Heads off on the right foot with Movie Network launch

With a launch on The Movie Network and ‘fairly good reviews’ from some prominent publications in hand, Heads is rolling along. In fact, heads really do roll, or at least they turn up sans corps in some odd places in this black comedy from Atlantis Films and Credo Group. Commercial production content shows up in the form of Heads’ dop Alar Kivilo, who took time off last year from directing and shooting for Propeller to return to long-form work.

Heads launched on pay-tv late last month in the wake of nice press from the likes of Variety and the u.s. national TV Guide, says Kivilo. He says writers compared Heads to Raising Arizona ‘with decapitations and wry wit.’

Starring Ed Asner, Jon Cryer and Jennifer Tilly, the prairie film tells the story of a small-town newspaper editor, the proofreader he promotes to reporter when the original reporter fails to show up for work, and the love interest. But the original reporter isn’t just off work, he’s been killed and the apprentice scribe finds his head floating in a swimming pool and sets out to solve the mystery.

Kivilo says he and director Paul Shapiro, along with art director Michael Joy, drove ‘all over Manitoba’ for three weeks scouting locations for the film. ‘We wanted to give the film a prairie look,’ says Kivilo, ‘but because of budget and time restrictions, we couldn’t go far afield from Winnipeg. We were creating a Saskatchewan look in Manitoba.’ With this teaser, Kivilo is coy as to the film’s look beyond saying it is a ‘strong style piece. We used a lot of symmetrical framing, with characters in the center and wide shots.’ (He wants us to watch the movie…)

The shoot lasted four weeks, but Kivilo was loathe to see it end. Harking back to earlier feature projects including serving as dop to Steve Surjik’s director on Mary Silliman’s War in the fall of ’92, Kivilo is eager to do more drama.

It’s true

The deal is done. As we hinted in the last Street, a hot young Canadian director is moving. As of March 1, Philip Kates signs on with Radke Films, leaving L.T.B. Productions behind.

In other Radke news, the Directors Guild of America has nominated New York-based director Peter Goldschmidt, and four other directors, for an award for outstanding directorial achievement in commercials during 1993. The dga nomination, a first for Goldschmidt, is for an Air France spot called ‘Speed of Sound.’ Goldschmidt’s fellow nominees are Joe Pytka, Jim Gartner, Danny Ducovny and Mark Coppos. The awards are handed out March 5.

Sitting in judgment

The judges are out, the judges are out! The Television Bureau and the Broadcast Executives Society, organizers of the Bessie Awards, have named the judging panel for the 1994 Bessies.

To begin, the chief judge is Dan Peppler, ceo and national creative director at Doner Schur Peppler. Vice-chair credentials go to Jack Neary, Cossette’s creative director.

Other notables on the jury are: Peter Holmes, chair and creative director at Franklin Dallas; Terry Bell, executive vice-president and copywriter at Vickers and Benson; Janet Kestin, creative group head at Ogilvy and Mather; Bette Minott, v-p and head of broadcast production at Chiat/Day; David Baxter, editor at The Partners’ Film Company; Stephen Yeates, director/dop at Circle Productions; and Ralph Cole, a partner in Harris Cole Wilde Productions.

The Bessies come out of their envelopes (and the alcohol flows down the Long Bar) at a gala awards ceremony on May 5 at the Toronto Sheraton Centre.

More fabulous footage

If you’re familiar with the James Bond flick Living Daylights, you’ll recall it included some ‘spine-tingling air action’ scenes. Fabulous Footage is now representing the man who shot those shots, Tom Sanders. He also gets credits for an opening skydiving sequence show during the Seoul Olympics. The stock footage company is also repping L.L. Rue’s collection of wildlife footage shot in Tanzania and Kenya.

Who’s shooting who

The cameras turned on Partners’ director Shin Sugino during a recent shoot for Eaton’s department stores. Sugino was putting together a nifty spot that makes a big fashion statement for the retailer when a crew from City-tv fashioned its own report for the station’s FashionTelevision.