Quebec actor Emmanuel Bilodeau confesses to being occasionally confused on the set of Rene Levesque, the six-hour miniseries about the late separatist leader currently shooting in Montreal. The CBC/SRC mini is being shot in French and English concurrently, meaning the actor, who plays Levesque, is required to switch linguistic gears at very short notice.

‘At the end of the day, I feel like I’m acting in ‘Franglais’,’ says Bilodeau, laughing. ‘Someone asks me something in one language and I answer in another.’

As well as having to find a cast fluent or at least functional in both French and English, producers face extended shooting schedules, and increased production and translation costs. But as difficult as the task may sound, producers of both Rene Levesque (Cine Tele Action) and the new CBC/SRC sitcom Ciao Bella (Cirrus Communications) have taken on this challenge that may be the wave of the future in Quebec.

‘Both the French and English CBC were very enthusiastic about this project,’ says Tele Action’s Claudio Luca (The Last Chapter, also a double shoot), one of Levesque’s producers. ‘The English-language CBC producers didn’t always ‘get’ everything, but that was only because there were historical facts we took for granted they would already know as background.’

Trudeau double shoot nixed

While Levesque’s life will be told in both languages, the second miniseries based on the life of Pierre Trudeau, one of the architects of Canada’s official bilingualism, will remain only in English despite initial plans.

‘We wrote this with a double shoot firmly in mind,’ says Wayne Grigsby of Halifax-based Big Motion Pictures, the producer and cowriter of Trudeau 2, slated to air this spring. ‘Initially it looked that way, but my impression is that Radio-Canada was uncomfortable with doing it in French, as he is still such a controversial figure within Quebec.’

Cirrus’ Andre Beraud (Temps dur), a producer of Ciao Bella, featuring Claudia Ferri as the eldest daughter in a wacky Italian-Canadian family, reports similar excitement from English- and French-language CBC/SRC execs.

‘I think there’s a new desire to share programming there,’ he says. ‘If you look at certain programming in the U.S., you’ll see that a show like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy plays on Bravo, but then also screens on the main network, NBC. Increasingly, I think you’re going to see programming being spread out as the demand for product increases.’

Luca estimates that ‘at least a couple of million’ was added to the $11.3-million Rene Levesque budget due to the dual shoot. But there are also hidden savings, adds Beraud: ‘Post-production is often easier with the two versions. Once you’ve edited one into shape, the other follows much more easily, as you can use the first as a guide.’

Double shoots also gain by only having to set up for each shot once for both languages. Typically, a shot is captured in one language and then in the next directly after. As a result, according to Cirrus, Ciao Bella costs about $250,000 per broadcast ep, far cheaper than the $440,000 average for a CBC half hour. It was a big part of the prodco’s sales pitch to CBC and SRC.

Two scripts are prepared in the case of Ciao Bella. Actress and writer Andree Pelletier was called in to handle the French version of Steve Galluccio’s English script, in an attempt to give the French one a non-‘translated’ sensibility.

‘We thought of the different versions as different adaptations, rather than strict translations,’ says Beraud.

Rene Levesque, on the other hand, was written in French by Montreal screenwriter Genevieve Lefebvre and translated into English nearly verbatim.

In the case of Ciao Bella, the creative team behind the series, including Galluccio (Mambo Italiano), felt the show simply wouldn’t work for both markets unless doubly shot.

‘Comedy really doesn’t travel so well when it’s dubbed,’ Beraud points out. ‘Shows like Mary Tyler Moore and Seinfeld never really caught on in Quebec in their dubbed forms. In order for the shows and their comedy to maintain their true flavor, we wanted both French and English audiences to be watching the show in what felt like its original form.’

But the ultimate litmus test is with audiences, who seem to be catching on to Ciao Bella. In Quebec, they’re averaging about 450,000 per episode, while in English Canada CBC is seeing numbers hovering at about 280,000. The growing numbers, along with generally strong reviews, mean the show’s producers are cautiously optimistic they will be greenlit for another season.

‘I don’t think this would work with every show,’ cautions Beraud. ‘It has to be something that will work beyond the borders of Quebec. Luckily, we had a show that the Italian community fell in love with… whether they’re in Toronto’s Little Italy or Montreal’s Little Italy.’

With the largest pool of bilingual actors in the country, Montreal has the most to gain if double productions increase.

‘It is extremely important to find people who can be convincing in both languages,’ says Beraud. ‘And once they’re on the set, you’re asking them to remember their lines in both languages for a day. This is more complicated than it sounds, though our cast has done a magnificent job of rising to the task.’

Topicality will also be an ongoing consideration. Rene Levesque will surely draw big audience numbers in Quebec, though its fate in the rest of Canada is more uncertain.

‘I think Levesque would want his story told to people across the country,’ says Luca. ‘The French will learn more about him – the Levesque we don’t hear about so much now… For many in the rest of Canada, they will be getting to know him for the first time.’

-www.cbc.ca

-www.src.ca

-www.cineteleaction.com