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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Industry News

Canada’s public broadcaster launches the CBC Creative Relief Fund

From a media release:

In response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, CBC has launched THE CBC CREATIVE RELIEF FUND to provide immediate, urgent support to Canadian creators. The unprecedented new Fund will provide $2 million in development and production funding for a diverse range of innovative, original Canadian storytelling, including scripted comedies and dramas, unscripted entertainment, kids and young adult programming, podcasts, play adaptations and short documentaries.

Spanning three different streams detailed below, THE CBC CREATIVE RELIEF FUND will support innovative original projects with compelling perspectives and unique voices that also reflect contemporary Canada, and follow the recommended local and national COVID-19 safety guidelines. Canadian creators can apply immediately starting today until 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, April 24, and eligible applicants will be notified of their project’s status starting on May 8. More information and full application requirements can be found at cbc.ca/creativerelief.

The new Fund expands CBC’s ongoing efforts to find new ways to support Canadian creators in response to the COVID-19 crisis. On Wednesday, April 15, CBC Podcasts is launching THE SHOW MUST GO ON, a new PlayME original series featuring audio adaptations from Canadian playwrights whose plays have been postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic. In support of documentary filmmakers, CBC and Hot Docs are launching HOT DOCS AT HOME ON CBC on Thursday, April 16, offering exclusive, first-run documentary premieres from the postponed 2020 Hot Docs Festival to Canadian audiences on CBC TV, CBC Gem and documentary Channel.

THE CBC CREATIVE RELIEF FUND

INNOVATION STREAM 
The Innovation Stream offers support of big, bold ideas that are innovative and take creative risks, to be considered for multiple development and production opportunities on all platforms. Both established and emerging creators are invited to apply; applicants must have one television, audio or digital credit, or be partnered with an experienced existing production company. Genres include the following:

  • Scripted – Comedy and Drama

  • Unscripted – Factual Entertainment

  • Kids & Tweens; Youth & Young Adult

  • Podcasts – Multiple Genres

PLAYWRIGHT PILOT STREAM
The Playwright Pilot Stream is open to playwrights with at least one produced play to submit either new concepts or existing plays for adaptation on all platforms. CBC is looking for concepts that are a natural fit for either limited or ongoing series in the comedy or drama genres, episodic or serialized, and will fund the writing of a pilot script with an intended broadcast duration of either 30 or 60 minutes.

CBC SHORT DOCS STREAM
CBC Short Docs is inviting documentary filmmakers from across Canada to showcase their unique perspectives on what’s happening in the world during this time of COVID-19. Productions must be produced and delivered within three months or less, with filmmakers adhering to all local and national COVID-19 safety guidelines. CBC Short Docs is looking for standalone, immersive documentaries under 40 minutes in length, intended for a digital audience.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Take a four-hour tour with TVO’s Tripping the Rideau Canal

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Honestly, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. With Canadians—and the world—being encouraged to stay inside as much as possible, Tripping the Rideau Canal comes along to fill a goodly chunk of time for those abiding by the rules and hunkering down.

Debuting Friday at 7 p.m. on TVO (and available to stream on TVO.org) the four-hour documentary—yes, you read that right—plops viewers into a seat in a 1948 mahogany Shepard runabout and takes them on a real-time ride on a 27-kilometre stretch of the canal into Ottawa. The doc is the brainchild of executive producer, writer and director Mitch Azaria, whose Good Earth Productions has made series like Canada: A Magnificient Journey, Great Canadian Parks and Great Canadian Lakes.

And if four hours aboard a boat seems boring, it’s not. Tripping the Rideau Canal is equal parts boat ride and history lesson, as facts about the canal and the area surrounding it flit on-screen every few minutes.

We chatted with Mitch Azaria about the show’s seeds and the challenges he faced filming a four-hour, non-stop production.

I’ve driven parallel to the Rideau Canal for years, so this really opened my eyes to it. How did you end up doing this for TVO?
Mitch Azaria: Ironically I’d actually made a doc about the Rideau Canal a long time ago, but it was so long ago that I’d forgotten about it. I went to Ottawa University, so I always thought that the Rideau Canal went from Carleton University to downtown. I didn’t realize that it’s over 200 kilometres long, it goes from Kingston to Ottawa, when it was built or why. I didn’t know any of that.

We were talking with TVO and they kept saying, ‘We’d like to do something that’s in real-time and we don’t have commercials so we can just put something on for a really long time.’ And we thought, ‘What broadcaster says that to an independent producer? It’s the greatest thing you can do.’ We figured out pretty quickly it would have to be some kind of journey where the viewer feels like they’re taking a trip. It couldn’t be static, it would have to be in motion. We had a list of 10 places in Ontario that we thought would be interesting and that ranged from train trips to highway trips to boat trips. We’d got it down to the Welland Canal and the Rideau Canal and we went with a small camera, shot footage of both and presented it to TVO. We knew already that we liked the Rideau Canal, but we didn’t want to influence them. And they picked the Rideau Canal too. So there we were.

