Since 1979, Toronto’s cfmt-tv has produced commercials in multiple languages for multiple communities in the remarkably diverse city of Toronto. As it continues its steady growth, the organization, formerly called CFMT-ComProd, has been renamed Harbourfront Studios.

Director of sales and commercial production Malcolm Dunlop explains the role of Harbourfront: ‘The basic concept behind ComProd was to produce local commercials, particularly those targeted towards the language communities. cfmt broadcasts in approximately 20 languages. So what we’re trying to do is build a service for the clients where they could have commercials produced in all the languages that cfmt runs on air. Over the years, we have actually gotten into more of the national type of business,’ Dunlop explains.

Despite its snazzy new name, Harbourfront retains a catch phrase to describe the work the company does – ‘transcreation.’ Says Dunlop: ‘We call it ‘transcreation’ because you have to get the essence, more than a direct translation. We adapt it to the various languages.’

The company takes jobs both from ad agencies and directly from the client, depending on the project. It has done a few campaigns outside Canada over the years, but ‘generally everything we do is in Canada,’ Dunlop says. However, ‘the commercials we transcreate may also run in other markets – Vancouver, for example,’ he says.

Recent large-scale projects for the company include a campaign, last year, for the Ontario Government and a national anti-racism campaign for Heritage Canada. Dunlop discusses how Harbourfront executes its sometimes-difficult mandate.

‘The commercial production department is eight people. The producers all speak another language. With 20 languages in the station, we have the capability of translating into at least 20 languages. For example, for the Ontario Government, we did well over 30 languages. So we did languages that we don’t even air on cfmt,’ Dunlop says. When transcreation cannot be completed in-house, the company employs a network of freelancers.

‘One thing we always make sure we do is [after] the first transcreation, it always gets checked by somebody else. And then, in the case of a voice-over, we have a third person checking it, the voice-over talent. We’re always very sensitive to make sure that we do these right,’ he says.

Harbourfront is also capable of transcreating print campaigns through its ‘graphic arts department,’ a service the company provided on the Ontario Government job.

Even with the national and regional work passing through the house, Dunlop points out that ‘the majority of our business is locally produced commercials. We do a lot of English stuff, but we also do Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, Polish and Korean.’ cfmt does local spots for Leons, Chrysler Dealers and Procter & Gamble, among others.

At cfmt, they do not keep a roster of directors. In fact, Dunlop says, ‘our producers are also directors.’ This multilingual, multi-tasking role the Harbourfront producers play also includes dealing with the sensitive issue of respecting the agency creative during the transcreation process.

‘Everybody’s concerned about that,’ Dunlop begins. ‘We always make sure that we double- and triple-check these things. And we’re always, obviously, very sensitive to the creative the agency has done. But generally, when they see what we’ve done, they’re pleased.’

Even if they don’t speak the language. *