10. Change CanWest’s tagline to ‘Nearly 4 Billion Serviced’

A Jan. 6 Playback article entitled ‘Licence renewal for CFCF-TV’ referencing CFCF’s expanded conditions of licence should have stated:

CFTPA’S Prime Time in Ottawa, Feb. 5-7, arrives as the Canadian production industry braces for another tough year, following a harsh 2002.

Production of one-hour Canadian dramas has declined 62% in three years, says Maureen Parker, executive director, Writers Guild of Canada.

The 2003/04 Licence Fee Program guidelines introduce an evaluation mechanism called ‘Broadcaster Priorities,’ essentially a list of priority programs given extra weight in the oversubscribed selection process. The bonus points associated with the new criteria replace those previously awarded for a program’s ‘Visibly Canadian’ elements.

Thirty years ago, Doug Dales was the new kid on the block. Today he owns several city blocks under the banner of PS Production Services. The equipment supplier boasts a four-acre head facility in Toronto along with offices in Halifax and Vancouver and Prairie centres in Regina and Winnipeg owned in partnership with regional GM Michael Drabot.

Director Atom Egoyan credits PS Production Services with offering him key support, particularly when the acclaimed director was in his early days of making feature films.

It may seem hard to believe, especially for fans of the current Degrassi: The Next Generation, but it was 24 years ago that the Degrassi franchise was born. In 1979, Toronto-based Epitome Pictures, with the support of PS Production Services, first started rolling on The Kids of Degrassi Street, a humorous and touching series about a group of children living in a racially and economically mixed downtown neighborhood.

1972: 22-year-old Doug Dales, who has just finished school and is producing commercials, hears of a Vancouver equipment rental company closing shop and looking to sell its gear. Having been involved in lighting for amateur theatre and fashion shows at his Toronto high school, and having studied film at York University and in England, Dales is determined to be in the film business. He begs and borrows from friends and family to buy the gear for $48,000 and sets up PS Production Services in Toronto.

regional

Regina-based Minds Eye Entertainment has been instrumental in creating and expanding the production industry in Western Canada. The company was founded in 1986 based on a commitment to developing series, docs and feature films out of the Prairie region – and now beyond.

Nazis, the all-purpose villains of moviedom, will be in Paris again this spring when Norman Jewison rolls cameras on The Statement for producer Robert Lantos and Serendipity Point Films.
The $27-million project – backed by Serendipty’s performance envelope from Telefilm Canada, private investment and ‘significant’ funds from Astral Media and Corus Entertaiment – has Michael Caine as a former Nazi collaborator ducking an investigation into his past.