A new Vancouver spot shop, Arc ii, has joined the handful of West Coast commercial producers.

Andrea Fehsenfeld, Arc ii’s executive producer and self-proclaimed ‘press whore,’ explains the idea behind the new organization.

‘Essentially, our company was born out of the desire to build a multifaceted production house that could really create and attract the diverse production projects that have been flowing into Vancouver for the last few years. We brainstormed about the company in summer 2000 and basically got some office space and opened our doors in mid-December. Since then, we have been working on reels and getting our name out there,’ Fehsenfeld says.

The executive producer, whose ‘expertise’ is television commercials, is trying to market the new shop as a ‘hybrid production house.’ More specifically, the company’s commercial division will be supported by ‘a feature film division and a multimedia arm.’

The feature film division will be headed by Joshua Hamlin, a respected Vancouver feature film director, originally from the u.s. The multimedia arm is actually a partnership between Arc ii and Andy Chu, who runs an Internet company called Grand Cru.

Fehsenfeld says Chu will be a ‘double-dipper. He’s running his own company, and through our alliance, we’ll be doing all our multimedia stuff through them.’ Although Fehsenfeld says Arc ii is ‘not really interested in developing websites,’ it is certainly looking forward to producing ‘online commercials, which is a huge area.’

Cautioning against reading too much into the company moniker, Fehsenfeld says it came from ‘a desire to have a short, snappy name. Something that’s memorable. So there’s really no hidden meanings, no biblical references -it’s a-r-c as opposed to a-r-k. And the ‘ii’, hopefully we’re not offending any religious groups with the number two. Two seems to be a benign number.’

Although the shop has yet to get its first commercial job, it expects to be ‘doing [its] first bid in the middle of February.’

The directors roster, nearly complete, was not available for release at press time. However, Fehsenfeld says she is taking great care to create a roster of ‘people who could accommodate any directorial style, including people who can do super-high-action snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking and skateboarding.

‘You want to have a director that’s comfortable hanging out of a helicopter,’ she says.

The Arc ii commercial division will look to a mix of local, roadhouse and international work to keep busy. Fehsenfeld feels the market can support another shop.

‘I think Vancouver, on the commercial side, definitely needs another production house. The quantity of local work isn’t as vast as say, in Toronto, but it is definitely here. [Also] we want to work on an international level. So we’re interested, definitely, in bringing different projects from other countries through here. But my main focus is also to work the local market and to do projects around the world for our directors. I love to travel, so I thought I’ve got to combine the two somehow.’

Fehsenfeld is also looking out for travelers coming to Vancouver for their productions. Arc ii offers ‘separate production space’ for roadhouse producers who need a place to work while doing a job in the city.

Arc ii will seek to stand out through Fehsenfeld’s ability to ‘get along with people extremely well.’ In fact, ‘honesty and integrity are our middle names,’ she says. ‘That’s what I want to be known for.’ •