Technicolor Entertainment Services has announced its plans to rebrand its recent pickup Command Post & Transfer as Technicolor. The global post giant, a division of French conglomerate Thomson, completed its acquisition of the struggling Canuck post major this summer.

In purchasing Command, Technicolor got itself the Toybox video and audio post ops and alphacine labs in Toronto and Vancouver. According to Technicolor, which also has offices in Montreal, the rebranding will be finished by year’s end, and the name change will have no impact on current operations.

The company is also in the news with the departure of Andy Sykes, a founder and VP of Command, who jumped over to neighbor and chief rival Deluxe (see stories, p. 2 & p. 15).

-www.technicolor.com

Alias firms up Kaydara buy

Toronto 3D graphics technology provider Alias announced that it has completed its purchase of Montreal 3D character animation and motion-editing solutions manufacturer Kaydara.

The buy is Alias’ first strategic move since it broke off from parent company SGI after being acquired by private equity investment firm Accel-KKR and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Alias sees Kaydara’s product line, which includes MotionBuilder for animation production and FBX, a 3D authoring and interchange format, as a natural complement to its own. Alias’ flagship software is Maya for 3D animation and FX, used on blockbuster films such as Spider-Man 2.

‘When we announced our independence from SGI in June, we committed to further expand our business, extend customer value and create significant growth with our products and services,’ said Alias president Doug Walker in a statement.

Going forward, the Kaydara division will continue to operate out of Montreal under the Alias banner. Its products will continue to support all current industry platforms, with version 6 of MotionBuilder expected in the fall.

-www.alias.com

Phase two for CiteLab

Montreal film and TV post facility Global Vision/CiteLab has been active in recent months on a number of upgrades for what it dubs ‘phase two’ of its development.

Its film lab recently added an Arrilaser Performance 35mm film recorder, which enables it to offer the complete digital intermediate process. The gear also allows CiteLab to perform color balancing with da Vinci 2K for theatrical release. The shop’s editing and film transfer departments have expanded as well, incorporating Sony’s 4:4:4 RGB 10-bit HDCAM SR format, a step up from HDCAM in terms of image quality.

On the audio side, CiteLab earlier this year broadened its scope to include three 5.1 mixing studios. Among their features is Digidesign’s new Icon console with the Pro-Tools-compatible D-Control work surface, launched at NAB2004. The studio maintains that Icon allows it to handle all types of film and TV productions and reduces client costs. The company’s audio facility also includes three dubbing and post-synch studios and six sound editing studios.

-www.visionglobale.ca

Northwest targets film biz

Northwest Imaging & FX, out of Burnaby, BC, has been servicing the Vancouver TV market for more than a decade, but the addition of a new film-processing lab last year represents a new direction for the shop.

‘We’re gearing toward the feature finish work as well as HDTV,’ says Jim Finn, recently appointed VFX exec producer and director of operations. (Another new announcement sees Rick Cederlund promoted to director of engineering.)

The facility has amassed various post credits on B.C.-shot series such as Battlestar Galactica and Just Cause, but the new lab sees it looking to draw some of the province’s feature business as well. Previously, Rainmaker and alphacine, now in the Technicolor fold, dominated the local lab biz.

The lab, headed by 30-year veteran John Dargel, can process 16mm and 35mm negative and their ‘Super’ variants as well as the rarer 8mm, 16mm and 35mm reversal stocks. It is located in Northwest’s new facility on Gilmore Way, while the firm’s post audio and video suites remain at the Columbia Street location.

Features that have come to the new lab include the Stephen King adaptation Riding the Bullet and the baseball buddy sequel The Sandlot 2, starring James Earl Jones.

-www.nwfx.com

Keyframe crosses finish line on Crazy Canucks

Digital animation and FX studio Keyframe Digital Productions, out of the unlikely locale of picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, recently wrapped all FX on Crazy Canucks, directed by Randy Bradshaw. The MOW, which tells the story of Canada’s 1970s Canadian World Cup downhill skiers, including Dave Reid, who cowrote the source book, is an Alberta Filmworks production to air on CTV early next year.

Keyframe, cofounded by Clint Green and Darren Cranford, was asked to do CGI composites of a 1970s period French rescue helicopter, mountain scenery, and set and crowd extensions. The shop says that recreating the races’ large crowds was a particular challenge, some shots requiring a 3D tracking system to help with adding the spectators to moving camera plates. Keyframe relied on Discreet 3ds max software to animate the crowds, and Discreet combustion for compositing. The MOW will be broadcast in HD.

The studio also completed all FX on season three of the Global action series Mutant X. It marks the shop’s third year on the series, and the second in which it has handled all FX, which has meant 100-plus shots per ep.

-www.keyframe.ca

Triangle cuts Black

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Toronto TV editing and design house triangle recently performed online and offline on the hot doc Citizen Black, which takes a look at the personal and business life of embattled media baron Conrad Black.

The film, from Toronto’s Persistence of Vision Productions, preemed at the recent Montreal World Film Festival, and so many patrons were turned away from a recent screening at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema that five more nights will be booked, says producer Rick Caine.

Citizen Black marks the third feature triangle senior editor Bill Towgood has cut for Caine and director Debbie Melnyk. For this project, which has secured broadcast deals in far-off lands, triangle had to create widescreen 16:9 and 4:3 masters to satisfy the demands of the festival circuit as well as TVO, BBC and SBS Australia.

-www.trianglestudios.com

Dandelion sprouts in Toronto

Industry veteran Michael Belanger has recently opened Dandelion Editing, a new post facility in Toronto. Belanger is a past staffer at Eyes Post, and his broadcast credits include projects for CBC, TVO, W Network, PBS and Thames Television.

Belanger reports that he is currently busy with high-end corporate clients such as Mercedes-Benz Canada, but is eyeing a return to the broadcast sphere, with plans to be HD-enabled by late 2004/early 2005.

Belanger is a one-man band, getting hands-on with offline and online editing, compositing, graphics, 2D and 3D animation as well as web design. ‘That’s the nature of the beast these days,’ he says.

Dandelion is also equipped for post audio, with suites Belanger built himself.

-www.dandelionediting.com