The key to success in today’s complex and intensely competitive production industry is the ability to manage and exploit all aspects of a tv or film project.

That modern-day axiom is equally true of the big studios and, it appears, even a small start-up.

When industry veterans Steven DeNure, most recently head of Alliance Communications’ multimedia operations, Neil Court, a distribution and financing consultant to studios like Hollywood’s Film Roman and Jim Henson Productions, and producer John Delmage decided to open their own production company, they knew they’d have to have it all.

‘We are a small but vertically integrated company,’ says DeNure, who explains that the newly opened DECODE Entertainment will trade on the trio’s complementary skills to provide international financing and distribution, production and international development services as well as licensing and merchandising management.

‘We are starting as a global company, but on a modest scale,’ describes DeNure.

‘We are expanding the concept of a small, hands-on independent company to a small, vertically integrated company,’ adds Delmage.

The company will specialize in the product with which all three have become most closely associated – live action and animation for the family and children’s market.

Court says he believes there is a hungry demand today for family-oriented live-action shows, particularly in the action-adventure genre. ‘I see that as continuing to have strong international appeal.’ decode is on the hunt for such projects, in addition to animated shows.

Adds Court: ‘We want to be suppliers to the international marketplace. What is key today is developing projects that are not solely dependent on the u.s. market. You need to create for the international market and to find a niche – not just in terms of genre, but in the way you do business.’

The first projects heading into production are two television shows that Delmage will roll into the new company from the current Toronto-based J.A. Delmage Productions. They are Freaky Stories, a half-hour animated series for ytv in association with the u.k.’s Flextech Television, and Ghostwriters, a half-hour live-action youth series to be produced with Children’s Television Workshop and CBS Television.

‘Often, new partners end up stepping on each other’s toes while they sort out what function each one will perform in the new company,’ says DeNure. ‘In our case, we’ve known each other for such a long time and have such well-defined roles that we can get a lot more accomplished without having to sort out those roles.’