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The Vancouver Post Alliance Remembers Crawford Hawkins

With the passing of Crawford Hawkins on June 25th, the British Columbia motion picture industry lost the guidance, influence and energy of more than just one man. It lost a pioneer, a mentor, a catalyst, an evangelist, a builder, a leader. And a friend.

While his long and storied career in television and film spanned the length and breadth of an industry and a continent, for many of us, Crawford will always be remembered as the champion among champions for BC’s post production sector. Almost a generation before he began his fourteen-year tenure as Executive Director for the DGC’s BC chapter in 2002, Crawford had arrived in Vancouver to manage the company that owned Alpha Cine Film Labs and Post Haste Video. He then went to the client side of the table, establishing himself as the pre-eminent post production producer and supervisor in the market. Crawford’s mere presence in this role was often all it took for foreign production companies and studios to trust their post production needs to Vancouver’s talent and facilities.

In 2002, Crawford was one of the founders of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of BC (MPPIA). Eleven years later, he lent his considerable goodwill and gravitational force to help bring together a fiercely competitive post production community that resulted in the establishment of the Vancouver Post Alliance.

A television executive in Los Angeles once searched for a sound bite to describe Crawford and the significance of his involvement in a project. He finally settled on, “He’s Vancouver’s post production czar.” Crawford liked the label and promptly adopted it. No one argued, because it was true. Besides, we were all standing on his shoulders at the time.

Even today, if you are a post production professional in British Columbia, there is a very good chance that your career grows from a branch on a tree that Crawford planted and nurtured for almost forty years.

The VPA salutes the life and legacy of Crawford Hawkins. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they mourn his passing.

We are the Vancouver Post Alliance (VPA), a non-profit association established for the benefit and representation of the Post Production industry in British Columbia, Canada.

Membership is open to employees, freelancers, craftspeople, students, management and executives as well as companies providing goods and services directly related to Media Post Production.

The Mission of the VPA: