Amanda Tapping directing the season three Continuum episode "Wasted Minute." Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
In her roles as Air Force officer Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1 and Dr. Helen Magnus in Sanctuary, actress Amanda Tapping became caught up in a number of strange, albeit fictional, events including traveling back in time and glimpses into the future. Such things served her well when stepping behind the camera to direct multiple episodes of the Canadian Sci-Fi TV series Continuum, in which Kiera Cameron, a CPS (City Protective Services) officer from 2077 Vancouver, is sent back in time to deal with a terrorist group from her own time called Liber8. Tapping’s initial introduction to the show and its production team was through a social event.
“I met Pat Williams, who is one of the executive producers/directors on Continuum, at a Christmas party for a dear friend of mine who also happens to be a director in Vancouver,” she recalls. “Pat and I began talking and he said, ‘Send us your demo tape.’ So I did, and I subsequently received a phone call from the show’s offices telling me that they [the show’s producers] wanted to meet with me. I had a 45-minute interview talking about the style of Continuum, and it was really interesting because it took place on-set because Pat happened to be directing an episode.
“Coincidentally, I knew half the crew from other shows that I had worked on. Simon Barry [series creator/executive producer/director/writer] came down to the set, and then Rachel Nichols [Kiera Cameron] walked up to Simon and Pat and said, ‘Oh, please, hire her.’ It was fantastic. Everywhere I turned there was a friendly face saying, ‘Hi, Amanda.’ I ended up getting the job, and it was quite exciting because it was one of those situations where I didn’t really know any of the people who were running the show. So it was a big deal to walk into a brand new job and one where I wasn’t shooting my own material.”
(L-R): Rachel Nichols (Kiera Cameron) and Amanda Tapping on-location filming season three's "Wasted Minute." Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
Tapping made her Continuum directorial debut with the show’s season two penultimate episode Second Last. In it, Liber8’s present day leader, Travis Verta (Roger Cross) gets his hands on a CPS suit, and Kiera’s partner, Detective Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster), searches for a way to clear her name when she is accused of murder.
“The script was terrific, but it was also incredibly action-driven,” says Tapping. “The last act-and-a-half was pure action and I’d never done anything like that before, so I was petrified but thrilled at the same time. I had watched the entire first season of Continuum and several season two episodes, so I was really stoked to get behind the camera. This episode was a real collaboration, in particular, between the first AD [assistant director] Ian Samoil, Kimani Ray Smith, who’s the show’s stunt coordinator, and me. The three of us went to the location together and said, ‘This is a five-on-five fight; let’s map it out.’ We came up with the fight together, and I told them, ‘I want to throw somebody through a window here, I want to shoot up those windows there, and I want someone to go flying off the roof here. How do we connect those beats?’ The end result was amazing.
“We filmed a number of scenes in downtown Vancouver as well as did some night shoots, and the crew along with the cast was really accommodating. With Rachel, I felt like I had to win her over. That was my own perception, not hers, but I thought, ’She’s the lead. She’s working her butt off, and I know what that’s like. She’s exhausted and not only needs to be protected but feel safe, too.’ I think within the first hour together, Rachel and I were like best friends. I have a tremendous amount of respect for her and she is also a very disciplined actor, which was great for me. I could say, ‘Rachel, could you do this?’ and she would just dive in and do it.
Amanda Tapping and Victor Webster (Detective Carlos Fonnegra). Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
“So my first time on Continuum was a fun and joyful experience. Simon Barry is one of my favorite human beings. He’s a fantastic, smart, funny and unbelievably gracious guy, so that made it easy for me to be on that set. I felt so very welcomed and everyone couldn’t have been more accommodating. When we finished, I was exhausted, but in a good way. Every day I’d turn to the script supervisor [Laura Collini] and say, “This is so much fun.’ When we wrapped that episode, I said to myself, ‘OK, now I feel like a director.”
The actress’ positive experience directing Continuum was obviously a mutual one, because she was invited back this year to direct not one but two more episodes, Wasted Minute and Waning Minute, which were both shot at the same time.
