Hollywood heavyweights joined forces with Canada’s television production industry during TIFF to celebrate the latest in homegrown television talent at this year’s 2nd annual Content Canada conference which took place at The Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on Sep. 10/11. The celebrity-studded, two-day event, dedicated to defining and delivering the next generation of screen content, showcased some of the hottest new TV series from the country’s top broadcasters while offering an industry development market and live speaker panels featuring top executives from the today’s biggest industry players.

Oscar-Winner, Christopher Plummer along with actress Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”) were both on-hand at Content Canada’s “Screenings in the Six” for the world premiere of their new Canada/U.K. co-pro series, “Departure,” scheduled to air on Global this fall. As well, CBC’s new sketch comedy troupe, ‘Tallboyz to Men’ were also in attendance for the world premiere of their new Bruce McCullough/Susan Cavan exec. produced show, “Tallboyz,” set to air this fall on CBC. 

“Dublin Murders,” a new STARZ original eight-episode series, also had its world premiere at Content Canada’s “Screenings in the Six” on September 10 in partnership with Bell Media. Created by Sarah Phelps, starring Killian Scott and Sarah Greene, and from executive producers Kate Harwood and Noemi Spanos, “Dublin Murders” depicts a contemporary world of psychological mystery and tension, with roots that reach down deep within Ireland’s past. 

“Our 2019 Content Canada Screenings and Industry Conference offered attendees an unparalleled opportunity to gain insight from some of tv’s biggest names and celebrate some great new television content”, said Ferne Cohen, Content Canada CEO. “I look forward to adding even more big names and shows to our roster for next year, and I encourage all those interested in the business of content creation to come check us out!”
Offering a celebration of exciting new content and an in-depth exploration of issues facing the content industry, Content Canada offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn from, and network with, television’s most influential thought leaders. Next year’s conference is scheduled to take place Sep. 2020.

Bigger and better sensors are becoming easier to produce and the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages—here’s a roundup of four top large-format cinema systems.

The ARRI ALEXA MINI LF gives many cinematographers exactly what they asked for, specifically a large-format Arri camera in a smaller form factor without any compromises to image quality or usability. Arri is unique in that it didn’t push the resolution of its full-frame sensor, providing 4.5K resolution that is just enough for today’s productions. It isn’t simply image quality for the Mini LF, because it opens the door for using the camera in many previously impossible spots or systems.

The SONY VENICE 6K is a spectacular camera and Sony’s roadmap of firmware updates makes a great camera even better. The VENICE boasts a 6K full-frame sensor. One cool feature is the CBK-3610XS Rialto Extension System, which lets you detach the sensor block to use in advanced setups where size and weight are important concerns. Firmware 3.0 unlocked lots of new resolution and frame-rate options, but the coming version 4.0 does even more. It’s an appealing choice if you are looking to go large format.

The RED Digital Cinema DSMC2 is featured with a MONTRO 8K VV Sensor (an 8K full-frame sensor) and 8192 × 4320 recording at 60 fps. The DSMC2 has some of the most impressive specs; Red code Raw, 17 stops of dynamic range, and a relatively compact form factor separate this from the rest. If you want to start getting into 8K there aren’t many with this feature set.

The CANON C700 Full-Frame. Sitting at the heart of the CANON C700 Full-Frame is a 5.9K CMOS sensor with Dual Pixel AF. This is a separating feature of Canon’s cinema cameras and will provide brilliant autofocus when you pick up the Canon EF version and EF-mount AF lenses.

Also available from Canon are SUMIRE primes, which aim to capture the spirit of classic lenses with a unique look that flatters subjects as you move wide open. They are also PL mount, so you can use them on many cameras with ease. These are full-frame optics and the set includes 14, 20, 24, 35, 50, 85, and 135mm focal lengths.

Credit: B&H New York, USA, large format NAB 2019 reviews, from their recent Newsletter

Education Arts Canada’s ‘One Deep Breath’ initiative is headed to York-Simcoe region elementary schools with a series of fun, new live musicals providing students in grades 4-6+ with the tools to tackle mental health challenges around this CMHA Mental Health Week. 

‘One Deep Breath’ is a series of thought-provoking mental health musicals and teaching resources designed to help youth deal with mental health challenges of their own, appropriate for grades 4-6 and up. This exciting initiative was created by Juno award-winning composers, producers and performers Judy & David Gershon and by Canadian director, writer, producer Ali Joy Richardson, under the guidance of a team of accredited mental health professionals. The program includes unforgettable in-school performances coupled with engaging teacher resource materials to extend the learning throughout the entire year. It reaches tens of thousands of schoolchildren every year and has received rave reviews from educators across Canada. 

