The post-production supervisor for mgm’s upcoming Stargate series has no doubts that Vancouver’s post-production community will be able to handle the onerous editing, visual effects, sound mixing and other finishing touches required to get the show ready for air when it starts production next month.

‘The skills and equipment are here,’ says Michael McLean, who already oversees post for Poltergeist and The Outer Limits. The initial order for Stargate – which is inspired by the feature film and stars MacGyver’s Richard Dean Anderson – is for 44 episodes.

‘There isn’t anything we can’t do here,’ adds McLean, a Los Angeles resident who has worked frequently in Vancouver since the mid-’80s. And he’s impressed with the growth of Vancouver’s post sector and its ability to meet his needs.

‘We’re a demanding client. We have a tendency to consume and devour,’ explains McLean, referring to the volumes of work three effects-heavy series create. ‘We need a lot of attention and we get it. We have been demanding and everyone here has risen to the challenge.’

McLean uses Rainmaker Digital, Sharpe Sound and Northwest Imaging & fx and delivers complete episodes of the syndicated shows from Vancouver.

‘It makes sense for us to be here,’ he says. ‘It’s economically and creatively advantageous to do post-production in Vancouver. The [dollar] exchange is an obvious attraction. The prices are competitive and it’s advantageous to be centralized. We can solve problems as they come up. And there is a level of professionalism equal to anything we find in Hollywood.

‘The studio wouldn’t have made the commitment to do the shows here if it didn’t think [Vancouver] could do it,’ McLean adds. ‘I don’t know what people in l.a. could do to take us back there.’

Yet, he admits, there are enticements from l.a.-based companies to send his post south. ‘People will always try to get your business.’

What L.A. says

The bitterness of so-called retaliation against Vancouver suppliers who lure runaway post-production away from l.a. post companies appears not to be as sour as many doom sayers attest, however.

Patti Archuletta, director of the California Film Commission, says her agency took up the matter about a year ago, but found no evidence to substantiate claims that Los Angeles post-production companies were under siege.

California, as the most prolific English-language production jurisdiction, has reported record production volumes and that stimulates similar growth in post-production, she says. California companies that complain about losses of post business tend not to be current with the technology or skills the industry demands, she adds.

‘There is no direct correlation between increases in post-production [in b.c.] and a reduction of post-production in Los Angeles,’ says Archuletta.

‘There is more work to go around. And the industry is becoming more portable. Post-production can be done in a garage in Montana or on a mountaintop near Vancouver.’

Meanwhile, Ron Burdett – who is president of Glendale, California-based Sunset Post and chair of the International Teleproduction Society of production and post production companies – admits runaway post-production business has negatively hit television-oriented post companies in l.a.

‘Companies that specialize in episodic television and sitcoms have been impacted,’ says Burdett, a 25-year veteran of post-production whose company oversaw the post work on Star Trek: First Contact. ‘We [at Sunset] have felt it around the edges. It’s all about business. The fact is you can get $1 worth of work in Canada for 73 cents.’

The change in market dynamics has sparked a diversification in the services offered by l.a.-based post companies, Burdett explains. But the overall volume of production is on a steep up-trend, he adds, which creates more work for everyone. ‘If anyone has problems [with runaway post-production], they had better look hard at their internal operations.

‘If anyone thinks this is a manufacturing business, they are in the wrong line of work,’ says Burdett. [Post-production] is a cottage industry. It’s about custom shows. It’s not about mass production.

There is an optimal size for post-production companies to deliver their maximum creative resources, Burdett says, meaning that companies that get too big compromise their custom touch. And it’s that philosophy that allows him to relax about post-production growth in other jurisdictions like Vancouver.

Pacific Video Canada

The full-service post companies in Vancouver are still working toward that optimal size and outfitting themselves with the gear that allows them to continue to attract more post work.

Take, for instance, Pacific Video Canada (through its wholly owned subsidiaries Post Haste Video and film lab Alpha Cine), which expects to invest several million into new equipment by this summer and has spent about $1 million per year over the past four years. Pacific Video’s coo Jon Robertson says the company spends $500,000 per year just to keep existing equipment current.

