Telegraph Cove is the story of Anna who with her husband Dave, operate a seasonal wildlife tour company. During a private charter Dave mysteriously goes missing in the coastal waters in “The Graveyard of the Pacific”. Inspired by local tales of missing ships along the coast of Vancouver Island, series creator Darren Borrowman filmed this three-part web series in Canada’s Telegraph Cove and delivers suspense throughout its entirety.
Released in late last 2016, the series stars Savonna Spracklin, Arpad Balogh & Red Heartbreaker. We spoke to Telegraph Cove’s creator Darren Borrowman to learn more about how he created this web series and what he is planning for the future.
Do you have any future plans for this series?
Continue on the festival circuit – we’ve screened and won a few awards at the Vancouver and Seattle Webfests and are currently nominated for a Leo Award, which is the best of British Columbia’s Film & Television industry, so it’s a great honour to be considered. We want to continue writing and developing the future series with the possibility of filming chapter 2 before the end of the year.
What do you want your audience to take away from this series?
I hope that when audiences start watching, they will be drawn in to the story, characters and mystery. By the conclusion, I hope they will feel a bit of a chill up their spine when they (along with the main character, Anna) reach the conclusion. I also wanted to showcase my hometown, which is an extremely picturesque village that is a huge part of my growing up. It’s a beautiful area.
What is unique about your series?
It’s the first web series (or any dramatic film/story, for that matter) to be shot in Telegraph Cove.It was created on a shoestring budget by an extremely talented and dedicated cast and crew of only seven people (plus two extra in post).
What was your release strategy?
We released the series in October- the spookiest month of the year. With so many fans of suspense, creepy things and mysteries, this seemed like the perfect time to engage audiences. It was a seven week roll-out, starting with the trailer. Once each episode was released, we continued by releasing three behind the scenes episodes highlighting the cast, the music and the overall production. As it turned out, this was a great time submitting to festivals as well, as the final submission deadlines for spring festivals begin around September.
What was your target audience and how did you build a relationship with them?
Of course people who like this genre of story would be the main target audience, but an interesting thing happened as we were releasing the series: Telegraph Cove is a resort village and every summer, thousands of people come to vacation and explore- from whale watching and fishing to camping, bear watching, kayaking and more. So many people have created special memories of their time in Telegraph Cove and to see it on screen was really exciting as well. Many of the people who have been there began sharing it with their friends and families, reminiscing on their time there (and often agreeing that it can be bit of an eerie place!)
How long did it take to produce and shoot the series?
I spent a few months writing the script, specifically to be shot in Telegraph Cove, and specifically to be shot in October- once the visitors had all left and the town had closed down, but before the weather turned really rotten. Also, with my parents retirement on the horizon, our family’s boat, the Gikumi was on the market so I had a very tight window to shoot it. In October 2015, we shot for four days initially, and Savonna (who plays Anna) and I went back a few weeks later for a day of pickups. As it took us a full day of travel in each direction to get to the Cove (we each live in Vancouver), we had to be very specific about what we would shoot. Post production took a bit longer- I have rushed through productions in the past and often not been as happy with the result. With no specific deadlines (I didn’t want to rush into the 2016 webfest season), it gave us the time to hone the edit, work on the VFX (which was a really big job, especially in episode 3) and allow Red Heartbreaker (the music composer of the series) to create a beautiful score without too much time pressure.
What is your background as a web series creator?
This is the first web series that I’ve created, however I’ve produced and directed two full seasons of “Bob and Andrew” – a series that was released in 2010/11. Outside of web series, I’ve been an independent filmmaker for twelve years, and have directed my own feature film (a dramatic comedy- “Do Something With Your Life”), produced & edited another feature ( a dark fantasy- “Charlotte’s Song”, featuring Iwan Rheon from “Game of Thrones”) and produced, directed edited or shot over a hundred short films and videos. I’m also a production manager and instructor at the Vancouver Film School, so I’m lucky enough to be around a lot of excited, hungry and talented new filmmakers, actors and creative people. I’m currently in Shanghai at SH-VFS supporting a new wave of Chinese filmmakers to help them tell their stories (and hopefully discover some of my own too!)
The final episode of Telegraph Cove seemed to have concluded that story line. Yet on your website you have implied the possibility of more to come of the web series. Can we expect to see more episodes in the future?
Originally, I’d planned for the series to be a one-off – I’m a big fan of the anthological, contained season of TV & webseries. Cliff-hanger season finales drive me crazy because I want to know what happened!!! However, I’ve been writing more and have come up with two different ways that I’d like to take the show. One would involve continuing this story showing what has come before, and what happens next (making the current season Chapter 2 in the timeline), and the other would be to take the “Fargo” (series) approach, where each season is set in the same location, but at different times in history… But audiences can definitely expect to see more of TELEGRAPH COVE. It’s in my blood!
The 3-part web series has a very sci-fi, twilight zone ambience to the series. When you filmed in waters around telegraph cove did you ever get those sensations considering the area is known as The Graveyard of the Pacific?
I’ve brought new friends to Telegraph Cove in the off-season, when there’s no one around and the town is shut down for the winter. When I was growing up there, the population was 12 people. (It’s since declined to about 4 or 6 year round residents!) So it feels like a ghost town. Like something out of a Stephen King novel. It’s inherent to the location. And the isolation, not just in the village, but also on the water, can be eerie. And often times on the water, when you’re navigating in the fog, your eyes and brain start playing tricks on you – you think that you’re seeing things emerging from the mist, but there’s nothing there. With all of the shipwrecks along BC’s coast, it can be a haunting place.
There’s also a piece of true history that has inspired the story: In 1906 the steamship Valencia was cruising along the west coast of Vancouver Island and hit a reef and sunk. It was one of the worst disasters in that area and over a hundred people died in the cold water. All of the lifeboats were accounted for except for one: lifeboat #5. Over the next few years, locals started reporting that they’d seen the lifeboat (sometimes being rowed by skeletons…!) and even the ghost ship Valencia itself. They even printed the story in a Seattle newspaper! Then, in 1933, (27 years later), lifeboat #5 turned up in the same area, intact (sorry, no skeletons!). The nameplate of the lifeboat is now kept at the Vancouver Maritime Museum as proof! Amazing.
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