Vancouver: The number of shows shot in b.c. in 1996 was up – moving past the 100-project mark – but the value of production budgets dropped, says the B.C. Film Commission in a preview of its annual statistics report.

Final figures are not expected until later in January.

Tom Crowe, manager of community relations, says the mixed year was no surprise. The first three or four months were filled with labor uncertainty, with the B.C. Council and producers hammering out a precedent-setting master agreement. ‘That sets the tone for the year,’ he says, explaining that features and series in the planning stages were hesitant to consider Vancouver. ‘We have evidence that producers were not allowed to bring shows here.’

At the same time, Crowe adds, it was the year of the mow, though budgets for the productions are being squeezed. Also affecting overall budget totals were the increased number of micro-budget, non-union shoots and the limited soundstage capacity.

The mood for 1997, he says, is upbeat, with labor and producers satisfied with the current working climate. The trick, he adds, is to proceed with managed growth of between 10% and 20% over the year. ‘Our infrastructure is spread too thin otherwise,’ says Crowe.

-Doc talk

Year-old Tamarin Productions of Vancouver has its first television documentary airing Jan. 15 on Vision TV. The project, called O’Siem, chronicles the life of Gene Harry, a Musqueam Native who was released from prison into the care of his aunt and began a ‘quest to heal himself.’

The film is produced in association with the National Film Board, Vision, Knowledge Network, cfcf, chch, Saskatchewan Communications Network, the North Shore Arts Commission and others.

Also on Jan. 15, Tamarin – which was founded by husband-and-wife team Rudi Kovanic and Gillian Darling Kovanic – starts a 10-week shoot near Mt. Kenya at the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project for Composing a Life: The Baboons of Chololo. The 52-minute wildlife special covers the 24 years of fieldwork by anthropologist Shirley Strum. It’s produced with a licence from Discovery Channel.

-Coming and going

James Shavick’s Breaker High series – which will bring to three the number of upn series to work in Vancouver if it gets the network’s nod – shoots a test with its first-pick Canadian actors mid-January. If the series is a go, principal photography begins in April for a first order of six episodes.

The story is based on the ‘semester at sea’ concept and is about a classroom on a ship. Locally shot series Viper and Sentinel already air on upn.

Other recent American work includes the cbs mow Fragments, which features Nicolette Sheridan (Knots Landing) and wrapped production Jan. 9. The tv movie tells the story of an fbi agent who tracks a serial killer by injecting brain serum from a victim into herself and ‘seeing’ fragments of the victim’s memories.

And Atom Egoyan’s feature The Sweet Hereafter came and went in a one-week whirlwind tour of Merritt (about three hours inland from Vancouver) mid-last month. The film about a small-town tragedy features actors Ian Holm and Bruce Greenwood.

-Firestorm accident

Squamish rcmp are still investigating whether a fatal parachute stunt for the Fox feature Firestorm was performed in contravention of Transport Canada guidelines. Veteran jumper Keith Perepelkin died Oct. 31 when his primary chute failed and his backup chute did not fully open.

In media reports, Sgt. Dwain Wetteland says the helicopter from which Perepelkin jumped was well below the 2,200 feet required by the filming permit.

-Three’s company

Seems like there is a bit of local competition for a potential one-hour drama slot at cbc. Vying with Chris Haddock’s coroner show, DaVinci’s Inquest, is Michael Chechik’s parole officer series called Watchdog. Both are multi-genre series (a la Law & Order), are Vancouver-based and have government dough to make the first three scripts.

Local writer Hart Hanson is also working on a bid called Crosstown. The project is an ensemble story about life on the gritty Eastside of Vancouver.

-Kudos all ’round

Natterjack Animation of Vancouver is taking a bow for its contribution to mtv’s first feature Beavis and Butt-head Do America. Natterjack’s principals say they designed a large proportion of the layouts and backgrounds for the film. The company is also gearing up for its next project, The Champ, which is a series of animated shorts.

Troika Films’ The War Between Us added more awards to its mantel by winning the CableACE Award for Best International Movie in December. The film, which aired in the u.s. on Lifetime, was directed by Anne Wheeler and deals with the internment of the West Coast Japanese community during ww ii.

Melanie Kilgour, manager of foreign sales at Burnaby’s TSC Film Distribution, is a co-winner with l.a.-based Hauser Design and Advertising of an American Graphic Design Award for the presale campaign of the Canadian feature Ziggy Gonna Get It, which is in development.

Locally produced animation project Touched Alive received a Juror’s Citation award at the Black Maria Film Festival of independent short films held by the Department of Media Arts, Jersey City State College, New Jersey. The festival will tour 22 u.s. states, as well as visiting Montreal this spring.

Techworks! – an hour-long program about careers in design, research, bioscience, natural resources, manufacturing and management first broadcast on the Knowledge Network in October – won an award from the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of b.c. last month The show will air again Jan. 13 and 14.

Vancouver filmmaker Byron McKim won Best Live Short Subject at the 21st annual Indian Film Festival in San Francisco for the 30-minute Native drama Back to Turtle Island.

-On the courts

Starlight director Jonathon Kaye of Vancouver is suing a local movie critic for comparing his work to Ed Wood’s in a pan of Starlight in November. In his writ at b.c.’s Supreme Court, Kaye says the comparison to Wood – who he says is ‘widely referred to in the world of film arts as `The World’s Worst Film-maker’ ‘ – has injured his ability to work.

Georgia Straight critic Mark Harris and others from the paper are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed last month.