Post-production and its powers are personified in this column. We’ll cover new techniques, technologies and the creative personnel and companies giving them vibrant visual life….

In our Jan. 22 issue, Playback began reviewing new Canadian programming launched mid-season on some major Canadian nets. So far, we’ve looked at ‘the second season’ highlights on ytv and ctv….

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 Dave Lazar or Dustin Dinoff at …

Canadian directors of photography Rene Ohashi and Robert McLachlan have been nominated for American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards. The compatriot Canucks will be up against one another at the 15th annual tv competition in the category of movie-of-the-week/miniseries/pilot for…

In business since 1978, Vancouver’s Thomas fx does physical effects for ‘everything from television commercials to feature films, worldwide.’ The brainchild of Betty Thomas and the late, great John Thomas, the company is now in the hands of Betty and Stewart…

Montreal physical effects wizards Karl and Erik Gosselin have a background that could be the subject of a movie-of-the-week – heavy on the sfx, of course. The two are identical twins who got their start in physical effects with a series…

Corpses, authentic crime-scene photographs and a six-foot tongue. Yup – just another day at the office for Grand Unified Theories’ founder Scott Hamilton. Hamilton, who makes his living by creating eye-catching props and special makeup designs for advertising, television, and film,…

Las Vegas, NV: To round off the ascending prominence of Canadians at natpe, the 5th annual Pitch Me! Competition, moderated by Survivor host Jeff Probst, saw Snap Media’s Dave King beat out close to 150 pitchers with Status No, a 13-part…

Tucked away near Toronto’s infamous Cherry Beach lies Performance Solutions, a physical effects house, prototyping shop and manufacturer of special effects equipment. With so much diverse activity at the company, creating physical effects for spot clients can keep things interesting for…

The Toronto Documentary Forum, a program inaugurated at last year’s Hot Docs festival has proved successful with more than 50% of the projects pitched having raised additional financing in the past eight months….

Maya 3, the flagship 3D animation and f/x software from Toronto-headquartered Alias|Wavefront, will soon be available on the Mac os x platform. a|w demonstrated this new capability at the Macworld show last month in San Francisco, with plans to ship in…

Toon Boom Technologies announced back in spring 2000 that it was teaming with Stan Lee Media to develop Web-based software for the creation of slm’s Web comics or ‘webisodes.’ Nearly one year later, the Montreal-based 2D animation software company was as…