Film, TV credits piling up for Island man

Fans of the Canadian television drama Private Eyes should keep their eyes on the credits.

There's a P.E.I. connection, as the associate producer is originally from the Island.

"I've been working in the film industry in various roles for about 15 years," Neil Shaw told Mainstreet's Angela Walker. "I've gone from the props department, I was an assistant director for a long time, I was working on the television show Haven. I started off as an assistant director on that."

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That lead to more work with Haven's Los Angeles production company where he was assistant to producers, and over several years they developed the Private Eyes show.

He'd also connected with the eventual star of the show.

"I'd been working with Jason Priestley on a few different projects," said Shaw. "It all seemed to come together at once and here we are."

Job is 'the bridge'

Shaw described his job as associate producer as the bridge between production and post-production.

"Our director will prepare his episode, he'll go out, he'll shoot it, and that will get passed on to our editors," he said. "I'll work with the editors to figure out what we need, what's missing, I'm maintaining the list of scenes that we weren't able to pick up in our shooting days. Then I take all of that and I build a new list that we then go out on a day in the future. I've been working as a second-unit director as well, picking up those missing shots."

Thatbusiness was in his blood, said Shaw.

"My grandmother (Betty Rogers Large) was a storyteller, she had a wonderful radio program on CFCY years ago (a very popular children's show), my mother was with CBC quite a long time, she's retired now," he said, referring to broadcaster Kathy Large. "Everyone's been telling stories. I don't think I was ever pushed in this direction, it just kind of happened."

Shaw is still moving forward in his career. He's writing a TV pilot, a passion project he called it, which he hopes will get produced, and would also like to direct more.

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