Canadian Canada $7 Summer 2018 Vol.20, No.3 Screenwriter Film | Television | Radio | Digital Media
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CANADIAN CANADA $7 SUMMER 2018 VOL.20, NO.3 SCREENWRITER FILM | TELEVISION | RADIO | DIGITAL MEDIA Post War Period Piece Frankie Drake: Savvy Dames Against 1920s Underworld Letterkenny Has No Problems Not-So Pastoral Comedy The WGC Screenwriting Awards The Winners And The Night Little Dog A Mixed Breed Comedy-Drama Packs A Punch PM40011669 BM_WGCScreenwritersAwards_ad.pdf 1 2018-05-02 11:32 AM CANADIAN SCREENWRITER The journal of the Writers Guild of Canada Vol. 20 No. 3 Summer 2018 Contents ISSN 1481-6253 Cover Publication Mail Agreement Number Comedy-Drama Mixed Breed A Hit 6 400-11669 Little Dog manages to be a “hilarious yet disturbing” Publisher Maureen Parker examination of redemption set in the Newfoundland Editor Tom Villemaire boxing community with punchlines and pathos. [email protected] By Matthew Hays Director of Communications Li Robbins Features Editorial Advisory Board Frankie Drake Investigates Michael MacLennan The Criminal World Of 1920s 10 Susin Nielsen The period piece Frankie Drake Mysteries pits female Simon Racioppa leads as private detectives against the challenges of Rachel Langer turbulent post-war Canada. President Dennis Heaton (Pacific) By Diane Wild Councillors Michael Amo (Atlantic) Letterkenny Seems To Have Mark Ellis (Central) No Problem Blazing Trail 14 Marsha Greene (Central) The off-beat Canadian comedy is doing its own thing, Alex Levine (Central) telling the stories of skids, hicks and hockey players. Anne-Marie Perrotta (Quebec) Growing from a webseries, it’s quickly expanding Andrew Wreggitt (Western) into a marketing monster with beer and whiskey Design Studio Ours and more all pouring forth. Cover Photo: Christina Gapic By Greg David Printing Renaissance Printing Inc. Canadian Screenwriter is Kidscreen — Is It Worth It? published three times a year by (Spoiler Alert: Yes!) 18 the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). We asked screenwriters if Kidscreen is worth the time, 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 401 money and effort — and they pass on their sage advice. Toronto, Ontario M5V 1R9 By Mark Dillon TEL: (416) 979-7907 FAX: (416) 979-9273 Term Of Endearment 20 WEBSITE: www.wgc.ca Outgoing Guild President Jill Golick looks back Subscriptions: WGC members receive a on her time at the helm. subscription as part of their membership. By Diane Wild Non-member subscriptions: $20 for three issues. The WGC Screenwriting Awards 22 Advertising policy: Readers should not The annual gala awards night, our chance assume that any products or services to cheer our best of the year. advertised in Canadian Screenwriter are endorsed by the WGC. Photos by Christina Gapic Editorial Policy: The WGC neither implicitly W-Files nor explicitly endorses opinions or attitudes Waneta Storms 39 expressed in Canadian Screenwriter. — By Kendra Wong Damon Vignale — By Katherine Brodsky 41 Submissions are subject to editing for length, style and content. Columns Advertising Sales: From the Editor/Contributors 2 Visit www.wgc.ca or contact Li Robbins at Inside/Out — Jill Golick 3 [email protected] One Last Thing — Joanie Veitch 44 Letters to the editor are subject to editing for length. Not all letters are published. News Beat Sheet 4 Spotlight 42 New Members 43 FROM THE EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS New Benchmark Summer 2018 Katherine Brodsky is a Vancouver- based writer who has written for The Washington Post, The Guardian, Variety, Esquire, Entertainment A recent report by GroupM highlighted the new benchmark in media Weekly, and even Playboy Magazine. consumption, noting global consumers will spend 9.73 hours on de- She has interviewed a diverse range vouring media each day. This is a modest increase over the previous of intriguing personalities including year, but the real news was how online media eclipsed television: Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Pulitzer, and Nobel prize winners. Sometimes 3.69 hours for online vs. 3.63 for television. The other couple of hours she writes scripts, too. apparently is tied up with radio and newspapers. GroupM is the Find her on Twitter @mysteriouskat leading media investment management company for WPP, a British multi-national advertising and public relations company — one of For over 15 years, Greg David was a the world’s biggest, apparently. television critic for TV Guide Canada, the country’s most trusted source Our magazine is still much heavier on content made for tradi- for TV news. A former member of tional television and OTT services like Netflix and Hulu, but of course the Television Critics Association, we’re also following the success of shows that start life as webseries. he currently runs TV, eh?, a website For example, in this issue, we look at Letterkenny and in a sidebar, devoted to covering the Canadian examine the successes of Carmilla and The Beaverton. All have firm