In the midst of a busy 1996, Winnipeg’s Credo Entertainment Corporation has recently completed the filming of For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down, an mow for cbc. Coproduced by Manitoba’s Flat City Films, Wounded was filmed in and around Winnipeg in April.

Norma Bailey of Flat City, director and producer with Michael Scott of Credo, came up with the idea for the film two years ago. After noting the success of New Brunswick author David Adams Richards’ screenplay Small Gifts, which aired on cbc, she looked to his other work. Wounded is based on his novel of the same name.

The drama centers on a volatile yet charismatic petty thief and ex-con (actor Callum Keith Rennie). When he learns that a murderer and character from his past has left jail, he fears for his family’s safety and the two men come to blows.

After two years in development, the project got final approval in February 1996. With funding from cbc, Manitoba Film and Sound Development Corporation, Telefilm Canada and the Cable Production Fund, principal photography on the $2.7 million film began in April. That could have been a problem – much of the film takes place in the winter. But, as line producer Richard O’Brien-Moran states, an unseasonably cold spring helped out the production.

‘It was a four-week shoot and for the first week we did exteriors. We went in and around Winnipeg and about half an hour north to Selkirk. We were lucky because normally we wouldn’t have snow in the spring. We crammed a week and a half worth of work into one week, and it seemed every time we needed to go out for a pickup shot it would be snowing. We were lucky. Later with the interior shots it was easy to just simulate the snowflakes falling outside the windows.’

The second week of shooting was spent on location around Winnipeg, and then the final two weeks were shot in the Credo studios the company leases.

O’Brien-Moran says that the film industry is slowly growing in Manitoba and now has one-and-a-half to two full crews.

Currently Manitoba’s resources are being stretched as the film Arrow, directed by Don McBrearty, is filming. The four-hour miniseries for cbc is based on Canada’s plan to build the Avro Arrow aircraft during the Cold War. Also in production is Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, directed by Guy Maddin and produced by Ritchard Findlay. Credo is also aiming to begin filming on The Adventures of Shirley Holmes series this summer.

For cameras, special effects and post-production, companies like Credo and Flat City often choose between the resources of Toronto and Vancouver. For Wounded, the sound editing was done by Winnipeg’s Perry Audio & Recording, while the video post-production was done at Vancouver’s Gastown Post and Transfer. For the film’s special effects, which included gunfire and an exploding cabin, Toronto’s Laird McMurray Film Services was called upon.

‘We choose where to go for services based on different criteria, like funding, coproducers and what our needs are,’ says O’Brien-Moran. ‘Being in the middle we sort of have a choice. For camera equipment there is a certain amount here, but often we get our camera package from somewhere else, or bring in special equipment.’

For Wounded, a camera car was brought in from Vancouver to do traveling shots. ‘It adds to the cost of the production,’ says O’Brien-Moran. ‘You have to consolidate the time you use with the piece of equipment and take into account the time it will take to get it here. But we have become masters of flight schedules and time zones. This time, we had used a 300mm lens and sent it back (to Toronto) and then realized we needed it again for that afternoon. We had it back in three hours.’