Executive producer Cindy Kemp has returned to her native Toronto to set up a new production entity, Palooka Films.

The new company opened officially at the beginning of the month, having already wrapped its first job for Carrier/Puron out of EURO RSCG Tatham, Chicago. The spot was directed by Jim Lotter, a Minneapolis-based comedy talent who joins the Palooka roster, which has not been announced in its entirety. Palooka, however, has announced an association with Janice Burstein of Black Box Pictures in the u.s.

Kemp has been involved in commercial production for about 20 years, including stints at shops like Dalton Films and Shooters, and has been executive producing for about eight years, most recently at Vancouver’s Cactus Productions, which closed its doors last year.

Kemp has set up an office in Toronto (416-363-1088) and says the time was right for her to devote her executive producing experience to her own company.

*Red Rover livens up

After a few years on the Toronto animation scene, Red Rover is branching out into live action.

The animation house has formed an affiliation with New York’s Open Frame and will be repping live-action directors David Stewart, Kevin Jones and June Manton in the Canadian market.

Previously, the majority of work coming out of Red Rover was longer format, but these days the emphasis is on more commercial production, part of an effort to ‘move the company to a different level,’ according to executive producer Shenny Jaffer.

Red Rover cofounder, director Andy Knight, recently completed three 15-second live-action spots for Shake’n Bake out of bbdo, featuring talking animals a la Babe. Dan Krech Productions handled the 3D animation on the critters’ mouths.

Also on the agenda is a spot for Esso out of Goodgall Curtis, which combines live-action with 2D and 3D animation, and a spot for Coco Puffs through Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, also combining 2D and 3D.

On the feature front, Red Rover is working on a DreamWorks project. Details are still under wraps.

*Sparks inks rep deal with Manifesto

Sparks Productions has signed a deal with u.s. bicoastal commercial production house Manifesto for exclusive representation in Canada.

The newly acquired roster includes Cannes Advertising Festival winners Jeff Stark and Steve Reeves out of the u.k.; u.s. music video and documentary filmmaker Baillie Walsh; and new to the commercial scene, comedy shooter Jeff Mishler.

Rounding out the roster is Geoff McGann, South African director Tony Baggott, best known for his knack with dialogue and storytelling, and feature film heavy-hitters John Landis, John Schlesinger, Scott Kalvert and the Hughes Brothers.

Also new at Sparks, Corinna Lehr, director of sales and marketing for the last three years, has been promoted to executive producer.

*How about shooting in Cuba?

Following a commercial coproduction agreement between the Canadian and Cuban governments, Toronto’s Filmblanc has been named the official Canadian rep for the Cuban Institute of Cinematography and is touting Cuba as the ideal place to shoot.

According to Filmblanc president Noemi Weis, Cuba is just three hours from Toronto and offers the same light as Miami and everything else Florida has to offer, but at a fraction of the cost.

While Cuba has been producing films for around 30 years, this agreement marks the country’s first steps into the commercial realm.

*T/MD’s Anything But Down

TOPIX/Mad Dog recently teamed up again with director Floria Sigismondi for a new music video from Sheryl Crow, Anything But Down.

The live-action component of the video was shot at Sony Studios in New York and features an unwitting tug-of-war between two versions of the singer against the backdrop of a huge, urban apartment with a view.

The video was shot in Cinemascope, using an anamorphic lens to create the wide-screen, filmic proportion. t/md enhanced the flat environment created on set, warping back scenes in post to prevent any of the distortion a lense typically creates. The huge windows on set, for example, would have appeared curved on the video, but t/md artists undid the concavity to further the flat look. The shop also undertook major rig removal (and replacement).

The t/md team included executive producer Sylvain Taillon, senior Inferno artist Susan Armstrong, Inferno artists Frank Russo and Patrick Coffey, and producer Cheyenne Bloomfield.

*Correction

Gee Jeffery & Partners’ Greg Trinier and Allan Mah were art directors on the Canadian Airlines spots featured in the Feb. 8 Storyboards.