Halifax: First of all, yes, it’s shot in a real trailer park – a real neighborhood – and it will remain nameless lest we be the cause of any drunken pilgrimages.
It’s the fourth park the cast and crew of Showcase’s Trailer Park Boys (produced by Halifax’s Topsail Entertainment) have seen in the show’s four seasons. In this park, series creator/director Mike Clattenburg and his team have their own space as they shoot episodes of the popular series away from the rest of the park’s dwellers.

Israel ‘Izzy’ Asper, the founder and chairman of international media company CanWest Global Communications, passed away at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg Oct. 7, aged 71.
Asper stepped back from much of the day-to-day operations of the media giant in 1999 to focus on philanthropic endeavors.

The CRTC wants to know what the public thinks about TV, and has put out a call for comments about how to boost production and viewership of homegrown English-language drama.

Stakeholders from across the television industry met in Ottawa Oct. 1, at the request of the Department of Canadian Heritage, to discuss the future of the Canadian Television Fund and English-language drama. The department was seeking comments before issuing its response to the Lincoln report, and spent several hours hearing from some two dozen broadcasting, production and union reps, including brass from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the unions, the Ministry of Finance, the cable companies, CFTPA, the CRTC and CBC. The meeting was hosted by Deputy Heritage Minister Judith LaRocque.

Vancouver: Low film and television production volumes in Canada have forced the consolidation of GVFX – Gajdecki Visual Effects, which has closed its Toronto and Los Angeles offices, but remains working in Vancouver.

It was a three-way tie for first place at this year’s DGC Awards, where three wins each went to David Cronenberg’s Spider, second-season eps of Degrassi: The Next Generation and to CBC’s Trudeau.

AS the fall TV season officially kicks off this week, one of the new series that jump-started with a summer debut has already made it into Nielsen Media Research’s top-20 list.

Hardball was definitely the name of the game during this year’s fierce upfront negotiations. Three months later, some media buyers are still fuming about what went on.

Runaway productions are back on the political agenda in the U.S., following renewed efforts by activists and lawmakers to keep Hollywood movies out of Canada. Washington is, for the third time in two years, again considering a tax credit for low-budget movies while, in L.A., activists are arguing that Canadian film subsidies are illegal under NAFTA.

CBC loses $10M

Rookie filmmakers got a lot of good advice during the Rogers Industry sessions at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival – even if, to be perfectly honest, it was sometimes the sort of advice that makes reporters and editors uncomfortable.

Vancouver: At press time, the 22nd annual Vancouver International Film Festival was several days from wrapping up. However, organizers expect this year’s attendance and box office to surpass last year’s tally of 150,000 movie-goers.

The Calgary International Film Festival, held Sept. 26 to Oct. 5, proved its plan to beef up to a 10-day festival was a good one, reporting 38,000 attendees for its fourth edition. Last year, the festival, held over six days, brought in 25,000 film-goers.

Festival delegates can expect the usual surreal and ironic mix of quaint Eastern Canadian charm and heavy tech-talk that has become the trademark of nextMEDIA, Oct. 22-25 in Charlottetown, PEI. Aside from a diverse assortment of sessions and panels, the new media fest will feature five keynote speakers over the three days.

The 14th annual St. John’s International Women’s Film and Video Festival unspools Oct. 15-19 in St. John’s, NF. The popular fest, which traditionally has had a sizeable Newfoundland & Labrador film presence, is designed to extol the contributions of women in the film and video industry.