On Manitoba’s post-production front, the two-years-young special effects house Frantic Films is making headway in the u.s. The Winnipeg-based company landed its first American network tv contract in 1998, contributing 20 shots to Stephen King’s Storm of the Century miniseries for abc, which included over 300 layers of 3D cg snow and cg water spray, fire and fog.

Frantic is currently working on its second gig for an American production, this time creating explosion-ravaged cityscapes and cg jet fighters for the feature Only Hope, produced by California company Max Inc. Cafe and shot in l.a.

Frantic is also developing the visuals and programming for Starchild, a video game incorporating live-action video produced by Noam Gonick (Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight), to be delivered for the Pan Am Games, and vfx and animatronics for The Manitoba Experience, a stereo ride 3D film produced by Credo.

Owned by Chris Bond and Ken Zorniak, Frantic specializes in a range of animation and creature design, digital effects and post-production services including blue-screen/green-screen matting, split-screen compositing, the building of virtual sets, digital creature design, digital titling, models, miniatures, and matte paintings.

Zorniak says Frantic is planning to hire a programmer to develop its own plug-ins and will begin to sell its own software adaptations.