It’s very relaxing and part of the fun is the history lesson.
MA: It’s the oldest continuously operated canal in North America. There’s a lot of interesting parts about the history, but what I find the coolest is that you get to a lock. The men and women that are working the lock, they’re Parks Canada people, because the Rideau Canal is under Parks Canada.

The cranks that they’re turning and the operation that they’re running is the same one that’s been in operation for almost 200 years. The actual handle that they’re hand cranking, everything other than the doors, all the metal works, all the internal work, even the stones that the canals are made out of. Because it’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, they have to go and get the stones from the quarries that are now 150 years closed. They have to go and find those old quarries and take the stone out of those old quarries, so they match the stone that was put there 200 years ago.

Let’s talk about some logistics. I guess it was natural for you to start at the dam at the beginning rather than further up the chain?
MA: John Morrison was the director, and he and I spent a crazy amount of time on the canal trying to figure out all of these things, including a starting point that would be exactly four hours from the end. We weren’t smart enough to figure out anything more than, let’s go four hours back and start.

What about motor noise? Was that ever going to be an issue?
MA: It was going to be a real issue, and we had two sound men that all they did was try and figure out how to avoid that. So, they had everything pointed forward and they had figured out a way to keep everything in front of us.

What are some issues you came across during filming?
MA: We thought we asked every question and every technical issue to make sure that we could run for four hours. And one of the things that came up as we’re running and sort of live, we’re shooting, is the boat operator said, ‘Geez, we’re probably going to have to stop a few times because of these weeds.’ And we went, ‘What do you mean weeds?’ We thought we asked every question. Can the batteries last long enough? Will the camera run long enough? Are the cards long enough that we’re recording on? Do we have enough gas? That’s the one question. So yeah, there were a couple of little hitches that we didn’t count on, but that’s the way it goes.

Get some extra behind-the-scenes footage on filming on the show’s website.

Tripping the Rideau Canal airs Friday at 7 p.m. on TVO.

Images courtesy of the TVO original, Tripping the Rideau Canal

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Cardinal

Links: Cardinal, Season 4

From Debra Yeo of the Toronto Star:

Link: Long goodbye for Canadian crime drama Cardinal
Inside a nondescript office building in downtown North Bay, something that hundreds of people have devoted four years or more of their lives to is coming to an end. Continue reading.

From Stephen Cooke of The Chronicle Herald:

Link: Billy Campbell says farewell to detective Cardinal, dreams of sailing N.S. schooner
“When you boil it down, it’s really about the relationship between Cardinal and Delorme, and I think people who like that relationship and if they love the show and the tone and flavour of it, then they will be highly appreciative of the way the whole thing is handled and wraps up.” Continue reading. 

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Link: Previewing Cardinal’s final season with Billy Campbell and Karine Vanasse
“The metaphor we played with the first season [that] we talked a lot about, was [that] all these feelings [are] underneath a layer of ice for both characters. And it really did feel like coming home or coming full circle to shoot the final season in the winter.” Continue reading.

From Mark Daniel of the Toronto Sun:

Link: ‘Cardinal’ star Billy Campbell reflects on ‘best job’ of his career
“Both Cardinal and Delorme put themselves in mortal danger in ways that they haven’t before.” Continue reading.

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Link: Heart and chemistry make Cardinal more than a cop show
When a TV series ends, it can be an emotional day for the cast and crew. After several seasons’ worth of long days on sets and locations, a production team often bonds together like family. Continue reading.

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Link: Previewing Cardinal: “Adele” + reflections from Billy Campbell and Karine Vanasse
“Here are two people, I think, who could never admit how they felt about each other — to the other [and] maybe not even to themselves.” Continue reading.

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Featured, Schitt's Creek

Schitt’s Creek says goodbye with tear-filled Best Wishes, Warmest Regards

“It’s a double cry night.”

That’s the promise delivered by Amy Segal, describing Tuesday’s series finale of Schitt’s Creek at 8 p.m., on CBC and the one-hour documentary that follows it, Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell, at 8:30 p.m. Segal knows of what she speaks since she’s been working on Schitt’s Creek from Day 1, having produced and directed all 52 scripted webisodes, as well as Behind the Episodes. 

Segal, who got her start on CTV’s etalk before segueing to The Hills Aftershow, met and became friends with Schitt’s Creek co-creator Daniel Levy. Now, with the final episode of six seasons upon us, we spoke to Segal about her experiences working on Schitt’s Creek, and what fans can expect when they tune in to Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell.

