CHICAS PRODUCTIONS: Canada

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Friday, September 14, 2018

FINANCIAL POST

Everyone realizes too late that Stephen Harper was right about Venezuela

by Terence Corcoran

Published: September 13, 2018 9:33 AM EDT

As beleaguered Venezuela lies in socialist ruins and its people plunge deeper into economic chaos, the country’s president announced Wednesday that he was flying off to China in search of another financial rescue. It is not unreasonable to ask: Will he ever return? Are Chinese leaders crazy?

According to Reuters, Nicolas Maduro made the announcement over state media from Caracas airport just before boarding a plane. His parting words could be interpreted: “I am going with great expectations and we will see each other again in a few days with big achievements.” Was that a promise or a hope?

American media have been abuzz with speculation about a coup d’état in recent days at a time when the Venezuelan economy — in collapse for at least a year — seems beyond rescue. The New York Times reported over the weekend that Trump officials met with Venezuelans plotting the overthrow of Maduro’s dictatorship. Trump rejected the idea, but the news has generated new fever about foreign intervention or of a possible internal coup.

A peaceful overthrow of the Maduro regime would be the best outcome for a country that has been in a socialist tailspin for more than two decades — a reign of economic error that might have ended sooner had it not been for the soft-headed support of the world’s leftists, a collection of ideologues that ranged from Canadian mainstream socialists to international economists and a global media all too willing to downplay the scale and causes of Venezuela’s decline.

National income has cratered. The country’s currency is worthless paper with its estimated annual inflation rate of one million per cent. Disease is spreading, corruption is rampant, rule of law non-existent, crime everywhere. It is estimated that 2.3-million Venezuelan refugees have fled the failed state for better lives in Colombia and other South American nations.

Even CBC’s The National has glommed on to Venezuela’s economic disaster, having dispatched star anchor Adrienne Arsenault to the border between Colombia and Venezuela to file reports this week on the human toll of the refugee flood. It’s a big move for The National, which over two decades has rarely raised a concerned eyebrow as Venezuela slid under the tyranny of leftist populism, first under Hugo Chavez, hero of the Canadian left, and then under Maduro, who took power when Chavez died in 2013.

At the time, left-wingers criticized then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper for issuing a statement on Chavez’s death that rightly offered no sympathy: “I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.”

At Rabble.ca, official home of leftist Canadian commentary, a writer implied that Harper could learn a lesson from Chavez, who — among other things — was said to be more representative of democracy since he won elections with big majorities that Harper never matched. In 2014, a Rabble headline read: “NDP should use Venezuelan revolution as inspiration for Canada’s labour struggles.”

The list of Canadian enthusiasts for Chavez-style socialism ranged from journalist Linda McQuaig to celebrity author Naomi Klein. McQuaig devoted 20 pages of her 2004 book “It’s the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet,” to Chavez as the hero of nationalization after he took over control of Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVAA — a classic socialist takeover that became the single-largest cause for the country’s decline. Chavez used nationalized revenue from the country’s massive oil reserves to set up social redistribution to buy support among the poor and the masses: free housing, virtually free gasoline, payoffs to supporters. As oil hit US$100 a barrel, the ideology seemed to be paying off. But when the commodity-price bubble burst, it all came crashing down.

McQuaig, Klein and other squishy Canadians were not alone in cheering Venezuela’s Chavez/Maduro takeover. Nobel economist and former Clinton adviser Joseph Stiglitz praised Chavez, claiming he “appears to have had success in bringing health and education to the people in the poor neighbourhoods of Caracas, to those who previously saw few benefits of the country’s oil wealth.”

International support for Venezuelan socialism continued over two decades and up till recently. British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn hailed Venezuela as a socialist model and Chavez for showing the world there is a better way of doing things. “It’s called socialism,” Corbyn said.

In a commentary last week, Harvard Economist Kenneth Rogoff spread the net of complicity wide:

“Altogether too many left-leaning economists (including some who ultimately worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders in the US) were diehard supporters of the Venezuelan regime. There were also opportunistic enablers, including Goldman Sachs (with its ill-considered purchase that propped up Venezuelan bond prices), and some on the right, such as the inauguration committee for US President Donald Trump, which accepted a large donation from Citgo, the US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.”

Are the Chinese crazy enough that they will sink more cash into a destitute and failed economy?

All through the Chavez/Maduro regime, Venezuela has been forming military and financial ties with Russia and China. Russia has supplied billions of dollars to Venezuela while pressuring the country to nationalize industries and mines, including Chrystellex, the Canadian gold operator that last month won another U.S. court case seeking US$1.2-billion compensation for the government takeover.

