Vancouver: For the fourth annual Production in Vancouver Roundtable, Playback invited West Coast-based distributors and an exhibitor to talk about the challenge of actually putting the hard toil of local producers on the big and small screens.

Mary-Pat Gleeson, formerly a principal with Red Sky, is newly minted as Keystone’s chief of Canadian distribution. Mickey Rogers is a principal at Forefront Releasing, which has carved out a niche in youth programming. Janine McCaw is a principal at tiny cable programming distributor Dark Horse Ent., which focuses mainly on information and variety productions. And Leonard Schein is the driving force at Alliance Atlantis Cinemas, which is trying to clone the success of its Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver with more than 30 screens in development across Canada.

These film insiders extol the virtues of living in Vancouver at a time when the domestic production industry is gaining momentum and maturity. The trick now, they say, is to get everyone in the production cycle working as a team.

Playback: How well do you think the local production community grasps what it is that you all do?

McCaw: The best producer is one who has tried to go out and distribute themselves – realizes they don’t have the time, effort and maybe they don’t have the answers. Then they understand what it is I do.

Gleeson: (laughing) Janine, you need to put that on a T-shirt. Please, I’ve just found my model in Janine. She’s now Goddess.

McCaw: My job is to get the product in front of the broadcasters. I’m kind of like a used car salesman. ‘Hey, take a look at this show.’ But then the show really has to speak for itself. Sometimes producers don’t understand that.

Playback: What other misconceptions are there?

Schein: From the public’s point of view, they think exhibitors play all the films from one distributor and that they bid for films – whoever pays the most money for a film plays it.

Actually, it’s similar to distribution and production. A lot of it has to do with the taste of the people who are choosing films for their theatres, what competitors might be in their area and what relationships they have built up over the past.

Playback: So how competitive is it?

Schein: There may be a few zones [in the Vancouver area] that might be competitive. A lot of areas it’s not as competitive as it used to be because there are so many more screens. Pretty much anybody can play on screens. It becomes a negotiation between the distributor and exhibitor about which screens are the best.

Playback: How amenable are producers to your input and efforts to make a production more commercial or marketable?

Rogers: The producers we work with are really open to doing that. In development or preproduction they are really open to what the market wants. We’ve been fortunate that way. Where we have difficulty is when people send us product already made. And it’s difficult to say the market doesn’t want to watch.

Gleeson: That’s exactly the problem. That and the misconception that we keep all the money. You can’t throw money at film. If people don’t want to see it, they won’t want to see it. Spending more money doesn’t always help. But when they see a box office figure of $1 million [they think] that that’s our money.

Playback: It’s Leonard’s money.

Gleeson: (laughing) Leonard keeps it all. They don’t understand. When you are paying $160 a point to buy television in Calgary, for God’s sakes, you’ve got to really sit down and say what’s going to work and what isn’t based on the budget I have. And that’s based on what the film’s potential is. And it’s really hard to tell someone their baby is ugly.

Rogers: Who knows sometimes why some things work? Some of it is marketing in terms of creating a buzz. Other times, I’m sure we’ve all taken on product that we thought could possibly find a market and it doesn’t. And it’s like ‘I don’t know why.’

Playback: What concrete advice to producers to make prettier babies?

Rogers: Talk to distributors. Go to markets. Understand what the market is wanting. Create a dialogue. A producer has to have passion, but it also has to balance that with market savvy.

Gleeson: I’m always shocked by the number of young filmmakers who don’t actually go to movies. We need to grow up. That’s our problem. Understand the industry.

Schein: Don’t try and copy something. Just because Blair Witch is successful, don’t try and make another.

Playback: Any prejudice pitching stories from the West Coast?

McCaw: At one time perhaps, but now everybody is used to doing business in Vancouver. The thing that has been happening in the television world is that my independent producers haven’t been able to advance their projects because the broadcast industry is in such upheaval with everybody deciding what they own, how much money they have to spend and yadda, yadda, yadda. That has a trickle-down effect for me because I’m looking for product for mipcom and natpe and it hasn’t been made.

Playback: As a distribution vehicle the Internet is transforming what you do. You actually sell some of your work on your site, don’t you, Janine?

