Sugino departs Avion Films

Director Shin Sugino has flown Avion Films and joined Circle Productions. Last May, George Morita, Stanley Mestel and Michael Schwartz left The Partners’ Film Company to start up Avion, taking directors Sugino and Dan Hackett with them. (Hackett is still with Avion).

Sugino left Avion on good terms, says Karen Tameanko at Circle, while Avion describes the departure as a ‘non-issue.’

At Avion, Sugino just completed a two-day shoot for General Motors out of MacLaren:Lintas, and at the end of the summer, had a two-week project out of Ambrose Carr Linton Kelly for Acura.

Call the landlord, it’s getting louder

Toronto-based composer/producer David Krystal has vacated his David Krystal Music digs and moved up four floors to become a partner with Steve Convery and Clive Desmond in the (bigger) Louder Music and Sound Design forces.

The move results in a more solidified talent base, enabling Krystal to concentrate on writing for the Canadian market, and to offer the diverse skills, including the sound design expertise of Krystal’s new cohorts, to his u.s. clientele.

‘What’s different about this,’ says Krystal, ‘is we’re really trying to work as a team and use everyone’s brain power on every job.’

In addition to its high volume of commercial work, the newly expanded sound house plans to pool its talents into longer format musical avenues, namely film and tv.

Mum’s the word

An all too familiar scenario is forcing freelance producer Candice Connacher to move to Anacortes, Wash. at the end of January. Connacher’s husband, Brian Thomson, a freelance director/ cameraman, is doing most of his work out of Los Angeles and they’re moving within reasonable commuting distance of l.a. to avoid regular month-long separations.

In a small town with no production industry to speak of, Connacher is going to concentrate on being a mum to her four-year-old son, at least until September when he begins school.

Red tape! How festive

Director Mark Walton’s first commercial with Radke Films is bound up in red tape. The spot – for the federal government’s program to address the problem of kids living on the street – was to have been shot in Montreal in early November. But it seems a government official who was on vacation during the scheduling came back and put the spot on hold until some business technicalities are worked out.

Walton landed the job by shooting an original 25-minute video presentation of himself explaining his interpretation of the storyboard. The assignment is out of McKim Advertising in Winnipeg.

Walton is taking it in stride, saying it leaves him free to work on other projects. The Irish-born director has been with Radke since the end of the summer.