Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Gonna take a blog hiatus til we get back from NYC. We are on our way there Friday and and will return on the 1st. Lots of news coming up I am sure.
Just want to say THANK YOU to all of you who write and respond to the blog and hope we can continue our mutual admiration society in 2008. It means a lot to me and to Maureen that there are such thoughtful people out there like the many who write responses and read this blog.
Blessing on all your houses and prosperity and happiness for you in 2008.
Love from Iden and Maureen
God Bless

Thank Lisbeth for this from UKTV

Just found this on the UKTV site
http://uktv.co.uk/press/index.cfm?uktv=programmeHighlights.item&aid=568714

Brand new and exclusive – Murdoch Mysteries set to be the new Sherlock Holmes.
Based on the award-winning novels by Maureen Jennings, Murdoch Mysteries is a brand-new UKTV Drama co-produced, 13-part detective series...that features the adventures of dedicated and shrewd Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson).

Mixing intuitive deduction and forensic techniques, Murdoch’s crime solving is set on the streets of atmospheric, Victorian Toronto. Spending hours researching her books, Jennings explains that her inspiration for the character of Murdoch was triggered by an old photograph.

“I knew I wanted to write a police procedural,” she told us, “and I found an old photograph and I thought… ‘that’s him’. I was researching pretty steadily for two years, but it was fun.” Jennings is also a psychotherapist, a profession that came in handy when creating personalities an audience could empathise with. “With bad people, there’s a reason they’re that way,” she says. “A murderer is formed, and it was very important to give the villain’s dimension. In all of the books I try to create a believable villain.”

Murdoch Mysteries is not just about believable villains – Victorian Toronto itself is lovingly recreated, and the gas lamps, worn cobblestones, cosy inns and decadent parlours are brought to life. Toronto, always viewed as a welcoming place, was, in Victorian times, home to thousands of prostitutes, child beggars and hardened criminals who supported gambling and opium dens.

Set in this atmospheric world, the crimes Murdoch has to solve are grisly, complicated and edge-of-your-seat stuff.


Murdoch Mysteries *UK Premiere*
Tuesdays, 9pm (from Tuesday 19th Feb)
Take the shrewd deduction of Sherlock Holmes and mix it with a forensic attention to detail that would shame any character from CSI, and what have you got? A detective named William Murdoch – a man driven by grief to hunt down murderers using pioneering forensic techniques in Victorian Toronto.

Brand new and exclusive to UKTV Drama, Murdoch Mysteries is a 13-part detective series and a co-production between UKTV Drama, Granada Television and Shaftesbury Films. In the best traditions of all the classic detective series down the ages, Murdoch Mysteries has a dashing, flawed genius at its heart.

Based on the award-winning novels by Maureen Jennings, Murdoch Mysteries features the adventures of Detective William Murdoch, a forward-thinking crime solver who uses progressive techniques – such as finger printing (or finger marks as he calls them) - to successfully solve cases and apprehend murderers.

Continually at odds with his superiors over his belief in modern science to help his work, he’s driven in his work by the agonising search to find the murderer of his fiancée, Liza. Aided in his work by Pathologist Dr Julia Ogden and his grumpy superior, Inspector Brackenreid, Murdoch solves grisly murders against a backdrop of stunning Victorian period detail. The harshness of Victorian life on the dark and smoky streets of Toronto is contrasted with the civilised world hiding behind the drawing room curtains of the wealthy and elite.

But, as Murdoch soon finds out, this class divide doesn’t separate good from evil, and he encounters crimes committed by those from both sides of this divide.

In one episode, Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle comes to Toronto to give a lecture on spiritualism and the paranormal. When a spirit medium correctly pinpoints the location of a dead body, it’s down to Murdoch and Doyle – who, fresh from his Sherlock Holmes creations, asks to shadow Murdoch on the case – to sift fact from fiction.

Murdoch and Doyle make an unlikely crime-solving pair, but as Murdoch gets deeper into the case, his forensic, scientific methods almost give way to more circumstantial techniques – memories of the death of his beloved fiancée start to surface.

