High River, Alta: While Calgary has become known as the location shoot for the long-running American kids’ show Honey I Shrunk the Kids, it now boasts an indigenous Canadian family series.

Principal photography began in early June on 26 half-hours of the $10-million tween series Just A Kid. Produced by Calgary-based Helene B. White’s Riverwood Productions, the series will air on ytv in Canada and Nickelodeon in the u.s. beginning January 2000.

Riverwood holds all copyright in Just A Kid with Fireworks Entertainment as the financier and international distributor (through subsidiary CanWest Entertainment International). The series will be launched to the world market at mipcom this fall. Lynch Entertainment holds American rights.

The program follows the antics of Caitlin Seeger, a tough-talking 13-year-old orphan played by American Lindsay Felton (3 Ninjas). She’s a rebellious, rough, city kid who is faced with two options – juvenile hall or moving to the boonies to live with a distant cousin (played by Cynthia Belliveau of Wind At My Back fame), her husband (Ken Tremblet from Dead Man’s Gun and Welcome To Paradox) who just happens to be the local sheriff and son (Jeremy Foley whose credits include the voice of Casper and Dante’s Peak).

The drama, peppered with comedic moments, unfolds as this wary loner, who has spent her life on the streets, reacts to the western country town and a new family.

No stranger to tween programming, White (who operates Calgary-based HBW Film Corp.) created, directed and produced the 78-episode teen talk show series Connecting between 1988 and 1990. In addition to numerous awards, the program has the distinction of being Alberta’s first Canadian syndicated series independently produced by a local company and distributed in the u.s. Connecting aired on ctv affiliates across Canada and was distributed in the u.s. by Time Warner.

Complementing White’s experience in the youth genre is showrunner Jana Veverka, a veteran of westerns. The last time the Vancouver native landed in Calgary was to produce the Lonesome Dove series. ‘I grew to love the landscape and the people, it is definitely film-friendly and picturesque,’ she says.

Veverka’s tv credits include writing and producing the ctv pilot Eyes of a Cowboy, the ytv series The Adventures of the Black Stallion, Bordertown, which aired on Family Channel, and Airwolf. She was also executive script consultant on Danger Bay, The Campbells and The Beachcombers.

The town of High River, 25 miles south of Calgary and nestled in the foothills of Longview, is the backdrop for the series. The production took over an existing ranch house, an empty storefront and a local school for the contemporary western setting.

With numerous location shoots under her belt, Veverka says the most interesting challenge of the project isn’t technical, it’s in the storytelling. ‘God knows I have done enough horse pictures,’ she quips. ‘Everything I have done has been on location so I take that in stride. The more interesting challenge is keeping alive the personality of the city girl in the country. It’s your classic stranger-in-a-strange-land story so you have to keep that city edge present. Because of the toughness of her life, Caitlin becomes a young girl with attitude.’

A story team with a long line of experience in youth programming has been rounded up for the project. Executive story editors are Alberta native Edgar Lyall and Therese Beaupre. Lyall was a writer/creative consultant on teen series I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, executive story editor on the kids’ show Incredible Story Studio, and a writer/story editor on Ready Or Not and Kratts’ Creatures. Beaupre has written and story edited for Road To Avonlea and the cbs sitcom Eric’s World and served as executive story editor on teen mystery series The Adventures of Shirley Holmes.

Story editor Brent Piaskoski hails from Calgary. He has been on the writing team of Breaker High, Telescene’s Big Wolf On Campus and Misguided Angels; and the cbs animated series From the Files of Flying Rhino Jr. High.

Local actors have been cast and Alberta crew are being tapped wherever possible, says White.

Keys in the set, props, costume and art department were found in the province, a challenge considering the high volume of work currently on the go in Alberta.

Shooting continues through to the end of November, helmed by dop Pat Williams. Editing and adr will take place in Calgary and final post-production in Toronto.

Up next for White is A Little Bit of Heaven, an mow to be coproduced with Vancouver’s Forefront Entertainment. The project has development money from Telefilm Canada, British Columbia Film and wic and is currently in rewrite with Laurie Finstad-Knizknik.

Based on a true event, A Little Bit of Heaven is a turn-of-the-century story about woman who stole a church and sent it down the Columbia River to be reclaimed for the community.

Moving away from her western roots, Veverka is writing a feature-length script based on Roch Carrier’s psychological mystery novel The Man In The Closet. The film is in development with funding from Telefilm and Superchannel and will be produced by Vancouver’s Tricycle Films, a partnership between Veverka, Gigi Boyd and Connie Dolphin.

Veverka is also writing a dark mystery thriller called In A Heart Beat for Tricycle. She is also producer and writer on The Gates of Paradise, a series in development with Tricycle, wtn and TMN-The Movie Network.