Dianne Neufeld

A B.C.

industry

pioneer

he year was 1980. Dianne Neufeld was sitting in a restaurant in Granville Island listening to new b.c. film commissioner Justis Greene try to convince her to take a three-month contract with the newly formed B.C. Film Commission. She shook her head. ‘Nope,’ she told Greene, ‘I’m not interested.’ She had been a teacher, then an associate producer for bctv and was now happy working in Vancouver’s film industry as a second ad. Plus, working for the government sounded bloody boring.

Gave it a shot

Somehow Greene finally convinced her to give it a shot (even though he left shortly after she was hired), and two years later, dressed in a negligee and red wig standing atop a train performing as a stunt double for Stephanie Powers during the filming of the tv series Hart To Hart, Neufeld had to admit the job was anything but boring.

As the newly appointed film commissioner of an infant industry, negligees and trains notwithstanding, she was beginning to understand just what the position might entail.

Recalls Neufeld: ‘It started being mainly public relations. We were filming on B.C. Rail and they were very uptight about potential public reaction because the producers wanted to do a stunt on top of the train. I was along for the ride to reassure the public at each stop along the way that this was just a part of a movie being filmed. And that was fine until the producers discovered they’d forgotten to hire a stunt double for the leading actress.’

Anxious to demonstrate the commission’s client service attitude, Neufeld jumped into the fray.

Resource management

She learned about resource management in 1980 when Philip Borsos’ film The Grey Fox and the western Desperado were shooting in b.c. at the same time and both productions wanted to use the same train and the same horses – but in different parts of the province.

Jim Westwell, vp of Televector Disc, says one of Neufeld’s strengths as film commissioner is her honesty and forthright nature, the very qualities that almost did her in during the filming of Rocky IV starring Sylvester Stallone when a minor labor fracas broke out and Neufeld met with the press. The following day the headline in a local newspaper read: ‘Film Commissioner Calls Head Of Labor Board Out To Lunch.’

At the time, the commission fell under the jurisdiction of the Tourism Ministry and she was sure her career was over when the minister’s call came through. An ominous hush fell over the room. She offered up her resignation. ‘Heck no,’ howled the minister, ‘that was great.’ Through a bit of luck and savvy, Neufeld, in her off-the-cuff assessment of the labor incident, had inadvertently fallen on the right side of the political fence.

Throughout the years there wasn’t anyone at any level of government that Neufeld didn’t have contact with at some point.

A free chicken dinner for 3,000 Russian extras during the filming of Rocky IV acquainted her with the city’s chief medical officer when health inspectors showed up on set to poke their thermometers into 3,000 chicken breasts. Neufeld took it all in stride.

George Chapman, who spent more than a decade as business agent for IATSE Local 891, worked alongside Neufeld to promote the industry. ‘Dianne managed to keep all the strings from unraveling during many a difficult time,’ he says. ‘She was very adaptable and could turn any disaster into a plus.’

He remembers a marketing trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo with Neufeld and Jim Dodswell, then assistant deputy minister of tourism. Just as the trio was about to land in Hong Kong, Dodswell got word that the film commission had been moved out of his ministry’s jurisdiction over to the B.C. Trade Corporation.

‘In no more than two beats, Dianne, in her usual affable way, said, `Oh, that’s great, that means now we’re representing two ministries – we’ll be really popular here.’ And we were. Everything continued on as if nothing had ever happened,’ says Chapman.

He says Neufeld’s impact on the industry has been huge. ‘She put us on the map. During her 12-year tenure she oversaw Vancouver’s production industry grow from handling maybe one or two productions a year to 85 productions last year alone. Local hires were at 40% on any given crew, now they’re at 98%. And throughout it all she made it seem so simple and effortless.’

When television production started to peak with 12 series filming concurrently in the lower mainland in the early ’90s, a few popular locations started to get a bit harried.

Neufeld recalls having to sort out the aftermath when two productions were filming within a few miles of each other in a wilderness area of the Seymour Watershed. As usual, the production personnel were using walkie-talkies to communicate with each other on set. However, by the end of the day the two productions were operating so close together the radio bands started to cross, and when the ad on one show called a wrap, the crew from the other went home.

Much has changed over the years, says Neufeld.

‘We used to be just a group of a few hundred people who could fit in one room and talk about things, and we had a deal that nobody could leave the room until we fixed the problem. Obviously, that’s no longer possible,’ says Neufeld.

‘But it was also a divided camp between those people in the service side of the industry and those independent indigenous filmmakers who nurtured one project for several years.

‘Now we have evolved to the point where there is more overlap between the two groups. And the relationships with foreign producers, especially Americans, are being exploited for business partnerships, not just as potential employers. That’s a huge change.

‘We had a very limited idea of what we were capable of – which is very Canadian of us. Now we’re seeing we’re capable of so much more.’

Says Tom Locke, ceo of Gastown Post and Transfer: ‘One of her greatest abilities was that she didn’t just make business relationships, she made real friendships. In this business you build a relationship and then you get genuine assistance and that gives you commitment. That’s been something that comes out of Dianne naturally, and an approach we at Gastown have also tried to use for years.

‘She certainly assisted us in opening a lot of doors and giving us credibility over the years. When we started doing the film missions, she brought the trade corp via the film commission to assist in developing the infrastructure to get the missions going which have been highly successful over the years. She always took the time to listen to ideas and wasn’t afraid to take chances.

‘Her replacement will have some big shoes to fill, but she’s created a hell of a foundation to build on. She leaves behind a whole network to carry on the work.’

Greene, who went on to a career in production, thinks Neufeld’s greatest accomplishment at the commission was just keeping it alive through the various government regimes.

‘A lot of other people would have just given up. It’s probably been the most frustrating aspect of her job, and it likely would have gone under if it wasn’t for Dianne’s ability to convince the politicos that it made some sense to have a film commission, because it hasn’t always been popular.’

The film industry wasn’t always popular with the Vancouver community either. Frequent road closures, wardrobe trailers cluttering the streets, overcrowded restaurants and hotel lobbies all started to take their toll. But Neufeld, who spent a great deal of time educating the public on the widespread economic benefits of the industry, eventually won them over.

During the filming of Bird on a Wire, starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, a scene was being shot at sunrise in front of the Meridian Hotel, with Vancouver doubling as New York. The props department had taken great pains to litter the streets with garbage.

Shooting went longer than expected and business people starting arriving for work. The l.a. producers were stunned when the locals, instead of asking for autographs from the stars, began picking up the garbage. The set decorator had to race out to stop them.

While Neufeld still isn’t sure what she’ll be doing next, she says, ‘It would be pretty odd if I wasn’t doing something that involved this network and this knowledge I’ve gained. I’ve always been amazed at the kind of dumb-assed luck I had to be in this spot at this time. What a wonderful ride.’