In long-form production producers have begun acknowledging the power of branded content. On the advertising side, there is a greater acceptance of the notion of using a client’s investment to produce an entire program or series.

Andrew Tolomizenko is corporate counsel for a large production company and provides legal services to outside clients in the television commercial and film industries.

In the Jan. 20 Top Spots report, the live-action segments of #6 spot Toyota ‘Matrix’ were produced by Industry Films. Also, the live-action director’s name is Sean Thonson, not Thomson.

The following companies were inadvertently omitted from our Jan. 20 listing of Canadian commercial production and animation houses.

A website directory of Canadian film and TV talent in Los Angeles is attracting wide interest from players in both Hollywood and Canada. The website (www.canadiantalentla.com) is winning kudos as a valuable resource for U.S. producers looking to film on location in Canada and for Canadian producers seeking to add qualified talent, and some stateside recognition, to new productions.

In the precious few hours of TV downtime after a hectic day at work, it’s often the music or sound design in a commercial that makes the viewer stop glancing through a magazine and look up towards the screen. So why, when advertisers are competing for the fleeting attention spans of audiences armed with remotes, PVRs and hundreds of channel choices, is audio an afterthought in spot production?

What if editors had access to original, unheard tracks? What if it was easier for producers, creatives and directors to think about audio at the beginning of the production process? What if composers did not have to start from scratch with only days to complete a project? And what if you could find an audience for existing tracks rather than writing music to fit the visuals?

Montreal: The International Festival of Films on Art is hotter than ever, almost doubling this year’s run from six days to 10. FIFA’s upsizing is the result of popular demand by the art-loving public and the industry, says festival founder and director Rene Rozon.

Daniel LeBlanc is a writer/producer at Toronto sound house Goldfish Music

Revenues are up at Canada’s specialty, pay and pay-per-view channels according to new data released by the CRTC which, between 1998 and 2002, show a 17.5% average annual growth at specialties, totaling $1.4 billion last year, and a 27.7% gain at pay broadcasters, for a total of $333 million.

Every spring and fall, the Licence Fee Program allots a certain number of ‘priorities’ to each corporate broadcaster group – everyone from Alliance Atlantis and CTV down to Crossroads and Quebecor, so long as they licensed some kind of LFP-backed programming in the past three years.

The $50-million reduction in government contribution to the Canadian Television Fund is a major setback for the production broadcast industry. Conversely, the 45% increase in the PSTC is good news. The industry had in fact been lobbying for both – multi-year renewal for CTF at the former $100-million level as well as for a more competitive service incentive package. The point is, recriminations based on sectorial interests aren’t going to be helpful going forward.