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CHUM applies for pair of Alberta licences
CHUM Television has made its first move into the home territory of rival Craig Broadcasting. The Toronto-based heavyweight recently applied to the CRTC to open stations in Calgary and Edmonton, both of which are home to Craig stations. If approved, CHUM could go on the air in Alberta as early as fall 2004, entering a new phase of a bitter turf war that has seen CHUM and Brandon, Calgary-based Craig compete for viewers and licences in Toronto and British Columbia.
Jump Cuts
Lions Gate sells Mandalay
What the hell was that all about?
To borrow from Chapter One, paragraph one, of the Handbook of All-Purpose Cliches in a Post-Recessionary Economy: The year past has been a roller coaster ride. Except in the case of commercial production it’s been an inverted roller coaster: all the exhilaration came when the ride was going up.
Incendo acquires Revolution movie product for TV
Montreal: Incendo Media has added an important element to its product mix by signing a multiyear output agreement to distribute movies from L.A.-based Revolution Studios in the Canadian TV market.
Canadian box-office round up
Atom Egoyan’s Ararat brought in an estimated $211,130 on a limited platform release of six screens in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, averaging $35,188 per screen over its opening Nov. 15-17 weekend. Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution is distributing in Canada. Miramax Films is the U.S. distrib.
A ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ for Skelton
SHOTS & Chasers submission forms are now available online at: www.playbackmag.com/onthespot.
Doc survey points to ‘two-tiered funding system’
Montreal: The impact of industrialization is the overriding concern of documentary filmmakers in Canada according to a newly released industry survey of 80 filmmakers, conducted in person and online. Most of the survey respondents, particularly those in Quebec, claim the documentary system is worse now than it was five years ago.
Protests stall productions
Demonstrations that have bedeviled film and TV shoots in Toronto will continue and possibly escalate, says Teamsters Local 847, as the union enters its sixth week of protests against the Directors Guild of Canada and the CFTPA, claiming those groups have interfered with a membership drive.
Market rebounds in the final push
The early part of 2002 may have been about surviving, but the latter part has been about adapting to the changing marketplace. Canada’s commercial production industry emerges from one of its most difficult years, anticipating a brighter, busier 2003 with a more developed sense of the role strong homegrown talent will play in the collective future of the industry.
Four quotes in ’02 that made us say ‘Right On’
‘You might as well go to the United Steel Workers and ask them about commercial directors.’
The year that was: an agency perspective
Chris Staples is a partner with Rethink in Vancouver
Stursberg in Toronto calls for better quality, promotion
Quality, not quantity, is the best way for Canadian broadcasters to attract audiences, says Telefilm Canada executive director Richard Stursberg, who Nov. 20 called on television’s movers and shakers to rethink their spending and promotional habits.
Stursberg picks the winners
Vancouver: Nine Telefilm Canada-supported English-language productions reflect the new focus on explicitly commercial films that still deliver distinctively Canadian content, says Telefilm executive director Richard Stursberg.
NFB launches all-digital Mediatheque
The National Film Board took one step forward and one step back this past weekend, with the grand opening of NFB Mediatheque, a $1.5-million storefront operation in Toronto that tests the limits of the latest digital technologies while, it is hoped, returning the venerable organization to its roots by bringing together Canadians and their movies.
All was not hell in 2002
Award-winning commercial director Tim Hamilton is repped by Avion Films in Toronto, The Institute in L.A. and Tomboy Films in London. Hamilton has also found success directing long form, most notably for his film Truth in Advertising, which screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
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