Canada's Top Ten....but WTF Is A Pontypool?

Today marks the beginning of a week of screenings and panels in Toronto under the banner of Canada's Top Ten. Organized by the Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG), Canada’s Top Ten highlight their picks of the top Canadian feature and short films for 2008. It's held from January 30 to February 7 at Cinematheque Ontario.

This is the eighth year for the event, and kudos to the group for trying to celebrate and raise awareness of Canadian features and shorts...though it is kind of hard to be really jazzed about it all since like almost half of the films haven't even been released in theatres yet. People's Choice Awards this is not. And there doesn't appear to be an awards ceremony...I guess they're all winners.

Here's a list of the selected features:

Adoration – Atom Egoyan (Entertainment One/Seville Pictures, May 2009)
Before Tomorrow – Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Alliance Films, February 2009)
Ce qu’il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life) – Benoit Pilon (Entertainment One/Seville Pictures)
C'est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear!) – Philippe Falardeau (Entertainment One/Seville Pictures)
Fifty Dead Men Walking – Kari Skogland (TVA Films, Spring 2009)
Heaven on Earth – Deepa Mehta (Mongrel Media)
Lost Song – Rodrigue Jean
Maman est chez le coiffeur (Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s) – Léa Pool (Equinoxe Films)
La Mémoire des anges (The Memories of Angels) – Luc Bourdon (National Film Board of Canada)
Pontypool – Bruce McDonald (Maple Pictures, March 2009)


Congrats to everyone being recognized...it's better than nothing I suppose.

Now...a few thoughts about the last film on the list which, for the record, I haven't seen...and it may be AWESOME, but...

I know I'm a broken record about the importance of the name of your film, but watch the trailer below for Pontypool, and then someone tell me how its depiction of Night of the Living Dead meets Talk Radio relates in any way, shape, or form to the title? Pontypool??



The movie's based on a book, "Pontypool Changes Everything" by Ontario author Tony Burgess (ECW Press, 1998) - a title that suggests 'Pontypool' is a thing or a person. But it turns out to be the name of the town where this virus that turns people into zombies takes hold.

Huh?

As you already know, I'm a big believer in the title giving you your first real good taste of whatever it is you're going to be viewing...that's just how I roll. And I get nothing from Pontypool.

Not to mention it's from a book I've never heard of, and I fear most everyone else hasn't heard of it either. So if that's why they kept that title, to 'build' on the supposed built-in brand or fan base of the novel...then I think they're going to be sorely disappointed by the number of 'book fans' who show up to see the film at a movie theater.

Okay...rant over. Go to the Cinematheque Ontario this week...support your local filmmaking industry...you know the drill.

Eat Your Veggies

Really jammed up this week on about five different things, so I'll be brief.

First, LOVING DMc's rant and the ensuing comments about Canadian TV show websites...eat 'em up HERE and HERE... you just gotta love the big guy for not being afraid to tell it like it is. Seriously.

Next....the Henshaw provides us with a preview of upcoming posts and some tasty tidbits of what he's been learning and hearing at NATPE this week, including this doozy of a quote: "Within three years, the television commercial will be a memory."

And speaking of commercials, why is this new ad from PETA:



...being banned from airing during this weekend's Super Bowl by NBC because it "depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards," ... yet the following Burger King ad from a couple years ago featuring a meat-eating Paris Hilton was apparently okay.



Someone wanna explain that to me?

Successfully Selling Cops And Malls And Ring Tones

I was coerced into seeing Paul Blart: Mall Cop by the kids last night...oh yes, they'll be keeping me company when I head to Grindhouse II later year --- and you can line up to start kicking my ass now, but "Mall Cop" actually wasn't that bad.

Structurally, the script worked pretty well. Yes, it was by the numbers, but it more or less tracked...hit all the right notes when and where it was supposed to...and things that were set up early deftly paid off late. And like the Die Hard formula it was riffing off of, Blart was a reluctant hero but still likeable, and he saved the day plus got the girl at the end.

I even found the music interesting. It was primarily retro, but also had a few urban R&B/Hip Hop tunes for the kids (though in the theatre I was at the young'uns seemed to know all the oldies too). That said, I don't know if you'll hear REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run", Survivor's "I Can't Hold Back", and Rasheeda's "My Bubble Gum" together in any other movie this year. (Survivor...awesome!)



"I'm the type of girl you want to chew on like your bubblegum..."

It was a teenage girl's ringtone...but the phone ended up in Blart's possession. Hilarity ensued every time it rang.

My kids ate it all up (and judging by the movie's performance at the box office so far, they're not alone)...and surprisingly I didn't want to spit it out the minute the title sequence started to roll.

Go figure.

No Pain, Only Gain (Well, Maybe Some Pain)

Now I'm not saying the following prescription drugs haven't helped a lot of people deal with some serious serious medical conditions...but their advertisements scare the shit out of me.

