Local. Business. Intelligence. August 9–15, 2011 • Issue 1137
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B.C. ups visual arts ambitions
INSide Catherine Runnals’ company hitting right summer festival notes 3
>Vancouver’s fast-growing visual effects companies are winning key Hollywood business, attracting new studios to town and positioning Vancouver to become the next world centre for VFX work
Battling for survival in the broadband marketplace 6 Aerospace deal drives growth plan for Burnaby company 10 Digital data bases revolutionizing B.C.’s real estate trade 11 Under the B: Bingo hall profits for local casino owners 13
By Jenny Wagler
A
s Vancouver’s visual effects (VFX) industry continues to add new players and weightier projects, insiders are pointing to the city’s potential to become the next world centre for VFX. “London [U.K.] is the premiere place with the most big [VFX] companies; studios feel that they can put a big film in London and that London has the resources and can do it,” said Dennis Hoffman, senior vice-president and general manager at Method Studios, the latest incarnation of CIS Vancouver and prior to that, Rainmaker
Entertainment Inc.’s VFX division. “I think Vancouver is on the precipice of, over the next couple of years, having the opportunity to be another area similar to that.” Vancouver’s VFX industry has taken off since B.C.’s 2003 institution of a digital animation or visual effects tax credit. Growth drivers have included the province’s strong film industry, a Los Angelesaligned time zone and moves by local players such as Rainmaker and Vancouver-based Image Engine Design Inc. to expand their horizons beyond television and pursue feature film work. see VFX, 6
Libraries increasingly redundant in the digital world 24
full disclosure
Forestry’s new eastern front
Larry Berg’s business flight plan for Vancouver’s award-winning airport 27
With U.S. market falling, Asian market is on the rise, but is it enough to ensure survival in B.C. lumber sector?
with this issue (Sub scribers only )
Green Space BC: Your annual guide to the business of sustainability Biggest casinos and bingo halls 14 Biggest airlines at YVR 17
Jhajj Lumber CEO Parm Jhajj: among a growing number of B.C. lumber operators establishing markets in India and elsewhere in Asia
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