Pittsburgh-based 'Anea' gets chance to be talk of nation
Thursday, January 26, 2011
By Michael Machosky, The Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Just past King Friday's dusty castle and X the Owl's vacant oak tree lies the Fred Rogers Studios at WQED -- one part of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe that still has the lights on.

It has everything one would need to make a modern television show, up to and including the latest high-definition production equipment. The one thing it's missing is, well, a TV show.

Now, if all goes according to plan, the Fred Rogers Studios may have its first national television show in the post-"Mister Rogers" era. The pilot for "Anea," a women-oriented talk show in the "Oprah" vein, just wrapped up shooting there on Thursday.

Carl Kurlander ("St. Elmo's Fire," "Saved By the Bell") returned to his hometown several years ago and started Steeltown Entertainment Project in an effort to leverage the vast array of Pittsburgh connections in Hollywood. As executive producer of Steeltown, he hopes to build up the entertainment industry here.

Though the city has had success in luring movie productions to town, it would be a major coup to shoot a television show here -- with all the steady work for local cast and crew that entails.

One of Kurlander's Steeltown connections is Jamie Widdoes, director of the most popular sitcom in America -- "Two and a Half Men." Kurlander thought Widdoes, a Squirrel Hill native, might jump at the chance to work in the studio where "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" was made. He was right.

"It's a potential nationally syndicated talk program," says Widdoes.

"Anea" is a co-production of Steeltown and WQED, under the banner of the Pittsburgh Innovative Media Incubator. It's hosted by Anea Bogue, a Los Angeles-based life coach. The show will focus on empowering women and girls. Kurlander thinks it has some things in common with "Oprah." This is Bogue's first foray into television.

"Women and girls make up 51 percent of the population (in America)," says Bogue. "Girls and women face a lot of obstacles. We'll look at what those obstacles are and actual steps they can take to improve their lives."

For Widdoes, "Anea" is quite a departure from his regular job directing "Two and a Half Men" -- the raunchy sitcom buoyed by the boorish behavior of its former star, Charlie Sheen.

"I believe this is my karmic give-back to the world," says Widdoes, laughing. "I've had nothing but fun with 'Two and a Half Men,' but doing a show in support of girls growing up into good strong women is another side (of my work)."

Widdoes' production partner, Peter Isacksen, was happy to return to Pittsburgh for "Anea." His last job here was as an actor in "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh" (1979).

"Jamie and I are in the talent-finding business," says Isacksen. "What makes you successful is finding that great script, talent or program. I had seen this tape of Anea, and she has this 'It' quality. She just pops off the screen."

It helped that Bogue, originally from a small town near Winnipeg, was willing to do whatever was necessary to get the project off the ground.

Isacksen recalls the conversation Widdoes had with her, when he told her they wanted to make the show. Widdoes told her: "The good news is that they want to do the show. The bad news is that they want to do it in Pittsburgh."

"She said, 'I don't hear any bad news,' " Isacksen says.

Widdoes doesn't have a lot of free time, in between work on "Two and a Half Men" and his many other projects. He directed the pilot of the new sitcom "Rob," for instance.

But, he says, "when you find a project you're really into, you find the time to do it."

Time to take a shot

Steeltown Entertainment Project has a new contest for aspiring filmmakers. The "Take a Shot at Changing the World" contest kicks off this weekend at the Senator John Heinz History Center. It's open to middle school and high school students, who are invited to make short films about how Pittsburgh and/or Pittsburghers have changed the world -- or about their own plans for taking social action.

Students can win up to $10,000 in prizes, trips to the Jefferson Awards in Washington. DC, and mentorship to implement their ideas. Details: www.takeashotcontest.org

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," Steeltown also be screening "YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip" -- a humorous documentary about a cross-country road trip, where the filmmakers visit 50 states in one year, living on one shoebox of trash a month. Their journey began at the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale. Tickets for the 2:30 p.m. screening at the History Center are free and open to the public. Details: 412-622-1325 or Rachel@Steeltown.org

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This Thursday thru Sunday (1/12/12 trough 1/16/12), see the short film Smile. It was written and directed by Lauren Elmer and stars Anna Michelle Friedman and Cheyenne Jackson. Smile was the official selection at the Woodstock,Hamptons,and Austin Film Festival and screens with Weekend. Check out the official Smile Website!

Filming here, the next 'Oprah'?: WQED/Steeltown joint venture goes before cameras in January
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
By Maria Sciullo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh natives Carl Kurlander and "Two and a Half Men" director Jamie Widdoes recently were seated around a conference room table discussing the funny way life works. Also in attendance were three others involved in the entertainment industry: Peter Isacksen, Mr. Widdoes' production partner; life coach Anea Bogue; and her producer, Shelli Wright.

