From Christmas cheer to vampiric fear
Hectic Hollywood North filming schedule keeps Canadian director busy working on home soil
During the recent holiday season, TV/film director David Winning had a hand in helping many people unclench their jaws, relax their shoulders and, for a short time, forget about the doom and gloom of 2020.
You see, the Vancouver resident has 15-mood-lifting, made-for-TV Christmas movies on his almost 80 directing credits-strong resumé. Ten of those Christmas movies were made for the Hallmark Channel. His most recent one was 2020's Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas.
“When you start doing the Christmas movies you get teased by your friends. But you know I've always felt everything is a challenge and everything is entertainment, so I always try to make these movies as bittersweet and as tear-jerking as I can,” said Winning recently over the phone from his Calgary hometown. “You always want to try and improve anything you work on. I think they (Christmas movies) have gotten a bit more respect in the last few years.”
That respect has probably never been higher than it has been in these pandemic times.
In fact, the Hallmark Channel, it seems, figured things out early and was one of the first networks to get back to work in B.C. after the TV/ film-production industry was reopened three months after being shut down in midMarch 2020.
It's worth noting that Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas festival of 40 first-run movies, which started in the end of October, had 60 million U.S. viewers.
“They definitely have a hungry audience for this kind of entertainment,” Winning said.
Winning's long career took off in his early 20s when he was still in Calgary. His first feature film was Storm, which came out in theatres in 1986. That film was made for about $70,000 and Winning said he sold it for three times that. The film got him into the Director's Guild and got him work.
“One day a director fell out of the Friday the 13th TV series and I got the call,” said Winning, who has held dual Canadian/American citizenship since 2003. “It was shooting down in Toronto and they flipped through the book of directors and saw my name Winning and thought: `Hmmm, that sounds positive.' They hired me. I got down there and they asked how old I was. I was 26 but I said I was 35. I was the greenest kid in the world trying to direct this TV show.
“One thing just led to another and I think now I have done 29 series over the last 30 years.”
In those 3 1/2 decades he has also done 40 features. His latest is his fifth in Hallmark's Crossword Mysteries series. It's called Riddle Me Dead and should be out this spring.
The film credits add up as these types of movies shoot fast and often. Prep typically takes 15 days and then shooting anywhere from 12-15 days. Winning said in 2014 he shot a film in Vancouver for UPtv in 11 days.
“That was sort of a record,” said Winning. “That ended up being The Tree that Saved Christmas and that one got on the New York Times' top-five list. Which was kind of a shock.”
A big key to fast filmmaking is familiarity. Winning says Vancouver crews are the best and he often works with the same people. A great example of that hand-in-glove teamwork is Winning and director of photography Tony Metchie. The pair have made 16 films together.
“We definitely have a shorthand,” said Winning, adding: “The camera guys and the steadycam operators kind of know how I like to shoot stuff, so it becomes very streamlined.”
Hallmark Channel mainstay, lead actor Lacey Chabert, says Winning's leadership is also a big key in making these movies. “David is always so prepared and has wonderful ideas of how to best tell the story,” said Chabert, who hails from Mississippi but spends a great deal of time in Vancouver working.
“He's emotionally invested in the scene, which supports and inspires me.”
While sweet, family oriented, will-they-or-won'tthey-kiss movies have played a big role in Winning's career, he has also visited the dark side — most notably and recently with his recurring directorial work on the Vancouver-shot Syfy vampire fantasy series Van Helsing.
“I've been all over the map,” Winning admits of his varied resumé. “I'd love to say, as I look back, `Oh yeah, I planned all of this,' but the variety is just the way the jobs work. Yes, it's been very strange for me to do family movies, lighting Christmas trees in the same year that I am chasing hordes of vampires across post-apocalyptic deserts like in Van Helsing, but it's cathartic.
“I know this sounds corny but I've always believed it's all entertainment. It's the same thing, you're just trying to find ways to pull people into a narrative and use whatever tricks you can to make people cry, or jump or run or whatever.”