In another episode, Murdoch and Brackenreid are on the trail of a murderer, after a dead body falls onto the stage at the local Shakespearean theatre. Brackenreid – a huge fan of the Bard from his formative years in England – refuses to believe that the actors have anything to with the crime. But Murdoch, thanks to his trademark forensic techniques, soon uncovers a macabre tale of not one, but two murders and a theatre that holds a secret or two.

Set in a world where the art of forensic investigation was seen as a little bit crazy, Murdoch Mysteries is to join the list of classic TV detective series, thanks to its arresting mix of Victorian period detail and exciting crime-solving.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Looks like CITY TV will have some sort of website up for the series in the new year. I will let you know as soon as I know.
Not much more to tell you, Maureen and I have still not seen three episodes. We have seen 10. The rough cuts. So I am hoping we still get to see Bad Medicine, The Belly Speaker, and The Annoying Red Planet. But all the episodes are having the finishing touches put on them. They are hard at work getting ready for the airing of our show.
In the meantime another UK publisher has expressed interest in reading the books so, perhaps by the time the show airs in the UK, we may have a publisher for the work. My fingers are crossed as this would be terrific. But it is interest at the moment, no offer has been tabled just yet.
Here are some more shots from my weekend work.

Okay all you UK Murdoch Fans

Looks like the show will start airing on UKTV around Feb 19th. Will post more definite times etc once I know but we heard all this today.
I tweaked this photo a bit more and put in her green eyes which are not quite this green but are green for sure up close

Exhausted

I shot 800 photographs on Saturday with three models and one lighting set up. I am happy with the results and will delve into organizing all these photos today.
Maureen is doing the final final edit on K, this is the last chance she has to correct. The novel came in at 357 pages.
The working title of the television show that is in development for the Christine series is "No Suspect" featuring forensic profiler Christine Morris.
By the way we got blasted with 30 centimeters of snow here yesterday but the city seems to be digging out just fine. More



later.

Maureen cleared for Booklovers Ball!!

So thrilled, the doctors gave Maureen the green light to attend this years Booklovers ball as one of the guest authors.
She declined at first because of her hip replacement surgery scheduled for the beginning of January but today the doctors said she would be fine to go and we got in touch with the organizer Julie Flynn who is just thrilled that she can make it now.
Maureen is delighted and looks forward to the event as the tv series will have aired for two weeks by the time the Ball is on.

link here for the details or if you want to go. You can purchase a ticket to sit with her

http://www.bookloversball.ca/

Check this out, I think it amazing

http://www.idenfordphotography.com/Rivoli/

I have a new web gallery

If you link to the first page of my website (http://www.idenfordphotography.com) I have a link on the main page that states "check out my latest gallery". Many of you have seen these shots but the collection is my end of term submission for a grade.
I am also shooting this weekend. Three younger adults who will all be made to look very good by me. So I will post samples here once I have done them all.
I also have to hand in my final web page design for class. That is the one I have put up on Maureen's site.
I will not be doing much more in school with web design as I am a photographer. But I will carry on learning how to build a Flash website on my own. For now the web pages work for us that I have created.
It might be quiet until January when the publicity machine gets into full throttle. Christina Jennings just got back from LA after meeting with network executives for some of their shows including Murdoch. I wrote her a note asking if she had any news, but I was met with no reply which usually means she has nothing to tell me.
They do not tell me anything at all anymore until it is concrete news because they know it gets put up here. Iden's blog has got a reputation amongst the folks at Shaftesbury Films so if they are reading this post, "I know you read my blog!!! he he he heh". So no news on that front unfortunately for now.

