Media

The diversity of Vancouver - Commercial Drive to be more specific, shines through in East Van Entertainment’s “The Drive”. Characters Chris Riley, Gina Salvino, Leo Giuliani, Aubrey Edison and Emily Kinsley’s lives come together to tell us 6 individual stories blended into 1.

Commercial Drive takes centre-stage in The Drive, a hyper-local video-on-demand (VOD) and web series that returns for its second season this month.

The Drive is the brainchild of decade-long Grandview residents Nick Hunnings and Lindsay Drummond. The theatre-artists-turned-web-series-progenitors created The Drive to “highlight the home we love and the people in it,” says Drummond in a recent phone interview.

From locations like the Libra Room and Renzo’s Cafe to a soundtrack filled with East Van musicians like Dan Mangan, Peregrine Falls, and Veda Hille, The Drive web TV series has always taken the neighbourhood it documents seriously.

The second season of the show, which garnered multiple Leo and web award nods last year, debuts with a public opening party at the Rio next Sunday (October 15). Following the lives and loves of six 20- and 30-something roommates who share an old East Van house, The Drive once again makes use of neighbourhood landmarks like Grandview Lanes, Britannia Community Centre, 1000 Parker Studios, as well as the streetscape’s colourful assortment of grocers, cafés, and boutiques. Adding to the rich look, feel, and mood is the soundtrack, which is curated by critically lauded singer-songwriter Mangan.

Locally filmed series The Drive is set to premier its second season at the Rio Theatre next month.

The award-winning series explores the life and times of a group of roommates and how they deal with delayed adulthood, life on Commercial Drive, and each other. The second season picks up following the death of a patriarch and forces the group to unite and face their relationships and challenges head-on.

The series also showcases Vancouver’s beloved Commercial Drive neighbourhood, with scenes taking place inside some of the street’s most popular establishments. “I feel like this time around, we knew what we were in for,” said executive producer Nick Hunnings in a June 2017 interview after production wrapped.

“We tried to raise the bar for everything, in terms of our writing, the characters and where we wanted to go.”

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.”

Film-hub Vancouver rarely features as itself in movies and television shows but, for the next two weeks, The Drive is being shot around the city and featuring local businesses, music and arts in all their glory.

Film-hub Vancouver rarely stars as itself in movies and television shows, but for the next two weeks The Drive is being shot around the city, featuring local businesses, music and arts in all their glory.

The award winning video-on-demand series is back for Season 2, and like the previous season, focuses on a household of roommates living together on Commercial Drive. Two of the executive producers on the show, Kirsten Slenning and Nick Hunnings, spoke with CBC’s host of North By Northwest Sheryl MacKay.

“We celebrated what it is to be Vancouver and to film a show in Vancouver that actually takes place in Vancouver,” Slenning said.

The Drive is East Vancouver in a nutshell.

The seven-episode web series, premiering in its entirety at the Rio Theatre on the same day it launches via Telus Optik on demand, paints a vivid portrait of life on Commercial Drive.

The stories and the characters may be fictional, but the people, places and every atmospheric element — from the music to the decor and even the jewelry and apparel — is very real and very local.

The project is the brainchild of three Vancouver “power couples,” including that of actress and co-producer Kirsten Slenning and singer-songwriter and Drive music supervisor Dan Mangan, Slenning’s husband.

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The thing that Vancouver actor and producer Nick Hunnings loves most about Commercial Drive is the compassion.

“This community has a capacity to bring together a diverse group of people. It isn’t perfect, but it has soul,” Hunnings said, a 10-year resident of the neighbourhood.

These days it seems anyone’s life is worthy of a shot on television, thanks to the beast of a machine that is reality TV.

Fortunately, there are still some interesting, creative and original tales to tell, and as it turns out, they are also taking place in our own backyards.

The Drive, an innovative new video-on-demand series showcasing the sights, the sounds and the stories of the iconic Vancouver neighbourhood premieres Aug. 27 at The Rio Theatre.

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“Nick Hunnings is one of the producers and actors in the new locally shot series The Drive, which follows the struggles of five roommates living on Commercial Drive.

Some of your favourite Vancouver locales and characters will be making it to the small screen.The Drive, a new video on demand series, was filmed at locations on Commercial Drive”.Forget housewives and ultrarich Asian girls: Commercial Drive’s eclectic community is ready for its turn on the small screen, as a locally shot webseries nearly six years in the making premieres later this month.

The Drive is a seven-episode video-on-demand series produced by East Van Entertainment that details the interconnected lives of several 20- and 30-something individuals who live in the Commercial Drive community.

“We got advance screeners of the first two episodes of the upcoming VOD and webseries The Drive and I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised by this production from East Van Entertainment. There’s a sort of tradition in local cinema, and especially productions that don’t have lavish budgets, to put out stuff that feels… well… it feels hokey. I’ve always hated to admit it but there’s this certain Canadian hokeyness that has come across in most of the web series I’ve watched over the past few years. None of them have yet to break through and feel like something you might actually spend time watching, and following, after truly becoming interested in the characters. Until now. The Drive is more than a webseries, it’s what I hope will become a network series that every Canadian will watch.”

“Transition. Inspiration. Growth. Acceptance. These concepts are deeply meaningful to the creators of the web series The Drive. The fictional drama, created by several SFU grads, follows the lives of five young adults and their experiences living in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood.”

“Check out this new web series in the works, set in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive area. It’s about time that kooky place got some screen time.

The premise? From the website: “The Drive follows a makeshift family of roommates as they become entangled in each others lives while struggling to find their way on East Vancouver’s Commercial Drive.”

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“What an amazing project THE DRIVE promise to be. It’s an that “follows a makeshift family of roomates as they become entangled in each others lives while struggling to find their way on East Vancouver’s Commercial Drive.”

Not only will it reveal many slices of Vancouver culture and a window into what it’s like to live on Commercial Drive, but the show will provide some pretty huge support for local talent. In each episode will be cameo appearances from both Vancouver’s established and up and coming artists (musicians, poets etc.) as well as entrepreneurs. After the show the audience will be provided with websites, profiles, merchandise and show information on all the talent and business’ featured on the show so they can follow up and support in real life.”

“It’s been two years since Hiccups, the last TV series both filmed and set in Vancouver, breathed its final breath and four years since it was game over for Douglas Coupland’s gamer sitcom jPod. The creators of an upcoming new web series centered around five struggling 30-somethings sharing a house on Commercial Drive are hoping to have better luck with their new show.

The ace up their sleeves could be that episodes of The Drive will be free of network pressure for immediate high ratings to justify the money being spent. Instead, the low-budget show created by East Van Entertainment will be independently financed and hosted online, where the so-called “webisodes” can potentially cast a wider audience net via video-sharing sites like YouTube and social media.”