The commercial scene slowed down over the holidays, as usual, but it looks like things are rolling along again.

At Damast Gordon & Associates, Boris Damast wrapped up a two-day shoot for Quaker Oats’ Peanut Butter Crunch cereal. Steve Gordon handled camera on the spot out of Bayer Bess Vanderwarker. An animated portion will be directed by Mike Nikelson at Sinnott & Associates. Jeff Heusser at Editel will handle the post.

On his own, Gordon picked up projects for Unitel, The Financial Post and Sears. All of the spots came from Ogilvy & Mather Direct and were edited by Andy Attalai at Chameleon.

Cactus Productions’ director/ dop Barry Dukoff picked up four 15s from Palmer Jarvis Vancouver.

In Winnipeg, Kenn Perkins and Associates is combining traditional and computer animation in a spot for Robin’s Donuts. Kenn Perkins is directing and Jim Perkins and Jeff Cappleman are animating (no agency involved).

Calgary

In Calgary, director Richard Cairns and dop Douglas Munro of Douglas Munro Cinematography completed a spot for Shell Canada from Ogilvy & Mather West. Craig Wrobleski did the special effects camerawork.

At Dalton Films, director Randy MacDonald picked up two three-day projects: one for Fleischmann’s from o&m, with Gabor Tarko the dop, and one for Hershey’s Oh Henry bars from MacLaren:Lintas, with Peter Hartmann on camera. Dalton’s Bob Canning also had two days for Royale Paper Towels from Leo Burnett. Nick Allen-Woolfe was on camera for that one.

Revolver

At Revolver, director Don Allan and dop Sean Valentini headed south for five shooting days in Miami. The spot for Kelloggs came out of J. Walter Thompson Mexico. Curtis Wehrfritz picked up four days for Coke from McCann-Erickson. He worked with dop Pierre Gill (See Storyboards, p. 13).

At The Players Film Company, David McNally picked up a day for Mott’s Clamato. The Bozell Palmer Bonner shoot was his first as a Players director. Another first: Mark Walton’s three-day shoot for Wosks Furniture and McCann-Erikson Vancouver is the first project to come out of a new joint representation deal between Players in Toronto and The Ace Film Company in Vancouver.

Gilboy

Also at Players, director Peter Gilboy shot two days for Hyundai. Bruce Logan handled camera on the Backer Spielvogel Bates shoot. Michael Cerny had three days for ibm in Victoria, with Randall Gregg on camera. The shoot came from Enterprise. Cerny and Gregg picked up another two days from Saatchi and Saatchi for a yet-to-be-named client. And finally, Craig McCord got two days in from McKim Baker Lovick/bbdo for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Doug Koch handled camera on that one.

Montreal

In Montreal, commercial production house La Fabrique d’Images reports new shoots for Burger King, Banque Royale, Amnestie Internationale, Musee Pointe-a-Callieres, Groupe Jean Coutu (PJC) and Quebec’s Ministere de l’Education (Ministry of Education).

Director Maryse Raymond has been keeping herself busy helming the action on the Ministry of Education’s anti-school dropout shoot, on the museum shoot and on the Amnestie date. Steve Danyluk was the dop on the three shoots, all out of Groupe Interaction Martin. The Amnestie message is about ‘disappeared’ people.

Director Francois Gingras and dop Yves Belanger shared duties on ‘Le Japonais,’ a French/ English 30 for pjc out of NATCOM Publicite Promotion, while director Jean-Francois Pouliot and Danyluk teamed on ‘Couffins,’ a new French 30 for Banque Royale and agency Allard/smw. Centre de Montage Electronique did the transfer job on the pjc shoot.

Grenier

Also at La Fabrique, Marc S. Grenier directed the action on two spots for Burger King, ‘Chine I & II,’ out of agency Marketel. The spots feature actor/tv host Marc-Andre Coallier and were lit by dop David Franco. Buzz handled the post-production, Supersuite did the film-to-tape transfer and AstralTech handled lab duties. Jean-Marie Benoit composed the original music, recorded at Studio Tempo.

At Cinelande, director Erik Canuel and dop Pierre Gill shot an introductory Maximum Ice spot for PNMD/Publitel. Posted on the Flame at Hybride Technologies, the spot features elaborate snow and lightning special effects, with the focus obviously on the product. Supersuite did the transfer.

Serge Jacques directed and Barry Gravelle was the cinematographer on Loto-Quebec’s Tele-Dollars promotion. The shoot features an open briefcase with a miniature man inside pitching from a tv soundstage. Canuel and Gill got the call on a McDonald’s/Upper Deck promotion out of Cossette, with Canadiens goalie Patrick Roy in a starring role. The spot was shot at the Verdun Auditorium.

Figaro

At Figaro Films, recent action includes new dates for Bell Canada and Cossette, Tim Horton and Blouin Coulombe Dube Thompson, and Procter & Gamble’s Spic & Span, out of BCP/Saatchi & Saatchi, Toronto.

Director Cosimo Cavallaro and dop Guy Dufaux got the call on two Bell ‘Advantage’ spots. Cavallaro directed the first five spots for the extended campaign in December. Transfer was done at Centre de Montage Electronique. The new January action was posted at Supersuite.

New Figaro Films director Glenn Bydwell and Danyluk teamed on the Tim Horton pool, eight spots including donuts. Supersuite did the post-production with lab duties handled by AstralTech. Director/dop Richard Ciupka helmed the action on the Spic & Span spot shot at the Moliflex/White studio. The shoot is the first original French tv material for Spic & Span in about five years.