The Partners’ Film Company still leads the pack in terms of volume, registering 469 shooting days for the year ending Sept. 29, 1995.

Total live-action shooting days for Canadian production houses came in at 3,269, with 2,695 of those originating in Canada and 574 from outside the country.

A total of 2,345 spots were produced, 2,042 of them originating in Canada.

The top 10 this year is as follows: Partners’ with 469 shooting days; Circle Productions, 240; Apple Box Productions, 216; Stripes, 195; Avion Films, 176; La Fabrique d’Images, 143; Cineland et associes, 141; Imported Artists, 132; Radke Films, 130 and The Players Film Company, 120.

In the animation and special effects sector, production houses were asked to list only those spots they had completely animated. The 14 questionnaires returned registered a total of 251 spots (this number does not included live-action/animation combos, which are an additional 250 spots) produced this year, 210 originating in Canada and 41 foreign-originated.

For the 10th anniversary of Top Spots, we looked back to the beginning of the decade to see who started strong in 1990, the year of multiple-award winners, ‘Hack Man’ for Delsym Cough Drops, ‘Wolves’ for Bell Canada, and the quintessential Bill Irish-directed 30, ‘A Bike Story’ for Canadian Tire, to see who survived the drought.

For the industry as a whole that year, the 20 Top Spots participants (excluding animation) registered a cumulative 2,568 shooting days, with 2,234 of those originating in Canada and 334 from the u.s. Compared to 1990, shooting days this year are up 27% or 701 days, with the number originating from outside Canada up 85% from 229 days to a total of 563 days in 1995.

In animation, only five companies ran in the 1990 list, registering a cumulative 187 spots, of which 178 were Canada-originated. This year, the amount of foreign-originated work coming through 14 animation and special effects houses is up a whopping 355% over 1990, with a total of 41 spots this year versus nine in 1990.

Stacked up against Playback‘s first listing of the top 25 commercial production houses, total shooting days are up 729 days over the 1986 total of 2,540. At that time, days weren’t split out into countries of origin, nor were animation companies part of the listings.

In the who’s who of top commercial production houses over the last 10 years, Partners’ is the only company in the top 10, and has held the number one position since the listings began.

In 1986, Partners’ 600 days was followed by McWaters Vanlint with 225; Boardwalk Pictures, 200; Dalton/ Fenske and Friends, 175; The Shooters Film Company, 132; TDF Film Productions, 125; GW Commercials, 120; The Directors, 100; Diva Productions, 100; and Cinelande, 96.

By 1990, Partners’ was still in first with 526 days, Rawi Sherman Films moved into second place with 335 days, followed by McWaters Film Company International, 241; La Fabrique d’Images/Productions Video 30, 187; Circle Productions, 165; ITV Film Productions, 149; Derek Van Lint and Associates, 144; Champagne Motion Picture Company, 108; Stripes, 105; and The Ace Film Company, 97.

In 1995, survivors in the top 10 are limited to Partners’, Circle, La Fabrique, and in a way, itv, out of which Apple Box evolved in 1991.

In part, numbers show that their success may be due to their ability to increasingly tap the international market.

Compared to 1990, Partners’ has more than doubled its foreign-originated days to 77 from 37. Circle too recorded 105 foreign-originating days, more than tripling its 1990 total of 27. Apple Box, which clocked 38 foreign-generated days this year, quadrupled itv’s 1990 total of eight. The Montreal market, being markedly more isolated, may have limited La Fabrique’s growth in international work although this year it records five days foreign-originated work, compared to none in 1990.

Key to coming out the other side of the bleak mid-’90s, say commercial veterans:

‘We kept a small roster of directors that work hard, kept them happy, didn’t get in over our head and did quality. Moving into the Toronto and Vancouver markets gave us a foot in the door in other markets. The two combined are what did it,’ says Hans Dys, executive producer at Apple Box and former exec at itv.

‘Keeping the overhead manageable. The companies that bit the dust had incredible overhead,’ says Andy Crosbie, owner and exec producer of Sparks, formerly with Champagne, which was folded by parent company Partners’ in late summer of 1991.

‘Having the right players has to be the answer. Always trying to find the next guy that’s going to keep you ahead of the game. Derek (Vanlint) and Michael Buckley, Bob Gordon. There’s always been somebody to step into the breech,’ says Humphrey Carter, executive producer at dvla.