UNDERKNOWN STUDIOS LAUNCHES
From C21: Creators of social media phenomenon What If launch TV arm in Cannes
The creators of What If are launching a TV arm of their company Underknown at Mipcom next week, with a slate led by the digital science show that has more than 65 million followers across social media. The Canadian digital-first media company will be making its TV production debut as Underknown Studios at the Cannes market.
Partnering with Carl Hall's UK sales house West One International, Underknown aims to bring a new generation of factual entertainment audiences to broadcasters and platforms via its digital franchises and brands.
At Mipcom, Underknown Studios will showcase its factual web series brands, which regularly add more than 400 million watch minutes each month, as reworked and reformatted TV shows as the company expands its online offering into longform programming.
The firm's programming slate is led by What If, which asks hypothetical questions that get audiences talking around the world. It is currently in production on 52 one-hour episodes of the show.
Underknown Studios is also creating original TV content, the first example being History in Living Colour (6x60'), in which visual historian Jordan Lloyd uncovers the fascinating unknown stories behind history's most incredible photographs. West One International will raise finance and distribute Underknown Studios' content globally. The development slate has been created by Connor Boals (formerly of CNN's Great Big Story) and Cameron Macdonald (previously of Frantic Films).
West One MD Hall is joining the Underknown Studios team as a consultant, as are TV industry veteran Ken MacDonald (ex-Discovery Canada) and Melissa Campbell (of Contentum).
Save Your Day's A Simple Path and Paradise Kitchen: Bali Featured
From Realscreen MIP Shopper’s Guide Part One: Paradise Kitchen: Bali (10 x 22 min.), coproduced by Save Your Day Films, sees Kynd Food co-founder Lauren Camilleri exploring the titular region’s food, culture and people……..Other MIPCOM titles include the third season of skateboarding series A Simple Path (10 x 22 min.)….
Arcadia's Ghost Ships and Vikings: America Quest Among Top MIP Market Picks
Ariel Tweto in Runner's World!
Read Ariel’s article, “Unstoppable Voices: I’ve Run Every Day for 21 Years” by clicking here.
Toronto Guardian Interview with Cara Connors
Canadian comic Cara Connors now lives in L.A. but the comedian is heading home this weekend as a part of her first North American tour which includes a show at Comedy Bar with Toronto’s own Natalie Norman opening. We got the chance to chat with Cara prior to the show to find out more about her. Click here for more.
Four Years
Celebrating four years in operation, with two of those years being in the pandemic is strange. While business is booming, there are some folks in the struggle of the lasting effects of Covid – and in myriad ways. So, to keep it simple, I’d like to thank all the wonderful partners of my clients who made it a successful 2021 – 2022: 1895 Films, ADM Media, Blue Ant Media, Cineflix, Corus, Discovery, Fox, Great Pacific Media, HGTV, History, Hulu, Loose World, MacGillivray Freeman Films, Magical Elves, Magnolia, Netflix, North Maple Productions, Outside, Parabolic, Pond5, Rabbit’s Foot, RIVR, Sharp Entertainment, Shatner Universe, Short Street Media, Six West, Snap, Switchblade, and WETV. I look forward to seeing everyone again very soon.
Red Arrow Industries' First Timers Club!!
From the Tampa Bay Times - When Amina Stevens chose her career, the Tampa native decided to follow the footsteps of several family members and become a high school English teacher.
She loved helping her students, but early on she knew that job wasn’t quite right. As she thought more about the house hunting shows she grew up watching on HGTV, she thought: Why not try real estate?
Stevens, 28, found her stride as a broker associate with EXP Realty. She’s still a fan of HGTV — only now, she’s the one on the screen.
The new show First Timers Club stars Stevens as she helps Tampa Bay families navigate a fiercely competitive housing market to purchase their first homes. She uses her background as an educator to help clients understand the three main roadblocks to home ownership: financing, education and emotions.
Underknown and Re:wild partner for Snap Original - PLANET REWILD
Planet Rewild, which will premiere in 2022, is focused on bringing Re:wild’s mission to “protect the wild that’s left and restore the rest” in-app, allowing Snapchatters to learn, explore and uncover some of the most pressing threats to nature and our own survival. The series depicts what the Earth will look like in the coming decades if we don’t learn to “rewild” our planet — and also offers a vision of the flourishing ecosystems that could emerge if we allow the wild to be restored. We don’t need to reinvent the planet; we need to rewild it.
HEMMINGS HOUSE - TAKE ME TO YOUR LOCALS
FROM GREG HEMMINGS - We at Hemmings House Pictures are so excited to share with the world a little piece of where we live and play, here in New Brunswick, Canada. 'Take Me To Your Locals' follows hosts Sam and John as they explore the Gateway to the Fundy Experience; the adventure town of Sussex. We shot this at the end of the winter last year, and there was still enough ice to climb, and snow to ride! We hope you get inspired to get outside and play after watching this. Thanks to our friends at Tourism, Heritage and Culture for supporting this adventure!
Watch the film here: https://youtu.be/HkCfxHroKg4
CARA CONNORS ANNOUNCES 2022 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR!
