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Headline, Industry News
CBC wants to bring Canadian talent back home from L.A.
Wednesday May 12th 2010Home is where Heartland is. Or possibly the next Little Mosque on the Prairie, but Canada’s national broadcaster is also looking outside the country to find it.
The CBC’s arts and entertainment program team was in Vancouver on Monday and plans to be in Los Angeles later this week to meet and ask for pitches from Canadian writers, directors and producers.
“The message has been getting out,” said Kirstine Stewart, the CBC’s executive director of network programming. “We are open for business. We are the only people who make Canadian prime-time series and we’re looking for the best of the best. It’s really kind of a talent scouting trip.”
Populist CBC shows such as Being Erica, Dragon’s Den, Battle of the Blades and Death Comes to Town have helped the public network’s ratings. Stewart made a similar talent tour when she first took her job four years ago, and she thinks it’s time to attract more creative people to help her figure out what should come next.
Being Erica star Erin Karpluk, a Vancouver resident, was helping to sell to CBC’s story in British Columbia on Monday. Her show’s international success – Being Erica is credited with adding half a million viewers for the Soapnet specialty network in the United States – can help persuade top Canadian writers and producers who have been concentrating on the U.S. television market to look at the CBC in future.
“These people can’t really see what we’re doing, as they tend to be focused on the U.S. market,” Stewart says. “So we need to introduce ourselves and say, ‘You know that show Being Erica on Soapnet? That’s actually from us. Or you know, The Tudors that you see on Showtime? That’s actually from us.'”
According to some Canadians working in L.A., it won’t be a hard sell.
“You know, it may surprise some people to know how well respected Canadian programming is down here,” says Donald Martin, a Canadian writer who has worked in California for more than a decade.
“People are very much aware of Being Erica and a lot of CBC’s programming,” says Martin, who lives in Los Angeles, but also keeps an apartment in Toronto.
In 2008, he worked with CBC on a Celine Dion made-for-TV biopic, and he thinks it’s a good idea that the public broadcaster is trying to attract talent in Hollywood.
“I think it makes good creative sense, and makes good business sense, because a lot of the Canadians in Los Angeles are people who are doing very well, in whatever medium that they are in,” he says. “I think it’s helpful for Canadian broadcasters to get that kind of experience and have it brought back home.”
He’s looking forward to the event this week and hopes to learn more about what the CBC is looking for.
Stewart says the CBC also caught the interest of several “big names” in the U.S. when it brought back the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe last year to produce the Death Comes to Town series.
It’s too early to say what might come of that, she says, but their interest helped to set her sights a little higher.
“What is the next iteration? What is the next step in what people want to see reflected on their public broadcaster? Now that we have had some success in building a basic kind of audience, and a basic relationship with the public, we’re looking for where we can go that might be a little more experimental, or a little more interesting.”
Source: The Toronto Star
Headline, Industry News
CBC wants to bring Canadian talent back home from L.A.
Wednesday May 12th 2010Home is where Heartland is. Or possibly the next Little Mosque on the Prairie, but Canada’s national broadcaster is also looking outside the country to find it.
The CBC’s arts and entertainment program team was in Vancouver on Monday and plans to be in Los Angeles later this week to meet and ask for pitches from Canadian writers, directors and producers.
“The message has been getting out,” said Kirstine Stewart, the CBC’s executive director of network programming. “We are open for business. We are the only people who make Canadian prime-time series and we’re looking for the best of the best. It’s really kind of a talent scouting trip.”
Populist CBC shows such as Being Erica, Dragon’s Den, Battle of the Blades and Death Comes to Town have helped the public network’s ratings. Stewart made a similar talent tour when she first took her job four years ago, and she thinks it’s time to attract more creative people to help her figure out what should come next.
Being Erica star Erin Karpluk, a Vancouver resident, was helping to sell to CBC’s story in British Columbia on Monday. Her show’s international success – Being Erica is credited with adding half a million viewers for the Soapnet specialty network in the United States – can help persuade top Canadian writers and producers who have been concentrating on the U.S. television market to look at the CBC in future.
“These people can’t really see what we’re doing, as they tend to be focused on the U.S. market,” Stewart says. “So we need to introduce ourselves and say, ‘You know that show Being Erica on Soapnet? That’s actually from us. Or you know, The Tudors that you see on Showtime? That’s actually from us.'”
