bring Playboy to light

The director plays baseball during lunch. The coproducer’s five-year-old daughter makes friends with actors on the set. And a stray mutt named Chico has won the hearts of cast and crew. It’s the second to last day of shooting on the television movie tentatively titled Playboy of the Western World, and most people are smiling. The set, nestled in the hills of Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley, depicts a sleepy general store and a rustic baseball diamond common in any Prairie town. The shoot has gone smoothly, isolation creating a sense of community for the crew.

The Saskatchewan filmmakers have Winnipeg’s Credo Group to thank for this project. It’s part of the Prairie Initiative, six made-for-tv movies filmed entirely in the Prairie provinces for broadcast on the CanWest Global System. The coproductions will partner Credo with local talent, two features per province. Funding has been pooled from several sources. Credo’s Derek Mazur pulled the political strings to join Telefilm Canada with the provincial film agencies in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Now, the Prairie Initiative is in full swing, focused primarily on development by providing writers, directors, producers, actors and technicians the opportunity to work on feature-length dramatic films.

According to Credo’s coproducer, Kim Todd, Playboy of the Western World exemplifies the ideals of the Prairie Initiative on almost every front.

‘This particular film is the essence of what the Prairie `six-pack’ should be. We’re using an original screenplay from a Saskatchewan writer. There’s a crew of mixed experience and they’re all working together. And while there may be some weak spots due to inexperience, the expectations on this set are high,’ she says.

Additionally, the Prairie Initiative will increase production in the Prairie provinces, with the six films viewed as supplementary to the projects currently in the works with Telefilm.

Each film has a target budget of $1.5 million; Playboy will come in at $1.4 million.

The set is 70 kilometers northeast of Regina, so crew and services are bussed in from the city. That traffic highlights another goal of the Prairie Initiative – increased awareness of the film industry for Prairie communities.

‘Hopefully, we can show the provincial governments and the people who live here that our industry is a lucrative business for them,’ says Todd as she applies another coat of sunscreen to her arms. She’s watching the actors as they dance with their umbrellas, waiting for the sun to go behind the clouds on the dry, hot set.

The simple set for Playboy belies the complex layers of Lee Gowan’s screenplay. It’s an adaptation of Irish playwright John Synge’s turn-of-the-century stage play of the same name. And the quirky comedy by the first-time Saskatchewan screenwriter has drawn praise.

‘It took a great deal of courage and audacity to adapt this particular play for film,’ says Todd. ‘For Lee, the Prairie Initiative worked for him, too.’

The story follows a young American fugitive, played by Callum Rennie (The X-Files, Time Cops), whose arrival in town causes excitement and heartbreak for the locals. The cast also includes veteran actor John Vernon (Sodbusters, Wojeck) as the killer’s father. The canine color on this set comes from a very friendly mutt who appeared when the trucks arrived four weeks ago. Chico now sports a red bandanna around his scruffy neck and earns his table scraps by chasing pebbles.

While Todd is the senior producer on this project, her on-set personality would hardly indicate she has all the power. She follows the action from afar, watching rather than visibly participating. But for Todd, this hands-off method of production comes from years of experience.

‘My daughter Andrea tells me I’m the mommy of the crew. And it’s not too far off. I can’t order people around. They need space to do the best job possible, and just like a parent, you can’t do everything for your kids,’ says Todd.

Five-year-old Andrea scampers through the garage that serves as the mess hall with Charlene Fernetz (The Mighty Jungle, Street Justice), who plays the town’s off-center mystic. For the last month, Andrea’s been living in Regina while her mother spends days on the set.

‘I always take my daughter with me when I go away to shoot a project. I try to spend as much time as I can with her, but I’ll only bring her to the set when she won’t cause too much trouble,’ says Todd, flashing a smile at the laughing child.

Todd’s enthusiasm for the project and her involvement with Credo is obvious, as is her loyalty.

‘I’ve worked in film for about 15 years, mostly in Toronto for Atlantis. But I could sense that Atlantis was poised for tremendous growth and I wanted to be a part of a smaller production company.’

In the spring of 1993, Credo offered Todd what she considered the perfect balance in an owner/producer position. Now she can make decisions while keeping her hand in filmmaking.

