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Canada’s turn in the spotlight
On its 25th anniversary, the Banff Television Festival will once again bring the TV world to Canada, allowing homegrown talents to rub shoulders with their international counterparts.
Banff fetes Brown’s revolutionary Steadicam
The Steadicam camera-stabilizing system, a ubiquitous tool in today’s film packages, will be recognized with the Deluxe Outstanding Technical Achievement Award at the 25th Anniversary Banff Television Festival.
Playoffs pay off for CBC
Having a Canadian team in the final round of the NHL playoffs is certainly paying off for the CBC, as more Canadians are tuning in to the series than have done so in more than a decade.
Lions Gate, Marvel ink 8-pic DVD deal
Lions Gate Entertainment has inked a deal with comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises to develop, produce and distribute eight original animated DVD features based on Marvel characters. As announced May 25, production will begin immediately in 2D or 3D formats, with the first title released by Lions Gate in late 2005.
Ready, set, pitch!
The clock is ticking, there’s $100,000 on the table, and the room is packed with people eager to see if filmmakers can sell themselves and their docs in just three minutes.
Magnetic North acquires Casablanca
The great Toronto post-production shuffle continues as post facility Magnetic North has acquired cross-town rival Casablanca from Alliance Atlantis Communications.
Doing business in the great outdoors
In a place as breathtaking as Banff, AB, many attendees of the annual TV festival have found breaking away from boardrooms and heading into the great outdoors highly conducive to doing business.
Pinsent to receive Award of Excellence
Legendary Canadian actor/writer/director Gordon Pinsent will receive the Banff Television Festival’s Award of Excellence on June 13, as part of the fest’s 25th anniversary celebrations. The award recognizes ‘exceptional achievement through a body of work over an extended period of time’.
Short film The Big Charade tops Leos
Vancouver: Forty individual program titles were honored with 80 Leo Awards May 28 and 29 in Vancouver, with The Big Charade winning nine, including best short film (Carwyn Jones, producer).
CTV says ‘Go west, young format’
The high-definition rollout continues to cover the Canadian map, with CTV launching CTV HD West, a new national HD feed for broadcast through Bell ExpressVu, on June 1. The station offers the same programming lineup as Vancouver’s CTV British Columbia, presenting true HD content when available, with analog shows digitally ‘upconverted.’
People
* Former CFTPA boss Elizabeth McDonald has resurfaced at Telefilm Canada, and is setting up a new ‘business intelligence unit’ under the funder’s international operations and development division.
Late Night with… who?
Global has put a new face on its late-night programming, and it’s the smiling mug of Jebb Fink, a comic and TV host newly hired away from the morning show on Calgary’s A-Channel to host Global Late Night, a show-in-the-testing set to air in June.
You’ve got the right idea – but can you protect it?
Holly Agnew is an associate in the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw Group. This article was prepared with the assistance of Ed Tenki, student-at-law.
Corrections & Clarifications
In the story ’15/Love overcomes tragedy’ in the May 24 issue, Playback mistakenly wrote that two characters were written out of the series in a car accident. In fact, the tragedy is acknowledged through a brief reference to a plane crash in which there were no survivors.
Playback Readership Poll Results
Perhaps it was the feds’ restoration of their CTF contribution. Whatever the case, most in the industry feel optimistic. In response to a recent online Playback poll asking ‘Will film and television production volumes increase in 2004 compared to 2003?’, 54% of respondents voted Yes, while 46% voted no.
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