Edmonton: Edmonton-based Panacea Entertainment has just wrapped principal photography on Catching the Chameleon, a one-hour documentary for Craig Media/A-Channel, written by Edmonton’s Scot Morison.
It is the first production from the new prodco, which Josh Miller, Panacea president and a former executive at Minds Eye Pictures, formed last August after Minds Eye closed its Alberta office in summer 2003.

Magic Rock, Muse get to the Plain Truth

What the Conservative Party didn’t say in their election platform may have helped spark the fire, but what they did say behind closed doors has certainly fueled it.
A leaked Conservative Party document, ‘Policy Briefing Note for Candidates,’ reveals that despite neglecting to take a public stance on culture in the official platform, it would appear that the newly formed party does have some definite plans for Canadian media interests.

Banff, AB: You can tell a television festival is having an off year when the hosts are having trouble reading off the autocue, or they miss their signals to come on stage, or they give speeches with all the verbal flare of a voicemail system, and this, the 25th installment of the troubled Banff Television Festival, will be remembered as much for reaching its silver anniversary as for its overall sense of awkwardness.

Vancouver: Once all the number crunching was done, 2003 turned out to be a big year for the British Columbia film and television industry, according to year-end data recently released by B.C. Film.
Buoyed by big-budget American features like I, Robot, Paycheck, Cat Woman and The Chronicles of Riddick, the 2003 tally jumped an impressive 41% to $1.4 billion in direct spending in the local economy, a new record. In 2003, there were 25 feature films spending $821 million, which is almost double the previous year’s total of $414 million generated by 15 productions.

The Canadian Television Fund has wrung out another $11 million for English-language dramas and bolstered CTV’s and CHUM’s production fortunes for 2004.

Starting this fall, the Toronto International Film Festival will replace its venerable Perspective Canada program with two new fest showcases of Canuck cinema, in a bid to keep up with the growing international profile of top domestic filmmakers.

Just months after taking off, Hamilton Film Studios has landed with a thud. The $30-million, 500,000-square-foot facility closed its doors in June after failing to attract any significant business to the southern Ontario city.

What’s good for the goose is good for le jars, at least according to the CRTC.

With its production operations now almost completely put out to pasture, Alliance Atlantis executives addressed market analysts June 3 with a bullish eye on the company’s future prospects. This despite a $151.7-million third-quarter loss and three aborted attempts at releasing its year-end report, which had raised flags with some industry observers.

Julian, Ricky, Bubbles and the Sunnyvale gang have taken Topsail Entertainment and Trailer Park Productions straight to the top, with the season four finale of Trailer Park Boys coming in as the highest-rated English-Canadian specialty show in five years.

Alliance Atlantis Communications and Michael Moore are back in business. AAC’s motion picture distribution group snagged the Canadian rights to the pot-stirring doc director’s Fahrenheit 9/11, which won the Palme d’Or at the recent Cannes Film Festival. Through its now-defunct Salter Street Films, Alliance Atlantis had a hand in producing Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, and released it in Canada to $5.8 million at the box office, a record for a doc.

Barring nuclear exchanges, this year’s upfront had to be a quieter affair than the last. But that’s not to say that all is status quo. While things might seem quiet on the Southern Upfront, much like that proverbial duck that bobs nonchalantly on the surface while it works its feet like mad below, the relative calm belies a storm of activity. Buyers say broadcasting is undergoing a quantum leap, and it’s time to adapt.

Welcome to the new paradigm: More schedules. More shows. More changes throughout the year. It’s the new norm, and viewers, broadcasters and buyers are adapting. In this environment, nets will have to spend more time explaining when and where buyers and viewers can find shows, or opportunities will be missed.

Canadian actors have good reason for ‘guarded optimism’ about the TV industry, but should continue to put pressure on regulators and politicians for greater funding and industry controls, according to actor and activist Paul Gross, in a June 1 speech to the members of ACTRA Toronto.