Montreal: Last year saw a record number of film shoots in Montreal. An estimated $725 million filtered into the city’s pockets, $210 million coming from the u.s. And though some American productions stay for post-production and effects work, most still shoot then ship back home.

Last October, Quebec post-producers, f/x and animation companies took a trip to l.a. and did their best to court Hollywood into coming and staying north for post, animation and f/x production.

The expedition also launched Quebec Animation, an unprecedented alliance of 20 of these companies, created to help promote the province as a prime place for visual post work.

But even before all this, f/x companies kept busy in 1999, generating approximately $25-million worth of contracts. All the companies are attracting, or have attracted, risk capital, mainly from institutional investors such as Caisse de Depot, Fonds ftq, ficc, etc. A recent City of Montreal study pegs the growth rate in the f/x sector in the 30% a year range.

Here’s a look at some Quebec f/x work highlights in 1999.

Hybride Technologies

business is booming for Hybride Technologies. The company picked up half the f/x work for Battlefield Earth, the science-fiction flick based on Scientologist L. Ron Hubbard’s book, starring and coproduced by John Travolta.

The film was shot in Montreal last summer, but producers contacted Hybride’s president Pierre Raymond even before finalizing the shoot location. ‘Our situation isn’t characteristic of Montreal,’ says Raymond. ‘The American films we’re getting are mostly a result of the work we did on The Faculty and Mimic.’

Raymond is pleased with the 150 effects Hybride is doing for Battlefield, most of which are aerial and combat scenes, F16s chasing space ships and so on. But what makes Raymond really happy is that Battlefield’s producers opted for Hybride’s digital rendering of these scenes, done without footage of models or miniatures.

‘We had done extensive tests on an earlier production to see if we could render the same quality in 3D. They were surprised when we showed the reels, and eventually went for it because we could produce the realism they wanted,’ Raymond says. ‘It’s also very interesting for us because it proves a very big point, which is that it can be done, and done well.’

Otherwise, Hybride took care of the f/x for Telescene’s Lost World, and Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher, a film/series pilot directed by Erik Canuel. The shop also completed f/x for Filmline International’s new action film Art of War, starring Wesley Snipes and directed by Christian Duguay.

This year, Raymond is looking forward to ‘the still-untitled Robert Rodriguez project.’ Hybride worked with Rodriguez on The Faculty, and this time has been awarded all the film’s effects. ‘It’ll represent a lot of work,’ says Raymond, ‘probably from March 2000 to March 2001.’

The room to do it is available. Hybride increased the floor space of its Laurentian-based headquarters to 10,000 square feet from 3,000 square feet, and put several million dollars into upgrading equipment.

Tube Images

speaking of 2000, producers at Tube Images are finishing up Galafilm’s feature Two Thousand and None, directed by Montrealer Arto Paragamian and featuring John Turturro.

And although there are only 10 effects for the film, Galafilm kept the shop busy with the ytv/itv youth sitcom The Worst Witch. Tube was responsible for every aspect of f/x production on the series, from having director David McCall on set to producing more than 250 effects for 13 episodes.

Country music videos also made it onto Tube’s production roster. Forty f/x went to ex-l.a. cop-become-country singer Shane Minor, a few more to Alan Jackson, and another 10 to Martina McBride, all produced by Nashville-based The Collective.

As for the new year, Tube is signed to service Largo Winch, a 10-hour Motion International/Editions Dupuis James Bond-esque tv series being shot on Super 16mm on location in Montreal and Paris.

Tube is also looking towards new horizons. ‘Integration of computer graphics with live action is really what we’re about as a company,’ says executive producer Roddy McManus. ‘That’s the big message we’re trying to get out. Now if we can only get them to sit down and listen for five minutes…’

Big Bang F/X Animation

big Bang F/X Animation had an entertaining year working on four series. ‘Every episode of every series contained 10 to 15 effects, each series being 22 episodes, except one which was six hours. So if you do the math quickly, we did over 1,000 effects, which is crazy,’ says Big Bang president Mario Rachiele.

Telescene provided the lion’s share of f/x for ytv’s Big Wolf on Campus, the Showtime/TMN-The Movie Network anthology The Hunger, and Misguided Angel, which airs on Fox Family.

But Productions La Fete’s Bonanno, A Godfather’s Story gave Big Bang its most interesting f/x work. The series tells the story of a Mafia boss, from his childhood in Italy to the present.

‘It was shot in Montreal but set in New York City. So we replaced the Jacques Cartier Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge, transported the ’50s-style galaxy diner from St-Denis Street to Manhattan. It was extremely challenging,’ says Rachiele.

