March / 2010

In the News

Lowell Schrieder

Comweb and William F. White Announce the Appointment of Lowell Schrieder to Director, Marketing and Communications
In January, Comweb Group and William F. White International announced the appointment of Lowell Schrieder to the position of director, marketing & communications. In this new role, Schrieder is responsible for refining the strategic direction of all marketing and communications initiatives for Comweb/WFW. He brings an extensive background in entertainment marketing, public relations and communications in Canadian film and television industry spanning 10 years. Prior to joing Comweb/WFW, he was corporate marketing director for P.S. Production Services, and has held communications positions at CTV's Comedy Network and in public relations and special events for Paramount Parks Canada.

FujiFilm at the Oscars
FujiFilm has announced that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected FujiFilm to receive an Academy Award in the Scientific and Engineering category, an award given for development of the world's first film stock specifically designed to produce high-picture quality from digital-image data The award is being given in recognition of the significant picture quality and workflow improvements made possible in the moviemaking process through the development of Fujicolor Eterna-RDI, the first motion picture film in the world designed specifically for use in converting digital-image data to negative film. The award is given in the name of FujiFilm Corporation as well as in the names of Ryoji Nishimura, Masaaki Miki and Youichi Hosoya, the three engineers who designed and developed the product.

CSC DOPs Are Busy in Montreal, Park City, Utah & Berlin
While indigenous film production in the major English-Canadian production centres, Vancouver and Toronto, has slowed to a crawl during the winter months, Montreal is the lone hot spot for Canadian features. Wrapped in mid-February, Notre Dame de Grace, director Jacob Tierney's follow up to The Troksky, is being produced by Park Ex Pictures, makers of the all-time Canadian box office champion Bon Cop Bad Cop. Starring Ottawa-born Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder), who is also the star of The Trotsky, the story is set during a Montreal winter where a serial killer is on the loose in the neighbourhood of Notre Dame de Grace or NDG. The DOP is Guy Dufaux csc. Angle mort (Blind Spot) is a drama directed by Frédérik D'Amours about a pyromaniac road killer who takes revenge for the accident that left his wife dead and him disfigured by murdering bad drivers who cross his path. Jérôme Sabourin csc is the DOP. Joining these two local productions is the Canada/Argentina co-production Upside Down, directed and written by Juan Diego Solanas and starring Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man), which is being shot in Montreal with DOP Pierre Gill csc until the end of June.

The CSC was well represented at this year's edition of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which wrapped January 31. From Newfoundland and Labrador, Adriana Maggs's Grown Up Movie Star, with DOP Jason Tan csc, was screened in the World Cinema Narrative Competition, and two CSC-lensed films were featured in the popular out-of-competition Park City at Midnight section - from Quebec Daniel Grou's Les 7 jours du talion (7 Days), with Bernard Couture csc behind the camera, and from Alberta Eli Craig's Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, DOP David Geddes csc.

Grown Up Movie Star (featured in this issue of Canadian Cinematographer) received uniformly good reviews, with raves for a star-making turn by Tatiana Maslany (from the CBC series Heartland and winner of a Gemini Award for a guest appearance on Flashpoint) as the precocious14-year-old-going-on-30 Ruby. She was awarded a Special Jury Prize for her Breakout Performance. Les 7 jours du talion, a Quebec entry into the growing sub-genre of torture porn about a doctor who kidnaps and tortures the man responsible for his daughter's death did well in the marketplace with sales in a number of territories, and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a 'hillbilly' splatter satire set in West Virginia, which was shot around Calgary by Geddes in 2009.

This Way of Life, directed, produced and photographed by Thomas Burstyn csc (featured in the December issue of Canadian Cinematographer), was invited to screen in the K+ competition for the Crystal Bear (given for the best children's film) at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in February.

Avatar Sparks 3D Makeover for Action Classics
Hollywood is preparing to re-release some past hits, including Star Wars (1977) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03) in 3D following the record-breaking success of Avatar. Studio executives are drawing up schedules of popular films that will be "retro-fitted" with 3D technology after the sci-fi blockbuster, directed by Canadian-born James Cameron, became the highest grossing movie of all time.

Industry experts now predict that 3D will become the new multiplex standard within five years. This will be as dramatic a shift as when the "talkies" killed off silent movies in the late 1920s. Retro-fitting a screen classic with 3D imagery could take as little as four months, using software to manipulate a digital copy of the film. Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, said last year that he wanted to reissue the trilogy in 3D if Avatar persuaded enough cinemas to put in digital 3D projectors.

