– Navigating new waters

Commercial production veteran Yvonne Buckingham has shut down Heathgate Films to join forces with Humphrey Carter in new Toronto spot shop Navigator Films.

Located in what was Heathgate’s headquarters at 206 King Street in downtown Toronto, the newly formed entity is a 50-50 partnership between Carter and Buckingham, with Heathgate employees running the office and its directors making up the majority of the roster.

While Buckingham concentrates on the administrative details of the new company, Carter, former executive producer at now-dissolved Toronto spot shop comm.bat films, looks forward to again playing the role of exec producer and plans to take a more hands-on approach to the business than he has in the past.

‘As comm.bat wound up I realized that I needed help and I couldn’t start a new company on my own, financially,’ says Carter. ‘Yvonne was prepared to back it and she had a good roster of directors, which enabled Navigator to get up and running very quickly.’

While the new company has no specific focus, its directors bring a broad range of specialties to the table which should satisfy all agency needs, says Buckingham. ‘We are realists with a director for anything.’

The roster of directors includes four Canadians – Bob Perks, Derek Vanlint, Andrea Frederickson and newcomer Mark Mowab – and 10 imports – Buck Holzemer, Peter Israelson, Ron Leyser, Ernie Mosteller, Chris Woods, Eric Young, Doug Davis, Stefan Van Bjorn, Robert Dowling and Makoto Hirano.

Being a qualified navigator himself, Carter felt it was an appropriate name for the new company since the job of both navigator and executive producer is to plot the course and help people get from point a to point b in the most efficient way possible.

‘We’ve seen all the bumps and lumps and we know where the pitfalls are and we can navigate our way around that stuff,’ says Buckingham. ‘In essence, we are problem solvers.’

Right now the two say they are laughing a lot, having a good time and trying to agree on a suitable color for their new logo.

-Sparky duo

Powell & Pressburger. Martin & Lewis. Steve & Eydie. In the continuing evolution of talented teams, Sparks Productions has signed the latest dyspeptic duo in the form of New York-based Rodney & Syd. The two have worked together on music videos and spots, bringing an array of high- and low-tech methods to projects, everything ‘from Super-8 cameras bolted to golf clubs to animation with Lite-Brite pegs and cut-up photographs.’

Other samplings from their combined cv: played guitar in punk rock bands; drew a comic book adaptation of Jim Thomson’s (The Grifters) autobiography; directed half a dozen music videos and a couple of spots, including work for mtv and Lipton; designed multimedia installations for Marilyn Manson; created film-noir, sock-puppet, prison-riot, true-crime epic that played at New York, Miami, Hamburg and San Francisco festivals; photographed Mark Boswell’s Super-8, black-and-white, Kafkaesque golf nightmare feature, The Subversion Agency; won a $15,000 grant from the State of Florida (pre-Newt), which they plan to spend on a small segment of their ufo feature; didn’t win an $18,000 afi grant (post-Newt) to make a short about a vomiting midget.

The pair’s eclectic commercial reel has just about everything else, combining earthy animation and different film styles.

-Home talent shines at IBA

Canadian production houses fared well at the 37th annual International Broadcasting Awards luncheon held last month at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.

Judges at the Hollywood Radio and Television Society-sponsored event deemed Radke Films director Robert Black’s Chrysler Canada spot ‘Picnic,’ through bbdo, the best live-action English-language 60 produced outside the u.s.

The Players Film Company director David McNally was honored for his Visa spot ‘Monkeys,’ through Leo Burnett, Toronto. iba judges chose it as the best live-action English-language 30 produced outside the u.s.

The award for best comedy commercial produced outside the u.s. went to Maxx Productions director Larry August for his Casino Rama spot ‘Breaker’ out of Marshall Fenn Communications.

-New at Short Cut

The last of the now-dissolved comm.bat films alums are finding their places throughout the industry. comm.bat’s Marnie McGhie is now serving as sales rep for Short Cut Editing, where, at five foot 10 inches, she provides a dramatic counterpoint to company head J’el Ziegler, for whom the shop is accurately named.

-Grumbles

In the disgruntlement of the week department, rumblings are being heard about the number of palms turned upward toward the Toronto commercial production feedbag, including small towns instituting permit fees to utilities companies.