Asked what the biggest industry story of 2001 was, 35.86% of Playback respondents answered Sept. 11. The runners up were:

He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.

The Players Film Company is launching a high-end commercial production satellite called Pure Film, headed up by Players’ Phil Mellows and partner/executive producer Brian Atkinson, that will bid against and compete with Players in the Canadian market.
Players will vacate its funky Mowat Avenue home in Toronto after five years to make way for its fledgling satellite, which takes over the space in mid-December when Players moves into new digs on nearby Pardee Street.

Following are addenda to our Oct. 29 listings of Canadian commercial production companies and commercial animation houses.

Last issue, the Young & Rubicam Toronto creative team of Marc Melanson and Ian Kiar was behind the creative on Ford’s ‘Umbrella’ spot, number three in this year’s OTS Top Spots competition.

Manta Sound, which has recorded with musicians from Neil Young to Oscar Peterson and has created audio for a who’s who of Canadian advertisers, has received a temporary reprieve from the wrecking ball – just in time to celebrate its 30th birthday.
Manta – the recording arm of Manta Digital Sound & Picture, which is owned by Command Post and Transfer – was set to vacate its Adelaide Street East location in Toronto and take up residence in MDSP’s studio a few blocks away.

Ex-Torontonian Nadine Gray has returned to her native Montreal and joined Kissfilms as executive producer.

* Andrew Johnson has been appointed the new commissioning editor of CBC Newsworld’s documentary series Rough Cuts. Johnson worked in independent doc production for 10 years before joining the CBC in 1994 to develop the Gemini Award-winning program FutureWorld, hosted by Evan Solomon.

After 10 years with Toronto post house Third Floor Editing, executive producer Jane Broadfoot has left the company to pursue life as a freelance post producer.

shots & Chasers tracks who shot what during the previous month. Production companies are invited to fax information for this column as frequently as possible to Dustin Dinoff at (416) 408-0870. The next deadline for submissions is Wednesday, Dec. 12.

Over his many decades in the business, Larry Wolf has seen his fair share of commercial productions. So when the chairman of Toronto-based Wolf Group says he’s never seen anything like the effort and quick turnaround to complete a ‘Canada Loves New York’ spot, you can take his word on it.

For the past several years YTV has been leveraging its expertise in the youth market to produce well-targeted commercial spots for its advertising partners.
Now the specialty channel is making it official. Corus Entertainment-owned YTV has christened its commercial production division Pester Productions and has announced that it will soon begin to cultivate its own roster of directors.
Tim Cormick, director of co-marketing, Corus Entertainment, television, says developing a separate commercial division is the logical evolution for YTV, which produces programming, Web-based products and has a well-respected research arm.
‘We’ve always got our antenna up for what’s working for kids. That would be our main point of difference,’ he says.