Vancouver: An American MOW producer once told me: ‘I can’t roll out of bed in Vancouver without making money.’

It’s not a sentiment that will play well among supporters of the Hollywood-based Film & Television Action Committee that is driving the Blame Canada runaway production campaign. That group claims that Canada, and specifically Canada, with its production-attracting subsidies, tax incentives and other perks, is responsible for the loss of US$2.8 billion in production budgets and up to 30,000 American jobs each year.

U.S. production shot in Canada, says FTAC, should be subject to countervailing duties and other penalties.

But it’s a big wide world out there, and Brent Swift, FTAC’s spokesman, has said that after a victory over Canada, he’ll take on other markets that steal U.S. business. After Canada, though, which is the biggest threat: Australia, France, Bulgaria?

To help FTAC with its battle planning, Playback canvassed Canadian film executives with international credentials to rank the best locations for production outside the U.S. and Canada.

On a scale of one to five, where five is excellent, countries are ranked on criteria such as: craftsmanship (the skill of the crews), talent (the depth of the actors/extras), savings (currency exchanges, cheap prices), financial perks (tax incentives, subsidies), suppliers (the quality of the hotels, couriers, etc.), government support, paperwork (easy is good, complicated is bad) and locations (access, uniqueness, etc.).

OK, so the poll is more impressionistic than scientific. But the bottom line is that there are some very attractive locations around the world that entrepreneurial producers are looking at to maximize their business models.

Overall, the best-rated location is New Zealand, with Australia and the U.K. as honorable mentions. Among the locations cited, former Soviet bloc countries such as Russia and Romania were rated poorly overall, but had some redeeming qualities that made them worthy of consideration. And there are a lot of countries in the middle zone – Mexico, Spain, France, the Czech Republic and South Africa, for instance – that have enough economic and creative magnetism to get a producer on a plane flying from LAX.

‘My impression is that Australia and New Zealand are great places to work with solid crews,’ says Kevin Beggs, president of production at Lions Gate Television. ‘But they don’t have very strong creative depth as far as writers, directors and actors go. So, good places to bring your ‘above the line’ and make a movie or even a series.’

If producers want good crews and actors, the U.K. and Australia rated highly, with New Zealand and western European countries such as France and Spain falling in just behind. Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and Russia rated the poorest for craftsmanship, a trade-off for great financial savings and fresh locations.

Vancouver producer Deboragh Gabler says she has recently lost service production jobs budgeted for the West Coast to Romania. ‘There are lots of places that welcome production that have some production experience but where it’s mostly about cheap labor,’ she says. ‘[Studios and networks] consistently turn to these countries when a North American look is not important. They may pay three people to do the job one does here, but it’s still cheaper.’

Currency exchanges, meanwhile, also add strength to Australia and New Zealand, where the U.S. greenback goes even further than it does in Canada.

The high cost of the British pound put the U.K. at the bottom of the savings heap, but government incentives like the leaseback program elevate it to the top of the financial bonuses race – along with Luxembourg.

The Luxembourg Audiovisual Tax Incentive allows a producer to recoup about 25% of a production budget spent in the Grand Duchy.

If paperwork is the criterion for choosing a foreign production location, then producers can look anywhere in the world. It seems no country has been able to do well in reducing the required legal and accounting work. At least Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. governments pave the way for easy production, say survey participants.

Often a country’s physical environment is enough to attract production from North America, even if those countries require producers to import crews and equipment to get the job done. Russia rates highly for great locations along with Mexico, South Africa and the perennial favorites, Australia, the U.K. and New Zealand.