When Brian Barlow started working as a session musician playing drums and percussion on commercials in the 1970s, the average life of a spot, by his estimation, was six, 13-week cycles.

In the fall of 1999, media baron/mogul Grayson Matthews, with his remarkable ability to nurture young talent, teamed composers/producers Tom Westin and Dave Sorbara with exec producer Elizabeth Taylor. Soon thereafter, Matthews brought composer/producer Jason Gleed into the mix, forging what is now the core of Toronto-based Grayson Matthews Audio Design, a rare breed in Matthews’ portfolio of thriving companies.

On July 26, following an eight-week labor dispute during which Radio-Canada locked out an estimated 1,400 employees, Michele Fortin, head of French-language television at CBC, announced her resignation.

* Chris Zimmer, former president of imX communications, has been promoted to the position of chairman of the board and CEO, but will continue to produce and direct.

Mix fast food, unions and Gil Bellows and you get Burger High, CTV’s next installment in its Signature Series, now shooting in Toronto. The dramatic two-hour MOW, coproduced by Accent Entertainment and CCI Entertainment, tells the fictional story of a teen girl trying to form a union at a local burger joint.
Bellows (Ally McBeal) stars as a conniving manager alongside local talent Alison Pill (The Pilot’s Wife, Life with Judy Garland). Kevin Tighe (Emergency, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?) also appears along with teen talents Sarah Gadon (La Femme Nikita) and John White (The Adventures of Shirley Holmes).
Vancouver native and festival darling Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn, The Real World) is behind the camera, working with executive producers Susan Cavan (Twitch City) and Nancy Chapelle (Virtual Mom) and producer Paul Brown (I Was a Rat).

On The Spot asked its readers and members of the commercial production industry to identify the top editors working in the business today. After tallying the results of an e-mail poll, plus considerable consultation and a lengthy debate among OTS staffers at the bar at the Four Seasons Hotel, Andy Attalai, Mick Griffin, David Hicks and David Baxter were identified as the top four editors in commercial production. OTS reporter Laura Bracken spoke to the four to find out what it takes to become the best of the best editors.

Vancouver: Two productions on Vancouver Island are focusing on local talent to get the jobs done.
Croon, the CHUM Television-backed MOW for The New VI in Victoria, wraps five weeks of production Aug. 16. Directed by Hilary Jones-Farrow and produced by Sarah King (The May Street Group), Croon is a romantic comedy about an older couple who meet and fall in love when they take over a house-cleaning business.
The $1.8-million production is being shot on HDTV by James Tocher of Vancouver-based Digital Film Group and a local crew on location in Victoria.

The film and TV productions of Canada’s largest entertainment companies entail volumes of paperwork, and over the years it is easy for vital information to get lost in the shuffle. Being able to access business records instantly in the digital medium is crucial for these organizations to streamline their administrative processes and maximize asset exploitation. It is these advantages that Jaguar Consulting has brought to the likes of Alliance Atlantis Communications, Lions Gate Films, Cinar and Nelvana.

When people consider the impact digital technology has made on the TV industry, what might first come to mind is the increasing popularity of digital origination, or perhaps how DVDs are taking up ever more shelf space at the corner video store. But it is also proving a boon to networks that install all-digital broadcast systems such as those from Montreal-based MaestroVision.

When the greatest asset of a film or TV craftsperson is his or her credits, the digital domain provides a big advantage. The speed and ease with which video, audio and text can be manipulated and hard copies can be authored allows for the efficient assembly of a reel that can be distributed on a compact DVD. Reelsuite has recognized this and launched a service that helps craftspeople of every stripe to promote their skills to the rest of the industry.

Montreal: ‘Financing productions is [currently] very difficult, and in most cases you have to have a partner who can bring some money to the table. Presales are next to impossible. So everybody is looking for what we call at the bank [Comerica Entertainment Group] ‘tax-related money,” says Laura Polley, president of Toronto-based Independent Film Financing.

Montreal: Canadian television producers use the CRTC coventure formula to do deals with U.S. production partners and broadcasters, otherwise they quickly find themselves offside on a content basis, says International Film Financing president Laura Polley.