In This Report

Playback is highlighting some of the film and tv prodcos forging new ground on the Western landscapes of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Partners In Motion, based in Saskatchewan, has moved from its long-time commercial and doc staples into the dramatic genre, as has HBW Productions in Alberta. Manitoba’s Visual Marketing is taking advantage of a generous labor incentive and making the leap from corporate work into docmaking. Blue Hill Productions in Saskatchewan is gearing up for an $8.5 million mini-series, the biggest project in its 10-year history, and Alberta -based Nomadic Pictures, behind recent theatrical and mow successes, has a three-pack of movies on the go and is setting its sights on foreign markets. Missing Link Productions continues to develop an eclectic mix of non-fiction programs and is looking to u.k. partners to overcome the financial obstacles of producing on the Alberta scene.

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In a mere 12 months, Regina production company Partners in Motion has expanded from one to eight full-time employees, taken on new partner and gm Ron Goetz, made $300,000 worth of Avid equipment upgrades, taken the leap from documentary and infomag programming into drama production, and completed its first high-end cd-rom.

The upcoming year holds further benchmarks for the six-year-old company helmed by president Chris Triffo.

In 1997, Partners in Motion produced three-and-a-half hours worth of documentaries, as well as the half-hour, Gemini-nominated drama Dirty Money, which aired on Global. The beefed-up 1998 slate includes a 13-part, half-hour doc series, six hours of doc specials and a 90-minute drama.

Commercial and corporate video work is the company’s bread and butter and stability factor, says Triffo, who has 13 years’ experience as a producer, director and dop. However, documentary/infomag specials and series are increasingly making up a bigger piece of the pie. Total 1998 tv production budgets will ring in at $1.5 million while the corporate side will be about $500,000.

‘Dirty Money was a glorified calling card,’ explains Triffo of Partners in Motion’s first foray into drama. ‘For a company which has produced only documentaries and information series it is difficult to break into the dramatic genre because the price tag is so much higher.’

With the half-hour as a demo to pique broadcaster and distributor interest, the partners shopped the feature-length action film Cashed In at natpe. They are currently meeting with interested partners (including Columbia TriStar), but have not decided if the film will go straight to tv or have a theatrical release.

Although the serious world of docs is their background, when it comes to drama, fun, light-hearted action-adventure is the genre they are drawn to.

‘You don’t necessarily have to be heavy and try to change the world,’ says Triffo. ‘Sometimes people want to turn their brains off and just be entertained.’

The partners have no intention of switching their focus to drama if this avenue proves successful. Diversity is key to the company’s long-term business plan.

‘It is just another part of our company wheel,’ says Triffo. ‘We will not drop our corporate or documentary side and go full-force into drama.’

Another first this year, Partners in Motion cracked the u.s. market with the sale of Survivors to The Learning Channel and Discovery u.s.

The three-part, one-hour series has a $1.2-million budget and is being produced for the American market with partner Single Spark Productions of Santa Monica, California. New York’s Tapestry International is the distributor.

Survivors explores the human costs of manmade and natural disasters from the vantage point of those who lived through these horrors. The partners anticipate further American projects as they build relationships with broadcasters south of the border.

A copro with Calgary’s Merry Dancer Media titled Beyond Medicine is in preproduction. The $500,000, 13 half-hour series deals with non-traditional medicine practices and has been licensed to scn and wtn. Funding has also come by way of Saskfilm, the CFCN Equity Fund, and Harmony Entertainment.

Harmony has been Partners in Motion’s solution to the dilemma of producing in a province without a tax credit and coming up short on the final 15% of the budget which a labor rebate would cover.

To deal with the shortfall, they convinced a group of investors to pool together capital and formed Harmony, a private film financing company which invests in productions designed for the international market and provides short-term and bridge financing. Partners in Motion holds 97% ownership in the company.

Two specials worth a combined total of $300,000 are in the works for History Television: Birdman, the one-hour story of Saskatchewan aviation pioneer William Gibson, and the two-hour special Northwest Assignment. Production is slated for this summer.

Partners in Motion cultivated a relationship with History on the program Missing on Way Back, and has also worked with Vision tv and BBS Saskatchewan. So far the company has fueled its production with the aid of the specialty channels and local educational broadcasters. The next leap, they say, is to break into network television.

With one-offs a far more difficult and less lucrative sell internationally, the company is turning its efforts to series work. The development slate includes Falsely Accused, a four-part miniseries profiling people who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. scn and Saskfilm are on board for development.

Mr. Airport is a 26-episode, half-hour puppet series for kids set at an airport featuring a cast of airplanes with their own personalities and human traits. dc the jumbo-jet, Connie the Concord and Fran the fuel pumper truck are among the show’s stars.

scn and the BBS Development Fund have committed development funds. The producers are shopping broadcasters and plan to shoot one episode this year. Estimated budget is $60,000 per ep. A cd-rom will be attached to the show.

Post is underway on Ground Zero. The one-hour doc examines the effects of global warming on the environment via an international research project undertaken by nasa, which opened its stock footage library to the producers at no cost in order to publicize the research effort.

Partners in Motion edits all its work in-house on two Avid digital editing systems. Not only does it save money but it enables them to spend more time editing their projects.

In Ground Zero, actor Richard Chamberlain and astronaut Piers Sellers offer personal insights on the issues.

The $100,000-budgeted project is a copro with Tri-Media Productions in Saskatoon, directed by Goetz and scripted by Jeff Marte. Triffo and Anthony Towstego are the coproducers. The project has been licensed to scn and the Knowledge Network. International broadcast sales are now being sought.