Over the past year new provincial film development corporations and tax incentives, infrastructure expansion, and beefed-up production slates have been coming in as fast as Atlantic Canada’s changing tide as the region’s film and television industry seeks to grow and diversify.

Playback takes stock of the shifting currents on the Atlantic scene, exploring the opportunities, infrastructure, and market incentives stimulating the various genres of production taking root in the eastern production industries.

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‘We may be four small provinces but film is starting to become a major industry here,’ says p. e. i. producer Gretha Rose, who organized the recently wrapped Atlantic Forum conference where the region’s film and television players projected they are on track to reach their goal of $150 million worth of film and television production spending in Atlantic Canada per annum by the year 2001.

Although total production figures for the Atlantic region are not available, stats compiled by various provincial agencies show production to be on the rise and offer some insight into the types of projects being greenlit on the eastern landscape.

Telefilm Canada reports an investment of roughly $12 million in the Atlantic region in its 1996/97 fiscal, triggering approximately $38 million in production. The 15 productions contracted during the period appear to be balanced between docs and tv drama: funding went to four drama one-offs, one drama series, one miniseries and one kids’ series, with support for documentaries committed to four one-offs and two series. Two features received funding commitments.

Feature production has been given a boost in the Atlantic provinces with the just announced Features First Program, a National Screen Institute initiative supported by Telefilm Canada and designed to support first- and second-time Atlantic and Western filmmakers through $30,000 to $40,000 worth of tailor-made professional development and production support per project. Five projects per year will be selected for the three-year initiative.

Larry LeClair, copartner in p. e. i.’s SeaHorse Films and co-organizer of Atlantic Forum 97, says tv drama is the biggest boom genre on the landscape.

‘If you look at it on a per capita basis, Atlantic Canada produces more tv series than any other area of the country,’ he says, citing such high-profile examples as Black Harbour, Emily, Gullages, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Theodore Tugboat.

And he forecasts a bolstered crop of tv drama and series on the horizon as part of a wide-ranging strategy to fuel expansion in the region. Emerging producers, he says, are looking to develop drama series of all budget levels to provide the ongoing cash flow required to build a stable base on which to grow and diversify their companies.

The new provincial film development corporations and the overall mandate of the provinces to foster the indigenous industry will also lead to rapidly expanding drama series slates, says LeClair.

‘Provinces as investors look highly on series because they provide long-term stable investment and build up infrastructure and support services.’

Newfoundland

This is proving the case in Newfoundland’s fledgling industry where the Nfld. and Labrador Film Development Corporation was recently set up. Fiscal 1996/97 production, totaling around $3.7 million, was heavily slanted to tv drama, with tv series pilot Dooley Gardens, seven half-hours of Gullages and a half-hour tv drama The Elf. Two one-hour docs made up the remaining indie production.

Even this small level of production has bolstered the province’s crew pool. Lisa Porter, president of the Film Crew Association of Newfoundland, reports the crew base has grown from 39 members last July to 65 members so far this year – and most of the growth is new people joining the ranks. Roughly $90,000 has also been injected into the industry infrastructure through the purchase of a digital editing system, before which producers were forced to look outside their locale to post.

Talent drive

‘We are seeing a big increase in the number of mows, episodic and small series,’ says Gary Vermeir, branch rep for ACTRA Maritimes, ‘and that’s where most of the work is for our members.’ He credits tv drama production for fueling the growing Atlantic talent pool, with total membership (including apprentices) rising from 145 in July 1996 to roughly 170 so far this year. The number of apprentices has showed the greatest jump, from three to 20.

Toronto-based Barna-Alper Productions’ New Brunswick shoot for Hard Times: The David Milgaard Story next month requires 82 roles and the majority of casting will be done in the province. Vermeir says the shoot will also necessitate new apprentices being brought into the actra fold.

