 |
Allan Novak | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Alma mater | York University |
Allan Novak is a Canadian television director and editor.
|
Allan Novak | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Alma mater | York University |
Allan Novak is a Canadian television director and editor.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Novak moved to Toronto at age 20 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film and television at York University. He lives in Toronto.
Novak and Toronto comedian Bruce Bell created a one-hour television movie called The Rise and Fall of Tony Trouble, which screened at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was broadcast on Group W Cable in Manhattan. It has been described as a "cult classic." [1]
While working as a producer/editor for First Choice, Novak produced a series of comedy videos with voice actor Ron Rubin. They won awards at the Video Culture International New Media Festival in 1985 and 1986. Novak was described by the Toronto Star as one of "the world of entertainment's newest crop of movers and shakers." [2]
He produced comedy videos in the mid-1980s for Toronto's The Second City.
Novak worked on the 1985 Genie Award telecast as a writer, and was nominated for the 1986 Gemini Awards. He began directing a children's music video and comedy series called Vid Kids for M&M Productions in 1986 and then The Elephant Show for Cambium Productions. He later directed episodes for Breakthrough Films & Television's The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon , Arts and Youth for TVOntario, OWL/TV for CTV, and Dealing with Drugs and Mission Reading, both for TVOntario.
In 1986 Novak directed and edited comedy segments for a CBC Television summer series called It's Only Rock & Roll. Notable on the series were several location-based sketches that Novak directed featuring Mike Myers as 'Wayne Campbell' and another that debuted Myers' well-known 'Dieter' character - later to appear on 'Sprockets' on Saturday Night Live. Another sketch Novak directed featured Second City's Dana Andersen and Bob Bainbourough as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It was reviewed as: "surely the funniest three minutes you are likely to see on the CBC this summer. Maybe even the year." [3]
In 1989 Novak edited the first season of the Canadian comedy series The Kids in the Hall and then directed location comedy segments for the Newfoundland-based series CODCO for Salter Street Films.
In 1995, he began collaboration with writer-producer-director Ken Finkleman on a series of television programs over the next five years. Novak edited: Married Life which received a Cable ACE nomination for best editing; The Newsroom , season one, a Gemini award winner for best editing; More Tears , Foolish Heart and Foreign Objects . The Globe and Mail columnist John Haslett Cuff called The Newsroom "the hippest and most hilarious show the CBC or any network has produced," [4] and other critics credited Novak's contributions to the structure and pacing as being a significant part of their success. [5] Toronto arts columnist John Allemang said: "Allan Novak's compressed editing did much to give Ken Finkleman's satire its distinctive look" [6]
In 1999, Allan created the Gemini award-winning Loving Spoonfuls, a cooking and culture series about grandmothers, for Winnipeg-based WTN network. The show was renewed for a total of 65 episodes and has been licensed to broadcasters in Finland, Italy, New Zealand, Israel, Nigeria, Singapore, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Brunei and Singapore. Novak then founded his own company, Indivisual Productions.
In 2002, Novak was executive producer and director of The Joke's on Us - 50 Years of CBC Satire. The 90-minute special was nominated for a Best Direction in a Variety Special Gemini award. The next year Allan was executive producer of The Joe Blow Show, a Gemini-nominated pilot for The Comedy Network; he also helped create Second Time Around, a 13-episode comedy reality series for W Network, with host David Gale.
As a freelance director, Novak's credits in the 2000s included Puppets Who Kill for The Comedy Network, Canada's Worst Handyman for Discovery Channel (Canada), and My Parent's House for HGTV.
In 2006 and 2007 Novak created and produced Punched Up, a hybrid comedy-reality series for The Comedy Network. [7]
Novak then began a four-series relationship with Toronto broadcaster Ralph Benmergui. They co-created and co-produced 5 Seekers, a reality series and Gemini nominee for Best Reality Series, Guides and Gurus (profiles of healers), Ralph Benmergui:My Israel (a five-part series on Israel), and God Bless America (religion and politics in America) [8]
Novak has been praised as an original creative force. [9] He is a two-time winner of the Banff World Television Festival I-Pitch award (2004 and 2005), and is a two-term board member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
Between September 2008 and August 2010, Novak was a vice president at Temple Street Productions, a Canadian production company partly owned by BBC Worldwide. Responsible for the company's non-scripted television shows, branded entertainment, and factual programming, Novak developed and sold the concept for a series called Recipe to Riches , which combined the supply chain of a major food manufacturer and store chain, Loblaw, with a reality TV concept. In each episode, a new food product was created and launched in the stores the following weekend. The series aired on Shaw Media's Global TV and Food Network Canada, [10] and then on CBC Television. [11]
In 2011, Novak and producer-director Barri Cohen launched AllScreen Entertainment, a Canada-based production company. [12]
Made in Canada is a Canadian television comedy which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2003. Rick Mercer starred as Richard Strong, an ambitious and amoral television producer working for a company which makes bad television shows. A dark satire about the Canadian television industry, the programme shifted into an episodic situation comedy format after its first season.
