What do This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Hockey Night in Canada, NYPD Blue, The Practice and Saturday Night Live have in common? Well, aside from all being TV shows, they all use stock audio.

In contrast to virtually every other program on television, CTV’s The Eleventh Hour, produced by Alliance Atlantis, isn’t awash in warm reds and browns. Instead, the show’s look is cold and hard-edged, emphasizing blue and green hues. Add lots of rich blacks and a raw, rough quality to the video, and The Eleventh Hour is visually jarring. It’s a look that fits well with the show’s dramatization of the goings-on behind the scenes at an investigative news program.

Steve Lucas’ Blue Murder checks in this year with an impressive nine Gemini nominations, placing it between CBC’s venerable Da Vinci’s Inquest (11 noms) and CTV’s Cold Squad (six noms). The Global TV police drama is up for best dramatic series, best actor for Jeremy Ratchford and best actress for both Mimi Kuzyk and Tamara Hickey.

Charles Martin Smith’s The Snow Walker will close this year’s VIFF at the Oct. 10 gala. The film, based on a short story by beloved Canadian author Farley Mowat, tells the tale of a Canuck pilot lost in the barrens and the Inuit passenger whose native skills save them both.

* Director: Guy Maddin * Writers: George Toles, Guy Maddin,

* Co-directors/co-writers: John Greyson

The Bridge Studios fills gap with spots

The days of fat margins for Canadian systems and software dealers are over. The reason: tight economic times exacerbated by dwindling production funds, as seen in recent cuts to the Canadian Television Fund. And when the film and TV production market suffers, the decline trickles down to post-production houses and, from there, to the companies that supply them.

While the Canadian Digital Television Association says its broadcaster members are about to jump on board the North American high-definition rollout, the Canadian Cable Television Association reports that its members are looking south to fulfill growing demand for HD programming.

HDTV products top broadcasters’ NAB shopping lists this year.

Before the 1990s, it was rare to find a film equipment supplier located within a studio complex, but as the one-stop shop has emerged as a coveted business model, an increasing number of studios have embraced the convenience of bringing equipment suppliers in-house.

With an influx of more than 40 diginets vying for eyeballs and branding the name of the game, broadcast design firms and in-house design departments are pulling out the stops to create distinctive and memorable graphics reflecting their respective channels’ programming philosophies.