Cymbalta can cause nausea, dry mouth, or constipation; Mirapex can cause drowsiness, or intense gambling or sexual urges; side effects of Zoloft can include insomnia, diarrhea, and sexual dysfunction; Cialis side effects may include headaches, backaches, and erections lasting more than four hours (that's a side effect?); and the downsides of Celebrex can include serious skin reactions, stomach/intestine problems, and bleeding ulcers that could cause death.

Of course, we can't leave out the most terrifying ad of them all, Abilify, where the list of possible side effects (including coma or death) takes up more than half the commercial.




Yikes.

They all make me want to reach for a big handful of Havidol:




Mmmm. Havidol. Just what I needed.

Toga! TOGA!

Double secret probation, Belushi, and togas ARE Friday Fun...




Because it makes me wanna SHOUT!, and smile.

I Once Was Found But Now Am Lost (in a good way)

There's life...and there's TV. And while those two things generally mesh together nicely in my little world, sometimes life supersedes and I'm unable to climb on board a new series when it begins.


I missed the plane when the TV series Lost started its run four years ago. And by the time I was finally able to give it a whirl I quickly became 'lost', as they say, and stopped trying.

Until this past summer.

I kept hearing good buzz and, quite frankly, was missing a dose of twisty-turny sci-fi 'big' mystery TV in my viewing diet. There hadn't really been anything of that ilk 'finding' me since the days of The X Files and Buffy and Angel. This wretch needed some saving.

So I dived in head first and screened all of Season 1 and half of Season 2 on disc whilst out at the cottage. I liked it. Liked it quite a bit actually. Even the kids got into the show and all of its serialized mystery addictiveness. I kinda drifted through the rest of Season Two during the fall...and then in December it was a dvd marathon through Seasons 3 and 4.

I've since discovered the plethora of show fansites out there on the internets, all quite swollen with analysis and theories and predictions...and concluded that pretty much any thoughts I might have about the show have been expressed already.

But I do want to say two things.

1) McGrath and John August both wrote about this recently...that as consumers of film/TV we want something familiar and comfortable, but want that something to also feel new or original. Lost accomplishes that feat in spades. It gives us fans of The X Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or BSG our cool sci-fi/paranormal fix without feeling like we're watching something we've already seen before (see Fringe, Eleventh Hour, Supernatural). I know how the Lost boys got where they got was pretty wacky ('Survivor' meets 'Castaway' meets 'Lord of the Flies'), but still...the end result is four kinds of awesome.

2) The show has balls. They proved it at the end of Season 3 by messing with their tried and true formula, when already a hit. That is, taking their episode story model of intercutting the adventures of the survivors on the island with a 'flashback' story (usually focusing on one of the primary island survivors), and bringing a game changer to the table by introducing 'flash forwards' to a time of life after the island for six of the survivors.

I would've loved to have been in the writers room when the story department came up with that one.


Now anyone who follows the show more closely than I might inform me that this was always part of the series gameplan...but I'd call bullshit. If that had been on all the writers minds right off the top, there's no no NO way they would've held off using flash forwards for nearly three entire seasons...66 episodes....no friggin' way.

Because its too cool a move. It'd take just way much discipline and dedication not to play that card whenever you felt the show might be growing a little repetitive or stale or what have you...(like middle of Season 2 or beginning of Season 3).

No I say they were well into it all, probably end of Season 2, and spinning and riffing and bickering and bantering and perhaps someone in the room said: "So, does anyone get off the island or not?"...and someone else said, "Of course some of them do." And someone else said, "Well who? And what would that be like for them?" And then someone else jumped up and exclaimed, "What if we showed life after the island for some of our characters, but treated as if it was a flashback, until we revealed it was actually the future...and...and...

Whoa.

I know that's what I would've said....because the coolness of that idea and the story possibilities it held would be immediately apparent.

Whoa.

For me, that moment, whenever it happened, encapsulates the fun and thrill and excitement and pleasure of working in a story department with a team of smart, clever, passionate people writing for a long-running TV series. You'd have had to be there to truly appreciate what the Lost boys experienced, but having played the TV game for a long time, I can certainly imagine how sweet it was.



Crashing ahead to the here and now, and not to get all spoileree, but the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a long Q&A HERE with showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse...and HERE Alan Sepinwall previews the new season. And in this recent interview with Lindelof and Cuse they discuss their writing process and hint at the audience having to get used to a new form of narrative story-telling in Season 5:

Cartlon Cuse: Our approach to the story telling changed drastically once we were able to negotiate an end date to the show. Before that we didn't know if the mythology had to last two seasons or seven seasons. Once we knew there were only going to be 48 eps of the show left we were able to start charting out the remaining journey. We approach it on three levels.

First we have discussions about the uber-mythology and plant the big landmark events in rough locations. Then at the end of each season we have a writer's mini camp where we discuss the arc of the upcoming season in great detail. Then we break each individual episode and see where we end up at the end of each break.

Followed by:

Cartlon Cuse: We actually TRY and jump the shark all the time. The last thing we want to do is feel like the show is falling into a tired paradigm. In fact this season we start out with a new narrative approach. Not the now traditional flashbacks or flash forwards. We always are trying to keep the storytelling surprising.

