Executive producer Ivon Bartok on-location with Captain Starship. Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
What 12-year-old Sci-Fi fan would not love to have a friend or family member who actually stars in his or her own TV series. Kevin Sullivan is one such kid. His uncle is, in fact, Pauly Sullivan, who plays Captain Frank Lucas on Captain Starship. When the preteen’s rock star “groupie,” mom takes off to follow yet another band, Kevin moves in with his uncle. Having such a level-headed kid as Kevin around turns out to be a real wake-up call for Pauly, whose newfound TV success has caused him to lose sight of what is really important in life.
Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett of Stargate Atlantis fame) stars as Pauly Sullivan/Captain Frank Lucas in Captain Starship, a pilot for a potential TV series. One of its executive producers is Ivon Bartok, who, for the past 13 years as worked for the successful Stargate franchise. He and McGillion recently came together with actor/writer Michael Northey and writer/producer/director Jesse Miller with the hope of bringing Captain Starship to the small screen.
Our hero - Pauly Sullivan/Captain Frank Lucas (as played by Paul McGillion). Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
“Michael Northey, who plays one of the characters [Dropkick] in Captain Starship, is a really good friend of Paul McGillion’s and he came up with the idea for the show,” says Bartok. “It’s a half-hour comedy where Paul’s character of Pauly Sullivan just happens to be the lead in of this low-budget Sci-Fi show, but the real story of Captain Starship is about his life outside of work and dealing with his friends and family. In the pilot, Pauly is forced to make some changes in his life when his nephew Kevin [Quinn Lord] comes to live with him. Michael wrote the pilot script a while back and when we read it we loved it and thought it was really funny. A year or so ago, Michael, Paul, Jesse and I met for lunch and decided, ‘OK, what do we have to do to make this happen,’ and that’s where it all began.
“We wanted to create something we would have fun with. When you’re trying to tell a story, be it a movie, a short film or a TV show, it’s a great deal of work, so we wanted to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves while we were doing it. Paul, Michael, Jesse and I are fortunate enough to know a number of very talented actors here in Vancouver and everyone in Captain Starship are our friends. I mean, bringing someone like Michael Shanks [Dr. Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1], who plays Paul’s nemesis, Brock Hunter, was a real coup. Then there’s Erin Karpluk, who is in a very popular Canadian TV show called Being Erica, She plays Paul’s girlfriend [Candace Cooper]. Michael Northey is in Being Erica as well and gave Erin a copy of the Captain Starship script to read. She loved it, too, and said, ‘Yes, I want to come onboard and play that character.’
Kevin (Quinn Lord) and Uncle Pauly (Paul McGillion). Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
“Doogle [Donny Lucas], The Commodore [Rick Dobran], Droopy Dave [Alister Abel], Shirley [Ellie Harvey], Jamie [Gina Chiarelli], they’re all friends of ours. The only character we actually casted for was Kevin, who’s played by Quinn Lord, an up and coming actor who just knocked it out of the park. He was so great to have on-set and terrific in the role. Quinn has been in a number of things including [the movies] The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Trick ‘r Treat, and now he’s busy working on several other things. So, again, it really was a situation where we said, ‘OK, we’ve got a script that we really like and we’d love to shoot this with actors who can obviously do the job, but who we also know and are friends with, and no one said no.’”
Having assembled their cast, Bartok and his fellow executive producers had to put the remaining pieces of the puzzle into place before the cameras could begin rolling. “The first question we had to answer was, ‘What are we going to do about money?’ So we all put in a little bit of cash,” notes Bartok, “but ultimately when you’re doing something like this you can’t pay everyone. We ended ups shooting the Captain Starship pilot for around $12,000, and we used a RED camera, so it looks fantastic.
The gang's all here (L-R): Dropkick (Michael Northey), Doogle (Donny Lucas), Kevin (Quinn Lord), The Commodore (Rick Dobran), Pauly (Paul McGillion) and Dave (Alister Abel). Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
“Once we had our cast and the money, we had to find our crew along with filming locations. We were lucky enough to get guys like Ryan Purcell, who was one of the lead steadi-cam operators on Stargate Universe and Grizz Salzi, who was the DOP [director of photography on Captain Starship and also a camera operator on Stargate. Everyone we asked wanted to be involved and jumped onboard. Again, like our actors, none of the crew said, ‘No.’ The only time someone did was if they had already committed to another job.
