From Manitoba’s unique and affordable locations to British Columbia’s seasoned crews and mild weather, from increased funding for Alberta production to Saskatchewan’s new soundstage, filmmakers in Western Canada have many reasons to love, and sometimes loathe, where they live and work. Playback reporter Laura Bracken asked film and television makers from the West to comment on what they see as the greatest advantages and challenges to production in their respective regions. Although their responses indicate an overwhelming dedication and affection for their home provinces, the concentration of major broadcasters and distributors in Toronto and Montreal continues to present a challenge.

Anne Wheeler

Director Anne Wheeler currently lives in Vancouver, but has lived and worked throughout Western Canada for 30 years and has covered the gamut of production roles as a writer, editor, producer and director. Three films directed by Wheeler will be released in the fall: Suddenly Naked, Edge of Madness and The Investigation.

Advantages:

I feel like I don’t have much choice but to be a western filmmaker, because that’s what I am. This is where I draw a lot of my inspiration for my personal projects. There is a common sense of purpose that’s very supportive amongst the people who have committed to staying in Western Canada.

In Vancouver, there are a lot of different looks within the city circle. We can be prairies, mountains or islands, all right in the 40-mile radius of downtown Vancouver.

Another nice thing about being in the West is you don’t get slotted into one job for the rest of your life. Especially in the Prairies, everyone does everything. In Winnipeg, your driver, more than likely, has made a couple of films. Your sound cutter most likely is a sculptor and a couple of other things.

So you find that people working in the industry are not as specialized, but they certainly seem to do their work with a lot of flair because they have a broader outlook on the art of filmmaking. I like that kind of eclectic perspective because the people on the crew come up with the most unusual and inspiring ideas.

Challenges

We don’t have the old infrastructure that Toronto and Montreal have, which shakes down to not having the distribution companies that will partner with us. We always have to spend the extra dollar to go to Toronto, or in my case, more often, Montreal. It’s always an enormous expense. But in the early ’70s if I wanted to make a film for the NFB, I had to get in a car and drive from Edmonton to Montreal…so it’s clearly gotten better.

Kevin DeWalt

Kevin DeWalt is the CEO of Minds Eye Pictures, which has offices and shoots in all four western provinces.

Advantages:

The fact that the [production] infrastructure is now available in all four provinces is a great advantage. I’m a firm believer that you can now shoot a TV movie or a feature film or a TV series in any of the western provinces.

The Prairies are still film-friendly. There is still the sense in the Prairies that communities want you making movies there and it usually shows on the screen because you get more bang for your buck. Having a community that supports you, provides police, fire and all those things that you need at nominal costs, is a huge benefit.

Challenges:

Some of the problems we’re facing in the West have to do with the whole worldwide slowdown of presales. It’s an issue for Western Canada because the impact of not having enough money in the system to finance Canadian content – and the foreign marketplace being in a sort of lull – definitely affects small and medium-sized companies. And in the West, there are a lot more small and medium-sized companies.

Kim Todd

Kim Todd is president of Original Pictures in Winnipeg. Original Pictures is two years old and produces children’s and adult drama for both television and theatrical release.

Advantages:

Winnipeg has fabulously varied architecture. We just scouted it for a series of movies that are set in the late 1800s and there aren’t very many places in Canada where you could shoot a series of movies set in that time.

Winnipeg was built by people who were certain it was going to become a capital of central Canada, like Chicago. They built Winnipeg to become a huge and thriving city because it was in the centre of Canada when transportation was rail and when the economy was agricultural. All the banks and insurance companies built head offices here, for instance. So we have this fabulous classical architecture. A lot of the buildings still stand, some of them empty, which is not a bad thing for a film crew.

Challenges:

One disadvantage is that Winnipeg is a small centre and there’s a limited number of crew. So if a lot of production comes in, then you’re scrambling, and of course it’s costly to bring people in. Winnipeg has sort of two-and-a-half crews. We fairly regularly have to bring in one or two crews.

Manitoba is one of the few provinces that doesn’t have a broadcaster in resident. In other words, we don’t have a broadcaster who receives extra points from the CRTC or someone else for supporting Manitoba producers. So we’ve kind of fallen through the cracks there.

Laura Lightbrown

Laura Lightbrown is the CEO of Haddock Entertainment in Vancouver. Haddock produces primarily adult drama focusing on crime and mystery stories, including Da Vinci’s Inquest.

Advantages:

B.C. has all the locations you could ask for and an excellent provincial tax credit that was not cut by the new government. Vancouver grew up in the last eight years servicing U.S. productions, which has really developed a savvy, well-trained, fast crew base and actors.

I think the talent pool here is surprising for someone who comes from [Toronto]. What’s surprising is how talented and rich the pool of actors, writers and crews is in the greater Vancouver area when it comes to access to scripts, script ideas or just young talent.

