Toronto’s Videogenic has built a solid reputation as a test commercial production and post house since opening its doors in 1980. But its move into commercial production eight years ago has remained one of the company’s best kept secrets.

To remedy that, Videogenic president Dave Greenham and executive producer Angie Colgoni started a new division of Videogenic called The Big Film Company, open for business as of July 1.

‘I can’t believe how many people have stereotyped us because of our name, Videogenic. We got pigeonholed,’ explains Colgoni. ‘I was after Dave for a while to start a new division because it was the only way I could see of legitimizing what we did.’

Big, while being a separate entity, operates under the same ownership structure as Videogenic and will be housed in the same building.

‘Videogenic will still do all the test commercials, revisions and adaptations, we are just focusing the resources a little better and making a divisible split,’ says Greenham. ‘Overall, it’s a clearer focus on the film side instead of just putting it all under one big umbrella. At Big we will be fully committed to commercial productions.’

With the creation of their new company they will be able to take on any project from start to finish, with Big handling all the preproduction and shooting, and Videogenic looking after the post. Spots with heavy special effects, matting or layering will be done out of house.

Owned 50% by The Partners’ Film Company, Videogenic used Partners’ directors and freelancers on previous commercial projects, but with Big, they have an exclusive roster of their own.

According to Greenham, it was tough to sell agencies without staff directors. ‘We always put together a good quality crew of freelancers, but when you say you have no one on staff it’s perceived as a negative sell and it made us look like we weren’t committed.’

Big, which plans to stay small, currently has a roster of three ­ director Christian Fennell, director/dop Chris Tammaro and former Magic director/dop Ted Parkes ­ and will be looking for two or three more names to add to the list.

Colgoni, who will be running Big, says it has been an interesting experience selling the new company, and although no one has heard of them yet, ‘it has become a very young and risk-taking industry.’

Big will specialize in medium-budget commercials and the executive producers say they have no aspirations of landing mega-projects as that is not who they are and it is not indicative of the directors they will be repping.

For now, Videogenic and Big are both operating out of Partners’ building on Ontario Street, but in a few weeks Colgoni and Greenham will be packing their gear and moving operations to a newly renovated, ‘funky,’ two-storey building at 431 Richmond Street East.