Halifax Film and TV Stuff - Is February a Blue Month or a Red Month?

Warning: The following may be depressing.

I hate February. Always did. Especially now, even though I don't leave the apartment at any time of the year, knowing that I can't, in this dreariest of dreary months, makes time crawl by. And sharing the place with my increasingly pregnant and exponentially erratically behaving sister and roommate Carly, the detoxing crack wench, well, the sunshine ain't shining out of any orifice. I especially feel sorry for my dog Bicuitface, he should be out romping with bunnies instead of stuck in this godforsaken space.

But then, so should I.

Money grows increasingly tight since none of the UnBrady Bunch is bringing in any cash.

Anyway, enough of being a "downer". I have to keep a positive outlook. I'm hoping to hear back soon from the Halifax Film Company about several proposals I sent in for kids television shows. I e-mailed them off several weeks ago and haven't heard back yet but I'm sure they're working their way up the ladder.

I'll bet once they fall on the desk of Charles "the Green Arrow" Bishop, he'll be calling me up to negotiate the worldwide marketing and distribution rights. I won't play hardball, given this would be my first solo project but the one after that...

I'm not sure what kind of deal wunderkind Jeff Rosen has, but given the dolars he's put in the pockets of Halifax Film from a number of projects, I'm sure he's plugged in to a percentage of the gross.

Though I am positive Halifax Film and I will walk hand in hand down the garden path of a meaningful relationships, I don't want to risk being led into the bushes on the first date with the first "fella" with a good lookin' set of assets. Maybe I should pitch other companies like Decode or Studio B, just to cover all my bases. Nothing like a bidding war to make things interesting.

So interesting news that three CANADIAN TV series are being bought by American networks. This hasn't happened since, never, girlfriend. The Listener, Sophie, and The Border. Never saw Sophie, but I did see that Bailey's commercial, over and over sigh...

Saw The Border, and thought it was pretty good, especially the episode with the strippers. Haven't seen The Guard yet, mostly cause I keep thinking its the same show as The Border. Maybe they can just make one show, The Border Guard.

It will be interesting to see what the Americans think of these shows, especially since The Border is unapoligetically and refrshingly Canadian. It'll also be interesting to see what happens if the writers strike gets settled first. But then, the networks are still going to need content while their machine gets up and running. Unless they all call the darn thng off like the NHL season a while back.

On the other hand, if the strike continues, there will probably be more opportunities for Canadian shows south of the border and I'm talking digging into the library, where old shows will produce pure gravy (profit.) Who knows, Blackfly may finally get the attention it deserves. And cause its set in the past, its "evergreen."

That means its timeless, i.e. as good today as it ever was.

Hopefully it will go better than when the NFL went on strike and the Americans watched the CFL. For about 10 minutes.

And speaking of Canadians on American TV, Fox is promoting the hell out of Unhitched the sitcom starring Sean Majumdar (and others). It's produced by the Farrelly brothers, one of whom just sold a house on the south shore of Nova Scotia. The trailers make it look interesting, but the appearance of a baboon makes me kind of go "yeeee." I mean monkeys are funny and all but a sophisticated comedy about the New York dating mileau? I'll give it a try but...

And then the CRTC hearings are under way. They're talking about changing the CTF. Jim Shaw doesn't like it. So the WGC, ACTRA and God knows who else has to sit and justify why Canada needs Canadian shows on Canadian television. Mr. Shaw oversees a large cable conglomerate and last year he held back the money he took in from cable subscribers and refused to give it to the CTF because he didn't like Trailer Park Boys.

BTW, I saw a documentary a few years ago on Ted Rogers another empire builder. As you all know, I'm tremendously interested in how rich people get rich, those guys who fight hard scrabble tooth and nail for what they believe in and work their asses off to succeed. So Ted Rogers explained that he got his first cable license (i.e. a license to print money) because he was a friend of certain politicians. Jesus wept. And he was proud of it.

Anyway, Mr. Shaw, another lottery winner, thinks the CTF should be split into two segments; one for commercial projects and one for "cultural" projects.

Ironically, Trailer Park Boys falls into both.

Like it or not, it is a success. And a huge one. It also reflects our culture. Maybe not Mr. Shaw's but the one thing I constantly read is that people from every walk of life "know someone just like that"!

Quebecor a Quebec company "appeared before the CRTC right after Shaw and again said it should be allowed to put its CTF contributions into a separate fund that it would control.

Company chief Pierre Karl Péladeau pledged to augment the current contributions made by its cable company Videotron from $19 million to $30 million and to spend $100 million over three years. Quebecor would retain copyright to much of the funded programming, and funds would also finance content for video-on-demand, the web and other new media initiatives."

So the cable giant would take the money it collects from subscribers, decide what gets made with it and own the properties.

Just a note, the money that comes in is a part of people's cable bill that is supposed to go to the CTF to develop and produce product for all Canadians.

Qubecor, IT'S NOT YOUR MONEY! It's mine! (If I lived in Quebec, and I would if I were allowed)

That's all for this week.