Once again Prairie producers are, in the words of one member of their ranks, ‘busy as beavers’ this summer, and not only with a complement of major projects. Each with its own mandate, the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba industries are also mobilizing to maintain the physical, fiscal and human infrastructure that will ensure future summers will be as hopping as this one.

Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan industry has had a year of milestones and has seen a near doubling of total production budgets. Saskfilm head Mark Prasuhn says the province is looking at about $30 million in total production budgets for 1996, up from about $16 million in 1995, with total dollars spent in province up from $11 million last year to $15 million this year.

While basking in the glow from productions like the Minds Eye/Condor $8 million miniseries coproduction The Lost Daughter; Utopia Cafe, the province’s first national network series from Stephen Hall and Heartland Motion Pictures; and the establishment of a new distribution company, Regina-based Evergreen Releasing, Prasuhn says critical discussions are ongoing between the local industry and the provincial government.

One of those discussions centers on bolstering Saskfilm’s equity investment capabilities. ‘The size of the industry has more than doubled, but Saskfilm has stayed the same size,’ says Prasuhn. ‘With what we have to invest we can’t sustain growth; we have to move forward.’

Efforts also continue toward the installation of a ‘saskfip’ program. Prasuhn says he is optimistic a film investment program – ideally modeled on the former Nova Scotia 30% labor rebate – will be instituted by 1997. ‘A tax credit model is the way financing is moving,’ he says. ‘We’re aiming at 1997 as a year of big changes. The budget cycle for 1997 is starting now, so now is the time for all of this to unfold.’

Producer Stephen Hall says he is confident a convincing case can be made by Saskatchewan’s production industry in the interest of updating financing levels and methodology.

Hall is beginning production on the third season of Utopia Cafe, a youth-targeted show recently picked up by the cbc, though still 40% shy of planned Saskfilm funding. Hall says he will seek sponsors or additional presales to make up the difference, but the shortfall may result in the production of 10 rather than 13 episodes, a situation which he says is preferable to watering down the quality of the show but could cause difficulties in securing second-window sales.

Prasuhn says upgrades to new soundstage facilities are also underway. The most ambitious involves the 90,000-square-foot converted manufacturing facility used as a temporary space last year to shoot the Minds Eye tv movie Lyddie. The studio will be run by Saskfilm on a two-year trial basis and will receive about $100,000 in renovations, recovered by rental (low-cost, says Prasuhn) to productions like The Lost Daughter.

Heartland Motion Pictures head Stephen Onda says a three-year business plan put forward by the industry a year ago indicated that equity financing would be running low by this summer. That is indeed the case, he says, and the industry is now making efforts to avoid becoming a victim of its own success.

‘There are four or five companies hitting their stride simultaneously,’ says Onda, ‘and there is a relatively small kitty at Saskfilm. We have to raise the glass ceiling.’ By Onda’s calculations, the province is reaping almost a 10-to-one return based on the amount of equity invested versus the $30 million-plus level of production.

In addition to gearing up for production on its youth series Max, Heartland has teamed up with Nelvana’s Michael Klein on The Last Place on Earth, a feature written by Jake and the Kid producer Laura Phillips and directed by Frances Damberger.

While Saskatchewan hasn’t traditionally been a major destination for u.s. service work, Prasuhn says he hopes to see that segment of the industry emerge as the province’s infrastructure grows stronger.

Family Blessings, a $4 million cbs tv movie starring former action hero Lynda Carter, recently wrapped in Regina, with Saskatoon’s The Edge Productions and l.a.-based Dove Audio coproducing.

Another u.s. action actor, Billy Blanks, will be in the province for the Sept. 9 start of Dead End, a $1.5 million coproduction of Saskatoon’s Tri-media and Film One of Toronto and the first feature to shoot in Saskatoon.

Alberta

After a year of upheaval which saw Alberta’s funding body closed down, the province’s producers are busy with this year’s slates and with efforts to ensure future growth. According to Alberta film commissioner Lindsay Cherney, to date 1996 has brought over $100 million in production to the province, nearly double last year’s $59 million.

Cherney says Alberta production has been varied in terms of geographical location and genre, with a large number of u.s. productions like Paramount’s Viper series and the 20th Century Fox feature Book Worm starring Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins, and Canadian projects such as North of 60, now in season four, shooting in the province.