According to some Canadians working in L.A., it won’t be a hard sell.
“You know, it may surprise some people to know how well respected Canadian programming is down here,” says Donald Martin, a Canadian writer who has worked in California for more than a decade.
“People are very much aware of Being Erica and a lot of CBC’s programming,” says Martin, who lives in Los Angeles, but also keeps an apartment in Toronto.
In 2008, he worked with CBC on a Celine Dion made-for-TV biopic, and he thinks it’s a good idea that the public broadcaster is trying to attract talent in Hollywood.
“I think it makes good creative sense, and makes good business sense, because a lot of the Canadians in Los Angeles are people who are doing very well, in whatever medium that they are in,” he says. “I think it’s helpful for Canadian broadcasters to get that kind of experience and have it brought back home.”
He’s looking forward to the event this week and hopes to learn more about what the CBC is looking for.
Stewart says the CBC also caught the interest of several “big names” in the U.S. when it brought back the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe last year to produce the Death Comes to Town series.
It’s too early to say what might come of that, she says, but their interest helped to set her sights a little higher.
“What is the next iteration? What is the next step in what people want to see reflected on their public broadcaster? Now that we have had some success in building a basic kind of audience, and a basic relationship with the public, we’re looking for where we can go that might be a little more experimental, or a little more interesting.”
Source: The Toronto Star
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Headline, Industry News
CBC wants to bring Canadian talent back home from L.A.
Wednesday May 12th 2010Home is where Heartland is. Or possibly the next Little Mosque on the Prairie, but Canada’s national broadcaster is also looking outside the country to find it.
The CBC’s arts and entertainment program team was in Vancouver on Monday and plans to be in Los Angeles later this week to meet and ask for pitches from Canadian writers, directors and producers.
“The message has been getting out,” said Kirstine Stewart, the CBC’s executive director of network programming. “We are open for business. We are the only people who make Canadian prime-time series and we’re looking for the best of the best. It’s really kind of a talent scouting trip.”
Populist CBC shows such as Being Erica, Dragon’s Den, Battle of the Blades and Death Comes to Town have helped the public network’s ratings. Stewart made a similar talent tour when she first took her job four years ago, and she thinks it’s time to attract more creative people to help her figure out what should come next.
Being Erica star Erin Karpluk, a Vancouver resident, was helping to sell to CBC’s story in British Columbia on Monday. Her show’s international success – Being Erica is credited with adding half a million viewers for the Soapnet specialty network in the United States – can help persuade top Canadian writers and producers who have been concentrating on the U.S. television market to look at the CBC in future.
“These people can’t really see what we’re doing, as they tend to be focused on the U.S. market,” Stewart says. “So we need to introduce ourselves and say, ‘You know that show Being Erica on Soapnet? That’s actually from us. Or you know, The Tudors that you see on Showtime? That’s actually from us.'”
According to some Canadians working in L.A., it won’t be a hard sell.
“You know, it may surprise some people to know how well respected Canadian programming is down here,” says Donald Martin, a Canadian writer who has worked in California for more than a decade.
“People are very much aware of Being Erica and a lot of CBC’s programming,” says Martin, who lives in Los Angeles, but also keeps an apartment in Toronto.
In 2008, he worked with CBC on a Celine Dion made-for-TV biopic, and he thinks it’s a good idea that the public broadcaster is trying to attract talent in Hollywood.
“I think it makes good creative sense, and makes good business sense, because a lot of the Canadians in Los Angeles are people who are doing very well, in whatever medium that they are in,” he says. “I think it’s helpful for Canadian broadcasters to get that kind of experience and have it brought back home.”
He’s looking forward to the event this week and hopes to learn more about what the CBC is looking for.
Stewart says the CBC also caught the interest of several “big names” in the U.S. when it brought back the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe last year to produce the Death Comes to Town series.
It’s too early to say what might come of that, she says, but their interest helped to set her sights a little higher.
“What is the next iteration? What is the next step in what people want to see reflected on their public broadcaster? Now that we have had some success in building a basic kind of audience, and a basic relationship with the public, we’re looking for where we can go that might be a little more experimental, or a little more interesting.”
Source: The Toronto Star
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