Rogers Communications surprised its competitors in the telephone arena late last month when it called on the CRTC to ban the bundling of local phone connections with long-distance, cell and Internet services.

* Robert Depatie is the new president and CEO of Videotron. He has been with Videotron since December 2001 as senior VP, sales, marketing and customer service. Depatie was also responsible for Canal Vox.

H. Paul Gill, president of emerging Toronto-based production company Zodiac Media has passed away at age 28. Founder of the company, Gill was described by Zodiac’s Denise Lambert as ‘a wonderful man, very dedicated to the TV industry and an inspiration to work with.’

After five weeks on the picket line, the office staff at ACTRA Toronto went back to work this month when union reps and management at the actor’s union inked a new contract on July 4.

The National Film Board has announced the creation of an advisory council intended to assist the board in its repositioning within different public and private industry sectors, and as signalled in its 2002-’05 strategic plan.

In June 2002, ACTRA launched what it called its ‘campaign for Canadian programming,’ a broad-based effort to take a leadership role in reviving Canadian drama.

After a career at the CBC, Barry Kiefl established Canadian Media Research. His study of international trends in TV was recently published by the CRTC.

Jim Erickson has found a new home at Breakthrough Films and Television and last week went into preproduction on Exchanging Vows, a reality wedding series for Toronto 1. The 12 hours will shoot in Toronto until late October and begin airing on the upstart station in early September.
The biggest challenge, says the former Alliance Atlantis exec, is finding 24 couples willing to participate.

Montreal: Michel Cote and Jean Lapointe star in the Erik Canuel psychological suspense Le Dernier Tunnel (working title), which completed 30 days of principal photography (with two additional days for re-shoots) earlier this month. Cote plays real-life bank-heist mastermind (and ex-con and author) Marcel Talon. Cast also includes Chris Heyerdahl, Nicolas Canuel, Sebastien Huberdeau, Marie-France Marcotte and Celine Bonnier in the role of a probation officer.

Vancouver: Making the most of its time in the sun, popular and busy Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures is gearing up for another two projects that we haven’t already talked about in these pages.
Daisy Winters, a U.S.-based independent feature executive produced by John Wells (ER, Third Watch) and Peyton Reed (Down with Love), is an old-fashioned service job for Brightlight partner Shawn Williamson.

It must have seemed like fate to Paris-based director of photography Kevin Jewison that his director father Norman would be coming to France to shoot his 24th feature, The Statement, and would be requesting his services.

For Playback’s Report on Cinematography, we aimed two simple questions at three of Canada’s top directors of photography: what film has been the biggest influence on their work, and what is their favorite Canadian film from a visual point of view?