There's no business like show business...except for the business of making a TV about show business. That's exactly what an Oakville company is doing this week, filming on location to resume shooting the new television comedy Coming Distractions.
Four years ago, Film.Ca Cinemas CEO Jeff Knoll and the team at his cinema began production on the pilot episode of a new series about working at an independent movie theatre. The show was inspired by the real stories of ordinary (and extraordinary) events that happened over years of working at the theatre.
That first episode was shot in early 2017, and the goal was always to produce a complete first season. Now, with secured funding, a fundraising campaign earlier this year and an extended closure of the cinema from COVID-19, the stars figuratively and literally aligned to create another two episodes.
Production has been underway the last two weeks on location at Film.Ca Cinemas and around Oakville filming the next two episodes, which are on track to be available later this year. Oakville News was granted a set visit to look behind the scenes of what it takes to make a large scale production happen locally.
The project was written by Oakville's own Marc Grant, with several more locals in the cast and crew. Moving into the director's chair for episode two and three, however, is Gina Simone - she worked on the first episode four years ago as a first assistant director and co-producer.
One thing that hasn't changed, according to Simone, is that "everyone in the cast is so committed to their characters - it's incredible. Everybody comes with an abundance of ideas." She also says it's helpful to have the real-life inspiration on set to make Coming Distractions come alive.
"Anytime we want to play with a scene or question comes up, having Jeff around is amazing because a lot of these stories come from real life events and experiences that happened here at Film.ca Cinemas," says Simone. "So there's a realism that we are playing with while we're being outrageously funny - that really helps bring the story to life."
Upgraded equipment and two local sponsorships also helped get more time and resources to make the show look better than before. Gina says the cast and crew get to "play around the space a lot more freely than we did the last time," and nobody gets to play more than her director of photography Julian Lomaga.
This isn't just Lomaga's first comedy - it's also his first long-form series. But to him, the most special part is being able to film right inside the actual Film.Ca Cinemas (which has been closed to the public since November 2020 due to provincial COVID-19 regulations.)
"There's this great feeling of being able to have myself and the crew in here for filming," says Lomaga. "We're able to capture the magic of the movie theatres and be able to bring them to our audience. We want them to really see the show.”
He and the entire crew are also working through the added challenges of working in the waning days of a global health pandemic: "It can be hard for wearing mask for 12 to 13 hour days, and there's whole other protocols that are in place that we have to follow."
The demands for safety on set are as rigorous as they are necessary: daily testing for everyone, a COVID-19 safety compliance officer on set, Zoom meetings off set and masks for everybody. Sometimes two.
In fact, the only time there's anyone unmasked is the cast when they are performing on camera. That includes star Felicia Simone (no relation to the director) who plays Rebecca, returning from her starring part in the 2017 pilot.
"Coming back is kind of like riding a bike," she says. "We fell right into it. The whole cast works so well, and everybody is very much their character so when we jumped into the scenes it went so smooth."
The challenge of acting with COVID compliance, according to Felicia, is "for actors on site, our acting is about interacting in relationships with the cast. You really want to be in closer and have those moments but you do have to be careful and keep the distance."
But the whole team, cast and crew alike, did a magnificent job. In our three hour visit on set, our team watched actors and crew alike working together to safely make the vision come to life. Beyond that, everyone was having fun. It's slow, tedious and precise work shooting a television show, but everyone was laughing and excited they were back in production for this great local project.
There isn't a set release date for episodes two and three, though the goal remains finishing a complete first season with several more episodes.
In the meantime, Coming Distractions will be a big-screen near you coming soon to a small screen near you.
The pilot episode is available to watch on YouTube and Zuzu Video on Demand.