McCaw: I have clips of all my programs on my website. Broadcasters are able to take a three-minute look at a show and say, ‘Yes, I’d like to see more’ or ‘No, that’s definitely not what I want.’ It saves time and energy for both of us.

Gleeson: Janine, do you see an end of events like mipcom? Will markets cease to have a reason for being?

McCaw: We will still need a meet and greet. But it’s impossible to go to all the markets. I’m finding I’m getting picky. The markets are getting expensive and when you are dealing with smaller vehicles like mine – cable programming – the dollars just aren’t there to sustain all the markets all the time.

Rogers: That’s true also in primetime programming. We deal mostly with the children’s and youth market and licence fees have definitely come down. The Internet and technology will really change how we go to market as well.

Playback: How about the exhibition side, Leonard. You worried about the Internet taking over?

Schein: Not really. People are used to seeing films at home. Video, dvds. The Internet at home is a different experience than going to the theatre where you share the experience.

Playback: So the Internet is not the same as going to a theater and having greasy popcorn fingers.

McCaw: Thank God!

Playback: We hear about the struggles of distributors to simply keep going.

Gleeson: It’s a universal struggle. The cost of marketing a film anywhere is exorbitant, almost prohibitive. So you have to be very careful what projects you choose to run with. It’s a tough business. There are 11 or 12 distributors and we’re all managing to put food on the table.

McCaw: The struggle has made us to take a look at what we do and become more focussed. When I looked at what I wanted to do with Dark Horse, I had to sit and think, ‘What am I the best at that can pay off?’ That was cable programming. Not everybody wants to do it because it’s not the big-dollar material, but certainly there is a market for it.

Rogers: At Forefront, we looked at what we were good at and where we could compete. That was the youth market and building on the success we’ve had with Madison and The Adventures of Shirley Holmes and now with Waterstreet’s Edgemont Road. That’s our niche market and that’s where our production and distribution efforts are.

Playback: The optimist in us would support the idea that the West Coast has the capacity to make a breakthrough production that carries well internationally. Why hasn’t it happened?

Gleeson: We’re kind of a baby industry. You look at Lynne Stopkewich’s work. You look at what Cadence is doing with On the Nose. I think there is huge potential and it’s going to happen really soon.

Playback: What about the television side?

McCaw: Like anything, it’s luck of the draw. The right place, right time, right people behind the scenes, in front of the camera, the whole shebang.

It’s those fluky trends. Who knew about Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I hate to bring that one up, but there you go. That could have just as easily been something that a Canadian had done.

Rogers: What we have here is a great number of good documentary producers and the trend in television is going toward reality programming. So it’s quite possible that we could have long-running series coming out of the West with a cinema verite approach. The indigenous industry is still being nurtured and it’s the next couple of years that will see the results.

Playback: I’ve written about the proliferation of the guerilla filmmaker in Vancouver. You know – small budgets, digital. Is there a net benefit from this energy?

Gleeson: I haven’t seen the effects yet, but I sense it’s a good thing. The more experience somebody gets behind the camera and the more experience somebody gets telling a good story on screen, the better it will be.

I read a script last week and I called the kid in to talk to him. The script was extremely well written, and I said, ‘Isn’t this wonderful. You’re going to be a screenwriter. I’m so happy for you, and these are the kinds of the things you will need to do.’ And he said, ‘Oh, but I’m moving to New York. I just don’t think there is the opportunity for me here.’ I nearly nailed his foot to the floor. There is the talent here, but they need mentors.

Playback: What’s the future of Vancouver?

McCaw: We’re well set to develop more specialized programming. Once this new round of specialties gets settled, I think you will see lot of different producers – smaller independent producers – come forward. That will lead to a lot more variety.

Rogers: The future of the television world? We’ll see more strategic alliances, more consolidation. The Internet will play a much larger role both in production and delivery systems, and what will rule is content and good storytelling.

Gleeson: Everyone wants to contribute. Animosity and mistrust, those kinds of feelings have vanished. The community is coming together and the potential is enormous.

Playback: And Leonard, any local benefits to your expansion across the country?

Schein: I think so. As distributors know, if they make money it’s easier to fund new films and support production. And the more outlets they have that will make money for them, the better it will be. It’s a circle and we’re all in this together. Production, exhibition and distribution. *