“As far as locations, we shot some of our scenes at Bridge Studios and in the Stargate Universe studios [at Bridge Studios] as well as the show’s production office. [Series co-creator/executive producer] Brad Wright was kind enough to say, ‘Yes,’ and allowed us to film there. We also shot some of the main scenes involving the Pauly Sullivan character at a friend’s condo in downtown Vancouver.
(L-R): Director Jesse Miller, Paul McGillion and Ivon Bartok discuss a scene. Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
"Of course we had to follow protocol and the order that anyone would when shooting a TV show, but we had to do it without spending a ton of money. Having said that, we wanted to make sure it was done right and everyone involved felt like we were making a professional product. We weren’t doing a student film, which we’ve all done. We were trying to make a show with the intention of eventually selling it and having it picked up by a network. That certainly is the goal.”
Shot over the course of four days, Bartok chuckles when asked about the actual filming process for Captain Starship. “You don’t sleep much the night before the first day of shooting,” he says. “You’re worried because you want everything to go right and run smoothly, especially when you’re bringing in all these people who are willing to give up their free time to do something like this with you.
Brock Hunter (Michael Shanks) and Pauly (Paul McGillion). Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
“It was late November and prior to that the weather had been just fine. However, I woke up on our first day of shooting, which involved doing exterior scenes on a balcony, and there was a huge snowstorm going on. The weather was so bad I had trouble driving to the condo, but despite the lousy weather, everyone showed up on time. People were out shoveling and doing whatever needed to be done. During the first three hours of that day we were all so stressed out and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, we’re not going to accomplish everything we need to do.’ Again, though, the entire cast and crew jumped in and went above and beyond the call of duty. It was just amazing.
“When it comes to the overall filming process, everyone could not have been more prepared, from our director, Jesse Miller, to the cast and crew. We shot three days at the condo and then one day at Bridge Studios and we managed to get it done. Usually it takes an episode to get your rhythm, but I think after day one we found our rhythm. Jessie steered the ship incredibly well. Everyone realized that we had a slight time constraint and, again, just knocked it out of the park.
(L-R): Paul McGillion, Ivon Bartok and "friend" on the set of Captain Starship. Photo by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and copyright of Ivon Bartok.
“It was an extremely supportive [creative] environment. And I’ve got to tell you that Paul McGillion is so good in this. His character has a bit of a ragtag bunch of buddies around him, but his subtleties and comedic timing is fantastic. One of my favorite scenes in the entire pilot is one between Michael Shanks and Paul. Those two guys were great together and Michael is really funny. He should be doing some comedy, and if we’re lucky enough to get this going, I hope it’s something that Michael can be a part of on a regular basis.”
With the Captain Starship pilot shot, the next, and perhaps hardest, part of the creative process is drumming up sufficient interest to one day bring a weekly series to the small screen. “We’re getting the word out there and starting to show the pilot to those who need to see it, which is pretty exciting,” enthuses Bartok. “It’s fantastic to be in this type of creative mode, especially with people like Jesse, Michael and Paul. We recently had a cast and crew screening of the pilot and everyone was really happy with the finished product. It was a nice evening and we were so pleased that everyone felt that the work they had put into the project was well worth it. That gave us an extra boost of confidence. Now we just have to wait and see what happens next.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, all photos by Lawren Bancroft Wilson and courtesy/copyright of Ivon Bartok, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Excellent interview Steve and Ivon. I love hearing how films and TV shows are made. Its all the little things you never usually hear about to get the final product onto the screen.
I'm intrigued by this group. I'm wondering if the humour is along the lines of GalaxyQuest or a little darker...among many other things..
Good luck with the pilot. I hope it gets picked up and we get to see it in Australia.
Cheers, Maryanne
@imwebgurl
p.s. awesome photos Lawren!!
Posted by: Imwebgurl | 05/10/2011 at 05:34 PM
I hope this is picked up by SyFy. It would be good to see some of the fine actors of Canada having a laugh with us.
Posted by: Debi C | 05/23/2011 at 07:50 PM
Huh? That sounds a lot like David Hewletts "Starcrossed"-idea.
PatK
Posted by: PatK | 05/30/2011 at 04:27 PM
Oh man you shot on November 25th I take it. I will remeber that day for a while. Minutes from work and I fight with a flowerbed. Spent the next two months on crutches with a fractured right ankle.
Can't wait to see this. Hopefully SPACE channel will pick it up. Or any of the film festivals here in Vancouver.
Posted by: Ann-Marie Sloan | 05/31/2011 at 08:24 PM