News and Web Gallery for you

Oh, web page design is so exasperating but you learn by error more than success. If you go to the "news and events" page, I just put up the gallery for the Wrap party which for some reason did not load before so I could not include it. But I figured it out!!!
Anyway, there are a couple of shots on it that you have not seen yet. Go to the news page on Maureen's site and click on the photo where she is standing by the white board. The gallery opens up. Hard to believe we went off to Florida two days later and had this challenges we faces there after all this excitement.
Shaftesbury Films in the person of Julie Lacey took us out for breakfast today and we feasted on Eggs Benedict. We had a wonderful time and we are taking her in the spring of 2008 to see the two part Nicholas Nickleby which is being produced in it's 8 hour entirety at The Royal Alex theatre. Good to do this in two parts for sure.
Anyway, Shaftesbury is in full development now on the Christine series and the pilot will be written soon as it is down to two writers they are considering and who have both read the novel. The pilot will be the beginning of a 13 episode series, which is how the show will be marketed. This is about as exciting for us as when Murdoch was first bought by Shaftesbury.
We love the character and think she is very unusual and distinct.
I'll keep you posted on this once there is more news. We did get into an interesting discussion on who could play the lead and we all had a consensus on a Canadian actress who you all know and was in a terrific tv series with another Canadian actor. Cannot say more as it is all speculation at this point but there is a lot of hope in this idea!!
Lastly today Maureen was invited to the very prestigous Booklovers Ball on January 31 2008. This is a fundraiser for the Toronto Public Library where you buy a ticket to sit with an author and get to chat with them about their novels.
Maureen is having her hip surgery on Jan 9 so she it is unfortunate that she cannot accept this year.
More later

Citytv Premieres "Murdoch Mysteries" Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

A New Weekly Dramatic Series Starring Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch Based on the Critically Acclaimed Mystery Novels by Maureen Jennings

Also Available in Toronto on Citytv HD (Rogers Channel 519)

TORONTO, Dec. 7 /CNW/ - Citytv will premiere "Murdoch Mysteries", a new one-hour weekly dramatic series based on Maureen Jennings' critically-acclaimed mystery novels, Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008, on Citytv stations across Canada. The series stars Yannick Bisson (Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye) as Detective William Murdoch.


Broadcast Schedule as follows:

Citytv Toronto Tuesday, January 22nd - 8:00pm ET
(repeats Saturdays at 8:00pm)
Citytv Winnipeg Sunday, January 27th - 8:00pm CT
Citytv Calgary Monday, January 21st - 8:00pm MT
(repeats Saturdays at 8:00pm)
Citytv Edmonton Monday, January 21st - 8:00pm MT
(repeats Saturdays at 8:00pm)
Citytv Vancouver Tuesday, January 22nd- 8:00pm PT
(repeats Saturdays at 8:00pm)
>>

Set in 1895 Toronto, "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 skepticism 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 Dr. JuliaOgden (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.
"Murdoch Mysteries" is produced and developed by Shaftesbury Films in association with Citytv, a division of Rogers Media Inc., 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.
Don't miss the premiere of "Murdoch Mysteries" Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008, on Citytv stations across Canada. "Murdoch Mysteries" will be video described in all markets. For further information on Citytv and "Murdoch Mysteries", please visit
www.citytv.com.

Citytv, with stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, broadcasts intensely-local, urban-oriented, culturally-diverse television in its own unique, interactive style. With its strong local voice, Citytv offers a distinct alternative to other conventional television offerings. Its instantly recognizable 'look' and 'sound' are the product of refreshingly different on-air personalities, unique program formats and high television style. Citytv is a division of Rogers Media Inc., a division of
Rogers Communications Inc.

Broadcast dates soon!!!

We should know within the next week when the series will be airing. I will post it here as soon as I know.
I took a tour of the mixing studio today where they do all the ADR and mix the soundtrack, and lay in all the VFX.
Yannick was there last week doing ADR (voice over) for a few episodes.
I was incerdibly impressed. There are so many studios for different aspects of movies or tv series or music. The Rolling Stones recorded one of their albums at this studio many years ago.
One of the theatres had the engineer mixing the final sound for Power. This is the episode with the electrical stuff and Nicholas Tesla.
All so exciting.
In the meantime, Maureen goes for her pre op meeting next Friday for her hip replacement surgery on the 9th of January.
Tomorrow the Toronto Star is coming to the house to do a feature article on Maureen, which we hope will appear before Christmas.
And also she is going over the final copy edit on K Handshape.
More tomorrow

my photos made the press kit

I've heard from Shaftesbury Films today and their press kit is being put together for the series. They asked if they could use one of these two photos which show Maureen with both Don the director of four episodes, and Alex who worked on hair and costumes. So I was thrilled about that and of course happily obiged their request.







