NV co. sheds a little
light on the situation

Mirage lilumination keeps in step with film scene

RENT O'CONNOR is

a light-heavyweight

in Vancouver's film
industry.-

O'Connor, with partners David
Baldes and Tom Stern, owns a
successful North Vancouver-based
lighting and grips firm called
Mirage Illurnination Ltd.

O'Conner, who manages the
three-year-old firm, says he.is one
of the few second-generation film
industry meinbers in Vancouver.
His father owned one of the first
lighting companies in the city, and
his uncle was a gaffer (chief elec-
trician) for CBC-TV for many years.

Brent O’Conno;z has been ex-

_ posed to the industry since he was
seven years old, when he accom-
panied his father on the sets of
That Cold Day In The Park, The
Trap and McCabe And Mrs. Miller,

filmed in the early ‘70s. His own
first production work was on the
film Prophesy.

His cousin Mathew O’Connor is
a Vancouver producer with Pacific
Molion Pictures, which Brent says
has been instrumental in develop-
ing productions in Vancouver in
co-operation with industry

_ members in Los Angeles.

Another cousin, Michael
O'Connor, is a well-respected set
decorator in Vancouver.

Carrying on the industry tradi-
tion, Brent’s eldest daughter is a
young actress, who currently has a
speaking part in Morgan Creek
Productions’ Stay Tuned, starring
john Ritter.

Brent's partner David Baldes is

~ an executive producer with = -
Warner Bros. He has helped
complete the last eight Clint

Eastwood films.

_ _ And the firm’s third partner,

Tom Stern, has been the gaffer on
the last 12 Clint Eastwood produc-
tions. He also owns a lighting and
grip company in the United States
called Sequoia.

Because both Baldes and Stern
work with Eastwood, Brent says
the Hollywood superstar is often
rumored to be involved in Mirage

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But Brent says that ‘‘Eastwood
is simply a very close friend of
both Baldes and Stern.”

Mirage rents lighting and grip
equipment to the film and televi-
sion industry in and around Van-
couver, In the last year and a half,
the company’s business has grown
tenfold.

“We have clients now who
one and a half years ago would .
not have considered us,’’ Brent
says.

Mirage was hired to supply
lighting and grip equipment to the
Canadien feature film Deep Sleep,
released in February 1990; last
year’s American/British film K2;
and the recently completed
feature Narrow Margin.

It is currently working on a Ca-
nadian preduction called The Ar-
tist. :

Many television shows use
equipment supplied by Mirage,
inclading Cannell Studios’ Street
Justice and Lightning Force.

The lighting firm just completed
CTV's Neon Rider series and a
series for CEC called Max Glick.

Brent says the firm’s major
competitor, North Vancouver's
William F. White Ltd., has equip-
ped the two largest productions
filming in Vancouver: Stayed Tun-
ed by Morgar Creek Productions
and Paramount Pictures Corp.’s
Jennifer Eight.

William F. White Ltd. has been
in the industry for 20 years and
has offices in Calgary, Toronto and
Montreal.

“My staff and | pride ourselves
on giving personal service, which

we can accomplish by being
smaller. As a larger corporation,
William E. White are able to offer
things that we cannot, but con-

“versely, | feel that perhaps we can

offer those things that they can no
longer give. And, because we are
so new, we only stock the latest
equipment.”

Mirage has expanded into Unit-
ed States, supplying to productions
in Seattle.

Though Seattle has had a busy
filming schedule, O’Connor says it
does not have the studio systems,
depth of personnel and equipment
that Vancouver has.

Vancouver may not have had a
reputation as an industry capitel in
the past. but things are changing,
Brent says.

“There are enough well-
respected members of
Hollywood’s indusiry who appre-
ciate working in Vancouver.

For example, Peter Hyams is
producing Stay Tuned in Van-
couver following his experience of
producing Narrow Margin in the
city.

“The positive experience he
enjoyed then, | feel, was integral
to his shooting Stay Tuned here.
He has organized much of the
same crew that worked with him:
on Narrow Margin.”

Brent : says Vancouver has stolen
the movie spotlight away from’
Toronto, because ‘Toronto acted
a little too successful, and it grew
careless in its personal service as
its business grew.”

Vancouver, Brent says, is now
the third largest production centre
in North America.

And he is optimistic about the
future.

“There are fewer American
firms bringing in their own gaffers
and equipment because we have
cur own competent people, and
indigenous Canadian Groduction is

- shifting to Vancouver, with many

television series being shot here.
“However, we will have to
address many serious business
dealings in our industry and with
our government to make sure that
the city maintains its growth.”

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Licensed Premises

WEWS photo Me Wiakafield |
MIRAGE ILLUMINATION’S Brent O'Connor has been around the
film industvy since the age of seven when he would sccompany
his father onto film sats.

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