Toronto 3D animation and f/x house TOPIX/Mad Dog and visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi have launched Mr. X, a cg studio focusing on long-form projects. The new division brings together t/md, a well-established shop specializing in spots, and Berardi, who supervised, produced or managed the f/x work on such films as The Cell, Fight Club and eXistenZ at Toronto post house toybox.

Toronto-headquartered Bulloch Entertainment Services, a member of The Comweb Group, has introduced proXee (Production Office Express), a new payroll software product that increases efficiency in production management on the set of film and tv productions.
Bulloch, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, provides financial services to the entertainment industry, focusing on payroll.

Montreal-based cinematographer Francois Dagenais says he got the gig on the feature Between the Moon and Montevideo for his knowledge both of Spanish and the Super 16 format. These proved a boon on the Cuban set of btmam, writer/director Attila Bertalan?s follow-up to 1992?s A Bullet in the Head, Canada?s Academy Award entry that year for best foreign-language film.
Dagenais shot BTMAM in Super 16 for blowup to 35mm, and offers some advice on the process.
?The most important thing is to do tests beforehand, [keeping in mind] where you?re going to do your blowup and with which kind of film stock,? he says. ?Also, try to test in the situation you?re going to experience during the movie.?
Dagenais was impressed with the image sharpness maintained even after the transfer. (The movie was originated on Kodak Vision 500T 7279 stock.) Part of this can be attributed to his approach to the printing process.

Still riding high after receiving the Genie for best documentary for the Ontario-banned doc Grass, Ron Mann and his production engine Sphinx Productions are busier than ever with at least five flavorful projects in development.
‘I’m committed to making documentaries about alternative culture,’ said Mann a week after accepting the ironic Genie nod and being spotlighted by Cinematheque Quebecoise in Montreal. ‘We’re still a small company that’s deciding which way to go, but at this point it’s about making films for the love of making films. A lot of doc makers disappear after one or two movies, but for me it’s not a ticket to making long-form dramas, the form still excites me.’

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia stargazers get an eyeful this spring when Miramax brings The Shipping News to the East Coast.
Adapted from E. Annie Proulx’s award-winning novel of the same name, The Shipping News will shoot on location in the Trinity Bay area of Newfoundland and take advantage of studio space in Dartmouth, ns.

Mark Lobsinger is a lawyer at the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch and a member of the firm’s Tax Group.

No discussion of film financing in Canada today would be complete without discussing the role that Canadian tax shelters play.
There are at least three Canadian organizations that offer these shelters: Cinegate Production Management Services, Grosvenor Park Film Financing Corporation and Sentinel Hill Alliance Atlantis Equicap lp.
While these structures are designed to provide an attractive tax shelter product to private individuals, as a by-product they also provide a financial benefit to studios or production companies that are willing to supply the films and television productions that are needed to make these shelters work.

Montreal: Box-office expectations are high for the teen vampire comedy Karmina II: L’Enfer de Chabot. The new Gabriel Pelletier (La Vie Apres l’Amour) film, simply called K2, is in post and editing after a heavy 36-day shoot. Yves Pelletier wrote the screenplay and Nicole Robert of Go Films produced on a $4.1-million budget. The movie’s exec producers are Guy Gagnon and Patrick Roy of distrib Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm. A major Quebec-wide release is set for Friday, July 13.

Vancouver: No problem qualifying for Canadian content for the new feature The Rhino Brothers: it’s about hockey and how it disrupts a family.
The $850,000 full-length feature is using the new Sony HD24P cameras. It’s an initiative that has the support of Rainmaker Digital Pictures (which will do all the post-production at ‘aggressively priced’ rates) and camera supplier William F. White, which provided the hd cameras for a fraction of the regular rate.

When Jennie Montford left The Players Film Company she began what she calls her ‘travels to find new employment.’ In those travels, around last August, the veteran producer had a ‘lovely two-hour meeting with [Partners’ head] Don McLean.’…

A new Vancouver spot shop, Arc ii, has joined the handful of West Coast commercial producers. …

The focus of this regular section is on agencies in Canada. Looking for agency business strategies and creative teams’ secret weapons? We tell all in Ad Missions….

Las Vegas, NV: Amidst the tumult of flashing neon lights, oxygen-pumped betting pits and garishly-garnished hotels that is Las Vegas, a record 19,834 natpe attendees logged many hours in taxi queues to get to and from the convention centre where some…