That’s all, folks!

Three years and three months: a short period in the life of an industry. But it’s also the time I’ve spent as editor of Playback – more than one-third of the paper’s life span – and I’m leaving Brunico Communications with this issue.

At my first Playback story meeting, my somewhat skeptical colleagues looked at me in silence for a few moments before announcing stories they were developing for the coming issue. The Entertainment Writer at the time, Karen Mazurkewich, launched into a discussion of ‘poly-party certification.’ Talk about baptism by fire. I thought I’d be immersing myself in glittering, star-studded functions and on-set extravaganzas. Poly-party what?

But that’s the beauty of Playback. It follows the ins and outs of union negotiations in b.c. (hence the poly-party reference), advances in post-production technology, setbacks on the latest mow, and the latest Canadian director on the commercial circuit.

Where else could you read about grandfathered tax shelters, non-simultaneous substitution, retransmission royalties, the latest wonder box at Gastown Post, the newest tax credit from sogic, or the fate of the crew which contracted hepatitis on location in Central America? Where else could you hear the latest gossip on director rosters, on dancing at the twift gala, or audience antics at the Geminis? Where else would union leaders call to complain bitterly that their union’s acronym was printed in smaller type than the acronym of a rival union?

There have been so many memorable moments, professional and personal. Like on-the-job-training in the form of a baseball bat in the teeth. Riding to the hospital with our publisher and his two boys, the younger asked, ‘Why’s Sue got a towel in her mouth?’

Then there was the thrill when Playback appeared on Street Legal in Cynthia Dale’s hands, and when our magazine, Video Innovations, won an award for its cover.

At the cab convention in 1992, I had that withering feeling, as I stood interviewing Izzy Asper, that my belt had popped open and was slithering down my legs to the floor. At MIP-TV ’94, I was about to introduce myself to Ivan Fecan at the Alliance booth, only to stop short, realizing that the sleeve of my elegant cocktail dress was slathered in vegetable dip.

On the up side, I got to watch Michael Buckley shoot gorgeous footage for an anti-smoking spot in a Mississauga warehouse. I talked to Francis Mankiewicz about his career. I cheered as Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners made it to the screen. I loved doing the film diary on Highway 61 and then saw the film. I had inspiring lunches with Maria Topalovich, I met the extraordinary commercial director Tarsem. Learned the difference between composite and component digital (when I was barely on good terms with a vu metre) from Brian Reid at Magnetic North.

I saw my Dad die, and watched my second son being born. Through it all, I learned to appreciate the strengths of my colleagues – and drew so much from them. A couple of times, I wondered how it would all stick together when certain of them left. But of course, we had all learned enough to go on our way, on our own.

And now, it’s my turn. So thank

you all, and I’ll see you in the cartoons.