Alias|Wavefront caught its competitors off guard at last year’s NAB by dropping the price of its Maya Complete package to US$1,999 (from US$7,500) and Maya Unlimited to US$6,999 (from US$16,000) in time for the show. With production budgets tightening and customers restricted in terms of how much they can spend on gear updates, A|W saw the discount as the best way of broadening its Maya user base.

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Despite having worked with some big-name Hollywood directors, director of photography Jan Kiesser is still Canadian enough to respect the peer recognition and overall importance of a Genie Award nomination.

There has been much talk lately about the production slowdown in Canada, which has made it increasingly important for Canuck F/X shops to keep the U.S. projects shooting here posting here as well. Current volumes at four F/X houses indicate that they have been successful in getting the word out down south.

In the summer of 2001, in the midst of completing their first feature, the Steve DiMarco-helmed Hurt, Charlotte Bernard Entertainment partners Joel Awerbuck and Bob Banack took it upon themselves to shoot a campaign of spec spots for Rogers Communications and agency MacLaren McCann.
While it might seem an odd move to shift gears so early in the life of a fledgling prodco trying to build momentum in the feature film business, it was, in fact, part of the company’s growth strategy right from the start.
The partners, coming from backgrounds as varied as documentary production and investment banking, did a lot of research before jumping into the game. After looking at a few domestic and U.S.-based companies, they decided to diversify their company’s revenue sources early in the planning stages.

Halifax-based Cochran Communications is ceasing operations and halting production after more than 12 years as an anchor of the East Coast production community.

A new feature film from Thom Fitzgerald, The Event, wrapped production in Halifax in mid-April. The film was shot over five weeks; three spent in Halifax and two in New York, where the story is based.
Producer Bryan Hofbauer says late winter/early spring ‘was a great time of year to film in both cities. Things were quiet.’
Hofbauer produced with Fitzgerald through Fitzgerald’s Halifax-based Emotion Pictures. In addition to his producing and directing duties, Fitzgerald cowrote the script with Tim Marback and Steven Hillyer.

Winnipeg’s Summit Films is currently in production on a six-part lifestyle series for Life Network titled Magnificent Obsessions, profiling people whose offbeat obsessions or hobbies play an integral role in their lives. Production began at the end of March.
According to producer Lorne MacPherson, stories include a group that has been chasing Bigfoot on the West Coast for 25 years; a professor obsessed with Count Dracula; and a meteorologist in Oklahoma determined to get inside a tornado.

While production in the Prairie provinces has been buzzing over the last couple of years, especially in the service sector with Toronto and Vancouver overflowing with U.S. productions, the region has shown definite signs of slowdown this year. As a result, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are each trying to improve upon existing infrastructure and initiatives in an attempt to stimulate a turnaround.

Canada and New Zealand have a lot in common. Both live in the shadow of a more powerful neighbor and both have low dollars that are routinely taken advantage of by other countries looking to get more mileage out of their own currencies, especially in the production sectors.
But even Canada’s low dollar translates favorably to New Zealand currency (the Kiwi dollar is worth approximately $0.68 on the loonie), which explains why Canadian production houses like Imported Artists (shooting Royal Bank) and untitled (shooting Canadian Tire) have both recently turned to New Zealand, and why others like The Players Film Company are anxiously waiting for the right job to make the trip.

Producers Paul Pope of Pope Productions in St. John’s isn’t resting on the laurels of his feature film Rare Birds, which recently opened in Canadian theatres. He is currently in development on a major television project with the CBC about Gander, NF during World War II.
The six-hour dramatic miniseries takes place during the war when the Royal Canadian Air Force set up camp in Gander in order to fly out from one of Canada’s eastern-most points. ‘They’d never flown anyone across [the Atlantic] in the winter,’ says Pope. ‘The Air Force thought it was a suicide idea. Then, months later when it’s a huge success, the same people [who were opposed to the base] wanted to take it over and take credit for it. It’s [about] pure front-line inventiveness, determination and guts, and a lot of lives taken.’

Regina-based Partners in Motion has a number of new non-fiction projects in the works, reports CEO Ron Goetz. From weather to barbecues to ordinary people, there seems to be something for everyone on PIM’s new slate.
The first project to speak of is Untamed Weather, five one-hours for History Television. According to Goetz, the series will look at weather phenomena in Canada from a historical perspective with a common-interest element, depicting the weather as a character with an ever-changing face. He says the structure of the series is still being fleshed out, even though some elements for various segments have already been produced.