BEHIND-THE-SCENES: THE ART DEPARTMENT

Interview with Art Department Chief – Production Designer Bill Fleming

Q: Can you talk about your role on Call Me Fitz?
A: With "Fitz" as with most shows, the production designer is responsible for the visual look - creating the world in which the series takes place. As such, I work with set decorators, carpenters, locations, props and the art departments to create the sets and find the locations needed for each scene in the script.

Q: Can you talk about the process of interpreting what is written in the script into a fully executed design?
A: It depends what the script calls for and what works in the "Fitz" world. While much of comedy is entrenched in character and situation, the where (i.e. the setting), is mostly grounded in reality.That reality in Call Me Fitz centers on the dealership, and its surrounding world of box stores and strip malls that are ubiquitous to suburban North America. We look to that reality for inspiration, but we also have to deal with the practical concerns - time, money, and what we can find nearby in terms of shooting locations.

Q: This season we use standing sets such as the dealership less, and actual locations more. What are the challenges that this presented you? Did you enjoy the chance to use more locations?
A: Creating the Amish farm near the end of the season was exciting, as it is very much a departure from our suburban world. Also, creating the carnival in the first episode was fun to build around our existing Ruptal set. It’s important to open things up once or twice every show so that we do not get too claustrophobic.

Q: Per episode, how long does it take you to create and execute a design start to finish?
A: Time usually depends on how big the build is. A typical example might be the morgue set, which probably took about two hours to plan, half a day to draw, a day to build, a day to paint, and half a day to dress (decorate!) – start to finish in about 2-3 days. However, a more intensive set such as the hospital scene you’ll see later in season two, took a good part of two weeks from design to dressing.

Q: What is it like designing for a real location versus a set?
A: When we were planning the first season we had originally talked about building the showroom and offices (our dealership is housed in an actual car lot) in a studio. I was very keen to put these sets on a real location with live traffic driving down a busy street. You feel the street when we are on the dealership lot, and it really grounds the show. It’s hard to get depth - real long hallways, layers, and large-scale rooms - on our very small studio spaces. For that we need to find actual locations. Studio sets can look as real and impressive as the real thing if time, budget, and imagination allow them too. The advantage of the sets on Call Me Fitz is that our studio is right beside our main location (i.e. the dealership), which means the crew can roll right into a studio set from Fitzpatrick Motors without moving the whole production. Its our own little studio backlot!

CALL ME FITZ BEHIND-THE-SCENES: THE WRITING ROOM

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Call Me Fitz Junior Story Editor Nikolijne Troubetzkoy

Q: What were your responsibilities as a junior story editor in the story department?
A: I was responsible for formatting, copy editing and publishing all the scripts; taking notes; and overseeing web content and character arcs.

Q: Can you describe for our readers the process of coming up with script ideas?
A: We started the development room by brainstorming hundreds and hundreds of episode ideas. Once we figured out the season-long story arc and the character arcs for the season, we went back to the episode ideas to see if anything fit together naturally. On Fitz, most of the story ideas are character-driven.

Q: What was the process like to cultivate a new character like Dot?
A: Dot took a while to flesh out. She started off with a much smaller arc as the ultra-right-wing daughter of an evangelical preacher. Once we saw Amy Sloan’s audition tapes, her arc became bigger and bigger until it began to underpin the first half of the season.

Q: Let’s get to the juicy stuff – how do the Fitz writers come up with the infamous Fitzisms and Insults?
A: Coming up with the insults is the best part of the show! In first and second season we came up with insults individually, and one of my jobs last year was to make a spreadsheet of all the insults we’d used in order to minimize repetition. Everyone has a tendency to hang their insults on a couple of key words. Ass and cock are probably the most frequently used. This year we actually took a day during the development period to brainstorm new insults and come up with the Insult Generator. Best day ever!

Q: What was your favorite plotline of Season 2?
A: My favorite arc in Season 2 is the corruption of Larry. He’s such a pure character and I love to see him in situations where he has to struggle to rationalize his actions.

Q: Was there anything in the first few episodes that looked very different in your head than what it ended up looking like in the episode?
A: Things always turn out different from how you imagine. That’s what’s great about writing for this medium – once you’ve finished your work, everyone else brings his or her vision to it. In the end, it becomes so much more than what you could have made it on your own.

WELCOME BACK!

Hang on to your hats, here comes Season 2 of Call Me Fitz! And we’ll cover every-sleazy-thing: interviews with cast members, exclusive behind-the-scenes tidbits, and advice for LIVING THE FITZY LIFE – right here on the Official Call Me Fitz blog.

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A cryptic prophecy. A witchy new employee. Used cars. Yep, it's Season 2 of Call Me Fitz and someone wants our lovable scamp dead. But seeing how it's Fitz, a guy whose conscience complicates his every turn, rest assured, solutions won't be easy, and lessons won't be learned… You see, Fitz may be in the gutter, but he’s staring at the stars. He has a dream – The Summerwind Lounge – a classy joint filed hot tunes and hotter babes. And season two will also see Fitz take on the world in order to make his dream a reality – his father, a First Nations band, the disabled mafia, the Amish, and ultimately… himself.

Tune into the SEASON PREMIERE on Sunday, September 25th, at 8 pm ET|MT on HBO Canada!

Q & A - Matt Dusk

Matt Dusk, who provides the sexy, swinging soundtrack for Call Me Fitz, chats about Jason’s skivvies, the Indy 500, and his role on Fitz.

