A website directory of Canadian film and TV talent in Los Angeles is attracting wide interest from players in both Hollywood and Canada. The website (www.canadiantalentla.com) is winning kudos as a valuable resource for U.S. producers looking to film on location in Canada and for Canadian producers seeking to add qualified talent, and some stateside recognition, to new productions.

The weekly directory is produced under the auspices of the Canadian Consulate General in L.A., with funding support from 19 provincial and city film commissions across the country. It’s currently averaging some 75 visits a day (an average stay of 10 minutes, more than 80% from American sources) and lists over 2,200 Canadian entries, including actors, directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, designers, ADs, animators, casting directors, agents and managers who are either Canadian citizens with U.S. working status or who hold both Canadian and U.S. citizenship and reside in the L.A. region on a full- or part-time basis. Production credits are provided in several categories.

‘The first priority will be to post photos of actors,’ says Roz Wolfe, the consulate’s senior officer, media/culture. Wolfe, who conceived and has guided the project, adds, ‘We want to maintain [the website] indefinitely and we will need additional funding.’

The consulate distributed 10,000 postcards promoting the new site at Prime Time 2003 in Ottawa and other film events.

The site follows the tradition of the Telefilm Canada guide published back in 1995, says Wolfe.

The website offers free access and a book-form edition is available upon request, adds Wolfe. It has also received praise from diverse industry personalities such as L.A.-based producer Pierre David, head of the Independent Producers Association – AFM, ACTRA’s John Rooney, writer/producer Lionel Chetwynd and Martine-Andree Racine of the Quebec Film and TV office.

Value to Canada

The CTLA directory is one of several cultural initiatives launched by Consul-General Colin Robertson, a career foreign service officer who replaced Kim Campbell and represents Canada in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii.

On March 20, the consultate will host a luncheon reception at the official residence in honor of this year’s five Canadian Oscar nominees.

In a recent interview with Playback, Robertson said his mission in L.A. ‘is to bring value to Canada,’ which means promoting Canadian talent stateside as well as promoting Canada as a prime location for U.S. production, particularly on the TV side.

‘We call it global business, down here they call it runaway production and it’s an issue we constantly face and an issue in my view we should confront straight on,’ says Robertson. ‘It is nothing Canada should shy away from or be ashamed of, it’s simply an example of an integrated industry between Canada and the United States and to which we bring particular values, including the depth of our talent and the newer infrastuture our industry has built.’

Robertson says Canada is hardly alone in the subsidy game. ‘Forty-one American states offer various degrees of packages on the tax and rebate side similar to what Canada offers.’

Advised early on ‘to follow the money,’ Robertson says one of his first speeches in Hollywood was to a group of senior studio accountants, ‘the heart of Hollywood.’

He urged the studio execs ‘to be our allies in the runaway debate. Canada buys about US$4 billion of product a year. Canada produces a little over US$2 billion, so by any reckoning the balance of trade is in America’s favor… This is an integrated North American industry and Canada has a particular niche.’

In speeches to last fall’s Atlantic Film Festival and more recently at Prime Time, Robertson urged the Canadian industry to firmly defend its position in the North American film and TV production industry and above all to ‘think big,’ which he says is the essential ingredient for Hollywood’s success and for the success of Canadian events like the Banff Television Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Robertson also wants to underline the success of the limited two-year Trade Routes program, a Department of International Trade/Canadian Heritage initiative aimed at promoting Canadian cultural exports. Robertson says he’ll strongly recommend renewing the program, which among other industry benefits pays for cultural trade commissioners posted in Canada and abroad.

-www.losangeles.gc.ca

-www.CanadianTalentLA.com