Documentary moviemakers are perpetually faced with the challenge of telling stories visually without too much reliance on static ‘talking heads’ material. Stock footage, then, becomes the central means of recreating periods and settings, especially on projects with a historical bent. When a doc takes on a subject not previously tackled, its producers assume the role of detectives, tracking down obscure footage to bring their stories to life.

First Light, a major supplier of stock photography in Canada, is moving into the footage business. The company, with offices in Toronto and Vancouver, represents various U.S. and European footage suppliers, including, most recently, New York-based Sekani, which has distribution rights to collections from Paramount Pictures, CNN, NHL, ESPN, the Hearst Collection, the Smithsonian Institution and Sharpshooters, which compiles lifestyle imagery for advertising. Sekani, which has built up its collections over 16 years, also secures licensing and rights as well as clearances, additionally offering a selection of royalty-free footage.

Royalty-free stock footage solves many headaches for producers. One company that saves video makers from concerns regarding licence-related exhibition and broadcast restrictions is Myrtle Creek, OR-based Artbeats, whose digital library includes motion picture, DV and Beta SP-originated clips in aerial, animal, establishments, nature and lifestyle categories.

Clive Smith’s departure from Nelvana, the animation production giant that he was instrumental in founding 30 years ago, has hardly surprised his friends in the music, television and animation industries. Many voices echoed a comment succinctly delivered by actor Dave Thomas: ‘If you’d told me five years ago that Clive had left the company, I wouldn’t have been shocked.’

Ottawa’s Twist Pictures and Montreal-based Seville Pictures have completed principal photography on Posers, a new feature film from writer/director Katie Tallo (Juiced). The film shot Nov. 14 to Dec. 4 in Ottawa.
According to Twist producer Chantal Ling, who worked with Tallo on the series The Last Band on the Planet, the director brought her the script in its first draft and after a bit of development the pair presented it to Seville. It is the first coproduction between the two companies.
Posers is about a group of wild, club-hopping party girls who beat another girl to death in a washroom. The girls get involved in a mystery when one of them is murdered following the crime.

Halifax’s imX communications is heading into the holiday season with a full plate.
The first new project to speak of is Julie Walking Home, a feature film coproduction between imX, Toronto’s The Film Works, Germany’s ART OKO Film and Poland’s Studio Filmowe TOR.
The $8-million film, which wrapped shooting Dec. 10 in Halifax, is about a woman who watches her young son succumb to cancer while her marriage falls apart. She travels to Poland to find a cure for the boy, but comes away with much more.

Calgary-based Fresh Cut Entertainment is currently in production on Little Italys, a six-episode, half-hour travel and lifestyle series for Corus Entertainment-owned Telelatino Network. Hosted by Peter Ciuffa, Little Italys offers a look at Italian life in cities not associated with having large Italian populations.
Produced by Fresh Cut partners Jeff Hohn and Doug Hodgson, the series introduces viewers to the Italian communities in Calgary, Boston, Montreal, Seattle and Kelowna. The first set of episodes wraps with the yet-to-be-shot program on the Italians of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Vancouver: The godfather of the Vancouver independent film scene is lending his expertise to local producers who self-distribute.
Leonard Schein, founder of the Vancouver International Film Festival, finished his three-year management contract as president and CEO of Alliance Atlantis Cinemas in September. (He sold his Festival Cinemas, including the Fifth Avenue in Vancouver, to Alliance Atlantis in 1998.) Since then he has been acting as a consultant for Anagram Pictures’ feature Mile Zero, about a father who kidnaps his son.
‘Most producers don’t have a clue how to distribute,’ says Schein, operating under the name Starr Schein Enterprises.

Howard Rosen is CEO/executive producer of Roadhouse Productions in Toronto, where he oversees the development, production, financing and servicing of feature/cable films, television series, multi-camera live events, commercials and broadband interactive projects.

Vancouver: In a significant shift in position, the minister of Canadian heritage has put the issue of foreign ownership of Canadian broadcasters up for debate – albeit with a strong warning.
Sheila Copps, testifying Nov. 8 in Ottawa as the first witness in the 18-month review of the Broadcasting Act by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, said: ‘I think the intent of the foreign ownership requirements is to ensure that there is a diversity of voices. If there is another way of achieving those objectives, I don’t think we should preordain that review, but I think [the standing committee] should be reviewing that.’
To date, she has opposed any initiatives that relax foreign ownership restrictions.

Montreal: Higher caps on big-budget drama series and significantly more money for program development are among the major changes to Canadian Television Fund guidelines in 2002/03.
The new CTF guidelines also introduce a series of incentives for small and medium-sized production and distribution companies, worth more than $11 million. One of the biggest changes in Equity Investment Program regulations permits broadcast-affiliate distributors to distribute on EIP-supported projects, subject to a number of safeguards.

Montreal: The producers of the coming-of-age fantasy series Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension say advances in matching green-screen HD photography with digital special FX are helping create wide vistas of magical worlds more often associated with motion pictures than TV.

As media owners increasingly initiate convergence-style communications campaigns, there is a possibility that both agencies and production companies caught flatfooted could find themselves on the outside looking in.
By definition, convergence strategies are driven by content produced for and promoted across multiple media platforms.
In some cases, that content will be a feature film as is the case with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which was produced by Warner Bros. and which parent AOL Time Warner is promoting across its media channels, including magazines, cable outlets and Internet properties.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house…

Agency creative directors have long found directing spots a logical next step as they change careers. The transition is as old as the medium itself.
Those who have made the jump from agency to commercial directing include Bill Irish, Greg Sheppard and Randy Diplock.
There is, however, a new breed of creatives who rather than jumping to spot production completely are straddling both and finding the balancing act extremely rewarding.