Hair and makeup

Do you have any idea what an actor goes through when they arrive on the set??? We look at shows and there is not a moment that we give a thought to the amount of prep and maintenance the lead actors receive when they arrive on the set before they go in front of a camera. Look down at the photos on the back wall in the makeup trailer and you will see photographs pasted up on a board. This is so the person in charge of makeup has a reference point to look at, so when say Helene Joy arrives on set to shoot more scenes from the same episode, the make up artist, Deb Drennan will have Dr Ogden, her hair and makeup, looking exactly the same as it was the previous day. There needs to be continuity to the look of an actor so that when there is a scene shift in the same episode, which may be shot over two or three different days, and sometimes not consecutively, the actor looks the same.
Listen to this. This week they brought back Geraint Wyn Davies to shoot one scene with Helene and Yannick in the morgue for episode 102 which wrapped about one month ago. So the hair and makeup artist has to review the photos, usually poloroids, from that scene, and make up all the actors to look exactly the same. Amazing eh???
Okay try this and see. Take a photo of yourself exactly the way you look when you make up in the morning (women here). Then make yourself look exactly the same for five days in a row, taking photos of yourself daily to compare. See?? What a challenge and the artist in charge of hair and makeup has to do this for 4 months and they are on the set before the actors arrive. Sometimes Helene arrives to be made up at about 6 am in the morning. So when does Deb arrive?????
Show biz eh?? Very glamorous you say. I was sleeping at 6 am this morning and I was at work at 8:30 today. The actors were already filming their first scenes by the time I arrived at work.
The glamorous life of an actor and people involved in film television.
Bye for now.

We screened the two rough cuts for friends

We are waiting to recieve the next two rough cuts of two more episodes, and I hope we get them on Friday because Maureen and I are off to Prince Edward County for two weeks. Now, you may say that we just came back from a holiday and that is true. This is a holiday sort of but not really, as Maureen always takes two or three weeks to go over her first draft of the novel she is working on at a cottage in the Summer, and she starts the rewrite process which is usually a 6-8 week process after the first draft of a book is finished. The title of this book is entitled The K Handshape, and is not a Murdoch novel, but ironically it is set in the world of the deaf. I told Yannick unbeknownst to us that he was going to be cast as Murdoch, that Maureen decided to write a book set in the deaf world. The irony is that he was in a series for three years and worked with a deaf police officer. In Maureen's book, a dead woman is found drowned in the opening chapter and Christine Morris, a forensic profiler and her lead character, has to immerse herself in the deaf culture to help find the murderer. Enrough said, you can pre-order the book online, it comes out in February. We screened the first two rough cuts for our very good friends Sue and Maurice, who have been on this adventure from the beginning with us and are friends of ours for many years. They LOVED the show and Sue is in love with our star and thinks he is amazing.
What's the bar of soap doing in the pitcure here besides shedding liquid. Monday is technically my day off so I work on my photography. We are going over to Toronto Island this week as they will be shooting on the island one day. I will bring some shots.Love to all, we are happy tonight because our friends love the show so much and we love it even more. Hugs all!!!!!!!!! and goodnight!!

Marielynnette asks these questions

ML you wrote>

You mention a character named Liza who is the deceased fiance of Murdoch. How did she die and was she actually portrayed in the books or merely mentioned?

Answer: Liza never appears in the novels but her memory haunts Detective Murdoch for the first six books as he never quite got over her death from typhoid. In fact she died withing a few days of contracting typhoid . . "gone as quickly as the shadow on a lawn" . . .Murdoch was engaged to Liza and loved her very much. He is a grieving Catholic man in his thirties and never has slept with a woman. So while he grieves for Liza, he meets Enid who is sharing the same rooming house he lives in and who has a son Alwyn. She is a Baptist. Their relationship seems to go somewhere (possibly) til about book 5, Night's CHild, when he meets the schoolteacher Amy Slade.

ML you wrote> Also, Amy Slade. While she is mentioned in the book I am reading she is not mentioned in your blog. Are they the same character with a different name? I'm confused.

Answer: I think I mentioned on the blog that they have made the character of Dr Ogden in the tv series much like Amy Slade, a new woman with new ideas and attitudes that are very independent and ahead of their time for a woman of her time which is the late 1800's. In the novels Amy is a school teacher and she first appears in Night's Child. Amy is very much the personality of the author I can tell you!!! She and Murdoch seem to care for eachother but I cannot let you too much because it will give away the very surpise ending in the novel you are reading, A Journeyman to Grief

ML you wrote> And who is Arthur Conan Doyle exactly?

