The Circle Cast: The Interview!

Telefilm: a clarification

I don't know how many of you have been submitting to the various Telefilm Canada writer-only programs like Feature It! and Writers First and the Premier Writers Program, but I had an enlightening back-and-forth with a friend at Telefilm. You can only submit a project to Telefilm at a given level (e.g. outline, treatment, first draft, second draft) once.

This gets a bit dicey because the objectives of some of these programs are different. Feature It! was aimed at emerging writers doing low budget stories. Feature It! could have rejected a project for being too high budget or the writer not being "emerging" enough; but the project is then tainted at TFC unless you take it to the next level. (I.e. you turn your outline into a treatment, or your treatment into a draft.)

The requirements are a little looser when producers get involved. If Producer A is rejected with your outline, you can come in later with Producer B, so long as you've made serious changes to the material -- which, with a new producer, you probably have.

I'm passing all this along 'cause I was not aware of it! Careful what you send in and how -- you only get one shot.

18 to LIFE, alas

Just found out that one of our favorite shows, 18 TO LIFE, has definitely been cancelled -- I heard about it from one of the cast members.

Well, damn. This was a crisply written, funny, sweet, sexy show. And it was really hitting its stride. The cast is funny and adorable, and they have well-drawn characters to play. This year our family comedy viewing has been 30 ROCK, MODERN FAMILY and 18 TO LIFE.

Somehow or other, the series was controversial in the States. Apparently Americans took issue with the teen protagonists enjoying an offscreen sex life? Even though they are, you know, legally adults, and, uh, married? Maybe one day someone will explain that one to me.

What killed the series, though, was what kills any series: low ratings. Why didn't this show do better? Why do certain incredibly unfunny shows get renewed? You tell me. I'll miss it.

Well, I'm looking forward to whatever Derek Schreyer and Karen Troubetzkoy come up with next.

Isn't it Ironic? Cultural Support Works.

Unlike Canadian TV, where Canadian networks have been able to finesse the Cancon regulations, the Canadian music industry has strong requirements for airing Canadian music. And look at the results:
According to The Atlantic magazine, Montreal has the third highest concentration of music business establishments in North America, after Nashville and LA. Canada has four cities in the North American top ten: Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Quebec City.

It's no surprise that Québec has two cities in the top ten: Québec's support for its own culture is phenomenal. (That's one reason why yours truly lives here.) And it's no wonder that acts like Alanis Morissette and Arcade Fire come out of here.

I'm looking at you, CRTC!

WGC Awards

Hey, congratulations to my many friends who are nominated for WGC Awards. Not least of whom, my beloved wife Lisa, nominated in Shorts and Web Series for her hilarious script for YOU ARE SO UNDEAD.

And the nominees are...

In Animation..

League of Super Evil “All You Can Eat”
Written by Edward Kay

League of Super Evil “Voltina”
Written by Philippe Ivanusic-Vallee & Davila LeBlanc

The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That “The Cat…Knows A Lot About Maps”
Written by Karen Moonah

Total Drama World Tour “Broadway Baby”
Written by Alex Ganetakos

Zeke’s Pad “Fetch a Sketch”
Written by Hugh Duffy

In Children and Youth...

How To be Indie “How To Fight For Your Rights”
Written by Vera Santamaria

The Latest Buzz “The Extreme Shakespeare Issue”
Written by Barbara Haynes

Wingin’ It “She Blinded Me With Science”
Written by Ramona Barckert

Wingin’ It “The Spinner And The Saint”
Written by Conor Casey & Lyndon Casey

In Documentary...

How to Boil a Frog
Written by Jon Cooksey

Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague
Written by Jefferson Lewis

The Pig Farm
Written by Christine Nielsen

In Movies and Miniseries...

Barney’s Version
Written by Michael Konyves

Grown Up Movie Star
Written by Adriana Maggs

Life, Above All
Written by Dennis Foon

In Shorts and Web Series...

Hot Wheels Battle Force Five “Splashback”
Written by Cole Bastedo & Matt Huether

Ruby Skye P.I. “Caught Ruby Red Handed”
Written by Julie Strassman-Cohn & Jill Golick

You Are So Undead
Written by Lisa Hunter

In TV Comedy...

