The Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation will cease operations on March 29, and while industry members continue to lobby for replacement funding, a number of projects will be relocated or shelved.

The closing of the ampdc follows the decision of the Alberta government to discontinue funding the organization after a final grant for operating expenses. Funds uncommitted at the time of the decision were allocated to dramatic series North of 60 (Alliance/ Alberta Filmworks) and Jake and the Kid (Nelvana/Great North Productions), which will continue to produce in Alberta.

Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association president Sherry Kozak says ampia is co-ordinating lobbying efforts by the industry to find a substitute for ampdc funding. Meetings have been held in Edmonton and Calgary over the last several weeks and Kozak says a number of avenues are being explored to create a pool of funding similar to what the ampdc provided.

Kozak says an advertising campaign may also be undertaken as part of efforts to raise public awareness of the importance of the film industry and its contributions to the provincial economy. ‘We haven’t done a good job of letting people know how much of the programming they watch was made in Alberta,’ says Kozak.

Alberta producers say the ampdc closure will result in a number of projects moving as well as the longer term erosion of the industry’s infrastructure if some financial incentive isn’t put in place.

Andy Thomson, head of Edmonton’s Great North, says the company will move projects that would have generated $8 million in direct expenditures in Alberta as a result of the closure and will look in Quebec, Nova Scotia or offshore for possible locations.

Thomson says a dramatic series in development for which ampdc funding was expected is now in question and post-production for a four-hour miniseries will move elsewhere.

He says the Great North documentary coproduction with Ireland, The Rat Among Us, will cease to be a Canadian production at all: ‘It became too complicated to count on any kind of funding from Canada so we’re financing it entirely through presales, which is what we’re going to have to do now.’

Alberta producer Arvi Liimatainen’s $3.8 million tv movie Onowandah, in development with Toronto-based Atlantis, was canceled due to the ampdc’s disappearance, and he says other projects in development will relocate, primarily to b.c.

Liimatainen will look in b.c. for partners on Evil Blue Devil Man Roams the Voodoo Jungle, a $3.5 million tv movie. Freezer Burn, a $2 million coproduction with Regina’s Minds Eye Pictures, will shoot in Saskatchewan.

Liimatainen says although he would welcome government funding, it’s not the deciding factor in his choice of location and he will rely on private sources of financing for future projects.

‘I’ve learned a lesson here, and the big lesson is don’t rely on government,’ says Liimatainen. ‘I’m looking at b.c. for market-based private investment from broadcasters and distributors, nothing from public sources. The projects were originally destined for Alberta because there was some potential for investment. But having been fried on that burner, I’m not going to jump on another one.’

Liimatainen says in the long term the infrastructure of the Alberta industry will suffer. ‘In a year from now Alberta will be in the same position as it was 10 years ago. There will be less than a handful of producers who will be able to sustain a business here.’

Thomson says the industry grew over the past five years supporting series like Destiny Ridge and North of 60, but lack of financial support will make it difficult to support that industry and will mean an exodus of talent out of the province.

‘It will make a huge difference to the people who rely on this industry to make a living because we won’t be hiring Alberta craftspeople, we’ll be using people who live where we’ll be shooting. It will make it very difficult to support a production infrastructure here,’ says Thomson. ‘And if the government thinks that it will be supported by Clint Eastwood coming here to shoot, it won’t, because next time Clint comes he’s not going to find anyone to help him make his movie.’

Thomson says two years down the road Great North’s production arm may become an administration center to develop projects which will be shot wherever the financial incentive is.

vp of development for Minds Eye Pictures Josh Miller says Amazing Stories Studio, a coproduction of Minds Eye, Toronto’s Filmworks and Verite Films, will likely move to Saskatchewan if ampdc money is not replaced.

Miller says the industry is still scratching its collective head over the decision and is in the process of regrouping and approaching the government with alternatives. ‘I think there’s been enough of a reaction that they understand how critical the ampdc or some form of provincial incentive is,’ he says.

ampdc head Garry Toth says the corporation will contact individuals as to details of loan and equity files, which will be transferred to the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism for administration.