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Flying Canoe Traders is a company
that has been involved in reenactment since 1996.
At the beginning making some clothing for her
sister company, Animation d'Autrefois
(www.animationdautrefois.com)
who specialized in 18th century reenactment since
1995 for museums, movie business, conventions
and Parcs Canada. But as you all know, Reenactment
in Canada, especially in Quebec, is way behind
you folks from the United States who have several
years of experience. Well, to get Animation d'Autrefois
started and properly geared up with a very small
budget, I've tried to make everything by myself,
and as you all know it never works on the first
time (or if it does some of the results are questionable).
Even if I was able to make part of the clothing
my self, it was not as simple for the rest of
the gear, accessories and weapon that I would
need for my compagny.
A major contract in the movie business
kept me occupied for more than a year on the shooting
of "Marguerite Volant", a series of
10 episodes on CBC that was a great hit around
1996 or 1997. I was the weapons technician on
the set at only 24 years old. My experience in
the Canadian armed forces as a weapons-technician
and my personal knowledge on black powder got
me a full time job on the set that lasted for
a one full year shooting of 4 seasons. This thrilling
experience showed me a whole new aspect of the
hobby of re-enacment. Renting "props"
was lucrative but the down side of it was that
you needed tons of money to get a tons of props
and with tons of props you needed a tons of storage.
So a few years later (and with a big loans to
carry) here I am!
But what started it all? It
was when I found out about a nice event that was
going on at Fort Ticonderoga, an F&I event.
Uninvited, without any idea or concept of a re-enactment
unit that would tutor me. I loaded up my home-made
clothes in my very small and old car with half
a cooler full of junk food and 50$ Canadian in
my pocket (OUCH!!) and a map of the USA that I
could't find the Fort Ticonderoga on. But I knew
that it was at a couple of hours of driving from
Montréal because people from Chambly talked
about it.
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Today Animation d'Autrefois
is the biggest privatly owned full time
supplier of 18th century props
for the movie business in Quebec and
one of the major group that supplies
re-enactement for schools, major museums,
private corporation, city's and much
more. I'm lucky to have 5 great full
time employees and a warehouse of over
17000 square feet full of nice stuff...
from the birch bark canoe in "Black
robe" to over 40 replicas and original
flint lock weapons, while passing by
a complete indian village and tons of
costumes. |
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