BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS
We're often adding new shots, so please scroll down to the bottom to find ones you haven't seen...
Mark Washington, focused on his notes between takes.
The foreground element (the TD sign) was art directed by Chris Jones of the Parabola Design Group and executed by Jeremy Gladstone of 64Steps, one of Canada's top design firms. The chair Mark's seated on (together with LL's) is the single most expensive piece of our set, not including the header that you see on our big shots into and out of the studio.
How it all starts...
This is an actual shot from the actual notebook that forms the bedrock of each episode you see. Our production team spends a three to five-hour conference call going over the guests who've been booked for the month and, together, we craft the questions for the one-on-one interviews and those interviews then act as springboard for all the interaction we write for Mark and Laura-lynn in-studio--though I'm sure she'd tell you she comes up with all of it on the spot...
The control room screens...
I realize this might be getting more geeky than you'd like. The screen marked 'preview' is the screen the in-studio director is looking at prior to switching to it. While the shot is in preview the in-studio director can ask the camera operator to change the shot so that it's 'just right' before we cut to it. The screen marked 'program' is what you're seeing. The smaller screens are the actual 'feeds' from each of the cameras so that we can watch what's happening all the time and decide where we're going to cut to next. TV geeks of the World unite!
Between takes...
We shoot the studio segments in-sequence and one right after the other. In between takes the hosts have a minute to look over their 'thematic structure' for the show--a document that is created in advance and typically takes forty to fifty hours to complete--to get a handle on what they're supposed to be doing/talking about next. While they're looking it over Samir tweaks LL's hair and our floor director steps in to make sure the hosts are looking at the right segment. While all this is happening our Showrunner is on the mic from the control room walking Mark and LL through what they're reading and our Producer's Assistant, Lawrence, is typically shouting at everyone to hurry up or get their energy up.
Staring a trend folks...
L-R Rob (Camera), Lawrence (Producer's Assistant) and Mark (Superstar) taking a moment between 'takes' to show off their 'do's. Mark's pate is an ongoing source of ribbing from LL as she continues to be very stressed by how fussy Mark is about his hair and the amount of time it takes to get it 'just right' when we're on-set...
Making "Movie Magic" people...
That's Gallant, one of our Shaw crew, sitting in the in-studio edit suite while we shoot. The reason he's in the edit suite is because TD is a 'tape-less' production. We dump the show straight to hard drive so that we don't need to use hundreds (even thousands) of video tapes that'll end up in landfills someday, and we SAVE money. So, we roll 'final cut pro' every time we roll cameras in-studio. And I typically ask three times if FCP (final cut pro) is 'really' rolling 'cause the one downside of shooting tapeless is that you don't have much of a safety net.
Last-minute 'tweaking'...
So Mark and Laura-lynn finish a show--downstage--we shoot a couple quick promos then I send them off to 'change'. They race into a back room, do a quick change, then race back out to this station where Samir and Hameeda (hair/makeup) touch them up. Samir typically totally changes LL's hair (in five minutes flat) and Hameeda makes sure everyone looks their best--which can become an issue as the night wears on. This shot was taken at about 1:30am I think.
Lindsay G. one of our intrepid 'shooters'.
How'd you like that pose? Pretty nice right? As they say 'nice is as nice does'. The reason she looks so content is 'cause she's that kind of person. Positive, affable, direct, pleasant, talented. Just an all around fantastic lady our Lindsay. She's in the wedding chapel that we turn into our studio two weeks each month. Lindsay is LL's 'cam' meaning everything you see of LL in the 'one-on-one' interviews is filtered through Lindsay's talent.
The 'team' out shooting streeters...
L-R Greg Meeres (unit production manager in red) Lawrence K. (producer's assistant, baldie next to Greg) Geoff Denham (Director of Photography-with the camera) LL (host--y'all know her...) and the interviewee (pink hair) out on the street getting an opinion that matters. Watch for 'em, they're out a couple days a month looking for you!
"Craft Services" (code for 'food') on the 'rain set'
LL spending some 'quality time' with a streeter guest...
Seriously, the lengths the woman will go to to get that 'moment' with our guests. She's hilarious. You can see by Geoff's ill-concealed smile that LL is pulling a 'Coffee Shop Girl Moment' here--doing something crazy at this poor dude's expense. Cold hearted I tell you. Cold hearted.
Getting the 'rain set' ready...
This one's fun to see because you can see how simple the whole set up is. Just a few roll up posters that sit in the background with some proper lights, a fabulous host and 'voila you've got an interview set.
Our editors, madly at work. Five shows a week, all year long, is no mean feat...
LL at a 'gala', getting people to open up about the issues that mattter.
We'll often get an opportunity like this--our Associate Producer/Guesting Coordinator Candace Newton will catch wind of some swank event that's happening in-town and she'll work her magic and get permission for us to be there and for LL to do her thing. You never know from week to week when you're going to get the call and where we're going to be.
Attorney General Wally Oppal, at our launch even for TD...
Associate Producer Candace Newton and Mayor Sam Sullivan at our launch event.
Laura-lynn and our team getting ready to interview the Mr. Stedman Graham--Oprah's lifelong partner.
LL and Tamara Taggart, on 'day one'...