The Newsroom is a Canadian television comedy-drama series which ran on CBC Television in the 1996–97, 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons. A two-hour television movie, Escape from the Newsroom, was broadcast in 2002.
Foreign Objects is a Canadian television series which aired on CBC Television in 2001. A short-run dramatic anthology series, the series was written and produced by Ken Finkleman.
Ken Finkleman is a Canadian television and film writer, producer, director, actor, and novelist.
Married Life is a Canadian television comedy-drama series, which aired in 1995. Created by Ken Finkleman as a parody of early 1990s reality television shows such as The Real World and Cops, the series stars Robert Cait and Karen Hines as Frank and Ivy, a young engaged couple who agree to have their first months of marriage documented by television producer George Britton (Finkleman) for a television reality show, only to have Britton manipulate them into decisions, including having extramarital affairs, designed to boost the show's ratings with sensationalism.
Raoul Bhaneja is an English-Canadian actor, musician, writer and producer.
Catherine Annau is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and writer.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 21st Gemini Awards were held on November 4, 2006, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was co-hosted by several celebrities, took place at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia and was broadcast on Global.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 19th Gemini Awards were held on December 13, 2004, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was co-hosted by several celebrities, took place at the John Bassett Theatre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 18th Gemini Awards were held on October 20, 2003, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was hosted by Seán Cullen, took place at the John Bassett Theatre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 13th Gemini Awards were held on October 4, 1998, to honour achievements in Canadian television.. The awards show, which was hosted by Ronnie Edwards and Kenny Robinson, took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 7th Gemini Awards were held in March 1993 to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 9th Gemini Awards were held on March 5, 1995 to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was hosted by Paul Gross and Tina Keeper, took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 12th Gemini Awards were held on March 1, 1998, to honour achievements in Canadian television. There were two awards ceremonies in 1998; the 13th was held on October 4, 1998. The 12th awards ceremony was hosted by Cathy Jones and Steve Smith. It took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
It's Only Rock & Roll is a Canadian television variety show, which aired on CBC Television as a summer series in 1987. Produced by Joe Bodolai and directed by Allan Novak, Henry Sarwer-Foner and Joan Tosoni, the series mixed rock music-themed comedy sketches with live performances by real musicians.
Good God is a Canadian television comedy-drama series which premiered in April 2012 on HBO Canada. The show follows the life of character George Findlay, a role that Ken Finkleman reprised from The Newsroom and subsequent television projects. The series was originally slated to be the second season of Finkleman's previous HBO Canada project Good Dog, but was retitled in accordance with a change in the show's setting.
Ronald Bruce Pittman is a Canadian television and film director best known for directing the 1987 slasher Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. He also directed the 1989 film Where the Spirit Lives, which won the Gemini Award for Best TV movie and numerous international awards.
Recipe to Riches is a Canadian television reality show, in which home cooks from around the country competed to have their recipe become a President's Choice product. Competitors bring their home cooked meal to one of the cross-Canada open casting calls where a panel of judges critique their food based on taste, mass appeal, and marketing potential. The series concept was developed by Allan Novak together with Theresa-Kowall-Shipp.
Saying Goodbye is a Canadian television drama anthology series, which aired on TVOntario in 1990. The series consisted of five half-hour short drama films about people grappling with death, either dealing with grief after the death of a loved one or confronting their own mortality. Each episode was paired with a half-hour studio panel discussion on bereavement moderated by Roy Bonisteel.
Heaven on Earth is a British and Canadian dramatic television film, directed by Allan Kroeker and released in 1987. A coproduction of the BBC and CBC Television, the film centres on a group of orphaned children from the United Kingdom who are sent to Canada as Home Children in the 1910s.
