Although the legendary owner of The Partners’ Film Company claims, contrary to all the laws of physics and biology, to have been in the business for ‘200 years,’ it is safe to say Don McLean has been around the industry for a long time.

Relaxed in his leather desk chair, McLean sits back to chat about the industry as he knew it and the industry as it stands today. His concerns about the state of the business are clear as he talks about unions, politics, directors, agencies and a spot-maker’s future as foggy as a Newfoundland sunrise.

‘I don’t think it was the best of years,’ McLean begins, thinking back on 2000. ‘It certainly was a pretty bad spring I think for all of us, not just the Partners’. January and February were okay, but then it really got slow. Then came the [u.s. sag] strike.’

McLean, not convinced the strike was a real help, believes the low Canadian dollar was this country’s ‘most potent weapon’ in attracting American jobs north.

As for the current state of the industry, there is deep concern in the spot veteran’s voice as he analyzes the situation.

‘The most common concerns I have are in the area of a shrinking pool of work. There is just less and less production in this country and budgets that are shrinking constantly. Strangely enough, the budgets are, in many cases, perfectly adequate amounts of money. It’s what they’re asking us to try and accomplish with that money. In other words, ‘Yes, we can make a commercial for $100,000, can you write something that can be made for that?’ ‘

Despite his concern, McLean understands the current difficulty may have been borne of the heady days of old.

‘I think that we are paying, in some respect, certainly with the clients, for the sins of the past. In the early days – and there are only five of us left from that period – although the budgets were ridiculously low, the profits were ridiculously high on the production side. I would say there was a fair bit of gouging going on. And I think that continued.

‘So what has happened is that now, when we say to the clients, ‘Gee, we’re not making any money,’ they don’t believe us. And they should because we aren’t. But quite frankly, they don’t [care] because they figure we and the agencies have been screwing them for a long, long time.’

Plight of homegrown talent

McLean, like other Canadians in the business, is also concerned with the move toward fly-in directors and away from local talent.

‘For years and years, 90% or 95% of the work in this town was done by local directors. [Agencies] had a pool and they could move around within them. Now they have access to this huge pool of talent from all over the world. And they like variety. It’s just tough for the guys trying to make careers in this town [Toronto],’ McLean says.

McLean believes the problems can be traced back – however indirectly – to the Free Trade Agreement a man named Mulroney laid on the Canadian table several years ago.

‘I think when we were blessed with free trade the mindset just changed. And I’m not against free trade. It’s funny, because free trade had diddly to do with the production of television commercials, it wasn’t part of the package. But it just opened up the whole concept that we can now shop the world.’

This, combined with agency creatives who are ‘much younger and anxious to experiment and try new people,’ means Canadian directors are ‘just not getting the amount of work they once did,’ he says.

Labor issues

Although the rise of iatse toward a collective agreement for commercial crew members ‘hasn’t affected business this year,’ McLean believes ‘it will affect us only when iatse finally makes their move and [only depending] on how successful they are.’

‘There are some definite game plans,’ McLean says of his strategy to head the iatse movement off at the pass.

‘They walked away from us 13 years ago. ia came in and said, ‘We cannot service you anymore.’ And, strangely enough, at the time that was kind of a shock. Certainly to some of us who had been dealing with them since 1967…

‘And we’ve had a perfectly wonderful 13 years. It was interesting because [when they stepped away] we sort of had to rewrite our contract ourselves. But we based it primarily on the old contract we had been working under. We made some changes that were advantageous to us and some that were advantageous to them,’ McLean explains.

McLean says ia hopes once again to organize the commercial sector, adding Partners’ has had a conversation with IA 873 president Paul Harding.

McLean says one of the central issues, if ia seeks a collective agreement for spot shops, is the question of whether proposed hourly wages would include fringe benefits or not. McLean says if fringes are added on, ‘We don’t know where the money’s going to come from, because Mr. Client isn’t going to give us that extra money.’

The Internet

Although Partners’ is clearly on the front lines of labor issues, perhaps an area in which it struggles is the future of the industry – the Internet.

‘We’ve dabbled in some things and like most people we just haven’t figured out how you take that technology and make money out of it,’ McLean says.

