At the heart of the new British Columbia feature comedy On the Nose is the story of a gambler who improves his odds for success with a little help from a foreigner.

Okay, it’s about an ancient aborigine head that can pick winning horses for his Dublin-based keeper Robbie Coltrane. But the plot could easily apply to the film’s producer – Scott Kennedy of Vancouver’s Highwire Entertainment – who improved the long odds on completing the $6.4-million On the Nose by doing it as an Irish treaty coproduction.

In fact, he’s one in a rapidly growing community of globally minded filmmakers in B.C. leveraging the advantages of international coproductions and hedging their production bets.

Between 1998 and 2000, the number of international treaty coproductions from B.C. went from one feature title to eight, and the growth, by all accounts, is continuing through 2001. Add in television projects and the tallies go from one title in 1998 to 18 in 2000 when 11 productions were attached to U.K. coproducers able to access Britain’s lucrative sale leaseback incentive program.

Korea, the Czech Republic and China are other favorite treaty countries with local producers. Sextant Entertainment, Dogwood Pictures, North American Pictures, Peace Arch Entertainment and Studio B have been the busiest companies to make use of treaty coproductions, with Sextant doing four in the past year.

For Kennedy, On the Nose began as a clever pitch from commercial producer Tony Philpott in 1996 when Kennedy himself was a commercial producer. He optioned the script from the Irish landed immigrant and got CHUM on board in 1997, along with Telefilm Canada, British Columbia Film and The Harold Greenberg Fund, to develop the project. Keystone Releasing (then known as Red Sky Entertainment) bought the Canadian rights in 1998. Since the story was location specific, Kennedy flew to Dublin three times in search of a coproducer.

‘Finding a coproducer is an interesting process to say the least,’ says Kennedy. ‘You’re talking about a marriage that involves millions of dollars.’

He finally signed a deal in 1999 just before the Vancouver International Film Festival Trade Forum, where he sat on a panel about coproductions with Irish producer Tristan Orpen Lynch (Subotica Films). They connected and Kennedy lamented that he was six weeks too late to sign a deal with his new friend. When the original Irish coproducer backed out, the new partnership with Orpen Lynch was sealed.

The plan was that the producers would shoot the film in Dublin and do all the post work in Vancouver. That way they were able to take advantage of tax credits, cultural funds and other incentives to build 75% of the budget. The balance was secured with gap financing and they prepped for production in February. Coltrane, Brenda Blethyn and Dan Aykroyd were set to star.

In December, however, the gap financing fell through and Kennedy began, as he says, aging rapidly. ‘We were in big trouble,’ he explains. ‘It was a scary time. I was way out there.’

The white knight in the saga is Sky Pictures, the feature production arm of British Sky Broadcasting, which came in with the remaining 25% secured by the European rights. Production was bumped three weeks and the talent (on pay-or-play contracts) accommodated the calendar change. Production with DOP Paul Sarossy of Toronto and designer David Fischer of Vancouver went for six weeks, after which a war-weary Kennedy packed the raw footage back to Canada.

Here, Toybox West did the editing with Vancouver editor Roger Matiussi. Composer James Jandrisch, also from Vancouver, scored the feature and audio post was done at Sharpe Sound in North Vancouver.

‘I’m really happy with it,’ Kennedy says shortly before the film has its North American premiere at VIFF. ‘I wanted to make a movie where people walked out feeling good. And that’s what we’ve got.’

He says he emerges from the ordeal a much improved and experienced producer who is set to do it all again, perhaps as early as next spring with Smoking Man, a story set in Vietnam coproduced with Australian partners.

The key pluses of copros are shared risk and access to more capital that can result in bigger budgets.

Both accountant Lui Petrollini, a partner at Vancouver’s Ellis Foster, and lawyer Arthur Evrensel, a partner at the Vancouver office of Heenan Blaikie, report substantial increases in the coproduction work from their local clients.

‘The percentages have certainly grown,’ says Petrollini. ‘From an accounting point of view, it’s not complicated. The unfortunate thing is that while you share the risk you also share the rewards.’

The legalese, however, is a lot more complicated and voluminous, especially with multiple partners wanting final approvals and working to differing standards. The final production becomes a national product of both countries.

Evrensel says the local increase reflects the more global and mature perspective of the domestic industry.

‘The treaty coproduction mechanism is complex but also efficient and viable as an alternative to the U.S. studio system,’ he explains.

Meanwhile, Kennedy isn’t going to fall into a philosophical debate about whether On the Nose – an Irish story made in Ireland with Irish director David Caffrey and a largely British cast – is Canadian.

‘The beauty of coproductions is that you can make good stories that are compelling and different,’ says Kennedy. ‘We should widen our horizons.’

The British Columbia Film Commission has invested in recent trade missions to the U.K. and Germany to help local producers mingle with potential coproducers and expand the vision.

And it’s paying off. Infinity Films of Vancouver is doing the $5-million MOW The Cariboo Runaways as a 50:50 partnership with German producer NDF. The British Council, meanwhile, is sponsoring seven British producers to attend this year’s Trade Forum at VIFF.

On the Nose will open in limited release Oct. 19 in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.