Wherever you go, you can always come home.
Award-winning, locally filmed web series The Drive – which follows the lives and loves of friends residing on Commercial Drive in east Vancouver – has wrapped principal photography on its second season and will soon be headed into post-production.
“I feel like this time around, we knew what we were in for,” said executive producer Nick Hunnings. “We tried to raise the bar for everything, in terms of our writing, the characters and where we wanted to go.”
Hunnings and the East Van Entertainment team began developing the script in 2010. In 2013, an Indiegogo campaign raised $7,500 to cover production costs; the team then received a Telus Optik Local grant in late 2014 that allowed them to go ahead with getting the web series onto screens.
The series premiered on Telus Optik TV’s video-on-demand platform in 2015 and since then, it has snagged Leo Awards for best web series and best actress in a web series (Jen Cheon in the role of Gina), TO Web Fest recognition for best ensemble cast, and Vancouver Web Fest recognition for best director (Stuart Gillies).
The series also received five nominations at L.A. Web Fest, and the award of excellence at the Accolade Global Film Competition. It has screened in Spain and has found distribution in Europe and Latin America.
“We were really kind of blown away by how well it was received,” said Hunnings. “It definitely exceeded what we were anticipating.”
He said the international reception has served to reinforce the production team’s belief that there is universal appeal in the human stories being told, even if they are anchored in something as local and specific as a 20-block street in east Vancouver.
In the period after the first season and before filming for the second season began, Hunnings and his wife, fellow producer Lindsay Drummond, also became first-time parents to a baby boy.
“As a filmmaker, it just broadens the scope in which you see the world,” Hunnings said of how the changes in his personal life affected his contribution to The Drive. “Season 2 is about family and that theme became more and more recurring as we were writing so it definitely seeped into the storyline for sure.”
Nick Hunnings (left, as Leo) and Jen Cheon (right, as Gina) film a scene for East Van Entertainment’s award-winning web series The Drive. The series follows a group of 20- and 30-somethings and the challenges they face while living on Commercial Drive.
The second season will see most of its main characters reuniting after the death of a patriarch, including Cheon and Zach Martin as Chris. Behind the camera, Gillies will return to direct alongside much of the same production team with a few new additions.
Shooting took place earlier this month up and down the popular strip of east Vancouver, with returns to Renzo’s Cafe, Grandview Lanes, and more, while Juno winner and local talent Dan Mangan curates the soundtrack.
The Drive: Season 2 will have seven episodes and is expected sometime in fall 2017 on Telus Optik TV, along with what Hunnings hope will be a local premier party open to the community.
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