This is the very first interview we ever did on this show. We were so under the gun that we didn't even really have a functioning still camera on-set so, to have at least something for posterity, we turned our laptop around and took it with our iSight camera. That's LL and Tamara Taggart. What a crazy ride.
Between takes...
See the sheets that LL and Mark are looking at? Those are their copies of what we call the 'thematic structure' which is, basically, the entire outline for each episode. The TS document is intended to help us weave as seamless a show as possible out of segments that are shot--sometimes--months apart. The 'banter' segments between Mark and Laura-lynn (despite how they might look) are not 100% 'ad-lib'. They're about 40% scripted and 60% ad-libbed. The collaborative arts at their best (or worst--depending on how late we've typically been up the night before)
The 'suits'...
That would be (L-R) Executive Producer Tore Stautland, Associate Producer/Guesting Coordiantor Candace Newton, Attorney General Wally Oppal, Producer Todd Cantelon.
This shot was taken at an actual (duh) B.C Lions game, one of the first where 'Coach Mark' was asked to coach from the sidelines instead of the overhead booth. His impact was thought to be potentially greater in-person, which we totally understand. MW's quite the charismatic guy...
This is Mark preparing for his 'Coach Washington' segments which were shot...
Here, in the B.C Lions practice facility locker room. We can't imagine what would have happened if LL has stopped by. Let's the say the smell was, well, authentic.
LL, behind the counter at 'CUPCAKES' on Denman. The key to the success of this shoot was keeping her hands OFF the sugary desserts. The woman is WIRED enough without any supplements needed!
Taken from outside, this gives you a sense of the limited room we had to shoot at 'CUPCAKES'. That's always a challenge when we take LL out into the community. She just takes up so much SPACE!
So, this is how our new space looked the day we took possession. Talk about your 'blank slate'. We had three and a half days to get it from blank to 'ready to shoot'. It was a pretty wild three days. Pictured are (L-R) our contractor Stephen, Producer Todd Cantelon on the phone, and Karl Richter one of our Directors.
Getting closer here. You can see the walls have been painted black and the windows are in the process of getting blacked out. See the wall on the left? That's one of four that had to be removed before we could get to...
This, a big, black, empty room. The stage is on it's side getting ready to be put into place, and the flats are in the background after being disassembled then re-built so the would fit into the building. Note the mess and confusion--your average film set.
DP Lindsay George tweaking our 'low tech' jib. We rented a cheap one for financial reasons and will go back to a proper one in time for our January shoot. Notice the 'header' on the ground? We tried to hang it but couldn't 'cause our 'rigging set up' was going to kill someone. Again, trying to save money. We'll get the pro's to come in a fly it properly in time for our January shoots.
Getting closer. The set is basically in-place by this point. Note the lights on the ground and behind the set. Since our space is temporary, we have to light like we would when on-location. We bring the stuff we're going to need with us, set it up (a process of many hours) then shoot, then tear it all down again. Yes, my crew LOVES me (!) Physically the set's not EXACTLY as it was at Shaw, but when you consider that, with our move, we've switched the entire show to HD, you end up with a pretty snazzy looking show anyway...
And shooting on HD means a much more prolonged workflow. So we've added to new assistant editors to the mix. Say hello to Holly and Mark. Quite the difference from our first editing set-up in the 'ghetto fabulous' basement of Senior Editor, Russell Greene...
Yes, that's where we started. Figured I'd throw it in for old-times sake and for russell to see how much he's AGED in less than a year...
Here we are, about ready to go. Throw in some hosts and our intrepid assistant editor/producer's assistant Lawrence Kishor, and you almost look like you're making a TV show or something. Mark and Laura-lynn are reading notes that I printed for them on-set, on our wireless network! (thanks Russ...) So long KINKO'S!
And there you go. A 'completely new' set.
Andrej Marko, one of our consistently brilliant camera operators/grip-electrics tweaking one of our lights. Unlike many TV shows we don't shoot in a 'permanent' studio so our lights don't 'live' on a grid meaning we can't just show up, push up a few faders, and off you go. Each light is rented and has to be carefully set up and tweaked under the leadership of our Director of Photography, Lindsay George.
Between every take, Mark and Laura-lynn take a few seconds to discuss who's going to start, who's going to finish and how, exactly, they wish to come at the content as-written. By the point they're on-set they've been pouring over their notes for a day or so and have a fairly good idea of the basis on which their spontaneous 'riffing' is going to be built. I think, in this one, Laura-lynn is asking Mark if he'd mind getting her curling iron for her, or something...
Lindsay (two) as we call her, on-camera capturing a moment. Behind her is Lesaya Newton, one of our production assistants and the newest addition to our team. All the cables coming out of Lindsay's camera (near the front of it) are the audio and video outputs. The video output runs to a monitor that our Director watches (along with the four other cameras) and the audio output is a hardwire recording and output--meaning her camera catches the audio as a safety while also sending it to our sound mixer who mixes Mark and Laura-lynn's audio on the fly and provides a feed to our Director so he can listen in.
We had some visitors to set this time. Behind the jib, against the back wall, you can see the blonde teenaged girl is fairly interested in what's going on. She's training to be a makeup artist and wanted to see how an actual set works. Next to her, almost hidden by the jib is Christina Sestan one of Vancouver's top life coaches. The two young dudes on the left are the sons of one of LL's friends and you can see that we've lost the young man on the far left. Catching a few winks.
