Vancouver: Keystone Entertainment, producer of a menagerie of animal features such as Air Bud and the upcoming snowboarding chimp feature MXP: Most Extreme Primate, is hoping for some cost savings on its new feature Spymate by previewing eight action sequences with ‘animatics’ – or animated storyboards.

A new-ish trend in production, animatics was used in Panic Room by director David Fincher to turn static storyboards into full-motion previews of how the action and camera would move through various scenes. Spymate’s producers are using animatics – created in-house by former Sextant Entertainment Group animators – to block shots, settle on the order of movement and ensure that the chimps can do what director Robert Vince needs in the action sequences.

Trainers at California-based Goin’ Ape, which wrangles the chimps in the $13-million James Bond-as-a-monkey movie, have had Spymate’s animatics for weeks to help them prepare the chimps for the action shots.

Tim Brown, VP of distribution at Keystone, says the animatics bring the crew up to a new level of understanding what the director wants. ‘The chimps can be hard to work with,’ he says, mentioning, for example, that hitting a mark is iffy. ‘[Based on past chimp movie experience], we run a lot of film, use numerous cameras. Being able to orchestrate the moves ahead of time helps. [Animatics] is an expensive process, but it saves money in the long run.’

Among the action scenes in Spymate are sequences involving an escape from a tent, driving an all-terrain vehicle and flying an ultralight.

Nine weeks of first- and second-unit production (done with Miramax as part of the Keystone’s multi-picture deal) begins at the end of March.

Mind meld

Omni Film Productions in Vancouver has partnered with Singapore-based Peach Blossom Media to produce the six-part series Quiet Mind for VisionTV, Wisdom Television, One, SCN, Canadian Learning Television and Knowledge Network. Delivery for what is called the first series coproduction between Canada and Singapore is this month.

Following up on Vancouver producer Gabriela Schonbach’s tranquility-seeking series Quiet Places, Quiet Minds explores six diverse traditions in meditation and travels to Vancouver, Halifax, San Francisco, Manila and Singapore.

Northern exposure

Big Red Barn Entertainment has completed a two-part documentary series coproduced with MacKenzie Delta Films for APTN and Canadian Learning Television.

Exploring Northern Native traditions and culture, The Hunt: Food from the Land and The Walk: A Path to Healing will air this fall. Vancouver-based Inuit filmmaker Dennis Allen (MacKenzie Delta) directs and Big Red’s Ken Malenstyn and Alexis Arthur produce.

The nature of David

Avanti Pictures will follow Dr. David Suzuki to Haida Gwaii, Quadra Island and CBC studios until May to produce Suzuki Speaks, a one-hour documentary special for the pubcaster. In the tradition of documentary milestones Manufacturing Consent and If You Love This Planet, the special will showcase Suzuki’s views on ‘humanity, interconnectedness and our place in the universe’ as well as Avanti’s in-house visual effects abilities. Tony Papa is the director/producer, while Cathy Chilco is coproducer.

Extra credit

Vancouver producer Ric Beairsto is in production with Superkids, a one-hour documentary about the challenges faced by gifted children, to air on CBC Newsworld’s Roughcuts this fall.

One of the four Vancouver students profiled is Beairsto’s 13-year-old son, who started at the University of British Columbia’s Transition Program – which compresses five years of high school into two years – last fall.

‘When I recently told my favorite aunt, aged 82, about all this, she replied, ‘When does he get to be a kid?”’ says Beairsto. ‘Frankly, I had the same question, and no answer.’

Hurry for April 11

Vancouver Island-based writers and producers of MOWs with price tags of less than $1 million are invited to apply to The Reel Edge Project, another of The New VI’s production incentives.

To enter, each producer must submit an application including a draft script of feature-length fiction to the Victoria-based broadcaster. The deadline is April 11.

Previously, The New VI’s Drama Initiative whittled down 785 submissions to four projects in development.

‘Through this, we’re continuing our mission to develop talent and build a solid infrastructure for the production of feature films on Vancouver Island,’ says Barry Dodd, director of programming and independent production.

Project details and application forms are available at www.thenewvi.com and at The New VI (1420 Broad Street in Victoria and 82 Commercial Street in Nanaimo).

