Canadian Film Digest (May 1974)

~~ _ Audio Visual Equipment Show April-May 1974 The Canadian Film Digest New Products Rutherford holds photo and A-V show On April 4th, at Toronto’s Westbury Hotel, the 11th Annual Professional Photographic and was held. Organized by Rutherford Photo Limited, the day consisted of a display room set up in the Maple Leaf Ballroom and a panel with the theme ‘The Communications Revolution is | Shaping Our Lives.’ Among the companies represented in the display room were Sickles copy masters, op| tical printers, and film strip stands; Minolta, Beseler and Nikon camera equipment; ZuberRumpf processors; Norman Lights; Sinar accessories; Foba accessories; filter; Graphtronics processing equipment; F.E. lights; Matrix-R.P.L.-Colorbrite for slide creation and storage; Leedal darkroom equipment; Bruanoehler printing equipment; Berkey Photo; Pentax; Kodak 8mm equipment for use as A-V with television. The latter was a highlight of the exhibits. Other classrooms aids were by Varifont, Murac, Wollensak, Synsor, Fairchild, and Philips. Singh-Ray a Se %: t | = i } be Rutherford Photo has a division which Jack. Rutherford, President of Rutherford specialises in audio visual consultation. As Audio-Visual, describes the influence of A-V in President Jack Rutherford amply demontoday’s communications. strated, Rutherford Photo believes in the growth of this industry. At the panel discussion in the afternoon, Rutherford delivered an opening statement. Using statistics he showed how audio visual ~ communication can be a very effective trans mission method, because it reaches two of our most receptive senses for observing and assimilating information. He said the main question is where and how to use A-V. A-V is defined as using synched sound and images for carrying information, not entertainment. The communications revolution is coming from two areas: one is program development, plus the equipment is becoming So sophisticated that accelerated training programs are needed to utilise it fully. © Rutherford then outlined some recent technological advances. Avcom’s: small projection theatre that synch’s a casette player to a slide projector, PKM’s voice compressor, Kodak’s instant developer for Super 8, and the Kodak Super 8 video player, which Rutherford termed ‘revolutionary.’ Also mentioned were Richard Leacock’s Super 8 production package, and various multi-screen, multimedia set-ups. Especially interesting to Rutherford is the audio visual communication centre in London's Heathrow Hotel. This centre is equipped with multi-media presentation facilities including the ‘electronic chair’ and production facilities. Presentations can occur on a central screen or on the individual delegate. screen. Delegates can respond through a multiple choice system which registers results on a master control. Computers provide instant evaluation of response. Air Canada is installing such a system. Rutherford said the centre in Heathrow was being used fully — at a rate of $2000 per day — until the recent chaos. This opening statement was followed by a panel answering questions. Panel members included Hart Kinnear of Sony; Bob Lee of Rutherford; Rodger Ross, a CBE consultant; Leslie Rupf of Rutherford; Bob Schwartz of Motiva; Alec Stables of IBM and Jan Turek of Audio Visual Communications Consultants. The main concern of the audience seemed to be the problem of finding people to match the excellence of the equipment. Sony offers free production training programs lasting three . days and including script, lighting, blocking and writing. Rutherford A-V was set up to train people in the use of hardware, using your own or Rutherford’s facilities. The day wound up with an informal reception where the panel could be questioned further. This column provides information about new developments in technical aspecis of film production, distribution or exhibition. Send your information and photos io New Products, The Canadian Film Digest, 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto M4W 1C8. Or call the editor at (416) 924-3701. Orillia Showcase held Two hundred buyers met fifteen distributors in a four day session at Geneva Park, near Orillia, Ontario at the beginning of April and a great deal of information was passed from one group to the other amidst screenings and gettogethers. The official title of the gathering is the Ontario Film Showcase, and it is held annually under the sponsorship of the Ontario Film Association. The Showease is intended for film librarians, public librarians, audio visual coordinators, media consultants, educators, and representatives of private, public, and governmental agencies who are responsible for the purchase and rental of 16 mm films for educational, social, and recreational purposes. The Association itself is twenty-six years old. It used to train projectionists and do research, but recently it decided that its function must be altered because other commercial groups were doing the same thing. Composed of 180 members — and you don’t have to be a member to attend the Showcase — the group decided to bring together buyers and seliers of 16mm material. Hence the Showcase, a concept that has proven to be so successful that it is being copied out west. The sessions began with a welcome and screenings Wednesday evening. On Thursday the work began. Each day screenings from 9}2, 