Despite Partners’ lack of action in this arena, the move to interactivity is directly affecting the company. In fact, McLean goes on to announce that Allan Weinrib, head of Partners’ company Revolver Films, is leaving the organization to pursue an online venture of his own.

Changing the topic to satisfy what is sure to be intense industry interest, McLean leans back in the leather chair and tries to describe a typical day in the life of a veteran spot mogul.

‘A typical day would be getting up in the morning early – because that’s when I am most productive – and doing some quotes. I will admit to you I still check every crew timesheet that comes through this company. It keeps me in touch with what’s going on. There is nothing like a set of crew sheets to tell you how the job went.’

After that, McLean turns his attention to ‘phone calls, lots of phone calls, constantly talking to clients, directors and staff. Dealing with problems that are always there, it seems.’

Strangely, McLean goes on to reveal that he ‘hasn’t been on a set for probably 10 years.’ The Partners’ producer also applies this hands-off approach to dealing with the other companies affiliated, associated or owned by his company.

‘We don’t, in any significant way, interfere with any of the companies we are associated with. They run autonomously. And my proof is that with at least four of the companies, I’ve never been in their buildings. I have never been in Crush. I have never been in Jolly Roger – now untitled – since they moved. I’ve never been in School. Which doesn’t mean I am indifferent.’

It follows then that McLean never brings the heads of his companies together around one table. ‘Never, never. That would be suicidal,’ he says.

Asked to name one thing he believes keeps Partners’ running smoothly, McLean points out his company ‘for 23 years has been someone you could depend on. We have, ironically enough, tried to be the Eatons of the production world. Satisfaction guaranteed. [Partners’ just shot a signature campaign for Eatons]. So we’ll never leave anyone holding a bad piece of work.

‘I guess it is a very strange thing to say, but we have always put the end result in front of making a buck. I don’t think that’s always been appreciated by my partners or my sons – but it’s the way I kept it. Somewhere in there, there’s a pride in the industry,’ McLean says.

In terms of something that has always held Partners’ back, McLean believes it has ‘always suffered from being too big.’ Although unsure if this ‘hurts [the company] with the agencies or not, it has certainly always been a target of the other production companies – except the ones [Partners’] is affiliated with.’

This brings McLean to his next point, one that always seems to draw a smile to his face.

‘We were considered for years out in Vancouver as the Evil Empire. I can understand why people who lose jobs to Partners’ on a regular basis would not love us. I think for years, I was the King of the Low Balls, which always kind of amused me when I knew I got jobs where there was somebody lower than me. But that’s all part of the game. That all changed in recent years; that was in the three-quote days. Since the clients now tell us how much money they have and we work backwards, this is no longer effective.’

McLean says Partners’ uses its size for the good of the industry as well. It seems McLean’s well-documented taunts often have an agenda he believes helps the industry as a whole.

‘I think we have used it to help the industry. And right now, I have called Mr. Harding a [name] in the National Post – and I just assume they would come after us first because we are probably better equipped to take them on. At least we have the will to take them on.’

For McLean, vociferous opposition to the new ia collective agreement is designed to take some heat off the smaller production companies. ‘Whether they will try and [urge] some little company into a deal or not, I don’t know,’ he says.

Into the future

McLean, who makes no secret of his desire to exit the business gracefully, says Partners’ life cycle is ‘about 13 years over what it was probably expected to be.’

‘I think the Partners’ in its life cycle is very much tied to the life cycle of the industry. I think the industry may run out of steam before the Partners’ does, which is not just a problem for us but a problem for everybody,’ he says.

While selling the company is an option, ‘at this moment in time, it is not happening.’ Thus McLean continues to explore exit strategies for himself that put someone else at the head of the Partners’. Who? McLean cannot say.

‘For better or for worse, neither of my sons, who are with me here, probably are interested in doing what I do – essentially a sales job. So although they both have great value to the company, it’s in other areas. There needs to be somebody that does what I do. Not necessarily the way I do it, just somebody that does it. And that’s a tough one to fill.’

With 200 years experience, there’s no question, McLean is right. His shoes will be tough to fill. *

-www.partnersfilm.com