New variety producer signs

multi-concert pay-per view deal

Montreal: tv variety producer Jean Trudel and former cfcf-tv president Christo Georges have teamed up to launch Melodeum, a production company specializing in the packaging and financing of tv specials.

Trudel and Fogel-Sabourin Productions were the producing tandem behind Sarah McLachlan’s 90-minute concert special Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, winner of the ’95 Gemini for best performance in a variety program or series. McLachlan’s label and management company, Nettwerk, shared in the cost of the production, which first aired on pay-per-view service Viewer’s Choice Canada, and later on CFCF-12, Montreal.

Melodeum has an order for six more specials from Viewer’s Choice, which pays out a licence fee of about 40% of production costs plus a percentage on the ppv tickets, which is shared with the artist. Trudel says an agreement with Westcom Entertainment Group will allow the new specials to be picked up by ppv service Home Theatre and pay-tv service Superchannel.

The financing formula includes coproducing with the artist, who gains through the ticket share on ppv plus retains a master of the special for subsequent use, including video clip spin-offs.

The spin-offs in McLachlan’s case are considerable. The 90-minute special has become a hot seller in the u.s., ranking 35th on Billboard’s March 10 ranking after six weeks in release. Arista Records is using an outtake to back the release of the single Hold On, and a cover of a Tom Waits’ tune sung by McLachlan is featured on the sound track of the movie Boys on the Side.

Trudel says he can deliver the package for about $150,000.

The setup for the McLachlan special included a six-camera package for the live stage show, two additional isolation cameras, three directors – Tom O’Neill, James DiSalvio and Diane Boyer – and a more intimate, interview/song segment taped separately in-studio in Morin Heights, Que. Added to a 10-hour ‘making of’ segment, 22 hours were taped in all, and then paired down for the ppv presentation.

Toronto’s Electric Images provided the mobile services. Marcel Gouin and Karisma, Montreal, did the sound recording for the live show and veteran record producer Pierre Marchand handled the audio in Morin Heights.

Trudel says the six stage cameras and two iso cameras are essential ‘if you want to capture the full magic of live television.’

In the race for the Gemini, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy beat out some rather high-priced competition: a special featuring cbc darlin’ Rita MacNeil, a Just For Laughs variety special from Rozon Distribution, and Paragon Entertainment’s highly-rated Celine Dion: The Colour of My Love special, produced for the CTV Television Network at a cost of almost 10 times that of the winning entry.

From his new offices overlooking trendy St. Laurent Boulevard, Trudel feels his prospects are good, if only because broadcasters are showing renewed ‘interest’ in Cancon and crtc requirements, while the record labels seem keen on doing value-added business on tv as they grumble away about MuchMusic and MusiquePlus, ‘the only broadcasters in this country who have 65% of the on-air programming given to them freely.’

Spring casting call

As for Quebec-based tv and feature film action, there’s an industry’s worth of projects gearing up for spring shoots, among them productions being cast by Andrea Kenyon of Andrea Kenyon and Associates.

This month, Kenyon’s spring casting call includes at least seven projects. They are:

– Danielle Steel’s Zoya, a two-part miniseries from The Cramer Company produced in association with NBC Productions. Producers are Doug Cramer, Fred Muller and Josette Perrotta. The shoot is set to start in mid-May for six weeks under the direction of Richard Colla;

– A new round of four Tales of the Wild (a.k.a. Gold Hunters) 90-minute tv movies from Cinevideo Plus and executive producer Justine Heroux, produced in association with France’s Ellipse Programme and Gaumont TV and set for a mid-April start;

– Space Cases, a youth sitcom-cum-drama tv pilot from Cinar Films, produced in association with Nickelodeon, that’s set for an April shoot. Producers are Micheline Charest, Jean-Marie Comeau, Suzie Dietz, Peter David and Billy Mumy;

– Shades of Death, a futuristic mutant-revolt feature story from Voyeur Productions and distributor Alliance-Vivafilm. Principal photography is planned for August with Christian Viel directing;

– Season five of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the spooky but popular anthology tv series produced by Cinar in association with Nickelodeon and broadcast in Canada on ytv, heads into production April 25. Charest and Iain Paterson are producing;

– Coyote, a Cinequest Films theatrical feature film, is set for a June shoot, with Shimon Dotan directing.

