Industry leader Steve Comeau to tackle Toronto to create new opportunities

New media industry players are abuzz with news that Collideascope Digital Entertainment Inc. partner Steven Comeau will soon be moving to Toronto from Halifax where the company is located. Canadian NEW MEDIA recently asked him about his reasons for the move, and how it fits in with his plans for the company, which is widely seen as one of Canada’s most successful convergence shops. An edited transcript of that interview follows. Canadian NEW MEDIA (CNM): When is the move happening? Steven Comeau (SC): It should happen sometime in the next month. It’s not a giant change. I already spend a week or two a month in Toronto. It’s just going to be a little bit easier and more convenient to do the things that I’m doing. CNM: Is this a personal move or a business move? SC: It’s a little of both. A lot of what motivates it is personal, and that is that M-A (business partner Michael-Andreas Kuttner) and I have taken Collideascope to a certain point, and I feel that to keep going or keep the momentum up, particularly in this environment and atmosphere of contraction, that I really have to make it a point of really being aggressive in the business development and creative development of the company, and I can do that most effectively by actually being in the centre of things in Toronto. CNM: When you say an atmosphere and environment of contraction, some folks would disagree with that. They would say that interactive advertising, for instance, is taking off. We’re seeing positive things in ITV. We’re seeing other big web and television projects in Canada. SC: Collideascope is a TV/new media convergence company and TV drives the bus. And, nobody will tell you that the TV business is healthier now than it was two years ago. Our particular slice of the new media universe is dependent on the ebb and flow of what happens in Canadian television. On a personal level, I feel that creatively and motivationally I’ve been in a bit of rut. I’ve kind of gotten Collideascope to this point, and it’s really kind of burned me out and I found in the past that going somewhere and sitting on my ass for a few weeks doesn’t cure burnout for me. Shaking things up, changes in routine, sticking myself in a new environment, presenting myself with new challenges, these sort of things kind of help me get over burnout. CNM: You said a couple of times now that Collideascope is at a certain point. What is that point? SC: Strangely enough, M-A and I sort of achieved a lot of the goals we want to achieve. We’ve gotten Collideascope to a size that we’re really happy with. We’re considered quite successful and it’s making money for us and doing really well. But nothing in business is ever in equilibrium or at a static point. It’s either rising or falling. It can’t quite balance on the edge of a knife. So, although we’re happy where it is, there’s no way that we would allow ourselves to be complacent or content. We always have to think about how we respond to the world around us.CNM: What size is Collideascope right now? SC: Collideascope is about a dozen full-time employees and we’re going to do roughly $7.5 million in revenue this year. CNM: How many projects are you working on at any given time? SC: We’re working usually on about three different kinds of relationships. We’re working on roughly three or four TV productions at a time and a couple - two or three major interactive projects, either service work or co-production. CNM: Where are you on the IP front? In terms of the IP bit that Collideascope owns? SC: Collideascope does mostly its own work, and it has only recently moved into doing service productions or service-oriented co-productions with other people. Part of my moving to Toronto is also to start developing more original IP with creative folks from across the country. CNM: Why Toronto? SC: Like it or lump it, it is the centre of the business, IT and entertainment universe. And, we’re in an environment where regional (funding) measures have slowly been going by the wayside. Whereas having the company based in Halifax has a lot of benefits, having somebody in the thick of it as part of that community in Toronto is certainly going to give us another series of benefits that we hope will give us that edge. CNM: What are those benefits? SC: You’re in the thick of it. You hear things. You socialize. It’s easier to take meetings, it’s easier to keep on top of things. The reconnaissance and the interaction just come from pure social interaction. It’s just better facilitated when you’re in that community rather than outside of it. CNM: Are you giving up some hands-on management? SC: I don’t do hands-on. The sort of hands-on, day-to-day operations of Collideascope are handled by M-A. We have always sort of drawn a line, and M-A looks into the company and I look out of the company. He manages and has complete authority over the operation and structure of the company, whereas I look out to building the relationships and doing sales and business development. This move is a natural extension of what has been a way of working for the past better part of 10 years. CNM: Any worries that with you in Toronto that funding agencies might start to see you as more of a Central Canadian company? SC: I don’t think that will be a problem. I don’t think that Collideascope has particularly played a strong regional card in its activities. I think that we’ve played a very strong creative, innovative and iconoclastic card. Collideascope’s essentially set itself apart from the rest of the pack by definitely being a little bit more - I don’t know what you call it - definitely different. And, I just think that’s the way we are. It’s an expression of our personalities. CNM: Are there new directions that might be possible by moving to Toronto? You’re going to be closer to the wireless carriers. You’re going to be closer to motion picture, books, the media. SC: On the television front, we’ve done some live action with Collideascope with some documentaries and Rock Camp. We want to get more and more aggressive in doing live action - both reality and drama. And, on the IT front, I’m definitely wanting to get involved in doing some ITV applications for Bell ExpressVu moving forward, and really seeing what interesting applications we can bring to wireless in evolving reality TV ideas toward interaction. Collideascope’s mission has always been not to respond to trends in entertainment, but to set them. Anything that we can do that is new usages of the technology but still quite accessible to audiences is what we’re all about. CNM: Being near the telcos will help.Halifax is a wonderful place and will always be my home and this is not a permanent move, but I’ve never lived outside the city and I think that this is a life experience that I want. It’s become a common experience for a lot of people from the Maritimes. The dozen or so good, close friends I had in high school - there are only two of us left in Halifax. I think that there’s a lot to be said for getting out there and just from a life experience standpoint. CNM: When you say it’s not a permanent move, how long do you think it might last? SC: I’m hoping to do a solid year and then reevaluate the situation. You’ve got to understand - I travel between 120 and 150 days a year, anyway. When I say I "live" somewhere, I’m only there 200 days a year.

Industry leader Steve Comeau to tackle Toronto to create new opportunities

Broadcast | September 8, 2004

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