A group of high-profile producers have formed an ad hoc lobby group to advocate changes to current Telefilm Canada policies which they say are making Canadian mows aimed at the local market increasingly difficult to produce.

Tapestry Films’ Mary and Keith Leckie, Suzette Couture, Pierre Sarrazin, Traders head writer and coexecutive producer Hart Hanson, Shaftesbury Films’ Jonathan Barker, Bernie Zuckerman and Salter Street Films’ Michael Donovan, all members of Creative Independence, say Canadian long-form dramas are becoming an endangered species despite increased financing available via the ctcpf.

With the entrance of the ctcpf, Telefilm’s project cap on mows was reduced from $1.5 million to $1 million. According to the producers, this ceiling does not take into consideration financial realities. The high-production values and star appeal required to bring an mow to the small screen is in the $3 million to $5 million range. Canadian features, generally produced for $1 million to $2 million, can pick up a maximum of $1.5 million in Telefilm money.

‘The lowered cap, in effect, took away the potential of creating tv movies designed for the Canadian market,’ says Mary Leckie.

‘The missing $500,000 can’t be picked up unless you do a u.s. presale.’

Lower funding caps for mows, assessments based on recoupment potential that fail to address cultural imperatives, and low priority in the drama envelope are the key policy initiatives they are lobbying Telefilm to address. The ’96/97 figures from the Equity Investment Program show support of 13 English-language series at $35,140,287 and three series pilots at $2,301,025. An investment of $14,099,707 was made in 11 mows/miniseries. On the French side five series were supported for a total of $11,044,034. Eleven mows received funding of $7,735,525.

Along with other players in the Canadian tv industry, they are calling upon Telefilm to reassess the compartmentalizing of features and tv movies in separate envelopes, suggesting both may be better served if treated together as long-form drama with potential for both the tv and theatrical market. High Cancon tv dramas should be evaluated, as is the case for features, with a cultural rather than a commercial measuring stick.

Telefilm’s executive director Francois Macerola agrees that the agency has not been involved in many mows. ‘It’s a question of financial resources,’ he says.

‘Last year we had $100 million to invest and $200 million worth of demand – the first priority is the production of high-budget drama series and their renewal and the setting aside of money for features. That isn’t a decision made by Telefilm but by the federal government, the minister and the board of directors of the fund.’

Macerola insists that the possibility of international sales and recoupment is only one among a number of criteria used in assessing projects and that the cultural component remains top priority. ‘We know very well we invest in some projects which won’t bring recoupment.’

Hanson says he puts little stock in pitches to write mows, even with broadcasters signed on, because getting the financing to move beyond development is unlikely. ‘Filling the gap between agency funds and broadcast licences is increasingly frustrating.’

According to Leckie, mows most likely to land these American deals are industrial projects rather than culturally relevant Canadian stories. Couture, developing the $4-million Wild Geese for Baton Broadcasting, points out that it is extremely difficult to come up with stories with equal appeal in Canada and the u.s.

As a western set on the prairies in the 1920s, Wild Geese was not identifiably Canadian and a sale to cbs was picked up, triggering Telefilm. But production has already been delayed over cbs’ casting requirements, which Couture says ‘are not easy to meet.’

Leckie has been working for the past six months with u.s. production company Cosgrove-Meurer seeking a project on which they can collaborate.

‘There is a strong interest at Baton and other private broadcasters for us to work together,’ says Leckie, ‘but we are absolutely baffled trying to come up with something that works for both our markets.’ She says mows produced for Canadian audiences tend to be more hard-hitting and in-depth whereas American networks are looking for headlines, disasters or top-selling literary properties, and want film, not tv, stars attached.

The broadcast contingent is also dissatisfied with the Telefilm process, says Bill Mustos, Baton’s vp dramatic programming. This past fiscal, Mustos says Baton had licensed two mows rejected by Telefilm because of their limited recoupment potential.

One-offs, unlike series, are more difficult to sell internationally and do not have the profit potential of syndication. ‘Telefilm has come to the conclusion that mows are not a terrific vehicle to recoup their equity investment,’ says Mustos.

Americans & recoup stymie Canadians

American presales or international partners are required to greenlight Telefilm support for tv movies, and the emphasis on commercial viability is leading to the production of only industrially Canadian mows, says Couture, adding ‘there are some stories I just can’t do because they are too Canadian.’

The question asked by Sarrazin is whether The Boys of St. Vincent or Conspiracy of Silence would have been made if an American presale and recoupment had been demanded?

Telefilm’s yardstick for mows, the producers argue, should take into account that some projects require a cultural investment, as is the case in the decision-making process for the feature film envelope.

‘We shouldn’t be putting an uneven emphasis on the recoupment of a tv movie when there isn’t nearly that kind of emphasis on recoupment of a feature,’ says Mustos.

With series renewal chewing up a large chunk of money off the top of the drama envelope and a mandate at Telefilm to trigger kids’ programming and docs, the concern being raised is that mow applications are relegated to the back burner to ensure funding of higher priority projects.