Alberta producers are lobbying on several fronts to ensure the boom doesn’t go bust.

An industry strategy committee consisting of about 20 industry representatives was recently struck by the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association. Chaired by Dale Phillips, head of Edmonton-based Black Spring Pictures, the committee is developing initiatives and protocols to bring to the government of Alberta and the private sector with the aim of developing a new funding alternative.

‘We’re currently setting down about 10 or 12 things the industry may want to do to renew itself; we’re looking at what is the art of the possible,’ says Phillips. ‘We want to put in place initiatives which may be purely privately funded.’

In September, the organization will likely make an announcement concerning industry mobilization around one of the initiatives put forward. ‘If we don’t get something in place quickly, the next production season could be sparse,’ says Phillips.

Andy Thomson, head of Edmonton’s Great North Productions, is one of many Alberta producers spearheading lobbying efforts to institute a tax credit.

Thomson, together with Alberta producers Doug McLeod, Arvi Liimatainen and Lance Mueller, are part of a government relations subcommittee which has entered into a joint agreement with the cftpa to cofund a focused initiative to convince the provincial government to institute a labor tax credit.

The body is considering employing a paid lobbyist, likely Hill & Knowlton, to work on the industry’s behalf.

Earlier this summer, industry representatives helped form the Alberta Cultural Industries Association, which has taken $1.9 million in seed money – $500,000 from the province and $1.4 million from the federal government over a five-year period – to boost the production and other cultural industries.

In addition to a full schedule of lobbying, Thomson has been busy with a full production slate, pulling together a number of coproductions with European and Canadian partners.

Thomson says Great North has about 65 hours and $25 million to $30 million in production on the go, reflecting activity in the provincial industry as a whole. But he says there is still an imperative for government involvement in the industry.

In March 1997, Great North will begin filming Voyage of the Naparima, a miniseries coproduction with Ireland. The company’s one-hour documentary on rats, being produced with Canal+ and zdf, will begin shooting when the image-challenged little performers, which apparently must be trained from birth, are raised and an appropriate rat wrangler is found.

Great North is also working on a 13-part series about railways called Ribbons of Steel for the Life Network; two nature series, Acorn the Nature Nut and Cotter’s Wilderness for Discovery, and season two of the Nelvana coproduction Jake and the Kid. Thomson says Great North is also pitching a cop series called The Beat, developed with wic, to a national broadcaster.

Manitoba

Manitoba is also staging a summer mobilization to improve its film infrastructure with a push to train much-needed crew for the satisfaction of indigenous producers as well as foreign scouts sniffing around for a nifty location.

An industry and government co-operative training program, which will result in the addition of 30-40 new crew positions in the province, was fully funded and underway as of this spring.

The program, administered by the Manitoba Motion Picture Industries Association, represents a financial commitment of $100,000 each from the federal and provincial governments and $119,000 from the industry. According to the mmpia’s Cheryl Ashton, the program will ultimately ensure the simultaneous availability of crew for two indigenous productions as well as an offshore production per year.

Manitoba production will add up to about $45 million in 1996 versus about $27 million in 1995, says Ashton. These figures were included in a battery of industry data presented this month to the Manitoba cabinet by industry representatives anxious to open discussions on the development of new funding programs.

Carol Vivier, gm of Manitoba Film and Sound, says a number of finance options were presented, including a refundable tax credit model and a private investment fund to leverage more private money. Vivier says the film industry in the province has traditionally enjoyed strong government support.

Derek Mazur, head of Winnipeg’s Credo Entertainment and president of mmpia, says the industry is looking to develop a unique-to-Manitoba funding solution where increased private financing ensures long-term production health.

Mazur executive produced Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, the latest feature from local filmmaker Guy Maddin that recently wrapped in Winnipeg.

Credo also recently started production on The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, a $6 million series coproduction with Vancouver’s Forefront Productions set to air on ytv in the new year. Mazur attests to the need for additional crew in the province and says production on Shirley had to be delayed until the recent wrap of another Winnipeg big shooter, The Arrow (see page 30).

Credo has a full complement of projects in development including a feature version of Margaret Laurence’s Stone Angel with Atlantis Films for which a u.s. actress is being wooed.