Answer: The very famous author of The Sherlock Holmes stories. And also a lecturer on the Spirit World.

ML you wrote>Crabtree is Murdoch's right hand man, yes?

Answer: Yes he became Murdoch's right hand man after Constable Wicken was murdered in Poor Tom Is Cold

ML you wrote> And Brackeneid is his boss who, by the way has a drinking problem?

Answer: Yes Brackenried has a drinking problem, he likes Murdoch alot but he is an Orange Irishman so he thinks all Catholics are Papists

ML you wrote> His father was a rogue? Unscrupulous and a drunk?

Answer: You will meet Harry in Let Loose the Dogs and learn all about his shortcomings and Murdoch's problems with his father. Harry was an awful father who beat his wife and children. They softened the character a bit for the series, but that is an excellent episode.

thanks for the questions

It's freaky and scary but you gotta do it eh??

This is the camera I use when I trip out and just shoot anything including going to the set. In the photography business it is referred to as a "point and shoot". Nothing too creative about this camera, it just takes straightforward pictures. My real camera at the moment is a Nikon D200 and I shoot "raw files" with it which are the equivilent to digital negatives and they are very large files. I also use three different interchangeable lenses, one for close up, one for wide angle, and one for zoom. When exposed properly, raw files give me the most information to use when I do post production on a photo (cropping, manipulation of colour and exposure, etc). So I did a lighting set up with three different lights, to create both the halo effect on the fairy, and also the highlights you see on the side of the Canon. Now what is a bit freaky is that the first three days I put up the notice about my new website, about 16 people dropped by to look. In the last two days there were over 100!!! So I am now happy about that as lots people are dropping by my photography site to see my work.
Lighting is the key to a successful show as well. I know you have not seen the rought cuts of the new series, but I can tell you it is lit to look very Victorian, warm tones, slightly gaslight look to it very rich and sumptous. This is done by the Director of photography, David Perrault. The man knows his lighting and what he wants to get as far as the look of a set and the effect of the light on the actors as well as the interior and exterior sets. I would love, someday to be as knowledgable as David, because a good photo is a photo that is not just lit well, but with an idea in mind. I am beginning to understand this so I make lighting choices before I even click the shutter. Lighting is the first thing I think about and the first thing I set up in the studio or if I am outside with my gear.

Another Fairy shot. Conan Doyle believed in them

The late Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and who is featured in two of the episodes in our series so ably played by Geraint Wyn Davies a Canadian/Welsh actor, came to Toronto to give a lecture on the "Spirit World" back in the late 1890's. His trip to Toronto for his lecture tour is used in our show to feature both Conan Doyle, and episode about someone who conducts seances through something called The Toronto Paranormal Society and a murder of one of the members. Sometimes the seance thing can seem to be bit of a "Victorian" cliche, however, the production team have been masterful in how the character presents her seance's and the episode really shows how desperate people were to contact their lost loved ones. Even Detective Murdoch, who is sooo skeptical about the reality of communicating with the dead, manages to suddenly question his own skepticism. It is one of the most touching and powerful scenes in the series so far. In fact I would say that the depth of emotion communicated during the scene with Murdoch and the medium, takes the show to a much richer emotional level. This is because the skill of the actors sell the scene so to speak. This is where we really fall for both the character and the actor YB. Can't wait for you to see the episode "Elementary My Dear Murdoch". I wonder which Murdoch novel the fairy is reading??? What do you think (trick question)?

Pour Vous Sandrine

Okay,okay, The French editions of the first two novels are out of print and Sandrine could not find them so, given that I am now fans of everyone who posts on this blog, I apologize for not sending everybody something, but I am sending this signed French edition of Under the Dragons Tail to Sandrine as we had one spare one left. I hope I can send something to all the regular bloggers over time, you are all wonderful people so I will try over time to do that. In the meantime congratulate Sandrine for her prize here eh?? Thanks everybody.

