Production in 2000 was hit and miss for the four Atlantic provinces, according to the East Coast film commissions. The major production centre of the region, Nova Scotia, dipped slightly while regional dark horse, New Brunswick, managed to more than double its production.

Halifax’s Salter Street Films cannot seem to keep itself out of the news lately. Following its sale last month to Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications, Salter has announced it is buddying up with another Toronto company, Infopreneur. Together the two will develop a television version of Infopreneur’s Web hit Chilly Beach, retaining all of the Canadianisms that have made the animated property so popular.

Jesh Krishna Murthy, visual effects supervisor at Vancouver’s Command Post/TOYBOX West, is no stranger to big jobs. In his time at the post-production house, Murthy has worked on F/X for features including The Cell, Fight Club, Lost in Space and the forthcoming Jason X. He says it was still a nice surprise to learn TOYBOX West had been appointed lead effects house on Universal Pictures’ Josie and the Pussycats, due for an April release.
‘We were bidding against a lot of big companies,’ says Murthy. ‘I think what clinched it for us was first being in Vancouver, because it was shot here, and second the fact we did a lot of tests with warping and morphing that the directors really liked.’

Vancouver-based commercial director Nick Racz has been getting a lot of attention lately for a spot called ‘Bad Cats.’ Never before have cat owners seen what really goes on when they leave their unfixed pets alone and their windows open. Client PETA is hopeful this incredibly lewd but funny ad will make cat fanatics sit up and take notice.
The spot is the product of collaboration between Racz and the Vancouver branch of Saatchi & Saatchi. It features cats…well… doing it in such a way that would make John Holmes blush. Of course, the spot is really about awareness, splicing facts about the multiplication rate of cats versus how many are put to death each year in amongst the bawdy visuals.

Martin Beauvais wants to see the Canadian advertising industry take some chances, and he wants to see it soon.
The VP, creative director at PNMD Communication in Montreal believes Canadians are ready to accept advertising that is a little more risque than they are used to. He says we should look to places like Brazil, London and Melbourne to see the kind of advertising we are missing out on.
Beauvais has been in the ad biz for 14 years, starting out as an art director at Tamtam in Montreal, now Tamtam TBWA. After a stint as a creative in Australia, Beauvais moved back to Montreal to take a job at TAXI Advertising, where he worked his way up to creative director. He joined PNMD three years ago as executive art director and was appointed creative director last June.

The Players Film Company is getting into the Internet game with PlayMedia, the Toronto-based company’s newly launched interactive arm. Headed up by general manager Harjot Dhatt and creative director James Starr, Playmedia is designed to help agencies and clients bring another dimension to their product by using the many facets of interactivity. Through this interactive consulting and practical Web-design company, Dhatt is hoping clients can expand their marketing and branding initiatives.

Marc Dube, executive producer of GearHead Entertainment, says the Vancouver-based spot shop is undergoing some changes. With a few new directors expected to create interest, Dube says GearHead is shifting its focus from the U.S. market to Canada.
‘We’ve been doing a lot of local marketing lately,’ confirms Dube. ‘Over the last year and a half we’ve really focused on the U.S. market, but in the last three weeks we’ve been doing a lot of screenings with all the local agencies. We decided to hit up a lot of these guys in our own backyard that we’ve neglected over the last couple of years.’

Toronto’s Maxx Productions continues to make news, this time with the signing of its first Canadian director, Toronto-based David Cropper. …

Toronto’s Optix Digital Post and FX has been catching the eye of commercial and long-form producers alike with its new Sony 24P HD camera and Jaleo HD system. The timely sprint into high-definition is something Optix had flirted with for some time.
‘It’s a cool machine,’ says owner George Levai of the new Jaleo. ‘Right now there are only three HD finishing solutions in town, two of them being tape-based, linear-based. Our solution is nonlinear based. It runs on the Onyx, with multiple processors, and has almost terabyte (of storage space) because the data is huge with HD.’

There are very few people in Canada who do what Vancouver-based casting director Kathleen Widows does. Widows casts all sorts of people for all sorts of spots through her Kathleen Widows Casting, but she is also one of a rare species in the Canadian production world. Widows is also a baby wrangler.
‘A what?’ you ask.
Despite the lack of baby wranglers in Canada, theirs is a service one would think every agency or production house would need from time to time. Perhaps Widows can explain this facet of her job best.

A young Michelle Coppola learned her trade while on the road as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. While touring the continent singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to JFK at night, she was honing her skills as a makeup artist during the day. Fast-forward 20 years and we find Coppola very much stationary at home in Toronto running Coppola F/X Makeup Studio & Academy, servicing film and television productions and teaching would-be makeup artists the dynamics of making someone better (or worse) looking than they are.
Not to limit Ms. Coppola and her staff to just production makeup work. On the contrary, Coppola works on corporate video, theatre and music video projects, and also does makeup for stills photography shoots, weddings and more.

Carole Tanenbaum offers a unique but underutilized service to the film and advertising world. She is the proprietor of Carole Tanenbaum Vintage Collection, offering period costume jewelry to add a bit of authentic spice to her clients’ work. …