Vancouver-based Front Street Productions (We Don’t Live Here Anymore) has wrapped its $3-million shoot of Anna’s Storm, an action-drama MOW about a meteor strike in small-town Colorado. The action-drama shot last month in the suburbs outside Vancouver – taking advantage of the regional tax credit and grabbing headlines when it blew up some empty storefronts and cars in nearby Abbotsford.

Fact and fiction converge in True Pulp Murder, a documentary TV series shooting in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Avril Lavigne struts her stuff in the 90-minute special Avril Lavigne: Exclusive, airing April 2 on CBC. The special – in support of Lavigne’s new album The Best Damn Thing – was shot at the Grand Theatre in Calgary by White Iron Pictures, and steps into a frame recently vacated by Doctor Who and more recently filled with ice skating, comedy and other performance specials. It is produced by Braun Farnon, Jack Stuart and Lisa Cichelly.

With headliners that include the who’s who from Google, TiVo, HP, Sling Media and NHK, this year’s National Association of Broadcasters conference that runs from April 14-19 in Las Vegas may mark the shift of NAB from a hardware-driven extravaganza to an exhaustive multimedia state of the union.

Navigating the technology can be daunting, let alone the expanded show floor and the multitude of conferences, sessions and exhibits. If last year’s NAB showcased the coming digital revolution, 2007’s version reveals just how much the media landscape has shifted into hyperdrive. Playback has picked five no-brainers that will help you stay on the curve.

Continuing the pervasive theme at NAB2007 of ‘anytime content,’ the second annual MoTV: Mobile Video and TV Forum on April 17 looks to bring together key industry players and spark some interesting discussion about the technologies needed and the opportunities out there to make content mobile, interactive – and lucrative.

Let’s face it – to many, NAB is all about the latest, coolest gear. Playback approached three regular attendees to see what they are most looking forward to from this year’s exhibitors.

The Winnipeg-based firm, with a hand in VFX, production, software and commercials, has taken diversification to new levels in a busy first decade

To many, Jamie Brown is the face of Frantic Films.

Alliance Atlantis took the top spot at last week’s Canadian-made box office on the surprise strength of the eco-minded doc Sharkwater

Montreal filmmaker retells the run-up to 1929’s Black Tuesday in his fantasy feature Un capitalisme sentimental