VANCOUVER: Production volumes in Victoria are on a record-setting pace after the first six months of the year, says the Greater Victoria Film Commission.

VANCOUVER: Insight Film & Video Production in Vancouver, in collaboration with Vancouver-based Shavick Entertainment, has wrapped the first of six MOWs for Blockbuster in the U.S.
Biohazard, a sci-fi horror story, stars Lorenzo Lamas. It wrapped in July after production in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, locations that pay the regional bonus tax credits.

‘We hear Canada has no money.’
Okay, it’s a hypothetical comment in a pretend negotiation between a Canadian producer and a prospective international coproducer. And to be fair, international financing markets are, with a few exceptions, desiccated. However, there is no imagining the dwindling financial resources available to Canadian content producers – both film and television – and the growing difficulty to forge viable deals with international coproducers.

The ripple effect of the federal government cuts to production funding this spring means Canadian producers of non-theatrical or non-broadcast programs also have fewer dollars with which to play.

Vancouver: CBC may be well in the lead, but Canada’s other broadcasters are still thinking about getting into the race to secure the broadcast rights for the 2010 Winter Olympics, won by Vancouver on July 2.

Vancouver: Making the most of its time in the sun, popular and busy Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures is gearing up for another two projects that we haven’t already talked about in these pages.
Daisy Winters, a U.S.-based independent feature executive produced by John Wells (ER, Third Watch) and Peyton Reed (Down with Love), is an old-fashioned service job for Brightlight partner Shawn Williamson.

In June, Telefilm Canada spread the surprise $12.5 million borrowed from next year’s $75-million Canadian Television Fund installment by the Ministry of Canadian Heritage among 26 Equity Investment Program applicants this year.

Vancouver: The much-debated and delayed Channel M, Vancouver’s first over-the-air multicultural station, finally went live at 7 p.m. local time June 27, though its final home on the dial is still undecided.

Vancouver: Blade III, the second sequel in Wesley Snipes’ comic book-adapted action franchise, looks good to set up at Vancouver Film Studios for a late-summer or fall shoot.

Some finessing of CBC’s internal budgets means the next season of workhorse comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes could still go into production – despite failing at the 2003 Licence Fee Program sweepstakes and being ineligible for a new batch of money being handed out by Telefilm Canada’s Equity Investment Program.

Vancouver: The B.C. Film Commission’s list, at press time, was looking a wee bit thin – given that we are supposed to be in the peak of the production season.
The June 11 roster of productions lists 12 features such as I, Robot and Riddick, one miniseries (10.5), three MOWs, including Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl, and eight series, among them the surprise seventh season of CTV’s Cold Squad. That’s 24 titles at a time when Vancouver is usually hosting upwards of 40 titles.

To jumpstart its stalled application to change advertising policy at the CRTC, the Canadian Cable Television Association is sweetening its offer, which could generate up to $10 million per year for the beleaguered Canadian Television Fund.