While Canada continues to act as a mecca for film and tv production, the sophistication and size of the post and effects industry has grown commensurately, offering an ever more comprehensive complement of gear and services.

The industry has grown in volume to an estimated quarter billion dollar business in 1997 and in profile – foreign producers now come seeking the talents of Canadian shops without the benefit of shooting in close proximity. The industry has evolved beyond back-end, fix-it-in-post expertise and Canadian shops have become major players in high-profile, front-end work, with imaging experts assuming a larger role in the production as well as the post process.

On the following pages, some of the bright lights of the Canadian post, animation and effects industry discuss some recent projects, where they came from and why.

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John Gajdecki Visual Effects, a bicoastal effects operation with offices in Toronto and Vancouver, has honed its skills in the death, dismemberment and rebirth areas with work on series like Poltergeist and mgm/Atlantis/ Trilogy’s The Outer Limits.

When it was time to capture an on-screen soul transference for 20th Century Fox series The Visitor, the immediate choice for the project’s effects supervisor was John Gajdecki, a seasoned expert in recreating an assortment of unnatural bodily disturbances.

The Visitor is shot in l.a. and revolves around the earthly adventures of an extraterrestrial.

The producers were planning a scene involving the visual manifestation of the transfer of souls between two bodies, and when ideas for the production and post execution of the scene were being discussed with Visitor director Rawz Zisk and visual effects supervisor Lucy Hoffert, the latter suggested Gajdecki’s shop.

Hoffert had worked previously with Gajdecki’s team on Poltergeist and witnessed firsthand the shop’s way with displaced spirits and body parts.

The Visitor soul transfer involves a ritual wherein particles of fire gather and fly between bodies and the producers were looking for a convincing depiction of the phenomenon and for the shots to be turned around in short order.

Hoffert sent the live-action cuts shot up to that point to Gajdecki’s office, where 3D artist David Alexander, Inferno artist Joel Skeet and project supervisor Mark Sevela were assembled to handle the scene. Via a conference call between Hoffert, Zisk and the three effects specialists, a verbal picture of the desired look of the scene was painted – a swirling tornado of particles gathering and streaming across space.

Sevela says the effects operatives had four basic shots to work with, a pair each of overhead shots and two-shots.

Alexander did some initial tests with the material, which were then e-mailed to the l.a. production office. ‘By the time they walked into their office the next day, they already had an example of how the progression of the particles was going,’ says Sevela. ‘They loved the concept right away.’

When the actual production plates from the show were sent, the Gajdecki team began compositing, which took about two days on the shop’s Discreet Logic Inferno system.

The soul particles were created in Alias|Wavefront animation software by Alexander, who created the appropriate motion from the production plates, using the 3/4-inch tape at first as a guide to create the path of the particles. The soul bits were then composited into the production plates on Inferno, with lighting and color added.

With the project shooting in l.a. and the producers working under a time crunch, it was Hoffert’s endorsement that the right look for the shot could be delivered on time that brought the job north.

Gajdecki recently completed another assignment involving an l.a.-based producer for a show scheduled to be shot in that city. Gajdecki was one of four effects shops – the other three are located in the u.s. – hand-picked by Universal to create tests for a new Invisible Man series in development.

The test material is being used as the basis for the development of the show and Gajdecki’s shop, under effects supervisor Tom Turnbull, is producing about four minutes of effects, created entirely in-house, including the storyline behind the action.

*Also in this report:

Post/SFX showcase:

Collideascope injects hip B2

Big Bang graduates from Dog’s World to Lost World B4

Lost Boy’s extraterrestrial experience B6

Spin in the series race B7

Animation shops to watch:

Bardel gets Dreamworks nod B10

Dynomight’s Net direction B11

Sargent York kids’ 3-pack B12

Canuck evolves from studio flicks to in-house picks B13

Red Giant spawns series B14

Canadian prodcos plotting boffo toonflick projects B15

Animation House, Lightbox both hit 15 B16, B21

B.C. post shops winning more of the U.S. visual effects B18