‘Right now the specialty channels are offering the opportunity for smaller producers to establish themselves in series work,’ says Halifax producer Charles Bishop, who’s serving up a healthy helping of 26 half-hours of Foodessence – which he emphasizes is not a cooking show but rather an investigation of the history, culture and technology of food – for Life Network.

‘The biggest potential for small to medium producers like myself,’ he says, ‘is series work and that’s where I see continued growth for our company – it gives us the stability we need to develop ongoing shows and from there we can extend to the conventional broadcasters.’

As for specialty licences being low, Bishop says he has loads of experience working under the constraints of tight budgets, as opposed to larger centralized companies not used to the crunch.

‘Keep it lean, mean and put it on the screen,’ is his production motto, and to that end he shoots and edits his programs in Halifax where costs are low and travel expenses don’t pile up.

Ocean Entertainment in Halifax is an example of a company making inroads with conventional broadcasters after building up info-mag experience with the specialties.

Principals Johanna Eliot and Michael Macdonald are in production on their third season of The Resourceful Renovator for the Life Network, the previous two runs were for wtn. To keep costs down – the total budget of the 26-episode series is $600,000 – the company has an in-house post facility. In addition, A View From Afar, a one-hour international perspective on Canada, is in development for Life.

But the company’s big news is the recent sale of its $210,000 Minyan on the Mira, the story of a Cape Breton Jewish community, to cbc’s Man Alive as well as picking up licences from cbc’s regional outlets, Vision tv and scn.

The specialty services are also providing the trigger for Dartmouth, n.s.-based Bill Skerrett, who plans to grow his company by closing in on the insatiable doc needs of the various specialty channels, a strategy that’s already reaping rewards. In 1996, Skerrett produced only two hours of programming; six months into 1997 he has seven hours already committed.

As minority stakeholder in Great North Atlantic, Skerrett has six one-hour biographies in production for the History Television launch.

Along with the specialties boon, Skerrett notes cbc is increasingly looking outside its own ranks for docs.

With broadcast windows secured at CBC Maritimes and Vision, Skerrett Communications just wrapped the $75,000 half-hour The River Can’t Divide, the story of the communities on either side of Nova Scotia’s LaHave River. The regional cbc window and Vision are proving to be a nice fit, says Skerrett, as their programming is compatible yet not in competition. Another half-hour for CBC Maritmes, The Little Church on Brunswick Street, is in prepro for an August shoot.

With the smaller docs aimed at the Canadian specialty market as his base, Skerrett also has bigger projects in sight, including Against All Odds, a $250,000 documentary he’s developing with writer Phillip Lee. Aimed at the international marketplace, the one-hour looks at the worldwide fight to save the Atlantic salmon. The shoot will take the production team throughout Atlantic Canada, Labrador, Iceland, Scotland and Russia.

‘Docs and factual entertainment are certainly growing in interest,’ says Peter d’Entremont at Triad Film in Halifax. Costs of production are low while audience appeal and broadcaster needs are high. He also notes cbc’s evolving structure is spelling good news for Atlantic doc producers, with the public broadcaster’s revamped schedule offering more windows outside the traditional documentary slots.

D’Entremont is in post on the $400,000 nfb copro The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis, which combines archival footage, interviews and recreations to bring to life the world of the folk artist.

But one-off docs like Maud Lewis, once the mainstay of the Atlantic region, are dwindling in number as producers shift their focus to documentary series to take advantage of the programming volume required by the specialties. D’Entremont is developing a series on the history of women in rock and roll called She-Bop based on a book by Lucy O’Brian.

With Halifax’s new CineSite studio offering both small and larger shooting space and flexibility for a range of production budgets, d’Entremont says the infrastructure required for smaller info-mag producers is developing alongside big-budget series.

Although the National Film Board’s Documentary East Studio is feeling the pressure of budget cuts, copros are helping to keep production levels up.

One Man’s Paradise, a portrait of Nova Scotia fisherman Lewie Henneberry, is one such collaboration currently being posted with Brett Films.

Also at the nfb, director Rosemary House is currently shooting Rain, Drizzle & Fog, an experimental doc focusing on the city of St. John’s with filmed meditations from artists, writers and performers.

And a late summer shoot is scheduled for p. e. i. director Donna Davies’ The Kitchen Goddess, a history of Maritime fortune tellers still deemed the village wise women.