The game's changing again. Excellent.


Lost Season 5 begins on ABC tonight...how sweet that sounds.

I'm In Love With (The Music In) My Car

I was thinking about doing a 'year in my music' review last month, but as I started to put it together I was struck by how average and 'mainstream' so many of my choices were...and I ditched it. I mean, pretty much everything I was going to shout about was already on Q Magazine or Spin Magazine or Rolling Stone mags 'best of' lists (which got me wondering...have I become so uncool? Or have all the rags just gone more cool?). Anyhoo. Bo-ring.

But then I was reading an article recently that labelled some of the picks I was planning to highlight as 'recent discoveries', so I decided to do a quick revisit.

First the rules, pretty simple actually...cd's are ranked by the length of time a band or artists' disc spent in the cd player of my car (and who doesn't love their car + great tunes...I mean, really) --- most time in the deck wins.

Yeah, you heard me. This ain't about kudos for bragging about the obscure, hip, cool, rad music I came across... this is about what stayed in the player, playa.


So counting down, or up, the top five:

5) Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cardinology - 3 weeks 4 days

Alt-country meets stadium rock... great cruising music... wrote about it HERE.... check out "Magick"


4) Bob Mould - District Line - 3 weeks 6 days
Beck - Modern Guilt - 3 weeks 6 days

A tie between two alt pop punk mavericks...wrote about 'District Line' HERE...'Modern Guilt' a little bit HERE (it grew on me)... check out "Gamma Ray"


3) Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid - 4 weeks 2 days

Courtesy Callaghan giving a thumbs up...hard to put a finger on what exactly I liked so much about this UK bands' folksy yet richly textured release, but it got played over and over and over...check out "One Day Like This"


2) The Killers - Day & Age - 5 weeks 1 day
Bit of surprise with this one, which after being casually tossed in for a quick 'let's give it a listen', just came out of the car a few days ago. Perhaps it was because of the cold, but I think because there was a whole lots of 80's 'Tears For Fearsy' and 'Human Leaguee' dance fun....check out "Human"


1) My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges - 7 weeks
TV on the Radio - Dear Science - 7 weeks

Yes, another tie. Kind of lame I know, but these were also the only two cd's I bought this year that spent considerable time in the deck, came out of the deck, and then went back in the deck again. So a bit of a cheat in that I combined their time spent in my vehicle's cd player, but whatever... they deserved it. Wrote about 'Evil Urges' HERE and 'Dear Science' HERE...both are brilliant...don't hesitate to purchase.


Other musical year end notes: didn't see a lot of live acts this year...Neil Young was special but the standout show would have to have been Kathleen Edwards and her band kicking out the jams for an hour at a folk festival. Her new cd Asking For Flowers with The Cheapest Key wasn't too shabby either.

And coolest 'very viral' music video of the year (I could take or leave the song)... Weezer's "Pork and Beans".




Just watch it and you'll understand what I mean.

Okay...we all good?

To The Fringe...And Beyond!

Rummaging through my old vinyl and found this treasure from 60's British stage comedy/satire troupe Beyond The Fringe (aka Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller). And even though the clip is from the Secret Policeman's Ball as opposed to the original, take a Friday Fun trip back to the end of the world and discover: "Will this wind...be so mighty...as to lay low...the mountains...of the earrrrtth."



Because it makes me smile.

Baby, It's Bad Out There

(click to enlarge)


Yeah...you read that right: -45.


Need to warm up the joint.

Tom Jones is hot, but SRV is smoking...

When A Canadian Movie Is Wrapped...As A Gift

Denis McGrath put up a long post today that's a definite must-read...go NOW. It's an overview of the CRTC's (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) mandate, followed by the big guy questioning whether Vice Chair Michel Arpin has our best interests in mind when he publicly states in an interview that he's "...not that interested in televised fiction or even feature films. I would prefer to read a novel."

Hmmm.

But always the helpful one, Denis goes on to suggest we send him copies of quality Canadian TV shows and movies we like with a plan to forward one of each per month to Mr. Arpin's office with the hope of educating the commissioner about what we make, so to speak.

I'm pretty sure we'll have the TV shows and series covered pretty well, but what about Canadian feature films? When I was starting out in this biz, Un Zoo la Nuit (Night Zoo), I've Heard The Mermaids Singing, and Jesus of Montreal were the movies held up high as the bar to strive for. Personally, I enjoyed "Night Zoo" the most.

So what are the feature films held up high today?

For a long time, I didn't pay a lot of attention to our indigenous theatrical releases because...well, not very many peaked my interest, and I was working in TV. But over the past year or so, as I've been more involved in the development of long form drama, I've made best effort to see more Canadian features...so as to be conversant, you know. Here's some of the ones I've screened:

Bon Cop Bad Cop
The Tracy Fragments
Emotional Arithmetic
Away From Her
Beowulf and Grendel
Fido
Monkey Warfare
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
Eastern Promises
The Rocket
C.R.A.Z.Y.

