Of course, the director of Million Dollar Babies, Christian Duguay, no longer does his own camera work.

But that is not to say his hard-earned and varied experience in action steadicam shooting and commercial cinematography haven’t been most useful in today’s demanding production environment.

The language of the seventh art, of the responsiveness of rolling cameras, is not unlike prose, says Duguay. ‘It’s all about the overall choreography and to what extent it’s in synch with the actors. Ultimately, that is what becomes the sign-off on the style of a particular film.

‘If you really understand the dramatic impulse of a scene (you can’t) expect a cameraman to tell you where the close-up should be. Personally, I find it quite unbelievable that directors are guided by their cameramen.’

Duguay is nominated for a Gemini as best director on the four-hour Zukerman Productions/Cinar Films miniseries Million Dollar Babies, shot over 50 days in the spring of 1994. The $10 million shoot had close to 100 speaking roles and more than 2,000 extras and was broadcast in North America on cbc, cbs and Radio-Canada.

Duguay has the kind of energy that allows him to marshal armies of film technicians, but he says the higher goal is to stay close to the fragile undertaking happening right in front of the camera.

It’s the kind of cultivated sensibility that the director says opens him up to the subtle, spontaneous gestures by actors, the small things that greatly enhance a filmed story.

He says technique should serve the dramatic demands of the story.

The method (not relying on a playback monitor or signaling technical adjustments) gives play to a more spontaneous response from the cameras, says Duguay. ‘This way I don’t have to ask a technician for an adjustment or if he or she saw some subtle detail that should be captured. To stop filming to review a scene and readjust cuts the energy. It’s like stopping to answer a phone when you’re making love.’

On Million Dollar Babies, Duguay says he paid special attention to the sweet little girls who played the Dionne quints, actually two sets of triplets.

‘Despite never having acted before, I feel the kids’ performance is really solid. Instinctively, when one of the kids would hold on to another’s hand, I’d immediately pan the cameras and go and get it.’

Duguay’s dramatic credits include Scanners 2 and Scanners 3, the New Line Cinema feature Live Wire, the Atlantis Films mow Adrift, a survival drama shot for cbs, and Snowbound, directed for Pacific Motion Pictures and cbs.

‘I became a cbs baby for a couple of years,’ he says. ‘And it was cbs that said, `If you want a Canadian (for Million Dollar Babies), then you have to take Duguay.’ ‘

Duguay says the first response was ‘he’s an action director, but then Bernie Zukerman looked at my work and kind of liked it and when we met, things just sparked.’

The director now has a couple of projects in development with Toronto-based Zukerman.

In a preproduction interview with Playback (April 25, 1994, p. 13), Zukerman said he faced the very daunting and Canadian riddle of finding a director who could satisfy both cbc and cbs, and also meet the sodec point requirements, in other words, a director who was Quebecois.

‘The reason I’m lucky to have Christian is that I didn’t have to sacrifice anything, despite all those conditions.’

Actually, it was actor Kenneth Welsh who brought Duguay to Zukerman’s attention following shooting on Adrift.

This week, Duguay begins filming his latest feature, Jackals, a $22 million Allegro Films political thriller to be distributed by Triumph Films. Leads are Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley and Aidan Quinn.

Commenting on the director’s role, Duguay says once there is a determination of just how compelling the story is, it’s up to the director to ensure it’s well told and has artistic unity.

He says a director is called upon to develop ‘the deeper, allegorical unity’ between production departments, from costumes to camera. ‘It’s like being a chef d’orchestre.’

The point was not belabored, but Million Dollar Babies is a story of discrimination and the racism and contempt that weighed heavily against the poor, French-speaking Catholics of the era.

The right assessment by the director of the moral fiber of the series’ central characters was crucial. During filming, Duguay said, ‘Even if they (the parents) were limited in some ways, they were proud, fair-minded people, but they were overwhelmed.’

According to the director, the writer of Million Dollar Babies, Suzette Couture, should have been nominated for a Gemini.

Cinar has sold the miniseries to bbc, France 2, RTL2 in German-speaking Europe, Nine Network in Australia, Wharf Cable in Singapore and elsewhere.

Million Dollar Babies picked up eight Gemini nominations and scored excellent primetime ratings during the November 1994 sweeps on cbc (3.1 million) and cbs (a 15.1 rating), as well as on Radio-Canada, where it ranked fifth overall in the November ’95 sweeps with a 1.5 million-plus audience.