Proud Canadian Michael Dowse explains what it was like to shoot and set his Daniel Radcliffe/Zoe Kazan rom-com The F Word in his country’s largest city.
Megan Park, director Michael Dowse, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, Daniel Radcliffe, and screenwriter Elan Mastai of The F Word at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 8, 2013
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TORONTO — Try for a moment to remember the last time you saw a major feature film that was set in Toronto. Other than Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, I mean.
Thanks to local and national tax breaks, a film friendly population, and a variety of urban settings that can easily double for somewhere else, Toronto has long been a popular location for feature film productions angling to save some money. But having Toronto play itself?
"It is a rare thing," director Michael Dowse told me at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The Canadian filmmaker has set a few of his films (Fubar, Goon) in his native country, but never in Canada's biggest city. That changed with The F Word, a charming romantic comedy staring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan as two Torontonians who are perfect for each other — except she's got a long-term boyfriend. (The film, which debuted at TIFF, was picked up at the festival for a U.S. theatrical run by CBS Films.)
Dowse says that the decision to shoot in Toronto was purely financial, but there was a version of the script that set the story in Chicago. Instead, the creative team decided to let Toronto be Toronto. "I think it's important in these types of movies to have a specific location," he said, "and feature the city, like some of the classic romantic comedies do, and create these little vignettes and establishing shots, just to give people breathers and look at where they're set."
Over the course of the experience, Dowse discovered just what it is like to be a Canadian filmmaker shooting a movie in Toronto that is also set in Toronto. Here's what he learned:
You shoot in locations in Toronto that aren't normally used for feature films.
Without the constraint of having to make Toronto look like somewhere else, Dowse was able to seek out locations — like the lakeside neighborhood of Leslieville — that evoked the local character of the city itself. "I really fell in love with the east side of the city," he said. "It was a part of the city that hadn't been captured as much [on film] as the downtown core or the west side... I like the water. I like the beaches. I like Leslieville specifically because it's not as gentrified. I mean, it's getting there, but it has that real mix of old and new, and esoteric restaurants and stores. But it didn't feel too twee, which is something I was trying to avoid completely with this movie."
Your star can use his natural British accent without having to make a big fuss about it.
In his other two films at TIFF, Radcliffe acted with an American accent, but he's a full-blooded Brit in The F Word — and because Toronto is one of the most international cities in the world, the film never bothers with having to explain why. "Like, today, I've had meeting with people with Irish accents, English accents," said Dowse. "It just made sense. We had talked about maybe trying an American accent. But I think really with comedy, you don't want to have another level to think about, just for charm and timing and all that stuff. But it wasn't a big deal by any means. And it works here."
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