*It's All Gone Pete Tong

Sadly, very few of these I actually saw in a cinema and had to catch them on Super Channel or Movie Central. And of the list above, C.R.A.Z.Y. was easily the film I enjoyed the most... entertaining well-made Canadian English language flicks have always seemed fewer and farther between. Those darn French...they make better films and have a different word for everything.

At any rate, you can discuss or suggest HERE at InkCanada or chime away in the comments, but sticking to more recent Canadian feature films, what titles would you recommend sending to CRTC Vice Chair Michel Arpin?



(Here are two compilations on Wikipedia...Cinema of Canada...and...Canadian Films of the 2000's... but I acknowledge that neither is a complete list)

* added after post written

An Untold Truth...Conveniently

“Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” Stephen Leacock

I've seen one poster, two trailers, and one commercial for Defiance, the upcoming WWII flick starring Daniel Craig, and found some of the ways they are marketing it...um...very interesting.

First, the print ad looks not so much like everyman and his three brothers help Jewish refugees escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus, and a LOT like 007 (aka James Bond) kicking out the jams. Not a big shocker that they went there but still...PR guys...come on.

Then the commercial playing over and over on my TV set this weekend during the NFL playoff games buttoned itself with the voice over line: "Based on the incredible untold true story."

Trailer Number Two said the same thing, but different: "A true story...never before told."

But it was Trailer Number One that really hammered the message home with the title card: "Based on the most incredible true story...you have never heard."



I was left wondering when being just 'based on a true story' (like Valkyrie or Flags of our Fathers or Letters From Iwo Jima or The Pianist or Band Of Brothers or Schindler's List even, most of which I'd never heard of before they were released as films) became not quite good enough anymore.

Is Defiance a good film or a turd...I have no idea. But I don't like feeling manipulated, or the implication that an 'untold' true story is somehow more worthy of my attention. I'm sure the marketers were just trying to make the film sound special in this year of so many Holocaust movies they almost all cancel each other other out, as Eric Kohn writes HERE in the New York Press. But still, it smells a little like desperation....

Does this kind of subtle smoke and mirrors shtick really work on your regular average Joe public movie goer? I'd like to say no....but then they probably don't think about this kind of stuff as much as I do. Or even care.

How Much Is The Copy Of Orgasm?

Go Bananas as a young Woody Allen pays homage to Keaton and Chaplin in these two Friday Fun clips... it's magazine comedy!





Love the music in the second clip, plus seeing a young Stallone playing a subway mugger...bonus!

Because they make me smile.

Dog

Sure The Stooges were about Iggy, all about the Iggy...but it was Ron Asheton's guitar work that made me listen to Funhouse and the band's self-titled debut over and over and over again.

Especially the song "No Fun".



That solo shredded my first set of speakers. Awesome.

R.I.P.

By Any Other Name

Last night the new dramedy series Being Erica premiered on the CBC, and tonight the one hour drama Wild Roses makes its debut.

Now first just let me say I mean no disrespect with this post. I haven't seen a frame of the series, and in fact know several colleagues who worked on it so wish the show all the success it deserves (though today Doyle takes a few shots in his review)...but as more or less an outsider, like most viewers hopefully tuning in this evening, I got to wondering about the title. Wild Roses. Wild Roses. What does it tell us? What does it connote?

What does it mean?

When I first heard about the series, the working title was "Cowgirls" I believe. Then, when the series got greenlit earlier this year, I read some press that referred to the show as "The Wild Roses". My takeaway from that was an image of a Coyote Ugly-like series set on the ranches and oilfields in and around Calgary, and the name of one of the families portrayed was Rose.


But Rose it's not. It's the Henrys and the McGregors.


From CBC/Official Website:

Two families, the wealthy McGregors and the debt-ridden Henrys, clash over land, love and loyalty in Calgary, Alberta.

Okay...okay...I get that. Sounds like a Canadian Dallas, with perhaps a little Coyote Ugly tossed in for fun. But still...Wild Roses (after dropping the 'The')? What's the connection between that title and the show? So I dug a little deeper.

Here's the opening title sequence, and the trailer:



Sure seems like a "Dallas" for the new millennium...and even looks like there's some "Coyote Ugly" action happening, but then I read this quote in an interview with lead actress Michelle Harrison:

Michelle Harrison got a conspiratorial look on her face when it was suggested Wild Roses is a contemporary Dallas.

"We were told not to say it's a contemporary Dallas," Harrison said with a shy smile. "But it really is, you know? There actually is no better way to describe it."

Told not to say it? Really? How...odd. In fact, most of the current press releases from the network describe the show as 'Shakespearean'...odder still.

Anyway, I'm not here to nitpick...I'm here trying to figure why it's called "Wild Roses".

Not a clue.

Maybe one of the families were called the Roses at some point, and then they changed the family's last name but forgot to change the show title...I really have no idea. But to be perfectly honest, the fact that I can't seem to see or find an obvious connection between title and show kinda bugs me.

Believe it or not, series titles are important. Very important. Whether to entice new viewers, or hold onto the fans, or just to simply, clearly, and succinctly relate what's it all about...the title of a series plays a huge role in defining the show.

