Stephanie Lord is vp, executive producer at Voodoo Arts, Montreal.

This last year has been a bit of a roller coaster for commercial production in Montreal. We have had some very hectic moments. For example, this summer you could hardly book crews, equipment and studios because of u.s. films and tv commercials being shot here due to the sag strike. There were also some much slower months.

As well, Toronto productions were being shot in Montreal because their city was overloaded with work. It was very hard for Toronto productions to book casting agents, production managers, crews and equipment. We were automatically affected by this.

At Voodoo Arts, being a smaller production house where most of our staff are freelancers, it was a problem finding a good pm. The good ones had offers to work in Toronto for the summer or were servicing the u.s. market.

On the other hand, Voodoo Arts’ 3D, sfx and post facilities certainly managed to get us a lot of work from Toronto and the u.s. over the last 12 months. The year was particularly beneficial because of all the work being shot and finished in Canada.

In general, for commercial production houses, I think this year was a bit slower in terms of local productions but very busy for those that agreed to roadhouse. All in all, that’s how you could find a balance money-wise.

To put it in perspective, it was a good year. But it would have been even better had the work been less concentrated over two crazy months. Everyone would have enjoyed better crews, locations and cast, so better-quality productions would have resulted. *

-www.voodooarts.com