Partners’ wonderland for kids

The Partners’ Film Company Christmas party was every kid’s fantasy. On Dec. 4, Toronto’s Harbourside Studios was converted to a carnival/Santa’s village/ petting zoo which left more than a couple of hundred children dumbstruck and adults equally amazed.

Three warehouse-sized rooms each featured a different theme. Santa reigned over one, surrounded by a live forest. Some youngsters lined up with their parents to fill their Partners’ bag with a gift from Santa, while others rode the bumper cars or climbed the fire truck. Children’s entertainers and the Salvation Army band played on the stage.

The second room was the cne, only better. Free rides, no line-ups, a full-sized merry-go-round, and games. Two complete walls were lined with food – from candy floss and snow cones to pizza, hot dogs, candy and cakes. Vegetable trays were ignored.

A petting zoo filled the third, complete with pony rides.

Partners’ president Don McLean mingled with the guests while manager of operations Ross McLean was spotted manning the candy floss machine and doing general maintenance on the whole event. Almost 1,000 people came through the doors as the day went on.

The next day, McLean held a company meeting, which included staff from Partners’, Revolver, Stripes and Revisions. The meeting was announced in a seven-page memo from Don which detailed staff and title changes that have been followed in The Street.

McLean also discussed the problems Partners’ faces establishing a reputation as a long-form production company and urges staff to be patient and pleasant in the time it takes to win over the film and television community.

Throughout the paper, McLean pats his staff on the back, but also encourages them to get out and network. ‘We need you to help us build relationships with agencies and agency personnel, we need you to do lunches, wrap parties, go to industry functions, award shows.ÉIt’s your career and you have to invest some promotional time and effort in it, even if you don’t particularly enjoy it.’

It concludes with a pledge of support from Partners’ for its employees and a call to arms to ‘tell the world The Partners’ Film Company is back better than ever.’

Three 30-minute segments of the Painted Words tv series, the first major long-format project produced by Partners, wrapped last month.

An Ace director

Vancouver’s Ace Film Company director Gordon Carson won three Lotus Awards for his first commercial spot. Carson joined Ace last summer after running Planet Pictures, a commercial and video production house in Ottawa, and set to work on a campaign for the Pacific National Exhibition.

With limited funds and no actual script, Carson created a stop-motion animation concept for the openings and closings, and in collaboration with the creative team at Palmer Jarvis, came up with dozens of scenarios for the wacky campaign, which features Bert, a pne-goer who piggybacks a goat and has other strange adventures.

The pne spots won Lotuses for Best Use of Animation and Best Television Campaign, as well as a certificate for Best Multimedia Campaign.

Carson is in the middle of a video project for the Dairy Bureau of Canada and a one-hour pilot for a series called High Tech Culture, which will air on The Knowledge Network and Discovery Channel.

All gone

Bandits got away with a small haul at Apple Box Productions’ Vancouver office. The final tally is $5,000, says Apple’s Greg Bosworth, after the thieves broke in through the skylight and took two vcrs.