Wild Roses. What's your takeaway?

All Hail The Canuck Blogfather

Several weeks ago (back when it wasn't -44 with the wind chill for the tenth straight day!), Ink Canada's Karen Walton put out a call to our industry for Creative Citizen of the Year nominations...

Sometimes, when an artist or cultural industry worker truly sets the bar for caring about more than the bottom line and the credits, we organize a little group virtual standing ovation for them, and try to bring eyes, ears & hearts to their efforts to improve the quality of life for human beings in general.

We miss more than we applaud here largely because these model citizens are generally rather modest about their gigantic Goodness-es.

So. If you know someone who ought to be applauded for the smallest acts of Giving a Damn, or the biggest... please use this space to bring them some luv and us some lessons on what cool really looks like.

Last night, after noting all the nominations and tallying all the votes, a recipient for Creative Citizen of the Year '08 was chosen...and no real surprise it's Denis McGrath - TV writer/producer, WGC Board Member, unofficial leader of the Canadian Writers Mafia, and of course, the mad blogging demon that is Dead Things ON Sticks.


McGrath's 'daddy cool' response:

Well hell's bells. For once, uncharacteristically, I don't really know what to say.

Except maybe this: three and a half years ago I started blogging because I felt isolated as a TV writer, and thought if only we were more of a community... maybe we'd be more effective, plugged in, and less generally abused. And maybe the work would get better.

Now here's that community made manifest ... created by us all but due in no small part to Karen Walton's Herculean efforts. What we do with this harnessed brainpower ... well, I guess now we start to figure that out.

Thanks. I'm muy chuffed.

Excellent choice, Karen and her band of Inkies...excellent choice.

Let's Put A Smile On That Face

Welcome to 2009, my friends...welcome to 2009!


Movie mashup recuts can be easy Friday Fun 'gets', but this Dark Knight meets Toy Story 2 edit-fest is pretty slick. That Woody...he's such a Joker.



Because it makes me smile. On my face.

Happy New 'Year We (Almost) Make Contact'!

Interesting times we're in.

And they're only going to get more interesting, before they get better get better I bet.

You betcha!



Nevertheless, all the best for the upcoming twelve months.

Enjoy the next three hundred and sixty-five days.

Make the most of these 525,600 minutes.
Savour those 31,536,000 seconds.
Because, before you know it, t'will be...well, you know...





...and then who knows what's gonna happen.


Thanks for reading....have a great year everybody.

Television. Adventure. (Reprint)

Final repost from just a couple months ago, and am pleased to report that said tv is still healthy and happy and most excellently projecting images and sound.



TELEVISION. ADVENTURE.

Where to begin.

Around this time last year I purchased my first HD television, a 26 inch Sony KDL 26M3000. And I gotta say....I lurve my HD tee-vee. I've actually watched more basic network tv programs over the past year because I find myself only flipping between channels 501 - 525 now...cuz dem's the HD channels. Four are movie channels...two are PBS...and the rest are just your basic U.S. nets NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC east and west...and Canadian nets CTV, GLOBAL, CITY, and CTV. There's been more than one occasion that I've found myself watching an ep of L&O: Criminal Intent, just because it looks so fine.

Anyway, a few months ago a black line appeared down the right half of the screen or picture panel. Out of the blue. And then the line widened. I looked into the problem...dead pixels. Looked like this:

And as I investigated some more, I learned this is fairly common in LCD televisions. Happens about 30% of the time apparently. Not common to any particular brand, it just happens. New technology I was told. Harrumph. Well that sucks. But no worries, it still should be covered under the manufacturer's one year warranty.

So last week, with the warranty nearly expired, I went to my neighbourhood Best Buy...you know, where I purchased the telly in the first place...to get some direction. Erm...bad idea. I asked the first sales assistant I could find where I should take my television to be fixed, and his response: "Why didn't you get the Best Buy extended service plan?" Um, I just didn't. Again I asked, where's the authorized Sony service dealer in town? He shrugged and said: "Don't think there is one. You're going to have to box it up and ship your television back to Sony. Probably will be gone months. Should've got our extended service plan, man."

Sorry...but you're not helping.

I asked another sales assistant...exact same response. Now I was getting snarky. C'mon...let's move past the fact I didn't get the Best Buy extended service plan, where do I go to get it fixed? Shrug. Still not discouraged, I asked a third sales assistant where the authorized Sony service dealer was in town. "Oh, that'd be Video Refit over on McKara." Thank you! I immediately led this helpful gentleman over to the two other fucktards and had him tell them what he'd told me. It didn't seem to matter, they just stared at him blankly... but I felt better.

So I went home and boxed up my Sony and whisked it over to Video Refit, along with my bill of sale and one year warranty card. They seemed very busy there, but were quite helpful...even though I was the annoying customer with lots of questions: were they going to repair or replace screen/panel? Or were they going to just replace it with a new television since apparently the cost of the panel is the majority of cost of the entire unit? And how were they determine what was going to be done...were they going to assess the dead pixel problem themselves? Or did they have to ship to Sony HQ for them to assess?