Russia’s involvement in Venezuela runs deep, leading some to speculate that a new clash with the United States in taking shape over the future of South America. China has also funded Venezuela, based on the assumption that there will in future be cash to extract from the country’s massive oil reserves.

Can Maduro, if he is indeed off to China, secure more stopgap funding from Chinese leaders? Are the Chinese crazy enough that they will sink more cash into a destitute and failed economy in the hope that the investment will be returned once some form of stability is achieved?

Venezuela has a lot of oil, but its current government has so many growing liabilities tied to that oil, sorting out the debts in future will not be easy, especially given the failed nation’s current state of law and monetary policy. It is possible that China and Russia might find themselves coexisting as the backers of a regime that neither would claim is an economic success, even by the miserable standards of Latin America.

Meanwhile, Maduro recently launched a farcical reform of the valueless Venezuelan Bolivar, including the launch of a cryptocurrency called the Petro — described by Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke as a scam.

Whether or not Maduro ever returns from China with his “great expectations” fulfilled may not matter. From what we know of Venezuela’s economic plight, there is more than a good chance that the end is near for the glorious socialist model that never existed.

More info: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-everyone-realizes-too-late-that-stephen-harper-was-right-about-venezuela
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Save BC Film: Vancouver Lobby Helps Local Biz...

Despite the dire conditions, Vancouver's biz has actually picked up a bit

For decades Vancouver's hefty incentives have made the city a major shooting destination, especially for U.S. TV series. And lately the British Columbia metropolis has attracted a slew of vfx and animation companies, which have set up shop there to take advantage of tax breaks and the growing pool of local talent.

But not long ago it seemed that Vancouver was facing a significant production slowdown. Some companies closed, or, like Rockstar Games, left in pursuit of better incentives elsewhere. Execs were looking to places like Ontario, where vidgame developers can get up to a 40% tax credit compared to B.C's 17.5%.

The province offers a 33% credit just on labor costs — while Ontario and Quebec offer a 25% tax credit on all production costs. Further, the harmonized sales tax, which combines the 7% provincial sales tax (PST) with the 5% goods and services sales tax (GST) levied by federal government, has been phased out, so the provincial portion is no longer refundable to productions.

Facing such threats, the industry banded together under Save BC Film to lobby the government for changes prior to the provincial elections.

"Literally thousands were out of work," says Peter Leitch, chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Assn. of British Columbia. "With the Liberal government re-elected, the credits remained at the same level. The industry was bracing for the worst."

But despite the dire conditions, Vancouver's biz has actually picked up a bit. Current numbers show that production is largely unchanged from last year's levels, according to Richard Brownsey, CEO of Creative BC, a new agency that amalgamates the B.C. Film Commission and B.C. Film + Media. And 30 new productions are filming or about to start.

Recent news of Pixar Canada shuttering its Vancouver studio set off shock waves, but insiders believe this was less due to incentives and more a corporate Disney decision related to the delay of two Pixar films and the need to shift work back to Pixar's headquarters. Says Nerd Corps Entertainment CEO Asaph Fipke: "Look, (parent company Disney) has ILM and Pixar here, so (why not move one) when they can still get the tax credit?"

Overall, the vfx/animation/post sector seems to be showing stability. Companies like MPC, Zoic, Scanline VFX, Image Engine, Atomic Cartoons, Bardel Animation, DHX Media, Gener8 and Nerd Corps are hiring. Given that Fipke's company is about to engage 50 more workers, over the next few months, reaching a staff of 400, he's confident predicting growth for TV animation. Gener8 CEO Rory Armes, whose company specializes in 2D-to-3D conversion, is looking to hire 80 people and is competing with other studios to get the talent.

Small fluctuations in tax credits are inconsequential for digital production, believes Fipke, insisting that when you net them out, the difference between those offered by B.C., Ontario and Quebec isn't very big. "The PST is maybe a little bit of an issue," admits Fipke, "but not enough for us to jump up and move the operation somewhere else."

Thank you Variety

More info:
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Web piracy: Sites in Russia, China, Ukraine, Canada top MPAA list...

Websites registered in China, Russia, Ukraine and Canada continue to dominate the list of "most notorious" markets for distributing pirated movies and TV shows, an industry report shows.

The survey, compiled by the Motion Picture Assn. of America at the request of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, ranked websites and other technologies used to distribute illegal copies of movies and TV show based on how much web traffic they generated, among other indicators.

The MPAA list includes peer-to-peer networks, Bit Torrent portals, infringing download and streaming hubs, linking websites and newsgroups, as well as physical markets located in the Ukraine, Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and India.

PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club

"The rogue overseas marketplaces highlighted in the filing undermine the people who work hard to create the movies and TV shows audiences love, and jeopardize the billions of dollars they contribute to the U.S. economy," Chris Dodd, chairman of the MPAA said in a statement. "The MPAA commends the USTR's commitment to protect and enforce intellectual property rights abroad and, in so doing, protect U.S. jobs."

Among the top sites identified in the survey were: Extratorrent.com in the Ukraine, which had 16.1 million unique visitors in August, including features highlighting "the most pirate movies" and "first cams," which are camcordings of movies showing in theaters; and Russia-based Rutracker.org, a BitTorrent portal launched in 2010 that is one of the world's most visited sites, with 11.7 million unique visitors in August.

Also on the list were two sites from Canada: Kickass.to, which changed names after U.S. authorities seized its previous domain; and Torrentz.eu, one of the most popular BitTorrent websites on the Internet, which had 45.5 million visitors in August.

China also two websites on the list: Xunlei.com, which features a high speed file sharing system that distributes unauthorized copies of movies and TV shows; and QVOD, or Kuaibo.com, widely used by Chinese rogues linking sites.

"The criminals who profit from the most notorious markets through the world threaten the very heart of our industry and in doing so threaten the livelihoods of the people who give it life," wrote the MPAA's Michael O'Leary, the report's author. "These markets are an immediate threat to legitimate commerce, impairing legitimate markets' viability and curbing U.S. competitiveness."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

Foreign TV Shoots Boost Ontario’s Economy...

Features drop but network series rep $943 million in local spending
Jennie Punter

TORONTO — Ontario's film and TV industry contributed C$1.28 billion ($1.25 billion) to the provincial economy last year, up slightly from $1.26 billion in 2011, the Ontario Media Development Corporation said Friday.

Despite a dip in both foreign and domestic feature film spending, growth in the TV sector more than made up the difference, with domestic and foreign series representing 76% ($943 million) of Ontario's 2012 total.

The most notable trend was the uptick in foreign, primarily U.S., series — an almost 80% increase from $146 million in 2011 to $263 million in 2012. NBCUniversal's "Hannibal," pictured above with star Mads Mikkelsen, and "Defiance" and Netflix' "Hemlock Grove" were among 18 foreign skeins shot in Ontario last year.

In Toronto, the province's production hub, local industryites have noted a higher level of client retention the past two years, reversing the previous trend of series shooting one season in town then moving to a different jurisdiction.

"These 2012 production levels are a testament to the heavy lifting that we and other stakeholders have committed to in order to create a positive and productive environment for film and television in Ontario," said Jim Mirkopoulos, vice president of operations at Cinespace studios, where the fifth season of NBCUniversal skein "Warehouse 13" and Paul W.S. Anderson's sword-and-sandal pic "Pompeii" will lense this year.

"Lost Girl," "Rookie Blue" and "Beauty and the Beast" were among 140 Canadian series that spent $679 million in Ontario in 2012, an increase from 2011's $609 million total.

Foreign feature spending fell to $103.5 million from 2011's record-busting $266 million; that total included Sony's "Total Recall" and Legendary Pictures' "Pacific Rim," two of the biggest foreign features ever shot in Ontario. Both lensed at Pinewood Toronto Studios.

Domestic features spent $120 million in 2012, a drop from 2011's $161 million on the back of more production — 39 vs. the previous year's 28 — but budgets were lower.

As of Feb. 22, Ontario had 21 productions shooting or in prep, including season two of BBC America's "Copper" and Malcolm Lee's "Best Man II" (Universal).

Thank you Variety

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Toronto 2012: IATSE Launches Protest Outside Festival Headquarters Over Out-Sour

dispute that follows contracting out of digital file revisions has led to a peaceful information picket by the projectionists union in front of Bell Lightbox in Toronto.

TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival faces an information picket by IATSE Local 58 outside Bell Lightbox, the fest's year-round headquarters, on the eve of its 37th edition.

Toronto 2012: Paladin and 108 Media Partner for North American Distribution (Exclusive)

Toronto 2012: Festival Director Piers Handling Expects Strong Film Market
The festival is looking to resolve the dispute over out-sourcing of digital revision work to Deluxe Toronto through arbitration to avoid any major disruption when Hollywood and the rest of the international film world descends on Toronto from September 6.

International Week in Review 8/24: Ridley Scott Suspends Shoot After Brother's Death,

Pussy Riot Sentencing and Prince Harry Controversy

"The collective agreement provides for a process for handling disagreements like this through an arbitration hearing, which we are in the process of scheduling," TIFF spokeswoman Jennifer Bell said Friday in a statement.
"This is the process that IATSE and TIFF have agreed to, and this is the way that the issue will be resolved," she added.

