Vancouver: The lingering effects of the almost-strike by SAG earlier this year began to fade a little more with the last days of summer.

Vancouver’s overall volumes began to increase in September with the addition of titles such as big-budget Columbia feature I Spy, season two of Showtime series The Chris Isaak Show, the Discovery docudrama Living with Monsters (about hunting through the ages) and the mammoth alien-abduction miniseries Taken by DreamWorks.

New MGM suspense series Jeremiah with Luke Perry and Malcolm-Jamal Warner started production at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby in September. Also in production in Burnaby is the Warner Bros. series The Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star.

Meanwhile, Miramax and WB brighten October’s production roster with the new series Glory Days that gears up Oct. 9. The series, which stars David Aronson (Man on the Moon) and Eddie Cahill (Felicity), tells the story of an author of a tell-all book who returns to find that the town locals aren’t too happy with his last book.

Ein, zwei, drei

Shavick Entertainment of Vancouver is doing its third unofficial German coproduction with filmmaker Uwe Boll. The TV movie Homeroom is a $2.5-million high school drama that, at press time, had no distributor or network attached.

Michael Pare is set to star in the production that begins Oct. 15 and goes until mid-November. Shavick and Boll first worked together on the Regent Entertainment production Sanctimony in 1999 and Blackwoods a year ago.

Help me Rhona

Vancouver media personality and relationship counselor Rhona Raskin (Purple Echo Productions) traveled to Seattle and PBS affiliate KCTS to coproduce the one-hour talk show Rhona OnAir.

Taped before a live studio audience, the television series is described as an energetic hybrid of advice and information that explores the spectrum of relationship issues. Featured are celebrities, relationship experts and interaction with the audience.

Thirteen episodes wrapped Sept. 6.

KCTS is the Emmy-winning producer of Bill Nye the Science Guy. Raskin is known as a columnist and radio host of Rhona at Night.

Ripple FX

L.A.-based MastersFX, a veteran effects house specializing in prosthetic, animatronic and character effects, has expanded to Vancouver with a 2,500-square-foot studio in Richmond.

Among the company’s credits are Vancouver-made syndicated series Stargate SG-1 and The Outer Limits.

Says company founder Todd Masters, ‘Since Canada offers producers significant cost savings on production, I felt the time was right to set up a permanent base there, to better handle the increased need for our area of effects work.’

Local competition includes Bill Terezakis and SFX Studios.

More good works

Director/producer Beverley Reid and DOP Peter Kellington of Coming Home Films of Mayne Island have completed three weeks of filming in the jungles of Nicaragua to produce the fifth installment in their Voyagers of the Heart documentary series.

Chickadee: Spirit of the Kootenays features Eric Blackburn, who built a steel sailboat in Cranbrook, BC, sailed it solo around the world and doled out humanitarian assistance. Blackburn has just finished working with villagers in building the first school in the remote jungle community of Congrejo in Nicaragua. The film crew rode horses and an ox cart into the jungle and across nine rivers to reach the village.

Previously, Coming Home produced A Man Called Bob, The Road to Bansi, Ratanak’s Legacy and After the Hurricane. The crew is scheduled to go to Vietnam in late October to film the sixth episode, Dreams of Childhood.

CIDA and various broadcasters fund the documentary series.

Ring bearer

Vancouver-based composer Michael Plowman has composed the score for the only television special that precedes the anticipated feature Lord of the Rings (New Line Cinema), set to premier in December.

Quest of the Rings, a kind of ‘making of’ show, will air on Fox Nov. 29, says Plowman. The score – which he describes as dark and bombastic – will be recorded at the end of the October with a live orchestra. L.A.-based Dan Arden Productions, a longtime client of Plowman, is producing the one-hour special.

Plowman has also done the score for A Christmas Adventure, a 44-minute, 3D-animated children’s video by Columbia TriStar and Aston Entertainment. The story is based on a book called Wisely’s Tales. More than 1.2 million copies will be in stores starting in November. Plowman is the main composer for Vancouver’s Studio B Productions and shows such as season two of D’Myna Leagues.

U.K. OK

Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy, the animated series by a.k.a. Cartoon in Vancouver for AOL Time Warner’s Cartoon Network, was the top-rated series for kids aged four to 15 on the U.K. version of CN in July and ranks in the top-10 kids series in the U.K., says the company.

In its fourth season of production, EEE and artist James Wootton are also nominated for an Annie Award for outstanding individual achievement for storyboarding. The 29th Annual Annie Awards – the Oscars of the cartoon world – are scheduled for Nov. 10.

Shorts stuff

* Dents in the Sky is a 12-minute short film by writer/director Kevin Eastwood. Sponsored by the Kickstart program, the National Film Board and Cineworks, the $30,000 production is based on the short story by Peter Eastwood, the filmmaker’s brother.

Actors David Abbott and Mary Black star in the tale of a lonely widower who meets a lively widow in a seniors painting class. DOP Les Erskine (Da Vinci’s Inquest, Breaking News) worked with 35mm film over four days ending Sept. 24.

Michelle Bjornson produces while her husband Michael Bjornson (Lunch with Charles, Double Happiness) is production designer.

* Of Lions and Lambs is a 30-minute comedy shot over three days in August in Kamloops by writer/director MJ Politis and CBC veterans Denis Abramsen and Dan Tohill of the Interior Film and Television Training Centre in Kelowna. It was produced for $5,100 and tells the story of a jaded female stand-up comic and the 20-year-old farm boy who sees her as his ‘Spirit Helper.’*