All my questions were answered...and panel replacement or television replacement were definitely options. They also said a third option might be a refund or voucher so I could go back to Best Buy and replace my TV that way. But they said give them 7-10 days to figure things out...I nodded but left reluctantly, already missing my HD TV.

A refund/voucher, huh? The wheels in my head started spinning...if I got back the purchase price of what I paid a year ago, I could upgrade to a 32 inch version of same television (since prices have dropped). And not only that, I could get the 1080p model, as opposed to the lowly 720p model I was currently saddled with. I raced back to Best Buy to explore this option. And happily, a former student of mine was working in the TV department that afternoon. So I was able to pick his brain without the annoying "Why didn't you get the service plan?" question.

And here's what I learned.

He guessimated it would be about three months before I saw my TV again....that was his experience with people trying to get items repaired or replaced under manufacturer's warranty. WTF? And as for the second part of my master plan, he said he'd never seen a refund or voucher in lieu of replacement or repair before. Bummer. But most importantly, he said that no North American networks broadcast in 1080p!

I. Did. Not. Know. That.

Read about it here and here and here, but bottom line is that it's a bandwidth issue (networks broadcast HD in 720p or 1080i), so having a 1080p television doesn't mean my HD network shows will look noticeably better. Which begged the question: why spend the extra $ for the 1080p if the best digital HD signal you can receive is 720p (or 1080i, same diff)? Oh sure...your Blu-Ray movies will look better, since they are actually delivering a 1080p signal, but that's pretty much it.

I was glad to discover all this, but a little miffed. I'd always been led to believe that HD tv means 1080p tv, if your television can accommodate it. As it turns out...not so much.

Anyhow, my new best Best Buy pal also informed me 'defect' is open to interpretation when it comes to manufacturer's warranty...and in the case of dead pixels, there's actually a number that have to appear before it's considered defective. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and model to model, but bottom line is that several (up to 10 I believe) random dead pixels on your LCD screen falls into normal use/wear and tear, and not a defect to be repaired or replaced. And he said to make sure the manufacturers warranty covered parts and labour...apparently some don't do both.

I was now muttering and twitching...expecting my TV to not only not get looked at for months, but that then I'd be informed my problem wasn't even 'covered' or I'd have to pay for work done anyway.

At any rate, this television adventure has a happy ending. One that sent me over the Marquee Moon, so to speak.

End of last week, a mere six days after dropping off my Sony, I received a call from the repair shop. Come pick it up, your television is ready. Really? I double-checked to make sure they had the right person....even reading out the number off my ticket stub. Yep...it was mine.

I drove over later that afternoon and was greeted by the manager. Nice fellow. But he immediately launched into a "Oh we're so sorry about how long it took to repair your telly..." I'm confused. Say I'm not complaining. He sighs and explains how many units they get in that need repair and how short-staffed he is...pulls out my invoice and loudly sighs: "Oh c'mon...let's see when you brought your tv in. The 30th....see?", followed by more apologies. I am now really confused. It's okay I say...I'm really not complaining. Then he takes a closer look at my work order...now he looks confused. "This was just last week," he says. I nod. He hustles over to the box containing my tv and checks the ticket stub number. "Wow," he says, "Did you really bring it in last week?" Again, I nod.

Now he's shaking his head and reviews the work order --- they'd looked at it the day after I'd dropped it off, determined enough pixels were dead to warrant repair, sent the evidence to Sony HQ (they have to take pictures and list specs apparently), the new panel arrived two days later, they took out the 'defective' one and replaced it with the new one, and then called me.

He told me I should buy a lottery ticket, because in all his days he'd never seen one go through the system that fast. Nevertheless, I still had him turn mine on, just to make sure it was working properly. It was. I thanked him, signed the completed work order, and humped my Sony out to the car and home again.

And the warranty covered everything.

Thus endeth my television adventure. In and out in six days..the way it should be. Nice.

As for the other Television Adventure, that's another post for another time...when the topic is brilliant but unsung new wave bands from the late '70's.

Train In Vain... (Or How Canadian TV Drama Got Derailed Over The Past Ten Years) (Reprint)

This post was from back in August, and probably stirred the pot as much as Uninflected Images is capable of doing. Definitive Canadian TV drama series since 2000...what do you think?


TRAIN IN VAIN

I have been following with interest the thread that began at Anthony Strand's Live Journal and then continued at Weinman's TV Guidance where they've been discussing...what is the definitive TV show of the past decade?

First off, how do you define definitive? Does that mean greatest, most popular, coolest, hippest, most influential...? I suppose it's a bit of 'all of the above, and as Weinman explains, that doesn't necessarily mean best show, but one that best embodies TV and TV trends over the past (almost) 10 years.

