Montreal: Sandy Mackay-Smith says the budget threshold for transitional TV coproduction using a U.K. tax component is very high at $1.2 million per hour and should basically help only MOWs.

In June 2000, when Tattersall Sound was acquired by Alliance Atlantis Communications and merged with Casablanca Sound and Picture, it was characterized as a good move, allowing the smaller Tattersall access to significantly greater resources to build its post-production operations.
It also gave AAC a seasoned management team to run its post facilities led by Jane Tattersall as president and CEO of the new Tattersall Casablanca.
But earlier this month, the Toronto-based post house found itself the key component in a deal as AAC sold the option to purchase its entire post operations to Hollywood-based Point.360 (formerly VDI MultiMedia).
Also included in the deal – worth a reported US$14-million should Point.360 exercise its option – were Halifax-based Salter Street Digital and Toronto animation house Calibre Digital Pictures.

Vancouver: Any notions that the government-owned The Bridge Studios will provide ongoing revenues to British Columbia’s underfunded domestic producers is moot now that the profitable facility is on the block.
The B.C. government has issued a request for proposals, due Aug. 21, to transfer the 15-year-old Bridge Studios to the private sector.
Among the likely suitors are Vancouver Film Studios, Lions Gate Film Studios, MGM (which is Bridge Studios’ biggest customer), real estate developers, equipment suppliers such as William F. White and perhaps a consortium of B.C.’s film-sector unions. While the government wants Bridge Studios to support the film industry, the bid process is open to proposals from outside the industry.

Gibsons Landing, BC: There are ghosts at Molly’s Reach. The famed backdrop for the 19-year run of CBC series The Beachcombers is steeped in memory: the time Bruno Gerussi did this, the time that Robert Clothier did that.
Even as the 70-odd cast and crew film the opening sequences of the MOW The New Beachcombers – commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the CBC and on the 30th anniversary of the first episode of the log-salvaging family series – the revered late actors who played Nick and Relic are in the restaurant in spirit.

Montreal: Broadcasters have filed angry letters of protest with the CRTC against Videotron, claiming the cable operator has contravened section 9 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations by ‘arbitrarily and unilaterally’ reducing affiliation payments by as much as 50% and more.
Written complaints filed with the commission against Montreal-based Videotron, a Quebecor Media company, have been sent by CTV Specialty Television on behalf of affiliates The Sports Network and Discovery Canada; CTV Specialty and affiliate Reseau des Sports; Astral Television Networks on behalf of pay-TV service Super Ecran; and CHUM Television on behalf of Star!, MuchMoreMusic and Learning and Skills Television of Alberta, the former Canadian Learning Television.

Montreal: Broadcaster-affiliated production companies may immediately access the English-language selective component of the Canada Feature Film Fund. The new measure, announced July 10 by Telefilm Canada executive director Richard Stursberg, is being introduced on a pilot basis for the period 2002 to 2004.

This year the Academy Award stage was swamped by award recipients thanking their mothers and peers with non-American accents. Of the five films nominated for best picture, three were made outside of the U.S. For the past few years, American filmmakers have been bad-mouthing Canada for what they see as taking the bread out of crews’ and casts’ mouths as the U.S. film industry finds it cheaper and financially beneficial to shoot in Canada. Now the Hollywood studios are finding new incentives to shoot off the North American continent all together. Many countries offer excellent financial benefits and European governments have cultural departments that offer generous tax breaks. This, combined with digital technology, means a film can be shot and post-produced almost anywhere in the world.

Industry aids Copps’ campaign

Asked should the CTF’s ‘Visibly Canadian’ criteria be scrapped for next year, 77.55% of poll respondents voted yes, 22.45% voted no.

Contrary to information in the July 8 B.C. Scene, Jeff Bear and Marianne Jones are producing the second season of Ravens and Eagles, an aboriginal arts documentary, not Big Red Barn Media Group.

* CTV has named Jordan Schwartz its new VP of daytime programming. Schwartz, formerly executive producer of Canada AM, will oversee CTV’s daytime slate and report to Susanne Boyce, CTV’s president of programming and chair of the CTV Media Group. Schwartz’s executive producer credits include The Dini Petty Show, The Camilla Scott Show and House & Home, and previous employers include NBC News, ABC Daytime and CNN.

BBR Productions development VP Rebecca Yates died the morning of July 16 surrounded by family members after being diagnosed with an especially virulent form of cancer only weeks ago.