Montreal: With limited growth potential for local programming opportunities, more than 200 film and TV producers showed up for a Nov. 12 APFTQ seminar on international financing and coproduction.

The seminar consisted mainly of simulated film and TV budget planning exercises that matched a range of possible financing structures with available industry sources and resources, including legal, insurance, banking, gap-financing and tax services.

FIDEC general manager Pierre Leblanc introduced a new development in gap services known as ‘bridge to bridge financing.’ Essentially it comes into play when the producer has lined up the necessary contracts and approached the bank but is still waiting for the paperwork, specifically ‘directions of payment’ to the bank. In the event the bank is obliged to wait for the official documentation, the producer will be short of cash in instances where preproduction or even production has started.

FIDEC’s option offers ‘first bridge’ support for projects which are near closing, perhaps only a matter of weeks away, but have not yet received the full interim financing from the bank.

The FIDEC extension is a response to deals requiring signed documentation from often far-flung distributors and the bank’s stipulation dispersal only happens when all material documents have been filed.

Suzanne D’Amours, Montreal-based film and TV consultant in financing and fiscal issues and one of the seminar organizers, says feature films and animation series are coproduced internationally in French, ‘but TV coproductions have never really worked all that well because neither French nor Quebecois [audiences] actually like that sort of production.’

D’Amours says producers have to hone international financing skills because demand for programs from local broadcasters won’t grow significantly in the future.

According to new 2001 figures from Telefilm Canada’s international office, 63 English-language coproductions representing cumulative budgets of $425.5 million and 14 French-language projects with combined budgets of $37.5 million have been certified this year.

Another seminar panelist, Heenan Blaikie entertainment lawyer Sam Berliner, says international content production in Montreal has faced setbacks in recent years, ‘but I am encouraged there are people who are coming up.’ He cited producers like Michael Prupas and Jean Bureau. Other Montreal producers active in coproduction this year include Claude Leger, Rock Demers, Marie-Claude Beauchamp, Carole Laure, Roger Heroux, Denise Robert, Paul Cadieux, Roger Frappier, Arnie Gelbart and Jean-Pierre Morin.