Fever Films North America launched in early March with executive producers/producers Danielle Schwartz and Jon Banack. The new commercial prodco is an affiliate of Avion Films and will take over where Generator Films, which is moving away from spot production, left off.

As the name suggests, one of the company’s mandates will be to target work in the U.S. market, something Schwartz says will be an advantage for the homegrown directors on Fever’s roster.

‘I think Canadian directors have better representation in the U.S. when they are repped by [Canadians],’ says Schwartz. ‘When you have a relationship with directors, you sell them better because you’re not just selling a reel. We want to give our Canadian directors a fair chance to get work in the U.S.’

Schwartz, daughter of Avion partner Michael Schwartz, has been immersed in the commercial production industry all her life and has been a producer for Avion and Generator. Banak, who officially joined Fever April 1, was previously an executive producer and head of production at Blink Pictures in Toronto.

Together they plan to offer agencies and clients what they describe as a grassroots style of commercial production, which will include executive producer involvement in each project from concept to completion. They have already been awarded two jobs, one for Pizza Hut through Young & Rubicam and another for GM through MacLaren McCann, both directed by Jamie Way. In addition to Way, formerly represented by Generator, Fever is currently building its roster of directors.

And at the same time as Avion is expanding its commercial production breadth with Fever, it is also taking one step away from it as affiliate Generator dissolves its roster of commercial directors and will no longer be involved in commercial production.

‘Our television division has taken off incredibly, it has become our primary focus because of the sheer amount we do,’ says partner and director David Rheaume. ‘In the evolution of any company you ask what is our core business and where do we seem to be having the most success? This seems to be the most obvious path to us and, in fact, is pretty much Generator’s original mandate,’ which focused on long-form rather than spot production.

The newly jigged Generator Productions will be focusing on television work and is well positioned to play a pioneering role in the growth of branded-content programming.

Rheaume says Generator’s focus on corporate video, which represents about a third of its business, will be unchanged.