Big Bang also completed work on Alliance Atlantis’ new corporate image, including material for cinema trailers and for its soon-to-open movie theatres.

The shop spent $1.5 million on new equipment – a big portion of which went to purchasing a Discreet Logic Inferno – and a new floor. Rachiele is hoping the investment will pay off in feature film work.

‘Last year, we had the possibility of a few features. People said we had everything needed on the creative side, but were missing a few gears. So we took care of that. There’s no reason anymore.’

For now, Rachiele is looking at more of the same. His team is working on the next season of Big Wolf, and hoping to renew the other series. On their hush-hush list is a feature, slated to be shot in Hungary, Germany and Canada.

Buzz Image Group

buzz Image Group got a boost from a similar type of international shoot two years back, doing f/x for Francois Girard’s The Red Violin. But Buzz had a commercial year in ’99, focusing on advertising.

An ad for the Dollar Bank of Pittsburgh out of Dymun Nelson & Co. won the shop an award for design originality. Back home, it won kudos for its successfully shocking ad for the Quebec car insurance association, and for its work on the Tornade campaign through Cossette. Buzz also produced f/x for the networks that run the ads.

It completed season openings for Radio-Canada and openings for several shows, and it tied up ’99 with an ad for Celine Dion’s millennium show, which aired on Reseau tva.

Although films were absent from Buzz’s slate in ’99, the company is prepping to get back in on the action. At the end of ’98, it purchased Discreet Logic’s Flame for a half million, and is budgeting another $1.5 million to add an Inferno early this year.

But manager Jean-Raymond Bourque says he has to look abroad to make ends meet, the budgets for original commercial production and f/x being limited in the smaller Quebec market. ‘Thirty percent of our business comes from u.s. and European advertising and film. Without it, we couldn’t get by.’

Voodoo Arts

voodoo Arts is taking a similar tack. Advertising made up 90% of its business in ’99, producing f/x for Tropicana, Maxwell House (Ogilvy & Mather), Molson Ex (Cossette), Loto-Quebec (Bleu Blanc Rouge), Presidente Beer (Young & Rubicam), and the list goes on.

‘Right now, all the energy here, all the people here, are focused on advertising. We’re going to invest a lot of time and money outside Montreal because there is a market coming from the u.s. and other countries like the Dominican Republic [the Presidente beer ad],’ says president Martial Vincent.

Otherwise, Voodoo will continue to develop its year-old, live-action division. ‘We got into live action, but only as integrated with our special effects, post-production divisions. We did it because it’s a need,’ explains Vincent. ‘There’s a lot more convergence between f/x and live action now, and if you’re not involved in developing the concept, you arrive at the end and have to patch up whatever mistakes were made.’

Aside from the new division, Voodoo also moved into a new, larger location, purchased a Softimage Digital Studio system, put another $250,000 into upgrading its f/x equipment, and will be purchasing a Flame early this year.

Icestorm Digital

icestorm Digital was set up last year to service The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, a Filmline/Talisman Crest coproduction to air on cbc. The 22 episodes were shot completely in hd on location in Quebec, mainly in the shop’s huge converted green-screen studios.

‘We did anywhere from 100 to 180 effects shots per episode. We produced a huge amount of photorealistic work, and a huge amount of green screen photography. We’re doing film-style effects for tv. It’s a huge challenge. We’re really pushing the limits,’ says Icestorm president John Poisson.

That they are. After only months of being in Montreal, the shop bid on Behaviour Digital Studios and is in the process of finalizing the $500,000 acquisition.

Add to that staffing, buying a facility and a huge amount of equipment, and you end up with rather heavy expenditures for 1999.

But upcoming projects should help pay the bills. Icestorm is doing the previsualization work on Pluto Nash, a Lou Stroller production starring Eddy Murphy that’s set to shoot in Montreal in March. Stroller is back after shooting Philip Noyce’s box-office success The Bone Collector here in ’98 and Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes in ’97.

The shop’s also servicing a documentary on nasa’s international space station for Discovery Channel.

‘It’s a huge international project,’ says Poisson. ‘We’re collecting material from Russia, Japan. We’ll also be sending an hd camera up in the next space shuttle.’

Otherwise, Icestorm’s working on Eternity, a series from Gerry Anderson who was responsible for the ’60s classic, puppet-driven Thunderbirds. The new series will be a live-action drama, set in space.

On a completely different front, the shop’s teamed up with Panavision to develop hd cameras and software suitable for features. All in all, they’re looking at a busy year.

(More information on these companies, and 14 others, can be found at www.quebec-animation.com.)