Save for the occasional mountain hiker, dirt biker or furry scavenger, the backwoods of Lavington are normally relatively quiet.
However, those lurking in the area last spring may have spotted some unusual activity of the Hollywood North kind.
Set up on the Thorlakson property on Reid Road, an Okanagan-based film crew recently gathered to see former L.A. writer/director M.F. (Matt) McDowell’s passion project come to fruition.
After many false starts, McDowell, who now calls Lavington home, was finally able to oversee the filming of his television pilot, a sci-fi drama called La Fontaine.
Produced as a speculative pilot (without a buyer or distribution deal), the filming has paid off for McDowell and his partners from Kelowna’s TechYouDigital Media, which just recently picked up a prestigious award.
The winner of Best Drama Pilot at the Banff World Media Festival, described as the “Olympics of Television,” La Fontaine is a one-hour modern, gothic drama about a family who moves to a small town that has a secret culture of genetic manipulation (natural and unnatural.)
“There are bigger themes of transformation. For example we have a mother dying of a strange disease. There’s this supernatural element, but it is naturally based,” said McDowell, adding the pilot is not as serialized as Lost, but there is a deep running mystery that even a casual fan could follow.
Now that the pilot has won an award, the producers hope to develop La Fontaine into an Okanagan-based television series that will have a long and profitable run on TV.
“We’ve already received a couple of phone calls from production companies,” said McDowell, calling from his home near Lavington where he has been living the past five years with his wife, Louisa, who is originally from the area.
“We ramped up the pilot, but it’s written so that it is open ended, so the future is wide open… We’ve had some good meetings with Corus and Shaw. It’s a different situation in Canada, it’s more friendly and open.”
La Fontaine features an all-Okanagan film crew and 18-member cast, with speaking parts, who were found with the help of the Okanagan Actors Alliance.
McDowell enlisted TechYou Media for principle photography after reading an article about their use of a Red One digital camera, which shoots at a very high resolution. (The same brand of camera was used to shoot such films as The Social Network and Pirates of the Caribbean.)
“When people see it they think it is quite ambitious but we didn’t really spend a lot of money on it,” said McDowell, who funded the project out of his own pocket.
The Okanagan Film Commission also helped with providing a location in Enderby’s cemetery, while secondary photography was shot in Lake Country and Kelowna.
More than 30 extras were cast for a shoot at Vernon’s Clarence Fulton Secondary School, but most of the filming took place in and around Lavington, said McDowell.
“When I first wrote it, I set it in Louisiana but when I looked around here, I didn’t need to change it. Instead of a swamp, I had a dark, creepy forest.”
Like its storyline, La Fontaine has had a few transformations in getting developed.
Originally written when McDowell lived in L.A. (a Northern California native, McDowell moved south to attend film school at UCLA), the script was pitched with his then writing partner to a number of U.S. networks. The men did end up selling the pilot to CBS, and at one point famed TV producer Aaron Spelling, actor Robert DeNiro and director Thomas Carter were all attached.
After being delayed by a year, the network ended up putting the script in the top five for production, but then ended up developing the other four, said McDowell.
It was around that time, as well as the writers’ strike, that McDowell decided to make the move north.
“I had put the script on the shelf and was thinking about starting a business when this came along,” he said.
With the pilot entered into another television awards competition in L.A. this August, McDowell is keeping his fingers crossed La Fontaine will finally be picked up.
“I never wait for the big moment. It’s all about the moments along the way. Each day of filming was fantastic. The cast screening was fantastic. And now with this (Banff) award, I am pleased I made the decision to film here.”
McDowell is also looking for sponsors to host a local screening at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre.
“We’d like to give back to the community now that there’s an award behind it,” he said.
