its returns on Amelia and

are reconsidering what kind of direction

they want to take with the company.

Th eir Notorious B.I.G. fi lm also did not

do well. Are they a studio that does ro-

mantic comedies or broader fi lms? We

are feeling pretty low about the poten-

tial movement for the fi lm.

APRIL 2010 We have a new execu-

tive at Fox Searchlight. Jeremy has

left to join Imagine and a new execu-

tive, David Greenbaum, has come

on board. Will he like the fi lm and

champion it? Turns out that yes, he

loves the fi lm and wants to move it

forward. It’s a good feeling again and

maybe we can get some movement

with a director. We have a list of di-

rectors and the meetings and “takes”

from the various directors begin.

MAY Searchlight decides on Alex

Holdridge as the director. He direct-

ed the excellent low-budget romantic

comedy In Search of a Midnight Kiss.

It was a big winner at the 2008 Inde-

pendent Spirit Awards and he really

gets the tone and feel of the fi lm. We

now have a director we can all get be-

hind and the casting has begun. Th e

fi lm is moving fast now and we hope

to shoot this fall. It’s a six and a half

year development process that looks

to fi nally have a happy ending. ■

Fringe to Fox continued from page 27

there are motorcycles and cars that

are pulling up regularly.’ Th en we used

the fact that we could always hear

trains in the background when we

were in Marquette. We had our DP go

out and shoot some trains to establish

train sounds on the soundtrack. So we

kept ahead of the problems by fi nding

solutions that made sense.”

Johns says that the toughest part

for her was having to keep the mem-

ory of the energy and tone that was

established in one place and take it to

the next location. “I don’t think that

is unique to the co-production pro-

cess,” she says. “I think it is the nature

of the beast because you are usually

making fi lms out of chronological

order. Th e diff erence with this fi lm

is you had the light and openness of

the prairies which is not possible to

get all of the time in Montreal. And it

was a period piece so you needed to

keep up with that which can be hard

when you are changing crews. When

we did prep in Montreal and then

went to Winnipeg to shoot it was like

starting all over again. We were for-

tunate in that it was a smooth tran-

sition after the fi rst day because we

had a dream team in Manitoba.”

Johns had a separate challenge:

she was writing what she knew but

she had left the prairies as a teenager.

She says that she found freedom in

fi ctionalizing the story. “Th ere is that

old chestnut ‘write what you know’

but in some ways there are traps in

recreating or evoking your past. You

can’t get too nostalgic. I found a lot

of my material and inspiration from

growing up and the time and place

but after that I had to fi ctionalize to

meet the needs and demands of a

two hour fi lm. Th ere is something

that I heard recently that no matter

what story you are telling the key is

to try and make sense of our human

experiences. But it will be a challenge

whether it is in Winnipeg or Calgary

or Kenya and it is a challenge to try

to fi t it all into a two hour arc.” ■

Exterior Motives continued from page 23

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LEGAL BRIEFS

On June 2, 2010, Bill C-32 was intro-

duced by the federal government to

address numerous issues that have

arisen since the last substantial revi-

sion to the Copyright Act in 1997, in-

cluding proposed changes designed

to address a number of challenges

resulting from recent advancements

in digital technologies.

In addition to proposed changes to

protect materials in our increasingly

digital society, Bill C-32 also includes

a proposed expansion of the defi ni-

tion of “fair dealing” by adding par-

ody and satire, which although well

established in the US, are currently

not recognized in Canada. A broader

defi nition of fair dealing would allow

producers much more fl exibility when

including third-party materials which

would otherwise have been protected

by the Copyright Act.

Motion pictures may include

material that infringes third par-

ties’ copyright where permission to

include such material has not been

secured. In such cases, a number of

options are open to the producer.

Th e production could be edited to

remove the off ending material. How-

ever, this may only be a feasible op-

tion if fi nances, time or (especially)

if creative willingness permits. If it is

not possible or desirable to remove

the material, there may be one or

more exceptions allowing the inclu-

sion of otherwise copyrighted mate-

rial in the production without secur-

ing permission.

One of the exclusions suggested by

producers is relying on the concept of

“fair use”. Although fair use is regular-

ly referred to in production industry

reference materials available in Can-

ada, it is a US-based principle, rooted

on the idea that it is not “fair” to fi nd

every copying to be a violation of

copyright law if such copying was for

certain purposes, including criticism

or review. Th e concepts of “satire” and

“parody” fall under the much broader

concept of fair use in the US (and

have provided many producers with

access to sources of otherwise pro-

tected source materials). Th e concept

of “fair use” does not currently exist in

Canada although it is often used in-

terchangeably with “fair dealing.” Th e

concept found in the Canadian Copy-

right Act is extremely limited.

Fair dealing is currently a very nar-

row defense under which the use of

the copyrighted material must be for

“private study, research, criticism, re-

view or newspaper summary”, which

is rarely the case in fi lm productions.