The IATSE local is at odds with TIFF after it contracted work to check and prepare digital film files ahead of the festival screenings running from September 6 to 16.
In the past, the revising of celluloid film ahead of the annual September film festival was done in-house.
But with TIFF like most festivals increasingly employing digital projection technology, Toronto organizers insist revising digital files cannot be done in-house.
IATSE Local 58, meanwhile, is looking to protect its turf with the information picket outside Bell Lightbox.

STORY: Toronto 2012: Paladin and 108 Media Partner for North American Distribution (Exclusive)
"They somehow seem to think that the fact that it can't be performed in-house somehow takes away our jurisdiction. It does not," IATSE president Jim Brett told the Globe and Mail newspaper.
IATSE Local 58, which represents TIFF projectionists and revisors, filed a grievance on the contracting out of work to Deluxe Toronto.
The festival maintains the action has so far been "peaceful" in the run-up to TIFF, and within the right of IATSE Local 58.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Canada's Imax Adds to India Footprint With PVR Cinemas Deal ...

The Indian multiplex pioneer is to install a fifth large format theater in Bangalore, after an earlier four-theater agreement.

TORONTO – Indian cinema chain and multiplex pioneer PVR Cinemas has purchased an Imax theater for Bangalore, to add to an earlier four-screen deal with the Canadian giant screen exhibitor.

PVR Cinemas to Add 350 Screens, 6 Entertainment Complexes

Imax Reports Sharply Higher Q2 Profits on Expanding Theater Network
New Delhi-based PVR, which is currently expanding its cinema circuit overall, will open the fifth Imax screen in March 2013 in Bangalore's Vega Mall.

The latest agreement follows an earlier March 2011 deal with Imax for four theaters.
PVR plans to open two Imax theaters in existing multiplexes in Bangalore and Mumbai in 2012, with the other two super-sized screens set to open as part of new constructions in Delhi and Noida by 2014.
The PVR deal comes as Imax continues to build out its footprint in India as part of an international diversification beyond North America.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

How to Shoot a Project in Canada...

THR's city-by-city guide to Hollywood's neighbor to the north, from Vancouver to Hamilton, Ontario.
Toronto 2012: Canada's Alliance Films Launches Online Portal for Festival Launch Titles
Toronto 2012: Where to Shop If You're in a Clothing Jam
Toronto 2012: The A-List With Films for Sale

Toronto 2012: FilmDistrict's Peter Schlessel on the Fest -- 'It's My Favorite Acquisitions Market'
As it doubles for New York, Moscow and elsewhere, Hollywood's neighbor to the north plays host to Twilight and scads of TV series.

VANCOUVER

Recent Shoots: The CW's Supernatural and its upcoming Arrow, the TNT sci-fi drama Falling Skies, Fox's Fringe and the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time.
PHOTOS: Toronto Film Fest's Top Ten Fashion Statements
British Columbia has, for well more than a generation, served as Hollywood's backlot for its varied locations, from arid deserts and cattle ranches to rural ghost towns and glittering skyscrapers. Multicultural Vancouver has doubled for Moscow, Los Angeles, Shanghai and London. While the city offers a range of diverse settings, popular shooting locations include Chinatown, the University of British Columbia and Stanley Park.

That, plus local tax incentives, saw The CW shoot five of its eight pilots for the 2012-13 season in Vancouver, including Arrow, Cult and First Cut.
Shooting in the city also offers proximity to the coastal beaches and rainforests of Vancouver Island. In recent years, the island has played host to shoots for The Big Year, with Owen Wilson and Jack Black, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

In addition to a developed film and TV production infrastructure, backed by about 30 soundstages, Vancouver has a growing digital animation and visual effects industry, complete with dedicated tax credits and a talent pool. That makes British Columbia a top production center for the major Hollywood studios, one that rivals Los Angeles and New York. Says Tim Iacofano, producer on the upcoming ABC drama Red Widow: "Vancouver is a short flight and in the same time zone as Los Angeles. If need be, you can have people on the first flight out of Los Angeles and have them working in the afternoon."