Lie Detector testing - Murdoch is a reader, a scientist, and a detective

The lie detector is an instrument designed to record bodily changes resulting from the telling of a lie. Cesare Lombroso, in 1895, was the first to utilize such an instrument, but it was not until 1914 and 1915 that Vittorio Benussi, Harold Burtt, and, above all, William Marston produced devices establishing correlation of blood pressure and respiratory changes with lying.
In the Murdoch Mysteries tv series, Detective William Murdoch, is interested, very interested in upcoming police and forensic technologies. His experimentation with new techniques is both perplexing and frustrating to his boss Inspector Brackenreid (played by the British actor Thomas Craig).
We will see Murdoch experimenting with these new technologies both to the bafflement and fascination of his colleagues at the station.
In fact, the Victorians were experimenting with many new technologies which would become part of everyday life later in the 20th century. They were truly a culture ahead of their time.
The earliest lie detectors required the subject of the test to be completely nude with the wires hooked up all over the body.
That would have made an interesting scene in the series when Murdoch is having the machine tested on himself while everyone in the station observes. Alas, they adapted the look of the experiment for the 8:00 time slot.
In the new novel A Journeyman to Grief, Maureen has a whole section at the beginning of the novel that she researched from an old book she found written in the 1800's entitled "Fear". In this book there is a discussion, by a scientist, of the lie detector system that was being experimented with by Cesare Lombroso in 1895. Very fascinating. and makes for an interesting part of the plot early in the story.

A word or two about the series star

I know many of the posters to my blog are Sue Thomas FBI fans and I am very pleased you all are interested in the Murdoch show now. When I chatted with Yannick about STFB, he stated to me that the show was cancelled because the broadcaster in the US, Pax, had folded up, as I understood it. But I want to say that you will be more than happy with him in the Murdoch series, he is a special actor with incredible talent. The first two rough cuts we have viewed show off his exceptional talent. He is now the lead in a series, where he has way more room to work and show off his acting skills. Much of this is because he is the lead. His character is so multi dimensional, Yannick the actor has to be able to express a whole range of emotions because of the depth of the character of Detective William Murdoch. We had no idea he was this good an actor, but in STFBI he was one of the co stars, in Murdoch he is the star/lead and he is showing us why he is so deserving of the part. I know the fans of STFBI and the Murdoch novels and the movies of the week will be riveted to the screen when he is on the camera. The comments on the set, when we were there on Saturday, were how much you keep your eyes on him when he is on the screen. It's all true when someone has that kind of charisma and talent. During lunch he told me that he has been working in the industry since he was 13 and a lot of what he does and shows on the camera comes from experience. I also think it is god given talent as well.

Okay - I uploaded a work in progress

http://www.idenfordphotography.com
Is now online. Please visit it and look around. This website is a work in progress and will be changed, improved and upgraded over the next period of time, but at least I am out there now and you can see some of my best work for now. Enjoy and I will post more on the show tomorrow, it's been a very long two days for me and I am beat. I won't go into it but I had two very long days at my fitness job and reached the end of my tether tonight. Back to more normal hours tomorrow. Check out my site.
Thanks

Children in the 1800's

This is Mathew Kane a background artist in our series. I posted a picture of him on the set from Saturday and he was quite thrilled about it so I decided to make this shot of him look a bit like an old photo from the 1800's. Not sure I did a good job, but children are part of an episode coming up for production called Child's Play which deals with child labour in a glue factory. As far as I know child labour laws were the same here in Canada as they were in England. If you came from a poor family, you had to work to help your family out. The Barnardo children were orphans whom all came from England, and emigrated to Canada. They were "distributed frpm Peterborough, Ont and were sent to rural areas. Try to imagine what it would be like to see young children slaving away 12 or more hours per day for a meagre amount of money in a hot or cold factory, going home to share a two room house with 6 or 7, sleeping in a bed with 3 or more, hearing everything anyone ever did in your home. It's hard to imagine as we live in luxury in comparison and take our every day lives for granted. Maureen writes about the Barnardo children in her early novels, Under the Dragon's tail especially, as well as Night's Child. It is sad to think about how children were treated before the child labour laws came into being. Maureen goes to the read through of this episode next week. Aside from being a murder mystery tv series, the writers are also working on showing the social ills of the day. Should be a good one. Before I sign off I noticed on this billboard from the set that my middle name, which is my actual bloodline on my father's side (Irish american), appears on one of the posters. Can you find it??