Six months of planning led them to this place and time, and everyone agreed it was more than chance. "Anea," an "Oprah-esque" talk show aimed at issues concerning women and girls, will film its pilot in early January in the Fred Rogers Studio at WQED in Oakland.

Should it get picked up for syndication, "Anea" will be shot in front of a live audience and run five days a week in an hour-long talk format, said Ms. Bogue, buoyed by the excitement of finally working in front of the cameras in a trial run Dec. 15.

"Anea" (pronounced An-NAY-a) is one of the first projects of the Steeltown/WQED co-venture that's part of the Pittsburgh Innovative Media Incubator.

Steeltown Entertainment, which Mr. Kurlander ("My Tale of Two Cities") helped create in 2003, recognizes that Pittsburgh has long bred talented writers, actors and other creative types who have no choice but to leave the area.

Fostering a thriving industry here would not only be good for homegrown talent but also for the region, he said. Pittsburgh has been the site of several big budget film shoots this year, including "The Dark Knight Rises," "One Shot" and the ABC Family film "Elixir." But when the day is done, those crews leave town.

Both Mr. Kurlander and Deborah Acklin, president and CEO of WQED Multimedia, had been in talks with Mr. Widdoes, who grew up in Squirrel Hill, to work on a project that would be locally produced.

"Basically, what Carl and Deb said was 'We've got the funding and we want to do something with you, but if you don't have anything we're going to talk to some other people,' " Mr. Widdoes said.

"Well, there is nothing like a little 'the money is going to go to someone else' to light the fire under you," he said, laughing.

"I went back and called Peter and said, 'Come on. We must be able to come up with something.' "

At the same time in Los Angeles, Ms. Bogue and Ms. Wright were sifting through development offers that were more "MTV stuff" than they were interested in pursing. Ms. Bogue wanted to try something that played more to her strengths and interests as a coach and self-esteem counselor -- she has a degree in education from the University of Winnipeg -- and her friend wrote up a short program treatment.

"I told Anea 'before we send this to anybody, let me show it to my friend Peter, who has done reality television for as long as anybody has done it,' " Ms. Wright said.

"So I sent it to him for advice."

From there, the six degrees of separation was astounding, said Mr. Isacksen: "Sometimes you need a perfect storm for everything to come together, and we looked to Carl as that rainmaker.

"He had a friendship with Jamie. Jamie had a friendship with me. I had a friendship with Shelli, who had a friendship with Anea. And we were all looking for that one opportunity, and it came together.

"Carl was able to tap into [local] resources so it wasn't just talk, but it was something that could be done and produced."

And here they were, at Steeltown's offices on an upper floor of the WQED facility, drinking coffee, noshing on tangerines and throwing around ideas for a talk show that would be women-centric, yet appeal to a broader audience.

"There is no talking about girls and women without simultaneously talking about boys and men," Ms. Bogue said. "I imagine it will be a show that is, in many ways, 'Oprah-esque' in that it can be as broad as we want it to be."

Several months back, Mr. Widdoes, who also has directed the pilot for Rob Schneider's new show, "Rob!," and Mr. Isacksen met with leaders of local women's groups to get their input.

"It was two big stupid white guys from Hollywood and a lot of really bright, super-motivated women and they were looking at us like, 'what are you doing?' " he said, smiling.

Mr. Widdoes has a daughter in college majoring in anthropology, women's and gender studies. Considering his work on "Two and a Half Men," he joked, "to do a project that is about empowering girls and women is kind of a giveback to society."

But the women's suggestions, as well as feedback from workshops Ms. Bogue conducted with local girls and young women here, will help shape the pilot. One of the perks of doing a show in Pittsburgh was immediately apparent when the producers spent an afternoon in the studio, with cameras and an audience, having Ms. Bogue do a run-through.

"If we were doing this in Los Angeles, all that we are doing now would happen in conference rooms and in rehearsal halls in a very private way," Mr. Isacksen said.

"But this is what we have, this is the playpen given to us, so why not take advantage of it?"

For her part, Ms. Bogue said she could happily move here to do the show. She grew up in Lockport, a small town just north of Winnipeg, and said Pittsburgh "is very Winnipeg-ish, right down to the pierogi.

"There is just this mentality, what stands out is this sense of humility. It exists so predominantly, and that is very much a part of where I'm from."