Further, because there are no hard

and fast rules available and little case

law, it is extremely diffi cult to defi ne

what is and is not fair dealing. Th is

becomes especially problematic

when trying to provide assurances

to an E&O insurer’s lawyer that all

rights have been acquired, possibly

jeopardizing the ability to secure

E&O insurance for a production.

Bill C-32 proposes an expansion

to the defi nition of “fair dealing” to

include dealings for the purpose

of parody and satire. A parody is a

work that uses elements of a prior

composition to create a new one

that, at least in part, comments on

that author’s works. Some parody

examples include the classic work

of Mel Brooks, television shows like

Saturday Night Live and fi lms like

the Scary Movie franchise. Allowing

producers to rely on parody and sat-

ire in Canada would allow for much

more creative freedom with less risk

of infringing another’s copyright.

Th e current defi nition of fair deal-

ing is far too narrow to be relied on

by producers and as a result, creativ-

ity can in many cases be unjustifi ably

hindered. Th e expanded defi nition

proposed in Bill C-32 will provide

more fl exibility to producers in a

manner consistent with artists’ needs

and will permit greater reliance on an

exception to what would otherwise be

an infringement of copyright. ■

Doran Chandler’s practice focuses on

providing legal services for the enter-

tainment industry, including services

in relation to fi lm and television fi -

nancing, intellectual property issues,

production services and music. After

his previous career as a musician,

touring North America with a folk-

rock band, Mr. Chandler settled in

Vancouver to pursue his legal career.

“Fair Dealing” unfair?

Doran ChandlerEntertainment Lawyer

Reel convenient.

Current and archived issues of Reel West Magazineare now available online at www.reelwest.com


West Wins Two Two Western Canadian companies

were winners at the recent Banff

Television Festival. Winnipeg-based

Frantic Films won a Rockie Award

in the Lifestyle and Information

category for an episode of the Food

Network’s Pitchin’ In (Pitchin’ In:

Shrimp) and Vancouver’s Force Four

Entertainment won the Best Canadi-

an Program Rockie for its CBC News

Network documentary 65 Red Roses.

Other Canadian productions to

win Rockies included Best Anima-

tion/Kids winner Le Printemps de Me-

lie/ Molly in Springtime from the Na-

tional Film Board in association with

Folimage, PIWI, Divertissement Sub-

sequence Inc and two Quebec fi lms

that won Best Francophone Rockies:

Aveux, from Productions Pixcom inc.

and Radio-Canada which won in the

overall show category and Les vrais

gagnants, which won in the docu-

mentary category. It was produced by

RPM Inc and Radio Canada.

Two Canadians won special

awards. William Shatner won the

Lifetime Achievement Award while

Eric McCormack won the NBC

Universal Canada Award of Dis-

tinction. British comedian Ricky

Gervais won the Sir Peter Ustinov

Award for Comedy.

Alice in Leos WonderlandA TV miniseries based on the iconic

children’s book Alice in Wonderland

has won eight Leo Awards. Alice took

home awards for best feature length

drama, cinematography (Jon Joffi n),

score (Ben Mink), stunt coordina-

tion (Marshall Virtue), production

design (Michael Joy, Mark Lane and

Paolo Venturi), overall sound (Da-

vid Cyr, Paul Sharp, Iain Patterson

and Graeme Hughes), editing (Alan

Lee and Peter Forslund) and visual

eff ects (Lee Wilson, Lisa Sepp-Wil-

son, Sebastien Bergeron, Simon

Lacey and Les Quinn) at June’s an-

nual event to recognize outstanding

achievement in production and per-

formance in British Columbia.

Alice was followed closely by the

short fi lm Th e Gray Matter, which

won seven Leos, and two dramatic

TV series. Sanctuary won seven

Leos in its category while Stargate

Universe won six. Th e Gray Matter

won for short fi lm, cinematography

(James Liston), score (Matthew

Rogers), production design (Daren

Luc Sasges and Ester Bovard), cos-

tume design (Jennifer Sharpe), over-

all sound (Greg Stewart, Miguel

Nunes, Roger Morris and Greg

Hannas) and sound editing (Miguel

Nunes, Roger Morris, Angelo Ni-

coloyannis and Greg Stewart.)

Th ree of Sanctuary’s Leos came

from its actors. It won the series

awards Leos for lead actor (Robin

Dunne), supporting actor (Chris-

topher Heyerdahl) and guest male

performance (Christopher Gauth-

ier.) It also won for costume design

(Christina McQuarrie), makeup

(Todd Masters, Holland Miller,

Harlow Macfarlane, Werner Pre-

torius, Yukio Okajima), production

design (Bridget McGuire) and di-

rection (Brenton Spencer.)

Stargate Universe won for dramat-

ic series, cinematography (Michael

Blundell), supporting performance

(Julia Benson), editing (Rick Mar-

tin), visual eff ects (Mark Savela,

Shannon Gurney, Brenda Camp-

bell, Craig Vandenbiggelaar and

Krista Mclean) and screenwriting

(Brad Wright.)