What are the unique challenges that you run into when you’re filming the Behind the Episodes segments?
Amy Segal: The Behind the Episodes were fun. We ended up shooting them all day, and by the end, we were exhausted. But they talked for a solid 20 to 30 minutes for each show, and I had to pare it down two and a half, three minutes. I know, it’s difficult, but it’s fun. I always have a good time.

Are you making notes while they’re talking and saying, ‘OK, I think this might make for a good soundbite or short conversation.’ Or do you wait until you’re in the editing suite after? How does that work?
AS: I’m always listening and I’m asking them questions and leading the conversation a little bit. I definitely take notes, but I think it comes down to see how it flows in the edit. I edit everything myself, so it’s sort of picking and choosing what I like and having to get rid of things that I do like because it’s too long. But I’m just really making sure that I know I have content before we finish wrapping up. I definitely take notes and I go in with, so I know what parts I want to highlight.

What were some of the logistics behind filming Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell? How much filming did you do for that?
AS: So much. I originally wanted to do the 44-minute version, and then an actual documentary length version. I’m hoping that will maybe find its way somewhere, eventually, because like I do with the behind the episodes, I had to cut so much gold and it crushed me. You want to get in the important things, but it doesn’t leave a lot of room for longer moments and pauses, and that was hard for me to get over.

It’s a celebration of the show and the fans and the cultural impact that the show has had. So there was a lot to say, and at the same time, I really wanted to show what it was like to make a final season of a show. Because it’s not easy. We started in the writer’s room in Los Angeles, in their incubation room in November 2018. And then we shot for almost a year and a half.

Who floated that idea of there being a farewell documentary?
AS: It was Dan and I. It’s always been my dream to make a documentary and we were talking and I said, ‘What if we do something for the last season?’ Because we were fans of Girls and they did a miniature, not really a documentary, but like a little clip show kind of thing. Originally, the intention was a look back, interviewing the cast and just their favourite moments, highlights, whatever. And then it ended up turning into a much bigger beast, a celebration of the show and just seeing the process of it.

You’ve been with the show since Day 1. How does it feel to be for this all to be ending on Tuesday?
AS: Oh gosh. It’s devastating. It’s a huge part of all of our lives. And it’s weird because now is the time we usually go back to set and start prepping for the next season. And it is sad. The last shows started airing, and I’ve been so preoccupied with making this that I haven’t really had a moment to think. But now that it’s winding up, it’s kind of a surreal moment. But, yeah, very sad.

I’ve been a fan of Schitt’s Creek from the very beginning and have been getting a lump in my throat as we get closer to the end and to the wedding. What’s the cultural impact from your standpoint that Schitt’s Creek has had on us?
AS: That was another reason I wanted to make the documentary. In Canada, we’re so removed from Hollywood and that world and the first four seasons were just like any other television show that we’ve worked on. The fan base just started to get really into it. Dan would show me messages that he had gotten from fans and people even messaged me, which is so nice.

The fans are just so lovely and there were so many stories that were so positive and beautiful … kids coming out to their parents … and then I met fans on the tour … their parents have embraced them because they watched Johnny and Moira embrace David.

Amy, can you pretty much guarantee that if you’re a fan of the show, that someone like myself is going to cry after watching this special?
AS: You will 110% be bawling at the end. A good, therapeutic cry. You’ll cry at the end of the episode as well. It’s a double cry night.

Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell airs Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Industry News

CBC launches What’re You At? With Tom Power on April 5

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From a media release:

CBC today announced a new, one-hour weekly primetime show, WHAT’RE YOU AT? WITH TOM POWER, premiering this Sunday, April 5 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC TV and CBC Gem. Welcoming audiences into his home for a weekly national catch up during these unprecedented times, award-winning host Tom Power will share an uplifting and inspiring mix of interviews, storytelling, musical performances and perspectives as he checks in with Canadians across the country.

Each Sunday, Power will connect virtually with Canadians on the frontlines and from all walks of life, including artists and storytellers, musicians offering intimate performances from their homes, and everyday heroes helping their families and communities. Each show will incorporate a mix of live and pre-taped segments. This Sunday’s debut episode will feature an interview with Schitt’s Creek co-creator, showrunner and star Daniel Levy ahead of the hit comedy’s finale; a performance by groundbreaking JUNO Award-winning singer and songwriter Jessie Reyez, and conversations with Canadians in their communities sharing how they are navigating this challenging time, including three first responders.

“Back home in Newfoundland when you see someone you ask ‘What’re you at?’ There is a debate on the spelling but it generally means ‘How are you?’ or ‘How are you holding up?’,” said Power. “At a time when we’re all searching for meaning and connection, I am honoured to have this opportunity to check in with how Canadians are doing each week and celebrate those who are making a difference in their communities.”

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