*Jay Firestone

Jay Firestone is the ceo of Fireworks Entertainment, a major player in television, involved in such productions as Nikita, Relic Hunter and Andromeda, among many others. In the 1980s, Firestone was the vice-chair of Alliance as well as its executive vp, worldwide operations. It was during that time that Firestone devised Alliance Equicap, a brokerage firm for film and television productions. He was its initial president.

‘Norm Bacal was my prime support, main backer and brilliant strategist during my days at Equicap,’ he says.

Before meeting Bacal, Firestone would consult with Michael Prupas at Heenan-Blaikie. ‘I’d ask him questions and he’d always reply, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ Eventually, I asked him, ‘Who are you going to when I ask those questions?’ And Michael said, ‘Norman Bacal.’ I don’t know how I formed the idea, but I thought of Norm as being this older man, around 65 years old, who wore a visor on his balding head and spent his whole time in an office crunching numbers.

‘Finally, I decided I should meet him because he’d done so much to help us out on tax issues. So I called him up for lunch. When I met him, I almost went into shock. Here was this young guy, around 30, with a full head of hair and a real entrepreneurial spirit. After having lunch with him, I thought, ‘Let’s see how we can throw business his way.’

‘With Norm and Jeff Rayman, we formed a new team. I was the marriage broker. Jeff had the street smarts and knew what the investors wanted. Norm was brilliant about what kind of deals could be structured for the investors and the company.

‘Every time the feds passed a budget, there would be a crisis. We’d all get depressed. I’d tell everybody, ‘Don’t worry. Norm will think of something.’ Then, at the end of the day, Jeff and Norm and I would go to Fran’s and eat chicken wings and figure out how to structure a new deal.’

*Annette Frymer

Annette Frymer is a veteran of the film business. A lawyer, she has worked with a number of production companies, most often in the realm of business and legal affairs. At Cambium Productions, she is the general counsel and general manager and is executive producer of Ripping Friends, a new Cambium-created animated series.

‘I have found David Steinberg to be one of my favorite lawyers in the city. I recently executive produced a series [Ripping Friends], on which he acted on behalf of the bond. It was not the easiest series from a legal and putting-the-pieces-together [standpoint]. It wasn’t an official coproduction, but it had a number of distribution partners and that sort of thing.

‘David is just wonderful. He would [never] take a position that would make it impossible for me to close my deal. He would help me find a way, always taking into consideration the concerns of his client. He really understands what it means to pull a deal together.

‘Before joining Cambium, I was at Paragon for three-and-a-half years [and] I was there when Paragon was going down. It was a pretty terrible time for everybody. Needless to say, there were a lot of angry, disappointed people and people threatening lawsuits.

‘One day I got a call from Norm Bacal and he said, ‘Annette, I’m just calling to tell you that I’m really, really sorry, but I’m probably going to have to sue you.’ I said, ‘You’re wonderful, thank-you very much.’ He understood that it was an incredibly difficult situation, knew certainly that I personally was fielding a lot of the problems and on a personal level had the ability to say, ‘I feel for ya, honey, but this is coming.’ ‘

*Roger Frappier

Roger Frappier is one of the most acclaimed producers in Quebec’s film history. He has worked with such noted auteurs as Jean-Claude Lauzon, Lea Pool and Denys Arcand over a career that has endured for three decades. Frappier has most recently worked with Denis Villeneuve on Maelstrom, the opening night film for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Perspective Canada.

‘Sam Berliner was there on Jesus de Montreal from the beginning to the end,’ acknowledges Frappier. ‘You know the way we make films changes all the time. Each new film gets money from different funds, with a different [recoupment] and a new tax shelter. So as we go through all kinds of systems, we have to work with lawyers. When a lawyer like Sam comes along, he really becomes part of the company. It’s really great to work with him.

‘With a lawyer like Sam, who is so good, more and more you need him less and less. He’s prepared a lot of very good contracts for us that we’re still using. Still, when I have a problem, I phone him and we try to find a solution.

‘In the last year, he’s been really busy with the big case he has on his hands – he’s working a lot with Cinar these days. Sam is someone who, even when the situation is really hot and dangerous, will remain calm. He will always be able to find a solution that will be workable. That’s what I like about him: the solution is always workable.

‘We try to have a really good meal together every six months to go over all the situations and then we talk as needed. We can talk a lot about a lot of things. Working with a lawyer like this, with continuity, there are many things you don’t have to explain. He knows you, he knows the company, he knows the type of film you’re making, he knows your place in the industry, he knows how you want to achieve things. When he comes with his expertise, it’s [also with] a way of working that everybody knows.’

