In order to glitz up the 2001 Bessie Awards, Toronto’s Spin Productions has undertaken a project that will see the shop working feverishly to create a show-stopping show opening. This is no easy task, especially when working gratis for the Television…

Vancouver: Local director Michael Bafaro and production manager Chris Rudolf have returned to Revelstoke, B.C., to film The Barber.
It’s the first full feature shot in their mountainous hometown. (Big studio feature Double Jeopardy, with Ashley Judd, shot one day in Revelstoke back in 1999.)
Produced as the fifth feature by Vancouver’s Prophecy Entertainment, The Barber stars Malcolm McDowell as an Alaska town coiffeur who moonlights as a veteran serial killer. As an ‘offbeat’ psychological thriller, the story gets into his mind and his ability to lead a double life.

Feature film Max and the Lioness will move production to the Mick Phillips St. Station Casino in Winnipeg June 4-6, the first production ever to do so. A coprod between Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures, Montreal’s Les Film de l’Isle and Moncton’s Transmar Films, the $3.2-million ‘twisted psycho thriller’ follows a couple on the road in a story of complicated relationships that culminates in murder.
The casino scene ‘involves huge stages and thousands of people. It’s an integral scene, a huge part of the film,’ says Shawn Watson, producer for Buffalo Gal. ‘In the film, it’s somewhere near Yellowknife on an aboriginal reserve and no such casino exists. It’s an important part of the film; we meet a central character in the movie in that scene and slowly unfold the drama about to take place in the casino.’

Robin Heisey knows the winners, but good luck getting them out of him.
As the judging chair for this year’s Bessies, Heisey, executive VP and creative director at Harrod & Mirlin FCB, Toronto, is tight-lipped as to which spots have been selected as the best this country had to offer last year.
Regarded as emotionally draining by some and the catalyst for more therapy by others, Heisey sees the chairing job as more fun than any one person has a right to.

Montreal: Bernard Emond’s first feature film La Femme qui boit, a moving portrait of a proud alcoholic woman’s dying recollections, and the France/Canada coproduction Le Pornographe have been retained for official selection in the International Critics’ Week sidebar of this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, May 9-20.
Canadian actor Pascale Bussieres (Un 32 aout sur terre) returns to the festival this year starring alongside Emmanuelle Beart in Catherine Corsini’s La Repetition. A psychological drama about two women who attempt to rebuild a friendship ended 15 years earlier, the film is one of 23 selected for official competition and is a majority France/Canada coproduction from producers Denise Robert and Daniel Louis of Montreal’s Cinemaginaire.

While some broadcasters and production companies have leapt headfirst into the convergence fray, Rhombus Media has until now adopted a more staid approach. But the Toronto-based producer best known for its performing arts programming is now taking iTV baby steps in collaboration with local interactive content provider marblemedia.
Rhombus and marblemedia are working together on Toothpaste, a five-minute operatic short starring Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney and vocalist Barbara Hannigan that will have a life on both TV and the Internet. It may seem a strange type of content for interactivity, but it’s not entirely surprising given Rhombus’s esoteric track record. The majority of funding for the TV end comes from Bravo!FACT, which provides grants for the production of Canadian shorts covering the arts. The plan is for Bravo! to air the short in the fall.

Toronto-based Big Studios has received its second Emmy Award. The Toronto 2D and 3D studio won in the category of outstanding graphic design for its work on ABC’s Super Bowl XXXIV broadcast Jan. 28. The National Sports Emmy Awards were presented…

The Television Bureau of Canada’s annual Bessie Awards ceremony is on track for another celebration of Canadian advertising. Despite the recent assertions by Quebec’s premier that the province is ‘a nation state,’ there is no question Quebec is still a vibrant and creative part of the country and one that is producing exciting advertising.
But why is there only minimal interest generated by the Bessies in the province of Quebec? And why is one of Canada’s foremost commercial production centres invisible at what is billed as a national award ceremony?

A lot can happen in one year when you’re an in-demand spot director, and sometimes award show memories can get hazy. At least this is the case with John Mastromonaco out of Toronto’s Untitled. …

Demand for docs is high, but so is the pressure to market them in exactly the right money-spinning way. And guess what? ‘Reality’ is SO documentary, at least that’s what some say.
Stephen Ellis, president of Ellis Entertainment in Toronto, sees a trend brought about by a strong marketplace.
‘We’ve certainly had a growth of the majority of U.S. powerhouses: Discovery, A&E, Biography…all with grouped channels, and that is having a profound effect on the market,’ says Ellis.
‘You’ve got to produce something very focused for History or Biography or TLC, and it may be so specific that it’s a tougher sell to a terrestrial. The terrestrial guys are still working to a large audience, they are not as tuned to a narrow demographic as the specialties, which are geared to almost a psychographic.

A happy couple strolls in the country on a summer afternoon; it is an idyllic scene, until suddenly, disaster strikes. A rake.
In the completely deadpan mockumentary Rakes, the gardening implement is a silent killer that lurks among us. And rakes can strike anywhere, anytime. Footage shows rakes striking the unaware in yards, offices and even the bathroom.
David Manning, who works as an editor for comedy programs, is the brains (director, producer and editor) behind Rakes. He describes his mock doc as ‘very similar to a documentary about landmines except rakes are…quieter. It’s a parody of any Hard Copy-style, one-sided story about some horrible thing in the world that’s a danger to everyone.’

According to Neil McOstrich, to understand the success of Palmer Jarvis DDB’s recent Pine-Sol campaign (a possible contender at this year’s Bessies and winner of Campaign Gold at the 2001 Marketing Awards), one should look to diving or ski jumping -…