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.

Home video is currently such a crucial part of a feature film’s revenue stream that distributors have to ensure the best-quality DVD formatting. In the case of Mambo Italiano, the most successful English-Canadian film at the domestic box office since Porky’s, distrib Equinoxe Films entrusted this task to the Montreal facility of post giant Technicolor

There was a time when video duplication houses such as Toronto’s MIJO Corporation and Vancouver’s Finale Editworks had the DVD replication business all to themselves. No longer – the availability of inexpensive DVD burners and consumer-grade software such as Roxio Easy Media Creator (US$79.95) or even Apple DVD Studio Pro (US$499) has made it possible for nearly anyone with a computer to produce their own DVDs.

After overcoming serious financial threats during prep, mystery thriller The River King, a $16-million feature starring Edward Burns (Confidence) and Jennifer Ehle (Sunshine), wrapped eight weeks of principal photography in Halifax May 4, but the U.K./Canada copro still isn’t in the clear. Turns out it isn’t quite British enough.

Last spring, when actresses Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh and Olympia Dukakis arrived on location in South Africa to shoot Thom Fitzgerald’s latest feature 3 Needles, their star power didn’t carry much weight in the remote Xhosa village, where most of the locals had never even seen a television, let alone been to a movie theater.

Production on Fade Out, a feature film written and directed by Michael Christofer (Gia) and starring Billy Bob Thornton, slated to start shooting in Halifax June 28, has been halted after leading lady Kate Beckinsale dropped out.

On June 7 at Toronto’s Varsity cinemas, the Canadian Film Centre held its annual screening of the five shorts from its Universal Studios Short Dramatic Film Programme, produced by its most recent crop of student residents. Playback spoke with the directors of photography who lensed the five shorts.

The Ontario Media Development Corporation is keeping the lid on a damning report that portrays Ontario’s production infrastructure as cracking and that is highly critical of both the Ontario government and its agency’s handling of the problem.

A new study confirms that licence fees paid by English-Canadian broadcasters are among the lowest in the world.
Through the Looking Glass, an independent study authored by research consultant Kirwan Cox, compares Canadian broadcast licence fees to those in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. – previously unavailable statistical information.

Ah, the Banff Television Festival. Another glorious week in the mountains with the best and brightest of the little screen. Um, right?

Robert Montgomery takes over the Banff Television Festival from former CEO Pat Ferns, in the wake of the event’s recent bankruptcy crisis. Eight of Banff’s 30 full-time employees lost their jobs in the handover to Achilles Partners, but Montgomery says relations in-house have improved.