2-5, and 7-i0, all shorts offered for sale, were held. Then a feature at ten. Where's Poppa was _ given by United Artists and American Gralitt by Universal for one session each, On Friday evening Peter Morris, from the Canadian Film Institute, presented archive material. Among the shorts shown was Academy Award nominee Life Times Nine. The event was organised by Wayne Cunningham, Dean of Applied Arts at Georgian College in Barrie. The Association also sponsors other ac~ tivities, among them a recent animation workshop in Toronto with Grant Munroe. A future project is the First Annual John Grierson Seminar, to be held this October at the Shaw Festival Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Similar to the Flaherty Seminar in the U.S., the Association plans to allow only thirty-five filmmakers and a total of one hundred people at the maximum to attend. This way, says Cunningham, everyone will derive the most benefit out of the sessions. Universal to film Sinclair's U.S. ode Universal Education and Visual Arts, a division of Universal Pictures, is currently making a 16 mm film of Gordon Sinclair's ‘The Americans,’ Based on the radio broadcast of a year ago and the hit recordings that followed the huge response to the commentary by Toronto radio station CFRB’s Sinclair, the film utilises animation, motion picture footage, are | stills Karl Schanzer wrote and directs, and Bill Ackerman created the animation. An as-yet-unnamed star will narrate Plans are to market the film for use in schools and libraries. Page 21 Domestic Notes nar the Charlottetown Festival .... Four films are waiting to shoot at the new Metro Toronto Zoo .... Quadrant Films invested in a stage musical called Hey Justine which had a Toronto run in April and May... . Champlain Productions has acquired rights to Cliff Jones’ rock opera of Hamlet .... Toronto philosophy professor Jerome Simon has purchased rights for a movie based on Ross Macdonald’s The Three Roads. Cost was $30,000. Tom Hedley is writing the script, to be filmed in Toronto and Vancouver with a one million dollar budget .. . . Denis Heroux directed a film version of Jacques Brel is Alive and Wellrecently in France. It was a coproduction between Filmel and Cine Video Vincent Malle Productions. Brel himself is in it, and he sings the only song in French. The rest in English by the-vriginal Broadway cast: Elly Stone, Mort Schumman, and Joe Masiel .... Charlebois may appear in a French biker movie as a gang leader. Pic is about senseless violence. Tech: Dennis Pike is setting up a special effects unit at M.S. Art in Toronto. Capable of 3D animation, it’s aimed at more involved work, and first project is for OECA TV .... The Canadian Film Editors Guild, via John Watson of Insight Productions, has set up a clearing house for editors’ assignments .... Cinevision has opened a Vancouver office at Panorama Studios. Gerry Sohy is manager .... Crawley’s is possibly the only producer with its own lab. Graphic Laboratories is run by manager Glenn Robb and _ technical managers Frank Egan and Stan Hadden. TV work for all three networks is done there. Recently a Hazeltine Color Film Analizer was installed .... : Image Transform closed their Canadian office, so Bob Sher and Jack Sinclair set up their own consultation company. They advise on electronic filmmaking and also market Image Transform in Canada. They didn’t want to move to the U.S. .... Bob Elliott’s P.G. Group will open a Toronto office soon .... Max Candel’s Consolidated Film Services is making trailers .... Crawley and Maclean-Hunter have joined to form Crawley M-H Video for Ottawa videotape production. Training, information, and marketing programs for government, associations and industry are planned. Executive committee is Michael Hind-Smith (general manager of present M-H Video), Graeme Fraser, and Peter Llewellin (manager of the new com pany). _ . People: Expert Jay Leyda leaves York University for a post at New York University. And film program head James Beveridge is also leaving to make films in the far east. Replacing Beveridge will be John Katz, currently on staff. New staff members include Vincent Vaitiekunas and Ken Dancyger ... Genevieve Bujold’s divorce from Paul Almond became official in March. She’s in California appearing in Universal’s Earthquake ... . Peter Peason and production assistant Susan Vachon will be married in June....Somuch for smut... Kaj Pindal of the NFB has left to join Richard Williams’ animation firm in London .... Brian Bingham has left Astral Films for All-World Cinema... . Keir Dullea will move to’Toronto in the Fall. He will commute to New York to appear in a Broadway play.... Martin Bockner has set up his own distrib. Called Saguenay Films, it’s located on Cumberland St. in Toronto... . Jack Darcus has been in Toronto observing on CBC’s The Collaborators .... John Wright has moved permanently to Vancouver, and is set to direct two Beachcombers for CBC .... Ed McCormack has been appointed Odeon Theatres’ sound engineer. Formerly with Atlantic Audio-Visual and just completed designing and equiping Ontario Place, McCormack will act as an assistant to chief engineer William Devitt .... John Ross has been appointed executive producer of the CBC’s soap opera House of Pride. Ross is Pres of Robert Lawrence Productions .. R.D. Russell joined Alex L. Clarke as Viceresident of sales