Challenges:

We just had a change of provincial government in B.C. and they have not been very supportive on the investment side of the B.C. film program. The government, in shortsighted fashion, just slashed their budget. They are no longer able to participate in shows like Da Vinci; in fact, they’re not participating at all in television.

Over the last five years while the program was in place, we’ve done a lot with a little money – a lot of script development, a lot of indigenous ideas, concepts and production. The industry is always growing and projects take years, so it’s important to keep a steady source of funding and dependable support, which we’re not really seeing.

Kim Wilder

Kim Wilder is VP of production for Mainframe Entertainment in Vancouver. Mainframe produces animated series and features and is known for creating ReBoot, the first entirely CG series produced for television.

Advantages:

One of the biggest advantages of working in Vancouver is the fact that the Canadian government has encouraged a lot of the technological developments within the schools here, which has allowed us to get our talent.

B.C. has an advantage in terms of voice talent because the Union of British Columbia Performers offers options the Screen Actors Guild does not. You can pay user fees, which allows you to buy the rights to voice talent outright, whereas with SAG you have to renegotiate those rights after a set number of years. This really helps us because cartoons have a tendency to last and play for a long time, so if I can offer a client a buyout, then they don’t have to renegotiate or incur additional administration costs. This helps us generate business in B.C., especially from American clients.

Challenges:

One of the biggest advantages of being in Canada is government funding, but B.C. gets less of a production services tax credit than other provinces. For example, Ontario gets 20% where B.C. gets 11% and in Quebec they get 15%. That puts B.C. at a disadvantage to Ontario and Quebec, which tend to get better deals because their industries are more established.

Drew Martin

Drew Martin is president at The Idea Factory in Edmonton, which produces television documentary and fact-based programming.

Advantages:

We have a wonderful film and television community in Edmonton. We have a group of people who are very supportive of each other, which I think is unusual. People here understand only too well how difficult things can be and they seem to be a gracious and pretty humble group. People are supportive here because they like being in Edmonton.

Challenges:

I would not want to be an independent producer starting out in Alberta right now because you have to be able to establish or create relationships with the film and broadcasting decision makers. It’s very difficult and costly to make your presence known from here, when all the decision makers are for the most part in Toronto. They don’t know who you are out West and they would just as soon work with somebody they know.

David Doerksen

David Doerksen is president of Edge Entertainment in Saskatoon. Edge produces family television programming.

Advantages:

The tax credit in Saskatchewan is very favorable, and it’s a great shooting environment. You don’t have the same complications trying to get locations, permits and everything else, like you do in Vancouver. It’s cost effective and the city services provided by Saskatoon are very efficient.

Challenges:

One of our biggest challenges is technical crew availability. There is a massive shortfall in crew. It’s a challenge to crew up when both Manitoba and Alberta are busy. There is a cost factor because we fly in as much as 90% of our crew and have to pay for flights, accommodations and a per diem. It depends on how many productions there are, but right now it’s pretty high in Saskatchewan, so it’s very hard to get crew.

Stan Feingold

Stan Feingold is a writer, director and producer living and working in Vancouver. He is creative director for The Eyes Multimedia Productions, the factual division of Peace Arch Entertainment Group.

Advantages:

For a documentary producer, Vancouver offers an incredibly rich tapestry of socioeconomic and cultural contrasts. For instance, Canada’s most affluent neighborhood (West Vancouver) is within sight of Canada’s poorest neighborhood (Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside). B.C. is also an intersection where Pacific Rim influences collide with European traditions. People come here to break with the past and start a new life, so we have a great assortment of dreamers, schemers and high-achievers.

Challenges:

Producers in Ontario and Quebec have obvious advantages in terms of their proximity to networks, decision makers and sources of funding. The incessant rain on the West Coast also has its drawbacks. If you spend too much time in one location, moss begins to form on the north side of your body.

Wendy Hill-Tout

Wendy Hill-Tour is the executive producer at Voice Pictures in Calgary. Voice produces television drama, documentary and performing arts programming.

Advantages:

Alberta is very entrepreneurial. We’ve always had to find creative ways to make films. Traditionally we didn’t have a lot of government funding in Alberta and so the people who survived here had to find alternative ways. The AB Fund (administered by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts) is a tremendous boost in this province; it’s now gone up to 20%, and it’s not labor based. It’s non-bureaucratic, and it’s as simple as a one-page contract.

Challenges:

We’re seeing the loss of some very important funds that made a huge difference in Alberta: the CFCN and CFRN funds, which will be gone as of August. Maybe it’s not a lot of money, $200,000 or so for a film, but it’s huge here because there are so few funds. We haven’t seen the effects of it yet in Alberta because the CFTN fund was around till last year, so even projects that happened this year had some funding.