Q: What attracted you to Call Me Fitz?
A: At first I wasn’t 100% sold, but as soon as I saw the pilot, I knew I was in. I connected with the characters, especially Fitz; because the music - my music – just fit him so perfectly. I immediately envisioned where I could add my own special touch.

Q: So then how did you make these songs your own?
A: I wanted the arrangement to be unique and original to Fitz. I didn’t want the songs to simply be karaoke tracks. But at the same time…you have to stay true to the original song. It has to have the same vibe, so people recognize it. It’s a fine line to walk, or in this case, sing.

Q: Favorite Call Me Fitz song?
A: Any Time At All. This song is about someone willing to do anything to get the girl - a unique kind of desperation. It ended up being used in a scene in which Fitz stumbles around drunk, which is just totally perfect for the whole rat pack theme of the show.

Q: What’s it like hearing your songs on Call Me Fitz?
A: As an artist, when you record and arrange a song, it takes days to produce a three and half minute track. Then you see a tiny snippet of it on TV. You’re lucky if you get 45 seconds of playtime. It’s like being at the Indy 500. Just as you scream, “there it is,” it’s gone, and you have to wait for the car to lap around again to hear more.

Q: What was it like performing in front of the entire cast and crew at the Series Premiere?
A: I recorded the soundtrack separately from the actual filming of the show, so to be a part of the celebration was great fun. It finally hit me at the premiere, surrounded by all the cast and crew, that I was part of a team - a team building something pretty spectacular. To open the first episode, I sang “That’s Life”, and of course, it was used during the scenes when Jason [Priestley] runs around in his undies. So the whole time I’m singing live, all I can think of is Jason in his skivvies, which cracked me up in the middle of the performance. Jason’s response? That’s Life.

Q: Tell us about the world of Matt Dusk…
A: Back in 2009, I released “Good News” in North America, which I recorded in 2008. Now it’s being released [Winter 2011] in Europe. So I am going through all the stages of promoting the album again. But my head is totally wrapped up in the next album. It’s a weird predicament – looking backwards and forwards at the same time. I also have a TV special for PBS coming out in late fall/early winter [February/March in Canada]. I spent a whole week in Vegas with a big band, live audience, and PBS film crew. It was an amazing time – a week-long party. The American market is the hardest of all to crack, so to get a big PBS special in the U.S., the home of Jazz, is very special for me.

Q: Did Vegas remind you of Fitz at all?
A: Fitz has that certain Vegas swagger and attitude. Fitz has that same star quality – that charisma - but he never actually became a star, so his diva attitude is a little unwarranted…well, unless you count being the star of the used car salesman club.

Sneak Peak - The Kidney Stays In The Picture

Fitz and Larry get tangled up in a black market organ exchange. Which one will lose a kidney? Tune in to CALL ME FITZ.

Q & A - Kathleen Munroe

Q & A – Kathleen Munroe

The Call Me Fitz interactive team had a chance to sit down with the fabulous Kathleen Munroe, aka Ali Devon, to chat about mother-daughter bonds, learning to control your dangerous impulses, and bad boys.

Q: Can you describe your character and her first season story arc?

A: We first meet Ali Devon as a principled lawyer determined to nail Fitz for putting her mother, Babs, into a coma during a test drive gone awry. Hell bent on punishing Fitz, but intensely attracted to him in spite of herself, Ali begins to display her inner contradictions as the season plays out. She’s a well-intentioned woman who’s dedicated to living a “good” life and to being a “good” person…at the same time she struggles to keep her contradictory desires and impulses at bay. These desires grow stronger as the season progresses, often winning out over Ali’s intellect and good sense. She’s complicated, flawed, driven, strong-willed; someone who like all of us, is trying her best to be a better person.

Q: Viewers have decamped into two distinct fan bases, are you on Team Larry or Team Fitz?

A: As far as I’m concerned Larry and Fitz are like Crockett and Tubbs, or Bob and Doug Mackenzie, or Kate and Allie - you can’t have one without the other.

Q: Do you know an Ali? What is your inspiration for her?

A: Ali herself is separate from any one person in my life; there is no individual I know that encompasses all the complexities that make Ali unique. However, in terms of Ali’s profession as a lawyer, I do draw a bit from my own experiences growing up in the “lawyer” culture as my dad is in the profession. Luckily, all the characters in this series are fleshed out and made three-dimensional by good writing, so my part in the collaborative job of character invention is made easier.

Q: Can you talk a little about the relationship between Ali and her mom?

A: The relationship between Ali and Babs was one of the most fun aspects of the role for me as an actor. What at first looks like a fairly normal, loving mother-daughter bond is exposed as a competitive, combative, dysfunctional relationship as Babs recovers from her coma. The history between them is hilariously tumultuous, characterized by one-upmanship, theft (most notably of boyfriends), and mutual disappointment. Phyllis Ellis (who plays Babs) is such a wonderful actress to go toe-to-toe with, and it was so much fun to bring history and life to the Babs-Ali dynamic.

Q: What is your favorite episode from the first season?

A: It’s tough to pick a favourite episode from the first season, and I haven’t yet had the chance to see all of the episodes in their final form, but I had some especially fantastic writing to work with in the episodes surrounding Babs’ death and burial. Some of the scenes in the final two episodes are also memorable because I got the chance to work more with the core ensemble cast. It’s been great to see how some of the Ali scenes translate on the screen, but I’ve equally enjoyed watching my awesome cast-mates bring their storylines to life for the first time in the scenes we didn’t share.

Sneak Peak - "The Upside of Matricide"

Ali learns Babs’ dying wish was an organic burial – simple, tasteful, and completely illegal. If anyone can help her skirt the law, it’s Fitz.