Between Strand/Weinman and the commenters I would say they've covered all the possible candidates pretty well. Strand chose one drama and one comedy...and singling out Arrested Development as the definitive comedy of the 2000's(?) made a lot of sense (though I would award a tie between it and the UK's The Office). And while I'm not sure if Angel stands up as the decade's 'definitive' drama, Strand makes a solid case. Lost, House, 24, CSI, and The Sopranos all deserve consideration, and I still wouldn't exclude Survivor or American Idol (they may not be drama drama, but they sure come very close to 'defining' the TV decade as far as I'm concerned).

At any rate, one thing I took away was the lack of one show standing out...a single program/ series from the past nine years that was entertaining and popular yet also managed to encapsulate the mood, mindset, ambiance, and personality of the decade --- like The X Files or Buffy or Seinfeld or Friends did in the 90's.

Perhaps it's due to there being so many good series out there of late. Or that viewer fragmentation has expanded to such a degree that it's almost impossible for one show/series to stand out. Anyway, go check out those posts --- what I wanted to put on the table is....

....what might be the definitive Canadian series/show of the decade?

Again, comedy seems to be a little easier to nail...a toss up between Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys in my opinion. They both were popular enough to be known by most people of this country (whether you 'liked' them or not isn't really part of the equation)...but they also in their own way defined us as gentler simpler and slightly snarkier people/neighbours to the north of the monolith that is the USA.

But drama...not so easy.

In trying to determine a shortlist, I searched long and hard. Series like The Eleventh Hour or This Is Wonderland or Intelligence were quality but didn't quite attain the necessary 'popularity' factor. Cold Squad and Divinci's Inquest were popular and ran well into the 2000's, but both began airing in 1998 (and one of the criteria seems to be that the series began airing by or at least roundabouts 2000).

Stargate: SG1 or at least it's spinoff Stargate: Atlantis were certainly long-running and popular enough to warrant consideration. And as far as 'defining' us, service producing US programming is certainly high on the list of things we do as an industry...and the Stargates' definitely fall into that category (which is kind of an unfair rap against them because even though the vast majority of cast, crew, writers, showrunners are Canadian, it's primary investors and broadcasters have been American - MGM and US's Showtime and then SciFi channel). Thus, most people up here don't perceive them as distinctly 'Canadian' shows, so I moved on.

Degrassi: Next Generation has been around most of the decade, so it should be a nominee...but it's a half hour drama and the second incarnation (or is it 3rd?) of a series (Degrassi Jr. High) that probably defined us in the 1980's....tell me we've come at least some ways since then, please? In fact, the whole teen/tween/kids arena could certainly define recent Canadian TV to a large extent...there have been countless series/programs of that ilk quite successful in their own right in this category. But the defining show? Nope, can't go there.

Slings & Arrows, Regenesis, Durham County, The Collector, Blood Ties, Mutant X, Blue Murder, The Border, Whistler, Falcon Beach...were all either too new or short-lived or too niche/genre to be serious contenders (but feel free to disagree with me).

All in all, I said "damn!"...it's been a pretty miserable run for Canadian dramatic TV.

Which leads me to my choice for definitive Canadian TV show/series of the decade... Train 48.

Now I know I'm probably going to get called down for naming this show...but for me, Train 48 encapsulated all that Canadian TV has for the most part been since the devastating CRTC decisions of 1999. You know, the changes that decimated the indigenous industry and killed a lot of dramatic TV production by allowing broadcasters to fulfill its Canadian content mandates and quotas with news magazine, arts and entertainment, lifestyle, and reality programming.

A quick recap. The time was 2002/2003. I'd just moved back from LA to Canada, and sussing out what was going on and getting made up here...and truth was, not very much. And then I heard about this new series from CanWest Global. Under pressure to start producing more homegrown TV, specifically drama, and in order to fulfill it's conditions of license and meet CRTC mandated expectations, the network bought into an Australian soap format called Going Home and transplanted it to Toronto. Set entirely on a Go Train, it told the story of a group of commuters each day returning to the suburbs and surrounding communities from downtown Toronto. Largely improvised from outlines (so full writer/script fees wouldn't have to be paid), it was notorious for it's bargain-basement production values and mediocre performances. Shot on the cheap...an episode a day - it was, in short, embarrassing.

And it ran for 3 years.

EDIT: H/T to Weinman for finding a clip (and don't take this whole write up as a knock against the crew or actors or creatives on the show as much as to hammer home the sad fact that this was considered acceptable drama by the network)

Check out some of the negative comment threads on imdb.com for starters, just to get a taste of the disdain people had for this program. And the WGC had a 'behind the scenes' piece on the program HERE, which helps give the lay of the land. From the article:

Global denies picking up the series to meet Canadian content obligations on the cheap. "It costs less per episode, but the volume makes it more expensive," says Loren Mawhinney, vice president of Canadian productions. "Sixty-five episodes cost over $6 million, compared to $3.25 million for all 13 hours of Blue Murder."

Mawhinney calls Train 48 an "out-of-the-box way of creating drama," and says Global hopes to use it to lure advertisers in an increasingly fragmented marketplace. The network also wants the independence of making shows without any direct government funding.

