Jet Films, long a major player in the Montreal market is looking further afield, aiming to bring its own expertise and film-friendly home base into the sights of the international commercial industry. Jet president Richard Speer says the 10-year-old shop is seeking to expand the roughly 10 percent of its work that currently comes from international sources. Toward that end, Jet recently added Natasha Arora as manager, international accounts. The company also recently formed a representation deal with Toronto-based The Partners' Film Company, Canada's largest commercial production entity.

"We've done a lot of European work for clients like Mercedes and Citro'n, but it was usually through existing contacts we had; we didn't actively pursue it," says Speer. "We want to now increase the international work while keeping the high-quality production for the local market." Past perceptions of Quebec as exclusively a winter-scape are being laid to rest, partly due to the high level of US and international long-form work shooting in the province (among the features which have located in Quebec: Warner Bros.' Battlefield Earth and The Whole Nine Yards, Eddie Murphy vehicle Pluto Nash, Robert DeNiro starrer The Score and the updated version of '70s "classic," Rollerball). "People used to only associate us with snowstorms," says Speer. "Now with all the US productions here they realize we can deliver any kind of flavor they need for a shoot -- whether European or American." The city's production slate has also meant qualified crews and other infrastructure perks, including well-appointed studios, gear houses, labs and A-level post and effects. "And the bottom line," asserts Speers, "is it costs less to shoot in Montreal than anywhere in Canada and certainly less than the US."

Jet's directorial roster includes Sylvain Archambault, Guillaume de Fontenay, François Gingras, L.P. Couvelaire, Herman Weeb, Jean-François Pothier, Gabriel Pelletier, Martin Talbot, Mireille Veillet and Curtis Wehrfritz, whom the shop represents in Quebec (Wehrfritz is repped by Untitled in Toronto). Wehrfritz recently shot a campaign for The Movie Network through Montreal agency BOS which shot on location in Montreal as well as in the British Virgin Islands.