Dr. Ogden - Dr. Julia Byrne

Julia Byrne is the real life, now deceased doctor, who Maureen based the character of Julia Ogden on. There were only four women doctors in our city during the late 1800's and they primarily worked with children. Poetic license being what it is, she wanted to create a coroner who was a woman. So Julia Ogden was invented and she appeared in a letter to Detective Murdoch in Under the Dragons Tail, describing her findings of the deceased victim. One of the original writers on the tv movies of the week very early on suggested turning Ogden into a bigger character for the scripts. Voila, the character was born and now finds herself in the shoes of Helene Joy. In fact Ogden is a combination of characters from the novels, to provide Murdoch with a potential love interest after he recovers from the loss of Liza, his deceased fiancee.
Murdoch's interest in Dr Ogden gets kindled throughout the series and they develop quite an interest in eachother, as was the case with the first two movies of the week. Here's the problem, Murdoch is a Catholic and a loner amongst his colleagues because of the religious predjudice that existed toward Catholics. Julia is from the upper classes. Can they get together ever?? Even I do not know the answer to that question. But Murdoch wants a companion, and the heart can do funny things to a person when it comes to love.
Maureen recreated the character of Dr Ogden in her last three novels but she is quite different from the screen Ogden. In the novels he is in love with first Enid and then Amy Slade the school teacher. He describes Ogden as like a former nun he used to have in Catholic school when he was growing up. But she's a damn good coroner and conducts brilliiant albeit gruesome post mortem examinations on murder victims.
The show moves back to the permanent set tomorrow, Murdoch and Ogden are in the morgue all day examining victims and working together on two cases. Hmmm, love interest inside a morgue? Tom Jones got famous from a song called It's Not Unusual, perhaps that applies here eh??

One more day at "The Club"

As I had mentioned on Friday the set shifted from the Church in Hamilton over to the Tamahcac Club in Ancaster for scenes from Still Waters, the rowing episode. They worked until 11:00 at night on Friday and then went over to the Steam Museum in Hamilton for most of the day on Saturday. The interesting thing was on Saturday they were shooting lots of background stuff and short takes for 7 different episodes. The Police station and all that street action will be in most of the episodes. My good friend and superb set photographer Steve Wilkie, whose shot of Stephen McCarthy from Except The Dying appears in that same post, was on the set on Saturday. I was so envious that he could be there with all his gear and shoot the most marvelous photo of Helen Joy in her evening wear. On Friday, she (Dr Ogden) was at the "club" for an event with the upper upper crowd and Murdoch shows up to question some members of the rowing team who are at this event. Now Dr Ogden moves in better circles than a lowly Catholic Detective, who can hardly get in the door inspite of the fact that he is a police officer doing his duty. So Dr Ogden helps out. Lots of class tension going on. But regardless, Helene was wearing this gorgeous floral full length frock replete with a hat and period shoes. So Steve took shots of her on Saturday wearing the same outfit, which was for future publicity. Then Helene doffed the whole thing and joined Yannick, Maureen and I for lunch, as well as the actress who plays a widow in episode 104, and whose name I have forgotten. All confused? Seven different episodes got short takes on Saturday so all of us were confused as to what was what. It will all come out in the editorial wash down the road. Tamahaac club tomorrow, then back to the Morgue on Tuesday. More later

Mark you calendar's - two appearances you might want to know about

Sponspored by Heritage Toronto will be Maureen's very popular (about 150 people turn up for this) and probably this year an even more popular walk through WIlliam Murdoch's life. Who knows? perhaps someone from the show will turn up.

Murdoch’s Toronto: Fact Into Fiction



Sunday, September 16 – 1:30 PM

Follow in the footsteps of detective William Murdoch, hero of Maureen Jennings' historical mystery series. Through the windows of imagination, this walk will take you into the world of 1890s Toronto; how society functioned; its attitudes, religious strife and daily concerns.

Leader: Maureen Jennings

Start point: Jarvis Street Baptist Church, NE corner of Jarvis and Gerrard Streets

Finish point: Dominion Brewery, Queen St. E and Sumach St.

Length: Approx. 2 hours

Focus: Historical

Difficulty: Average walk on sidewalks

Second event is in two places: Word on the Street in Toronto, September 30th at 11 am followed by Word on the Street Kitchener, same day September 30th at 3:00 pm.

I would love to meet any of you at the Heritage walk and you can bet there will be lots of Murdoch discussion that day as well as Maureen autographs books at the end where we have a drink at the Old Dominion Tavern on Queen Street. You really re-live Victoriana in Toronto 1890's on this walk

Photo issues and yesterdays set

I'd like everyone to know who reads this blog that I am being as creative as I can possibly be, regarding the posting of photos from the film set and the actors. I cannot take shots of the leads and post them here, I am not a member of the union and so therefore when I am on the set with Maureen, I am a guest. There are strict rules about the taking of photos and I must respect those rules. I know we would all love me to put tons of shots of Yannick here and the action on the set, what I have done in previous posts is about it for that until the powers that be let me have some official stuff which I will put up on Maureen's site. I will tell you stories of our experiences and embellish them with photos when I can. I hope you all understand as I want to give you the stories about the evolution of this show which Maureen and I are so very happy with.
You can see the Police station here and a couple of the horse and carriage's that were used on the set yesteday. The two boys are so cute I had to have their photo. There is an episode coming up with young children working in a factory, it's called Child's Play and Maureen really likes that script.
The rest of these shots are from various aspects of the street scenes around the Police Station and the Morgue.
Another shot is of another background artist who was trying to do up her vest for me. Most of the women had to to wear corsets and the heat was pretty steady yesterday so if you caught my earlier post about the extras who were on the set for the scenes in the church, it was the same yesterday. Women and men all dressed up in wool clothing, sitting around waiting to do their scenes. Yannick had to ride his bike into the police station and then away from the police station a number of times with all the carriages rolling down the street and the extras running around to make it appear as an authentic street scene. Yannick is an expert cyclist so the cycling scenes really suit him and he rides the back rather fast with lots of energy dodging all the carriages and people. If you enlarge the photo of the directors chair, there is an actor in the top right corner in a vest off in the distance. Wonder who eh?

I'm soooo tired . . . . weekend workers

I have shots from the set which I will post tomorrow. They were working today because they had a long weekend off two weeks ago, and the show goes on a holiday week beginning August 6th. The Steam Museum set is amazing and Maureen and I had lunch with Yannick and Helene today. We told them how much we loved what we have seen so far and how much we loved Yannick's portrayal of Murdoch. It is all about depth and how an actor can communicate that depth of feeling in his performance. It's all there folks. I know Yannick really appreciates our support and Maureen and I are deeply moved by what he is doing with the character. I said to him that I felt only an actor who was in touch with his own sense of feeling for the part he is playing who can truly communicate the loss he feels around Liza, his fiancee he lost to typhoid. This show has that depth of feeling going for it big time and it is thanks to our wonderful lead. More tomorrow.

The Morning After - we're off to The Steam Museum

We're in love . . . . . . with our new Murdoch, with our director, with our producer. We've waited to see this interpretation of Maureen's novels and Let Loose the Dogs is a tour de force of both emotion and storytelling. The acting overall is superb and the action at the beginning of Let Loose the Dogs where there is a ratting match is one of the best pieces of television I've seen that is period. We are going off to the Steam Museum today in Hamilton where they will be shooting outside the morgue and the police station. We were there on the set of Under the Dragons Tail and here is a shot I did 3 years ago in the fall. If they let me I will take a shot today.

Maureen gets the cuts - Is the first cut the deepest??

The answer is . . . . . . . Let Loose The Dogs!!!
We're so happy with the adaptation, they have done such a wonderful job. If you have read the novel you will know how powerful the story is of Murdoch and his father. The episode captures the depth of Murdoch's life so brilliantly and all thanks to our lead who is just fabulous. Murdoch lives in Yannick's portrayal, just so wonderful.

I Am Waiting, We Are Waiting, all year all year.

Just got a call from the production office and they are delivering to us tonight . . . . . . . . . the first two episodes that were filmed and now edited into a rough cut. This is a version of the episodes that do not have credits nor finished music, but the story has been edited into an episode. The final layer of music and credits take place later on. But these will be episodes that are basically finished.
Looking forward to seeing them and how they look. Wanna come over???? Heh Heh. You gotta wait til next year sorry.

Rowing and murder 1895

The Tamahaac club in Ancaster (Hamilton area) and its surroundings are the set today for an episode that is entitled Still Waters. The story deals with the death of a member of the rowing team who are training for the Olympic games and Murdoch has to investigate some of the members from the posh club. Both rowing and the Olympics have a long history and as you might know the first modern Olympics were held in Athens 1896. So the whole Murdoch crew leaves the Church and heads over to the "Club" for a different episode. I did mention in a prior post that they block shoot two episodes at a time over a three week period. Yesterday they were doing one episode, today another, and sometimes there are scenes from both shot in one day. Confusing for the actors? Not really as they are trained to do the scenes that are right in front of them. The director helps as well. Pictured here (Image by Steve Wilkie courtesy Shaftesbury Films) as well is our good friend Stephen McCarthy who in this photo he was Dr Rhodes in Except the Dying. If you have seen the movie or looked at a bit of it on the internet site I listed below, you can see what an incredible actor he is. Well, he has been cast to play another character in the series and he is on the set today. Great to have Stephen back in the show.