‘One-offs are pushed to the bottom of the pile and then the fund runs out of money,’ says Derek Mazur at Winnipeg-based Credo Entertainment who has four mows, all with broadcaster commitments, which he put on hold when the fund ran out.

Mustos also questions whether Telefilm shunts mows off to the side, taking more time to decide if it will participate because movies are not as time-sensitive as series with rigid production timelines for delivery to a broadcaster. As was the case with an mow bbs licensed, by the time the project was finally accepted by Telefilm the producer was too late in line to pick up ctcpf funding.

According to stats from the ctcpf Licence Fee Program, in the 1997 fiscal, $43,473,666 was committed to 69 English-language series and $5,250,027 was spent on 10 mows. On the French-track side, 48 series received a total of $24,242,049, with no funds spent on mows.

The solution to the mow financing conundrum, says Mustos, is in breaking down the ‘artificial distinctions’ at Telefilm between mows and features, eliminating the funding disparity between tv and theatrical movies and removing the uneven emphasis on recoupment between the two genres.

Throwing tv movies into the feature film camp would put additional financial strain on the envelope and require some number crunching and allocation adjustments to stretch dollars among the various production genres vying for funding. Reevaluating per project caps and bonuses, and gradually diminishing funding of series as they get closer to syndication are among the options which should be examined, says Mustos.

But Macerola fears that if tv movies and features were rolled into one envelope programs destined for tv would monopolize the fund. The feature industry, he says, needs to be fostered at this point in time with individual attention or it will not survive. He also sees a fundamental difference between the two genres of filmmaking.

Broadcasters part of the problem

When producers develop more marketable, higher profile films with the production values to trigger international sales, Canadian broadcasters are still only willing to put up the minimum licences required to trigger the funds, says Barker.

‘The fallout from the ctcpf is that the funding floor quickly becomes the ceiling and it’s a problem for those producing higher end movies with bigger budgets.’ With American mows budgeted in the us$2.5 million range, higher licence fees are required to bring the production values required to make those u.s. sales.

cbc has traditionally been the home for 10 out of 10 Cancon mows. These projects generally have less internationally sellable elements and are therefore most dependent on licences in the home market. The ctcpf thresholds have reduced the going rates for cbc movie licences, says Mazur, adding to the difficulty of financing Canadian mows.

Sarrazin notes pressure mounting at ctcpf meetings to give broadcasters a break and reduce the minimum licence fees for mows. While vertically integrated companies that distribute their own material are not as reliant on Canadian licences, such a move would spell disaster for indie producers, he says.

With documentary and variety specials generally cheaper to produce and series offering broadcasters more bang for their buck, the shelf space for mows is a concern, particularly at the cash-strapped cbc where most producers have traditionally turned for licences.

Mazur says from his conversations with reps from the public broadcaster, ‘there is a shift within the cbc, a long-term programming philosophy to move towards more series, which is going to have an impact.’

The cbc movies and miniseries department has three mows and two two-parters skedded for this season’s Sunday night movie lineup, as well as the two-hour Pit Pony out of the children’s department. In ’96/97, the movies department programmed six movies (three in-house and three independent) and one two-parter. A year earlier six mows were broadcast.

Jim Burt, head of tv movies and miniseries at cbc, admits the creative quality of Canadian tv movies has grown exponentially over the past decade, and not only has the financial landscape not kept pace, but ‘as yet there isn’t a firm scheduling scenario for movies, including at the cbc.’

Doc, variety and comedy specials all compete for the Sunday night slot, once the home of tv drama, he says, and the primetime windows throughout the week are tight with the growth of drama and comedy series, news and current affairs programming and sports.

A model along the Channel 4 line is also being called for by the producers to allow funders and broadcasters to participate more fully in long-form drama while allowing for a theatrical window. The tv movies produced in Canada have the potential to be small theatrical releases, says Leckie, pointing out that after Norman Jewison saw Filmworks’ made-for-tv movie Where the Spirit Lives, he put his own personal money towards the financing of an optical print which was invited to film festivals across the globe.

The producers are calling for a regular slot, a ‘Canadian Masterpiece Theatre’ where audiences can count on seeing 13 weeks of high-quality Canadian long-form dramas – features, tv movies and miniseries. Corporate sponsors could present the showcase and the cache of well-known Canadian celebs introducing the programs could bring a high profile to the series.

While an all-Canadian movie slot may be appropriate for the cbc, Mustos worries that on a private network a completely Cancon window might serve only to create a Canadian movie ghetto and he prefers the idea of a showcase of the best movies from around the globe.

The producers throwing the flag are well established in the American marketplace and say they do not want to ignore the international sales potential of movies but want the opportunity to finance and create some projects primarily for the home market rather than serve international interests first.

‘Our preference would be to do a wholly Canadian production yet still do something smart with casting to give a leg up for an international or cable sale,’ says Leckie.