The house that Cameron built

Doug Cameron was in the middle of a lot of projects – working as production manager at LTB Productions, planning his next tee-off time, dreaming of games to play with his baby twin sons and building a new house for his family – when he died last month after a short bout with lung cancer.

Only 43, Cameron had already spent 25 years in the film business, beginning at age 18 at a company called Comprehensive Distribution. A year into that job, he decided to turn his attention to the technical side of the business. He moved to the motion picture lab at Film House where he gained a solid grounding in various disciplines over four years, and shot and coproduced his first film, a half-hour drama called Changes, on 16mm.

Cameron’s film apprenticeship continued as he tackled opticals, special effects and handling an animation camera at Toronto’s Film Effects. At this stage in his career, according to his brother Jon, he put together a documentary, Anthem, before moving to New York to work freelance as a layout editor, film editor and camera operator for Animated Productions. One of his neighbors turned out to be another Canadian expatriate feature director, who hired Cameron as a dop on two projects.

By the time those productions wrapped, Cameron reckoned the film industry had begun to come of age in Toronto and decided to come home. Says Jon Cameron: ‘He set his sights on production management and producing television commercials’ and went on to work for several major spot shops. ‘Production companies looked at Doug,’ says Jon, ‘as their insurance policy that the job would be completed on budget and with the highest of production values…His quest for perfection will live on in the minds of many.’

For the past three years, Cameron worked as pm at ltb. At the time of his death, he was in the midst of building a house for his family – wife Sue and twins Wilson and James Wesley. ltb would like to see that house finished and is accepting donations to a fund, The House That Doug Built, to help get the job done. Anyone interested in helping is asked to call ltb at (416) 360-0053 and ask for Joyce. Cheques can be made payable to: the house that doug built. ST