The ‘One Deep Breath’ series consists of various different and unique live musicals including “The Secret Life of Riley K” (mental health, anxiety) and “Jay VS the World” (emotional regulation, bullying).

Deluxe Entertainment Services Group (Deluxe) announced today that James Fraser has joined the Deluxe Post Production sales team in Toronto in the role of Vice President, Sales. He reports to the division’s Mark Smirnoff, Executive Vice President, Sales. In his new role with Deluxe, Fraser will be working along side Christa Tazzeo Morson and be responsible for Feature, OTT and Television sales. 

In making the announcement, Smirnoff said, “Along with his impressive sales background and contacts, James brings a wealth of production experience to his role here, making him a great fit for the company.”

Added Fraser, “Deluxe Toronto provides world class sound, picture and vfx services to some of the industry’s top content creators. I’m thrilled to join their team of talented artists and technicians in helping to bring our client’s stories to screens of all shapes and sizes.”

Fraser has over 20 years of experience in the film and television industry, most recently as Sales Executive at Technicolor. Prior to his career in post, James worked for ten years as a Production Coordinator and Production Manager on more than 20 film and television projects including “Max Payne,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” and “Lars and the Real Girl.” He is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Radio and Television Arts program.

This is maybe skipping a step or two, but there’s room in Julian Taylor’s office in Burnside for an Oscar or an Emmy.

Taylor and business partner Jeff Levy own Andra Motion Technologies Inc., which is poised to make a big splash on the technology side of the film making world.

The partners also own Sunsel Systems Manufacturing, which builds circuit boards in their 74,000-square-foot headquarters shared by the two companies — erected last year at a cost of $6 million. Revenues for Sunsel are expected to hit $14-million by the end of this fiscal year, and while it’s too soon for revenue projections for Andra, Taylor said “significant revenues are coming on line.”

Andra engineers have developed a sensor, still too new to even have a name, that will allow for the automation of an increasingly complex part of the film-making process.

“Essentially, when you’re running a camera you have a focus puller (also called the 1st assistant camera) … who’s turning the focus knob in order to dial in the proper focus, manually,” Taylor said. “There isn’t anything that’s comprehensive enough to provide a fully automated solution that removes the distance judging but allows for full creative control. That has not been solved, except for what we’ve been able to introduce to the market.”

Andra became aware of the need for such technology after a meeting with NSCAD University professor Sam Fisher.

“They put on projects every year and the students have some very creative ideas as they’re studying film making,” said Taylor. “The problem for them is that controlling the focus of a camera has always been something that’s very difficult to do.”

In partnership with Sony Innovation Studios, the company is in the midst of a multi-stage launch of its sensor, which is about the size of a human thumb and contains 200 components.

The system consists of two parts. “One is the motion tracking technology that allows us to put sensors on actors and cameras, and we can very accurately and in real time know where they are in space. So, all this data is sent to a control system on a camera that then converts the motion tracking data,” said Taylor. “Our technology is being integrated with … emerging tech that’s coming on line, and what they’re trying to solve is that next generation of … filming, where there’s no more building sets, it’s all digital.”

Andra created an R&D team in 2012 to develop sensor technologies. It says the new invention won’t make anyone redundant, but rather provide a camera crew a capability and flexibility that doesn’t exist now.

“There is a technological need that is demanding a solution like this. What’s happening is, the higher the resolution … the focal depth gets narrower,” said Andra’s Peter Conlon. “One of the things that’s really fantastic about what’s happened is that cinematographers, and we’re talking the finest cinematographers in the world, have played with this … and have done things with it and said ‘Before Andra, that would have been impossible.’ They’ve unlocked a whole new array of cinematography that would have been impossible.”

Taylor is a mechanical engineer, Levy is an electrical engineer, and both are Dalhousie educated. They have more than 50 employees on the Sunsel side, and 10 engineers on the Andra side of the business, most of them also from Dal.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to attract the top talent, we’ve had the number one students for several years,” said Taylor, who expects to double employment at Andra in the next six to 12 months. “We’re in the process of hiring at the moment.”

Taylor says the film industry is always eager to hear about new technologies, and he has made multiple trips to Los Angeles to demonstrate his sensor.

“The limits are always being pushed and that means the cameras are in motion more often than not, there’s robotics involved in moving cameras around, the actors are being asked to do things in more complex movements and patterns,” he said, predicting that movies or TV shows using Andra will be released late this year or by next year.

And when that happens, he might have to go back to L.A.

“If it makes an impact on the industry, it certainly would be considered for a technical Oscar.”

Source: The Chronicle Herald