Down East Roots
December 1, 1996
By Claire Bickley, Toronto Sun
MILL COVE, Nova Scotia – “We have one character, Paul, who is a boat builder. We couldn’t figure out, is he the master builder? What’s the term for the guy who’s in charge?” recalls TV producer Wayne Grigsby.”
We went around and around and finally I spoke to Kim Smith, our marine co-ordinator, and he said, ‘That guy? We call him the useless bastard.’ I said, ‘But he’s the head guy.’ He said, ‘Well, then he’s the head useless bastard.’
“I said, ‘No, no, what’s the term? What would you call him?’ He said, ‘Well, boss carpenter is what I’d call him.’ So we called him the boss carpenter. But I’m sure if we’d spoken to someone else at another boatyard, he’d have come up with something else.”
Such are the advantages of being on location in this small South Shore town where they’re bringing the series Black Harbour to life. The 13-hour drama premieres Wednesday night at 9 on CBC. The $11.7-million production is being shot here and in neighboring Hubbards, a 206-year-old working class village that lent its name to lead characters Katherine and Nick Hubbard.
Rebecca Jenkins and Geraint Wyn Davies star as the couple drawn back to her hometown by her mother’s heart attack. Away since she was a teen, Katherine has left a successful business as a caterer to the stars in Los Angeles, where Nick was floundering professionally after failing to make the move from commercial director to feature films.
“We thought an interesting show would be somebody who went back to what they ran away from. Can you go home again? And what if you’ve become another person in the process?” says Grigsby, inside his institutionally drab office in Black Harbour’s production headquarters and studios at a recently retired Canadian Forces Base. Lined up on his bookshelves are Secrets Of Oak Island, about the treasure that legend has it is buried not far down the coast, as well as volumes on boat building.
“In this case, Katherine left a very old culture where it really matters who your father and mother’s people were and how far back they go and how connected you are to your uncles and aunts. You have conversations on the east coast that you just never have on the west coast. ‘Oh, he’s Vernon’s cousin through Thelma’s aunt, etcetera, etcetera.’ On the west coast you can invent who you are.”
Black Harbour is the first series from Fogbound Films, the laid-back Grigsby’s company with his intense professional partner Barbara Samuels. The pair met as writers on Mount Royal, spent two years as story editors on E.N.G, then became a team in 1991.
“We’re completely different personalities and because we come at it from different angles, it tends to make it stronger. Barbara has a voice, I have a voice, and there’s evolved a third voice which is, I think, kind of separate from either,” he says. “I tend sometimes to write so obliquely it’s hard to figure out what actually is going on, and I’ve had to open it up. She tends to be kind of purple and has to bring it down a bit. Now sometimes I’m purple and she’s oblique to the point where people say, ‘Where’s the subtitles?’”
Their first big success was another culture clash drama, North Of 60, now in its fifth season on CBC.
Unlike North Of 60, for which they built the show’s town from the ground up near Bragg Creek, Alberta, Black Harbour is making the most of local locations.
An abandoned fish plant has become the weathered Hubbards boatyard. Scenes have been shot at Hubbards’ 1946 dance hall The Shore Club and the historic Dauphnee Inn. “There is nothing like being here and having contact with the people on even the most humdrum level,” says Grigsby. “You fill up your tank with gas, stuff happens. You drive up and down the road and you see people. You see how they walk or you hear how they talk.
“I don’t think any of us would claim to get even a tenth of what actually goes on and what it’s really all about. But it’s enough to at least make you aware of your ignorance and ask a lot of questions that you might not otherwise.”
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December 1, 1996
By Claire Bickley, Toronto Sun
MILL COVE, Nova Scotia – “We have one character, Paul, who is a boat builder. We couldn’t figure out, is he the master builder? What’s the term for the guy who’s in charge?” recalls TV producer Wayne Grigsby.”
We went around and around and finally I spoke to Kim Smith, our marine co-ordinator, and he said, ‘That guy? We call him the useless bastard.’ I said, ‘But he’s the head guy.’ He said, ‘Well, then he’s the head useless bastard.’
“I said, ‘No, no, what’s the term? What would you call him?’ He said, ‘Well, boss carpenter is what I’d call him.’ So we called him the boss carpenter. But I’m sure if we’d spoken to someone else at another boatyard, he’d have come up with something else.”
Such are the advantages of being on location in this small South Shore town where they’re bringing the series Black Harbour to life. The 13-hour drama premieres Wednesday night at 9 on CBC. The $11.7-million production is being shot here and in neighboring Hubbards, a 206-year-old working class village that lent its name to lead characters Katherine and Nick Hubbard.
Rebecca Jenkins and Geraint Wyn Davies star as the couple drawn back to her hometown by her mother’s heart attack. Away since she was a teen, Katherine has left a successful business as a caterer to the stars in Los Angeles, where Nick was floundering professionally after failing to make the move from commercial director to feature films.
“We thought an interesting show would be somebody who went back to what they ran away from. Can you go home again? And what if you’ve become another person in the process?” says Grigsby, inside his institutionally drab office in Black Harbour’s production headquarters and studios at a recently retired Canadian Forces Base. Lined up on his bookshelves are Secrets Of Oak Island, about the treasure that legend has it is buried not far down the coast, as well as volumes on boat building.
“In this case, Katherine left a very old culture where it really matters who your father and mother’s people were and how far back they go and how connected you are to your uncles and aunts. You have conversations on the east coast that you just never have on the west coast. ‘Oh, he’s Vernon’s cousin through Thelma’s aunt, etcetera, etcetera.’ On the west coast you can invent who you are.”
Black Harbour is the first series from Fogbound Films, the laid-back Grigsby’s company with his intense professional partner Barbara Samuels. The pair met as writers on Mount Royal, spent two years as story editors on E.N.G, then became a team in 1991.
“We’re completely different personalities and because we come at it from different angles, it tends to make it stronger. Barbara has a voice, I have a voice, and there’s evolved a third voice which is, I think, kind of separate from either,” he says. “I tend sometimes to write so obliquely it’s hard to figure out what actually is going on, and I’ve had to open it up. She tends to be kind of purple and has to bring it down a bit. Now sometimes I’m purple and she’s oblique to the point where people say, ‘Where’s the subtitles?’”
Their first big success was another culture clash drama, North Of 60, now in its fifth season on CBC.
Unlike North Of 60, for which they built the show’s town from the ground up near Bragg Creek, Alberta, Black Harbour is making the most of local locations.
An abandoned fish plant has become the weathered Hubbards boatyard. Scenes have been shot at Hubbards’ 1946 dance hall The Shore Club and the historic Dauphnee Inn. “There is nothing like being here and having contact with the people on even the most humdrum level,” says Grigsby. “You fill up your tank with gas, stuff happens. You drive up and down the road and you see people. You see how they walk or you hear how they talk.
“I don’t think any of us would claim to get even a tenth of what actually goes on and what it’s really all about. But it’s enough to at least make you aware of your ignorance and ask a lot of questions that you might not otherwise.”
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