Toronto 2012: Canada's Alliance Films Launches Online Portal for Festival Launch Titles

MONTREAL

Recent Shoots: ABC Studios' Zero Hour pilot, Relativity Media's Mirror Mirror and the Bradley Cooper starrer The Words.
Source Code producer Hawk Koch recalls how shooting the psychological thriller in Montreal was made easier because much of the film takes place inside a relocated Chicago commuter train. That meant the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer could be produced on a soundstage at Mel's Cite du Cinema complex, with cost savings to boot. Before choosing the Canadian city, Koch and his team scouted Pennsylvania, New York and Atlanta. So why Montreal? In part because of Quebec's generous 25 percent all-spend tax credit. Says Koch, the new president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "We went there because the movie took place 90 percent in a train and we needed a stage and, from a monetary standpoint, it made the most sense."
Foreign location shooting helps fuel annual production volume of about $800 million in Montreal, most of it coming from French-language film and TV projects. So the local crews and acting talent are busy, experienced and speak fluent English. In addition to its greenscreen soundstages, Montreal has a historical old quarter, providing a wide range of settings for modern or period shoots on locations that can appear North American or European. The city also has more than 40 visual effects companies, making it the world's seventh-largest postproduction hub.

Toronto 2012: Where to Shop If You're in a Clothing Jam

TORONTO

Recent Shoots: Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, the RoboCop reboot, the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer An Enemy and the Stephen King novel adaptation Carrie.

Genre auteur Guillermo del Toro didn't just shoot his sci-fi epic Pacific Rim on a few of the stages at Pinewood Toronto Studios. The creature feature was shot on all seven stages of the megastudio, with one stage divided into two to create yet more space for del Toro to move his cameras. The shoot follows a busy year for Canada's largest production center as it continues to entice L.A. producers with a potential 54 percent of labor expenditure savings, thanks to traditional and digital tax credits and the federal government's 16 percent tax credit. Toronto also has a slew of studio facilities and a vast supply of technical and creative talent, and it routinely doubles for New York, Boston, Washington and Chicago while offering an array of services to help calm anxious filmmakers. Says Pacific Rim executive producer Callum Greene, "It's not just a tax break that steers a film of this size into port -- it's also the needed security of knowing we'll be taken care of at a higher level wherever we land."

HALIFAX

Recent Shoots: The William Shatner TV show Weird or What?, the Jason Buxton debut feature Blackbird and the third season of stand-up series The Candy Show.
Tom Selleck should qualify for a Canadian passport by now. The actor was recently in Nova Scotia to shoot Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt for CBS, the eighth in the series of TV movies shooting there since 2004 that has the Atlantic province double as Massachusetts. There's strong local government support for foreign location shooting, with Nova Scotia offering some of Canada's most generous tax incentives. The province also offers a regional and frequent filming bonus to entice returning shoots like Jesse Stone. Nova Scotia boasts varied locations, from urban streets in Halifax to historic villages and scenic coastal towns like Lunenburg.

Says producer Mark Montefiore, who shot Picnicface, a series for Canada's The Comedy Network, in Halifax, "It's one of the only places in Canada where you get invited over to dinner by the crew after you wrap."

Toronto 2012: The A-List With Films for Sale

HAMILTON

Recent Shoots: The Universal sci-fi series Rewind, Resident Evil: Retribution and Lifetime telefilm The Cold Spring.
When Anthony Zuiker, the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation creator, teamed with Yahoo to make the online thriller Cybergeddon, a 90-minute scripted drama, he didn't follow the herd and shoot in Toronto. Instead, he took his crew and talent an hour south to Hamilton, Ontario, to tap a 10 percent regional tax-credit bonus. Other advantages include skilled technical and creative talent, readily available soundstages and equipment, diverse locations and a local film commission to help at every turn.

Says Zuiker, "We're still stretching every dollar we can to make the best content possible, but that's all part of the fun."

BY THE NUMBERS

16% of tax credits that can be combined with the Quebec film and TV tax credit.
10% of the regional tax-credit bonus offered by Hamilton.

Toronto 2012: FilmDistrict's Peter Schlessel on the Fest -- 'It's My Favorite Acquisitions Market'

SHOOTING NORTH OF THE BORDER:

Canada is so competitive that even the major urban centers vie with one another for location shoots. Here's what each specializes in.
Montreal: European Settings
Old Montreal has period buildings and cobblestone streets dating to the 17th century. The Words, starring Bradley Cooper and Olivia Wilde, saw the city pass for Paris and New York.
Halifax: New England
The city's marine setting on the Atlantic makes it ripe to double for New England, as on the Syfy drama Haven and in the Angela Bassett starrer Jumping the Broom, in which Halifax stood in for Martha's Vineyard.

Toronto: Visual Effects

As Canada's top visual effects hub, the city lures Hollywood to bring FX-heavy movies such as Still Seas and Total Recall to take advantage of tax credits that can chop off 60 percent of a project's budget.
Hamilton: Working-Class Grit
They don't call it "Steeltown" for nothing. The 2005 action film Four Brothers used the Stelco and Dofasco steel mills as a backdrop, and Ron Howard's Cinderella Man shot a dockside scene at Hamilton Harbour.