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Steeltown Film Factory inspires local filmmakers
Wednesday, November 14, 2011
By Samantha Ward, CMU's The Tartan

The Regent Square Theatre offers a musty, old Hollywood feel in its crumbling walls and red-velvet aura. On Wednesday night, the small building's lobby was crammed with a mix of a young grungy crowd and what looked like the older version of these 20-somethings, complete with blazers and scraggly beards. This was the Steeltown Entertainment Project's Film Factory Showcase, part of the Three Rivers Film Festival. It was packed with attendees either already in the film industry or just beginning to claw their way in. This was a night to celebrate the burgeoning talent of the blooming film industry of Pittsburgh.

According to the brochure handed to people upon entering, the Steeltown Entertainment Project offers opportunities to entertainment professionals in order to build a more sustainable film and media industry in the Pittsburgh region. The host of the night, Carl Kurlander, a professor at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and writer and producer of shows including Saved By the Bell, raved about the talent of this town through anecdotal stories. In reference to the accelerating growth of the industry, he thanked the audience for "being part of the monster, because it really has become a movement."

This movement is fed by the incubation of projects like the Steeltown Film Factory, which awards winners with $30,000 to produce their short film. In 2010 Yulin Kuang, a senior creative writing major and film and media studies minor, was a top three finalist. Her screenplay, First Kiss, tells the story of a 14-year-old romantic named Adam Schoenberger searching for his first kiss. The film will be shot in Pittsburgh this December and is an "unabashed ode to the agonies of adolescence." The production is made possible with the bountiful help and resources provided by Carnegie Mellon's Filmmaking Club, in which Kuang is an executive officer.

Although First Kiss was not chosen to receive funding from the Film Factory, Kuang will be producing it for her senior thesis and is now fundraising through a crowd-funded platform called Kickstarter, where donors can support online. In order to successfully shoot her film, she hopes to raise $6,000 by Nov. 26. She noted Kickstarter's fickle success rate, though, saying, "I've seen a lot of great projects get funded, and a lot of great projects not get funded." Kuang created a short trailer for First Kiss, which can be viewed online at kickstarter.com. The warm and colorful aesthetic of this short preview alone alludes to the tickled feeling that the film will surely provide. The trailer was shown during the Film Factory Showcase before the work of last year's winner premiered.

Christopher Dimond, a Carnegie Mellon graduate with a master's degree in dramatic writing, won the 2010 competition with his film, Flour Baby, which tells the story of a Catholic school girl who faces the typical childcare assignment of a flour baby in a not-so-typical situation. Directed by Carnegie Mellon faculty member Melissa Martin, the short film features juniors Grace Rao and Gina Le Vine, students in the School of Drama. While the writing was remarkable, the execution of this film just did not seem to follow suit. The cinematography was strangely disjointed, featuring quick paneling of the camera and confusing cuts between characters. The film had amazing potential, yet it seemed to fall short of its high expectations.

Other notable speakers were Lauren Elmer, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in film studies, and Chris Preska, a Pittsburgh native. Elmer is manager of post productions for Sony Pictures Classic, and showed a beautifully shot and endearing short film called Smile about a girl who is in love with her orthodontist. Elmer's own aesthetic seemed to match that of her film: Short, curly haired, and adorned in a baby doll velvet dress, she commanded the attention of the room with an unexpected but pleasant air of experience. She advised the audience of hopeful filmmakers to work with other writers in order to develop their ideas and begin building a team. This idea of building a network is what the Steeltown Entertainment Project hopes to implement here in Pittsburgh.

The following speaker, Chris Preska, created the award-winning sci-fi series The Mercury Men, which can be found on Hulu or on OnDemand. Preska developed the web series on an extremely tight budget of $7,000 for a total of 10 episodes. He showed the first episode, a thrilling black and white piece featuring pounding beats and suspenseful moments reminiscent of The Twilight Zone. Preska shared the phrase he continuously used on set: "limitation breeds creativity." He set high expectations for the series and claimed that he was just stupid enough, and just ambitious enough, to do it. "There was no one to tell me I couldn't ... including myself."

He shared that he has a poster of an Alex Ross painting depicting Super Grover from Sesame Street in his office, and paralleled his own blind ambition to that of Grover. "I love it because in my mind, that's what Super Grover sees," he said. "It's a symbol that you can be greater than your circumstances might typically allow." The second season of The Mercury Men is currently being developed, now with a significantly higher budget.

Pittsburgh may be referred to as an underdog city in the world of filmmaking, but even so, opportunities abound. Pittsburgh is breaking its way into the industry, as best evidenced by the filming of The Dark Knight Rises here this past summer. Students are encouraged to keep their eyes open.