Splash! Glug!
The kid in the wet suit has just taken a flop off a slide and into a – moat?
Welcome to Splatalot. It is a castle. It is a reality TV show. It is the product of the mind of Matt Hornburg, who grew up in Fergus, left for the big city, but still feels most comfortable in small town settings.
Hornburg and his partner, Mark Bishop, are currently operating a castle on 50 acres of land north of Orangeville for their TV production, Splatalot. The name brings to mind Camelot and towers, turrets and moats, and that is no accident. Splatalot, though, is more than just a castle. Right now, it is the largest obstacle course in Canada, and it has attracted 312 teens between the ages of 13 and 15 to try to win the crown for best boy and best girl.
It isn’t easy.
The course is set on water, with foam pads, like humongous lily pads, leading to a slippery foam slide. Each contestant must make it across the pads, up the slide, onto a platform, across a revolving wheel with slippery projections for footholds and, if they are lucky, onto two large war axes with flat heads, which move up and down.
Getting onto the first one seems easy enough – if the slippery factor and actors shooting tennis balls, water and insults don’t count – but this day, the kid stepping onto the second axe suddenly found one of his feet was more than two feet higher than his head. Splash! That happens a lot.
The entire course is made of expensive foam so bruises are the worst of the injuries, and a medical emergency worker is on the scene at all times for safety. The kids, despite their numerous trips into the huge tank, seem to be having a ball. The filming took place in August and September, and there were a number of contestants from Wellington County which, Hornburg said, was pleasing.
He did not want to have to count on just Toronto residents for this production. They actually came from all over Ontario. And near the end of the filming only one had made it through the course without hitting the water.
The top six contestants will move on to the second course, which looked even more challenging, and the top four will go on to the finals.
The shows will be seen around the world, starting in February or March. Hornburg is producing Splatalot for YTV in Canada, the BBC in Great Britain and ABC Australia down under.
It is quite a feat for a boy who grew up shy and an only child in Fergus not long ago.
Hornburg said his parents, Alice and Fred, helped him along the way. When he was 11, they noticed he was shy, so they placed him in the Children’s Drama Club to cure him. He met the late Pat Chataway, who ran the club and encouraged him. He starred in a few productions and his love of theatre and acting was enhanced at Centre Wellington District High School by teacher Glenn McGinnis.
“Pat and Glenn and my parents were the key mentors out of my childhood that got me in the business,” he said, remembering he starred as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life and as Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables.
While still a teen in high school, he realized he did not want to be an actor. He began working at Fergus Cable TV and produced a show called Funny Bone, a sketch comedy show.
He was in the cohort that saw the education system drop grade 13, and he was caught in between. He finished high school and headed to Ryerson University. It was in the throes of moving from being a polytechnical institute to a full-fledged university. The first day he attended, his instructors announced the three-year Radio Television Arts program had become a four-year program.
But, he noted, “A lot of the profs were inspirational. I knew every day it was up to me to make my career.” He said the head of the program, Dr. Robert Gardiner, was “very inspirational” and he still keeps in touch. In fact, Hornburg is now running for the board of governor’s at his alma mater.
He caught on with Rhombus Media in Toronto during his final two years at school, doing general office work, and then full time. That meant producing art shows from Argentina, Italy, France and Morocco.
“It was a lot of work, but a great way to see the world.”
While he was at school his first year, he lived on the same floor as another student, Mark Bishop. In 2001, they formed a partnership using an Ikea credit card and, in Bishop’s kitchen, created marblemedia, a television and interactive business.
Hornburg remembers they purchased a couple of desks on the furniture company’s credit card. It was “the only credit card to our name.” One of their first projects was deafplanet.com, an all American sign language show of video clips that included finger spelling. That got them into a number of areas, including TV production, and contacts with children’s culture.
A few years later they did This is Daniel Cook, which was “a huge success for us.” They co-produced that with Mark Bishop’s brother, Matt, and Sinking Ship Productions. They sold that show to 90 countries around the world. To date, they have received 22 Gemini nominations, and marblemedia has grown to be one of the best recognized and biggest media companies in Canada.
The Daniel Cook production got them an introduction to Oprah Winfrey, “so we flew down to Chicago. We felt we were now meeting the queen,” he said.
Canadian producers have a somewhat tougher time than Americans, and Hornburg said they sometimes create their own shows, or they produce shows for other people. They develop an idea and try to sell it to someone. But in other countries, the buyer pays all the production costs. In Canada, the buyer pays 30 per cent and the producer has to find the rest of the cash.
Marblemedia now has 32 employees, and Splatalot is only one of four projects currently underway, which keeps Hornburg and Bishop hopping.
Hornburg said that particular day included a meeting with officials from the Women’s Network, a company meeting, and then a conversation on a hands free telephone with his lawyer – while driving from Toronto to Orangeville. The work day is a long one.
“Our company is dedicated to being an interactive company,” he said, adding that being flexible has allowed it “to get deals that other companies can’t.”
But it takes more than being a good producer to be a success in the business that Hornburg has chosen. It takes the ability to sell ideas and then turn them into something the buyer wants.
“This industry is all based on relationships,” he said. “Mark and I worked really hard to develop relationships here and in the U.S.”
If he has any advice for people just starting in his business, he said it is to listen. “Young producers try too hard pushing broadcasters.” His approach is to listen to what the broadcaster wants, and then work to provide it. “We’re the good guys,” he said with a smile.
It works. The Canadian New Media awards are coming, and marblemedia has two nominations.
It is an intense industry. Hornburg said it is fortunate that not only is Bishop his business partner, but they are best friends. “We have a sense of humour that gets us through.”
They are also in relationships with supportive women, and that is must. Hornburg and Stephanie Betts have purchased a home in Toronto’s Beaches area. She understands the business because, as Hornburg noted, she works for a rival media company. They met at an industry event.
Hornburg knows the value of recreation and relaxation, because his is an intense industry where eight hour work days seldom exist. So, he said, he learns to take time when he can. Because of Splatalot, he was in London for a couple of days a few weeks ago, and then went on to Cannes, in France, for business reasons. Then he and Betts planned to take a week touring the wine region of France.
“If you operate at a manic pace, you have to make sure it works in your favour,” he said.
The company has further ambitions. Right now, he is hoping Splatalot will be picked up for second and third seasons. And the company is getting into the distribution business, which he noted is where the real money is. “We’re always looking for new ideas.”
The company, Distribution 360, already has a sales agent in Europe. Marblemedia is partnering in it with two people in Alberta.
With that kind of hectic life, Hornburg is pleased the company bought the 50 acres in Amaranth Township. It is not only a site for a TV show like Splatalot, but it is also a retreat from the city – in the middle of nowhere off a county road, surrounded by forest and fields. In Hornburg’s case, it is a retreat.
He said he finds the same feelings at his home in the Beaches in Toronto. It still has a small town feel that he knew growing up in Fergus, and moving there provided him with a feeling of comfort for the first time since he went to Toronto and Ryerson in 1994.