The New VI is spending $12 million on local independent production over its first seven years.

Tick tock

Things are a little more laid back in Whistler. While local filmmakers regularly participate in the 24-Hour Film Festival several times a year in Vancouver, Whistler is hosting a 72-hour contest as part of the World Ski & Snowboard Festival April 11-16. The second annual Filmmaker Showdown challenges production teams to shoot, edit and produce a four-and-a-half-minute film, which will be reviewed by a panel of judges.

Last year’s inaugural Filmmaker Showdown attracted 24 team entries, including the winner, a comedy called The Last Cigarette by Mirrorball Productions (director Martin Prihoda), which has gone on to success on the festival circuit.

In Vancouver, meanwhile, weary filmmakers wrapped production March 15 on the eighth 24 Hour Film Contest. This time, 156 filmmakers played with the theme ‘What if you could live your entire life in a day.’ They also had to use an egg as a prop.

Out of 20 teams that started, 19 completed their six-minute films in one spin of the clock.

First: How Do You Like ‘Em? (by Sean Campbell, Asha Gill Campbell, Louise Porter, Colin Lawrence, Leigh Jenkins, Janet Pinnick, Kevin Hardiman and Michael George), about three friends who ponder their ideal lives over breakfast.

Second: Futuristic Fruit Fly People and a Tambourine (Richard James Ingles, Brianne Wigeland, Sean Devlin, Lauren Marten, Dave Leach, Ryan Gillam, Dustin Ladd and Gary Lee Wyman), about humanoid fruit flies.

Third: Jouez avec ca Henry (Terry Mialkowsky, Don Besse, Tisha Simpkins, Shawn Patrick Murphy, Melissa Rooney, Dixie Plaxton, Eliza Bayne and Erica Carroll), shot on 16mm and about deals in a dark forest.

Prizes included $2,000 in equipment rentals, animation classes and a private theatrical screening.

More shorts

Tryst of Fate, a short digital production, went to camera Feb. 24 for four days in Central Saanich, outside Victoria.

Directed by Bruce Quayle and shot on a Betacam SP camera by Durwin Partridge, Fate is called a psychological tale of terror and irony involving a lonely misfit and the woman he abducts. Chuck De Pape and Christie MacGregor star.

Mark Perry Media, Foghound Films and Patricia Bergeron are coproducers and will feed the finished piece to the festival circuit.

Kicked up

The annual Kick Start program for emerging filmmakers in B.C. has announced its recipients for 2003.

* Reflections by Tony Dean Smith (mentor Carl Bessai) is about a father dealing with the traumatic loss of his daughter.

* Riverburn by Jennifer Calvert (mentor Scott Weber) is about the sexual tension between two teenagers who meet in a dusty desert.

* The Big Charade by Jesse McKeown (mentor Lynne Stopkewich) is about a young farm boy who uses charades to search for his father’s killer.

* The Watchers by Kevin Shortt (mentor John Pozer) is about a woman who matches wits with her new maid.

* The Mall Man by Matthew J Blecha (mentor Richard Martin) is about a mall security guard who helps a couple get to the fertility clinic on time.

Winners of the program, sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada, B.C. District Council and British Columbia Film, get $12,000 plus a $1,200 credit toward post-production at Rainmaker and another $1,200 credit from Post Modern Sound.

Victor Victoria

Moviegoers at the 9th annual Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival numbered more than 12,500 when the event wrapped Feb. 16.

This year, 162 films were screened, including 43 features. Overall, 60% of the program was Canadian, with 30% coming from B.C. filmmakers.

The ZeD TV People’s Choice Award for best short went to The Wormhole by U.S. filmmaker Jessica Scharzer. The Times Colonist Audience Favorite Award went to Standard Time by U.S. filmmakers Robert Carey and Isabel Rose.

Other winners include: best short, The Provider by Matt Smith; best documentary, Criminal Acts (Tony Snowsill); CHUM Television Award for best Canadian first feature Expecting (Deborah Day); Famous Players/Best Canadian Feature, Flower & Garnet (Keith Behrman); and best feature film, Roger Dodger (Dylan Kidd).