Where once there was one, now there are three. While Film New Brunswick shifts into high gear with a new, high-profile executive director, and as Newfoundland announces its intent to jump further into the fray with a film corporation of its own, the successfully seasoned Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation is still the most experienced and well-equipped player on the block, but it’s going to have company.

In New Brunswick, writer/producer/actor and nfb veteran Sam Grana (The Boys of St. Vincent) will be Film nb’s new executive director as of March 3. While finishing his latest film Barbed Wire and Mandolins, Grana says he expects ‘a most exciting personal and professional challenge.’

Fortunately, the New Brunswick government under Frank McKenna has put more than just political will behind the corporation. The province offers some of the most generous production incentives in the country, especially for new producers. In fact, Film nb is hoping to build its provincial tax credit so that labor from other provinces would be eligible as long as the keys mentor a resident. The attraction is not lost on producers from outside the province, even for projects born in major centers like Toronto.

Grana says it’s all part of the corporation’s dual mandate to attract outside production while building the indigenous base. ‘For the first couple of years, anyway, the challenge will be to work on both equally,’ he says. ‘What we want is to build a bigger pool of better qualified film professionals.’

Pulling together

One of Grana’s other goals is interprovincial cooperation. Considering that the population of all four Atlantic provinces combined is less than 9% of the country’s total, big projects in either province are sure to draw keys and crew from the rest of the region. While it may be inevitable that the provinces will compete over some location work, more work in any of the provinces is almost certain to increase production-related employment across borders.

What’s still uncertain from Film nb’s standpoint is whether the province can or should sink large sums into infrastructure when Nova Scotia’s growing resources are easily accessible. ‘I think we would want to encourage indigenous producers to do some of their stuff at home,’ says Grana. ‘A small sound studio would be of some benefit here, for example, but beyond that we’re looking down the road.’

In the short term, Grana thinks New Brunswick might not be getting its fair share in terms of federal money for French-language production, and he foresees increased coproduction between New Brunswick and Quebec.

Head hunting

Across the gulf in Newfoundland, the search is on for someone to head up the new film corporation, and Ken Pittman, president of the Producers Association of Newfoundland, says the search party missed a good catch when Film nb secured Grana. ‘We need someone who’s active nationally, someone who’s plugged in to the right people, both in government and in the private sector,’ says Pittman.

Pittman was part of an industry/government committee which had been working for over a year to study and develop a strategy for the corporation. He says the primary mandate will be the development of indigenous production. Marketing the province for outside production will be important, but secondary.

In the pot

There’s no confirmation yet on whether the corporation will devise a provincial tax credit program to piggyback on the federal tax credit, a move which has become de rigueur for other provincial agencies.

Startup funds of $1 million over five years were granted to the corporation through the Canada/ Newfoundland Agreement on Economic Renewal. The eight-person board of directors will include three reps from industry, two from government and three members at large.

As a location for outside production, Pittman says Newfoundland has a mixture of assets and liabilities. The crew is small, but it’s experienced. While the island is separated from the nearest production suppliers by both distance and water, it does offer landscapes which producers recognize as unique.

‘Our contact with studios and outside producers confirms that we have landscapes here which can’t be found in the Maritimes or the u.s. eastern seaboard,’ says Pittman. For example, negotiations are ongoing with a Norwegian producer to shoot a $6 million feature in and around the province’s fjords next winter.

The more the merrier

Meanwhile, the spirit in Nova Scotia is one of cooperation. nsfdc program administrator John Chisholm says more production in the region means more opportunities for Nova Scotian crew and suppliers; it’s a matter of increasing work in the region, not splitting it up into pieces. ‘These are people with whom we’re doing business anyway,’ says Chisholm.

The Nova Scotian production community has lots to smile about right now. The industry has grown from $7 million to $43 million since 1993 and has more than tripled the local crew.

With the recent release of Imagex’s Margaret’s Museum in New York and other select cities, the province is hoping for an increased u.s. profile, and a second season of Black Harbour for cbc (at $1 million per episode) means an increased level of stability into 1998.

Studio investment

The province’s tax credit, which Chisholm has said is structured to be ‘as open to interpretation as possible,’ is emerging as one of the most simply administrated and most attractive.

The latest jewel in the crown is over $1.7 million in federal and provincial loans towards three permanent soundstage facilities. Electropolis – the much argued project born from an alliance of Salter Street, Citadel and Cochran Entertainment – will be loaned $1 million to create four stages in a former Nova Scotia Power Corporation harborside facility. The other funds will be split between the already-operating Tour Tech East and Cine Site, a 3,000-square-foot facility partially owned by Imagex’s Chris Zimmer.

It’s hoped the spending on infrastructure will spur further growth in terms of labs and consulting services, as well as make the city and surrounding areas more attractive to international production.