‘I was ultimately looking for a place where I could still enjoy myself making films and be a good mom. At Credo, I can do both, in a community where my daughter can grow up,’ she says of her new home in Winnipeg.

Credo’s coproducer on this project is Saskatchewan-born filmmaker Gordon McLennan of Reel Eye Media. He brought the rough screenplay to Credo and Telefilm Canada, and gained approval despite the unusual themes and characters.

‘I wanted to make a film about Saskatchewan, not adapt an outside script to our lifestyle,’ McLennan says.

‘The location is great because the characters in the film are people that I recognize from my own small-town upbringing.’

Prairie setting

He goes on to define the importance of the prairie setting: ‘There’s a satellite dish that the townspeople gather around to get their information. People in Saskatchewan are influenced by outside cultures. That dish shapes their concepts of the world, and we’re trying to develop that sub-theme.

‘When we chose a director, I wanted someone who could make these local eccentrics into real people. This sort of comedy can really lampoon people. This film needed someone with the right vision for the material,’ says McLennan, who produced the feature film risk in New York.

Turner

The coproducers asked Vancouver-based director Brad Turner to join their group in February. Todd and Turner had worked on projects before, but McLennan selected him after seeing the director’s reels.

‘I liked Brad’s work on the Ray Bradbury series, it was stylized and quirky,’ McLennan says. ‘And once I learned he’s from small-town Ontario, I felt confident Brad could create characters that viewers could relate to.’

Not only has the director had a hand in screenplay revision, he also helped cast the picture.

‘My involvement in this project came earlier than usual for a television film. We had almost two months before shooting started, and I credit Credo for giving me the freedom to put my own stamp on this project,’ says the director. Turner relaxes on a lawn chair during lunch; today he misses the crew softball game to talk about his role in this film.

‘Sometimes small-town people are `characters’ in a goofy way, but my job is to create people that make you say `there’s my neighbor’ or `that guy is just like my uncle,’ ‘ he explains.

For Turner, working with Credo on this project has been ‘a major stepping stone.’ He believes the production company has earned its reputation honestly.

‘Credo puts an emphasis on development – writing and creative productivity – as opposed to business. They’re interested in developing people, from directors, to writers to crew,’ he says.

But human development won’t garner investors or sign pay cheques. Turner stresses that Credo’s strength lies in its ability to do business.

‘Their feet are squarely on the ground. A film company can’t get the kind of projects that Credo gets without having sound business principles,’ Turner says.

Television

Turner’s experience comes mainly from episodic television, Street Legal, North of 60, and small-budget movies, Pray for Me Paul Henderson, The Prom. He says this outing may surprise people.

‘I think this picture really has my stamp on it. And I think it’s a higher quality that people expect from me. Of course, I really hope it’s an entertaining film to watch,’ he says.

Of the Prairie Initiative, the West Coast director says these opportunities are long overdue.

‘This type of project puts the focus in the right place – it’s not entirely about training. It’s about making good films. If the byproduct of this film is that new skills have been learned, that’s great, but that acquisition is not the focus,’ says Turner.

A portion of Playboy happens during a Victoria Day barbecue at the baseball diamond. Turner’s idea of getting his crew excited about the movie is to play on the diamond where they work.

‘The baseball diamond used to be a barley field,’ he laughs.

‘We built it to reflect the small-town atmosphere. In small towns the ball diamond is the center of the community.’

Saskatchewan’s film community willingly agreed to the six-pack, after Mazur’s smooth co-ordination of all parties. Saskfilm’s general manager Mark Parsuhn believes interprovincial movie-making will soon be commonplace.

‘When the Prairie Initiative was in the planning stages, this type of agreement was unusual. Now I think we’ll see a good chunk of films being made this way,’ says Prasuhn.

‘For Playboy to be at this stage is gratifying. We’ve got a crackerjack team from Western Canada with a diversity of experience, working to make something of our own,’ he says.

Four films remain to be shot for the Prairie Initiative; Credo will executive produce them all.

Todd considers the progress so far ‘quite a feat.’

‘The strong movie centers in Canada are Toronto and Vancouver. No single Prairie province has the resources, human or otherwise, to compete with the larger centers,’ she says.

‘The Prairies are natural allies. Together they can pool resources, which is not an unnatural philosophy for these three provinces. The spirit of co-operation has always prevailed on the prairies – this is just an extension of that same value.’