The company – in this summer’s expansion – expects to double its film processing capacity from a current level of 70,000 to 100,000 feet of 35mm film per night on a Pacer system to 140,000 to 200,000. The extra capacity is timed to come online when Vancouver’s peak season begins in August.

‘The answer has to be `yes’ to everyone,’ says Robertson. About 60% of Pacific Video’s work is u.s.-based (like Lonesome Dove, Sentinel and Viper), he adds, while 80% of the u.s. work is in Vancouver because of the favorable dollar exchange.

Further capital expansion will come in the form of film scanners, a nonlinear assembly system and a graphics platform that will allow Post Haste to offer visual effects services.

The new investment – which adds to the company’s cache of Quadra and Rank Cintel film-to-tape transfer systems, cmx edit controllers, Renaissance and DaVinci color-correcting systems, and other equipment – is a necessary cost of doing business if Pacific Video is to take advantage of the growing market, says Robertson.

Sales have doubled in the past four years, he reports, but 1996’s sales tally is only expected to match 1995’s revenue total of $7.3 million.

‘You’re never sure what’s around the corner,’ says Robertson, referring to the fickle American business and the constant realization that Vancouver offers u.s. producers less in the way of post-production than it does for production. Vancouver post companies will only ever get a portion of what comes here to shoot, Robertson explains. ‘We have to make certain that labor relations remain stable, rates stay cost-effective, that Vancouver is an easy place to work.’

Pacific Video, which trades on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, is 80% owned by l.a.-based Laser Pacific Media Corp.

Rainmaker Digital

Sales at Vancouver’s largest full-service post house, meanwhile, jumped 33% in 1996 to about $15 million.

‘The American business is a cornerstone of our company,’ says Curtis Staples, vp of business development at Rainmaker Digital. About 75% of revenues come from u.s. producers, while 20% comes from Canadian producers and the balance is paid by international producers.

The company’s credit list covers television series, mows, direct-to-video projects, and low- and high-budget features. Services include film transfer, editing, visual effects, and compression (for dvd, cd-rom and video on demand). Recent credits include the series Two, Highlander, and the front-end post of Millennium and The X-Files.

Staples says by implementing the basics of Business 101 – including quality service and product – u.s. producers keep coming back. At the same time, a broad ‘footprint’ of services keeps revenues diversified and the company hedged against cyclical downturns. New business, he adds, comes from word-of-mouth referrals and the long-term relations forged over a decade of television post work that began with Cannell’s 21 Jumpstreet series.

Then, of course, success comes from Rainmaker’s ability to perform. ‘If you’re going to play with the big boys,’ says Staples, ‘you have to have the same skills and equipment.’

In the past three years, Rainmaker has spent $11 million on new equipment including new telecine suites (for example, Rank Cintel and Ursa Gold), refrigerator-sized computers from Silicon Graphics, and effects systems like Flame and Inferno. ‘In the post-production business, you have to have nerves of steel because of the capital expenditure,’ says Staples.

Staffing levels, meanwhile, have doubled to 130 people in the past 18 months, necessitating the recruitment of people from Ireland, the Netherlands and the u.s. ‘Our growth has superseded our ability to train people,’ he says.

Despite its focus on wooing the u.s. producer, however, Rainmaker is surprisingly not a cheap date. ‘We’re definitely cheaper than l.a.,’ says Staples, ‘but not mind-bogglingly so.’ Rates at Rainmaker run about $400 per hour while comparable services in the u.s. run at us$310 per hour, he says.

Key to Rainmaker’s strategy to diversifying business and strengthening ties to l.a., the company opened a visual effects office in Burbank in November.

‘People thought we had an office [in l.a.] before we did,’ says Staples, referring to the frequency of his marketing trips to studios and network offices.

‘The more they hear about you,’ he adds, ‘the greater their comfort levels become.’