A website is taking advantage of the current hostility shown towards American travellers overseas by offering packages that help Yanks pose as Canadians. This is not just a place to buy the handy Maple Leaf backpack badge but also a place you can study up on Canada in case more scrutiny is given by natives angry about American politics. Read the CNN article here >>

I got back late last night from a two-day screenplay seminar sponsored by the Whistler Film Festival, Praxis and Telefilm Canada. The seminar was given by a couple veterans from development companies and studios in Toronto and was held in the snowy resort of Whistler, famous for drinking parties and decent runs. The format of the seminar was an analysis of the 'essential questions' that story editors and other development professionals need to ask when they are handed a first draft script so that they can evaluate and propose positive changes to the writer in order to make it a saleable property.

The first day of the seminar (attended by 20+ people: professionals, story editors, producers) was a bit of a wash because the hotel's AV tripped up their presentation. DVDs wouldn't play properly, audio didn't work, and unfortunately the delays crunched into the time for participation so it became more of a lecture on theme, character, conflict. To anyone who has taken more than a couple courses on screenwriting, these are pretty basic, though there was more concentration on what the organizers felt was more important.

More valuable was the secondary purpose of the seminar which was to apply what you had learned in analyzing a script written by one of the latest Praxis fellows who had bravely submitted her first draft to be read by all of the participants. As with most first drafts, this one was rough, had lots of room for improvement in the depth of characters, the strengthening of conflict, raising of stakes and of course plot structure. In various stages between the presentation of each 'essential question', the participants broke out into groups to discuss how the script could be improved with those questions in mind. At the very end of the second day, each group presented a development plan to the entire group (and the writer) for them to proceed on a second draft.

The purpose of the seminar was to act as if each group was a story editor or development advisor seeking massage the rough concept into a commodity. As such there was attention paid to market (one of the last modules) but the majority of time was spent on suggesting fixes to the actual story in constructive ways. The person who had the most benefit from the experience was obviously the writer whose submission we were each taking whacks at. To her credit, she stood up quite fine.

As part of the seminar lunch was included on the second day for a schmooze fest. I found myself sitting beside a development executive from Telefilm Canada who immediately was beseiged by the other writers at the table. Also present was Canfilm royalty Don McKellar, director of Last Night, Child Star and who has appeared in many Can films such as Exotica, eXistenz, Oliver Assayas' Clean and 32 Films About Glenn Gould.

Much better, probably because I did some highway driving in this tank. 11.4km/100L or 24.6mpg (42.555L / 371.6km). Compare with my previous calc. Now I'm off to Whistler in a bus.

Another intriguing HBO series is Carnivàle, the dark fantasy following the strange members of a Depression-era travelling circus and a young man who has powers over life and death who joins them. In season one, we are introduced to the beginnings of a black conspiracy among certain members of the troupe including the mysterious Management, the owner of the carnival who we never see and never leaves his (or her?) trailer; Samson, the dwarf who makes sure the circus runs as per Management's orders; Lodz, the blind Machiavellian mentalist and the protagonist, the infuriatingly selfish Ben Hawkins (Terminator 3's Nick Stahl), whose healing powers (and life-taking powers) are the subject of everyone's interest. Intertwining with the circus' story is a parallel thread about the rise of a preacher whose increasingly dark visions capture the public imagination in the Dust Bowl. The cast are uniformly excellent and the Depression-era costuming and sets are impeccable. The tone is similar to Twin Peaks with a heavy flavouring of Ray Bradbury (think "Something Wicked This Way Comes"). Anyway, how many soap operas laden with magical realism and apocalyptic imagery set in the 1920s do you see? Ratings for season one were low by HBO standards, however, in part because of the slow exposition of the backstory. By the end of season one, we still really only have hints of the direction the main story is going or even what the major conflict is. It's a slow burn. The season one DVD set is on sale this week. Look at the official Carnivale page for trailers for season two (returning in January) and a recap.

I'm away this weekend to Whistler to participate in a Praxis workshop in conjunction with the Whistler Film Festival. No skiing for me, just writing and networking.

Further evidence that central Canada is behind the west, Ontario has reversed its stand on fresh fish for sushi/sashimi Earlier last week the Ontario Ministry of Health ordered the province's sushi restaurants to use only fish that had previously been frozen. Anyone who loves sashimi knows that there is a difference between frozen and fish that has merely been chilled. The people behind the order were definitely not sushi eaters but now have reversed themselves after an outcry from connossieurs. The health ministry acknowledged that anisakiasis, a rare parasitic disease striking sushi eaters, has struck only three times in Ontario history. With that number the ministry admits that it has "bigger fish to fry". Read more in the Globe and Mail. Here is a CDC article about the disease complete with cute diagram showing the life cycle of the worm which can eventually grow to 2cm in length. Just make sure you are sure of where you are eating. Stories like this won't put me off eating the stuff. It's MMM-MMM good!

Thanks to my bro for this link to a Wired article showing the most recent development in robotic warriors currently enticing Pentagon buyers. The "Talon" series of remotely controlled Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) now have fully embraced the potential of previous tracked vehicles and now openly mount modular weapons systems such as rocket launchers and cannon. The 2-foot long vehicles can now go forward into areas too dangerous to risk human personnel and with the aid of a remote operator can target and engage enemies. These types of robots (popularized in the Terminator movie future-war sequences) have long been in development. I remember reading about them in Popular Science when I was a teenager, but now many prototypes have already been battletested in Afghanistan (and I assume Iraq). The biggest challenge has always been with the chassis and reliability. Now with basic movement and maintenance rolling along, the manufacturers will want to perfect the future soldier's senses. Otherwise, an armed UGV will be as useful as a bomb from a B52. Of course, critics now fear that by removing the human element from the battlefield even further, it leaves less oversight over battle decisions as well as removing commanders from accusations of heavy-handedness and war crimes. Evidently the makers of these machines (the Talon is made by iRobot, the makers of the Roomba robotic vaccuum) cheer for the wrong side when they watch the Terminator movies. Read the article here >>. Here is GlobalSecurity.org's discussion of the various UGV systems.