A delicious web series about two women who take up repo to keep their catering business afloat. First time visitor? Start with Episode 1.

Don't miss a single episode: follow us on Twitter (@tarttweets) for updates and notifications. More about the series.

Sweet Tarts Takeaway has been selected as one of 6 finalists in the Entertainment category of the Pilots Competition at the 2011 Banff World Media Festival (BWMF). Read more.

UPDATE: We didn't win, but we met a lot of fabulous content developers and broadcasters.

Synopsis

Janis frets over the whereabouts of her 15-year-old son, Curtis. Sue frets about repo taking over from catering. Bob returns, even more mysterious than when he left.

This episode's recipe is Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

Can't get enough Tarts? There's always Episode 6.

Notes From the Set

This episode marks the debut of Evan Welchner on STT, joining us to play Janis's 15-year-old son, Curtis.

Evan sailed through the audtion, where he read lines with Kel, who plays Janis. Kel is extremely gregarious in real-life, isn't afraid to speak her mind, and has an delightfully acerbic wit. She and Evan seemed to click, and developed an excellent rapport on set. We are looking forward to Evan appearing in some future episodes, and hope that you will too.

The weekend we shot this episode was crazy indeed. February in Ottawa is cold, and the ground is covered in snow. Since our earlier episodes had been shot in warmer, non-snowy weather, we had to be careful to make sure our exteriors did not betray the winter season. We also tried to minimize the times that the actors had to go outside in only spring coats, but we couldn't entirely avoid it.

One episode: Three Directors of Photography

Amber, our director of photography, like many Canadians, had planned a February vacation "down south" to escape the cold, and was unfortunately unavailable for the Monday shoot (she shot Bob's office scenes on Sunday). Ottawa cinematographer Jeremy Kennedy helped out, but could manage only Monday evening (he shot the opening scenes in the car and at Janis' house). Fortunately, Ottawa film maker Brett Kelly stepped up to the plate Monday morning, helping us to grab the scene in Sue's kitchen (as well as some scenes for episodes 6&7).

I have to give full credit to Kel, Riley and Kate who excelled during a very difficult Sunday shoot. I had miscalculated how long it would take to shoot the scenes in Bob's office, and budgeted only half a day for what really should have taken a full day of shooting. I heard a collective gasp when I said we would shoot the master shot of the ENTIRE scene in the office as a single take ... if there were mistakes, we could pause, and redo a line and continue. This was about six pages of dialogue. Everyone excelled at the scene, and stayed in good spirits. We grabbed the scene from the minimum number of angles we could manage in about 3 hours, and then headed over to our next location, to shoot scenes from Episode 7.

And a huge thanks to Graham Greer who provided the music Curtis is listening to in the opening scene (and that reprises under the closing credits). For those of you in Canada's Maritimes, Greer will be touring with Amanda Rheaume, from 1 June to 11 June. Check out their "In the Key of Sea" tour for dates.

-Bonnie