So, how difficult was it to get a second season going? Both women laugh. ‘Oh my god. It was awful!’

Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchell are the creators of the critically acclaimed series Straight Up, a coproduction between Lundman and Mitchell’s Back Alley Film Productions and Alliance Communications, which ran six episodes on the cbc in 1996. A new crop of seven episodes is set to begin airing in late February.

Why the delay? ‘After the six aired, we got a development order to do three or four more scripts, which we did, and they had to make the decision as to whether or not they would order it. And that’s when the money all ran out,’ explains Mitchell.

Lundman elaborates: ‘There was support for the show within the cbc and certainly with our coproducer Alliance, but there was just a funding crunch. I think it took about eight months to get everything back on track and moving again.’

Both women agree it was the ctcpf that made the difference. ‘I think that’s certainly saved a lot of productions and a lot of companies. So we’re hoping that [Heritage Minister] Sheila [Copps] can get out there and try and keep it going.’

Though they are glad the series was finally renewed, Mitchell admits that the short order from the cbc makes things more difficult. ‘I can understand it from their [the cbc’s] perspective [of limited funds], but it’s very hard financially for producers. You just end up paying for last year’s debts.’ Recent cbc series The Newsroom, Gullages and The Rez also premiered with six-packs of episodes. Like Straight Up, The Newsroom and Gullages were then renewed for seven more, The Rez for 13.

Mitchell describes Straight Up as ‘television that breaks all the rules.’ Indeed. Straight Up’s gritty, realistic portrayal of teen cultures and often sensitive subject matter is a marked departure from most youth programming.

The episode ‘Small Bang Theory’ from the first season was nominated for a Rocky Award at the Banff Television Festival last year in the youth and children’s category, which Mitchell says is another difficulty the show faces. ‘I think because [Straight Up] is so unusually sophisticatedÉit has a hard time finding a place in the world.’

The new season keeps the sophisticated style and expands on it.

‘We ended up doing more stylized work, and more dramatic input visually. The first season a lot of the actors had never acted before, or they were very new, so something very simple like hitting marks was not going to happen. But with the second season, a lot of the kids had gone on to do more acting, they were more confident about being on the setÉso we were able to play with lighting and visual style a bit more.’

The new episodes were penned by writers from the Centre for Advanced Film Studies in Toronto. Director Jerry Ciccoritti (Net Worth), who won a Gemini for his work on the first season, is back at the helm for six of the seven episodes. Mitchell directs episode 11, ‘Gravity.’

The new season also keeps the series’ anthology format, following three different groups of teens who all frequent the same diner. Only half-joking, the women declare, ‘We’ll never do it again!’ Lundman explains that it’s a particularly difficult and costly format because of the large number of locations and actors involved. ‘In this last season we had a little over 80 actors, and because it’s not a sense of continuing characters, we have people in the background, all over the place.’ Adds Mitchell: ‘And that concept is hugely expensive.’ The budget for the new season was $450,000 per episode.

Why an anthology then? ‘I think because we had so many stories to tell, and there were so many different perspectives that we wanted to bring forwardÉthat [format] was a really suitable way to do it.’

The ideas for the Straight Up scripts came from countless interviews and stories Mitchell and Lundman collected while researching their award-winning documentary Talk 16. Says Lundman: ‘It was getting to a point where it was difficult to say what we wanted to say or explore some of the areas we wanted to because we were dealing with real people and real situations.’ They decided to make the jump to drama, where they could experiment more freely.

It’s been worth it. Straight Up has been accepted well internationally, with a great response coming from Holland, and possible interest from mtv in the States and youth-oriented cable channel Trouble in England.

And despite constant funding difficulties, Back Alley is busier than ever. They are developing a four-hour miniseries, Finders, about the world of genetics, with Alliance for cbc and the bbc. They have just received development money from Telefilm for a feature film, Arousal, which Mitchell will direct. They are also in development with Alliance on a tv series sequel to Straight Up.

Lundman is excited to have so much on their plate. ‘It’s very difficult because this is the first time we’ve had this many projects going at the same time and there’s only two of us, so we’re having to sort of figure out a way of making this work.’

They both agree that developing relationships with broadcasters, especially outside of Canada, is the key. ‘[In England], their broadcasters are realizing that the pot is growing smaller over there, and everybody has to start making friends in other countries so that we can get some more of this quality television made and broadcast.’

So, is it getting any easier? Mitchell sighs. ‘The idea of a more focused market [due to the specialty channels] also means lower licence fees for projects, so now you’re going to get this whole kind of informational television. I’m a producer and I do not like the way that is going.’

Both women laugh again. ‘It’s a tough industry. It’s absolutely absurd. I think you have to be a masochist to do what we do.

‘But we love it.’

Leanne Brennan is a second-year media writing student in the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto.