For the Canadian production services sector, it looked like the industry had hit rock bottom in 2003, and then it got worse. As Hollywood productions were lured by new tax credits throughout the U.S. and abroad, Canadian service providers were hit hard by the downturn.

"People are still shell-shocked from how slow it was throughout 2004 and the first quarter of 2005," says Paul Bronfman, president and CEO of services conglomerate Comweb Group, which owns equipment provider William F. White and production management, tax-credit service and payroll service providers.

Now, however, a sharp turnaround in production volumes, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto, has service companies scrambling to keep up with all the work.

"There's no doubt we're back on the radar again in L.A.," says Bronfman, explaining that tax-credit enhancements throughout Canada have helped attract production.

One factor helping to drive the production services sector right now, according to Bronfman, is the fact that a growing percentage of Hollywood productions shooting here are high-spending features, rather than TV properties.

Following is a closer look at some of the special services being used by a selection of guest shoots across the country.

The Sentinel

Genre: feature thriller
Location: Toronto
Shoot dates: May 15 to Aug. 30
Studios used: Toronto Film Studios,
Kleinburg Studios
FX: Intelligent Creatures, Acme FX
Extras casting: Dupére Casting
Stunts: Rick Forsayeth
Set decoration: Carolyn Loucks
Air transportation: Helicopter Transport Services (Canada)
Cranes: Techno Crane, Dwight Crane Rentals, Vertigo Films, Panavision Canada
Camera and camera equipment suppliers: William F. White, Moto Cam, Canada Camera Car

In this New Regency/20th Century Fox feature starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger, authenticity was a key concern for Canadian director Clark Johnson and executive producer Bill Carraro of Douglas' prodco Furthur Films.

The thriller is about a special agent, played by Douglas, who foils a plot to assassinate the U.S. president while having an affair with the first lady and trying to clear his own name in the murder of another White House agent. Douglas also produces with Marcy Drogin.

Ensuring that all things presidential were represented accurately required extensive production services, ranging from the talents of animal wrangler Rick Parker to casting by Donna Dupére, who organized extras for crowd shots at Toronto's City Hall, the site of a meeting of G8 leaders and an assassination attempt on the president.

Weapons trainer Charlie Taylor took cast up to a shooting range northwest of Toronto near Concord to shoot live ammo so they could mimic exactly how to pull, hold and shoot guns like actual Secret Service agents.

To ensure that White House agents in the film behave exactly as real agents would, two ex-Secret Service agents, Gerry Kavis and Kevin Billings, who have hands-on experience working for the president, taught actors things such as where real agents would stand in relation to the first lady when she would get out of a limousine.

Some scenes were shot in the White House set at Cinespace's Kleinburg Studios, which needed extensive redressing by designer Carolyn Loucks. The White House gate was recreated in extensive detail in the Boyd Conservation Area near Kleinberg, right down to the local Washington café menu hanging in the guardhouse.

Toronto FX companies Intelligent Creatures and Acme FX will integrate green-screen footage with shots of the actual White House. The last week of shooting will be spent in Washington, DC, capturing exterior shots of the White House and surrounding area.

Last Mysteries of the Titanic

Genre: documentary special
Location: off the coast of Newfoundland
Shoot dates: July 6-28
Broadcaster: Discovery Channel
Airdate: July 28, 8-10 p.m.
Camera and camera rentals: Sim Video, Toronto
Technical services: Robert Brunelle

The latest Titanic project from producer James Cameron, the Oscar-winning writer/director/ producer of Titanic, is currently underway off the coast of Newfoundland. From Earthship Productions, the US$6-million-plus documentary special for Discovery Channel required some unique services and equipment to take audiences to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean where the RMS Titanic lies rusting away.

High-tech equipment used to capture footage from the bottom of the sea included the Russian science vessel the Keldysh. It's the world's largest research ship and has been transformed into a giant floating production studio.

Standard-definition digital cameras are rolling on the decks of the Keldysh. At the same time, others have been mounted on the side of two deep-water submarines, and additional cameras are being mounted on remote operating vehicles, which will travel from the subs into parts of the wreckage not seen since the ill-fated 1912 voyage.

A total of 16 underwater cameras are being used in the shoot.

Rumored to be Discovery's most costly doc special to date, the underwater, multicam shoot required an extensive customized camera package, provided by Sim Video, with supervision by freelance technical producer Robert Brunelle. The equipment package was airlifted from Toronto to Newfoundland.

"It is by far the largest air pack we've ever put together," says Sim Video president Rob Sim, explaining that the shop's initial work on this project started almost a year ago. "We shipped a 53-foot tractor-trailer full of cases of equipment out there."