Kids in the Hall: Death Comes To Town “Cause of Death”
Written by Bruce McCulloch & Mark McKinney

Less Than Kind II “Coming Home”
Written by Chris Sheasgreen

Less Than Kind II “The Deluge”
Written by Garry Campbell & Jen Beasley

Less Than Kind II “Fasto Loves Lebso”
Written by Jenn Engels

In TV Drama...

Durham County “Distance, Hunting and Home”
Written by Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik

Flashpoint “Acceptable Risk”
Written by Pamela Davis

Flashpoint “Jumping at Shadows”
Written by Mark Ellis & Stephanie Morgenstern

Rookie Blue “Girlfriend of the Year”
Written by Tassie Cameron

Rookie Blue “Hot and Bothered”
Written by Russ Cochrane

It's a mystery to me how SPLICE failed to get nominated for Best Movie or Miniseries. Doug Taylor and Vincenzo Natali's script was brilliant and alarming and creepy as all get out. But everyone can't have prizes.

Laws of Success Scenario

Still searching for even a used Korean copy of Crafty Screenwriting (aka "Laws of Success: Scenario"), I found this enchanting review:

이 책은 선수용 실전 매뉴얼이다. 당신이 이제 막 시나리오를 쓰려고 마음먹었거나 초고를 막 완성한 사람이라면 이 책의 효용은 그리 크지않다. 만일 당신이 단막극 한 편이나 영화 한 편 정도를 써서 프로듀서의 평가를 받은 적이 있다면 이 책의 가치는 정말로 크다. 경험을 하지 않은 사람은 도저히 알 수 없는 실전적인 지침들이 가득하기 때문이다.

만약 당신이 현재 방송계, 영화계에서 이름이 통하는 프로페셔널이라면 이 책은 대단히 유용하다. 특히 경험에서 얻은 지혜이지만 그것이 과연 옳은 것인지 확신하지 못할 때 이 책은 아주 유용하다. 실무를 경험한 사람들만이 느낄 수 있는 등 뒤의 가려운 부분을 제대로 긁어주기 때문이다. 책을 덮은 다음 당신은 '내 생각이 옳았다.'이거나 '이런 생각도 있을 수 있구나'하고 고개를 주억거릴 것이다.

I have actually no idea what this says.

OTSOG

I haven't had much new to say lately, and I've been juggling three projects, so I've been quiet here.

This is just to say that Lisa and I watched THE WEST WING Season 2 finale, "Two Cathedrals," for at least the fourth time. The show, and this episode, just gets better and better. That, kids, is how this is done. A brilliant writer on a brilliant show... if you haven't seen it, and you hope to write one hour drama, there's your homework.

I met with an emerging writer today, and struggled to crystallize a direction for him to take his script. I was a little surprised to see he hadn't done his homework. It was a script about two guys who don't want to commit, who meet and fall in love with two girls who don't want to commit. I assigned him WEDDING CRASHERS and HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 14 DAYS and THE WEDDING PLANNER and HAROLD AND MAUDE. I am pretty sure that when Shakespeare was writing revenge tragedies, he read tons of revenge tragedies, and when he was writing comedies, he went and saw comedies. "If I have seen farther," said Newton, "it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Don't worry that you'll steal too much. It's a lot of work to steal too much. To write Hemingway pastiche you really have to rein in your sentences. If you just pursue your own feeling of emotional truth, you will be original enough. And if you find yourself stealing even half of what Aaron Sorkin did on "Two Cathedrals," you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

The Scottish Play, in Gibberish

Lisa and I live a couple of blocks from the Centaur Theatre, Montreal's premier English theatre, in the old Montreal Stock Market building. So when our dear friend Johanna raved about Möcshplat at my launch party, we thought we'd go. It's Macbeth, performed by clowns, in gibberish.

Yep.

I really can't think of any words to do justice to the antics of the clowns, except to say that they were really, really funny.

I'm not a big fan of theatre. Contemporary plays mostly leave me cold. Very often there is no "play" -- the characters aren't trying to get anything from each other by talking. Sometimes there is just no point. But of course, this isn't a contemporary play, it's Macbeth translated into a gibberish that is just comprehensible enough that you can follow what the characters are ranting about.

It does help a bit if you know the plot.

(There is an old theatrical tradition that you never say the name of "the Scottish play" in a theatre. And of course you never wish an actor "good luck." I've always wanted to have some idiot say "good luck playing Macbeth!" to an actor, in a theatre, but that's the sort of one percenter you have to cut...)