Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Articles and News

Articles:   Page 1     Page 2     Page 3     Page 4     Page 5    Page 6    Page 7    Page_8  Back
Copyright 1997 The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday 16 September 1997

This show is real garbage
Popular Mechanics for Kids explores composting, sewers and more

By: Kathryn Greenaway

The Montreal Gazette 


MONTREAL -- Elisha Cuthbert and Jay Baruchel had one heck of a summer vacation. The two Montreal teenagers scaled the heights of North America's best roller coaster rides and explored the pungent gloom of Montreal's sewer system. They rode nuclear-powered submarines, exposed a few secrets about film special effects and flew in a hot air balloon. 

All in a day's work. Elisha and Jay are the hosts of a 22-epsisode television series called Popular Mechanics for Kids, which runs Sundays at 11 a.m. on Global. 

The show is the first English-language television series for Montreal's reputable producer of French-language films and television series, SDA Productions, and is inspired by the magazine Popular Mechanics. The show's aim is to examine how and why things function the way they do from a kid's point of view. The co-hosts visit zoos, aircraft carriers, skyscrapers and look behind the scenes at police, ambulance and fire emergency services. They take a look a sports and space flights, bridges and electricity. 

Most of the episodes are shot in Montreal and environs, but the two travelled around North America this summer, shooting on location at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and in cities including Houston, San Diego, Boston, Atlantic City and Toronto. 

During the shooting of episode eight in a home in the Montreal area late last month, the subject was garbage -- the mechanics of composting and recycling our food scraps and sundry junk. The garbage was behaving properly. However, a jovial 18-month-old dog was throwing a wrench into the shooting schedule. The mutt was supposed to cheerfully bark at Jay as the two sparred over the remains of a hot dog. But the pup wouldn't bark. 

Two hours later, way behind and looking a tad tense, the crew and trainer finally coerced an appropriately cheerful retort out of the animal and he galumphed happily off for a nibble and a nap. 

The two hosts weren't so lucky. A brief 15-minute break for a chat with a reporter and it was back to the set to play catch-up with the day's shooting sked. Ah, life in the biz. A steady diet of hurry up and wait. 

"I've learned there are two hard things about acting -- eating food and working with animals," Elisha said. "We did both today." 

Jay looked a tad green around the gills after downing who knows how many hot dogs during the two-hour stint. 

"Bad food, that's my biggest fear in this business," he said with a mischievous grin. 

Bad food and roller coasters. Jay managed to conquer his fear to get the job done during the episode looking at the best rides in North America, but he wouldn't want to repeat the experience. 

On the other hand, Elisha found exploring Montreal's sewer system a challenge. 

"I saw a mouldy rat with blood pouring out of its head," she said. "It was gross!" 

Jay, 15, and Elisha, 14, have a parent with them at every location and a tutor is on standby throughout the shooting schedule to help the two with their studies. Both have been able to maintain above-average marks since they began working in the business. Shooting for Popular Mechanics for Kids began in July and winds up in October. 

"When I don't go to school I have a tutor, but I also learn wherever I go," Jay said. "It's great life experience." 

The two come to acting from entirely different directions. Elisha began modelling when she was six years old and happened upon acting by chance after a family friend suggested her mother take her to an audition. 

She's appeared in two television series -- Are You Afraid of the Dark and Witchboard III -- and her film credits include Dancing on the Moon and Nico the Unicorn. 

"(Elisha) loves what she's doing, but she doesn't bank on a career in acting," said her mother, Pat. "She's always been mature beyond her years and knows how difficult this business can be. She also loves to draw and is a very good artist." 

As for Jay, "I remember he still had his baby teeth when he told his dad he was going to make films," his mother, Robyne, said. 

But Jay doesn't want to be a famous actor. He wants to write and direct -- be the next Tarantino or Spielberg.. 

The gregarious teen began attending acting classes when he was 12. His father wanted him to have an extracurricular activity beyond writing stories and screening videos. 

During his first class he was asked to appear in a Concordia University student film. He was hooked. He has appeared as a guest on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and completed two seasons of the television series My Hometown. 

"It takes a special kind of person to sit for hours and do scenes over and over again," Robyne Baruchel said as she sat waiting for her son to finish. "When he gets to go to school, he finds the hours too easy because he finishes at 4:30 p.m. When he's (shooting the series) 10- or 11-hour days are quite normal." 