“When you block shoot, you prep the two episodes simultaneously, and my block, which was 14 days of shooting, included eight days out of ‘the zone,’” explains Tapping. “That means we were shooting on-location outside of what is considered the zone, which is the lower BC [British Columbia] mainland. So I had to pick the eight days that we would be filming in the middle of nowhere, which wasn’t easy,” she says with a laugh. “Most of my prep for that was spent on a location bus, first trying to find the locations and then driving to and from them. We went up to Squamish as well as Britannia Beach and Britannia Mine, which is this massive, beautiful building that petrified me, but ended up being one of the most amazing locations. We also shot way out in Pitt Meadows at a blueberry factory, and we were like, OK, we can make this a green screen stage, turn this into the headquarters for Liber8, and use this little room as one of its offices. We found something like five locations in this one building, which was brilliant.
(L-R): Luvia Petersen (Jasmine Garza), Rachel Nichols (Kiera Cameron) and Amanda Tapping on-location for "Wasted Minute." Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
“Prep, to me, is astounding because you’re asked a million questions and you’re expected to give a million answers. You also make really quick decisions and then you sort have to live or die by them. That’s why I’m not afraid to say, ‘I don’t know. I’ll figure it out and let you know.’ Other times it’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, let’s do that,’ or, ‘No, no, no, we’re not going to do that.’ Then you immediately run back to your office and write down what you said yes and no to so that you don’t muck it all up when it comes to the actual day. Speaking of mucking it up, another location we shot at was a waste management facility, or what I called the ‘poo’ factory. Thankfully it was wintertime because apparently in August it’s unbearable. Even that, however, became fun. It was like, yes, we’re shooting at night in the poo factory – just smile and nod, smile and nod. It’s wonderful.
“One of the toughest locations we filmed in was a quarry. We had two days there, one with half day/half night, so we shot day one, which was windy, cold and everything just looked amazing. On the second day I got to the quarry about an hour early; a massive windstorm had blown up during the night and it was still howling. Half the set had blown away and the catering tent had collapsed. The caterers actually had to serve breakfast out of the back of their truck as opposed to the side of the truck because the wind was too strong.
“Our assistant locations manager said to me, ‘I don’t know what to do. What can we do?’ Of course, this was the day that I had the cranes, which I couldn’t use in the wind, and I had actors walking along these little ridge lines. It was the worst possible day to have wind, and, as I mentioned, half the set had slid down into the quarry, which really didn’t matter because it was a crash scene, but we still had to retrieve these big pieces of set and stick them into the side of a hill. Everything was at a standstill, so I called one of the producers and said, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do. Can you get up here? In the meantime, I’m going to walk around and figure out some new locations.’
(L-R): Omari Newton (Lucas Ingram), Roger Cross (Travis Verta), Amanda Tapping, Lexa Doig (Sonya Valentine) and Luvia Petersen (Jasmine Garza). Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
“After I hung up the phone, I thought, ‘Right, we’re going to work this out.’ The shot list I had come up with and that looked very Lord of the Rings ended up more like Planet of the Apes, but you know what, it turned out fine. The wind, which is an element you can’t buy in production without the constant use of huge fans, really helped sell the story. It was stark, it was bleak, and by nighttime we were able to get one of the cranes up, so those shots looked incredible. The next day I had to gather the entire crew together to tell them how phenomenal the shots looked and to thank them because no one complained. It was bitterly cold, we were on uneven ground trying to brace ourselves against the wind, and people were exhausted, but everyone gave it their all. I was just so proud of them.
“I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed my experience this year on Continuum. It had a little bit of a different vibe to it compared to season one. Last year, although there were huge stunts and fights, it felt far more contained, whereas the two episodes I did this season were on a bigger scale. I went in did my edit and was really happy with what I saw and the performances were outstanding. Again, I had a great time.”
Prior to season two of Continuum, Tapping directed the CBC TV series Arctic Air starring Adam Beach, whose character of Bobby Martin returns home to Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories to help run his family’s struggling airline business following his father’s death. The job on Arctic Air could not have come at a more opportune time for the actress.