National Film Board Puts 3D Experiments Online
The NFB is putting a sampling of its 3D experiments online for free viewing. The Film Board says free 3D glasses can be ordered from its website, and they will be shipped free of charge. There is a limit of one per order. The 3D films include the animated short Drux Flux (2008) and excerpts from Facing Champlain 3D, created for the 400th anniversary celebrations in Quebec City in 2008. The Film Board is also adding 26 HD films to its online screening room. The high-definition additions include Chris Landreth's Oscar-winning animated short Ryan (2004), Cordell Barker's popular musical The Cat Came Back (1988) and Sheldon Cohen's hockey classic The Sweater (1980). The NFB introduced its online screening room last year and three months ago came out with an iPhone app.

Rob Sim with Fjuinon’s new PL Series of zoom lenses.

Sim Video Invests in New Fujinon PL Series Zoom Lens
Sim Video, the video equipment rental company headquartered in Toronto, recently purchased Fujinon PL Series 18-85mm/T2.0 and 75-400mm/T2.8-T3.8 zoom lenses. As early adopters of cutting-edge lens design, Sim Video is the first customer to add the 75-400mm/T2.8-T3.8 to its rental inventory. On the pilot for Men with Brooms, Rudolf Blahacek, director of photography, used the Fujinon 18-85mm/T2.0 lens from Sim Video in combination with Zeiss Master Primes.

Designed for the latest digital and film PL mount cameras, the 18-85mm/T2.0 and 75-400mm/T2.8-T3.8 are the first models from Fujinon's new PL Series of zoom lenses. Two additional models, offering focal ranges of 14.4-45mm/T2.0 and 24-180mm/T2.6, will be available in early 2010. The PL Series feature the fastest T speeds available in a family of zooms, with unprecedented colour matched 4K optical performance. All four zooms are similar in size and weight, and uniform gear placement and front barrel diameters enable quick and efficient lens changes.

On January 28, Sim Video hosted their 5th Annual Technology Open House, putting together an intimate showcase of some of the world's top digital cinema technologies. For the past five years, Sim Video has been hosting the event which draws hundreds of Toronto based production professionals looking to check out the next wave digital cinema technologies. Partnering with respected manufacturers and local production industry suppliers like Sony, Precision Camera Inc. and Panasonic, the event has always delivered an incredible range of technical solutions including everything from pro-sumer HD cameras to digital cinema workhorses like the Sony F35 and Arri D21 but this years event had Stereoscopic appeal.

"In light of the recent box office success of James Cameron's, Avatar, we wanted to ensure 3D products were well represented - local professionals have a real thirst for 3D knowledge right now and our event is the perfect platform to showcase these state-of-the-art production tools" said Rob Sim, President of Sim Video International. "Timing worked out perfectly and thanks to our friend Bill White at 3D Camera Company, we were able to secure Sony's latest 3D camera system for a special demonstration." The one-of-a-kind unit (which is now destined to shoot Carnivale in Brazil) was mounted on an sleek light-weight 3D Tangohead rig designed by Sebastien Laffoux who was also on-hand to answer questions. Amongst this year's crowd were many of Canada's finest DP's including Rene Ohashi, Mike McMurray, Miroslaw Baszak, Jim Jeffries, Alwyn Kumst and Mitch Ness, each of whom took the time to test the 3D rig first-hand.

Though Sim hasn't added 3D camera systems to their inventory, their post department is actively providing three Avid Adrenaline HD 3D post systems for the fourth installment of the Resident Evil franchise titled Afterlife. Local representatives from Avid and Dynamix donated 3D glasses and demonstrated stereoscopic post production workflow using Avid's trusted system and state-of-the-art 46" JVC 3D monitors. Editors at the event lined up to try their hand at 3D editing using demo footage from features like My Bloody Valentine and Coraline.

Other event highlights included Sim's recently upgraded RED ONE camera with M-X sensor which was only released one-week ago. Complementing the RED camera, Sim displayed portable video assist, on-set data management tools and digital dailies services now provided through the company's merger with Bling Digital last November. Screening of the new RED M-X footage revealed that the new sensor not only provides more light sensitivity and quieter blacks but the system is now said to deliver better dynamic range. Sim Video plans to upgrade the wealth of their RED camera inventory with new M-X sensors by the end February.

Independent Production Fund Expands to Digital Platforms
The Independent Produciton Fund (IPF) has approved a new pilot program to fund drama series created for any platform. In recognition of the evolving broadcast environment, the IPF will provide equity financing not only to drama series with a television broadcast license, but also to scripted drama series that are designed and produced for exploitation on the web. As the sources of financing for web video without a broadcast license are very limited, the IPF support is intended to stimulate the growth of new forms of content. This unique contribution to independent producers will help them to explore the potential for high quality, story driven drama with new and innovative narrative forms. The IPF is inviting proposals for online drama series at its application deadline of March 31, 2010. The Independent Production Fund was established in 1991 and has invested over $50 million in 229 television drama series and over 300 professional development projects. The IPF works in collaboration with the Cogeco Program Development Fund.

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