How do their friends react to the two travelling the map and getting stopped for autographs? (With the show running in syndication in the United States and coast-to-coast in Canada, the two are bound to be recognized on the street with greater frequency.) 

Elisha rarely discusses her acting life with her friends. 

Jay faces the questions head on. "I just tell them they get a job as a summer camp counsellor and this is my summer job," he said. 

They aren't in this Popular Mechanics thing alone. During each episode they are joined by Charles Powell, who plays an outgoing mechanical genius who conducts experiments during a segment called Charlie's Tips. (He eats a worm during the composting experiment!) 

Powell, 34, shoe-horned the one-day garbage shoot between film shoots in Fiji and New Zealand where he's working on a two-hour pilot movie called The Nightmare Man. He plays a murderous lunatic. 

He's played a few murderous lunatics in recent years and finds the role of Charlie the charming fix-it whiz a nice switch. 

"We don't insult the viewer by writing it down to the lowest common denominator," Powell said as he sat waiting for the dog to bark. "It's a great show. They've let us play a bit." 

Powell approaches the assignment with a measure of knowledge, having completed a Bachelor of Science degree in his native Texas before heading off to L.A. to wait on tables for five years in between acting gigs. 

He moved to Montreal via Los Angeles three years ago after falling in love with Montrealer Bronwyn Booth and has been working steadily ever since in films including Screamers, Hiroshima and The Call of The Wild. 

"I don't miss the earthquakes, mud slides and riots," he said with a grin as he headed off in the general direction of a pile of worms.

 

Thursday, December 24, 1998 

'Mechanics' kid a real family girl
By SHANNON HAWKINS -- Ottawa Sun 

Christmas morning for 16-year-old actress Elisha Cuthbert will begin the same way it has for the past seven years -- awakened before the crack of dawn by younger siblings Jonathan and Lee-Ann, squealing with delight at the presents tucked under the tree. "It wouldn't be Christmas morning without waking up early," says Cuthbert, hinting she'd rather have the chance to sleep in. "We rush downstairs and open our presents with mom and dad and then the whole family shows up for one big party in the afternoon." For the Cuthberts the holiday festivities will begin tonight with a gathering of relatives and friends for a traditional Christmas dinner, complete with all the fixings. "We munch on the best stuffing made by my grandma then we all sit around and talk and watch holiday movies on TV," she says. 

It's that sense of family and togetherness the teen has come to appreciate, especially after filming of her latest project wrapped up on Tuesday. Cuthbert stars as Emily in Who Gets the House, as the eldest of four children dealing with the intricacies of divorce. "It's a family movie that helps kids to understand the separation of divorce," she says. Coming from a strong family unit, Cuthbert drew on the emotions she felt when reading the script and imagining what each character was going through as the family slowly unraveled. "We try all kinds of tricks to get our parents back together and in this movie the outcome is positive. "They end up rediscovering their love and getting back together," she says. The story twists away from the conventional divorce scenario where the children are shuffled off between parents. "Instead of the kids packing up every Friday and going to a different parent's house they stay in the house and the parents visit," says Cuthbert. 

Before filming for Who Gets the House began Cuthbert was at her usual post, co-host of Global's educational children's program Popular Mechanics for Kids. "It's so amazing," she says. "I learn so much each week." Popular Mechanics takes an indepth look at science and technology, explaining how the world operates from a kid's perspective. From inspecting an active volcano in Hawaii to dogsledding and building her own igloo at the North Pole, the 16-year-old Cuthbert has seen more in the past few years than most experience in a lifetime. Her most interesting encounter was meeting U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the White House. "It was really nerve-racking waiting for her in the mapping room," she confesses. "But when she walked in and acted like she'd known us all our lives it was great." During the Popular Mechanics tour of the White House, Clinton offered a few suggestions for future segments for the half-hour program. "One of her main jobs in the White House is to take care of children's programming on TV," says Cuthbert. "She asked if we should do a show about properly cooking food and eliminating the threat of salmonella poisoning," says Cuthbert. "And we did."

 

Article from http://www.ryerson.ca

Science Flair 

For the hosts of Popular Mechanics For Kids, making a stimulating and educational show is child's play 

By Peter McMahon 


On a cold afternoon last fall in Manitoba, Vanessa Lengies was getting ready to rope herself some bear. The Montreal-based journalist was shooting a piece on location in Churchill Falls about the relocation of dangerous polar bears from that town. Normally, the conservation team she was with would trap or tranquilize bears in the wild but none was found today. So it was off by helicopter with a bear caught the day before to place it along its migration path -- 60 kilometers north of the populated area it could have turned into a buffet. As the sedated 450-pound animal lay near Lengies and her crew in the cramped copter, she began to go over her script for the scene in which she would help return the bear to the wild. She was the picture of the poised professional -- if you ignored the fact that she's only 14 years old. 

