Canadian actors have good reason for ‘guarded optimism’ about the TV industry, but should continue to put pressure on regulators and politicians for greater funding and industry controls, according to actor and activist Paul Gross, in a June 1 speech to the members of ACTRA Toronto.

Banff, AB: Five years from now the ‘perfect worker’ in showbiz will combine equal parts of business and creative skill, able to ‘dream the picture, shoot the picture and sell the picture,’ according to a new study led by Women in Film and Television – Toronto.

Banff, AB: The industry’s latest umbrella group finally got a name and a mission statement, following a meeting of some 20 union and association heads at the Banff Television Festival. The Canadian Film & Television Industry Council – formed by groups including IATSE, CFTPA, ACTRA and the APFTQ – on June 14 formally unveiled its mandate to ‘address, with a single voice, national issues that affect the Canadian film and television industry.’

OMDC did not ‘shelve’ report

Minister of Heritage Helene Scherrer flew 2,400 km from her Louis-Hebert riding outside Quebec City to address the Canadian TV industry June 14 at the Banff Television Festival. She did this in the midst of a hotly contested battle in her own riding, where her own reelection is in jeopardy.

Montreal: It’s quickly becoming Montreal’s premiere production house for Anglo thrillers. On May 25, JB Media started production on its tenth MOW, a $4-million feature called Over the Edge, starring Laura Leighton (Melrose Place, The Sky is Falling) and Canadians Al Goulem (Silent Night) and Frank Schorpion (Monica la mitraille).

The dream life of comics

With Ontario producers increasingly critical of their provincial government’s waning support for film and television, Manitoba producers continue to benefit from their government’s growing support.

Toronto: It took a lot of ‘begging, groveling and manipulating,’ but writer/director Ruba Nadda has assembled an impressive cast and crew for her third feature, Coldwater. The lighthearted romance, now shooting on location around Toronto, stars Ararat’s Arsinee Khanjian and David Alpay, both Shawn Doyle and Jeff Seymour of The Eleventh Hour, plus Kathryn Winslow of This Is Wonderland. Tracey Boulton (The Rhino Brothers) produces under execs Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta and Simone Urdl.

Eyes on The Prize

Nuts-and-bolts services such as processing, formatting, conversion and duplication might not seem the most glamorous aspects of post-production, but Canadian shops are finding them increasingly useful in terms of luring major Hollywood productions and landing more creative gigs. Plus they allow companies to better weather the storm of volatile production volumes, representing a large chunk of the bottom line.

‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ sums up CBC’s approach to the matter of standards conversion at its European operations.