working title:

Greater Sum: Ontario

What truly makes up a province is the sum of its people.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Genre: Lifestyle / Documentary

Parts Unknown meets Exit Though The Gift Shop
Runtime: 16 x 22 Minutes
Production Company: Fieldwork

EPs: Ian Carleton & Ben Rayner

 

Log Line.

‎‏A series that explores the intertwined relationship between the people who do interesting things throughout small-town Ontario, and how their supply chain carries creativity across the rural landscape.

By following a friend through their day, you meet a vast community.

Concept.

As Ontario shifts to life post pandemic, the landscape for the creative individual continues to metamorphose.  With the cost of city living skyrocketing, the borders of the rural / urban divide are smudging as Ontarian’s reimagine where home is and what is needed to create a life for ourselves.

The creative populations migrating away from the city are merging with the existing body of artisans, restauranteurs and creators who have long seen the country and home as one.  The tangent avenues and interests of these people, their communities, and the intertwined relationships with their piers, whether across the street or across the province, are coming together to redefine what life looks like outside of the city.

Greater Sum is a series that aims to explore rural Ontario’s creative identity and how as a whole the province is greater than the sum of its scattered individual parts. The series digs deeply into the restaurants, artisans, and unique individuals that you might only get to know by spending time outside of the city. The result is an insider’s guide to the emerging ethos of the province.

Episode Arc.

Each episode of Greater Sum focuses on a single person and their craft, job, or passion. The audience is introduced to their space to experience their world from a fly on the wall perspective, which quickly evolves into a subject hosted, day-in-the-life journey.
The subject takes the audience through their craft to show the beauty and challenges of their work, exposing its value alongside it’s busted seams. The subject then leads the audience on a journey through their favourite things to do, eat, see, hang, play, or simply spend time with. This vantage point offers context on how existing outside the city influences the niche work the subject has devoted their life to.

Through each episode the subject will introduce us to their favourite artist, grocer, chef, specialist, or personality who is somehow a fixture in their daily journey. That person then becomes the subject of the next episode. This will create an ongoing chain of connection that will leads us on an in depth web though rural Ontario.

 

Style.

The series is presented in a first-person documentary style with each episode’s subject interacting in a direct-to-camera format. As such, the crew may occasionally interact with the subject, breaking the fourth wall, and instilling an informal ride-along energy through the journey.

 

Pulling the Thread.

The magic of Greater Sum is the way the show illuminates the interconnectivity of the province and how each part is affected by the next.

 

Season Structure

The season episodes will move fluidly from one subject to the next, revealing a deep connection the subjects have fostered despite the sometimes vast physical distances between them. The end result is an emotional bond formed by the shared experience of life outside the city.

 
 

Episode Breakdown Example.

 

  • A crude stop-motion of Ontario in map-form broken down by communities, outlining where the show has travelled through and where this episode will begin.

    (30 seconds )

  • Cold open on episode’s host telling the audience who they are and what they identify as professionally.

    (4 minutes)

  • Beginning hosts daily routine to travel to work. We travel with the host as they talk to us about why their morning rituals are important to them and how it sets up their day. We may meet other community characters along the way.

    (4 minutes)

  • A mixed style of direct to camera interview and in situation breakdown of work type, colleagues, influences, and passion which has brought our subject to be spending their life devoted to this persuit.

    (7.5 minutes)

  • The host takes us on a reprieve from work and shows us the ritual or special treat found in rural living that brings happiness to their day. We may meet other personalities through this experience.

    (2.5 Minutes )

  • We follow the host as they reveal a night-time secret that they love to do. This activity may influence their work (experienced earlier) or may simply add further balance to their life. We meet other personalities as we experience this activity with them.

    (2.5 minutes)

  • Final thoughts from the host, and overview of the significance of their community and work.