One of my best photos - you agree???

Guba internet broadcast of the Murdoch movies

The first two movies of the week are available on GUBA internet broadcast for viewing. They are excellent sound and high resolution. I believe you can view the first half free and then pay a small fee for the balance but maybe the whole thing, not sure. Poor Tom is Cold can viewed at this link which you can copy and paste.

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000825609

Except the Dying can be viewed here
http://www.guba.com/watch/2000825294

These first two movies of the week set up the series that is being produced at this moment. This is the original cast with Peter Outerbridge as Murdoch, Keeley Hawes as Dr Ogden, Colm Meaney as Brackenreid.
It will be interesting to see the new series and how the new cast takes the series to the next level. Let me know what you think.

The show goes in and on even in the rain

Today they are shooting for the second day at St Paul's Presbertyrian Church on Queen St in Hamilton. It was pouring with rain this morning. The good thing is that there were a lot of exterior shots yesterday, It's all interior stuff today with most of the main actors for this episode, Till Death Do Us Part, but no background actors today, they did all that yesterday in that heat we had. Look at this church. It is spectacular.
I know how I waxed on about how great the interior sets are, but the exterior sets are also just as spectacular thanks to the hard work of the location scout and the director
Here's a little write up about the Church from a newspaper article that appeared on the web. St Paul's was designed by William Thomas (1799-1860) in 1854. Thomas received his architectural training in England and worked in Birmingham and Leamington Spa (Warwickshire) before moving to Toronto in 1843. There, he soon established a successful practice which became renowned for its church designs.

Our trip - we're still jet lagged

Maybe this is an age thing with the human body, I like to think I am a very fit 55 year old, but we are stll feeling the jet lag and adjusting back to every day life. I have been back at work for the past two days and by evg time I am hit with big fatigue. I love going over to England but it always seem there is a price to pay with international travel and it is not just in dollars. On Sunday morning Maureen and I went for a coffee and we were going to go for a walk from Starbucks in Forest Hill, but it was clear that I needed to walk home and she needed to take the dogs for a walk. 15 hours of travel the day before created some fatigue related discussion so I decided I needed to walk home at the point. So we're doing better now that it is Thursday, but on my brisk walk home from the coffee shop, while I was ranting at the world to myself, I took this picture of Casa Loma. I really love this shot and I took it on my Canon point and shoot. Enjoy, it and tell me even with a great deal of fun and the excitement of a tv series, that life should be perfect eh???????????? I think beauty really lies in the flaws, not what is perfect. When you look back on what you love, or who you love, you probably see a lot of flaws, but the whole picture is emotionally gratifying.
Make sure you click on the photos and enlarge them, you can see Birmingham quite clearly from the airlplane window. Both shots blow up quite a bit.
Here is the link for Casa Loma, quite interesting Here is the link and the history
http://www.casaloma.org/

Block three starts today

The show wrapped up on two episodes yesterday. They spent three days at the Scottish Rite on Queen St in Hamilton which was also the site for the tv interview. Today they kick off a whole new set of episodes, at St Paul's Church on James Street in Hamilton, where they will be filming for the next couple of days. There are 25 background extras in today's scenes which take place outside and inside a church. This episode deals with the death of a Presbetyrian minister. Still Waters deals with the death of a member of the Rowing team, but I am not sure when they will start on Still Waters.
If you were an extra in today's shoot, you would have had to get yourself over to the permanent set and offices on Eastern Ave by 5:00 am this morning, and you would be shuttled to something called background holding, which is usually not air conditioned, dressed into your period clothing, and you wait around until you were called to do you scenes. This would give you an opportunity to experience how "The Victorians" would deal with how they dressed and the heat. They usually wore wool clothing in both summer and winter. The backgorund actors have their own director, and they are not allowed to be directed by the lead director. So it becomes a sort of directorial team that work together when there are lots of extras.
Maureen has recieved the pilot episode "The Glass Ceiling" to read and review, as well as "Child's Play" which are episodes that go into prep today. The first drafts are always meant for the director so that he can start casting.
The thing is, that Yannick is on the set everyday and usually he is picked up around very early in the morning. He is the only actor in the series on the set everyday. To be a lead in a series you have to be fit and someone who can go home at night, read over your lines for the next day, and be ready to go first thing the next morning. He is given something called "sides" which are his lines and the other actors lines for that particular day. Any doubts as to how hard actors work??? I'll see how my days go over the next couple of days, but it is looking more like Monday when I go back to the film set.

