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Text Messaging Coke and Menthos Challenge  There’s no better gift during the holidays then to give money to a fake charity organization. Care4Less.org simplifies this process by putting together eight, worthy, fictitious causes for you to choose from such as Fathers4Mosquitoes and the Make-A-Sandwich-Foundation. We enjoyed the idea very much but thought that there were far too few charity names and ideas given on the website. We did some brainstorming and wondered what types of fake charity organizations we could come up with on our own. Here’s a short list of charitable organizations that you can help that will try to make the world a better place…
Ford, Ford, Ford
 -This is a great charity that is a partnership between USA and Canadian politicians. It was started by ‘Former’ Toronto mayor Rob Ford as a way to give back to his fellow politicians and help them get the treatment that they deserve. Rob worked closely with the Betty Ford center after he was treated as a patient at the clinic. At the clinic, Ford learned about fiscal responsibility and how to avoid speaking in a foreign accent while intoxicated. Alcoholics, addicts, and their loved ones who require alcohol treatment or drug treatment begin the exciting journey to a new life at the Betty Ford Center. Once you finish your treatment at the Betty Ford Center, this charity helps to get you full-time employment by working at a the Ford Motor Company. You’ll be able to help put together new and exciting automobiles while also helping out the local Detroit economy and help them recover from the pitfalls of bankruptcy.  One thing that we need to give credit to is that Canadian television series sure know how to make the most with whatever limited resources that they have. Canadian television productions don’t have the large budgets like American productions do and need to come up with unique shows that don’t have flashy special effects or top quality sets or filming locations. For the longest time, Canadian television looked like it was shot on a home video camera. Canadian productions need to think about how they use digital space. And with tight budgets, there’s not a lot of room for risk. There’s not much room for error.
Cheap Canadian Programming
 An example of cheap programming comes from ‘The Tom Green Show’. The series aired on Rogers Television 22, a community channel in Ottawa, Ontario, until 1996, when it was picked up by The Comedy Network. The show often featured Green performing bizarre or shocking acts in public. It went from being a public access show and was eventually picked up by MTV and became a short lived hit. Another unique program was ‘The Buzz’. The show was hosted by Morgan ‘Mista Mo’ Smith and Daryn Jones. The show originally aired in the mid-90s as a community channel show on Rogers Television before getting a network deal in 2000. In 2001, the show won a Gemini Award in the “Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series” category. Even our game shows are pretty cheap. ‘You Bet Your Ass’ was a Canadian game show that aired on The Comedy Network. It followed a Blackjack and casino motif, with contestants answering questions on popular culture to earn points. Whoever had the most points at the completion of the final round won $500 and then got to see one final category, and may choose to answer one question for a further $1,000, or to answer two questions for a further $2,000. This is a far cry from the brand new car that you might win on ‘The Price is Right’. We continue our look at the over saturated entertainment industry with some new examples such as superhero movies, musicians, makeover shows and brand marketing and blockbuster films.
Superhero Movies
 -Superheroes are everywhere. We have always had comics, cartoons and the sporadic movie or TV show, but we are experiencing a huge boom lately. There’s’ Man of Steel’, ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Thor 2’, ‘The Wolverin’e and ‘Kick Ass 2′, then’ Captain America 2′, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Ant Man’, ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, ‘Justice League’ and, of course, The ‘Avengers 2’ set for 2014 and 2015 respectively. Marvel has been leading the charge on this front. The company realized that the Marvel Universe is much large than simple superhero movies with linear plots. Instead, each Marvel film franchise is connected to the other in one way or another that forces audiences to want to watch each film so that they don’t get left out in the cold and miss unresolved issues from the previous flicks. Soon, Marvel will be taking that formula to TV with a new Netflix deal that will bring us TV shows based on their heroes. D.C. Comics is beginning to catch on as they’re branching out with the ‘Justice League’ and expanding their own universe rather than relying only on Batman and Superman films. You have to wonder if people will grow tired of seeing so many superhero movies being shown at their local theater. Will one film simply be made as a marketing tool where people watching the film are told to stay tuned for another film coming out soon? And, will comic book nerds finally get fed up of seeing film directors ruin their beloved characters? One thing that we do know for sure is that comic book fans go nuts if you try to change main story line plots in a film that aren’t a faithful adaptation of what goes on in the comics. Another problem is that not all superhero characters are created equally. Some are darker characters who might not necessarily fit well if they were grouped together with a superhero who is funny and outrageous. As it is now, the superhero film could easily be called its own genre. As long as they keep making money, the answer is yes. And making money is something superhero films will most likely continue to do, at least for the foreseeable future.
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Made in Canada: Joint Productions and Successful Canadian ProgrammingPosted by: shipster in Entertainment We’re back to discuss some more Canadian television with you all. We’re going to discuss the recent phenomenon of Canadian-American co-productions and also take a look at some recent Canadian television hits that might be familiar with Canadians but probably not so-much for our international audiences.
International co-productions International co-productions are production companies from different countries (typically two to three) that are working together to produce a television program. There are many benefits to these arrangements. Companies are able to pool financial resources, gain access to a partner’s government incentives and subsidies, learn new techniques from your partner and be able to take advantage of your partner’s shooting locations in another country. Also, there can be some drawbacks. Your partner might be opportunistic and only looking to benefit their own company, you can have government bureaucracy and added costs and a loss of control over the production when it comes to casting,shooting or editing the production. It seems that the benefits outweigh the costs as we’ve noticed several of the big four broadcast networks airing Canadian programming lately.
  ‘Rookie Blue’ is a Canadian cop drama that airs on both ABC in America and Global Television in Canada. The show has a Canadian cast and the setting takes place in Toronto, Ontario. The show is produced by Shaw Media, Canwest and Thump Inc. and distributed by Entertainment One. Another example is ‘Flashpoint’ which is another Canadian cop drama about a fictional elite tactical unit who are tasked to resolve extreme situations that regular officers are not trained to handle, including hostage-taking, bomb threats, and heavily armed criminals. The show aired on CTV in Canada and Ion network in the USA. Some shows have been less successful. Both ‘The Listener’ and ‘Saving Hope’ have been successful and continue to air on CTV in Canada but weren’t as successful in America and stopped airing on the NBC network due to low ratings. |
