Suzanne Allan has joined Toronto’s Imported Artists as executive producer.

Allan, a 15-year veteran of the commercial biz, says she is looking forward to trying her hand at exec producing for the commercial shop. Allan began her career in production as an assistant at The Partners’ Film Company, and later as a line producer. After her tenure with The Partners’, Allan moved into freelancing.

Allan has line produced with many of the Toronto production companies and several in the u.s. as well. Only in the past year has Allan seriously considered becoming an executive producer. When presented with the opportunity to join Imported, she says she felt the timing was great and the fit was natural.

With a mixed group of Canadian and American directors, the Imported roster complements Allan’s experience as a producer. She says she is excited about the new opportunities with the company and working with Christina Ford, the Imported Artists group, and the directors it represents.

Her official start date with the company is Mar. 20.

* Reens moves north to Partners

Director and dop Richard Reens has moved to Toronto and joined The Partners’ Film Company. Reens, a Texas-based Manhattan native, joins The Partners’ large and growing roster of talent.

Reens began his career in photography before moving into commercial making. He has directed and shot spots for 7UP, Dr. Martins and Mercedes Benz to name a few of the many clients on his reel. He’s nabbed several awards from the New York Art Directors’ Club and the Clios among others. He is also apt at shooting underwater.

* Cinematographer on the move

Cinematographer Marc Laliberte Else has signed up with Dora Sesler’s Sesler & Company for representation. Laliberte Else, who moved from Vancouver to Toronto last year, recently shot the cable feature 2gether for mtv with director Nigel Dick in Vancouver. He now looks to Sesler to help him find dop jobs in commercials and other filmmaking endeavors.

‘He has got a good eye and a really contemporary look to his work,’ says Sesler. ‘People love working with him, which is also very important. I had a lot of really good feedback from people he has worked with. I always talk to the people my dop’s have worked with before I sign them.’

Laliberte Else has already shot more than 20 music videos, a short film and several commercials for clients including Nearly Naked and Bonfire Clothing.

* Sim Goes to Sudbury

Sim Video Productions’ newest location at 55 Sudbury Street, its second site in Toronto (its other location being on Wellington St.), will be officially open for business on April 1, says president and cofounder Rob Sim. The newest Sim location, to be known as Sim Post, is in a 7,500-square-foot building previously owned and renovated to its current form by Derek Vanlint. According to Sim, the company has felt the need for a new location for a while.

‘We were getting so jammed in our present location having Avid and the camera rental department working in the same building and with expansion of our Avid and camera inventory we decided we needed more space,’ says Sim.

Sim adds that with the apparent shortage of editing suites in Toronto, the expansion to Sudbury was in the best interest of his company. He says every suite on Sudbury has a window – a small thing, but the option of natural light may serve as a morale boost to many editors.

The new space, says Sim, is the first of a number of changes and improvements being initiated at both shops. For the Wellington space, room will be made for Sim’s expanding inventory of Avid and equipment rentals, and for new hd products.

‘We have been heavily into hd for the past couple of years and we are awaiting the arrival of new 24-frame cameras,’ says Sim. ‘We had three edit suites over here (on Wellington) so we are ripping out some walls, turning the edit suites into camera test/prep areas. We are also expanding our employee base as well, with more technicians, and so forth.’

Sim says he is also looking forward to implementing some renovations and updates at the Sudbury location, including installing an elevator system for the purposes of lowering Avid equipment in and out and wiring the building for fiber-optics. He is also looking into an in-house screening facility.

‘We are sort of feeling the market out and seeing what the market needs as opposed to us deciding what it needs,’ says Sim. ‘So far, I think we are pretty on track.’

* Award nominees in the spotlight

The Canadian Society of Cinematographers will hold its annual award show on Mar. 25. This year, the three nominees for best commercial cinematography are Glen Keenan for Wyndham Hotels ‘Cirque du Soleil’, Barry F. Peterson for GM Pontiac ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ and Chris Soos for Agilent Technologies ‘Rain’.