By Joe Amarante, Register Television Editor

Producer and cameraman Kevin Weyl of Madison has pitched TV series before, but this time he’s taking a big roll of the dice overseas to score a national or international contract.

He’s going to Cannes, France, next week to pitch his wine show, “Behind the Seeds with Spencer Christian,” at the MIPTV/Doc Festival, an international programming festival and marketplace.

“My attitude was, why not go to the top? I don’t want to talk to the receptionist,” Weyl says of spending money to be a vendor at MIPTV. “It puts me at the party ... where I can have an eyeball-to-eyeball conversation with buyers.”

From his days as a songwriter, Weyl learned it was “exhausting and time-consuming” to pursue the right meeting with powerful business people.

“You can go to the Internet and call people, but it’s tough because they won’t take your call. You have to know somebody.”

From his work as a cameraman and ENG (electronic news gathering) producer, Weyl did know a few famous people, including Christian, well-known from ABC’s “Good Morning America” and now host of “View From the Bay” on KGO-TV in San Francisco.

“He’s a lover of wine, I found out. I like wine, and I love to travel, so I asked him, ‘What do you say we travel our world and talk to people about wine?’” Weyl said.

Christian agreed, and a 22-minute pilot was made, allowing for eight minutes of ads in a half-hour format and featuring Dario Sattui of Castello di Amorosa winery, in Calistoga, Calif., in the upper Napa Valley. Sattui built an authentic medieval castle there using ancient building techniques.

Why take the show’s marketing to Cannes (which is best known for its film festival)? Continued...

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“We felt that it (the series) has an international flavor. It’s a show about passion in the world of wine, and wine is all over the world,” he said.

Also, “Spencer is a likable, affable guy, and as a man of color, interesting to a lot of different populations,” said Weyl, who speaks fluent French — another plus for the France visit.

Weyl said other wine shows can get into the nuts and bolts of wine-making, but his idea has evolved from just visiting wineries to covering the passion of wine makers and drinkers. The focus is “more people-based, and what people do for their love of wine.”

Weyl, 59, who grew up in Hamden and Madison and went on to jobs in California, Oklahoma, San Francisco and Europe, came home to care for his elderly mother and stayed to live on the Shoreline. His wife, Mia Wood, runs a software company, but is also executive producer at his Atlantic Productions International. They have a 13-year-old daughter.

As for why he hasn’t gone to PBS with the show, Weyl said the show is designed as a commercial venture with potentially upscale sponsors. He said his “unorthodox” way of selling the show mirrors the people he’d like to film. “That’s No. 1 — showing people who live in an unorthodox manner, people who refuse to hear the word ‘no,’” he said. And while wine isn’t typically considered to be a heroic business, Weyl said he’s interested in filming people who do “personally heroic things.” Like most new ventures in media today, he hopes to market and distribute his show through various modern platforms, be it podcasts, BlackBerrys or social media.

Contact Joe Amarante at jamarante@ ctcentral.com.

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