Amanda Tapping directs Tony Amendola (Edouard Kagame) and Lexa Doig (Sonya Valentine) on-location for the Continuum season three episode "Waning Minute." Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
“After I finished Sanctuary, I did a couple of movies, and then Primeval: New World came along,” she says. “That was the first show I directed that I wasn’t in. Primeval was a great primer for me; it had a fantastic cast and it was a challenging show to work on, but fun as well. I directed three episodes – one right after the other – but after I finished, I went through this patch where I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. I didn’t know whether or not I wanted to be in this industry any more. I didn’t know if I wanted to act, and I didn’t know if I wanted to direct, either. It was weird, because my directing career was taking off, and, again, I had done three movies, so the acting was going good, too. I think it was the postmortem of Sanctuary; I had started to mourn the loss of the show and I had hit a [creative] lull.
“That’s when I received a phone call from Gary Harvey, the show runner from Arctic Air. He asked me if I’d like to direct a season two episode and I said, ‘Wow, yes.’ Gary’s offer just came out of the blue, and his timing couldn’t have been better. I directed the episode [Fool Me Once] and it was phenomenal. I fell in love with the industry again and the job of filmmaking, not that I hadn’t felt that way before, but for some reason I hit this wall, I guess, of mourning. So Gary Harvey sort of salvaged me. I worked on Arctic Air just before Christmas [2012] when I met Pat Williams, then I did Continuum and it sort of snowballed from there.
“It’s very interesting how one thing leads to another thing, and how one thing feeds another. So I did the Arctic Air episode, followed by an episode of Continuum. I was then brought back for two more episodes of Arctic Air [in season three] as well as two more episodes of Continuum, and I think that’s the way it was supposed to play out. It’s not easy on your stress levels because you never know what’s going to happen next or where your next paycheck is coming from, but it has been quite a ride, and I’ve never felt more comfortable in my director’s skin than I do now.”
Amanda Tapping directing Rachel Nichols (Kiera Cameron) on-location for season three's "Waning Minute." Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
As with Continuum, the actress has nothing but good things to say about Arctic Air and its cast and crew. “I would describe it as a very gentle, lyrical type of show, and it was a lovely place to be,” says Tapping. “Again, in season three I block shot two well-written First Nations-centered stories, and it was important to me that I honored the First Nations culture as well as the actors. I did a ton of research and spent a great deal of time with one of the writers, Penny Gummerson, going through my ideas for the show. I also had the great privilege of going to Yellowknife. It was cold, there was a blizzard and, yes, I loved it. That was another instance where I turned to the script supervisor, Susan Williams, who I’d worked with before, and the two of us were like, ‘We’re having such a good time.’ When I finished Arctic Air and got back from Yellowknife I felt revived.
“I know I sound like Pollyanna here, but you’ve got to find joy in what you do, otherwise there is no creative process, and no one feels creative around you if you don’t create a joyful atmosphere. When you feel joy on-set, those around you will respond, and when you’re invigorated and joyful about the experience, people are, too. I’ve been really blessed that I love what I do, and there’s a joy in being around fantastic people to do it with.”
Besides her directing work, Tapping can be seen in the recently released feature film Kid Cannabis along with the upcoming Hell in a Handbag, in which she plays Mother Superior. “Kid Cannabis was a really cool project to work on,” enthuses the actress. “It’s based on a true story and a Rolling Stone article about a young kid who smuggled a lot of marijuana across the Canadian/U.S. border. I play his mom, which I don’t often get asked to do, surprisingly, and I had a blast. Jonathan Brown plays my son [Nate Norman], and he was so delightful. This is his first big break and he’s someone to keep an eye on. It’s a very gritty kind of story and a bit intense and sexy. My favorite line in the film is, ‘What’s the big deal. It’s not like he’s smuggling heroin; it’s just pot.’
“Hell in a Handbag was written, produced and directed by [actor] Martin Cummins, who was on [the TV series] Poltergeist: The Legacy. He asked me if I’d be in it and I said, ‘You bet, off course.’ It’s a story about a multidenominational group of exorcists – including a rabbi and a priest – that go around exorcising demons. I play Mother Superior and a friend of mine, Lochlyn Munro, plays a priest [Father David], and when we were on-set and dressed in our full religious garb, people were very respectful and polite. No one swore around us, which I found quite amusing. It’s a terrific film and, I very much hope, the first in a series.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, all photos copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Lets not forget Amanda was also on Supernatural
Posted by: Dorothea Oster | 06/03/2014 at 10:24 PM
brilliant great to see more amazing filming to be launched again soon can hardly wait:)
Posted by: linka crosby | 06/04/2014 at 10:34 PM