Also fast approaching, according to the Quebec office of the Director’s Guild of Canada, is High-Rising, a feature film from Filmline International. Nicholas Clermont and Stewart Harding are producing. Sidney J. Furey is set to direct, Irene Litinsky is pm and Gilles Aird is the production designer. The film is slated to go for six weeks, starting April 17.

Other film action on the horizon includes:

– A May restart for the controversial crime/mob tale Omerta: La loi du silence, an 11-hour Productions SDA tv series with Francois Champagne and Helene Perras producing. Pierre Houle (Scoop) is the series’ new director and Ginette Hardy is the pm;

– A family tv series, La Courte Echelle, and two or three feature films are on the boards this spring and summer for Allegro Films and producers Tom Berry, Franco Battista and Stefan Wodoslawski;

– And finally, from the Quebec office of the dgc, rumors of some half dozen or more spring/summer feature film shoots from various producers, including Pieter Kronenberg, Jean Zaloum, Nardo Castillo, Claude Castravelli and Stephan Reichal and Richard Attenborough.

La Belle Epoque

Principal photography in Paris wraps at the end of March on time and on budget on the $15 million France/Canada high-definition production La Belle Epoque, a historical drama backdropped by the sweeping technological, social and political changes of the early years of the 20th century.

Comprised of three 90-minute tv movies, La Belle Epoque producers are Claude Leger of Montreal’s Transfilms and Nardo Castillo of France’s Productions EGM. The French producer is GMT Productions. The Canadian investment is $3 million.

Broadcasters are TF1 and Canal+ in France and TMN-The Movie Network, Super Ecran and Radio-Canada in Canada.

Scripted by the late Francois Truffaut and Jean Gruault, the film’s leading players are France’s Andre Dussolier, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Marthe Keller and Canadian actors Yves Jacques, Anne Letourneau, Francis Reddy and Leo Ilial.

Visual special effects and sound post-production will be done in Montreal under the direction of veteran post supervisor Georges Jardon. Gavin Miller is the director and egm’s Brigitte Germain is associate producer.

Investors include Astral Distribution, Telefilm Canada, the Quebec tax credit and sogic.

Third short film fest

The third edition of Festival International du court metrage de Montreal unspools April 3-9 with 200 films from 28 countries on the menu.

The week’s program highlights include a nod to insomniacs at an all-night screening session called Long Night of the Shorts, four competition categories (international, international animation, university and junior college) and workshops by professionals on screenwriting the short film and Super 16 production, the latter a highly worthwhile event scheduled for Thursday, April 6.

Festival director Bernard Boulad says this year’s homages go to directors Oliver Stone and Krystof Kieslowski and acerbic French comic Jacques Tati.

The screening lineup includes shorts from high-profile filmmakers like Terry Gilliam and Agnes Varda, who was in town recently to promote her critically acclaimed, surreal salute to the centenary of cinema, Les Cents et une nuits, and films from Tony Gatlif, Pierre Falardeau and Cyril Collard.

There’s a showcase called New York Short Stories and a special screening event with the eight 1994/95 participants in Radio-Canada’s international documentary series, Course Destination Monde.

Festival prize sponsors include Cinar Films, Radio-Canada, Alcan, the National Film Board and CFP/MusiquePlus in the international competition; TV5/Kaleidoscope and PMT Video in the international animation section; and edit house Bureau de Poste, Fuji Film, Kodak Canada and training center Parlimage in the university/college competition. Other sponsors include Sonolab, La Boite Noire, radio station cibl and Labatt Ice.

Admission to most events is free. For festival information, call (514) 872-7884.