Vancouver: North Vancouver producer Nick Orchard has two series renewals and one new series to increase his exposure next fall.

Double Exposure, the satire on Canadian politics, has been renewed by Baton/ctv for a second season, this time an order of 22 half-hours.

Featuring Bob Robertson and Linda Cullen, the program is shot at vtv’s live-audience studio in downtown Vancouver and debuted in the fall of 1997.

Orchard coproduces with Cullen Robertson Productions.

For the second year, Gemini-nominated documentary series Cosmic Highway will produce 13 episodes for Discovery Channel. Ken Hewitt-White and Eric Dunn host the astronomy series and the next season will be shot throughout Europe and North America. New episodes of the show – coproduced by Corby Coffin – will air in the fall.

Baton’s vtv is also backing a new six-part series called Drawn Together, coproduced by Orchard, Rick Drew and For Better or For Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston. The live-action production, loosely based on Johnston’s life, will be shot on location in Vancouver and debut in the fall on vtv.

– Hooking, tripping

Speaking of vtv, the upstart Vancouver broadcaster has checked bctv by stealing the Canucks and Grizzlies.

vtv and Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment announced April 8 that the pro sports teams will air games on vtv starting next season. bctv had aired Canucks games since 1976 because of the cozy relationship between bctv and then-majority owner Northwest Sports, both controlled by the late Frank Griffiths.

Now, bctv president Art Reitmeyer says hockey audiences are dropping and licence fees increasing. At the same time, bctv was reluctant to air more games at the expense of its popular supper-hour newscast, which generates greater audience.

vtv will broadcast at least 30 Canucks hockey games and 24 Grizzlies basketball games. vtv is rumored to have paid up to $2.7 million for the broadcast rights.

– Room to rent, maybe

With The X-Files moving to Los Angeles and Millennium not yet renewed officially, five of six soundstages at Lions Gate Studios in North Vancouver are in limbo.

Studio vp and gm Peter Leitch says Fox hasn’t told him one way or another what it will do with the stages that the studio controls at least until the end of May. He says that depending on the success of pilot season, Fox may continue to use the three X-Files stages for new shows.

Leitch adds that renting out the space, if need be, will not pose a problem, with studios like Disney and Paramount making inquiries.

Fox pilot Daybreak was working in the remaining studio at press time.

– Home cookin’

Full Regalia Productions of Gibsons and Vancouver’s Omni Film Production coproduced Singing Our Stories, which debuted on Vision tv April 15. The special is dedicated to aboriginal women artists who preserve Native culture through song. Made by Annie Frazier Henry, the documentary travels from Vancouver Island to New Mexico to find performers such as Rita Coolidge.

And local short filmmaker Howie Woo received a $7,000 project assistance award from the B.C. Arts Council to produce Two Coffees, his seventh short and a comedy about a man who goes to extraordinary lengths to invite a woman to coffee. He is currently in production with Stealing Kisses, an essay on infidelity.

Vancouver’s Backseat Productions is driving a new Life Network series called The Car Pros, which features hands-on tips for car owners. Edited by Finale Editworks in Vancouver, the series should debut in the spring schedule.

– Take out

Night on the Water, a Canadian-Korean coproduction that will be released in English in Korean theaters, wrapped April 9. About a love triangle, the production first tried l.a. as a location but moved north when costs for the low-budget feature grew too large. The crew involved about 30 Koreans including executive producer Eun Soo Lee and director Jung Soo Kang.

Lindsay Wagner stars as a scientist who recognizes the dangers of an Ebola-like virus in The Fourth Horseman, an mow for Regent and Family Channel that wraps production May 9. James Shavick produces.

– Cadence gets eager

The lineup for ctcpf funding seekers in Vancouver started behind Cadence Entertainment, which enlisted staff volunteers to sit at Telefilm Canada’s Western office in Gastown a full week before applications were accepted at 9 a.m. on April 14.

‘This is an important piece of our financing [for road movie Tail Lights Fade],’ says Vancouver producer Christine Haebler of the ctcpf, adding that the budget for the ensemble feature is less than $3 million. ‘This is not a political statement. We just thought: we gotta get in line.’

Last year, more tardy producers were stung when the lfp shut down within several weeks of taking applications.

‘We are not surprised by the demand on the first-come, first-served portion of the ctcpf feature film funding,’ says Elizabeth Friesen, head of Western operations at Telefilm. ‘There is only $2.5 million available for the English-language side of the feature film funding triggered by broadcasters. We have a crisis in funding. Here in the West, we are hopeful that one feature film project will go forward with contribution funding.’

– Praxis makes perfect

Vancouver’s Praxis is bringing back its five-session course After the First Draft: The Business Side Of Screenwriting April 27 through May 6. A nuts-and-bolts workshop, the course covers working with producers, agents, entertainment lawyers, broadcasters and the government-sponsored funding agencies. Praxis promises that, by the end, participants will know how to pursue financing and shop for a producer.

The three-hour sessions feature a dozen Canadian and u.s. experts on topics such as Working with a Producer, Do I Need an Agent?, The Bottom Line: Accounting and Contracts, Development and the L.A. Scene. Call (604) 682-3100 for information and costs.