– Dome buys R.S. Video

Toronto’s Dome Productions, a wholly owned division of NetStar Communications, has purchased R.S. Video Consultants from parent company CFCF Inc. of Montreal. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

R.S. Video owns three mobile production units utilized primarily for television coverage of international sports and entertainment events. The new units will double the size of Dome’s mobile unit fleet.

Brian Harty, gm of R.S. Video, will join Dome in a similar capacity to manage the Montreal operation.

-New drivers guild

Organizers started the engine of the Professional Motion Pictures Drivers Guild of Canada on Jan. 12 in Vancouver.

President John Riddle says the new guild will steer clear of the big-budget projects, focusing instead on the small-budget, typically non-union shoots.

The group of 20 members is currently negotiating on v.i.o.l. e.n.t., a $2.2 million video feature, the $2 million feature Broken Halo, and Trapline, a locally produced $5 million feature.

The guild’s goals, says Riddle, are to promote professional standards and build a regular roster of drivers for low-budget projects (that fall outside the B.C. Council of Film Union’s master agreement).

Rates for the guild will depend on the project, says Riddle, but he expects the costs to be about half of what producers pay Teamsters Local 155.

Prospective drivers need an unrestricted Class 4 licence. Application fees for the guild are $10, while yearly membership costs $100. Call (604) 844-5658 or (604) 443-0194 for information.

-Record year for IMAX

In its fourth quarter, Imax Corp. has reported record earnings and theater system signings, helping to bring earnings per share for fiscal 1996 to $1.01 as compared to $0.23 in 1995.

Fourth-quarter earnings were $0.32 per share versus $0.08 per share in the fourth quarter of 1995. Signed contracts for eight new imax systems in this fourth quarter were valued at $27.3 million, up 47% over the prior year quarter and the highest value of any fourth quarter in the company’s history. In fiscal ’96, Imax signed contracts for 29 new systems valued at $89.6 million, a 39% increase over the previous record established in 1995.

Overall, revenues increased 28% in the fourth quarter and 47% in the fiscal year driven by over 60% growth in systems revenue in each period.

The company also announced that vp Douglas Trumbull will be leaving when his contract expires on March 1, but will continue developing projects for Imax. It was also announced that the company’s previously disclosed two-for-one stock split will be put to a shareholder vote at the company’s agm in May.

-Lenny Breau film

Emily Hughes of Edmonton’s Soft and Groovey Productions is calling last month’s Juno Award nominations particularly well-timed as it included the naming of jazz guitarist Lenny Breau to the 1997 Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Hughes, the daughter of Breau, is associate producer of a film documenting her legendary father’s life and career, to be coproduced by Toronto-based Sleeping Giant Productions’ Paul McConvey and Phyllis Laing’s Buffalo Gal Pictures in Winnipeg.

Bravo! has picked up exclusive first-window rights on the $700,000 Guitar Visionary: The Genius of Lenny Breau and Vision tv has non-exclusive second window rights. But the project can’t be greenlit until Telefilm Canada announces whether it will commit financing from its Western fund. Hughes hopes the Hall of Fame induction will give their project a boost when the funding decisions are made.

The nfb and Bravo! have provided development money and cbc is investing archival footage for the 90-minute film to be shot in Toronto and on location with dramatic reenactments as well as interviews with such notable musicians as Leonard Cohen, Liona Boyd and George Benson.

-Wiredless

Toronto-based SelectView Wireless, the first applicant for a Southern Ontario mmds licence, has announced the launch of SelecTheNet, its high-speed Internet service. SelectView says the broadband service will provide data transfer at about 80 times faster than regular Internet connections.

SelecTheNet equipment is installed atop the CN Tower, which will enable delivery to Internet service providers within a 70 km radius. With approval from Industry Canada, SelectTheNet will continue consumer testing the service over the next six months.