On a recent trip to Los Angles, Rob Guenette, the newly appointed president and chief executive officer of Toronto-based Wolf Group, was struck by the vibrancy and range of advertising in every corner of the city. It got him thinking about the supposed death of traditional media, which at the centre of the media universe appeared to be alive and well.
‘I thought, wait a minute, why is everybody predicting the death of 30-second TV? Other than the hype and a lot of talk – rhetoric in come cases – I don’t see where 30-second TV is dying.’
Indeed, while the advent of new technologies, particularly the personal video recorder, has spurred some to declare traditional commercial spots all but dead, there is growing and strong opinion that, in fact, the opposite will occur: that the PVR could turn out to be a boon to commercial production.
Central to this logic is the notion that PVRs such as one offered by Bell ExpressVu in Canada will attract significantly greater numbers of viewers to television as a whole.

Although 2001 was largely unspectacular in the commercial production industry, with cutbacks to advertising budgets and general slowness, it certainly appeared to be a plum time for spot shops to do a little recruiting abroad.

James Weyman is acting director of Skills Development and Marketing Initiatives at the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

With little in the way of industry news unfolding over the holidays while our broadcasting execs, producers et al were vacationing south of the border, despite the poor exchange rate, I’m still thinking about the anti-runaway production issue that inspired at least one U.S. campaigner to make a public parallel between Canada and Osama Bin Laden. The anti-Canada campaign, fully equipped with party-line rhetoric and statistics, couldn’t seem more inappropriately timed, but then propaganda seems to serve its perpetrators best in moments of strife.

New Category 2 apps

Daniel Villeneuve is the HD cinematographer on Galidor, not Daniel Vincelette as stated in the Nov. 26 p. 1 story ‘Production software opens vistas on Galidor.’

The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place.

Montreal: Three Montreal studio groups have announced major expansion plans.
Construction is underway on Mel’s Cite du Cinema III, a four-studio facility adjacent to the south-central Mel’s Cite du Cinema and Technoparc facilities.
The expansion, an $11-million private investment by partners Mel Hoppenheim and Michel Trudel, will bring the total number of Cite du Cinema soundstages to 13, the largest being Studio H at 37,000 square feet. Cite du Cinema III will house four fully soundproofed soundstages, two at 15,000 square feet and two at 10,000 square feet, the fourth with 50-foot clearance, as well as production offices and areas for makeup and wardrobe. The new facility will also house a 24,000-square-foot lighting department operated by film equipment rental company Location Michel Trudel.

Sales agency hopes to mine U.S. productions

Circle Productions

* Louise Clements has been appointed VP, market development for Bell Globemedia. She was previously VP of sales and e-commerce for Sympatico-Lycos.

Toronto’s Industry Films has signed the roster from L.A.’s Rock Fight to an exclusive Canadian representation agreement, taking on spot directors Pep Bosch and Craig Champion and music video directing teams James and Alex and Blue Source (Rob Leggatt and Leigh Marling).