Vancouver: Big-Budget Shoots
With about 30 soundstages, the city routinely hosts tentpoles such as Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, Man of Steel and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com
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Movie ticket prices reach new high in U.S. and Canada...

By Richard Verrier

If you thought going to the movie theater was more expensive this year, you weren't imagining it.

Average ticket prices in the U.S. and Canada climbed to an all time high in the second quarter, reaching $8.12, up from $7.92 in the first quarter and $8.06 in the second quarter of 2011, according the National Assn. of Theatre Owners.

That average might seem remarkably low to moviegoers in L.A., where ticket prices are well above $10, but the trade group's analysis is based on a survey of theaters nationwide and also includes lower-cost matinee tickets and tickets discounted for seniors and students.

The spike in ticket prices reflected the surge in premium-priced 3-D and Imax ticket sales from such movies as "The Avengers," "Men in Black 3" and "Brave."

"We had just some big 3-D pictures and a lot of people attended them,'' said Patrick Corcoran, spokesman for the trade association.

Still, average ticket prices rose during a quarter when box office revenue dropped 1.2%, to $2.8 billion, while theater admissions dropped 2% to $351.1 million. Year to date, box office revenue is up 5%; admissions have increased 4%.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

More info: www.latimes.com
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U.S. hammers Canada, other countries over copyright protections...

Canada may be the United States' largest trading partner, but it remains on a "priority watch list" of countries with the worst records for protecting copyrighted material.

In its 2012 annual report on trade barriers and content theft, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk's office put Canada on a list of 13 countries -- including India, China, Pakistan and Russia -- that were singled out as the worst offenders.

The office said it was waiting to see if Canada would enact "long-awaited copyright legislation" and suggested that the country needs to take more steps to tighten border security by "providing customs officials with ex-officio authority to take action against the importation, exportation, and trans-shipment of pirated or counterfeit goods."

Under the category of "positive developments," Kirk's office removed Malaysia and Spain from the watch list, citing improvements to strengthen copyright protections in those countries.

Christopher Dodd, chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, commended the trade representative's office for its report, which he said "highlights content theft and barriers in foreign markets that pose threats to the continued growth of U.S. creative industries and the U.S. economy. Strong copyright protection and enforcement are vital to our industry's ability to create U.S. jobs, grow our own economy, and expand U.S. exports."

Thank you Los Angeles

TimesHave a great day ☼

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Canadian TV biz goes to court

Canadian TV biz goes to court
It wants regulator to treat ISPs as broadcasters
By BRENDAN KELLY

MONTREAL -- The battle to force Internet Service Providers to be treated like broadcasters went before Canada's Supreme Court on Monday, a case that could have a major impact on the local TV business.
A coalition representing actors, writers and producers argued that ISPs should be forced to follow rules set by federal broadcast regulator the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, including paying a levy to support original Canadian content.

The Internet providers -- including major players Bell Canada and Shaw Communications -- beg to differ.

The entertainment guilds lost the first round in the fight after the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the ISPs are not broadcasters in July 2010. But in March 2011 the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

"Internet providers are the broadcasters of the 21st century," said Jay Thomson, VP at the Canadian Media Production Assn. "We want to give the CRTC the chance to review this and to see if there is any way they can support Canadian programming."

The Supreme Court is expected to take between six and eight months to reach a decision.

Thank you Variety.

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Vancouver is losing ground to Toronto and Montreal in attracting Hollywood film and TV shoots.

Eastwards shift of major studio production in Canada continues as the westernmost province fails to keep pace with Ontario and Quebec on tax credit savings.

TORONTO – Vancouver is losing ground to Toronto and Montreal in attracting Hollywood film and TV shoots.

