Prime Time, the Canadian Film Centre’s television resident program, kicked off January 11 with three broadcasters, four showrunners and 15 new writers ready to learn the craft with a hands-on approach.

The intensive three-month program is the result of a year spent tapping into the minds of key people on the independent side of the tv industry and finding out what was needed.

‘The feeling was that with the tremendous change occurring in the marketplace, the proliferation of channels and choices and the rise of specialty channels and viewer fragmentation, the business of tv had gotten a lot tougher,’ says Audrey Cole, cfc’s executive producer television. ‘If we were going to address this issue we had to come up with a way to expand the tv talent base to respond to this evolving demand in the industry.’

What cfc proposes to do with Prime Time is introduce experienced writers to the real world of prime-time television by having them participate on the development of a real project for an actual broadcaster.

The broadcasters themselves were brought on from the beginning, and according to Cole, all agreed it was the right direction for the cfc and were keen about being involved.

‘We have always been big supporters of the Film Centre and with this program we can work more closely together,’ says Loren Mawhinney, vp of Canadian production at Global Television. ‘Prime Time gives five people the opportunity to see how an idea becomes a series and it’s a really wonderful and rare experience.’

ctv’s vp of dramatic programming Bill Mustos says he was originally interested and attracted to the project because it is based in reality.

‘One of the realities of television production and development is just how restrictive the time lines are,’ says Mustos. ‘If you were to launch a tv program that didn’t attempt to mirror reality you would be doing the writers a disservice.’

Five residents will be working with Wayne Grigsby (North of 60, Black Harbour) on the development of a new drama series called Sherpa Love for cbc.

Creator of Insight Productions’ Ready or Not Alyse Rosenberg and her writing team of five will work on The Whitney Girls, a series she is developing for ctv.

The final five will be writing Four Hearts for Global under Jennifer Black, who recently executive produced six Harlequin mows for ctv and Showtime, and with Rebecca Schechter, executive story editor for Epitome Pictures’ prime-time soap Riverdale.

Showrunners will enter the program with a pilot and mini-bible which will be used as a template from which the story team will work on script outlines.

According to Cole the benefits for everyone participating in the program are tremendous as the showrunners get ‘an unprecedented opportunity to develop a strong package in a very challenging context with virtually no overhead, and they walk away with their original idea in a more realized form.’

The broadcasters, Cole adds, get an inside track on hot, new properties as well as newly trained writers while the writers themselves walk away with, at the very least, writing samples to add to their portfolios or, in the best case scenarios, with a job on the new series should it be picked up.

With so much activity taking place at the cfc’s Windfields campus these days, Prime Time will happen at the production offices of Epitome Pictures, the program’s facility sponsor.

The program is supported by the Independent Production Fund.

Four program phases

The program will unfold in four phases starting off with the broadest perspective and narrowing down to the most specific.

Phase one introduces the overall concept and the world of series television. ctv president and ceo Ivan Fecan will make a guest appearance to lend his opinion about what happened in the tv industry over the last decade, dramatic changes in television and specifically prime-time.

During this period showrunners and their teams will work on character development, story arcs, research and deal with the structure and the creative process.

In phase two the writing team will delve into full script outline development while showrunners concentrate on how to best work with their story department by building on each trainees skills. The second phase will also include one-on-one mentoring sessions.

Next comes the script phase where the trainees write and re-write, get broadcaster feedback and deal with potential production concerns.

The final phase consists of more re-writing, the final touches, possible actor read-throughs and creating the final package of materials that will go to the broadcaster at the end of the program for future development consideration.

Test Patter program

part of Prime Time

test Pattern, the film centre’s monthly series of public screenings and lectures showcasing the best tv from around the world adds another element to Prime Time as all speakers involved will spend some intensive time with the residents.

In February test Pattern will screen The Anatomy of a Homicide, a two-hour pbs documentary about the making of an episode of Homicide, Life on the Streets called ‘The Subway.’ The doc takes the viewer through every aspect of the show from the creation, story development through filming broadcasts and ratings.

James Yoshimura, executive story editor of the drama will be on hand to discuss the series at Test Pattern, and on the following day he will participate in intense and informal conversations about writing tv series with the showrunners and Prime Time residents.