When a production can’t afford to rent the equipment it wants, one solution is to muster all one’s technical ingenuity to modify the gear it already has, or come up with some altogether new gizmos. This kind of resourcefulness was put into action on Sleep Always, a low-budget feature from prodco Friendly Fire that wrapped recently in Toronto. The film also exemplifies the continuing love affair with small-gauge motion picture stocks in the face of digital video’s increasing popularity.

The DigiClam

Among the basic ingredients for a successful provincial film and television production industry are talented crews, a dollop of tax incentives and, as Saskatchewan is proving, purpose-built soundstages.

Before the 1990s, it was rare to find a film equipment supplier located within a studio complex, but as the one-stop shop has emerged as a coveted business model, an increasing number of studios have embraced the convenience of bringing equipment suppliers in-house.

To rent or own – it’s a question that hangs over the housing market, those in frequent need of a tuxedo, and production companies in search of a studio. Sure, it would be great to have rent-free year-round access to a 35,000-square foot, custom-built, clear-span soundstage with extra camera lockup and a wraparound blue screen. But owning property is expensive, risky and complicated. Is buying worth the hassle?

Barna-Alper’s interest in both docs and drama is satisfied with a diverse production slate with collaborators from coast to coast.
The Toronto prodco, along with Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures, begins shooting this week in Regina on the MOW Betrayed. (For more information, see Prairie Scene, p. 31). Meanwhile, the MOW Choice, about Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s decades-long challenge of Canada’s abortion laws, will go to camera in November for CTV. Montreal director John L’Ecuyer (Saint Jude) will helm from a script by Carole Hay and Suzette Couture (After the Harvest). Laszlo Barna, Barna-Alper’s prez and CEO, is co-exec producer with Kevin Tierney of Montreal’s Park Ex Pictures. Budget is $3 million to $4 million, with funding from the major agencies. Minds Eye International is the worldwide distributor.

Montreal: Quebec cultural funding agency SODEC and the Quebec operations office at Telefilm Canada have announced combined production investments in seven French-language feature films, an entirely diverse slate of pictures that includes comedies, auteur films and dramas.
In its third 2002/03 round of funding decisions, SODEC is supporting five ‘private-sector’ projects and two minority coproductions (among the 21 proposals filed for the April 26 deadline), while on July 10 Telefilm announced investments in six productions, four of which are coproductions with Europe.
Shooting on the new round of projects begins later this summer through to next spring. Budgets are in the $3-million to $7-million range.

On July 3, bright pink Cadillacs and Hollywood stars, including Shannen Doherty (Mallrats) and Parker Posey (Best in Show), descended on Winnipeg to begin shooting The Battle of Mary Kay, an MOW for CBS about the coveted cosmetics queen, played by Shirley MacLaine (Salem Witch Trials). Principal Canadian actors include RH Thomson (Road to Avonlea), Barry Flatman (Rideau Hall) and Rachel Crawford (Traders),
Alliance Atlantis executive Ed Gernon makes his directorial debut on the AAC production, which satirizes the rivalry between Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics and Jinger Heath of BeautiControl Cosmetics, played by Posey. The MOW is coproduced with Howard Meltzer’s TurtleBack Productions of New York and AAC’s Ian McDougall. Patricia Resnick (Nine to Five) penned the script.

In June 2000, when Tattersall Sound was acquired by Alliance Atlantis Communications and merged with Casablanca Sound and Picture, it was characterized as a good move, allowing the smaller Tattersall access to significantly greater resources to build its post-production operations.
It also gave AAC a seasoned management team to run its post facilities led by Jane Tattersall as president and CEO of the new Tattersall Casablanca.
But earlier this month, the Toronto-based post house found itself the key component in a deal as AAC sold the option to purchase its entire post operations to Hollywood-based Point.360 (formerly VDI MultiMedia).
Also included in the deal – worth a reported US$14-million should Point.360 exercise its option – were Halifax-based Salter Street Digital and Toronto animation house Calibre Digital Pictures.

Vancouver: Any notions that the government-owned The Bridge Studios will provide ongoing revenues to British Columbia’s underfunded domestic producers is moot now that the profitable facility is on the block.
The B.C. government has issued a request for proposals, due Aug. 21, to transfer the 15-year-old Bridge Studios to the private sector.
Among the likely suitors are Vancouver Film Studios, Lions Gate Film Studios, MGM (which is Bridge Studios’ biggest customer), real estate developers, equipment suppliers such as William F. White and perhaps a consortium of B.C.’s film-sector unions. While the government wants Bridge Studios to support the film industry, the bid process is open to proposals from outside the industry.

Gibsons Landing, BC: There are ghosts at Molly’s Reach. The famed backdrop for the 19-year run of CBC series The Beachcombers is steeped in memory: the time Bruno Gerussi did this, the time that Robert Clothier did that.
Even as the 70-odd cast and crew film the opening sequences of the MOW The New Beachcombers – commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the CBC and on the 30th anniversary of the first episode of the log-salvaging family series – the revered late actors who played Nick and Relic are in the restaurant in spirit.

Montreal: Broadcasters have filed angry letters of protest with the CRTC against Videotron, claiming the cable operator has contravened section 9 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations by ‘arbitrarily and unilaterally’ reducing affiliation payments by as much as 50% and more.
Written complaints filed with the commission against Montreal-based Videotron, a Quebecor Media company, have been sent by CTV Specialty Television on behalf of affiliates The Sports Network and Discovery Canada; CTV Specialty and affiliate Reseau des Sports; Astral Television Networks on behalf of pay-TV service Super Ecran; and CHUM Television on behalf of Star!, MuchMoreMusic and Learning and Skills Television of Alberta, the former Canadian Learning Television.

The need for greater flexibility is the central theme that emerged through the initial round of consultations headed by Francois Macerola, who just completed a whirlwind national tour to review Canadian film and television content regulations.
But it is a theme that could put the entire process on a collision course with Canadian talent and craft unions. This, in turn, underlines what will likely be the former Telefilm Canada executive director’s greatest challenge: harmonizing an entire scale of disparate and self-interested views in defining what makes a production Canadian.
According to Macerola, who held discussions between June 4 and 26 with industry representatives in Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver, Moncton, Charlottetown, Halifax, St. John’s, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, there is a great deal of consensus in terms what issues need to be addressed. None has yet questioned the need for Canadian content or the value of the points system.

Vancouver: Sextant Entertainment Group is in receivership, Prophecy Entertainment is undergoing serious renovation and, depending on whom you talk to, Peace Arch Entertainment may have a buyer, all of which is strong indication that the depressed international film economy has arrived in Vancouver.
Shrinking Sextant was put into receivership June 20 after failing to come to an agreement with creditors through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act secured June 4 and since overturned.
The Royal Bank of Canada appointed Deloitte & Touche as interim receiver and Sextant’s remaining senior executives and directors resigned effective June 18.
Troubles began for Sextant earlier in the year when it was forced to restructure by its principal investor, Tony Allard of West Vancouver-based Hearthstone Investments.

Ending media speculation of a quiet battle between Canada’s star directors Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg for the most coveted spot at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Egoyan’s latest film Ararat has been confirmed as the Opening Night Gala feature at the 27th TIFF, unspooling Sept. 5-14.
Ararat, Egoyan’s biggest production to date, stars David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian, Brent Carver, Marie-Josee Croze, Bruce Greenwood, Arsinee Khanjian, Elias Koteas and Christopher Plummer. The story concerns how two families in modern Toronto are impacted by the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks (1915-1923). A production of Alliance Atlantis and Serendipity Point Films, the film played out of competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival.