Carol Reynolds has long wanted to go out on her own. The former network program director at cbc and, more recently, president of Paragon Productions, pegs her desire to fly solo as almost a decade old: ‘In ’85 I knew I wanted to go out on my own. I knew I had a strong entrepreneurial spirit and I wanted to test that spirit. I had a number of offers in terms of going outside, but none of them were right. When Paragon came along (over a year and a half ago), I thought it would be a great stepping-stone for me.’

Three months after Reynolds announced she planned to leave Paragon, her own production company is up and running with three productions for television in development. A follow-up to The Colour of My Love Celine Dion special tops the company’s list along with an option on the life story of Olympic rower Silken Laumann. The third production is a mystery series – literally.

What Reynolds intends to accomplish with this company is perfectly clear – her press release labels it ‘a move to compete in the primetime dramatic series arena’ and she pins it as ‘competing head-on with the major companies here and south of the border.’

The team at Carol Reynolds Productions is threefold: Reynolds, Sondra Kelly (a writer of Street Legal) and Shari Erlichman (formerly of Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment in l.a.).

‘Two things are important in terms of approach to this company,’ Reynolds says, ‘dramatic programming – both long and short format – and continuing strong relationships with people I have worked with such as Celine Dion.

‘The cornerstone of success for our company will be finding key people and putting them together. If you find people with passion, you’re beating the odds in many respects.’

The ‘odds’ she’s referring to are the chances taken when going out on your own. ‘It’s tough out there and it doesn’t make any difference who you are,’ Reynolds maintains.

Nonetheless, she feels the industry is ‘ripe’ and that Canadian producers are ‘able to deliver programming of the same quality or even better than what is coming from the u.s. or Europe.’

Now is a good time to set up shop, says Reynolds: ‘The opportunities in this country for independent producers are enormous and just barely being tapped.’

Specifically, she’s referring to the private sector and the experience of putting the first Dion special together with the CTV Television Network and Sony. ‘I went out and raised $1 million in the industry through the Canadian and u.s. private sectors. The private sector is there for investing and Sony is a good example because they came on side with ctv to make it happen.’

Sony launched a Dion release in conjunction with the broadcast of the special and the combined ‘package’ meant the show was all the more salable. ‘More of that can – and should – be done,’ she maintains.

Plugging into international sales is another key element for Reynolds. ‘During six of the 13 months I was with Paragon, I was working (on) both Canadian and u.s. development, back and forth from Los Angeles. It made me recognize that I could start my own company.’ Reynolds also realized ‘the huge potential for international sales – a resource that has been untapped in many respects in this country’s industry.’

She applied that potential to the Dion project: ‘I knew that ctv wanted the special in Canada, but I only wanted to do the show if I could sell it in the States.’ Disney Channel came on board.

At home, the prospect of specialty channels ‘will mean even more opportunity for young companies,’ says Reynolds. ‘I think there will be increasing opportunity for all of us whether there are six or eight channels – they all will need programming and they came with strong financial plans.’

Reynolds is also ‘thrilled about the crtc cable fund. I think it will be very healthy for the industry.’

The financing for Carol Reynolds Productions is something she is not prepared to reveal just yet. ‘It’s premature for me to talk about it. I am wearing many hats and one of them is to raise financing for the long term.’ An announcement of financing ‘in the near future’ is all Reynolds would commit to at this stage. PC