television industry. digital roots. Our out-going president has been very successful with Mark Dillon is a Toronto-based webseries, breaking ground with her children’s series Ruby Skye P.I. freelance journalist and former editor and Weirdwood Manor. of Playback magazine. He is author of Letterkenny is the latest big success. Heck, they’re even getting the award-winning Fifty Sides of The alcohol products linked into the series. That’s big time! Beach Boys. Of course, the internet offers a wider array of entertainment Matthew Hays is a Montreal-based than television and it has become the multi-thousand channel uni- writer, author, and university and verse we heard about in the 1990s. Traditional television just didn’t college instructor. His articles have seem to have the ability to nurture a thousand channels. But the appeared in the Globe and Mail, inexpensive nature of launching a webseries allows almost anyone The New York Times, Maclean’s, The Toronto Star and many others. to offer anything to the world. And when you have a world available, His book, The View from Here: well, there’s going to be some sort of an audience. And sometimes Conversations with Gay and Lesbian that audience is bigger than you might think. Filmmakers (Arsenal Pulp), won a So the internet is proving to be a petri dish for creativity. You 2008 Lambda Literary Award. can sift through zillions of hours of misfires and masterpieces and get Joanie Veitch is a freelance writer something out of either. Whether it is worth those irretrievable minutes and editor living on the east coast. spent watching (I’m looking at you, cat videos), well, that’s up to you. She has just recently discovered the But for writers, while unproven genius and talent would have a joy of writing short poems on her tough time getting a new show on the sked for traditional and OTT ser- iPhone while waiting for the next vices, almost anyone can launch a webseries with a cellphone camera. thing to happen. It’s still true that the money for scripted series is funneled Diane Wild is a Vancouver-based mostly into television shows, wherever they appear. And the OTT writer, editor and health care services — with their binge-watching audiences and the ability to communicator who founded the TV, accommodate shows of different lengths — may offer more flexibility eh? website and gallivants to work on and creative challenges for writers. the Olympics every couple of years. But the internet is a wildly entertaining sideshow that has sud- Kendra Wong is a journalist in Vic- denly found itself sometimes out-attracting the big tent of the circus. toria, B.C. She has a bachelor of arts These are promising times for well-established and new, untapped from Simon Fraser University and a writers alike. A wider, more available venue and a diversity of voices, certificate in journalism from Langara while at times unsettling, is ultimately freeing and satisfying. College. She has worked at newspa- pers in the Lower Mainland including It can’t help but breathe new life into television and all other Metro Vancouver, Tri-Cities NOW and media as well. And that is a good thing. Smithers Interior News in northern B.C. She currently works as a reporter — Tom Villemaire with the Victoria News. 2 INSIDE/OUT — FROM THE PRESIDENT Reimagining Development My first official responsibility as to Twitter, emailed politicians and writers from around the world, I president of the Writers Guild of visited local MPs’ offices sounding am acutely aware of the advantages Canada was attending the Banff the alarm. The result? In a nearly of being Canadian. We have so festival. I discovered my new unprecedented move, the Minister of much that writers around the world glamourous role involved sitting Canadian Heritage and the Cabinet envy: ambitious producers who all day in a drafty basement room of Canada sent the decision back to know how to make international with representatives and staff from the CRTC to reconsider. Another deals, showrunner and story room the other guilds and unions. We had stand out moment in my presidency. traditions, easy access to the U.S. meeting after meeting with industry There have been many other market but a government at home and government organizations. moments when I’ve seen the Guild that actually believes in culture. In walked a team from the and its members truly shine. Over Being at the IAWG always makes me CRTC, led by then-chair Konrad the last couple of years, I’ve watched realize how well-poised Canadian Von Finckenstein, an imposing, as members embraced the cause of screenwriters are to thrive in the formal man, who seated himself equity, championing, welcoming global market. directly across from our executive and mentoring diverse new voices. In this, my final column as director. He looked WGC Executive So many writers have spoken about president, there is nowhere near Director Maureen Parker straight fairness and equity or quietly enough space to mention all the in the eye and told her that she had volunteered their time.