The people behind the CBC television program called Village On A Diet were in Squamish on Monday (March 14) to determine whether Squamish is a good place to produce their next series.
Four representatives of Force Four Entertainment outlined the premise of the show and answered questions at a packed meeting in the Squamish Adventure Centre.
Sean De Vries, director of development with Force Four, said his company isn't planning a reality show. He said the series will focus on how members of a community build wealth and save money. According to De Vries, it will be transformative and produced in an uplifting way in a documentary format for broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
De Vries confirmed that Squamish isn't the only community being looked at.
The team from Force Four reported that they are looking for people in an adventurous community with compelling money issue stories to tell.
Force Four plans to use a template similar to the one used for Village On A Diet. In that show, the production company challenged the northern B.C. town of Taylor to lose a ton of collective weight in three months.
For their next show, they are thinking of challenging the chosen community to collectively amass $1 million.
"The goal is to provide a town the opportunity to grow its wealth," said De Vries.
Resident Craig Davidiuk was inspired and said the show would give the community an opportunity to find its identity.
John Ritchie, one of the Force Four partners, said the show won't just be about getting rich. "It is about giving back," he said.
Ritchie said his company is out to change the lives of the people who participate so there's a lasting positive improvement in their lives.
Ritchie encouraged those at the meeting to check with the people of Taylor to get a sense of the change that community experienced through Village On A Diet.
"If you look at some of the people we focused on, you'll see how their lives were changed forever," Ritchie said.
Suzanne Kenney of Brackendale wanted to know more about the stories being sought. She started to talk about a plumbing issue at her house and how her husband was walking the dog when he met up with a friend who happened to be a plumber willing to do work in trade for services that friends could provide. Ritchie and his team stopped her tale and said hers was the kind of story they want.
The biggest crowd response came when Peter Cooper pointed out that if the show is produced in Squamish, it will be a grassroots initiative.
"If we make money, we'd get to choose what to do with it, not council," Cooper said.
There were many questions from the people packed into the Squamish Adventure Centre café. Through the questions it was learned that pre-planning is to be finished by the end of May, with production running from June until the end of August. De Vries said two or three small crews will capture the footage. Only those who want to be involved will be filmed, the television producers said.
According to De Vries, about a month from now - once the participating town is chosen - his company will shoot a demo over the course of two or three days. The demo will illustrate what the show will look like and introduce the characters.
Before that happens, De Vries said Squamish will need to show a strong desire to be the setting.
"Send us compelling stories that we're going to want to follow that are going to say major transformation can occur in this person's life," De Vries said.
The Force Four representatives are encouraging Squamish residents to send their stories through email at [email protected].
He added that mass participation through a Facebook page set up by a resident will help Squamish's case. The page is called "Bring a TV show to Squamish." On Tuesday (March 15), the page had more than 400 "likes." De Vries said his team would be impressed if the number of "likes" grows to about "two or three thousand."
