The impact of digital technology in all aspects of the motion picture industry continues to grow exponentially, bringing with it a host of new issues, including a large rise in piracy, and millions in lost revenues. ShowCanada 2004 will address the matter of piracy, which can range from videotaping a movie in a theater, to bootlegging DVDs and peer-to-peer distribution on the Internet, from a variety of angles.

A convention for exhibitors, distributors, producers and theatrical suppliers, ShowCanada is slated for April 28 to May 2 in Vancouver.

‘[Because of piracy,] money is leaving the system and not being put back in,’ says Adina Lebo, executive director of the Toronto-based Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada, which organizes the show. ‘We have a piracy workshop for managers that will be interesting, because if you see someone videotaping a film in a theater, what do you do? We have two law enforcement officers coming who will engage in role-playing scenarios.’

Also, William Murray, co-COO and executive VP of the Motion Picture Association of America, will deliver a keynote entitled ‘Piracy: An Issue for Our Times.’ Various sessions will highlight other developments in digital filmmaking and what they will mean to exhibitors.

Max Valiquette, president of youth marketing consultancy Youthography, will talk about the much-sought-after 18-to-25-year-old movie-going demographic in a panel titled ‘Understanding the Pop Culture Landscape and Today’s Youth.’ Another session, ‘Second Innocence: Rediscovering Joy and Wonder in the Work Place,’ will see best-selling business author Dr. John Izzo discussing issues relating to theatrical employees, a group made up predominantly of young adults in the same demo.

Lightning Group president Howard Lichtman will be returning to help make sense of the 2003 Canadian box-office figures.

‘This year, [Lichtman] will be focusing on the audience demographics and who, how, why and when different consumer groups go to the cinema,’ Lebo says. ‘There are people that ‘have to’ go the first weekend and other groups that won’t go until the third weekend. Market research has shown these groups have different characteristics.’

ShowCanada will also offer discussions on open-caption performances for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, touching on their importance for students learning our two national languages as well.

The conference will offer tours of B.C.’s soundstages, which Lebo says will give MPTAC members further insight into how the products that end up on their screens are made. Thus far, The Bridge Studios, Lions Gate Studios and Vancouver Film Studios are participating.

At press time, more than 600 delegates had registered for ShowCanada 2004, and Lebo expects more as the event draws nearer. Last year, roughly 540 people attended the show, which took place in Ottawa.

‘It’s grown over the last 18 years,’ says Lebo. ‘ShowCanada has transformed into something more inclusive, with many different parts of the industry participating, including producers, but also media people and those in sales and advertising.’

Getting producers involved, and opening up dialogue between them and exhibitors, continues to be a big part of MPTAC’s mandate. ShowCanada 2004 facilitates this dialogue with the panel ‘What Exhibitors Want and Don’t Want from Distributors and Producers,’ moderated by Telefilm Canada executive director Richard Stursberg and featuring Famous Players’ Michael Kennedy, Capri Films’ Gabriella Martinelli, Brightlight Pictures’ Stephen Hegyes, Cineplex Galaxy’s Ellis Jacob and Mongrel Media’s Hussain Amarshi.

ShowCanada is also about putting a bug in exhibitors’ ears regarding forthcoming product, both Hollywood and domestic. Among the Canuck features to be screened are Touch of Pink, the Sienna Films comedy copro with the U.K., directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid, and Alliance Atlantis’ copro drama Saint Ralph, directed by Michael McGowan. DreamWorks’ easy-money release Shrek 2 will also be previewed.

-www.showcanada.ca