Montreal: Chris Haddock, creator of the top-rated and critically acclaimed Canadian crime drama series Da Vinci’s Inquest, says the production ‘is really a writers’ show and it’s the writers who are at the creative forefront.’

One of the things Haddock says he learned right at the beginning of the series was ‘getting as many real advisors on board as I could,’ including B.C.’s chief coroner and a number of Vancouver police homicide advisors, including this season a woman advisor who has worked on many fascinating cases.

As the show’s writer/producer, Haddock is part of a new wave of Canadian primetime talent who set out to break the traditional mold of ‘the line producer/production manager mentality in charge of shows.’

‘That is one of the reasons why Canada does not have enough quality dramatic programming, [they] have not followed the lead of encouraging and developing writers to become successful producers.’

He sees resistance to the new breed of writer/producer as ‘people in the status quo who quite frankly want things to remain that way. In the U.S., they have long acknowledged writers as the lifeblood of the creative team in television.’

Haddock is Da Vinci’s’ creator, executive producer, writer and, on occasion, director. The show won the Gemini Award for best Canadian drama series in both 1999 and 2000, and is coproduced with Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions. Thirteen new episodes will be produced this summer (from mid-June to the end of October), bringing the total number of episodes to 52.

With public broadcaster CBC more than pleased with its top drama property, there literally appears to be no end in sight for this series.

The show is produced at a cost of close to $1 million per episode and has been sold by exporter Alliance Atlantis International in more than 45 international markets.

Haddock’s Master Class presentation on writing at Banff will look at the work and thinking behind the show’s creative mix, and the key role in establishing Da Vinci’s’ writing department.

‘I’ve seen situations before where writing departments are disasters, where people are in isolation and not working hand in hand. I set out to make it a team and make sure that I got to know the writers on staff. They are really personalities that get along well, as well as being talented.’

Haddock maintains dialogue has to be ‘heard and tossed around.’

‘It has to remain fluid for a very long period of time up to the moment the actors speak it. It has to adjust, like music, to the room [one] is playing in, to the pace of how the director is conducting the material.’

He says strong dialogue ‘has to be adjusted on the floor, and I’m on the floor [soundstage or set] on just about every scene to make myself available to the director or actors if we’re all sensing some kind of tightening is required.’

He says there’s an important difference between the literal meaning of script on the page and the actual delivery by the actor. ‘It’s huge, but people don’t want to acknowledge that and [they think] the word is everything. But the word is really just a blue print at the beginning. It’s like notes on a score.’

Because the show can’t be endlessly rewritten on set, ‘my writers and myself hit the dialogue back and forth many times, and I’ll sit down at a typewriter and rewrite a little of what one of the other writers has done. And they’ll do the same for me. And so we put many ears to its rhythm,’ Haddocks says.

The show’s creators take about six weeks off in the fall when production wraps, but Haddock says there’s almost never any real downtime. ‘We start researching stories very early on.

‘In our case we’re blessed with some really fine actors [the show stars Nicholas Campbell (Major Crime, Diamonds) as Vancouver coroner Dominic Da Vinci].

Some of our dialogue runs are really just so off topic that it really gives the actors a sense of being able to play with their characters.’

He says dialogue is sometimes not about a specific scene ‘but about settling into rhythms between two actors, and once you find the rhythm of the thing, you can pick words here and there they’ll highlight. It’s very musical and they [actors] start to get into the rhythms of speech where they repeat phrases and they’ll start to develop distinct voices beyond the particular meaning of dialogue. Bad or poor television gets hooked on just the meaning of the word, [it’s] expositional dialogue.’

Haddock’s selected credits in film and TV include exec story editor and writer on the CBS series Diamonds (1988), the ABC series MacGyver (1991/92), screenwriter on the Jan De Bont film The Inside Man (1996), produced for WB and Phoenix, and writer and exec producer on the CTV pilot Villains (1999).

Haddock says in terms of U.S. crime drama he likes Homicide: Life on the Street, and is especially keen on British series Prime Suspect, Cracker, The Knock and Crocodile Shoes.

He says the late great Dennis Porter (Karaoke, Pennies From Heaven) profoundly marked his professional life.

‘I think The Singing Detective changed my life,’ says Haddock. ‘I am actually working on a television musical. Not only did this guy break it open, when I saw The Singing Detective I said, ‘Oh man, the whole world of television is going to change.’ Of course it didn’t, because others don’t necessarily have the talent or the courage to pick up on it, but he broke ground for what [director] Baz Luhrmann [is doing] with Moulin Rouge.’ *