Most of us called 'bullshit', not that it really mattered what we said. From the same article:

Tim Woods of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says Global has no excuse for not investing in high-budget dramas. "Simultaneous substitution–putting Canadian commercials on popular American shows–is worth an enormous amount of money to broadcasters. It's a gift in exchange for investing in Canadian shows," he says.

Woods suggests broadcasters hoodwinked the CRTC by establishing a "trust policy" in 1999 that leaves it up to them how to fill time allotted for Canadian programming, rather than requiring them to invest a revenue percentage in Canadian shows.

Also true. Not that it mattered what the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said.

For me, Train 48 embodied Canadian TV and TV trends of the past decade....cheaply produced programming with the primary mandate to fulfill quotas and mandates, NOT to make popular and entertaining hits of high or at least decent quality. The network, and the government and regulatory bodies overseeing the networks/industry really didn't seem to care. And it had a profoundly negative effect on the industry, at least in my circles...as in, if this was the kind of crap that a major broadcaster wanted to throw its weight and energy and money (pittance that it was) behind...was there any point? Was there any hope for us?

From friends, relatives, American colleagues, I heard more negative comments about Train 48 than any other Canadian show produced over the past decade...and every conversation went the same way: have you seen it? did you work on it? isn't it terrible...like, laughable? And then the kicker....is that the best you guys in Canadian TV can do?

It was tough to argue with them. And the resulting feeling was really demoralizing and depressing...not so much because we couldn't do better for the networks, but because the networks didn't really appear to want 'better'. Train 48 was 'good enough' it seemed, and we've been paying for and trying to live that down for the past four years.

That said, there has been a recent trend to at least try to return to more engaging quality dramatic TV (though having the US as a partner seems to be a necessary criteria). And, even if just through pilots, there's also been an attempt to make more of it...drama, that is. But still...

...we were off the rails for quite a while.

If I Knew Now What I Didn't Know Then (Reprint)

I'm enjoying my holidays...hope everyone else is as well, and so thought I'd go back through the archives and repost some of my favourite entries from the past year. Unfortunately, 2008 wasn't one of Uninflected's best...apologies...but still found a few I felt worth sharing again, like this one from the end of May.



IF I KNEW NOW WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW THEN

No that headline's not a typo...stick with me.

Just finished teaching another TV producing class...and it actually looks like a couple projects developed over the course of the semester will get bought by local producers. Very cool. And kudo's to the students for coming to the plate and bringing some game. And I see it in their eyes that the projects might actually happen.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the mindset one has when starting out in this film/TV biz. You are usually naive and blind to the harsh reality of it all, but are driven by one objective...to get the damn thing made.


I miss those days these days...here's why.

I came up with a TV series idea and a feature idea over the past couple weeks. Both jazzed me a little...I 'saw' them quickly...and liked the possibilities for both. And I started to rough them out...quickly laying down what might happen...how they both might unfold. I penciled in some character sketches...and projected what those characters might go through and where they might end up.

And then...

...I read about a series project in development somewhere that sounded very similar to mine. And who knows if it actually is, but just reading about it dampened my enthusiasm. And with the other...a feature film idea, I realized how much it would actually cost to do it up right. To do it the way I was 'seeing' it. It would have to be a big US feature, parked at some studio, with one or two stars....and knowing the prospect for all this to occur was so slim, my enthusiasm for that project soon began to wane.

And before I knew it, my ideas were being slid into a desk drawer.

Now some might say I'm just old or lazy or out of touch or don't get 'today's sensibilities'...but I would argue "no". In fact, when I take a look back at some of my early original idea pitches, I would say the current ones are far superior. Cleaner premises, better drawn characters, cleverer plots and plot twists, display longer legs. The only real difference is back then I didn't know any better...and today I almost know too much.

Sidebar: This last thought is really directed at those of us who peddle our wares in the minor/middle leagues....not brilliant or famous enough to warrant put pilots and pitches being snapped up for millions, and not starting out with nowhere to go but up and no way to get there without just getting something made...but middle men, as it were. Talented enough to have a track record and a generous amount of experience, but not talented (or lucky) enough to hit a home run every time we're at the plate. And creating series/movies from scratch is really really hard, which is why once we grasp the amount of effort (unpaid a lot of the time) actually involved, working on TV series can be so appealing. All of a sudden, you get to 'make shows'...quickly...over and over...without enduring the heavy lifting of creating it and selling it and pushing it and prodding it and changing it and evolving it until it finally gets made.

At any rate, I sold or optioned the first three big ideas I had post film school graduation, and eventually each got produced. And I had no idea what I was doing or how it all really worked or how much things cost...I just had some ideas that I liked and set about trying to get them made, even if one took almost six years.

But I did it.

Cut to the present, and I find myself yearning for that naivete sometimes. And every time I shelve a new idea because of the daunting prospect of the work ahead to get it made, or talk myself out of working on it because it might be a little too similar to something else out there, a part of me wishes I was starting out again, and could just say 'damn the torpedoes' and crash ahead.



If I knew now what I didn't know then, some of these new ideas might actually get made.