Los Angeles-based comedian, Cara Connors, launches her first North American tour in 2022 based on her successful monthly queer comedy showcase, Straight for Pay. A fitting back-to-back kick off on January 29th in San Francisco at PianoFight, and Oakland’s historic White Horse Inn the following day, are the first two dates in a 15 city tour that includes Brooklyn’s Union Hall, Chicago’s The Hideout, and culminates at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles.
“The comedians are either straight, or willing for the right price, but most of them are gay for free.” says Connors, who founded Straight for Pay late Summer 2021. “I book my favorites, most of whom happen to be queer, and curate shows so audiences see diverse lineups offering radically different perspectives, versus the typical one-woman-buried-in the-20-guys-slinging-dick-jokes at an old school comedy club.” The philosophy resonated with audiences and developed a cult following among LA’s indie scene with the likes of Rory Scovel, Hannah Einbinder, and Moses Storm performing to sold out audiences with no formal advertising or press.
A “formerly kept woman and your current girlfriend’s favorite ex-girlfriend,” Connor’s appearances include Just for Laughs, as a series regular on E!’s Dating #NoFilter, and her own series Cara Takes Up Space on OUTtv, plus her pre-pandemic headlining show at the New York Comedy Festival was described as “extraordinarily self-aware, deeply anxious and very self-effacing with some guttural screams thrown in for good measure.” A perpetual late bloomer, the hour explores Connors’ second adolescence and sexual awakening, post divorce “rumspringa,” and occassionally feral existence as a queer, millenial comedian chasing her dreams in Los Angeles while trying to make up for lost time. It’s messy and vulnerable, and also very, very funny.
If: Imagine the Impossible is based on Underknown’s Webby Award-winning series "What If"
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 17, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Great Pacific Media ("GPM"), a division of Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV:TBRD, OTCQX:THBRF), has partnered with director, writer and producer Brad Peyton and visionary physicist Michio Kaku for its new series, If: Imagine the Impossible. The futuristic drama-doc series is based on Underknown’s social media sensation What If, the number one science program on social media, according to Tubular Labs, with 30+ million followers and over 10 billion views on YouTube. Full press release here.
HOW TO BE A COWBOY - NETFLIX SEPTEMBER 1ST!
Congratulations, Red Arrow Industries!
BIG TIMBER - NETFLIX JULY 2ND!!!
TWO STEPS HOME PREMIERES JUNE 16TH
From the My San Antonio - In case you're not familiar with the real estate husband and designer wife duo, they made their HGTV debut two years ago with "Going For Sold." The show follows the couple as they take on Houston's worst houses and embark on a home renovation project together. They pool their skills to transform run-down homes in upscale neighborhoods into "sleek and modern abodes that won't break the bank."
9/11 KIDS & CANADA'S DRAG RACE WIN CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS
Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program
9/11 Kids
Documentary channel (CBC)
Saloon Media/Blue Ant Studios
Steve Gamester, Michael Kot, Betty Orr, Elizabeth St. Philip
Best Reality/Competition Program or Series
Canada’s Drag Race
Crave (Bell Media)
Saloon Media/Blue Ant Studios
Producers: Michael Kot, Laura Michalchyshyn, Betty Orr, Mike Bickerton, Pam McNair, RuPaul Charles, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Tom Campbell, Randy Lennox, Tracey Pearce, Jen Markowitz
Going for Sold now Two Steps Home
See Jon and Mary transform their backyard in People Magazine, then see them in their new series on HGTV, Two Steps Home, this June!
THREE YEARS - A NOTE
Three years in and the pandemic continues to change our industry…Thank you to everyone for your very hard work in making sure there’s a ‘there’ there when it’s time to really get back at it. I haven’t posted much news in deference to those who are still dealing with covid-19, but I do want to celebrate my third anniversary.
Special thanks to everyone in this list: All3, E!, FOX, Gala Film, HGTV, History Canada, Laurus Productions, Magical Elves, MacGillivray Freeman Films, Magnolia, MTV, NASA, Netflix, Oxygen, Rabbit’s Foot, Reality Matters, RIVR, Sharp Entertainment, Short Street Media, Tell Tale Productions, TLC, Underknown, the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, and WETV.
See you again, very soon.
BIG TIMBER TO PREEM ON HISTORY CANADA OCTOBER 8TH!!
From Corus - Big Timber follows the dangerous work of logger and sawmill owner, Kevin Wenstob, as he and his crew go to extremes to keep the family sawmill, and their way of life, alive. Kevin’s logging a remote timber claim high up the steep, rugged slopes of Klitsa Mountain, deep in the majestic heart of Vancouver Island. It’s home to some of the best wood in the world and Kevin’s making a big bet to get it. His goal is to get 200 truckloads off before winter shuts him down, but the mountain won’t give it up without a fight. With his wife Sarah, his son Erik, and his right-hand man Coleman by his side, Kevin will do whatever it takes to get that big timber!
GOING FOR SOLD TO HULU
Season one of HGTV’s Going for Sold featuring Harper Raine Homes duo, Jon & Mary Tjon-Joe-Pin, will air on Hulu. CONGRATS RAI!
More info here
