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Beginning to see the Lightbox
As I confront TIFF number 25, I admit to a strong ambivalence. The coming onslaught of movies is welcome, but less so the attendant explosion of self-importance. Our era’s cult of personal celebrity is bad enough, but in a few days everyone from doormen to waitresses to party publicists and party crashers will be moving levers of petty control. There’s nothing like show business to bring the prick out of anyone.
What’s up with the Montreal World Film Festival?
After attending yet another bizarre press conference launching Serge Losique’s once-reputed Montreal World Film Festival, I wondered if anyone atagencies SODEC and Telefilm Canada, or the federal government is paying attention.
Online Video gets serious
The recession may be lifting, but the heady days of online video experimentation may be numbered. With traditional broadcast revenues predicted to stall and venture capital in retreat, U.S. heavy hitters are scrambling to find a profitable business model for producing and delivering online video or face a bleak online future with diminutive advertising revenues and wafer-thin margins.
Trailer Park Boys and Liquor kick off Atlantic fest
The 29th Atlantic Film Festival will kick off its 10-day event (Sept 17-26) with a world premiere of Mike Clattenburg’s Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day and one massive concert.
AFF’s Strategic Partners has become a copro haven
Strategic Partners is the international coproduction conference held during the Atlantic Film Festival which brings together producers, distributors, broadcasters and agents in an effort to create networks for future projects and secure financing for existing scripts. SP runs Sept. 18-20 this year, its 12th edition.
Frappier speech to open Strategic Partners
Veteran producer Roger Frappier will present the opening keynote address at Strategic Partners on Friday, Sept. 18 in Halifax.
CFTPA’s lucky seven Atlantic apprenticeships
Seven new ’emerging and mid-level producers’ from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick have been named as the lucky new CFTPA interns.
VFX booming in B.C., but post shops feel the recession
The Vancouver VFX business is booming, with U.S. studios bringing high-profile effects projects to the province.
Toronto shops gear up for fall
It’s been a cruel, cruel summer for Toronto post shops, but the forecast calls for a sunnier fall, thanks mostly to a busy domestic TV sector.
Mr. X proud of creating Ang Lee’s ‘acid trip’
For the Ang Lee film Taking Woodstock, digital effects studio Mr. X composed a total of 138 shots that helped recreate the scene at Woodstock in 1969. The goal of the 45 artists on the team was to generate a sense of realism – even when visualizing an acid trip.
Super man gave Keyframe flight in Niagara-on-the-Lake
‘When we started [in 1997], our goal was to do animation for video games,’ says Darren Cranford, co-founder of Keyframe Digital Productions. What Cranford and co-founder Clint Green didn’t expect was that their work would catch the eye of TV and film producers who would recruit them for pre-visualizations, 2D and 3D animation, and all manner of visual effects. Today, most of their clients are repeat customers. ‘They’ve been loyal to us, so we want to be loyal to them,’ says Cranford.
Shyamalan ditches Philly for Toronto
The Devil is coming to Toronto, courtesy of the Pennsylvania state legislature and M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan has reportedly backed out of plans to shoot the horror-thriller in Philadelphia because of uncertainty surrounding the state’s tax credit, and so the film is expected to shoot in Toronto this fall.
Sherry and Cianciotta back in the distribution game
Jim Sherry and Tony Cianciotta are back in the distribution game. In advance of TIFF, the industry veterans launched D Films, a boutique releasing company that acquires and distributes feature films in Canada across all platforms. Sherry is president while Cianciotta heads up acquisitions. The investors in the privately held company were not disclosed.
Flashpoint sweeps Gemini nods
Newcomer Flashpoint looks to command the stage at the 24th annual Gemini Awards after CTV’s hit cop series nabbed a record-setting 19 nominations, followed distantly by CBC copro The Tudors with 11.
No tax relief for B.C. producers
There was no good news in the recent B.C. budget for the province’s film and TV industry.
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