Interview: Jonathan Robbins, star of Out With Dad

Out with Jonathan Robbins

by Allan Tong

Jonathan Robbins is dad in Out With Dad, the most successful Canadian web series today with over 24 million viewers across all platforms, averaging more than 300,000 views per month online, and attracting over 35,000 Subscribers on YouTube. The numbers are all the more impressive when you considered that the show is almost entirely audience-funded. The drama is about about teenager Rose coming of age and coming out of the closet with the support of her single father. At this Sunday's week's Canadian Screen Awards, Out With Dad is up for Best Original Program or Series produced for Digital Media – Fiction. Jonathan is also the creator of Clutch, a crime/thriller web series.

Chino Kino chatted with Jonathan at the start of CSA week in Toronto:

THR's Composer Roundtable interview

The next roundtable by the trade publication The Hollywood Reporter is with film composers.

The gathered for the group discussion were Fernando Velazquez (The Impossible), Alexandre Desplat (Argo, Moonrise Kingdom, Rise of the Guardians, Zero Dark Thirty), Marco Beltrami (The Sessions), Patrick Doyle (Brave), Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) and Danny Elfman (Frankenweenie, Hitchcock, Promised Land, Silver Linings Playbook).

Mychael Danna is a Canadian-born composer who I knew at the University of Toronto where we took a bunch of classes together. He got his start composing for Atom Egoyan and he's gone on to score all of his feature films.

Topics discussed in the roundtable include communicating with and understanding the director, working with the limitations of time and budget, dealing with temp music, and how they first got interested in scoring films.

THR's Producer Roundtable interview

The next roundtable from The Hollywood Reporter is now here and it features producers.

The interview takes place with esteemed producers Stacey Sher (Django Unchained), Eric Fellner (Anna Karenina and Les Miserables), Joanne Sellar (The Master), Philippa Boyens (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), Bruce Cohen (Silver Linings Playbook) and Grant Heslov (Argo).

Topics discussed include models with which studios greenlight projects, star directors who see themselves as indie, how to say no to a director, how producing affects private life, imagining their films with different directors, and projects they wished they could've done.

THR's Agent Roundtable interview

The Hollywood Reporter's latest roundtable interview features their first gathering of agents and representatives. They have shown a rare degree of progressiveness in bringing together six women in a male-dominated industry. One of the six is non-white.

The agents who participated in the interview were WME’s Sharon Jackson, Gersh’s Leslie Siebert, CAA’s Maha Dakhil, UTA’s Blair Kohan, Paradigm’s Debbee Klein and ICM Partners’ Lorrie Bartlett.

Some of the topics discussed include straddling work and family life, professional advice from others, mistakes made, when clients leave, and whether men have advantage in signing clients.

THR's Costume Designer Roundtable interview

The Hollywood Reporter has done yet another of their very fine roundtable interviews. This latest is features Costume Designers. As with the previous interviews, this one lacks diversity (although there is I suppose some gender diversity with the inclusion of two men). However, the designers gathered are knowledgable and experienced, with many of them having started in theatre. None of them, however, initially set out to become costume designers.

The featured designers are Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina), Joanna Johnston (Lincoln), Paco Delgado (Les Misérables), Mark Bridges (The Master), Colleen Atwood (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Julie Weiss (Hitchcock).

Topics discussed include misconceptions about the job, competitiveness, working long hours, ongoing collaborations with directors, working with actors, regrets and advice for up-and-comers in the field.

THR's Directors Roundtable interview

The Hollywood Reporter continues with its excellent series of Roundtable Interviews with a group discussion with directors. The helmers they gathered were Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), Gus Van Sant (Promised Land), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Ang Lee (Life of Pi) and Ben Affleck (Argo).

Topics discussed include tough moments, working with others, fears of failure, film vs. digital, temper tantrums, interaction with fans, and leaving the business.

Tarantino discusses cutting down his own work in the editing process. "When you're cutting it down, at that moment in time, before you watch it with an audience, you know it's too long, but you can't imagine taking anything out. So then you watch it with an audience, and then all of a sudden -- 'Oh, wow, that is kind of boring now!' or 'No, this is not as suspenseful by the time we got to it as it needs to be.' But you can only go so far in the Avid room on your own. At some point, you have to watch it with an audience. And then literally 15 minutes just come flying out, where before you couldn't imagine a minute leaving."

