Just wrapping a multimillion-dollar, 10-day beer project for Super Bowl release, Jolly Rogers’ Steve Chase will be jetting from the snow-shelled Olympic Stadium where he’s shooting to the tropics of Cape Town for his first project with his European rep.

Chase is onside with London-based Bartle Bogle Hegarty of Levis fame for a Lynx deodorant spot, his first through Great Guns in London, a shop he’s been with for about a year but hasn’t actualized because of limited availability. Shooting will happen the first two weeks of January for the comedy spot, which will be released only in Britain at the end of the month.

(Those who missed the MediaTelevision profile of young Mr. Chase, on location at the Pontiac shoot at MacLaren McCann, are invited to call Citytv archives, Nov. 25 show.)

While we’re on the subject of the u.k., whither Avion Films and the London treks? Director Tim Hamilton just returned from a shoot with Bensimon Byrns and Martin Granger has since gone awol in the tea capital. A corepresentation agreement on the horizon, maybe?

In other Avion news, Warren Sulatycky has migrated to Avion after two and a half years at sister company, Hoodoo Films.

The former writer in residence at the Factory Theatre Lab and director of a season of ytv’s The Destructo Brothers, Sulatycky has landed on commercial production. ‘I’m in for the long haul.’

Eager to ‘get into that agency world and churn the waters,’ he has his eye on working internationally but sees the importance of building a strong base at home before venturing out to the four corners of the globe.

‘Key right now,’ he says, ‘is to focus on the relationships that are there and close to home, and build on those.’

Like many directors coming into the commercial realm armed with the storytelling talents of a writer, actor and director, Sulatycky has his long-form pet project. He’s hoping to use the Christmas break to shoot his own half-hour drama, Short, Back and Sides, the story of a young advertising guy who comes home to the family barbershop.

ctv is in for a second window and the film’s on the short list for Global’s new producers series. If Saskfilm kicks in some dough, then he’s heading to his grandmother’s Saskatchewan hometown for Christmas and a little time behind the camera.

People

Director Glen Schultz landed new representation at The Players Film Company at the end of November.

Schultz, groomed at Damast Gordon and Associates for the last two years, is leaning towards a dialogue-driven specialty and is ‘looking forward to new opportunities’ at Players. Meanwhile, dga is looking for another young, hip director, says executive producer Susi Patterson.

In addition to new sales exec Corinna Lehr, Sparks Productions has brought on director Dale Fay, an established Canadian special-effects director now based out of l.a. Fay has more than 22 feature films under his belt, an Emmy for The Last Halloween (1992), and a Bessie for a Rubbermaid spot, circa 1990.

u.s. director Bobby Sheehan is making the production house rounds in search of Canadian representation.

Oh, and speaking of u.s. directors, last issue’s story on Skip D’Amico reported he was moving to Toronto from his home in Miami, when in fact, the Miami-born director has been based in New York.

In agency happenings, art director Malcolm Marcus has left Leo Burnett. Creatives Paul Wales and Andy Brokenshire also left Burnett as of last week, heading for jwt. Allana Lytle, longtime producer at jwt, left last week, destination unknown. Terry Black, who has been freelancing for Enterprise Advertising, is coming on full time after Ria Hilts announced she will not be returning from maternity leave.

Last but not least, Spy Films’ William Cranor and wife Mary are the proud parents of their third child, Olivia Grace, born Tuesday, Nov. 21. Baby Olivia rang in at a whopping nine pounds three ounces, the smallest yet for the Cranor clan of Elisa, 3, and Will, almost 2.

Say cheese

In between planning the The Partners’ Film Company’s Christmas party – early rsvps show more kids, meaning Santa’s helpers needed to queue up more rides, more prizes, more animals (‘for the kids to maul’) and a split-shift Santa, Ross McLean was poring over the camera catalogues, making it a merrier holiday season for a lot of manufacturers as well.

In a keeping-up-with-the Joneses bid – Partners’ has always been keen on having things in the camera larder that no one else has – McLean now has in hand an Angenieux 10 to 1/25 to 250 hr series lens, one more on the way and another on order. Delivery is also pending on two Arri 435 cameras.

While pondering if swing/tilt heads are a passing fad (they’ve got a set), and musing over orders for base plates, extension finders and filters (the last step of the camera upgrade is replacing around 250 filters @$75 a pop), McLean likens the exercise to buying military hardware – ‘A screw is $100′ – and opines he would rather be in New Orleans where Partners’ has back-to-back shoots.

In construction news, now that editor Mark Hajek has joined Partners’ Post as a senior guy, and five new assistant editors and an assistant post co-ordinator have been added to the staff, the editing division is eating space. Partners’ is building four luxe editing suites on the fourth floor and the existing outgrown rooms are going to lose walls and become double offices to accommodate the new post crowd.

At the same time, McLean is shopping for a new space for the Partners’ post group.

On the topic of Bruce Copeman, McLean says: ‘He’s leaving Partners’ to do his own things. How his company is structured, who owns it, hasn’t been decided, but his intention is to move out of here.’ Copeman’s been on vacation and will likely leave in the new year, McLean concludes.

Did someone say cabin fever?

Condolences to Leo Burnett’s Brenda Surminski, who will be spending the bleak midwinter screening hundreds, maybe thousands, of testimonials for Crispy Crunch.

Burnett is taking real-people casting to the nth degree for the upcoming Crispy Crunch campaign, launching a nationwide casting call aptly dubbed the ‘Crispy Crunch Couple Search.’

The call comes complete with audition booths at Cineplex Odeon theaters (Empire theaters in Atlantic Canada), and an open invitation to send in videotapes on why you’d be the best next Crispy Crunch couple.

Surminski, senior producer at Burnett and managing director of the cccs, is ‘happily dedicating the next two months of her life’ to finding the Crispy Crunch couple, says Martin Shewchuk, executive vp and chief creative officer at Burnett and art director on the new campaign.

The upcoming set of spots, likely three as per the first campaign directed by the late Richard Radke, will be shot in February. The contest wraps Jan. 20. The director has yet to be nailed down.

Silly Season adieu

It’s a little early, but since Playback doesn’t resurface until Jan. 1, may your festive season be filled with joy, boards, and rum-heavy eggnog. Happy New Year, drive safe, and we’ll see you 1996.