by Diane Wild | Jun 14, 2008 | Banff, House, TV, TV Interviews
I did manage to write another Banff post before heading home – yay insomnia! It’s a compilation of some comments from session speakers about what’s coming up on their shows.
They’re not what I’d consider true spoilers, since they’re what people involved with the shows chose to share knowing that media were in attendance. But for real spoilerphobes, be warned there’s varying degrees of information, from nothing (House – though there’s a few fun snippets that weren’t in the interview article) to possibly a bit more than you might want to know (Friday Night Lights). There’s subheads so it should be easy to skip the ones you don’t want to read.
by Diane Wild | Jun 13, 2008 | Banff, Canadian TV
The final day of Banff was a short one for me — slipped into the session with Jeff Greenstein of Desperate Housewives/Will and Grace/Friends, who had recruited BBC producer Jon Plowman(The Office, Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous, every other British production ever) to join him for his session on The Craft. That man can talk. (Greenstein, that is. I’m sure Plowman can, too, but he didn’t get a chance to prove it much this time.) Luckily, he was funny and biting and full of advice for the roomful of writers and producers.
Then it was off to Edmonton, land of my birth, for a quick visit to friends and family, before I head home to Vancouver the long way for another quick visit in Quesnel. Since it’s hard to write and drive at the same time, the rest of my Banff articles will have to wait until I get home. (Though I realize it’s not impossible to compose and drive – I’ve just never been good at dictating. I need the blank page or screen.)
A write-up of the Nicholas Campbell Da Vinci interview is in the Blogcritics queue. I hope to get Internet access before the movie airs so I can post it to TV, eh?, but if not, it’ll appear here when they post it to Blogcritics.
by Diane Wild | Jun 11, 2008 | Banff, House
The interview with the House writer/producer is up on Blogcritics:
I’ll have more with him soon, since I’m sure something from his session will appear in one of the feature articles I’m doing on festival themes.
And as a bonus extra … beyond the fact that he writes for my favourite show, I was predisposed to like him just from reading his bio on the Banff World Television Festival site (and he didn’t let me down in person):
Law school was a mistake. Being a lawyer looked cool on TV. Halfway through second year law at U of T, I discovered that television lied to me. But when I landed a part time gig reviewing movies for a pay-tv magazine (for 15 bucks a blurb), I saw a dim light. Then one of my friends from law school, Lorne Cameron, had a so-crazy-it-probably-won’t-work idea: write a screenplay and sell it to Hollywood. So we wrote the spec and he moved to LA. We never sold it but it did get us an agent and a couple of writing assignments. After a few years, I moved to LA (with my wife and 6-month-old son) only to get a gig in Toronto. Scorecard on the next 18 years: lotta pitches, buncha meetings, 22 assignments, 4 specs, 1 TV pilot, and 3 pretty good movies that were actually shown in theaters with my name on them. And now television is paying me back with the best job ever, on a hit show that also happens to be really good. And I can say that because I had nothing to do with creating it; that feat belongs to another friend from law school, David Shore.
Okay, so maybe law school wasn’t a mistake.
by Diane Wild | Jun 11, 2008 | Banff, It's All About Me
Last day of the Banff festival today. Only a couple more sessions for me and then I’m off to Edmonton for part three of this road trip. I’m waiting for Blogcritics to have their way with one interview, I have one to write up, plus several feature stories percolating that will take various topics from the Festival. That means they’ll take longer to write because a) the festival’s not done yet and b) it means sifting through a lot of Master Class/Craft/etc. notes to come up with the points and quotes and c) I have parts three and four of the road trip to finish, plus the Nicholas Campbell/Da Vinci interview to write up.
I don’t know many people here. That’s natural, since I’m not part of the industry and it’s an industry event. So it’s a weird feeling walking around the conference centre seeing everyone peer at my nametag. It always makes me feel like saying “don’t bother, I’m no one.” It’s gratifying how many people involved in Canadian TV series know the TV, eh? site, but that only makes it a little easier for me to break the ice with a small percentage of attendees.
My innate shyness, lack of mingling skills, and horror of cowboy hats meant that going to the Banff BBQ last night was a big leap for me, especially since I didn’t know if any of the people I did know would be there. I spent the first 10 minutes thinking I shouldn’t have come, the next chatting with someone I didn’t know, and the rest hanging out with those I did and those I now do.
There’s a lesson in there, of course, and it’s one I’ve been pushing myself to learn all my life — doing things that make me uncomfortable pushes my comfort zone outward, bit by bit. That, and passing up free food and drinks would just be dumb.
by Diane Wild | Jun 10, 2008 | Banff, House
All the House people I’ve met so far seem to be too nice to be responsible for that cantankerous character. However, David Hoselton is sworn to secrecy about season five so I’ll abuse his kindness and make baseless inferences about what he did say in our interview: the first episode of the new season will have a chastened House adopting a baby and a puppy.
OK, maybe not. I’ll write up the interview … soon. (I know, I keep saying that.) But the poor man was in endless media sessions so keep your eyes peeled on ET Canada and various other sources for more on absolutely nothing about season five.
The Banff people gave him a promotion to showrunner – that’s what they called him on my interview sheet – and a pre-festival story in the Canadian Press had referred to him as that too, so my other nefarious plan is to make it sound like he’s going around Banff pretending he’s usurped David Shore.
Hmm, this article could be fun.
by Diane Wild | Jun 10, 2008 | Banff
Is it possible I have the power to summon people with the powers of my mind? OK, maybe not, but:
1) I’m sitting in the Banff media room posting an article by Stephen Hunt of the Calgary Herald to TV, eh? and realize … who’s sitting across from me but Stephen Hunt of the Calgary Herald.
2) A couple of hours ago, Will and I were standing in the conference centre lobby talking about the people we’d meant to run into but somehow forgot the all-important step of knowing what they look like or where they’d be. We started talking about David Moses (Robson Arms), looked up and there in front of us was a man attached to a nametag reading “David Moses.”
3) After chatting with him and various Canadian TV people in the Showrunners Group, we ended up in the lounge where I had the bright idea of emailing Jill Golick to say I’d love to say hi but didn’t know if I’d run into her or recognize her if I did. My laptop battery died, so I popped into the media room to plug it in … and there Jill was, blogging away.
I’m now going to try to use my powers for good and try to summon Hugh Laurie…