Winning fi ve Leos was the series

Wolf Canyon, which won for mu-

sical, comedy or variety program,

directing (Allan Harmon), perfor-

mance or host (Jessica Harmon),

cinematography (Randal Platt) and

editing (Richard Schwadel.) Bruce

Sweeney’s feature Excited won four

Leos including feature length drama,

lead female performance (Laara

Sadiq), supporting female perfor-

mance (Gabrielle Rose), and direct-

ing (Sweeney.)

Also winning four Leos was Fac-

ing Ali, which won for best feature-

length documentary, best directing

(Pete McCormack), best editing

(Jesse James Miller) and cinema-

tography (Ian Kerr.) Ice Pilots NWT,

Anna & Christina’s Grocery Bag and

Th e League of Super Evil were also

multiple winners with each taking

three Leos. Ice Pilots won the Leos

for best documentary series, sound

editing (Vince Renaud and Jo Ros-

si) and screenwriting (Catharine

Parke.) Grocery Bag won for best

host (Anna Wallner and Kristina

Matisic), cinematography (Carl Al-

cock) and directing (Jennifer Lit-

tle.) Th e League of Super Evil won

for animation series, screenwriting

(Philippe Ivanusic, Davila Lebianc)

and directing (Johnny Darrell, Rob

Hoegee and Steve Ball.)

Two Leos went to Th is Land and

Short Savage and Stormworld with

Th is Land winning for best docu-

mentary short and overall sound

(Gael MacLean and Doug Pater-

son) and Short Savage winning Leos

for female performance (Skeena

Reece) and editing (Hart Snider

and Brendan Wollard.) Stormworld

won Leos for youth and children’s

program (Shawn Williamson, Ian

Hogg, Paul Barron and Stephen

Hegyes) and the category’s award for

performance (Callum Worthy.)

Other performance awards went

to Jared Kesso for Keep Your Head

Up:Th e Don Cherry Story (lead per-

formance, male) Chad Willett for

Cole (supporting performance, male)

and Erin Karpluk, Being Erica (lead

performance, female.) David Rich-

mond-Peck won the performance

by a male in a short drama Leo for

Instant. Veteran local stunt man Ja-

cob Rupp won the stunt coordina-

tion Leo for Smallville.

Category awards went to Th e Na-

ture of Th ings (information or life-

style series), Trolls (student produc-

tion), Road Regrets (music video) and

Th e Vetala (web series.) Meanwhile,

Oscar nominee Monique Prudhom-

me won the costume design Leo for

Th e Imaginarium of Doctor Parnas-

sus, Tina Louis Teoli won the short

drama award for make-up for Serum

1831 and Todd Masters, Nicolas

Podbrey, Werner Pretorius, Maiko

Gomyo, Vincent Yoshida and April

Boyes won the same award in the

feature fi lm category for Th aw.

Additional screenwriting awards

went to Kelly-Ruth Mercier for the

short drama No One Knows You Like

Your Mother and Vic Sarin, Cath-

erine Spear and Dennis Foon for

the feature length drama A Shine

of Rainbows while directing awards

went to J.B. Sugar for the children’s

program Wrath of the Wraith and to

Ann Valine for the short drama How

Eunice Got Her Baby. Th e animation

program or series category saw the

overall sound Leo go to James Fon-

nyadt, Miguel Nunes, Gord Hillier

and Tony Gort for Max Steel Versus

the Mutant Menace while the musi-

cal score Leo went to Daniel Ingram

for Martha Speaks. ■

FINAL EDITW

ILLI

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IFE

TIM

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CH

IEV

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NT

AW

AR

D F

RO

M T

HE

RE

CE

NT

BA

NFF

TE

LEV

ISIO

N F

ES

TIVA

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FILM + TV FORUM

DROP IN and GET INFORMED

Sept 28 - Oct 1, 2010 + NFD Oct 2

TURNING CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE LAST 25 YEARS! email: [email protected] tel: (604) 685.3547www.viff.org/forum

Whether you’re a first-time producer trying to get your

project off the ground, or an industry veteran learning to

adapt to the daunting demands of the digital marketplace,

The Vancouver Film & TV Forum is the place to be!

The Forum provides an exciting platform for our delegates to access domestic

and global market leaders, share the expertise of our international speakers

and make the most of the opportunity to meet and foster working relationships

with their peers. Our New Filmmakers’ Day (NFD), the only event of its kind in

Western Canada and a ’standing-room-only’ event for the past seven years, is

specifically designed to cater to emerging writers, producers and directors of

screen based media.

SAVE THE DATES:

09.28 - Storyville Vancouver

09.29 - Doc Day

09.30 - Film Day

10.01 - TV Day

PLUS:

10.02 – New Filmmakers’ Day

All sessions take place at the Rogers Industry located at the Vancouver International Film Centre.

The Forum is presented by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Documents

July - August 2010 : Reel West Magazine