In a business dependent on personal reputation and contacts, Apple Box Productions took a major blow when four core personnel including executive producers J.J. Lyons, Claire (Cash) Cashman and Jane Charles-Shaw resigned in quick succession through the spring.

But ABP’s loss was The Park City Film Company’s gain as the group reemerged this summer as founding partners of the new prodco with offices in Toronto and Vancouver. Park City also includes head of sales Cheryl Munroe.

While conventional thinking may call into question the wisdom of launching such a venture in the midst of a commercial production recession, the new Park City crew also wonders what they were thinking.

‘My concern was that everyone would be asking, ‘Why are you starting a new company now? Do we need another [commercial production] company?” says Cashman.

‘But it was the complete opposite. Everyone was saying, ‘It’s a great time to start a new company. We need fresh blood. We need new energy.’ The support has been phenomenal.’

With a deep-pocketed silent partner and a self-imposed 18-month window to begin turning a profit, Park City has ambitious plans going forward.

The production house is already shooting new spots, including a pair for Telus featuring a peacock and a sloth out of the Vancouver operation, headed by Charles-Shaw. (The other three are stationed in Toronto.) Steve Gordon, who Park City has signed for Vancouver representation, is directing the spots. Gordon is repped by Radke Films in the rest of Canada.

The company has quickly assembled a roster of 20 directors including Hank Benson, Gerald Casale, Dennis Manarchy and Brazilian Joan Daniel Tikhomiroff, winner of 38 Cannes Lions.

Meanwhile, rumors continue to swirl that it is only a matter of time till ABP director Randy Diplock joins the team. Diplock’s two-year contract is up at ABP at the end of December. However, neither Park City nor ABP representatives will comment on the rumors.

The defection of four key players at Apple Box, coupled with the fact that the company’s owner, CanWest Global Communications, is dealing with a debt of about $4 billion and has begun to divest itself on non-core assets, has led to speculation that the end is near for ABP.

But Hans Dys, ABP founder and executive producer, says the company is moving forward shooting spots, including a new pool for Tim Hortons directed by Diplock, and filling the vacated posts.

To that end, the production house has announced the appointments of Lisa Broadfoot and Sandi Richter as executive producers. Broadfoot, formerly of Third Floor Editing and Angel Films, joins the Toronto office, while Richter, whose experience runs from commercial to feature film to new media production, will set up shop in ABP’s Vancouver digs.

And even if CanWest does decide to rid itself of its commercial production unit, Dys says he has backup plan.

‘They know that I have an investor who would work with me,’ he says. ‘Shutting down Apple Box isn’t even a possibility, but if they decided to sell, they would give me the opportunity. I’ve been told that.’

So was it such concerns – the questions about ABP’s future – that led four key personnel to go out on their own?

The answer, all four insist, is no. But according to Lyons, having to run a commercial production company within the framework of a larger corporate entity did play role.

‘We wanted to do our own thing with our own attitude and we didn’t want that [controlled] by CanWest,’ he says. ‘It’s a phenomenal company and I have nothing but great things to say about all the people involved there, but a corporation has strict corporate ideas…that sometimes don’t fall within the realm of a commercial film company.

‘We have a very specific kind of business; a very different kind of business. We want to be able to service our clients in the way that they should be.’

But that is behind them. According to Cashman, the last thing Park City wants is for ‘people to assume that it’s just people at Apple Box who started again.’

‘We don’t want to constantly look back at what we did, we really want to concentrate on moving forward.’

Moving forward means setting up an office in Vancouver and finishing the one in Toronto, including the downstairs studio, which is literally being hand-built by Lyons (or at least with his help).

On the business side, beyond building critical mass in spot production, the team is also exploring alternate production models including long-form spots, series work and features.

But mostly it’s about creating the kind of company they want to work at, says Charles-Shaw.

‘With everything that has happened in the industry in the last couple of years and the changes that are taking place, we need to remain really flexible. We weren’t able to do that before,’ she says.

‘So now with the group that we have and it’s our own company, we can do that. We can respond to the marketplace and make the changes we need to as we go along.’