By SCOTT ROSTS, Niagara This Week - June 16, 2011

As the clock ticks down towards the beginning of the 1812 bicentennial celebrations, the Niagara 1812 Bicentennial Legacy Council is celebrating some major accomplishments.

It is one year to the week of the opening celebrations of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, and while planning continues to celebrate the major anniversary, the Legacy Council has been racking up the awards for two TV public service announcements. The PSAs, “Fog” and “200 Years” recently earned their 20th international award, after news came that they won gold in the 2011 Communicator Awards for cinematography /videography.

Grimsby resident Brian Purdy, of MEDIAIMAGE, produced the spots alongside a team from WNED Buffalo. They included footage from WNED’s upcoming documentary “The War of 1812”, a $2.3-million program that will air for the first time in October.

“In ‘200 Years’ we featured some of the battle on land, and in ‘200’ we focused on some of the battles on ships – it gives a look at both,” said Purdy.

Purdy produced the PSAs at no cost to the legacy council, and WNED provided its state-of-the-art HD facilities, and the services of producer Paul Lamont and editor Chris Boyce.

“This was a way to use my talents to support the legacy council, and hopefully bring awareness to the website,” Purdy, who also created two radio spots, said of the PSAs.

They appeared to pay off. During the Ontario Men’s Curling Championships in Grimsby in February, for example, the PSAs aired on TVCogeco and Rogers cable networks, and the legacy council said it helped boost traffic to its discover1812.com website by more than 42 per cent.

He further tried to bring awareness to the project by submitting the videos to the international awards. Over the past two years he has been racking up the prizes in public service and non-profit categories at everything from the Houston International Film Festival to the Telly Awards, which accepts thousands of entries from five continents.

“The awards were an afterthought, and yet they just keep coming,” Purdy said.

“We are very grateful to Mr. Purdy for the quality product he produced and his on-going passion for the bicentennial,” said Brian Merrett, CEO of the Niagara 1812 Bicentennial Legacy Council. “We couldn’t ask for a better supporter.”

Purdy, a charter member of the Canadian Film & TV Production Association who was also inducted into the Half Century Club of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in 2007, is no stranger to putting together non-profit productions. He won numerous awards over the past few years for The X-files, a 20-minute DVD produced at no cost for West Lincoln Memorial Hospital Foundation to promote its Project X-ray campaign, and has worked pro bono on causes ranging from the Huntington Society to Toronto General Hospital.

“I enjoy being able to do something for these, and helping people out. You never really retire,” said Purdy, who has more than 50 years of experience in the industry and once won a Gemini Award for Best Technical Achievement for his time-lapse chronicle of the SkyDome’s construction, entitled 2 1/2 years in 2 1/2 minutes.

The legacy council’s PSAs can be seen on their YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/Niagara1812.

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