Madness has hit Winnipeg, and if writers/producers/directors Jeff Peeler and Brenda Kovitz have their way it will sweep through young local businesses and wake up the establishment.

Commercial production company Critical Madness formally opened its doors on March 4, and owners Peeler and Kovitz, fresh from working on promotions at the Manitoba Television Network, want to develop a reputation for selling concepts instead of products.

‘The market here is boring,’ Peeler says of Winnipeg. ‘They’ve gotten too comfortable with what they’re doing. We want to shake them up.’

As its name suggests, Critical Madness strays off the beaten path. Peeler, who will write/produce/direct, and Kovitz, the production manager, are the only staff members. They’ll hire writers, animators and artists on a freelance basis as needed.

Peeler and Kovitz are sharing office space with Klynch Communications, and since they’ve worked with the print ad company in the past, they plan to maintain this relationship.

Low overhead makes Critical Madness more accessible to young businesses – and makes the company more marketable, says Kovitz.

‘tv stations are looking for freelance production companies so there’s more opportunity for us,’ she says. ‘We’re cutting costs and still producing just as much with less.’

The tv commercial market is saturated (there are about 10 other shops in Winnipeg) and their recipe for success is knowing what works, combined with a splash of something different to stand out from the crowd.

‘We want people who are willing to take a risk in ads and not be scared off,’ Peeler says.

Part of their strategy is to do things with humor and creativity.

The talent pool they’ll be dipping into includes Adam Rickner, cartoonist for the syndicated comic strip Horrorscope, who designed the Critical Madness logo. They’ll also be working with the young artists at the Animation Station in Winnipeg and animators at MRI Digital Graphics, a division of Man Lab Resources, not to mention contacts from mtn and from Peeler’s alma mater, Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, where he studied Radio and Television Arts.

There’s no shortage of writing talent, says Peeler, who recently collaborated with two other writers on Everyone’s a Critic, a play he’ll be directing for the Winnipeg Fringe Festival later this summer. Peeler also sang with the a cappella band Loose Change for five years and maintains band connections so he can recruit musical talent ‘on a case-by-case basis’ if need be.

The duo is currently producing a music video for the song Paranoid by the Whiskey Puppets, a well-known local blues/rock band, and they’re developing proposals for other bands.

If Peeler is on the more creative end of the Critical Madness spectrum, Kovitz, with her banking background, is responsible for the budget and the books and will enlist her business contacts in Winnipeg. She graduated from the Southern Alberta Institute for Technology as a writer/producer/director, and at one time directed Sports Talk, a live show in Calgary. Her’s is a practical approach to starting up a business in an otherwise diluted industry.