The Big Big announcement today!!!!! Yipeeeeee!!!

Cameras rolling on Shaftesbury Films' The Murdoch Mysteries, A New one-hour drama series for Bravo!

Yannick Bisson (Sue Thomas F.B.Eye) stars as Detective William Murdoch
Based on the critically-acclaimed mystery novels by Maureen Jennings

TORONTO, July 17 /CNW/ - Shaftesbury Films (ReGenesis) is pleased to announce that production has begun on The Murdoch Mysteries, a one-hour dramaseries based on Maureen Jennings's acclaimed mystery novels and a wheel of TV
movies produced by Shaftesbury. Filming of the 13 one-hour episodes began June 11 and runs until October 17, 2007 in Toronto and Hamilton. The series will air in 2008 on Bravo!.
"The response to the first three Detective Murdoch movies in Canada and around the world has been excellent. With this series, we're taking the brand to the next level by injecting a dose of humour, and giving it an edgier, more contemporary feel," says Christina Jennings, Chairman of Shaftesbury Films. She adds: "Bravo! has been a wonderful partner in the Murdoch franchise and we are delighted to be working with them again."
Set in 1895 Toronto, The Murdoch Mysteries explores the intriguing world of William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson, Sue Thomas F.B. Eye), a handsome young detective using radical forensic techniques, like fingerprinting and trace
evidence, to solve some of the city's most gruesome murders. Though his unconventional approach elicits ridicule from fellow officers and scepticism from his boss, Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig, Coronation Street), Murdoch is often the only one who can crack the case.
Murdoch's small circle of confidantes includes pathologist Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy, Durham County), a staunch ally who shares the detective's fascination with forensic science, and Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris, Hatching, Matching and Dispatching), Murdoch's eager but inexperienced right-hand man. Both are valuable allies who help Murdoch solve his varied
cases and traverse the many stratums of Victorian society.
The Murdoch Mysteries is executive produced by Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie for Shaftesbury Films (ReGenesis). Producers are Cal Coons (Blue Murder), Peter Meyboom (The Newsroom) and Laura Harbin for Shaftesbury Films.
Series directors are Don McBrearty (Terry), Shawn Alex Thompson (Billable Hours) and Farhad Mann (Painkiller Jane); director of photography is David Perrault (The Eleventh Hour); and production designer is Sandra Kybartas
(ReGenesis).
The Murdoch Mysteries is developed and produced by Shaftesbury Films, produced in association with Bravo!, Granada International and UKTV, and with the assistance of the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Television Fund.


Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy) review a new forensic instrument in Shaftesbury Films' The Murdoch Mysteries. (CNW Group/Shaftesbury Films Inc.)

There will be more - The gist of the interview

The gist of the interview was about the show which they referred to as a sort of turn of the century CSI with a Detective who has unusual skills. The piece was mostly an interview of Yannick and asking him about the series which he referred to as more than just a point the gun and make an arrest experience as an actor, he felt the show is challenging him to develop the character, and that was different than what he had done in the past. He showed off his suit which both the interviewer and Yannick noted was three layers of wool. He mentioned that at the end of the shooting day he had to really hydrate with water. I was impressed with this as he did not say kick back and have a few beers, he said lots of water. Yannick is an athlete so he comes accross as a very healthy person who looks after himself.He felt the character of Murdoch was complex.
They showed a teeny clip of one scene from afar so you did not really get to see much. Then they asked him and Peter Meyboom the show producer about Hamilton, and they both waxed on about how great Hamilton was as a city because of the many locations which still have Victorian building preserved. And they both mentioned how much they love the people from the area and how welcoming they have been.
Then the interviewer went on to tell the viewers that the show will be in the Hamilton area all summer and to look out for the stars.
That was basically it but it was a long piece and you got a real sense of the excitement.

http://www.canada.com/chtv/hamilton/index.html

There is a huge interview that ran tonight on CHCH TV Hamilton with Yannick and it's fabulous. You might be able to find it on the above link, it ran tonight about 6:40 ish
Let me know if you can find it on the web. I think it repeats at 11 tonight.

