A Mac G4, Pro Tools software and a 24-channel Mackie mixing console may be enough to open the doors of a sound design and audio post-production facility these days. But to successfully establish oneself in the film and TV industries, the demands for innovative manipulation of technologies, flexibility and diversification have never been greater.

Daniel Pellerin is the Genie and Gemini Award-winning director of mixing services at Deluxe Post Production Sound in Toronto. In this article he discusses how two Toronto audio shops have succeeded through cautious strategies and the combination of film and digital techniques.

If Canada’s visual effects community picks up any more gigabytes of U.S. work, the Film and Television Action Committee in Los Angeles may have to open a new front in its ‘Blame Canada’ runaway production trade war. Increasingly, larger-budgeted U.S. productions are coming north to use post-production services in Canada – and not just for shows shot north of the 49th parallel.

Montreal: Ideacom International producers Jacques Nadeau and Josette Normandeau have worked hard at developing a profile in English Canada and internationally.
The house is delivering the feature doc Coming Out, shot in both English and French original versions as a kind of lead-in to the new 13 half-hour Life Network/Canal Vie series Out in the City/Out a Montreal, ‘a TV verite docusoap on gay life in the big city,’ says Normandeau. Ambitious diginet PrideVision has a second window.
Funders on the $1.5-million series include Telefilm Canada and the Licence Fee Program. The feature doc has major support from the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund.

While production in the Prairie provinces has been buzzing over the last couple of years, especially in the service sector with Toronto and Vancouver overflowing with U.S. productions, the region has shown definite signs of slowdown this year. As a result, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are each trying to improve upon existing infrastructure and initiatives in an attempt to stimulate a turnaround.

Vancouver: Any gains B.C. producers made in production volumes in the past few years may be wiped out when the domestic industry’s annual statistics are finally released.

When the North American economy began to slow early last year, commercial production was one of the first sectors to feel the drag. That trend appears to be holding as economic indicators out of the U.S. point to recovery and, true to form, production work appears to be picking up as well.
Commercial producers have been seeing a lift in both board flow and true production out of domestic and U.S. agencies since late January, and many report more shooting days through February than over the same period last year.

Canada and New Zealand have a lot in common. Both live in the shadow of a more powerful neighbor and both have low dollars that are routinely taken advantage of by other countries looking to get more mileage out of their own currencies, especially in the production sectors.
But even Canada’s low dollar translates favorably to New Zealand currency (the Kiwi dollar is worth approximately $0.68 on the loonie), which explains why Canadian production houses like Imported Artists (shooting Royal Bank) and untitled (shooting Canadian Tire) have both recently turned to New Zealand, and why others like The Players Film Company are anxiously waiting for the right job to make the trip.

Vancouver: Whether they are spurred by the expansion of the domestic broadcasting system, the changing appetites of television audiences or a thaw in the international television economy, Canadian programmers and distributors will be in a mood to spend at MIPTV in Cannes April 15-19.
Toronto distributor Canamedia Productions, for one, is trying to double the size of its catalogue to 100 titles in the lifestyle, adventure travel, documentary and youth genres in order to increase its presence in the market prior to its 25th anniversary.

Television movies drove a 13% increase in the value of English drama funding in the first round of successful applicants at the 2002 Canadian Television Fund, announced in March.
The Licence Fee Program will invest in 23 MOWs in 2002, up from 16 last year, and the value of that production will almost double to $16.3 million – growth attributed to a special MOW incentive this year that boosted the base contribution from 13% to 17%.
As a result, 70% of this year’s MOWs were able to reach the $750,000 cap, compared to last year when only 25% reached the maximum threshold.

Montreal: The Canadian Association of Broadcasters says government should open up the system so the private sector has maximum flexibility in its crusade to make Canadian programming profitable.
In a four-and-a-half-hour March 21 presentation to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, CAB proposed the departments of Finance and Heritage, along with private-sector broadcasters and producers, undertake a review of the entire Canadian programming finance-support mechanism.

Rosnick MacKinnon gets new name, new digs