May / 2010

In the News

Pierre Gill CSC Wins Both Genie Award and Prix Jutra for Polytechnique

Pierre Gill csc

The 2009 Genie Award winners were announced in Toronto, April 12. The winner for best cinematography was Pierre Gill csc for Polytechnique. Nominees were Steve Cosens csc for Nurse.Fighter.Boy, Jonathan Freeman for 50 Dead Men Walking, Ronald Plante csc for Grande Ourse, la clé des possibles and Allen Smith for Les Doigts croches. Polytechnique was named best picture and Denis Villeneuve best director. The Prix Jutra winner, also Pierre Gill for Polytechnique, was announced March 28 in Montreal. Other nominees were Bernard Couture csc for Cadavres (Couture won the CSC Award for the same film), Ronald Plante csc for Grande Ourse, la clé de possibles, Daniel Jobin for Je me souviens and Sara Mishara for La Donation. Xavier Dolan’s debut feature, I Killed My Mother, DOP Stéphanie Anne Weber Diron, was named best picture.

Bell Lightbox to Open in the Fall

After many delays and epic struggles to raise the necessary funding in a down economy, TIFF’s brand new corporate headquarters, known as the Bell Lightbox, will be (partially) open for business in the fall. Officially launched in 2003 with a projected opening date of 2009, the Lightbox will be operational come September, although there is still some doubt that TIFF 2010 will come out of its new headquarters. It still resides in its long-time location at the corner of Yonge and Carlton streets and plans to move the offices and The Film Reference Library, with its extensive archival holdings, are under wraps.

What’s certain is that Tim Burton, a major gallery and in-cinema retrospective highlighting the eccentric genius behind Alice in Wonderland 3D, Sweeny Todd and Edward Scissorhands, organized by The Museum of Modern Art in New York City featuring more than 700 items, along with a full film retrospective, will be on display from November through to April 2011.

In addition, in January 2011 TIFF will launch the Rob Brooks Mary Pickford Collection, which will be housed in the Canadian Film Heritage Gallery. Brooks, a private collector, has donated approximately 1,900 items pertaining to silent cinema’s greatest female star, Toronto-born Mary Pickford.
The Film Reference Library will archive and make accessible the posters, lobby cards, photographs, fan magazines, personal items and promotional material. At the peak of her fame in the mid-1920s, Pickford’s ‘Little Mary’ character rivalled Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp’ worldwide. She was also an astute businesswoman who founded Hollywood’s first artist-run studio in 1919, United Artist, along with Chaplin, D.W. Griffith and her future husband, Douglas Fairbanks, silent cinema’s first action hero.

2010 OMDC Film Fund Recipients

Earlier this year, the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) announced its 2010 Film Fund recipients, with financials contributions of up to $25,000 for development projects and up to $400,000 for production funding, on a last-in basis.

The dramatic film production recipients are producer Bill Marks and director George Hickenlooper for A Whale in Montana, Paul Barkin (p) and Jeff Renfoe (d) for The Colony, Jennifer Jonas (p) and Leonard Farlinger (d) for I’m Yours, David Gordian (p) and Joan Carr-Wiggin (d) for If I Were You, Marin Katz (p) and David Cronenberg (d) for The Talking Cure, and Christina Piovesan (p) and Larysa Kindracki (d) for The Whistleblower.

The dramatic film developments recipients are Sandra Cunningham (p) and Norman Jewison (d) for High Alert, Jennifer Kawaja (p/d) for The Lizard Cage, Mark Smith (p) and Vincenzo Natali (d) for Permission, Daniel Iron (p) and Aaron Woodley (d) for Pig Tale, and Susan Cavan (p) and Sarah
Polley (d) for Take This Waltz. Cherilyn Hawrysh (p) and Velcrow Ripper (d) received documentary development funding for Evolve Love: The Meaning IS Life.

Carolle Brabant Is Named Telefilm Canada’s New Executive Director

Carolle Brabant, an insider with 20 years of experience working with the federal-funding agency, was named executive director March 15, replacing the outgoing Wayne Clarkson. Brabant, who was most recently Telefilm’s director of administration and corporate services, has a background in accounting and is a MBA graduate. She is the first female head of the agency since its inception in 1967.