THR's Awards Season Roundtable Series 2011: full videos [UPDATED]

The trade paper The Hollywood Reporter traditionally gathers together 5-6 respected directors, writers, producers, actresses and actors for roundtable interviews during awards season in the lead-up to the Academy Awards.

Earlier, they had made some clips and excerpts from the interviews available. Now they have begun making the entire hour-long roundtable interviews available. So far, only the directors, actresses and actors interviews have been offered in their complete form. I've provided them on this page below. As the others are made available, I'll update this page and include them below as well.

The Directors' roundtable takes place with Alexander Payne, Mike Mills, Steve McQueen, Jason Reitman, Bennett Miller and Michel Hazanavicius. The Actress' roundtable interviewees are Glenn Close, Charlize Theron, Carey Mulligan, Michelle Williams, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. The Actors' roundtable guests are George Clooney, Christopher Plummer, Gary Oldman, Christoph Waltz, Albert Brooks and Nick Nolte. Full videos for the writers' and producers' interviews are not yet online.

Master class with filmmaker Frederick Wiseman

PRIMITIVE ENTERTAINMENT’S KEVIN MCMAHON IN CONVERSATION WITH MASTER DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER FREDERICK WISEMAN

Toronto, Sept. 6, 2011 – Kevin McMahon, Gemini award-winning Canadian filmmaker and Artistic Director of Primitive Entertainment, will take part in an In Conversation session with Frederick Wiseman, one of today’s greatest living documentary filmmakers. The master class, organized by Doc Toronto Master’s Series, will be held Sept 11 at 2:30 p.m. at Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Avenue).

Prolific and world-renowned American filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has created some of the most affecting and renowned observational documentaries of the past 40 years, such as HIGH SCHOOL, TITICUT FOLLIES, LAW AND ORDER, NEAR DEATH, LA DANSE - LE BALLET DE L'OPERA DE PARIS and BOXING GYM, among many others. Wiseman will discuss the process, philosophy, and challenges of an astonishing career.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be a part of this,” said McMahon. “Frederick has been a huge influence on my career and for so many generations of filmmakers. It’s such an honour, and I hope the audience will find this discussion as engaging and insightful as I will.”

THR’s Comedy Showrunners Roundtable Video

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter released their roundtable interview with seven Drama Showrunners. Today, they have followed up with their Comedy Showrunners Roundtable.

The gathered participants are Steve Levitan (Modern Family), Jenny Bicks (The Big C), Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory), Liz Brizius (Nurse Jackie), Mike Schur (Parks and Recreation) and Dan Harmon (Community).

Unlike the previous roundtable with drama writers, it is refreshing to see that they've included two women in the mix. There is still no ethnic diversity, but at least they're making some progress.

The topics discussed include working personal story lines into their shows, getting crazy notes (feedback) on their scripts, reacting to criticism received through social media such as Twitter, and their take on the whole Charlie Sheen fiasco.

THR’s Drama Showrunners Roundtable Video

Last month, The Hollywood Reporter hosted a roundtable interview with writers of summer movies. Now they've begun a round of roundtable interviews in advance of the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards later this fall.

Today, they posted their Drama Showrunners roundtable. These are usually the creators and head writers of a television series. They are generally credited onscreen as Executive Producers.

The featured creatives in this discussion are Mike Royce (Men of a Certain Age), Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood), Graham Yost (Justified), Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead), John Wells (Shameless), Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) and Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire).

It is unfortunate that as with the previous roundtable, all of the the assembled writers here are middle-aged white males. But that is the current state of the industry. Among the issues they discuss are disputes between the studio and the network; being creative while staying within a budget; and how they plan to end their series.

Roundtable Discussion with the Coen Brothers in Israel

This is video of a roundtable discussion which took place yesterday in Tel Aviv. The discussion lasts one hour and twenty-four minutes.

The brothers were awarded the Dan David Prize which is given to people who have made "an outstanding contribution to humanity." The Dan David Prize is worth $1 million, of which ten percent is donated to doctorate and post-doctorate student grants.

Previous winners include Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Al Gore, Amos Oz, Tony Blair and Yo-Yo Ma.

The event was held at the Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel.

"Accept the Mystery" - A Symposium with the Coen Brothers, recipients of the Dan David Prize.

