Tim Martin is executive producer at FrameBlender, a Toronto digital media shop that provides post, preproduction and production services as well as HD solutions to the broadcast, non-broadcast and new media sectors. The shop also facilitates Toronto’s Final Cut Pro User Group.

Barna-Alper is getting into the releasing game and, at this month’s MIPTV, will unveil the four-title catalogue of its new distribution wing – looking to sell the recent BA titles Show Me Yours, Mega Builders, Choice: The Henry Morgentaler Story and Shania: A Life in Eight Albums.

Anaid goes Greek

Married… with bullets

JB’s Drowning goes to camera

Toronto: Copperheart Entertainment and its partners are closing in on a remake of Black Christmas and plan to shoot an updated version of the seminal slasher pic in Vancouver by fall – just as soon as director Glen Morgan and partner James Wong wrap Final Destination 3. Wong will write and produce with Morgan.

Snow in April

Quebec cinema has had two major celebrations in the span of one month: first at its official awards show, the Prix Jutra, and then at the national Genie Awards on March 21, where it again flexed its might. Productions based in Quebec hauled away three-quarters of the Genie statues (15 awards), with Ontario chiming in for five trophies, and B.C. barely on the radar with one lone prize, for best doc winner The Corporation.

Pending Canadian Television Fund approval, the 2005/06 season could see 11 one-hour dramas on Canadian airwaves, including new series such as CTV’s Whistler and Global’s Falcon Beach, as well as returning series such as This is Wonderland on CBC. A twelfth series, Charlie Jade, a new Canada/South Africa copro sci-fi series from CHUM, shot overseas and debuted this month. The three national nets have ordered a total of 221 hours of drama, including four new one-hour series, all evidence that the crisis in Canadian drama could be coming to an end.
Or is it?

Canadian participation in international coproductions has plummeted by as much as 50% over the past few years, according to statistics recently released by Telefilm Canada. The surprisingly poor numbers are thought to be more accurate than previous tallies and paint a grim picture of Canada’s production partnerships in the U.K. and Europe.
‘The news is not good at this point,’ says Danny Chalifour, director of international operations and development at Telefilm. ‘This is worse than we expected.’

Children’s and information programming will be big as Canadian producers and distributors get ready to parlez with customers in Cannes, France, at the annual MIPTV trade spectacle, April 11-15.

The Bédard Commission report on the future of Télé-Québec met with mixed reviews after it was released on March 9 – calling as it did for the educational channel to get back to its roots by focusing on programming but failing to either make a case to boost its budget or to shake off the specter of privatization.