The recently wrapped Cochrane Entertainment mow Pit Pony was a benchmark for local talent, Vermeir adds, with the entire cast except for two leads hailing from Nova Scotia, and the upcoming second production season of Emily and Black Harbour will see an increased presence of Maritime cast as an efficient system is now in place to direct talent to the work as its required.

P. E. I.

Through Enterprise p. e. i., $50,000 in script development has been committed to date in 1997, and film commissioner Berni Wood says the number of applications has grown steadily over the past year, with tv drama and feature projects taking up more space on her desk than documentary proposals.

With the conversion of an airport hangar into a permanent stage for the Emily series, the potential to shoot dramas in the province has grown.

New

windows

The latest news from Baton Broadcasting could also spell could news for Atlantic producers. If the crtc approves Baton’s station swap with chum which would give bbs outlets in Halifax, Moncton, Saint John and Sydney as well as the assets of the Atlantic Satellite Network, bbs will commit $2.3 million over seven years to a regional production office in Halifax, with $200,000 per year earmarked for script and concept development.

Halifax producer Peter d’Entremont anticipates new drama windows opening up with Baton on the Atlantic scene, as d’es Mike Volpe of Topsail Entertainment. ‘tv programming is certainly a major focus of our company and Baton’s presence spells good news,’ he says.

bbs is also offering six new Maritime-produced episodes for Baton’s The Storytellers and four new one-hour docs per year from Maritime producers, a commitment of $1.4 million over seven years.

Nova Scotia

In 1996, the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation supported production budgets (including copros) totaling $43.35 million and expects to have participated in $37 million worth of projects after its first two of four funding rounds this year, with a total of $65 million of nsfdc-supported production in 1997.

nsfdc director of marketing Christopher Worth says the number of applications this year is unprecedented. A total of 40 applications were received in 1996; this year, 77 applications had been filed by the end of June, resulting in the Nova Scotia government doling out an extra $1.3 million to meet the demand.

Nova Scotia producers are looking to become leading players on the Canadian animation/new media scene and have been bolstered by mt&t’s creation of the $1.9 million Culture and New Media Innovation Fund to fuel new media development in Nova Scotia. The money was divvied up among a number of organizations including the nsfdc’s New Media Production Fund ($400,000 over three years), the Electropolis soundstage multimedia lab ($100,000), the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design ($290,000), and Dalhousie’s new Masters in Internetworking degree ($100,000).

In total, the nsfdc has $800,000 available in 1997 for animation, cd-rom and interactive tv projects, with $300,000 up for grabs next year and $350,000 in 1999.

Halifax’s Munin Multimedia and Atlantic Animation House confirm that Nova Scotia’s animation scene is expanding at a fast pace. Both companies have doubled their production work force over the last six months to keep pace with the workload.

‘With the new media fund, the film development corporations and Telefilm recognizing new media, I think the industry is going to grow quickly here,’ says Munin president Richard Hubley.

actra members are also finding new work opportunities on cd-rom and Website projects, says Vermeir.

While docs used to be a mainstay of the Atlantic region, Kent Martin, a producer at the National Film Board Documentary East, says ‘most of the new development is in drama and series production.’ He blames a lack of funding and broadcast windows for the lull.

The Documentary East division, which lumps the four Atlantic provinces with Quebec, faced deep cuts in 1997 and will produce five documentaries (including two coproductions) totaling $900,000 in production budgets this year. But the forecast for ’98 is brighter: $1.5 million worth of production budgets will be available to produce five full nfb docs as well as some copros.

Still, docs alongside features are cropping up steadily on the list of Film NB projects accepted between June 1996 and July 1997.

Equity investment has been provided for two features, development loans went to an additional three features, and projected upcoming commitments include five more feature projects.

Documentary productions offered equity investment include two one-offs as well as a 13-part, one-hour doc series. Development loans have been granted to three tv documentaries.

An investment has also been made in a 13-part children’s series and projected commitments for 1997 include two mows and an animation series.