Canon Demonstrates the Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders at NAB

Canon U.S.A., Inc., has announced the latest addition to its product line, the Canon XF305 and XF300 professional camcorders. Both new models employ an MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec – Canon XF Codec – for capturing and recording native 1920 x 1080 video onto affordable, universally available Compact Flash (CF) cards. Uniting video, audio and metadata into a single file, the Canon XF305 and XF300 use an MXF (Material eXchange Format) File Wrapper, a widely supported open-source format, to maximize compatibility with existing industry infrastructure and non-linear editing (NLE) systems. Priced under $8,000 (U.S.) per model, the Canon XF305 and XF300 are engineered for multiple production applications including broadcast news, documentary and independent filmmaking and event videography. Canon demonstrated the cameras at the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters Show in the Las Vegas (April 12-15).

The Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders include a Genuine Canon 18x HD L-series lens providing documentary filmmakers and news camera operators with the focal-range versatility required in the field. Designed with input from professional users, each model includes three Canon developed and designed native 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensors, and the new Canon XF Codec for extreme color detail required for accurate chromakeying, color-grading and compositing for digital filmmaking. For finer transitions in tone and color, 4:2:2 color sampling offers twice the color resolution of HDV and other 4:2:0 formats. In addition, Canon’s XF305 model features industry- standard HDSDI output, genlock, and SMPTE time code (in/out) terminals for multi-camera or 3-D productions. The cameras are scheduled to be available in late June.

Canadian Association of Broadcasters Folds

Thirteen private radio broadcasters founded the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) in 1926. It became the leading lobby voice for the private broadcasting industry, and is – make that was – one of Canada’s longest-running trade organizations. It came to an abrupt end in February of this year, after 84 years representing Canadian broadcasters with a common voice. But no more.

Chairman Elmer Hildebrand said the organization has decided to close this June. Hildebrand has been trying since December to help the CAB find common ground between broadcasters and cable operators, who have been forcing increasingly different views on the industry. Cable companies
like Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications hold television assets themselves – Citytv and Corus’ specialty channels respectively – but they also have diverging views from local television giants CTV and Canwest.

After reviewing its strategy, the organization concluded that local television operators wouldn’t be able to find a common ground with the cable companies. Both Canwest and CTV have been pushing for fee for carriage, a new charge for cable companies to carry over-the-air television signals, an approach that has created a major rift between the two sides.

For decades the CAB was a forum for broadcasters to resolve disputes and present a unified voice for the industry. But during the fee-for-carriage PR fight and subsequent hearings before the CRTC, the CAB played no meaningful role. In the past it was clear who the CAB was working for, and though its members would sometimes disagree they could usually work their problems out internally. But with the introduction and rapid growth of specialty television properties, many of which are owned by cable companies, the differences between members became intractable and the CAB virtually impotent.

“It had become obvious some time ago that the three sectors, television, radio and specialty [channels], all in the same room couldn’t really sort out their priorities in a manner that the association could actually do their work,” confirmed Hildebrand.

He hopes to form a new organization that solely represents radio broadcasters. Industry reports have indicated that independent broadcasters like Channel Zero, Glassbox, APTN, OutTV and TV5 could form their own lobby group as well. Source: Canadian Press

Technicolor Offers On-Set Services

Technicolor Toronto is now offering On-Set Services, specifically designed to close the gap between acquisition on-set and the post process. It is offering streamlined and integrated hardware solutions to ensure that projects have the look they deserve. Digital cinematography is rapidly changing the landscape of filmmaking, offering many new avenues for creative freedom. Technicolor Toronto encourages clients to embrace them by offering the tools and instruments to help achieve the creative vision on-set. To arrange a demonstration please contact Kyle Kurbegovich, supervisor of On-Set Services at 647-688-5235.

Using the latest technology, tools and resources, Technicolor is presenting an On-Set System that maximizes capture capabilities. More importantly, they have found solutions to facilitate file transfers, colour grading and verification while consistently staying highly effective and blazing fast. Today Technicolor retains significant footholds in film while aggressively bridging to digital. Technicolor is focused on delivering the highest quality products to content creators, managers, distributors and discoverers of entertainment. For more information please call Grace Carnale-Davis 416-585-9995.

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