Tax Change Threatens Hollywood Production in British Columbia

The latest activity report from British Columbia Film + Media indicates foreign, mostly Hollywood producers spent $778 million locally in the westernmost province in 2010, the last year surveyed.
That's well down on the just under $1.1 billion in foreign production activity in 2009 in B.C.
The steep fall follows B.C.'s labor-based tax credit failing to keep pace with a more generous all-spend tax credit in Ontario and Quebec, and the impact of a rising Canadian dollar in comparison to the American greenback.
Fox's Fringe TV series and the Matt Damon-starring film Elysium are among the Hollywood productions to shoot locally in B.C. in the last year.
And the fall-off in foreign production has been partially offset by local film and TV production, which edged up to $244 million in 2010, from $218 million in 2009, according to the report.
But B.C. still faces a "deeper competitive problem," given more generous tax credits on offer to Los Angeles producers in Ontario and Quebec, according to British Columbia Film chairman Michael Francis.
"…it is more difficult to develop and finance scripted drama and feature films in B.C. than it is in many other provinces. This is a result of a number of factors including: the absence of equity funding in BC, the more lucrative production incentives available in other jurisdictions and the fact that broadcasters, who commission content, are based in Toronto and are increasingly relying on Ontario produced product," Francis wrote in the report.
Hollywood North in recent years has been largely centered on British Columbia and Ontario, with tax policy helping to determine where the major studios shoot north of the border.
U.S. foreign location shooting rebounded in Ontario in 2010 after the province followed Quebec and introduced its all-spend 25 percent film tax credit.
The eastwards shift of Hollywood film and TV production in Canada is expected to pick up steam after B.C. voted in a referendum to phase out its harmonized sales tax (HST).
Foreign producers can now recover the former 8% provincial sales tax (PST) as part of the HST, but that will change when B.C. eventually phases out the PST.

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Toronto 2011: Canadian and European Producers Chase Buyers at Film Market

As Hollywood stars strut the red carpet in Toronto, local and foreign producers will be active behind velvet ropes beating the ferns for film buyers.

TORONTO -- Like paparazzi with their "Hey guys! Over here! Over here!" calls this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, Canadian and international producers will be battling for attention in Toronto amid the Hollywood glare.

•Toronto International Fil...
Cedric Jeanson of New York-based Filmbox, which is selling Matthew Goode's Burning Man internationally after its world premiere at TIFF, has just laid on another private screening Friday at Bell Lightbox.
"Lots of distributors have tracked the film. People have seen the footage, read the screenplay, they want to ensure the film works emotionally as a whole,"Jeanson explained.
Burning Man, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, features Goode playing an English chef in Australia trying to put his life and his relationship with his son back together after a family illness, while surrounded by beautiful women.
CAA is repping the emotionally-driven drama for domestic rights.
"We'll see. The festival has been very supportive of the film. We're pretty hopeful that good distributors will respond strongly to it," Jeanson said.
Also hoping for an emotional reception from Toronto audiences and film buyers is Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, who is bringing her latest film, Where Do We Go Now?, to the festival after a Cannes bow.
"You never know how it happens. Sometimes it's completely unexpected. Until now, wherever we have screened the film, we've had positive reactions," Labaki said of the Lebanese village drama set against the backdrop of civil strife.
"People are surprised by the emotions they feel, as they go from laughter to tears. A normal audience who let themselves go to these kinds of emotions will respond positively," she added.
Labaki's debut film, Caramel, screened as a gala at TIFF in 2007.
Pathe' International will be shopping the international rights to Where Do We Go Now? in Toronto.
Indie maven Casian Elwes will be working U.S. distributors in Toronto to secure a theatrical release stateside for Edwin Boyd, Nathan Morlando's theatrical drama about a Canadian bank robber-turned-Toronto folk hero that stars Scott Speedman.
The indie pic, which stars Speedman as a gentleman bandit who rose to 1950s media fame in post-war Toronto for dramatic bank hold-ups and two prison breaks, was initially shopped to foreign buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Then a movie trailer was shown to distributors in Cannes.
"Buyers will see the film for the first time at TIFF, and sales will begin in earnest," Edwin Boyd producer Allison Black of Euclid 431 Pictures said Thursday, ahead of a Saturday night bow in Toronto at Bell Lightbox.
Kirk D'Amico of Myriad Pictures is selling Edwin Boyd internationally.
Also on the Canadian front, there's U.S. buyers' heat around the National Film Board of Canada's highly-anticipated TIFF documentary, Pink Ribbons Inc., which exposes the North American-centered "pink ribbon" industry around breast cancer fed by corporations like Avon and pharmaceutical giants that have women and men walking, biking and running for a cancer cure as they are sold products with pink ribbons on them.
Pink Ribbon Inc., directed by Lea Pool, is a slow-build from an opening scene in San Francisco as thousands of mostly women prepare to run to raise money for a breast cancer cure, to cynical corporations awash in fund-raising proceeds talking about all they do to cure cancer.
"I felt the need to go from something not so bad to something I had to denounce," Pool said of the film's story arc.
Ravinda Din, who produced Pink Ribbon Inc., said the NFB documentary aims to start a new conversation about breast cancer after a pink ribbon campaigns that urge cancer sufferers to be bright and optimistic about a cure have produced no significant changes in mortality rates over the last 60 years.
"The film is not just about making the audience angry. Anger is the beginning of something, about changing things," Din said.
The Toronto International Film Festival continues through Sept. 18.

