when the new Ontario Conservative government callously hinted people should move west because the weather is better there, it was referring to welfare recipients, not working dops, directors, producers and actors. But the exodus of local production is already well into gear.

Word is 120 projects either set or headed to roll in Ontario are in search of new homes following Premier Mike Harris’ funding freeze of the Ontario Film Development Corporation and Ontario Film Investment Program late last month.

While service production continues to thrive, local productions are scrambling and crews will feel the impact for at least two years to come, says one industry source.

David Plant, head of the Toronto Film and Television Office, says, ‘I’m not prepared to speculate on what the immediate impacts are at this point. It’s too soon. In this summer – the busiest one we’ve ever had – we are maintaining (our) confidence to meet our projected levels at year-end. But the rules have changed and we have to assess how those changes will affect our projections.’

Plant warns against wringing hands and hysteria, saying a general strategy that everyone can agree on is being co-ordinated and must be respected.

The question of the impact on coventures and service deals (less and less distinguishable from one another) remains unanswered, and no one is willing to speculate. In 1994, the tftvo recorded 137 productions: 12 coventures, 40 service deals, nine treaty or official coproductions, and 73 ‘Canadian’ or certified productions.

Joan Hutton, head of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, says her members haven’t had a chance to assess the damage satisfactorily, but she fears the worst for documentary production.

‘For documentary camera people, especially, it means a lot less work,’ she says. ‘There will be lots of American production but our own intrinsic production is what really drives the industry.’

Hutton says it’s essential to build a strong lobby effort that brings together ‘all the organizations, all the unions, all the associations so that we have enough clout that (the government) listens to us.’

Hutton expects the exodus of dops from Ontario to b.c. to work on service productions – a steady trend for the last three to four years – will escalate.

Allan King, chair of the Ontario District Council of the Directors Guild of Canada, says a powerful trend of the last five years – working for American television out of Ontario – will increase. ‘There’s more work than people can manage,’ he says. ‘The problem is how much of it is going to be Canadian and how much is going to look at the world from a Canadian perspective. It’s not about money for employment or wages, it’s about vision.’

What are the options? King doesn’t see any. ‘The creative process is abandoned and you go work in a factory,’ he says.

To date this year, the dgc has done 71 productions in Ontario, 41 of which were purely American service deals (58%), 20 were coventures with the u.s. (28%), and the remaining 10 were totally Canadian (14%).

In the face of the ofdc and ofip cuts, an alternative for producer Brian Dennis, producer at Bruce McDonald’s Shadow Shows, is to seek out more international coproductions. ‘We’re going to be concentrating our efforts in Los Angeles,’ he says.

First on the slate to be affected is the feature film Hard Core Logo, being produced by Shadow Shows and Vancouver’s Christine Haebler, with McDonald directing. As planned, it will shoot in b.c., but will not, as planned, post here. Dennis has approached British Columbia Film to make up the funding gap left by the ofdc.

Dennis is also occupied with a search for an alternative location for The Rez (the original Northern Ontario location is too costly now), but it’s more than a bit difficult to duplicate an Indian reservation in the city.

‘(The freeze) has cost us dearly on our development slate and in terms of future productions,’ he says.

While b.c. is the obvious location to turn to for many reasons, the province’s notorious union problems, the cost of shifting plans and locations, and the fear that B.C. Film just won’t be able to support everybody, has many producers concerned.

One source ponders the response from out West: ‘What will b.c. do with this? Will they cash in on the situation or take care of their own?’

All agree it’s too early to tell, but the answer will soon enough be evident.

Two on the go at Dufferin Gate

stars Sissy Spacek and David Strathairn (River Wild), director Tony Bill (Five Corners) and dop Jean Lepine (The Player) are coming to town early September to shoot a Dufferin Gate cable feature – the sixth in Toronto this calendar year for Showtime.

Beyond the Call, based on a true story set in Louisiana in the ’60s, is about a woman’s need to choose allegiance with either her husband or an old flame who is on death row for murdering a policeman. Spacek plays the wife and Strathairn the beau, with the husband still not cast.

Principal photography begins Sept. 5 and continues for five weeks in Toronto, with a few days in Montreal.

Executive producers are Bob Christianson and Rick Rosenberg, Helen Bartlett is producing, writer/producer is Doug Magee, line producer is Chris Danton, production designer is Jeff Ginn and 1st ad is David McAree.

Also on the Dufferin Gate slate is Mr. and Mrs. Loving, an mow also based on a true story that happened about 30 years ago. This time, it’s the battle of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple from Virginia who went to the Supreme Court to fight for their right to be married. They won, and as a result the remaining laws in the u.s. against interracial marriages were abolished.

Dan Paulson is coproducing with lead actor Timothy Hutton. Writer/ director is Richard Friedenberg. At press time, remaining cast and crew were not signed. The mow will likely go to camera Sept. 18 and continue through Oct. 25 in Toronto, Hamilton and maybe Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Production executive Patrick Whitley anticipates another two Showtime mows will shoot this fall and a total of 10 will be wrapped before the year is out. Budgets for each film are in the us$2.5 million to us$4 million range.

What’s brewing at Alliance?

it’s finally confirmed. The Brewery, an Alliance Communications/Doug Kramer mow for cbs is shooting Aug. 23 to Sept. 22 with Charles Bronson in the lead and Ted Kotcheff in the helmer’s chair.

The action drama, mysteriously titled, revolves around a police chief (Bronson) in Milwaukee and his daughter who is accused of murder.

So where does the brewery come in? Are they beer lovers, drunken lawmakers, or simply running their own hops and barley shop on the sly? The (slim) answer is that the police station is housed in an old brewery.

Peter Bray is producing and production manager is Noella Nesdoly. At press time, other cast and crew were not signed.

Write on

andrew Rai Berzins, original writer of the script for Blood & Donuts, has been deep into the chaotic and torrid world of adolescence while writing the first six episodes of the new series for cbc, Talk 16. Loosely based on interviews done for the documentary Talk 16, Berzins says each episode has a sense of injury about it. ‘At that age, you can have a lot more insight than you know what to do with. It can be really tough,’ he says.

Unlike the documentary (which creators Adrienne Mitchell and Janis Lundman followed up a few years later with Talk 19), the series is not exclusively about teen girls. If anything, Berzins thinks there are perhaps too many boys in the script.

This experience is Berzins’ first time writing for tv and his script for Blood & Donuts was also a first (to get produced). The tv experience was a far better one. With the film, Berzins claims he got tossed aside almost as soon as the script was placed in the hands of the producers. ‘It was a disastrous experience for me. They brought in another writer without informing me.’

Nonetheless, instead of sucking on sour grapes he is plowing ahead with two new feature scripts and a new tv job.

One of the feature projects is similar to the vampire-lost-in-the-world premise of Blood & Donuts. Life Goes On centers on three characters coming to terms with their grief. One has lost a brother, one a baby and the third – a vampire – has lost his entire family.

Berzins is keen to explore the concept of the vampire as an existential hero. ‘I have a great deal of respect for the whole Gothic period,’ he says, ‘but unfortunately a lot of the 20th century (revision) loses the sense of real psychological disturbance. A vampire is the character who can’t die – just think of the loneliness and isolation.’

The second script, one he has been working on since the late ’80s, is Captain Blaise, a ghost story set in Prince Edward Island that brings together a phantom pirate ship and modern-day smugglers. When he gets the time, Berzins wants to polish it up.

In the meantime, he is off to Bragg Creek this month to work as a staff writer on North of 60. ‘I’ve got work, who can complain?’