Chairperson: Dr. Orly Lubin
Participants: Joel and Ethan Coen - Dr. Shmulik Duvdevani - Ms. Dana Ivgy - Mr. Danny Lerner - Dr. Raya Morag

Interview with Deborah Chow, writer/director of The High Cost of Living

 

Deborah Chow is a Toronto-born filmmaker who directed her first film while studying at McGill University in Montreal. After finishing her M.F.A. in film at Columbia University, she was selected as a participant in the 2005 Berlinale Talent Campus, and the Talent Lab at the Toronto International Film Festival.

She now lives in Montreal, where she completed her debut feature The High Cost of Living, which won the SKYY Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. It was also chosen by TIFF as one of Canada's Top 10 films this past year, and also won both the Super Écran award for Best Screenplay for 1st or 2nd feature at the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois 2011 and Best Canadian Film at Female Eye Film Festival 2011.

As a fellow Asian filmmaker who is also Toronto-born but transplanted to Montreal, I was interested to learn more about her filmmaking process and her artistic journey. Here is my interview with her.

How did you get started with this movie? How and when did it begin?

Interview - Mao's Last Dancer star Chi Cao

Recently, dancer/actor Chi Cao came to Toronto to promote the current release of the excellent film Mao's Last Dancer. He plays the real-life character Li Cunxin who was trained in communist China and then defected to the United States. I had an opportunity to speak to Chi about his thoughts on dancing and acting.

Congratulations on your success with this role. Is this your acting debut? How did it come about? 

My “day job” is ballet dancer. I think I got this part because I could dance. I was dancing at the time and I could speak both languages, Chinese/Mandarin and English. That’s pretty much it, that’s why I got the part. I think to start with Bruce Beresford didn’t want to have an actor playing the role and then a body double, because it would look very odd. These days, the audiences are very sophisticated. If you do that, they’d know it’s not the same person. So he was very determined to get a dancer playing the part. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

So how did you hear about it? 

Filmmaker Interview - Sophie Bissonnette

Recently, DOC-Quebec (Documentary Organization of Canada, Quebec Chapter) held a special screening in Montreal to mark the 30th anniversary of Une histoire de femmes (A Wives’ Tale), a remarkable documentary film about the importance of the wives and the women workers during the strike at Inco nickel mine in Sudbury from 1978-79. Shot on 16mm film, the film goes behind the scenes into the meetings by the woman and into their homes. The women, some of whom were quite young and naïve, became instrumental in resolving the strike favourably. It was a watershed moment in Canada for both the labour movement and the women’s movement. Sadly, they're currently embroiled in another bitter strike.

In honour of International Women’s Day, here is an interview I conducted with Sophie Bissonnette, one of the movie's three filmmakers.

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How did Une histoire de femmes (A Wives’ Tale) and the filmmaking team of you, Martin Duckworth and Joyce Rock come together?

The Inco strikers went out on strike in September 1978. It was a very important strike, a major strike in Canada. There were 12,000 workers and their families on strike. There was a benefit evening that was given in Ottawa where some of the wives of the miners – these were the miners that were on strike against the multinational corporation Inco – organized in a committee to support the strike. And they went out on speaking engagements and benefit evenings to raise money for the families so that they could survive.

Interview - Day Before Yesterday director Patricia Chica

Yesterday at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Montreal (a film festival for works by Quebeckers) the Quebec premiere for the very fine short film Day Before Yesterday took place at the Cinémathèque Québécoise as part of a selection of short films.  The film also won the Best Short Drama Award at the Magnolia FIlm Festival this weekend.  The following is my interview with the film's director, Patricia Chica.

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Who and/or what was the initial impetus in getting the ball rolling on this film?

The project was initiated by Sarah Beckett, a very talented screenwriter. She was looking for a director for her short and I was the lucky one selected. I felt a strong connection with Sarah's story and vision. I feel almost like the script was written for me even though it wasn't. What struck me the most from Sarah's concept was the way the narration unfolded: the story is not told in chronological order but like a puzzle in the principal character's mind! I love psychological thrillers and I thought that I could bring the story forward by adding my own visual style and storytelling skills into the mix!

How was your working relationship with Sarah Beckett?

Sarah is a very respectful collaborator both as writer and producer. She gave me a lot of creative freedom and on my side, I tried to be faithful to her vision as well. During pre-production, we were able to have a lot of discussions regarding all of the creative aspects of the film, from casting to visual style, so we both knew what the outcome would be. I'm very proud of the results. It was totally a team effort!