*Chris Haddock

Chris Haddock is the producer, key writer and director of the Gemini-award-winning television series DaVinci’s Inquest. A veteran script writer and editor, Haddock has begun to garner acclaim in the industry and beyond for this critically acclaimed show.

‘Arthur Evrensel does all the work for DaVinci Productions. He is also my personal entertainment lawyer,’ says Haddock. ‘He’s a real source of guidance for me. Arthur’s work extends beyond a strict lawyer function.’

Haddock says that shortly before DaVinci started up, he got to know Evrensel well. ‘He was very interested in the project. He looked at all the materials. It’s remarkable – he’s very unusual for guys of his ilk. Arthur has a very wide interest and passion for the arts, especially architecture.

‘DaVinci was not an easy ride at the beginning. It was tough getting all the agencies lined up in time. Arthur was great in positioning me as the guy to run the show in Vancouver. He needed to push Telefilm to let them know that I was someone to bank on. I was well-known as a screenwriter and I had produced Mom, P.I. in 1990, but some people needed convincing. A word from Arthur meant a lot.

‘DaVinci was a by-the-book financing scenario. It took key, canny negotiating to get everyone to ante up. Arthur represented us throughout the negotiations.

‘I just finished writing a feature film [with the lead writer from DaVinci] that I’ll direct in the spring. It’s called Secret Brotherhood of the Drum, about a family of smugglers and musicians, set north of Vancouver. Arthur will represent us on the film.’

*Pierre Sarrazin

Pierre Sarrazin is a producer of film and television projects, most often teaming up with his life and business partner, Suzette Couture. As Sarrazin/Couture Productions, they have worked on the tv series The City, the mow The Sheldon Kennedy Story and the film La Florida, among many other projects. Currently, they are wrapping Wild Geese, an mow directed by Jeremy Podeswa and starring Sam Shepard.

‘David Steinberg is a wonderful lawyer and he used to be an artist. It’s more than just the deal for him. He considers the creative elements, Suzette Couture and myself. He realizes our value, and knows that without us, nothing will work out. I attribute this, in part, to his own artistic background.

‘So often in Canada projects are driven by the deal. The nature of the business, the deal and the money control the creative. David always tries to make sure that the creative has what it needs. He knows the inner workings of some pretty complicated deals we’ve pulled together. Once you get involved in one of these things, a film or a television series, you can be involved for two years and it could be misery.

‘Money per se is not going to make you happy. It’s about who’s doing what on the set. David is very detail oriented: are you going to be happy, working as hard as you do, at the end of the process? A guy like David is absolutely essential to making sure these things come together.

‘David was tremendously helpful to us in negotiating our distribution deals. For The City, we sold the series on the basis of the scripts to Pearson International, who picked up the foreign rights. So David had to work with a foreign company, an offshore company that doesn’t work in Canada. He had to introduce them to the byzantine Canadian rules…they’re a tough company with their own legal representatives and he got us a good deal.’

*Simone Urdl

Simone Urdl is the producer of Jack and Jill, an ‘anti-romantic comedy,’ which premiered at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival. A feature film directed by John Kalangis, it was followed by another Urdl production at tiff in 1999, Soul Cages, directed by Philip Barker. Urdl and Jennifer Weiss are producers for their company, The Film Farm, which currently has several productions in development.

Urdl is also associate producer for Ego Films Art, where she works with Atom Egoyan.

‘Jennifer and I started working with Jim Russell on the first feature that we made, which was Jack and Jill. He was great. It was our first time producing a feature, so he gave us advice and guidance that was instrumental in helping me understand what the contracts meant and what I was doing!

‘Jack and Jill was an extremely small project for Heenan Blaikie, but they certainly didn’t make us feel like it was small. We thought we were just as important as everybody else. They spent enough time with us and were always available. If we had questions that related to something that Jim wasn’t an expert on, he’d bring us in and bring in somebody who could answer our questions.

‘Jim and his associates covered everything with us, including distribution agreements. I didn’t know how far I could go with negotiating on those. It was our first time incorporating. I checked all my agreements through him. I had questions about clearance and copyright. I had questions about music rights and they’re quite complicated. I got really good advice from David Steinberg. He came in and sat down and explained all the music rights to us in a way that we could understand them.

‘They were full service – they did everything. We had a lot of support to make Jack and Jill, but Heenan Blaikie was a huge factor in us being able to make that film on a tiny budget. Being able to access lawyers of such high calibre and make a $300,000 film is pretty remarkable.’