Minister of New Brunswick, Hedard Albert, sends his letter of congratulations for our pilot awards at Banff.

Thank you, Minister Albert, and all of those who help support our work here in New Brunswick!

I am flying back East across the country. It is time to get home and sleep in my own bed for just one night, the idea of being home with my family is helping this weary flyer as he writes his next blast of randomness and run-on sentences! An hour ago I was on the phone with CBC radio doing an interview about our surprising but ridiculously re-inspiring wins last night at the Banff World Television Festival. We won three international awards for our best pilots. So surprised and stoked was I when I was called to the stage for the third time! I delivered Bear hugs to each of my presenters including Alberta’s Minster of Culture Lindsay Blackett! Ha ha. The party afterwards was sick; there is an incredible place in the woods with two very large circular yurt-like wooden buildings with a massive hole in the ceiling to the sky creating a chimney for the large indoor bonfires in both of the buildings. House beats on vinyl in one building and old school funk from a band in the other, Hammond B3 and Lesley Amplifiers in full affect. Lots of celebrating to be had for the wrap up of the best Banff / nextMEDIA yet in my humble opinion.

My biggest inspirational human experience this week was meeting Nadia G from Bitchin’ Kitchen…if you don’t know her brand, check it out on line…she is the face of the future. Certainly a cross platform game changer. Thanks Nadia for rockin’ so hard!!! The funniest human experience was listening to Kenny of Kenny & Spenny, Ricky Jarvais of the Office and William Shatner, what a triage of hams! That’s fine f***ing ham mom! The coolest human experience was listening to Vincent Gilligan, creator and Executive Producer of Breaking Bad (as well as X-Files). Breaking Bad is such a cool show; it’s always amazing to hear the inspirations from the creators themselves. My blast to the past experience was bumping into Jason Priestly all over the place, yes Beverly Hills 90210 was a fav of mine in my younger years!

So as I write this I am exhausted, we got to bed after 1 in the morning, woke up 3 hours later to get Tidby to the airport for his 6am flight this morning. Exhausted but still buzzed from a very intensely smile-filled week. I am writing as a band called “Boom Box” is thumping sweet beats in the ear buds. “To Mexico, meet me at the West Coast, take your time…” Andrew MacCormack gave me this gem of an album, the singer is the son of the Donna from the Grateful Dead; you can definitely hear the Dead influences in his vocals and guitar grooves as he mixes funky electro-beats to keep my brain active. Check the album out, not a disappointment!

The awards that I receive need to always be deflected to the whole team at Hemmings House Pictures who are the ones in the battle field actually creating the stories and the visual adventures that attract the attention that we receive. I am always uncomfortable accepting credit for our company as I am only a part of the machine that creates the world class HHP experience. I want to share an email that Andrew just sent me this morning after hearing about the wins. Andrew is the one that edited the 3 nominated and winning promos. He is truly a talent, as is the whole team who helped produce the images and the stories, a true collaborative experience. This email that Andrew sent was very touching for me to read. It is very encouraging to have a team that supports each other the way we do.

Here is his note:

I was so pumped for you last night that we won those awards. I know it’s a team effort and everything, but it all exists because of you bro. Without you, none of this would ever have happened. I know how much of you ass has been put on the line to keep this company alive and keep us employed and there were probably lots of times you could have just packed it in. I’m really proud and honored to be a part of this company. It feels nice, (along with the Papikatuk award etc…) that when we least expect it, people recognize our work as being “world class”. That is a thought that I take very seriously and inspires me to continue to give it all for HHP and you.

Glad you were there to win the awards man!

That’s awesome…thanks Andrew!

“Hemmings House Pictures Wins Multiple International Awards at the nextMEDIA Interactive & Pilots Awards”

Banff, Alberta, June 16th, 2010

Atlantic Canadian based media production company Hemmings House Pictures was honored at the Banff World Television Festival on Wednesday. Greg Hemmings accepted three awards at the nextMEDIA Interactive & Pilots Awards. The awards honor the future of television programming, as well as showcasing the talent and creativity of international producers. Three Hemmings House pilots were nominated in the Pilots Competition.

Sistema is a documentary about the Venezuelan classical music social program, Cubicle to the Cage is a TV series about a group of ordinary people being transformed into Mixed Martial Arts cage fighters, and Wrestling With Reality is a series following professional wrestlers as they strive to stay in the spot light. Sistema and Cubicle to the Cage both won in their categories, with the third win being the top honor given to Sistema winning for the “Best Overall Pilot”. Hemmings is excited to represent his team who has worked for many months to produce the three pilots which will be the beginning of the next season of the company’s production slate. “I am so proud to be part of the team at Hemmings House Pictures. Being recognized at this iconic international event helps us to continue creating within our province, and puts us on the map.” Sistema will broadcast on CBC, Cubicle to the Cage is in development with Toronto’s Portfolio Entertainment, and Wrestling With Reality has just been sold in Europe to the Extreme Channel.

Saint John, New Brunswick native and Banff Television Festival employee Sara Thorley-Titus attended the awards saying, “The awards that Hemmings House Pictures took home tonight are very important for the New Brunswick film industry, it was exciting to have the province represented so well, and recognized internationally.” New Brunswick producers Andrew Tidby of Tidby Pictures, Tony Whalen of Shore Road Pictures, and Richard McQueen of Realm Productions Coalition, Mark Bishop of Marble Media and the film industry government representative Sandra Jamieson were also at Banff representing the province. This was the 31st year of the Banff World Television Festival.