Toronto production levels, according to the number-crunchers at the Toronto Film and Television Office, were up slightly in the first half of 1996. There were 61 productions (excluding music videos) in the period from January to June, up from 59 in the same period last year. The total budget for the first six months was $190 million, a healthy increase of 15% over $165 million for the first half of ’95.

The breakdown shows that 37 of the projects were Canadian (for a total of $74.6 million) and 19 were American (for a total of $92 million). Four coventures and one lonely coproduction added up to $23.3 million.

Cambium gets go-ahead

Cambium Film and Video Productions has just received a green light from cbc for The Ragamuffins, a $3.2 million preschool series which includes two primetime specials and 21 eight-minute episodes. Partnering on the project is Deborah Weiss of Toronto’s One Entertainment. Cambium’s Arnie Zipursky says he intends to coproduce with Montreal’s Cine-Groupe and delivery is expected in 1997.

Cambium has also received word from WIC Western International Communications on a second season renewal for Nilus The Sandman, the animated kids’ show coproduced with Vancouver’s Delaney & Friends Cartoon Productions.

Zipursky says a soundtrack album for Nilus, featuring artists from the show like Holly Cole, is in the works for next year, just in time for Christmas.

Alliance begins first of a few for HBO

Alliance’s A Maiden’s Grave, the firstborn of a multi-picture deal between the Canadian producer and American cable network hbo, is in production in Toronto. According to Alliance, the cable feature is the first step towards forging an ongoing relationship between the two companies.

The producer is Canadian John Kemeny (Quest For Fire) and Dan Petrie Jr. is directing. The script comes from veteran film scribe Donald Stewart, who penned Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games.

As for forming new u.s. allegiances, Alliance recently sold the $3.2 million tv movie Diana Kilmury: Teamster to Turner Broadcasting Systems for an Oct. 22 broadcast. Deals regarding three or four other projects are being discussed.

Keeping peace in Foymount

Producer David Barlow (e.n.g., Side Effects) is up in Foymount, Ont. ‘trying to shove an elephant through a keyhole.’ Shooting is just underway on Peacekeepers, a dramatic cbc tv movie based on the experiences of Canadian soldiers in Croatia in 1992 and 1993.

Pete White (Legend of Ruby Silver), who will also be credited as associate producer on the project, wrote the script after spending two years interviewing and researching soldiers who’d returned from the field. The result, according to Barlow, is somewhat of a departure for the cbc because it is, in essence, very much an action picture. ‘There are at least three or four major action moments.’

But the whole elephant-and-keyhole syndrome comes from the project’s budget. The 90-minute movie is being produced for under $3 million. ‘It’s an action film set in Croatia for less than the price of your average mow,’ says Barlow. ‘It’s really tight.’

As part of that tight budget, areas of Foymount are being adapted – with the help of military advisors and cbc’s vast library of news footage – to resemble the bomb damage found in war-torn Croatia. Luckily, the topography of the two regions is similar. The final days of the 24-day shoot will happen in Whitby, Ont.

Peacekeepers, which is a 100% cbc project, is directed by Brad Turner (Paris or Somewhere).

Dinnertime for Sisam

The second of two projects for Global’s New Producers Series has just wrapped a quick five-day shoot on location in Toronto’s Forest Hill district. Grendel Pictures, a partnership between producers Patrick Sisam and Anita Herczeg, was mentored by Protocol Entertainment and executive producer Steve Levitan to produce Dinner Along The Amazon, an adaptation of Timothy Findley’s short story.

Sisam, who directed and cowrote the script with Rick Velleu, has made a number of other short films including Thirty Below Zero (starring Moira Kelley of Twin Peaks fame) and Love Child, which has screened and won awards at a bevy of international fests.

Shot by dop Manfred Guthe (The Stupids) and starring Arsinee Khanjian (wife of Atom Egoyan) along with Dan Lett and Peter Outerbridge, the half-hour is described as a film about ‘relationships, infatuations and the desperate struggle to match one’s life with one’s fading hopes and dreams.’

The production, budgeted in the $200,000 range, was aided by the Cable Production Fund. Global has Canadian rights and Protocol will distribute internationally.

Hitting the road

After finishing Enigmatico, an exploration of artists of Italian descent in Canada, the husband and wife direction/production team of David Mortin and Patricia Fogliato decided to tackle a somewhat different issue.

Their latest documentary, tentatively titled Heaven on Earth: Life in the RV Lane, is a look at the motor-home set – seniors who are members of recreational vehicle clubs. The film, a coproduction between Enigmatico Films and the nfb, will be delivered to cbc’s Rough Cuts in mid-December.

‘The traveling, the time on the road, is a metaphor – a vehicle if you like, no pun intended – for a film about aging,’ says Mortin. ‘It’s about the psychological and emotional state of mind of these people.’

The film’s subjects – two Ontarians and a Texan – haul their rigs all over the continent and the producers shot in Texas, Wyoming, Colorado and Nova Scotia throughout the month of July. Much of the $310,000 budget, says Mortin, has been eaten up in travel costs.

Michael Allder is producing for the nfb and Jerry McIntosh is producing for Rough Cuts.

Reading between the frames

When John Gunn and Patrick Bonaldis produced the first book video for national broadcast on Bravo!, Gunn (who is also Bravo!’s creative director but who produced the video independently) hoped the idea would catch on. In fact, he envisions Bravo! not only regularly airing jazz or opera or dance or even book videos, but branching out into other areas as well. Architecture videos, for example, which would feature footage from unique buildings and original music.

Gunn says the first foray into book videos – a piece based on Linda McQuaig’s bestseller Shooting The Hippo: Death by Deficit and Other Canadian Myths – was well received in Bravo!’s regular video rotation. It featured excerpts of McQuaig reading from her book interspersed with political footage and accompanied by original music from Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson of Millenium Music. It was shot by Gerald Packer.

‘We treated it (the book) like a song, in a way, and Linda’s voice functioned as the lyrics,’ says Gunn.

While not wanting to tread on any toes at MuchMusic, Bravo! has Bravo!fact (similar to MuchMusic’s Videofact fund) to help support producers who have video ideas feasible for broadcast on Bravo! and different from videos Much would be likely to support. The greater of $600,000 or 5% of Bravo!’s gross revenue is available annually and the next deadline is Sept. 30.

‘In general, it’s just an extension of the Bravo! philosophy,’ says Gunn. ‘We want to take the ideas that have worked so well for music and movies and fashion for Citytv and MuchMusic and translate them into our own areas.’