Vancouver: The producers of Cold Squad have to await the outcome of audience tallies during the January airings to find out whether Baton’s Bill Mustos will okay a third season.

While audience numbers are down for the series about cops who solve long-cold homicide files, coproducer Julia Keatley was optimistic at a cftpa Christmas party that a third season would go ahead. At the very least, a third season would increase the series’ value in syndication.

DaVinci’s Inquest, meanwhile, is gearing up for its second season of production in March, or perhaps as late as May, depending on how the Canadian Television Fund guidelines shake down. At press time, creator Chris Haddock and his writers were developing story arcs for the next season’s escapades of the intrepid coroner on the streets of Vancouver.

For its part, Alliance Atlantis/ Milestone Entertainment’s Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy – the Maple Ridge-shot period western series – debuts its first two episodes back-to-back on Feb. 7 on cbc before it moves to its regular Fridays at 9 p.m. slot Feb. 12.

If the mood on the set is any indication of quality, a second season may be on its way, but producers were not guessing late last year.

And then there is local producer Phil Savath who might provide a fourth series – making for a veritable glut of Canadian series production in Vancouver. As the year was closing, Savath’s cbc pilot These Arms of Mine – about the long-distance love affair of a man in Vancouver and a woman in Toronto – was in post-production in Toronto and about to be delivered.

Should the pilot evolve into a series, the female character is expected to relocate in Vancouver.

*FYI: HDTV

Telepost Communications – a one-time force in Vancouver post-production, which has been swept aside by the growth of companies like Rainmaker Digital – is hoping to jump the technology queue to be the first company here to offer full-service editing and post for hdtv.

Steven McDonald, chair of Telepost, was demonstrating Sony and Panasonic editing equipment to investors and others in December as part of what will be a $4-million-plus investment in hd gear by May 1, when he expects to be up and running.

Since downsizing in 1992 to begin a financial rehabilitation, Telepost has been making its living by doing mostly analog editing for documentaries and other productions.

According to McDonald, the high-definition market is moving faster than expected toward hdtv, with pbs being fully capable by 2003, the u.s., in general, by 2006, and Canada by 2007.

Some nfl games are shot in hd and John Glenn’s recent shuttle trip was shot in hd, a technology that will double television monitor lines from 525 to 1,080 and greatly enhance the quality of the image.

‘If companies aren’t gearing up for hdtv in 1999, then they are in trouble,’ warns McDonald.

So Telepost is the third company (and the first in Canada) to buy one of Jaleo’s new $525,000 hd editing/compositing/effects boxes. This spring, Telepost will also have a Telecine film transfer unit operating that will output standard and hd video, a da Vinci color corrector and either a Sony or Panasonic hd edit suite.

It may be years before hd is standard, McDonald admits, ‘but facilities with capacity are busy because of the global demand.’ Producers creating work today must look at hd to extend the shelf life of the work, he explains.

*Prod squad

The Japanese production of G-Saviour is an mow described as Top Gun in space. Shot in English (which apparently is not unusual for Japanese television), the production runs from Jan. 11 to Feb. 5. No cast was known at press time.

* Pilot season starts early with nbc’s Cold Feet, a one-hour test of a potential series about six thirtysomething couples dealing with love and life.

Production runs from Jan. 18 to Feb. 5.

* Millennium Plague, a thriller mow about a killer flu bug from 1918 that returns with a vengeance, gets into production Jan. 25 for about 18 days in Vancouver, but will also travel to the u.s. and Mexico.

At press time, no stars were assigned, but the network is abc. Producer is frequent visitor Karen Moore and coproducer is Heather Neely.

*One candle

In its first year of business, the Kelowna-based Okanagan Film Commission worked with Mort Ransen’s independent feature Shegalla and Universal’s feature Snow Falling on Cedars – work that netted direct spending of $2.5 million in the region, says Commissioner Mark Flett.

Film Incentive b.c., the provincial tax credit scheme that offers a 12.5% bonus to producers who work outside of the Greater Vancouver area, is stimulating the interest, Flett says. But he’s quick to note efforts to organize a production-friendly infrastructure including 150 registered people ready to work on crews and a catalogue of 650 locations in the area bounded by Shuswap Lake, the u.s. border, Christina Lake and Princeton.

About 50% of the crew for Shegalla was local, Flett says.

The commission also has completed a production guidebook that outlines permits, land access and services.

*Community action

John Banovich, a local director, nearly died as a victim of a catastrophic drunk-driving accident in 1997. In late November, with the backing of madd (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and a lot of free stuff from the local production community, Banovich pulled together a 30- and 60-second psa of his story to warn of the dangers of drinking and driving. The spot ran on stations through the Christmas season.

In all, 64 crew members donated their time, Panavision donated the equipment and Advanced Image Communications of Delta oversaw production and post for free.