Sterling Point: Megan Park trusted audiences will want a character-driven YA show

A few years ago, Canadian filmmaker Megan Park made a film called My Old Ass, a coming-of-age, almost-time travel comedy-drama that featured one hell of a magic mushrooms trip.

That film was centred on the character of Elliot, a teenager growing up in an idyllic part of the world, who, when high in the woods, encounters her older 39-year-old self, played by Aubrey Plaza. It was a story about growing up, from the perspective of someone at two different points in their life.

Even though Park was the same age as Plaza’s older version and was very much writing from her point-of-view, it established her as someone who had a way in to storytelling for young people.

“I accidentally fell into being the voice of these (young adult) projects, and it didn’t happen on purpose,” she told The Nightly.

After My Old Ass, Park was asked if she wanted to do something similar, but for TV. While other filmmakers might be afraid of being pigeonholed, that didn’t scare her.

“A, I enjoy it, I think it’s a fun challenge, and B, I knew I wasn’t going to do only that. I’m making a movie next that is all grown-ups in their 30s and 40s,” she said, with a laugh.

Park wanted to make a TV series that was elevated and authentic for young people, but still had the juicy genre tropes such as love triangles that made them so delicious to watch.

The result is Sterling Point, a drama set in Muskoka, a beautiful lake district in Canada about two hours north of Toronto, where Park spent her own childhood summers, and where they shot My Old Ass.

It’s centred on the character of Annie (Ella Hunt), a New York teen from a well-off family, who, along with her twin brother (Keen Ruffalo), has partially inherited a small island from a grandfather they didn’t know.

Surprising even herself, Annie decides to spend the summer there in search of stories of her mother who died when she was a child. There, she meets friends old (Daniel Quinn-Troy) and new (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie, Bo Bragason), and a mysterious girl (Amelie Hoeferle) with a deeper connection to her than she could’ve imagined.

The key for Park, who ran the show with Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, was that Sterling Park would occupy a middle ground for YA TV.

“What I’ve been seeing is people feel like (YA) show have to be really, really, really dark and edgy to be cool, or they have to be really light and fluffy. I was like, they can be a bit of both.

“That was the North Star for us in trying to make something that was entertaining and real,” she said.

It was about balancing the sometimes oppositional forces of character and plot, and understanding that you can do both without sacrificing the other.

“People get nervous that (character-driven storytelling) is going to be boring, or that getting to know these characters and leading from an emotional, character-driven place is not going to be exciting or interesting enough.

“We need to trust the audience more, that there is a desire for those types of shows where, of course you need propulsion and story, but you also need (characters),” Park said.

She credited Schwartz and Savage, the YA whisperers of TV with the likes of The O.C., Gossip Girl and Nancy Drew on their resume, for guiding her through the genre formula.

“And there is a bit of a formula,” she explained. “They were great at teaching me what that was and how it worked, and also understanding that for me, it wasn’t all bomb drops.

“I think sometimes there is this feeling that there has to be cause-and-effect, cause-and-effect, and cause-and-effect.

“We were trying to create a group of people you were invested in, and that they were likeable. There’s no straight villain in our show.”

After shooting My Old Ass in Muskoka, she was afraid the community wouldn’t want a bar of them (location filming can be disruptive) but they were welcomed back for Sterling Point – and this time, Muskoka was name-checked, and so evocative was the place, it became intrinsic to the show’s identity.

With the verdant trees, the glimmering lake and the quaint cottages and boats, it almost doesn’t feel real, like as if it was invented for a movie or TV show.

“We knew we wanted it to be a summer show set in Canada, and cottage life in the summer is a really huge part of Canadian culture. We can really show Muskoka for what it really is, and talk about some of the things that are happening up there affecting the locals and the community,” Park said.

“People coming in and destroying the land because they don’t care about the trees, and building these $50 million mansions and buying properties.

“We didn’t get to dig into it completely because we only had eight episodes, but it’s something we always about it if get a second season.”

Park has been going up to Muskoka since the 1990s and, she said, it has changed a lot in that time, but it is still this stunning place – and one that makes a fantastic backdrop for a coming-of-age story.

With any luck – and lots of audience love – she will get to showcase more of it and the characters of Sterling Point with a second season.

Sterling Point is on Prime Video on August 5