LGE posts US$94.2M loss

It looks like the battle between Canada’s competing ratings sources is coming to an end.

Vancouver: CHUM Television’s The New VI in Victoria laid off 29 full- and part-time employees July 7 as part of a restructuring that also includes changes in programming and management.

Monte Carlo loves Bugs

Canada is well stocked with screenwriting programs, but is low on training for producers and directors. There is a dearth of production training in Northern and Atlantic Canada, but an overabundance of the same in Vancouver and Toronto. Short film producers have more skills development programs than feature filmmakers.

Sixty French-language television projects took home $1.6 million in development cash from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund earlier this month in the first round of funding for the fiscal year 2004/05. Only five applicants were turned down, an 85% acceptance rate.

The Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund has awarded $1.5 million to 56 Canadian film and video productions. A third of those received the largest grants – amounts ranging from $39,000 to $50,000.

Sixty French-language television projects took home $1.6 million in development cash from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund earlier this month in the first round of funding for the fiscal year 2004/05. Only five applicants were turned down, an 85% acceptance rate.

Alice-Anne Morlock is a partner in the Toronto law firm McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw group. This article was prepared with the assistance of Kate Krestow, student-at-law.

We’ve been getting a lot of flack recently for a column I wrote last month questioning the sense of supporting seven production centers. I pointed out that nowhere in the world is there a country that supports seven film and TV production centers.

Where’s the love?

The Ontario production sector has several obstacles to overcome. At least, that is what results from the latest online poll of Playback readers would indicate. When asked ‘What is most responsible for Ontario’s production decline?’ 26.1% of participants believed it was no OMDC equity or development funding, followed by competition from other provinces (22.6%), inadequate studio infrastructure (20.9%), low labor tax credit (19.6%), and federally initiated regional incentives (10.9%).