Playback is marking the return of Prairie Scene with this Special Report on Production in the Prairie Provinces and B.C. Following its relaunch, Prairie Scene will appear every second issue in the Film and Television section of Playback….

The British Columbia film industry had its best year ever in 1998 with a record high of $808 million spent on production, a 28% increase over last year’s $630 million total. Two months into the new year, 17 feature films, tv…

The Alberta production industry has taken quite a hit over the past two years since the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation was closed. Since 1996, indigenous production has been falling – from $50 million to $13.6 million in 1997 and the…

The long-term usage of Currie Barracks (a deserted military base in Calgary) as a film and tv studio and production facility has a thumb’s up from Canada Lands, the federal real estate agency which leases the property….

On Manitoba’s post-production front, the two-years-young special effects house Frantic Films is making headway in the u.s. The Winnipeg-based company landed its first American network tv contract in 1998, contributing 20 shots to Stephen King’s Storm of the Century miniseries for…

Studio and infrastructure development is part of an aggressive plan to boost production volume in Manitoba to $100 million by the year 2000….

The Arrow, a miniseries executive produced by Jack Clements and Victor Solnicky, is up for 13 prizes at the upcoming Blizzard Awards, a biannual event hosted by the Manitoba Motion Picture Industries Association to recognize achievement in the province’s film and…

For the Manitoba industry, crew training and development continues to be a high priority and is now coordinated by Film Training Manitoba, a project of mmpia, which offers workshops and on-set placements, provides entry-level training, development for existing crew, mentorship programs…

With the quick rise in production volume, the most pressing concern for Saskatchewan producers is a crew crunch. There is a shortfall of approximately 300 trained crew to fill positions on projects slated for production in 1999 and an additional deficit…

Edmonton: After a 12-year focus on the craft of short filmmaking, the Local Heroes Festival in Edmonton is evolving into a showcase for independent Canadian and international feature films….

Canadian pay and specialty channel revenues are up significantly this year over last, but with 16 new services launched in ’98 the overall profitability of the sector has dropped according to financial information filed to the crtc….

Having established itself as one of the world’s dominant players in one-hour primetime drama series, Alliance Atlantis Communications is quietly preparing a major assault on program territory currently ruled by fellow Canadian pubcos Cinar and Nelvana….