Passion fuels powerful television drama

It was a long six weeks for cast and crew of the Prairie Dog Film + Television production Blackstone, but after waiting almost two years to shoot the third season of the Gemini-award winning production, they were hours well spent.

“Getting to know my character, seeing her grow, working with all the other actors, it makes me feel like this is a big family. I just feel comfortable. This is almost like a second home,” said Ashley Callingbull, who has been playing Sheila Delaronde since the first season. She even appeared briefly in the pilot in 2009.

Callingbull’s “second home” is on various locations throughout the city of Edmonton and in the town of Namao, which serves as the fictional Blackstone First Nation.

“Blackstone is a very location-oriented show so there’s lots of locations,” said Craig Shillington, assistant location manager. “We take a lot of equipment everywhere.”

This season’s six episodes, which will begin airing on APTN in September, were shot from March 27 to May 3. Adding to the intensive shooting schedule, which saw 12- to 15-hour days for some cast and crew, was the challenge of shooting episodes out of sequence. In fact, the final scene for Blackstone season three was the first scene shot.

“We’re shooting here scenes from episode one to episode six. So everything is shot per location. We come in and do all the scenes for all the episodes in that one location. Then we move to the next location and it goes to the editors at the end,” said James Mosher, assistant location manager.

Cast and crew were crowded into a large house in the university area on April 17 and 18. The house is the apartment of new character Roberta (played by Tinsel Korey), sister of Debbie Fraser.

There is a lengthy process involved in attaining new locations, said producer Jesse Syzmanski, who spends a fair amount of time on set. Location manager Jake Chapman sends out flyers in the residential areas he is interested in. Then he goes door-knocking. There are quite a few refusals.

“You have to be very open to allow a camera crew into your house. Look how large we are. We just take over,” said Syzmanski.

An agreement is then signed and the family usually moves out the day before the shooting to allow the set decorators and art department time to do their work. And there is blocking to be done and lighting to take care of. A control room is also set up where the show’s executive producer, writer, and director Ron E. Scott, and his crew, do their work.

There is on average 60 crew members per location, said Syzmanski. Most of the crew comes from Edmonton, where Prairie Dog Film + Television is headquartered, but some crew come in from Calgary and Vancouver.

“We have an amazing crew,” she said.

Two cameras are used to shoot each scene and each scene is shot multiple times at different angles, using a variety of wide shots and close-ups. Scripts are 42 to 44 pages. Air time for each episode is 44 minutes.

On the morning of April 17, Callingbull was one of five actors involved in an emotionally-charged scene taking place in Roberta’s apartment. Shooting the scene began in the morning and by early afternoon the cameras were still rolling with the actors saying the same lines.

“I feel like after a few times of doing the same scene you just start developing it more and it starts to get better,” said Callingbull.

Blackstone this season has a large cast of 80, including a large number of Aboriginal youth. There are about a dozen main actors.

Syzmanski won’t discuss the production’s budget but said, “It becomes more and more challenging. The show has the same budget it’s had for the past few years, but (the show) just continues to grow and get better. So that’s always challenging. The priority to us is always making a compelling, engaging product that is competing.”

And there is no doubt Blackstone is competing. The show has not only been nominated for Rosies, Geminis and Leos in a wide variety of categories, but has won. It is now shown on Maori TV in New Zealand. When the third season begins to air on APTN, the TV network will lead up to that broadcast with airings of seasons one and two as well as a special episode on the making of Blackstone.

Syzmanski says all artists would like their work to get viewed by a larger audience, but Blackstone’s followers are loyal.

“Ron says it best when he talks about Blackstone.  It’s not only a television series, but it’s a television series with soul.… It’s a show with a social conscience with themes and messages, we hit domestic violence in a big way this year and that’s not just something that happens on First Nations communities,” said Syzmanski. “I’m really passionate about (Blackstone) because we hit things in a hard way. We don’t shy away from controversial themes and messages and I love that.”