The available tickets to Sunday's Juno Awards sold out in 15 minutes, so telecast executive producer John Brunton’s enthusiasm isn't calculated to boost the box office.
"It’s going to be unbelievable. The show is shaping up to be a barnburner. Strap your seatbelts on, baby," he said during a phone interview conducted earlier in the week while he attended Canadian Idol auditions in Ottawa.
He is concerned, however, with drawing a television crowd to the two-hour show starting at 8 p.m. on CTV and ASN. By the time it goes to air, it’s a show that will have involved a lot of work by a lot of people.Crew members started hanging equipment in the Metro Centre on Monday and Brunton was to arrive in the city on Tuesday.
He said the Junos are the biggest, most-complicated show CTV does annually. The arena will be strewn with 650 kilometres of cable to provide high definition images and 5.1 channel sound. Brunton estimated that a couple of hundred crew members will be involved in the telecast, including at least 13 staffed cameras along with some robotic equipment.
Throw in the logistics of mobilizing presenters, performers and host Pamela Anderson and you’ve got the definition of controlled chaos.
"We’ve got bands flying in from all over the world on the day of the show. We have the most sophisticated equipment. Every single band’s got their own peculiar and particular taste in terms of how they’re mixed, how they’re lit – very, very specific equipment requirements," Brunton said.
Production designer Pete Faragher was required to come up with ideas for the look of the show. Brunton didn’t want to divulge too much about the set but CTV leaked some information on Thursday.
A standing room general admission section of the floor will result in some fans being surrounded by elevated walkways connecting to a central stage in the middle of the arena.
"The shape of this walkway is like the waterways that lead to the ocean," said Faragher in a news release.
Seven awards will be presented at the centre pod, where Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin will introduce Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Bryan Adams. Adams will also perform an undisclosed hit on the main stage.
Nine of the 11 acts to be featured in the broadcast – Bedouin Soundclash, Black Eyed Peas, Broken Social Scene, Adams, Coldplay, Divine Brown, Hedley, Michael Buble and Nickelback – are to perform on the main stage. Massari will perform along the walkways and the centre pod.
Nova Scotia’s Buck 65 will perform from the arena floor. The winner of the 2004 Juno for alternative album of the year, the low-key hip-hop artist is the show’s music composer and will also provide voice-overs and transition music between show segments.
"Somehow, in some way, we try to reflect where we are in the body of the program and in ways that people don’t necessarily expect us to. For example, Buck 65 plays a major role in our show. People might have assumed that we might have represented music from Halifax in a much more traditional or old-fashioned way. We wanted to do the reverse. We wanted to be super cool and really contemporary," Brunton said.
While the Junos are Canada’s music awards, this version is slated to get unprecedented international exposure. CTV, which recently cemented an alliance with MTV Networks International to relaunch the MTV brand in Canada, confirmed Thursday that a specially packaged version of the show will be carried on 11 MTV-affiliated channels worldwide, including MTV2 in the United States.
"I look at it as a celebration of Canadian music and the Canadian music scene. It’s almost like the Grey Cup coming to town. There’s an entire weekend of activities, songwriters circles and fan opportunities. Of course, our hope this year is that we’re drawing attention to the program from all over the world. The Canadian music scene is as exciting as any anywhere right now," Brunton said.
"Part of the reason that Coldplay is on the show is that they think the Canadian music scene is so cool. When you go to their concerts they mention some of their favourite bands that come from Canada that they’ve discovered here."
CTV began broadcasting the Junos in 2002 with the ceremony from St. John’s, N.L. It’s been taken on the road to Ottawa (2003), Edmonton (2004) and Winnipeg (2005) and will be held next year in Saskatoon.
"We like taking talent to the country," said Susanne Boyce, CTV president of programming and chair of the CTV Media Group, during a phone interview from Toronto.
"Or as someone said, and I love this line, ‘Go to where Canada is.’ "
She said the network was approached by then-Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin about broadcasting the show before the rights were even available.
"Now the cities are vying for it. They really see the potential of the event," she said. "It’s bigger than the weekend, which I love."
Brunton has been assigned the task of making sure the Junos are not bigger than the designated two-hour time slot. U.S. import Desperate Housewives is one of CTV’s most popular shows and, apparently, it’s going to come on regardless of what might be happening on Brunswick Street.
"The show has not been two hours in quite a few years. Because of the telecast this year, it will be exactly two hours because of other issues," Brunton said.
"You try to go into a show like this about eight or nine minutes under two hours, hoping. And then as the show actually is going on live you’re adding and subtracting material as you’re producing the show with a stop watch in front of you."
Source: herald.ns.ca [thanks sniggirb]
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