Halifax’s imX communications has officially started production on its ambitious series of five digital feature films known as Seats 3a and 3c. Production began at the end of April on the first of the five, Dragonwheel, which producer Dean Perlmutter says should be wrapped by the end of May.

The premise of the series is the relationships born of a chance meeting of two people on an airplane. In Dragonwheel, Gloria, the manager of a boy band, is seated next to Sherman, a soon-to-be-married custodian and supposedly the band’s biggest fan. A relationship develops between the two in the air and on the ground as they travel to Mexico, Barcelona and Tokyo. What unfolds between credits, as with each of the films, changes the lives of both principal characters.

Dragonwheel was written and is being directed by Tricia Fish, the brains and eye behind New Waterford Girl, and is a coproduction with the U.K.’s Axiom Films. Perlmutter is producing and imX’s Chris Zimmer is executive producing.

Perlmutter spoke with Playback on day seven of the shoot and says despite the production being the prototype of the four other Seats 3a and 3c films to follow, things are going well.

‘We’re sort of calling ourselves the guinea pig in that we are paving the way through all the mistakes so the other four [films] don’t have to make them at all,’ says Perlmutter.

Shooting for the entire series will largely take place in a former car dealership in Dartmouth that has been renovated to resemble the interior of a 767 airplane. Post-production will also stay in Nova Scotia.

Financing for the film has been provided by Telefilm Canada, the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, tax credits and a broadcast deal with ChumCity. The budget for this film (and each of the films to come) is $750,000.

‘It’s still quite a handle to make it for that much,’ says Perlmutter. ‘With the script I’m working with for Dragonwheel there is a lot to do, and we can do it for the budget, but it is taking every bit of energy both Tricia and I have to push it through and get the right crew and cast. It’s fallen together beautifully and I am very pleased with it.’

The cast for Dragonwheel includes Graham Gavine, Andrew McCarthy and Krista MacDonald, who worked with Fish on New Waterford Girl.

Perlmutter says although Dragonwheel will get a theatrical release, he hopes it will first travel through the festival circuit to create a buzz about the series and the film itself.

Thom Fitzgerald, Gary Burns, Rowan Woods and playwright Daniel MacIvor are all attached to work on the Seats 3a and 3c features.

Cavanagh posts Chet Baker’s lost teeth online

St. John’s-based playwright and filmmaker Sharon Cavanagh’s latest effort, a 40-minute Web drama known as How Chet Baker Lost His Teeth, can be seen at a computer near you.

After trying her hand at a feature film, The Pasta King of the Caribbean, Cavanagh decided she wanted to try something a little different.

‘I thought that by trying a Web drama there would be some new, interesting possibilities I could explore that I felt weren’t being explored yet,’ says Cavanagh. ‘I attended the ConvergenceTV.com conference last year and I noticed there didn’t seem to be any drama on the go. There may have been drama in advertising television shows [on the Web], but I was looking around seeing short films, [and found] nothing being made specifically for the Web, for the viewer.’

Cavanagh took one of her plays, cut it back drastically, and shot it live-to-tape over two days in March.

How Chet Baker Lost his Teeth is about a group of people who have the unenviable task of cleaning up a murder scene in a motel room after the police have finished their investigation.

As writer/director/producer on the project, Cavanagh treated the production very much like a live broadcast event or a play shot for television, editing as she went and cutting between shots.

It was shot from two different points of view using three cameras. One of the cameras used was a surveillance camera, which not only allows the viewer the option of switching between POVs but also helps add a little intrigue to the plot.

‘The viewer feels like they are sort of spying in on the characters,’ says Cavanagh. ‘This works well for this particular piece because the characters all have a paranoia about surveillance, so it kind of integrates with the drama.’

The Newtel Innovations Fund and Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council funded the project. The budget was a very low $25,000, but Cavanagh assures it did not hinder her drama in any way: ‘Because we did it in such a short time, the budget made it affordable.’

How Chet Baker Lost His Teeth is now up and running on the Web, courtesy of Cavanagh’s friends at Collaborative Network Technologies. Sussex Place handled the video production and J.F. Cuff provided the Web design (and theme music) for the film.

Looking back at her Web drama, Cavanagh is surprised at how quickly and painlessly the project came together.

‘I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I’ve made a feature film and produced and directed plays, but this was actually the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I kept thinking that something had to go wrong because everything had to work, but we were surprised how smoothly it all ran.’

Cavanagh’s latest stage effort, Mr. Outplacement, will premier in St. John’s at the LSPU Hall in June.

Triad doc to turn the tables on hockey

While the creme de la creme in the NHL are duking it out for the Stanley Cup, writer/director Thor Henrikson has begun development on a one-hour documentary on a smaller, but no-less-competitive form of hockey. A former table-hockey junkie, Henrikson is currently scouting locations and players for his film on one of his favorite pastimes.

‘I’ve had this idea for a long time,’ says Henrikson. ‘I used to play table hockey and loved the game. At first I thought of the film as a way of justifying the amount of time I spent playing the game. I kept telling myself I was researching a film. I stopped playing a few years ago, but the idea of making a film never went away.’

Peter d’Entremont, head of Triad Film Productions in Halifax, is exec producing. The film, still untitled, will aim the camera at the semi-professional world of table hockey, admittedly a world few (with the exception of avid players) know a lot about.

‘There is a whole world of people that have never given up on table hockey,’ says Henrikson. ‘These [players] are really highly skilled. They’ll put the puck in the net and you won’t even see it go in, but when they are playing against another pro, it is crazy how good they are, and it is worldwide.’

D’Entremont expects development to wrap in June, with production starting around October. The beginning of production ties in well with the bi-annual table hockey world championships, this year being held in the Czech Republic.

Henrikson is on a scouting mission, looking for table hockey fanatics. His travels will take him to Boston, New York, Montreal and Toronto, ending in the Czech Republic.

When Playback caught up with the filmmaker, he was in Worcester, MS. ‘We’ve found some really great characters down here and there are actually great characters everywhere,’ says Henrikson. ‘I’ve been amazed at the people we’ve been able to find. It’s gone way beyond my expectations, which were high to begin with.’

CTV is involved in the development financing and will likely broadcast the doc once it’s completed. *