Ethan Banville

Long time coming… update!

ethancms — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:32:02 +0000

Okay, so after finishing on Really Me season 2, I was fortunate to start freelancing on Grojband. In the meantime I’m happy to say I’ve optioned a pitch to Jeff and Jesse at Sudden Storm Entertainment. Be talking to them next week about developing the pitch doc more before we start shopping it around. On top of that, a buddy of mine and I have been asked to develop a kids’ series! Very exciting. Haven’t got the official offer yet, but it looks promising. Also I’ve had the opportunity of meeting on two great shows in the last month. Great people, great ideas and great shows. Fingers crossed I land on one of those since that’d be a hat trick!

Finally, I had the amazing opportunity to sit in a final mix session with David Kendall, Paula Hart and my old pal Scott Hartle. I was only there for a few hours, but really learned a lot about what to look for at that point in the post process. It’s really amazing what an ear and eye EPs develop for well, everything! Somehow, like a fly with a thousand eyes, they see little continuity stuff and hear ambient sound differences that a dog wouldn’t even pick up on. Thanks to them, now I know what to watch and listen for. And knowing is half the battle. Isn’t it, G.I. Joe? Go Joe!

Busy, busy, busy…

ethancms — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:19:12 +0000

Just finished three months on the second season of Family Channel’s hit show “Really Me.” I was fortunate to have my boss represent her and the room in all the production meetings as well as covering for her on the floor when she was unavailable. Both were great opportunities and I learned a lot about being a showrunner and how to work with production to make our room’s scripts come in on time and on budget and of course as we envisioned. Working on the floor with the directors and actors was a treat as well. Really helped me put my brain in producer mode, keeping an eye on continuity, making sure the performances reflected the mandate from the network and production company and of course that we got the jokes performed exactly how we wanted. The great part was our cast always surprised me with a different take on a joke and even found jokes where we didn’t expect them. I’m starting next week as a freelancer on yet another Fresh TV show, “Grojband.” Looking forward to playing with new characters and continuing to work with my pals at Fresh.

My Babysitter’s A Vampire continues to slay in the U.S.!

ethancms — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:20:09 +0000

Gotta love that I had to go to Canada to write on a hit U.S. show.

http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/us-weekend-guide-my-babysitters-a-vampire-is-a-family-favorite-2011258

Gemini Nominations!

ethancms — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:21:59 +0000

Great show I wrote an episode for, “My Babysitter’s A Vampire” which is doing huge numbers on Disney, just got nominated for a Gemini! Go MBV!

http://kidscreen.com/2011/08/03/and-the-2011-gemini-awards-nominees-are/

View from 30,000 feet or 9,144 meters

ethancms — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:54:17 +0000

Ain’t it lovely?
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Site’s back up. Blogging again soon.

ethancms — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 03:21:43 +0000

So I discovered that someone in Denmark decided to hack my site and take it down. But thanks to the boys at astracomsolutions, I’m back in business. Once I go through the site and fix some things I’ll be updating regularly about my life bouncing back and forth between Toronto where I’m working and Los Angeles where I’m flailing.

Quote of the Day

ethancms — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:23:59 +0000

“I don’t know if you know this, but West Hollywood is filled with gays and Russian people.” – Cab Driver from LAX

Home Page Featured Item

ethancms — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:15:33 +0000

Paulo’s Rad Rods – “PIlot”

Paulo, a thirteen year old kid in obsessed with cars, gets his dream job working in his eccentric idol’s hot rod shop.

I know, I know, it’s been a while… again

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:24:23 +0000

Sorry gang, but I’ve been crazy busy writing on a new show for Family Channel called “Really Me” for the last few months. To those of you who are new to my page, this is amazingly great news. After two years of extremely sparse work and disappointments, I was hired as a story editor (a promotion!) on a Canadian series and couldn’t be happier. The producers are great and welcomed me with open arms. I of course took the opportunity to bust my butt to help make the show as awesome as possible and of course help take things off their hands when they were overstretched. I got to sit on the floor and supervise a few times, lotta fun of course, being on that side of the process. I apparently impressed them enough that yesterday my boss told me they want to “lock me down.” Now normally my wife would have a problem with that kind of thing, but since this involves offering me as much work as I can handle, she’s down for it.

So the future looks bright. Going back to Los Angeles for some rest and relaxation and a few meetings in March. Ah sunshine, how I welcome thee. Hopefully have enough time off in between projects to finish a new spec. Long time coming. Will try and post more now that work hours are winding down. Hope all finds you all well.

From hooray to kah-raaazy!

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:07:51 +0000

Well, apparently landing in Canada was the trick to go from hitting the bricks to busier than heck. I ended up landing in Toronto and thinking I had two weeks before starting work. Turns out, I started work a week early. Took on some writing of sides for casting and doing a re-write on a one of the drafts to help the skeleton staff keep on their very healthy schedule of pre-production. Room started last week and I’m happy to say it’s filled with a lot of hilarious, talented writers. We’re having a ball creating a world for our little Maddy. But that’s just the start of the madness.

Before I left for Toronto I signed on to help my wife out with some copywriting for a great business for whom she’s done work for before. Luxury golf and ski trips accompanied by pros. Sounds fun to me! So I’ve been doing the show during the day and a bit of the night along with the copywriting in the PM. Totally awesome to have so much work.

To make things even better, I got an email from a writer friend of mine who’s got a hit show on Disney XD. Turns out after me pestering him for the last three seasons, he was nice enough to email me about doing a freelance episode. My head honestly almost exploded and honestly I still don’t believe it. I really love this show and having the chance to write for it, never mind a chance to write for a WGA show and get some nice contributions to my health and pension, is amazing!

So today I spent doing laundry and errands and seeing if some of my ides would make good eps. I think I’ve got some good stuff. Going to hone it and send it in after American Thanksgiving and see if my producer friend likes any of the areas. Been a while since I’ve done a freelance. World Girl was the same way, communicating over the phone and email. Kind of a fun way to write because so much of the work is put into your hands rather than an entire writer’s room. Then again, when I’m looking for jokes and fixes I’m sure I’ll be yearning for a room.

Needless to say, I’m floating on air right now and hope to keep the ball rolling in the new year. Met with a lot of great companies in Toronto when I first arrived. Would love to work with them on some of their great shows. Seriously, while many will say Canadian television has some stinkers, so does the states for that matter. And amongst the mediocre are some great shows. “Being Erika”, “George Strumboulopolous”, “Kenny & Spenny…” there’s a lot of quality.

And don’t even get me started on the quality of life up here. The politically uninformed can talk smack all they want about America being the greatest country on earth, but from my experience abroad and in Vancouver and Toronto, the people are much happier and healthier here with seemingly more freedom. Go Canada!