The Players Film Company is launching a high-end commercial production satellite called Pure Film, headed up by Players’ Phil Mellows and partner/executive producer Brian Atkinson, that will bid against and compete with Players in the Canadian market.

Players will vacate its funky Mowat Avenue home in Toronto after five years to make way for its fledgling satellite, which takes over the space in mid-December when Players moves into new digs on nearby Pardee Street.

Atkinson is no stranger to the folks at Players, having freelance line produced for the company often over the years. Mellows says Atkinson has been a fine ‘ambassador’ for his shop.

‘I can honestly say that my interest in setting up a satellite company is limited,’ says Mellows. ‘It would have to be the right person or I wouldn’t do it. There are very few people in this city that I would do it with, and I don’t know if I would do it with anyone else [other than Atkinson].’

‘When I was a freelance producer, working around at the various shops in the past two years, I spent the majority of my time working at Players,’ says Atkinson. ‘I was at the stage of my career where I could almost pick and choose where I was working and I remained at Players because of the vibe. It felt like a great place to be.’

Joining Atkinson at Pure is sales and marketing director Amy Renaud.

Despite the wounded economy and advertising slump, Atkinson and Mellows say they are confident the new shop’s stacked roster will gain it easy entry into the market.

‘[Players] has been fortunate this year,’ says Mellows. ‘We haven’t seen a lot of slow time. It hasn’t hit us the way it maybe has hit some other companies. There is always going to be work for the appropriate director and the appropriate production company. The business is there, there’s just less of it, so we have to be that much better.’

Not wasting any time making a first impression, Pure’s inaugural job will shoot Nov. 28-30 in Miami. It is a Diet Pepsi ad through BBDO, helmed by Pure director Harry Patramanis.

Roster is Pure magic

The directors on the first Pure roster are a diverse and talented bunch.

They include L.A.-based Harry Patramanis (Weather.com, Wyler Vetta) and Idaho native Branson Veal (Nike, Budweiser), both repped by Players prior to the establishment of Pure.

Based in Montreal are directors Jim Donovan (Budweiser, Molson Dry) and Bernard Nadeau (adidas, NBA).

L.A.-based helmers include Eric Steinman (Visa, Rolaids), Holly Paige Joyner (LCBO, Techies.com), Christina Hodnet (Rogers, Smuckers), Steve Suchman (AT&T, Business Works.com) and Richard de Aragues (Smirnoff, Yamaha). Rounding out the roster are U.K. directors Willi Patterson (Acura, Northwest Airlines), Peter Darrell (Haagen Dazs, Intracom) and Jeremy Lovering.

All will be repped exclusively in Canada through Pure.

-www.purefilm.ca

-www.playersfilm.com