The fix is in Vancouver. This past February, Global Mechanic, a new commercial animation production house, touched down in Vancouver with an eye on u.s. spot production and the development of independent long-form projects.

Global Mechanic is the brainchild of filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming and animator/director Bruce Alcock, one of the founders of Cuppa Coffee Animation in Toronto. The new company, which employs a ‘mixed media design kind of look,’ has already produced nine commercials since its arrival on the West Coast.

According to Alcock, jobs started flying in before they had even arrived in Vancouver from their former base in Chicago. ‘We just moved into our studio now, because on our way here from Chicago we landed a job and we’ve been working constantly ever since.’

The studios are located at Sixth and Granville where, Alcock says, ‘there are a lot of production companies.’

Before the Global Mechanic launch, Alcock was in Chicago running Tricky Pictures, a shop that grew out of an old representation deal between u.s. shop Backyard Productions and Cuppa Coffee.

‘[Backyard] offered for us [Cuppa] to go into business with them. And I decided to take them up on it and go down [to Chicago]. Adam [Shaheen] continued with Cuppa Coffee,’ Alcock says.

Fleming, the force behind 20 films, ranging from features, docs and drama all the way to animation, has worked in Vancouver, Toronto, Germany and Chicago, where she and Alcock banded together to raise a wrench and to ‘make art work.’

The two partners bring a sea-to-shining-sea sense of Canadiana to the business. Alcock, a Newfoundlander, brings an East Coast flavor to the organization, while Fleming, a Vancouver native, represents the West.

Already, the company has produced spots for Kraft, Baskin-Robbins and Barbie, among others. To handle the workload, Fleming and Alcock are assisted by l.a.-based producer Dawn Rubin, who worked with Alcock at Tricky Pictures, and Sara McIntyre, who will act as Global Mechanic’s studio manager.

At this point, Fleming and Alcock are the only directors on staff. However, a concentrated director search is planned both in Canada and internationally to flesh out the roster.

‘We’re concentrating mainly on agency work out of the States,’ Alcock begins. ‘We’re affiliated with Olive Jar Studios, a stop-motion company in Boston and l.a. They’ve been going for about 12 years.’

Global Mechanic is also represented by Art Effects in the u.s. In Canada, Alcock says the company will be ‘just self-represented.’

With most of its commercial concentration in the u.s., the question arises: Why set up shop in Vancouver?

Apparently, in Chicago, Alcock found ‘it really hard to find a good base of freelancers.’ He explains: ‘There’s not a lot of production happening in Chicago. Even though it’s a big agency city, it’s not much of a production city.’ Alcock is also attracted to the great crews and close facilities Vancouver offers. But above all, for both Fleming and Alcock, it’s about lifestyle.

‘It’s a really nice place to live,’ Alcock says.

Besides producing animated spots, Global Mechanic will play host to independent long-form production at what Alcock hopes will be a 50/50 split.’

‘Global Mechanic is a place where there are a lot of different projects happening all the time – my creative projects, Ann Marie’s films and other independent work that will happen through the studio,’ he says.

‘I guess the idea is to have fun with it if you’re going to be spending all this time doing it. And we can do that with the commercial work. But also our [mission] is to give something back by making our projects and financing them through the commercial end.’ *

– www.globalmechanic.com