Later this week for me - sorry gang

If you notice two things here, The location is the Scottish Rite in Hamilton Ont. It is a large old Victorian building with a small theatre within it. Tomorrow's scenes as noted below are in the Dressing/MU room. There is no way with the number of actors involved that I will be able to attend the set tomorrow. Maureen and I will go over to the set later this coming week when they switch back to Toronto for Still Waters, some of which takes place outdoors on Toronto Island. It is no fun going into a small crowded set and we get into everybody's hair so to speak. So be patient, I will go back sometime this week and promise new shots and an update. I will let you know about the CHCH interview in Hamilton which I think will appear on their website. And I should have more news anyway tomorrow. Congrats to Marielynnette for scooping that last copy signed by Yannick and Maureen

Some of you might be interested in this autographed book

Read closely as this is for sale, I vouch for this bookseller:
Book Details

A Journeyman to Grief,
Jennings, Maureen



[30 Day Returns Policy]
Bookseller:
ALMARK & CO. - Booksellers, ABAC, ILAB
email almark-co@rogers.com
(Thornhill,, ON, Canada) Book Price:
US$ 35.00
905-764-2665
About the Book Bookseller & Payment Information
Description: FIRST EDITION, Signed by the Author and stamped 'SOLD' [which Jennings only does on the first day of a book launch] on the Title Page, Also signed by actor "Yannick Bisson" [recently cast to play Detective Murdoch] on the Title Page, postcard of Susan Cox Green (1851-1954) Signed on the reverse by her great great grandson laid in, Murdoch's investigation takes him into the small black community in turn-of-the-Nineteenth-Century Toronto, 9/10 in illustrated wrappers as issued, no hardcover edition iss ued, a very fine unread copy, wonderful association copy. Bookseller Inventory # MYSJennM7

We're home safe and sound

Got delayed for 3 hours, finally we made it home travel weary as hell. Very exciting day coming up on Monday on the set and another tv interview in the Hamilton area on CHCH. I'll give you more details tomorrow as I will be going out to the set on Monday.
Gotta rest and re enter.
Cheers

When I see you again

Ths is our last day in Ludlow and it is exactly as it started, raining like hell. Maureen is over on her computer at this moment writing to the producer regarding the script problems she has with what is actually an excellent story. The script needs minor tweaks. It is called Still Waters and deals with the death of an oarsman who was involved with and eight man rowing team training for the Olympics 1896. Some of the episode will be filmed at the Hamilton Rowing club and some of it over on Toronto Island. We plan to go to the set that day they shoot on the island. I'll keep you posted in case anyone wants to take a Ferry ride over.
In the meantime a few of these are shots of Ludlow Castle which I took when the sun appeared yesterday. I also climbed the church tower, all 600 stepsworth, to shoot the town, cloudy as it was. We were going to Shrewsbury today but because of the weather, we are laying low. Our flight is at 1:00 tomorrow and then we have the joy of the time change again. I did my last run around today and did not get to see all the friends I made. They stayed in because of the rain. I thought the English were used to it and had that stiff upper lip?????? What's a little rain eh???

Queen Anne revisited

This is a chimney from the Queen Anne era so says the owner of this home. We had a laid back day yesterday with not too much touring around. On Sunday we went to a friends house in Church Stretton and I shot her daughter and child using some of my flash equipment. The other shot is of Sam at the estate on Saturday. Tonight I'm off to see a French film based on a Harlen Coben novel Tell No One.
I hope they made out okay yesterday on the set, it was very hot and they had a lot of pages to shoot. Tomorrow they do the boxing scenes at Goodheram and Worts down in the Dilstillery District in Toronto. If you are in the area, they will be inside all day shooting a bare knuckle boxing match circa late 1890's. I doubt you would see much but there will we lots of trucks and trailers fuill of actors and extras. IF you live in Toronto, go down and check it out, they start at 7:30 am. Let us know if any of you make it over.
Cheers

Every Duke and Earl and poshy types lived here

We had a nice sunny day on Saturday so we drove over to Barrington Hall and had the tour of an old English family home which is now part of the National Trust. So sad was the story of the sons who died in the various wars over the years. Such a waste of life and it makes you hate war when you hear about how tragedy strikes all families who have sons, now sons and daughers, at risk. Maureen was doing lots of research as the staff were so helpful and there was a woman in the stables teaching all about riding side saddle and how it was done in the late 1800's.
I had my lighting equipment there and shot some photos outside of friends. You can see how I lit John, and managed to keep the background lit as well. He was leaning so I straightened him out and thus it made the background slanted. After I had done that a number of people at the Hall seem to catch wind of our tv series as I was talking it up and Maureen was doing research. So there was a bit of a buzz there when we left. I have some shots a the pet peacocks which I will post tomorrow.
Read Sue Baldaro's note re the interview for CBC. I posted it below and looks like this week. But she promised to write me and let me know.