By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
Screenwriter Steven Morrison has tried to soak up all of Sitka in a span of three weeks.
“I’m up to everything, actually,” he said in a phone interview with the Sentinel.
Morrison is working on “The Sitka TV Show,” a project being led by Brazilian producers Rafael Thomaseto and Helena Sardinha of the creative multimedia company Driven Equation.
With the wrapup of beginning phases, footage for the pilot episode will be shot in Sitka later this month.
Thomaseto and Sardinha are aiming to make the fictional program authentic and adventurous, Morrison said.
“They didn’t want the stereotypical Alaska reality show,” he said. “They wanted a more realistic account of characters.”
So Morrison has spent his time in Sitka adventuring, interviewing, and listening.
“Every place that I take him I’m sharing something about growing up here or a funny story or some kind of history or fact about the town,” said Rachel Roy, executive director of the Sitka Chamber of Commerce. “And basically everyone that I’ve been around I’ve introduced and he’s had an opportunity to meet them and listen to their stories.”
Screenwriter Steven Morrison walks downtown Wednesday. (Sentinel Photo)
All of this helps Morrison create characters that seem real.
“I always start with knowing the characters,” he said. “I know people, and I find these people interesting and then we’ll find a way to put them into a scenario that’s hopefully entertaining.”
Morrison hopes to create situations and characters that could be found in Sitka.
“(Visiting) certainly allows for an authenticity of the subject matter and the characters that I couldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t come here and had these experiences,” he said.
Ideas for compelling subject matter include Sitka-specific bear warning signs in local recreational areas.
“I saw a bear warning sign at the beginning of Totem Park and I said, ‘Oh, that’s probably not a big deal but that’s something that’s unique to me and that would be unique to characters outside of Alaska,’” Morrison explained. “Therefore, that’s something that might be intriguing to an audience that’s outside Sitka.”
It is this honest interpretation of Sitka that has generated a lot good will about the project in Sitka.
“(Driven Equation) is really good at listening and good at engaging and hearing what we’re saying,” Roy said.
She wants the program to showcase how special Sitka is.
“How people talk about you is what your brand is,” she said. “It’s almost like (Driven Equation) is putting into words ... how special our community is. It’s not something you can fake.”
Patricia Buak, a Sitka resident, is executive producer of the show. She and her husband Tony moved here five years ago after visiting Sitka every summer for two decades. She sees the show is an opportunity to explain the charm that made her choose to move to Sitka permanently, or at least come for a visit.
“We are the example of people who decided to move to Sitka,” Buak said. “(Morrison) is probably going to continue coming to Sitka every year. A year and a half ago he’d never heard about Sitka.”
She said people she sees Sitka’s eagerness when people ask her for updates on the show.
“(People say,) ‘Is it really going to happen? We want results!’” she said. “Now we’re arriving at the point where it’s going to happen.”
But the audience appeal will depend on the honesty of the depiction, she said.
“It’s fiction, but we want real fiction,” Buak said.
This “real fiction” is something many Roy, Buak, and Driven Equation think Morrison can deliver.
“I feel like I get my sense and feeling of what it feels like to be in Sitka and part of the community here,” Morrison said. “You try to take in as much as you can and get little bits and nuggets that will pay off with the writing.”
