The National Screen Institute in Winnipeg has selected the participants for its Totally Television program, and in its second year, there is a definite lean toward Toronto-based talent.

Totally Television guides up to six teams of up-and-coming TV producers and writers through the ins and outs of the biz, with the top three teams pitching their series ideas at the Banff Television Festival.

Six concepts were selected from the 15 submitted (up from roughly a dozen submissions in 2002).

Would-be pitchers include the Toronto teams of producer Ed Sinclair and writer David Tomlinson for Boys Like Us, producer Jordana Aarons and writer Anne Marie Scheffler for Not Getting It, and producer Williams James and writer Franke James for Office Politics.

Also selected are Toronto producer Karina Griffith and Ottawa writer Kerry Campbell for Evolving Fashion and Toronto producer Nicole Hamilton and Whitby, ON writer Karen McClellan for The Exs. The only non-Ontario-based team is Halifax producer Jay Dahl and Dartmouth, NS writer Josh MacDonald for Strange Adventures.

The big winner from last year’s inaugural Totally Television was The Big Switch from Toronto writer Nicole Demerse and producer Laura James, which is currently in development with YTV. *

-www.nsi-canada.ca