Who knows camera gear better than the directors of photography who actually use these tools to shape the visuals that drive storytelling in film and television? The answer, clearly, is nobody, and with this in mind, Playback approached four top Canadian DOPs and asked them to jot down their thoughts on any new piece of equipment of their choosing that has made them approach their craft differently or which has yielded innovative results.

When a production can’t afford to rent the equipment it wants, one solution is to muster all one’s technical ingenuity to modify the gear it already has, or come up with some altogether new gizmos. This kind of resourcefulness was put into action on Sleep Always, a low-budget feature from prodco Friendly Fire that wrapped recently in Toronto. The film also exemplifies the continuing love affair with small-gauge motion picture stocks in the face of digital video’s increasing popularity.

The DigiClam

Barna-Alper’s interest in both docs and drama is satisfied with a diverse production slate with collaborators from coast to coast.
The Toronto prodco, along with Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures, begins shooting this week in Regina on the MOW Betrayed. (For more information, see Prairie Scene, p. 31). Meanwhile, the MOW Choice, about Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s decades-long challenge of Canada’s abortion laws, will go to camera in November for CTV. Montreal director John L’Ecuyer (Saint Jude) will helm from a script by Carole Hay and Suzette Couture (After the Harvest). Laszlo Barna, Barna-Alper’s prez and CEO, is co-exec producer with Kevin Tierney of Montreal’s Park Ex Pictures. Budget is $3 million to $4 million, with funding from the major agencies. Minds Eye International is the worldwide distributor.

Ending media speculation of a quiet battle between Canada’s star directors Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg for the most coveted spot at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Egoyan’s latest film Ararat has been confirmed as the Opening Night Gala feature at the 27th TIFF, unspooling Sept. 5-14.
Ararat, Egoyan’s biggest production to date, stars David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian, Brent Carver, Marie-Josee Croze, Bruce Greenwood, Arsinee Khanjian, Elias Koteas and Christopher Plummer. The story concerns how two families in modern Toronto are impacted by the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks (1915-1923). A production of Alliance Atlantis and Serendipity Point Films, the film played out of competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival.

Several years ago, post-production and animation/F/X shops would pay large sums to acquire the industry’s premier hardware and software, and wear this like a badge of pride. Companies came to be known as ‘Maya shops’ or ‘Softimage shops,’ or they would promote their expensive infernos or flames. Shops that had the most cutting-edge gear would be perceived to produce the best work, they reasoned.

Although this summer will not match the year 2000’s production frenzy, shooting in Ontario is warming up with the arrival of the sunny season.
On the series front, Toronto’s Fireworks Entertainment, L.A.’s Tribune Entertainment, France’s M6 and Germany’s Tele-Munchen started rolling in early June at Toronto’s Cinespace Studios on Adventure Inc., a new one-hour action drama. Previous collaborations between Fireworks and Tribune include Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda and Mutant X.
Adventure Inc. stars Michael Biehn (The Art of War, The Terminator) as a legendary explorer who heads up a team of thrill-seekers in Beauport, NC who take on any challenge that comes their way. Their various missions take them around the world, with future episodes to be shot in Marseilles, France, and the U.K. Cast also includes Quebec’s Karen Cliche (Galidor) and Jesse Nilsson (The Skulls).

True to its strategy of following a year or two of development with a period of intense shooting, Toronto prodco Rhombus Media is underway or soon to embark on a diverse slate of new projects.
An Idea of Canada is the working title for a one-hour doc, produced by Rhombus partner Niv Fichman and Jody Shapiro, that follows Governor General Adrienne Clarkson on regional visits across Canada. The occasion is the 50th anniversary of Canadian citizens being appointed to the governor general post previously occupied by British appointees. The doc focuses on Clarkson’s stops in smaller communities on Canadian coasts, and so far the crew has shot in the Arctic, yielding 30 hours of footage, in St. John’s and along the Labrador coast, and it will soon head off to B.C.’s Queen Charlotte Islands.

F/X shops across Canada are in an expanding mood, which might sound surprising given the uncertainty characterizing the current marketplace. But new shops are popping up while shops that catered to a different kind of clientele are now looking at long form, and some established houses continue to get bigger.

Few animation and F/X providers can afford to keep all their eggs in one basket anymore. Whether their initial focus was on 3D F/X for feature films and TV series, commercial work or service, many shops across Canada have found in the past year’s volatile market that diversification is simply a matter of survival.

Ryan, produced by Toronto’s 49th Parallel, is a project of interest on several levels. The one-hour made-for-TV film is an innovative documentary with live-action footage directed by John L’Ecuyer (Saint Jude) on the subject of Ryan Larkin, an animator prodigy from the National Film Board in the late 1960s.

Members of Ontario’s interactive industry dominated the 2002 Canadian New Media Awards, capturing 10 of 12 prizes at a ceremony held in Toronto on May 27. Dan Fill, head of convergence initiatives at Toronto’s Decode Entertainment, was among the night’s big winners, taking home the producer of the year award. Fill’s credits include the award-winning Angela Anaconda Online, Kidtime, The Undergrads.tv and The Hoobs Online.