First results in for OMDC’s $7.5M fund

The motion capture studio at Toronto’s Seneca College – the only independent facility of its kind in the province – is ready to really get moving. It was just awarded $150,000 for expansion, including a clean-up facility, from the Entertainment and Creative Partnerships Cluster Fund, an initiative administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) on behalf of Ontario’s Ministry of Culture.On Feb. 15, minister Caroline Di Cocco awarded $1.8 million to 14 initiatives at Toronto’s Harris Institute for the Arts, the first payout from the three-year, $7.5 million cluster fund. The fund was announced on September 21 last year and is designed to further develop Ontario’s entertainment and creative industries through new content and skills development, capacity-building and marketing."Our small investments in the cultural industry give the largest return," Di Cocco told the standing-room-only audience. "Over the next two decades, job growth in this sector is expected to surpass all others in Ontario." Today, the entertainment and creative industries account for 36,000 jobs and contribute $6.7 billion annually to the provincial economy.This year’s projects involve 55 companies, institutions and organizations. Initiatives centered on training and skills development attracted substantial attention; educational institutions are involved in more than half the projects receiving funding in this first round.Seneca, along with partner Fast Motion Studios Inc., not only provides motion capture for games, television, film and new media, but also learning experiences for their students. "There’s the part where we put you in a suit, put on the little reflectors and capture you. That part we already have," says Laura Jo Gunter, dean of the Faculty of Information Arts and Technology at Seneca. "This other part is to clean up that data, so it’s usable for animators and editors. The clean-up is where we can provide employment opportunities for recent graduates."York University also aims to create new opportunities for its students and faculty through its leading role in the Consortium on New Media, Creative and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region (CONCERT), which received $300,000 in OMDC funds. The consortium will "connect the academic world with the best in innovation," says Stan Shapson, York’s VP of research and innovation. Other founding academic partners include the Ontario College of Art and Design and Ryerson University.The consortium plans to pilot several industry/academic joint R&D projects and build research and development capacity to enhance the region’s access to funding, with the goal of developing a coordinated strategy for new media. It already has more than 20 partners, including Apple Canada, Industry Canada, Motorola Canada, New Media Business Alliance (NMBA), Ryerson University, and Xenophile Media Inc.Although it supported the applications put forward by Seneca, York and several other hopefuls, NMBA received $200,000 of its own to develop the first phase of its Partnerships Ontario Digital Synergies (PODS) project. PODS is a business and information network that will interconnect Ontario’s creative, research, training and technology leaders in the entertainment and creative cluster through databases, portals and electronic platforms.Other projects that received funding included the development of a digital licensing agency for independent Canadian recording labels and artists, a two-day digital initiatives training program for Canadian magazine publishers, and a project to digitize books and develop markets for publishers.The next cycle of the fund will be announced later in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. More information can be found on the OMDC’s website, www.omdc.on.ca.

First results in for OMDC’s $7.5M fund

News | 02/21/2007 5:00 am EST

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