CTRC chairman Charles Dalfen is calling for renewed efforts on the part of industry and government in the fight against illegal signal theft.

* Jeff Campbell has joined as a partner of Spin’s design and VFX team after six years as a senior inferno artist/VFX supervisor at Toybox. Campbell’s movie credits include The Cell, Fight Club and X-Men, and he has been recognized internationally for his work on spots for clients Visa, Nike, Coke, Ford and Coors.

Viastar gets 17.5% stake in Yaletown

Gudrun Heinze is senior VFX artist and Marc Anthony P. Barrette is IT director and senior systems administrator at Calibre Digital Pictures, a Toronto-based animation/FX house for film and TV production

Sandra Richmond is a partner in the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw Group. This article was prepared with the

If you tuned in to the 75th Annual Academy Awards, you witnessed unprecedented success for the Canadian film biz, including key involvement in the night’s biggest champ.

CBC will not necessarily spend the $60 million it received from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage equally across its radio, TV and new media outlets, as reported in our March 17 issue. The network has not yet determined how it will allot the funds.

The majority of Playback readers think the feds should reconsider cuts to the CTF.

If science fiction movies have taught us anything it is that, after a brief period of peaceful servitude, all computers inevitably wise up, rise up and overthrow their masters. HAL. Skynet and the Terminators. The Matrix. Every damn one of them.You just can’t trust these things.

In an era when the appeal of a video game is measured in terms of its realism, and movies such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within use an entirely CG cast, Toronto’s Virtually Human has developed a unique approach to replicating human movement in animated characters.

Organizers hope that as many as 1,000 animators, broadcasters and other creative types will turn out for the second annual FlashintheCan festival, a three-day conference and celebration of Macromedia Flash, at Toronto’s Guvernment and Kool Haus Entertainment Complex April 14-16.

Last year’s National Association of Broadcasters conference and exhibition was a tough one for organizers. The industry was in an economic and morale hangover from Sept. 11, and attendance numbers fell by 10%. This year, consensus among the Canadian broadcasting, cable, satellite, production, post, equipment and new media communities has been one of renewed interest in returning to what is touted as ‘the world’s largest electronic media show.’