Executive Producer and Writer of

When Calls The Heart

Brian Bird Answers Heartie's Season 2 Burning Questions

Cathy Lookabaugh: What was harder to coordinate, Horses and stagecoaches, or the old time cars? How hard was it to locate period authentic cars?

BB: Actually horse and animal wrangling is far more difficult to manage than our picture vehicles. You might think finding 1910-era vintage vehicles, whether of the horse-drawn or gasoline-powered type, would be a more difficult challenge.  But honestly there are lots of vintage cars and wagons available all over the place, preserved by collectors.  Wrangling the animals is a much bigger deal. Those who have horses or understand horse behavior know how unpredictable they can be.  In movies and TV shows, animals appear completely cooperative.  That’s because a lot goes into making it look that way.  Horses can be gentle and completely submissive, but then spook easily and must be respected for their size, weight and speed.  During one of our episodes in Season 2, we had two horses drawing a wagon spook and race down the main street of Hope Valley out of control. At the end, we had a rattled stunt driver and a destroyed wagon. The horses were fine and not injured, but it was very scary.  Henry Gowen’s 1908 Ford never spooks and does exactly what we ask it to do. It also doesn’t leave road apples!

Charity Sullivan: It appears that two episodes are filmed all at once.  How long does it take to film those two episodes? What amount of time is allocated to post production, editing, ADR, music, sound before it finally reaches broadcast?

BB: You’re correct, Charity.  We do what is called “block-shooting” of two episodes simultaneously.  It takes us 14 filming days to complete each two-episode “block” of production (essentially 7 days per episode).  There are many reasons for this, but primarily it is to take advantage of actor schedules. Because of their other commitments, certain actors are only available to us in week-long time blocks, so we have to mix-and-match the scenes from two episodes in order to get all of an actor’s work done on time.  Unlike feature films, which are lucky to film 1-2 pages of a screenplay a day, TV production schedules are much more aggressive. Each episode of a one-hour TV episode is about 50-55 pages. That means in order to finish a script in 7 days, you can do the math… we are filming 7-8 pages a day. It’s also a budget necessity. Spilling over into overtime or extra days of filming are budget-busters. It’s hard work, and everybody on the cast and crew pulls together for as much efficiency and creativity as humanly possible. And they always bring their A-game. In terms of post-production, each episode goes through approximately 4 weeks of extra work with editing, music, sound design and color correction, taking about a week for each step, to get it ready for the Hearties’ enjoyment.

Charmaine Lipa: When we talk so much about When Calls the Heart on the fan Heartie pages, have you ever thought of or have used any of our suggestions for plots? One thing comes to mind is the kiss at the end of S1. The writers and you knew we wanted it to happen sooner than that. Did you do that to keep us wondering and in anticipation of the "kiss."

BB: Charmaine, I know Hearties would like me to say, “Yes, we love your ideas and use them liberally.”  The honest truth is that we are legally required not to pay any attention to ideas from fans for stories or plots.  One of the inside secrets of all TV shows is that there are legal “firewalls” in place surrounding the writers because in our litigious society it would be too easy for fans to think that we had stolen their brilliant ideas.  So, anybody who tries to submit an idea to us, either through the mail or online, gets a respectful note or reply thanking them, but explaining that we’re prohibited from even reading or considering their concepts. I wish it wasn’t so, but all TV shows adhere to some version of this policy. And please remember that long before there even were fans who identified themselves as “Hearties,” we knew we were pointing to a kiss between Jack and Elizabeth at the end of S1. The fact that it coincided with Hearties’ wishes might have been thrilling, but the truth is four months before you ever saw the S1 finale, the script was written and finalized.   

Eddie Heim:  How does it make you feel that this show has inspired fans in many ways from fan fiction writing, artist drawings, and, in my specific case, leading to an engagement and a wedding?

BB: Eddie, the fact that our little show helped you and Sarah decide to commit your lives to each other in marriage, along with all the thousands of other displays of fan-support, it blows us all away. In my 30 years of working in the film and TV business, I have never seen anything like the wave of Hearties’ support not just for When Calls the Heart, but family-and-faith-friendly TV in general. When I think about the rise of the Heartie-nation, from Facebook to Twitter to the houses of U.S. Congress, and now to a brand new Canadian Heartie movement, it takes my breath away. We are more grateful and amazed than we will ever be able to communicate.  But the best outcome to me is that we are all, together, creating a sense of community with each other. How could we ask for anything better?

Delores De Jesus: Do you need a stunt double for the kissing scenes? (grin emoticon).

BB: Oh, yes, absolutely!  Are you kidding?  Daniel and Erin wouldn’t want their lips caught dead in general proximity to each other (sarcastic grin emoticon).