In the meantime Maureen and I went to see and hear the Swedish Crime author Henning Mankell last night. If you have not read his Wallender books, go out and try one. They are just terrific. It was huge crowd and I brought 7 first editions that I have collected over the years. So I made a bee line for the signing line at the end of his presentation, and he was quickly mobbed. Lucky for me he signed all my books after one of the handlers started to hassle me about too many books. I think some people probably waited at least an hour after I left.
I was happy that I got my books signed after all these years. He does not tour much, and like John LeCarre, is a word renowned writer.
Here is another piece by my friend Anthony who does custom jewelry and that I used on the models. This is a box for stuff.
Enjoy

The writers came, drank, chatted, and . . . . .

Well, we so missed Cal Coons one of our executive producers and the head of the writing team for the Murdoch Mysteries TV series. Cal is in the middle of renovating his new home in Peterborough Ontario and he also had some family stuff to deal with.
But we did have Derek, Paul and his wife Jackie, and the lovely Alex all of whom along with Cal, wrote most of the episodes for season one. In fact if you go back on this blog you can see a photo I took of them back at the beginning of production.
We had a great time as we served them wine, tea, sandwiches cakes and coffee.
They are on hiatus from work at the moment as they wait now to find out when they will be needed for season two. Some are working on other projects at the moment, but I had the impression that the pressure of a 13 week television series, which gets filmed over 16 weeks, plus all the months of advance planning and writing of outlines and first drafts, is something they all need a rest from.
Season two will be a bit easier but not much, as they have a track to run on so to speak.
I know they would like to bring in another female character for next season and we are hoping Ettie will make an appearance again in the show. She would be good as Murdoch's link to the underworld, and she was originally planned for season one, but the way the stories turned out, she was not required. So here is hoping Ettie will be back.
I also found out that the producers and broadcaster have not yet settled on the order of the episodes as of yet.
Our wish and hope is that they start with "Glass Ceiling" which was written by Cal, and really re-introduces Murdoch to the tv audience. This episode was written as the original pilot episode for the series, so as soon as I know the order, I will let you all know.
I can tell you one thing, they are all proud of their work and of being part of season one. They have done a great job, and we are now just weeks away from having the show air in Canada. I will post air dated as soon as I know.
Hats off to the writers, they are terrific and we love their work.

Writers high tea

Some of the writers from the series are coming for a high tea this afternoon. We have had horrible weather, but things are clearing up nicely at the moment. So it will be interesting chat and talk this afternoon and if I get any good news from the writers, I'll let you know.
We went to a fundraiser for the Orangeville theatre last night and Maureen donated two signed paperbacks which had a dozen bids on them and sold for $50. Given the retail price on them are 9.99 each that was pretty good.
Some of the auction items sold over $1500. One of the items was to have Louise Peitre and her husband write a song for you. Louise was the star of Mama Mia up here in Toronto for 5 years and she is the most marvelous performer.
I have some shots of Maureen and Louse and John, and of me and Louise as well.
We got home just as it started snowing so this morning was when we had to shovel.
Okay I will give you any updates I get. later.

a little update

Things a bit quiet at the mo, perhaps that is good considering the intensity of the past month. We have heard back from the UK publisher who are conducting research into sales potential for Maureen's series, so that thread is still alive and I hope to know something more concrete within the next couple of weeks.
Maureen has started writing White Poppies, her new WW2 novel (White Poppies is the working title) that is set near an internment camp during 1941. This will be a multi layered book featuring a police officer who is modeled in appearance after Tom Craig, the actor who stars as Brackenreid. Tom was rather thrilled over the summer when Maureen told him that her next character was going to be a lot like him. He said he had never had anybody do that before. Should be interesting because the character in the novel, (DS Tom Holland) is nothing like Brackenreid, and is in interesting and complex man who has two children in the story.
I am planning my next big photo shoot which is two weeks from today.
More later