Kelly Caseley and Highlighting Different Sides of PEI

Filmed on Prince Edward Island in October 2020, the new comedy Aww Shucks is now available on Bell Fibe TV1. This series tells the story of town mayor Steph, who attempts to rebuild her community’s economy by holding a cooking competition that offers the town’s local restaurant as the top prize. I spoke with series director Kelly Caseley about her journey bringing Aww Shucks to life. 

In your own words, could tell us a little about Aww Shucks?

Aww Shucks is first and foremost a comedy and it is about a small seaside village that is struggling to rebound post-pandemic after financial devastation. It is about the villagers discovering the true strengths that lie within the community. It was filmed entirely on Prince Edward Island, with an all-Island crew and an all-Island post-production crew as well. 

What inspired this series?

The series co-writer Graham Putnam and producer Sharlene Kelly and I filmed a short called Gustave The Snow Chef, which was the basis for the original Fibe pitch. In our minds, a strength of the show’s pitch was that it wasn’t regionally based, it could have happened anywhere in the world. It had a clear outline for the show that could be repeated. They loved the short, but they wanted something more regional and spoke more to PEI. I think we had three days to turn around our original pitch into the story of Aww Shucks. 

The series is set during the pandemic, but it was also made during a pandemic. What was it like working around those challenges?

We were so lucky on PEI. At the time that we were filming, most Island life was business as usual. But I don’t think this would have happened for us outside the pandemic, which is sort of a weird place to be put in, because I don’t want to be grateful (for the pandemic), but I don’t think we would have been given these opportunities without the pandemic because things opened up over here so early was one of the reasons the funding started coming to us. There were definitely concerns about the pandemic, and we were hypervigilant about when we might be putting people at risk. 

What makes your series different from other PEI film projects?

As the director, I really wanted to showcase the beauty of PEI, and what we have to offer here. But I wanted to stay away from the Island stereotypes. I think we had a diverse cast of characters. A lot of times in film products coming from PEI the audience is laughing at the characters, and we didn’t want that. They’re ridiculous as people, but we’re not laughing at the fact that we’re laughing at “the funny fisherman” we’re laughing at the fisherman that is a funny character. Character development was a major priority. Our main character is gay, but we didn’t want it to be a plot point, it’s just life. We were very conscious of those kinds of decisions. 

Where on PEI did you film?

We shot in the village Victoria-By-The-Sea, which became “Toronto By The Sea.” The village welcomed us with open arms, it was awesome. One day we were trying to shoot outside and there was all this construction happening down by the wharf, and trying to get the shots in between the noise. Eventually, a crew member asked how long they were working and they were more than happy to let us get the shots, and they even hung out and watched. A lot of businesses opened their doors to us, and we tried to get as many outdoor shots as possible to show off the community and how cute and adorable it is.

Why was it important for you to work with an all-Island team? 

We’re very proud of the fact that it’s all Islanders working on the film. And that isn’t coming from some weird “Islander pride” thing, but Island filmmakers often end up not getting the credits on bigger productions, or they end up ‘assistant’ roles, this project was a chance for some resume building and a chance for some people to prove themselves. So like, even though this person has been a camera assistant on all these shoots, they are also capable of being a director of photography, so they get that DP credit. So we hope this project was able to help propel some careers a bit. 

What can audiences expect from the series? 

I think we have created an awesome little community of characters. I think they’ve very endearing. I don’t think there’s any one clear favourite people will like, I think there’s several characters audiences may be drawn to so they have their own favourites. It’s one of those shows where there are moments that are like real life, there are also moments that are just absolutely ridiculous. I hope that sort of ‘zaniness’ of the characters and situations make people laugh.

Aww Shucks is available on Bell Fibe TV1 now!