‘Get over here, man. You’ve got to see this.’
The Players Film Company president Philip Mellows motions a newcomer on the set to join him and a dozen or so others crowded around the monitor to watch the biggest shot of this particular shoot. The Players crew is about to detonate a tank holding 1,800 pounds of water, which will spill down through a one-quarter-scale subway tunnel model, simulating a major washout.
The monitor thing seems somewhat odd. After all, just yards away a humongous water tank is about to explode – full scale. But Mellows’ childlike excitement wins the day and all gather around the small screen.
The glass holding the water in the tank is being sacrificed today for Toronto agency Ammirati Puris and client Clarica. This is the second of two spots being shot over the course of four days, with Players director Gary McKendry at the helm. Creative for both spots has been provided by APL cocreative directors Stephen Jurisic (art director) and Angus Tucker (copywriter) and continues the Clarica theme, ‘There’s a lot to be said for clarity.’

Founded by longtime freelance commercial producer Goff Martin, Vancouver-based Quixote Films has been ramping up into full-force spot production since its launch last summer. In November, Martin brought Carmen Ruiz y Laza on board as producer and head of sales. Since then, the company has been hopping.
According to Ruiz y Laza, Quixote ‘has two parts to the company: one is the production arm, providing service work, and the other is representing directors.’ The producer goes on to explain that Martin’s established group of local and international clients has given the company a head start.

Jeff Finkler recently left a cushy job at Leo Burnett, Chicago, to return to Toronto where he has taken an executive VP, creative director post at Saatchi & Saatchi.
Finkler had spent nearly his entire career at Burnett, first in Toronto (where he’d risen to the post of executive VP, chief creative officer), then in Chicago (as vice chairman, executive creative director), before first reporting to Saatchi in early March. He says the decision to come back to Toronto was not a difficult one to make.

Whether the CRTC will soften, reform or maintain its policy on cable ownership is yet to be seen, but submissions on the subject have been flooding the commission’s gates since it put out a call in early December.
Several of the submissions are in favor of the status quo while many, including that of the CFTPA, suggest the CRTC should have a public hearing so the cable industry can demonstrate the public benefit of its suggested policy changes. However, the commission will decide how to proceed based on the amount of information acquired through the two-part submission process.

Montreal: Two of the most contentious issues raised at last week’s CRTC hearings into Quebecor’s acquisition of Groupe Videotron and subsidiary Groupe TVA were the real cost of Quebecor’s purchase of TVA and the associated benefits package, along with the ongoing delay in selling off the Television Quatre Saisons network.
The benefits package is tied directly to the acquisition price, a hot and complex issue the CRTC is obliged to sort out, while Quebecor has been ordered by the Competition Bureau to sell off TQS. The hearings were also called to examine the renewal of TVA’s broadcast licence.

Results in the Canadian Television Fund’s much-anticipated Licence Fee Program sweepstakes, announced mid-March, show that although more producers are dialing for dollars, more are also cashing in.
Despite increased demand in each of the three categories being considered in this first funding round in 2001, the LFP funded all drama applicants in both English and French funding envelopes, and all English variety/performing arts applicants. Because LFP monies for children’s programming are given out on two occasions during the year, with 70% allocated in the spring round and 30% in the fall, not all children’s applications were approved.

Established commercial directors are the subject of this regular feature. …

While the official date is still to be announced, the 2001 First Cut Awards, sponsored by Saatchi & Saatchi Canada and Playback/On the Spot, will this year take place in August, not in July, as in the past….

In a move to penetrate Telesat’s stronghold on the Canadian satellite industry and make a bid for the two remaining satellite positions, Richard Stursberg and NB Capital Partners are launching a new Canadian-owned and controlled satellite company.
Bird Satellite, led by Stursberg as president and CEO, has filed an application to Industry Canada seeking authority to launch and operate two communications satellites for the sake of bridging the ‘digital divide’ and providing Internet access to even the most remote locales in Canada.

Montreal: Telefilm Canada has released a new set of significantly more explicit international coproduction guidelines, which the agency formally introduced at MIP-TV (April 2-6)….

The remote control and urine – an advertiser’s two worst enemies. (Sorry if you were reading this over lunch!) There are other anti-ad distractions as well: the refrigerator, the kids, the dog, but the remote and pee are the main enemies….

Ricketts rooter: Here I am again wielding my giant, white plastic hose, cleaning your flooded basements, and wading ankle-deep through your backed-up sewage. But you Jack-Smacks know, I love this job like I love an empty bottle. …