Lengies is one of three hosts of Popular Mechanics For Kids, a TV news show that aims to educate about the wonders of science and technology within a fast-paced, engaging format. Now in its third year, PMK is building a strong viewership that's challenging kids to become active consumers of news information. 

The result has been not only praise from parents and educators, but an invitation from U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton for Lengies and her colleagues, Elisha Cuthbert and Tyler Kyte, to visit the White House as outstanding presenters of educational programming. Beyond just being entertaining and fun, the show aims to lift kids off the couch and actively show them the world they live in. From seeing how volcanoes work in Hawaii to finding out what it's like to pilot a nuclear submarine to delving into the soul of the North Pole, PMK is constantly trying to raise the bar with each episode. 

"This show makes you want to know more," says Lengies. "It's brain food, but it's also very visually entertaining. It shows kids things they wouldn't normally learn about through the adventures we go on." In her first season as a host, Lengies has already covered snakes in Arizona, driven a Hummer at a specialized driving school and explored cave systems in New Mexico. She says the hosts try to give viewers a sense of being with them for the adventure. "A lot of times, we'll get viewers who were so interested they wished we could have spent even more time on some stories. It's very interactive." 

At 17, Cuthbert is PMK's seasoned pro of the show's hosts and agrees that its popularity and journalistic merit both lie in bringing kids along for extraordinary discovery on a very down-to-earth level. "We have amazing writers," Cuthbert adds. "We learn a lot because it always makes so much sense." In addition to heavily researching each piece, PMK also relies very much on experts and the hosts' playful banter with them to get across complex concepts in a fun way. 

"There's a respect for the audience, in not dumbing things down," says Michelle Lavois, vice-president of youth programming and development for Motion International, the Montreal company that produces PMK. A major player in developing the show's vision, he has taken an active role in continuing to shape it. 'When we canvassed kids about the show, they told us what they already know and what they want to learn more of." 

Lavois says that input has helped keep the show popular and in touch with viewers' interests. Last season, PMK had 250,000 viewers in Canada and more than one million through syndication in the U.S. It frequently ranks among the top 10 children's shows in Canada among six to 12-year-olds and gets about 75 to 100 letters a month from fans. 

Another reason for the show's success has been the hosts' rapport with their audience. Indeed, their squeaky-clean, happy-go-lucky approach to discovery has rubbed off on viewers, prompting them to explore on their own. Cuthbert notes how after a story on how to build your own speakers, viewers wrote in to thank PMK for showing them how to do it at home. She says some viewers have even been inspired to go out and become investigators in their own backyard. "There were these two girls in B.C. who wrote in and told us how they pretend to be the hosts of PMK and go out to interview their dad and talk about how his tractors work," says Cuthbert. "I think educational shows like this will always be around if they can make that sort of connection." 

Cuthbert herself connected most memorably with the North Pole. "When we went up to the North Pole, we actually lived there, ate raw seal meat, learned how to build an igloo and went dogsledding. When we're working, we don't really stop and think about it, but later, we'll stop and say, 'Wasn't that incredible? And now other people are going to be able to see it too."' 

In the 1999/2000 season, the show has also tackled topics outside of science and technology like culture and lifestyles, history and the supernatural. Will the format-tweaking pay off? Lavois believes so. "There are eight-year-olds now watching shows for 18-year-olds. You couldn't have done this show 10 years ago. But kids will watch anything that piques their interest because it's more than just static content. Knowledge today is empowering." 

Meanwhile PMK continues to bring engaging, interesting journalism to youth. Not long ago, Kyte was on an ocean shoot in the Caribbean. Even before he was all the way in the steel observation cage, a school of 12-foot-long blue sharks closed in from the darkness to circle around Kyte and the cameraman. Gutted fish, gushing fresh blood and waved by a diver in a protective suit, ensured the sharks didn't attack. As they devoured their lunch, Kyte wished he could swim outside the cage to see more. Though his contract forbids him from doing so, he continued on to learn all he could and -- if they want -- so can his viewers. 

Back