As the rest of the world is contracting out, FilmArts Entertainment brings a whole new meaning to in-house production for low-budget filmmaking.

The new film and tv prodco/ distribco/filmfinanceco, which has evolved into existence over the past four months, combines the experience of veteran filmmakers Don Haig, Lee Broker, longtime distributor Andre Bennett (Cinema Esperanca International) and Bay Street investment financier John Andras (Andras Group, a division of Research Capital Corp.), with the young award-winning talent of the Paulus Film Group.

The Paulus team, the production arm of the newly integrated company, is made up of producer Daniel Hill, dop David Greene, director Robert Crossman, editor Aaron Woodley and consultants Drew Mullin and Eric Novakovics.

Also involved are David Jackson, a former vp of Citytv and president of Fox/Astral tv distribution (tv broadcast sales and distribution), Paul Kahnert (international entertainment marketing, production and finance) and Jim Russell of Heenan Blaikie (legal affairs).

Together, this diverse group of intra-industry players intends to produce low-budget films for high profits.

‘Instead of having a weekly salary, we’ll take everything on the back end,’ says Hill. ‘The financial gain will be a direct result of the project. Everyone’s participation is then maximized and overhead is minimized to create higher profits in the end.’

Projects will be developed, financed, produced and distributed through the pool of partners to whom money will flow back based on the various degrees in which they participate in the collaboration.

Freelancers will be expected to work on a similar basis, although they will be paid a portion of the normal rates. ‘Everyone will work on a per-project basis and everyone who participates is doing so because they are dedicated to the project,’ says Hill.

Also, all FilmArts projects will be financed through the private sector, alleviating any dependence on public funding and tax incentives.

Now for how the company came about.

Roughly four months ago, Greene signed on as cinematographer of The Corner, a feature film with which writer Broker and producer Haig were then in development.

As things escalated, Greene, a partner in Paulus, a three-year-old prodco already employing its own ‘collaborative process,’ brought the rest of his crew onto the project. ‘Then suddenly, Lee and Don found themselves surrounded by Paulus, Andre Bennett and John Andras,’ says Hill. And the rest is history.

Now in its workshopping phase, The Corner is slated for a four-week shoot in Toronto at the start of the new year.

Budgeted at just under $1 million, the film, which Hill describes as a cross between Raging Bull and The Godfather, has been prebought by TMN-The Movie Network.

Broker, the film’s creative producer, is codirecting with Crossman. Hill is producing, Haig and Andras are exec producing…

*Catalyst starts series with Egmont

Hot off the green light, Catalyst Entertainment is in development with yet another children’s series, the first of three coprods with Danish publishing giant Egmont Imagination.

Bit & Bob is a combination of puppets and cgi wrapped up into 26 half-hours, each budgeted at $250,000.

Egmont is producing 26 x 15-minute episodes in Europe and Catalyst is reconforming them into 13 half-hours for the first phase of production and then producing 13 more for the second phase.

Slated for production in May 2000 in Denmark, the series, aimed at the six-to-11 demo, is about two 10-year-old kids who, in an effort to avoid going to camp, find themselves in outer space. In search of adventure, they come upon various alien races, space pirates and The Borax, the most evil empire in the galaxy.

‘We’re going to be pushing an edgy irreverent style,’ says producer Jim Corston.

Also producing is Erik Wistrup. Steve Wright is directing. A host of Canadian scribblers are currently developing the series, including Terry Saltsman, Kenn Scott, John Pellatt, Alex Ganetakos, Paul Bellini, Deborah Jarvis and Anita Kapila. Exec producers are still being worked out, although Corston says they will likely be Charles Falzon and someone from Egmont.

So far, Bit & Bob will be broadcast on TV2 in Denmark. Catalyst has worldwide distribution, with the exception of the Scandinavian countries, for which Egmont holds distribution rights. Catalyst is currently in discussion with North American and British broadcasters.

The series will be produced in English and then translated into other languages, which is a unique approach, says Corston.

cgi and puppet design are being done in Denmark and the core puppet cast is Canadian.

The coprod partnership is 50/50. The Britt Allcroft Group, Catalyst’s international associate, has a strategic alliance with Egmont (publisher of Thomas the Tank Engine) and the two companies have decided to coproduce three projects together. The other two have yet to be announced.

*Sleeping Giant coprod transcends the air waves

A five-party coproduction, Age of e is a new magazine series for the mind, body and the spirit – ‘e’ standing for energy (the mind), element (the body) and enlightenment (the spirit).

Hosted by series creator and coexec producer Lois Larimore of Auburn, Calif.-based Piggy Back Productions, the series, coproduced by Sleeping Giant Productions in association with Winstar TV and Video, Vision tv and Wisdom Television, is being touted as a consumers guide to this new approach to health and spirituality.

‘We take the viewer on a journey. We may do a segment on acupuncture where you’ll see me with a bunch of needles conducting an interview that way,’ says Larimore, who wrote the series four years ago and has spent the last year in preproduction in California.

In the series, Larimore will talk with high-profile experts from here and abroad, including Joan Quigley, astrologer to the Reagan administration, and explore such healing techniques as reflexology, rebirthing and dream interpretation.

Each half-hour episode, budgeted at $45,000, will be split into four five-minute segments.

Production began Oct. 26 in and around Toronto and will run until Nov. 23. Delivery begins in January 2000.

Jim Hanley is co-exec producing, Oriana Bielawski is producing and Margaret Konopacki is directing.

The partnership is split equally among the companies.

New York-based Winstar is the series’ international distributor and is handling its home video deal.

*The CSTC hits Toronto

The Canadian Screen Training Centre arrives in Toronto for its first-ever, three-weekend workshop series.

‘Take 3: writing, directing and producing for the small screen’ is designed specifically for tv production and serves as a prelude toNovember’s Gemini Awards.

Sponsored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Writers Guild of Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation, the event kicked off on the Oct. 22 weekend and runs for the two following weekends.

The workshop series has attracted a lineup of renowned instructors, including filmmaker John Greyson (Lilies) and tv producer/writer Peter Lauderman (Cover Me). Other instructors include screenwriter Don Trucky (Street Legal), director Leon Marr (Dancing in the Dark), story editor Ken Chubb (Angel in a Cage), producer Louise Garfield (Lilies, The Hanging Garden) and screenwriter Sugith Varughese (On My Mind: The Secret Life of Gold Fish).

The series includes nine workshops, ranging from introductory level to master classes.

The cstc is developing another series for the winter, designed for the screen, as a lead-up to the Genies, also put on by the acct.