Nerd launches with Dragon Booster

Taking a backseat to only the weather and high gas prices, the ill health of Ontario’s production business has been a topic of endless discussion for – well, how far back to we want to go? SARS? The CTF crisis? Earth: Final Conflict?

Ottawa: Film and TV productions are flowing through national capital prodcos faster than the beat in an Ed Broadbent rap video and, much like the savvy politico’s campaign tactics, the productions assume atypical forms.

Summer’s here and the time is right for nights at the local multiplex. Of course, the season is invariably inundated with blockbuster Hollywood fare, and this summer is no exception, although Canadian talent and technology is more visible than ever in 2004’s crop.

In the myth of Atlantis, the ancient city sinks below the waves, never to be found.

Toronto shops Urban Audio and Critical Post are merging to create a single post-production entity with some of the city’s top names in audio post. Critical Post principals John Smith, Tom Bjelic and Allan Fung, who won an Emmy last year for the miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil, are joining Urban Audio principals John Laing and Mark Gingras to form Urban Postproduction.

The digital artists at Hybride, located outside of Montreal, have been tapped for FX and animation on the ambitious Robert Rodriguez film Sin City. The dark thriller is based on a series of graphic novels by acclaimed artist Frank Miller (Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), who has collaborated with Rodriguez on the screen adaptation.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Montreal’s Audio Postproduction SPR, and, according to president Normand Rodrigue, staying on the edge of changing technology, while maintaining a stable staff, has allowed the company to expand. Starting as a two-person operation working on audio for corporate slide shows, SPR is now a one-stop film and television audio shop with a staff of 28, offering everything from sound design to dubbing.

Natives and ethnic minorities are hard to find on newscasts, and are rarely used for prominent on-screen positions such as anchorpersons, reporters or as expert commentators, according to a new study of racial representation on Canadian TV.

CHUM Ltd. has put up $34.8 million in benefits packages related to its proposed purchase of Craig Media. According to recently released CRTC documents, the Toronto broadcaster, seeking fed approval to buy its troubled rival, is pledging to assume Craig’s $14.8 million in outstanding production commitments – promised through the A-Channel and Toronto 1 station launches – and will add another $20 million in benefits all its own.

Alliance Atlantis Communications jettisoned the last of its post-production outfits on June 30, dismissing the six full-time staff at Calibre Digital Pictures in Toronto and selling its assets to its one-time competitor DKP Effects for an undisclosed sum. The move also shuts out some 30 independent contractors and concludes AAC’s plans to drop its three post-production houses.

Gala Presentations at the 29th Toronto International Film Festival, running Sept. 9-18, will include the world premiere of director/producer Taylor Hackford’s Ray, starring Jamie Foxx. The dramatic feature is a biopic of the late musician Ray Charles. Tom Hooper’s Red Dust, starring Hilary Swank, also makes its world premiere, and Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers will make its North American premiere.

Canadian broadcasters are starkly divided about the CRTC’s proposed advertising incentives to kick start the woebegone genre of English-language drama – with CTV and Global in position for windfalls and CHUM recommending that the bonuses die on the vine.

Vancouver: In Victoria, direct film production spending is running about even with last year’s record pace with $9.2 million spent in 2004 so far.

As anyone who has attended a production industry confab can attest, your typical English-Canadian producer is male, over 40 years of age, has been in the business for over 10 years and most likely devotes some energy to making documentaries. Now the CFTPA has the data that backs up the anecdotal info.