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Three reasons to feel good about the Canadian film business
Someone has been reading Telefilm Canada’s dream book. It’s a fantasy featuring not one but two golden girls, a golden boy and a host of bright lights.
Sportscasters see money in mobile video
It’s NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs time again, and just as sure as a Maple Leafs no-show, sportscasters have launched their latest digital offerings to bring up-to-the minute action to puck-heads everywhere. This year’s ramp-up is in mobile, which is evidently where the money is.
Off with his head?
I was alarmed when SODEC head François Macerola said he’d back a Quebec version of Avatar with as much enthusiasm as a film by Cannes prize-winner Xavier Dolan. (Does the world need another Avatar, I thought, or worse, a French-language copy of it? A vision of joual-speaking blue and white Na’vi swinging to the beat of a Céline Dion song sent a shiver down my spine.)
Comings and goings in TV
It’s springtime in TV land and the process of sprucing up primetime schedules is well underway as U.S. networks prepare to trot out fall skeds during the upfronts in May. It’s a pivotal time for Canuck programming execs at CTV, Global and Citytv, who will be one-stop shopping in L.A. to boost their primetime offerings and fill the void left by cancelled or retired shows – including long-running favorites 24 and Lost.
ZedCrew: From cargo to Cannes
They didn’t go to Zambia in a cargo container. ‘We didn’t even have a script when we were on the plane to Lusaka,’ laughs debutant director Noah Pink when recounting the zany tale of how the no-budget ZedCrew got made and accepted into the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at the 63rd Cannes film festival.
Saving the planet on set at a time
Earth Day may only be an annual event, but a pragmatic idealist named Grant Heggie recycles movie sets year-round – and he manages to save film productions some coin in the process.
Recreating the Troubles
At least it wasn’t the Icelandic ash cloud that prevented Eve Stewart (Becoming Jane, Vera Drake) from accepting her Genie for achievement in art direction and production design in person. The British art director, who won the accolade for her work on Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking, was stuck in the mountains in Italy filming a car commercial and had to have a colleague accept the award on her behalf.
3 things you may not know about…Ingrid Veninger
Ingrid Veninger is a filmmaker and actor
Feedback
I am disappointed at how the IATSE is characterized in your ‘Chalifour settles in at AQTIS’ article (Playback Daily, April 13). You refer to the IATSE as ‘a union based in the U.S.’ We are proud of our long history in Canada; our first Canadian local (Local 56) was chartered in Montreal in 1898. Since then we have grown to represent over 16,000 members employed in Canada’s stagecraft, motion picture and television, and trade show industries.
Straight Up & Down
– Toronto Film Studios will see some business in the near future, but not show business. The once-thriving, now-neglected soundstage at 629 Eastern Avenue in the city’s port area has reportedly been earmarked as a temporary jail. According to news reports, TFS will be used to hold and process protestors during the upcoming G20 Summit in June if, as some expect, there are mass arrests. The site and its 16 soundstages are just a few kilometers from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where leaders from the world’s top 20 economic powers will meet June 26 and 27.
A second shot at Real Life
Imagine having the power to bring an eliminated character back to your favorite reality TV series for another shot at the top prize. It’s an ability Toronto-based digital creation company The Secret Location is turning into a, well, reality for YTV’s In Real Life.
Creating a talent pool
To the non-gamer, the Toronto Game Jam may seem like just a bunch of game enthusiasts gathered together in one place. But the event, now in its fifth year and continuing to expand and evolve, brings together not just programmers and designers, but also writers, artists and sound gurus, spanning a wide spectrum of creative entertainment-minded folk.
Next-generation learning
Halifax-based Artech Camps is looking to train the next generation of game makers, and will soon be making inroads in Toronto as it continues its expansion across the country.
Getting beyond the buzzwords
When it comes to creation in the interactive world, there’s a huge difference between simply getting the job done and developing award-winning content. That may seem like an obvious distinction, but it’s an essential observation shared by Adrian Belina of Toronto interactive studio Jam3, which was echoed throughout the Storytelling X.0 symposium as part of last month’s FITC (Flash In the Can) technology and design festival in Toronto.
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