for Quebec and the laritimes .. . . Bob Crone was the third man in history to receive the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Life Membership, and it happened at a recent meeting of the group .... Diane Steele has left Paramount and now assists Doug Ouderkirk in the Publicity department at 20th-Fox .... Naney Martin has left as Barry Carnon’s secretary at Universal, and has been replaced by Lorraine Bradfield... . Wally Gentleman was a guest at Filmex in Los Angeles in early April .... David Acomba shot a Charlebois Special for CBC on May Ist. It’s the first time the singer has consented to do TV Actor Franz Russell is moving to Vancouver where he feels there will be more work .... Noel Harrison, son of Rex etc., is living on a farm in Nova Scotia, and plans to become a Canadian citizen .... Verd Marriott, formerly at the Century Theatre in Hamilton, has been appointed a supervisor for Famous Players .... Fox head Gordon Stulberg, raised in Toronto, was honoured at a testimonial luncheon by Variety Club Tent 25 of Southern California. Co-chairman was exTorontonian Peter Myers... . Lillian Brooks is leaving the CFDC office in Toronto to have achild.... Clubs: Variety Club Tent 47 in Vancouver recently elected 1974 officers and crew, Chief Barker is James A. Peacock, and his crew is Irv Levenson, Jack Barnett, Earl Essery, Bryan Holliday .... The Twentieth Century Theatres Managers Club of Toronto, now twenty-nine years old and the oldest theatre managers’ organization in Canada, elected a new executive. President is Morris Appleby of the Uptown, Secretary is Fern Marleau of the Yonge, Treasurer is Wayne Gebell of the Skyline, Good and Welfare is Mrs. Doreen Ross of the Uptown. WOMPI: Women of the Motion Picture Industry held an all-industry Harness racing evening at Greenwood race track in Toronto on May 6th... . These same ladies will hold their 20th anniversary dinner on June 5th at Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto. New officers will be installed: President is Jean Royce of Allied Artists, Ist V-P is Mary Crowley of MCA, 2nd V-P is Olive Copleston of BelleVue Films, treasurer is Florence van Heek of Famous Players, recording secretary is Vickie Knight of Twinex, corresponding secretary is Diane Steele Schalm of 20th-Fox. M.C. for the evening will be Universal’s Bill Soadie and guest speaker will be TV interviewer Brian Linehan... A Winnipeg Film Co-op has been formed, with stated purposes to do projects other than commercial and industrial and to pool resources. Members include director Leonard Yakir, director Ian Elkin, animator Neil McInnes, director David Cherniak, actress Linda Huston, director Jansa Vesna, animator Leon Johnson .... John Hirsch, new CBC drama head, seems to be making concrete efforts to expand the vision of his department. He’s been meeting with film directors and stage people, and he quickly snapped up the TV and feature rights to best seller Lark in the Clear Air.... Elections for officers of the British Columbia Film Industry Association saw Bruce McLeod elected a director for one year, and Art Steadman, Patricia Robertson, and Ralph Umbarger elected to three year terms .... Toronto Filmmakers Co-op was three years old in March, and it has grown to 400 "members .... All-World Class B shares are now on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Class A common were converted to Class B at the annual shareholders meeting held in Vancoub Vancouver .... Gil Taylor’s film Amherst has been invited to the American Film Festival in New York this month Francis Lai composed the music for Potterton’s Child Under a Leaf... . Columbia’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad grossed $73,000 in three days in a ten theatre and six satellite run in the Toronto area .... U.A.’s Sleeper grossed $170,000 in eleven weeks at the Uptown 1 in Toronto.... IATSE cameraman’s local 659 honoured Paul Johnson with a plaque. For numerous years he was steward of the Canadian wing .. . . IATSE Local 461 of St. Catharines concluded an agreement recently with Canadian Theatres .... Crawleys has sold four hundred prints of Picture Canada .... More Joy in Heaven, the CBC drama shown some time ago, has been sold to the Holland TV network .... It is now permissible to shoot liquor commercials in Alberta .... Freemantle added Japan to the long list of countries showing its Galloping Gourmet series .... Ambassador has set up a 16 mm department under Tom Miller, former 35 mm booker .... Date for takeover of Twinex by Famous Players is the end of June, and all reports indicate the move will take place on schedule .... Margaret Atwood sold the six month option to her best seller Surfacing to two New Yorkers because she could not find anyone who could give her enough assurance that a film would be made in Canada. She dickered with the NFB, but dollar terms and communication broke down, She wil! work on the seript. Full rights to the novel were reportedly needing well over one hundred thousand dollars to find acceptance. No price on this option deal was disclosed . . The Chocolate Cove Players trom Deer Istand, New Brunswick, are looking tor two apprentices for a summer tour, one male and one female. Free board and tuiiien will be provided. Contact Philip Wentworth. Season is eight weeks with one play per week, 4 Fe atl oe ee a 2 et ee ee ee ee = LE eee