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CRTC: Canadians Love Their Digital Devices...

Canadians are increasingly watching TV on their smartphones, tablets and online as U.S. digital giants like Netflix, YouTube and iTunes move north of the border.

TORONTO -- Now we know why Netflix, YouTube and iTunes are breaking for the Great White North: Canadians are watching TV shows on their digital devices in droves.

Commercial concerns dominate CRTC ruling

Netflix Canada cheaper than U.S. service

The CRTC, Canada's TV watchdog, in an industry survey reports 24% of English-speaking Canadians and 20% of French-speaking Canadians in 2010 watched some TV programming online, including newscasts, sports clips and popular U.S. and Canadian TV shows.

"This trend is expected to continue as these services give consumers the flexibility to catch up on the television shows they have missed, at a time and on the device that is most convenient," the regulator said.

The CRTC predicted that online viewing traffic on Canadian Internet networks will quadruple from 2009 to 2014.

Mobile video streaming is driving the growth: the regulator estimates that, between 2010 and 2014, the number of Canadian wireless subscribers will grow from 25.8 million to nearly 30 million, with half using a smartphone that can connect to the Internet and social media.
The CRTC report is not just about cheerleading about Canadians being digitally savvy.
The regulator insisted it needs to know the TV viewing habits of Canadians online, or on mobile phones and tablets, to ensure it can maintain shelf space for homegrown content.
"In this new digital world, regulators will be faced with challenges, particularly as they pertain to maintaining the currency and flexibility of existing laws," the CRTC warned in its report.

"In order to understand where regulations may become ineffective or result in unintended consequences, it is critical to examine the trends that drive convergence, alter business models, and change consumer behaviours—particularly those related to media consumption—and any other issues that concern consumers," the report added.

The CRTC has faced calls from domestic TV producers and broadcasters for the regulator to force Netflix to subsidize homegrown TV production as it continues to expand into Canada.
Netflix is considered the canary in the mine as the Canadian TV industry deals with a wall of U.S. digital content coming across the border and aimed at digital devices – and all unregulated by the CRTC.

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NATO warns Canada on early VOD - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

NATO warns Canada on early VOD

Org enlists support for theatrical experience from Tarantino, Shyamalan, Favreau

By ANDREW STEWART

The National Assn. of Theater Owners took its fight against premium video-on-demand beyond U.S. borders, with NATO prexy and CEO John Fithian urging industryites at exhib confab ShowCanada tostay wary of shrinking theatrical windows.
"Early VOD releases to the home could damage the movie industry in two significant ways," Fithian said to the crowd on Wednesday. "Early releases will reduce movie ticket sales, and will exacerbate movie theft by giving pirates an early pristine copy of movies."

Fithian also called for the participating VOD studios -- Fox, Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. -- to release VOD sales stats: "How can the industry evaluate the studios' test if they continue to hide the facts?" Fithian asked.

Sony's "Just Go With It" was the first title to launch in April via premium VOD 69 days after its theatrical release. The remaining three titles included Warner's "Hall Pass," Fox Searchlight's "Cedar Rapids" and "The Adjustment Bureau," all about 60 days after theatrical release.

Until now, the premium VOD trial has stayed within the U.S., but as international grosses continue to overshadow domestic, studios undoubtedly will look to extend the VOD biz overseas.

After Canada, NATO plans to move to Europe later this month, then in August to Australia, where Fithian will hold meetings with local exhib execs. "We hope that this early VOD experiment begins and ends in the U.S.," Fithian said. "But if not, we want exhibitors everywhere to be prepared."

So far, NATO has earned support from such high-profile filmmakers as James Cameron, Michael Bay, Kathryn Bigelow and Guillermo del Toro. The org announced at the confab it has also enlisted backing from Christopher Nolan, Jon Favreau, M. Night Shyamalan, Quentin Tarantino and Mark Boal.

ShowCanada runs through June 2 in Ottawa.

Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

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NATO warns Canada on early VOD - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

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Canadian Co-Pro Market Adds Australian Focus...

Australian state agencies sending local producers to Halifax to fill out budgets for indie projects.
TORONTO – Australian film and TV producers are to get their close-up at the upcoming Canadian co-production conference Strategic Partners.
Organizers added Australia to U.S. and South Africa as focus countries for their summer gathering.
State agencies Film Victoria, Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, ScreenWest and South Australia Film will send their best and brightest producers to the Halifax marketplace in search of co-production coin.
Strategic Partners is set to run from Sept. 15 to 18 in Halifax, bridging the Toronto International Film Festival and the IFP Independent Filmmaker Project in New York City.

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