While policy and funding issues are hashed out at the bureaucratic level by the mix of broadcaster, producer, and government interests, the changing shades of the Canadian production landscape also have a direct impact on the talent that provide a crucial base for the Canadian film and tv industry.

Playback sought out burgeoning talent ­ an up-and-coming actor, screenwriter and director ­ to discuss how recent trends, funding scenarios and policy decisions are playing out on their turf: gaining insight into the challenges their talent sectors face, the forces determining quantity and quality of work, and where they are setting their sites for expanding opportunities.

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‘Ten years ago screenwriters were living in a Garden of Eden,’ says Toronto scriptwriter Donald Martin, who set out in the business a decade ago when script development money was being showered from the gods.

But paradise has been lost.

‘Writers coming into today’s marketplace have to wake up to the fact that there is no government coffer out there that’s going to fund their project,’ says Martin, whose advice to writers trying to crack the film and tv market is to sit at home and write an amazing spec script ­ and once it’s in the can, don’t waste a second before starting the next one.

With dwindling development dollars available from both government sources and broadcasters, producers are increasingly looking for finished scripts so they don’t have to cover screenplay development costs, he says, and having a stack of scripts on hand can give a writer an edge.

The fall to bitter reality also means that scriptwriters can’t just conjure up any story that strikes their fancy. Business savvy is becoming just as important as those creative juices, says Martin.

‘We have to become more market driven and produce scripts that respond to a niche.’

Lack of development money is the key source of angst amongst the scriptwriting community. As funding sources dry up, the meager offerings are being funneled into production rather than development. Martin points to the ctcpf Licence Fee Program, the Ontario Film Development Corporation, which no longer supports writers, and Telefilm Canada, offering only minimal assistance. Even the Harold Greenberg Fund, which Martin bills ‘the screenwriter’s best friend,’ is selecting fewer projects under the constraints of tight resources.

‘Where is development supposed to come from?’ Martin asks, a question ech’ed by writers across Canada.

Broadcaster commitments aren’t offering any solutions, says Martin. He went to a broadcaster with a viable tv movie script and a production company attached, and was offered a mere $5,000 for development, which Telefilm was willing to match. The cost of taking a script to second draft runs around $27,000, ‘so where is the rest of the money to come from?’ he asks. ‘It’s very frustrating.’

With over 14 film and tv credits to his name, three projects in production so far this year, and numerous scripts under option, Martin’s strategy is to invest in the development process himself.

‘I do a lot of speculative scripts without having a producer or broadcaster or distributor attached as opposed to commissioned material,’ says Martin, noting that with a spec script in hand writers can negotiate higher fees because they have made the initial investment in developing the idea.

The former journalist started out writing script after script until finally Montreal’s Allegro Films optioned the tv movie No Blame, the first aids film from a female perspective, and produced it in 1988. The film picked up five Gemini nominations, a Silver Award at the Houston International Film Festival, and the Red Cross Award at the Monte Carlo Film and Television Festival.

After the production wrapped, the producers asked what else Martin was working on. He dug through his filing cabinet for those old scripts and ended up with a five-picture deal, all of which were produced the following year.

Another of his spec scripts, Loss of Faith, a mystery/suspense tv movie scheduled for production in early July in Montreal, was optioned four years ago by Productions sda and has finally found a home on wic.

And he says a number of companies have come calling this year desperately seeking finished scripts.

Martin looks to market trends when choosing his subject matter, noting that while thrillers were hot a couple of years ago, family films are currently the big sell. And he’s definitely on the right track.

The $3-million mow Ebenezer, a western adaptation of A Christmas Carol penned by Martin and produced by Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures, just wrapped production in Calgary and he has numerous other family-oriented projects on the go.

In development with Vancouver’s Forefront Productions are the tv movies A Little Bit of Heaven and Wild At Heart, the features Eden and Silent Cry, and his script Noah’s Ark is under option.

Looking ahead to future hot genres, Martin says the aging of the boomer generation means increased interest in programs geared toward senior citizens as well as appealing to intergenerational audiences. Already setting his sights on this market, Martin and Betty Jane Wylie collaborated on the elderly oriented tv script Coming of Age, which picked up two 1995 Gemini Awards. He also has a feature comedy called The Three Grandmothers ­ written specifically for Olympia Dukakis ­ under option.

Martin is finding expanding development opportunities at the specialties. His script Flying Ghosts, a family-based tv movie adapted from a popular kids’ book of the same name, recently found favor with the Family Channel.

‘As a small specialty I didn’t know what to expect, but my hat is off to the Family Channel,’ says Martin. ‘They were supportive of the project. It would never have got off the ground if it hadn’t been for a broadcaster making a significant commitment, as opposed to $5,000.’

Flying Ghosts will shoot this spring in Alberta, with Owl Television as a coproducer.

The piecemeal nature of production financing is also taking its toll on writers, says Martin. Forced to put together deals by dipping into as many funds and regional incentives as possible, producers can’t choose their scripts based solely on a good story; scripts must fall within the funding sources’ restrictions, and in order for a project to be greenlit, creative often has to be tailored to fit eligibility criteria.

While Martin’s main focus is writing family films for tv, he also has his sights on the feature landscape. But after the commercial release of his 1996 Genie-nominated and Writers Guild Top Ten Award finalist Never Too Late, Martin says he will be looking south of the border to develop future feature projects.

‘In all honesty I was very disappointed with the distribution of that picture,’ he says, noting the perennial plague of feature filmmaking in this country ­ Canadian distributors don’t have access to Canadian screens.

‘When Never Too Late was released in Montreal the distributor had to fight to get one screen in one awful little basement cinema because there were all these American Christmas releases coming out,’ he says.

‘Canada is one of the few countries in the world where foreign distribution companies don’t have to keep a percentage of their revenue in this country to help generate the indigenous industry,’ adds Martin, noting that in France, for example, 10% of box office receipts must support indigenous filmmaking.

‘Canadians produce wonderful movies but we don’t have a sufficiently strong distribution network to get them seen, and as a writer it’s dishearteningŠyou eventually arrive at a point where you say why bother.’

Martin is seriously toying with the idea of setting up shop for half the year in l.a. where he will focus on writing features for the American market while continuing to write tv movies for Canadian broadcasters ­ a strategy he says many of his colleagues have already embarked on.

Martin’s first foray into the American feature market, Behind The Mirror, a script cowritten with Madeline Thompson, is slated for production this fall in Texas by l.a.-based Boyle-Taylor Productions, the producers of Phenomenon. The script was written for Jacqueline Bisset, who has agreed to a starring role, and Curtiss Clayton is on board directing. Martin is also developing a tv movie with Boyle-Taylor, Cara Brown: An American Heroine.

But Martin hasn’t given up on the Canadian production scene and says funding dilemmas are leading writers to assert more control over their projects to ensure their films get made.

‘I’ve said writers need to become more business-oriented. Well, I can go a step further and say a way of overcoming some of the challenges in today’s industry is for writers to become hyphenates ­ writer-producers,’ he says.

‘I think all writers have to start thinking seriously about shepherding their projects further along the way into development and maybe even into production.’

With Flying Ghosts, for example, Martin went to Family Channel without a production company attached and made sure he could garner the support he needed to turn his script into a high-quality program.

‘We have to become more assertive and take more of the business responsibility of moving a project forward,’ Martin continues.

‘We would love the comfort of just writing and handing the script over to someone else to do all the running around and putting the pieces together. But if you leave your baby in the hands of a third party, your baby may not grow up the way you want it toŠor maybe it won’t grow up at all.’