Vancouver: For a handful of Vancouver-based producers, there is a yin and yang to their business plans – or perhaps, more specifically, a yen and Yank.

In these cases of blended domestic and service production entities, the producers have a creative – and long-term economic – urge to create Canadian stories for Canadians (the yen). At the same time, they court the lucrative service production contracts from the U.S. (the Yank). In fact, it is through doing the service work that they can ultimately branch out into content creation.

For instance, Bardel Animation has evolved from a 100% service shop five years ago – working on DreamWorks features The Prince of Egypt and Eldorado – to doing 50% Canadian content today.

Mr. Dink, an animated series about a nudist, was Bardel’s first foray into domestic production. Created as a shop sample of Flash animation, Mr. Dink’s five-minute webisodes were made during the heyday of the dot-com craze and circulated on the Internet. CTV’s Comedy Network commissioned more to bring the complement to 13 episodes. FremantleMedia has picked up international distribution and a half-hour version that would attract licensing and merchandising opportunities is in the works.

Meanwhile, Bardel’s holiday special The Christmas Orange won four Leo Awards last month and 100%-owned Silverwing is wrapping its first season of production on 13 half-hours that begin airing on Teletoon this fall.

‘Definitely, we want to create our own indigenous content,’ says Barry Ward, a partner in the 15-year-old animation company. ‘That’s the future. That’s the value. [But] you need service to pay for overhead, infrastructure and expenses not covered by indigenous production.’

At issue is the risk of developing content shows that – given the current state of funding in Canada – have iffy prospects of actually getting produced and generating a yield for the producer. And while there isn’t enough margin in service production fees to fund development and production of domestic work, service production can pay for the backbone that supports domestic content creation with better odds of succeeding.

Bardel has its hopes pinned on Silverwing, a story about a young bat. The series hoists high the Canadian flag – Canadian story, author, toy company, animator, commissioning broadcaster and funders.

‘However, the key is not to get hung up on it being Canadian, but that it’s good,’ says Ward. ‘We have to sell it internationally.’

It will take two to three years to see a return on the investment in Silverwing, for which Bardel controls distribution, merchandising and licensing. But those long-term revenues are what create stability and contribute to a critical mass that might eventually allow B.C. companies a chance to self-finance.

In the meantime, Bardel’s service work continues on shows including DreamWorks’ new feature Sinbad, and it is trading service fees for equity in The Kellys, 40 three-minute episodes about a NASCAR racing family.

‘We do so many stories for the States, we know what they are looking for,’ says Ward, about refining the creative process for content shows that play beyond Canada. ‘And the international exposure [gained from service work] makes it easier for us to do international deals.’

Vancouver’s Crescent Entertainment has perhaps had the longest track record of local companies blending service with domestic production. While the producer contracted to oversee Lions Gate Television programs including The Dead Zone, it is developing the $8-million feature Bleeding, a drama about a family dealing with an act of violence, as a U.K. coproduction. Shooting is scheduled to begin in Vancouver in August.

Crescent is also developing Rwanda Mandate, a story about human rights atrocities in Africa, with a South African partner. Crescent recently wrapped as executive producer on the small local feature Moving Malcolm, while Outpost, its six-hour domestic series about life in Tofino, had lots of support from CHUM but failed in the recent Canadian Television Fund sweepstakes.

‘There are economic, creative and technical synergies between domestic and service production,’ says Crescent president Harold Tichenor. ‘Service production trains crews and expands equipment and services. It’s all translatable to domestic production. And the more you do service production, the more you know international standards.’

Achieving a balance that allows the prodco to succeed at both domestic and service is a considerable challenge, Tichenor adds. Service work and keeping the clients happy can be so consuming that it detracts from a producer’s ability to focus on quality content proposals. And funding an ongoing development office for Canadian content shows means, in most cases, drawing off the revenues from foreign jobs.

Vancouver’s Brightlight Pictures, run by Shawn Williamson and Stephen Hegyes, was founded in 2001 as a blended practice and demonstrates that the model can work.

Weaned on service production at Shavick Entertainment and the former Pacific Motion Pictures, Williamson joined forces with Hegyes, producer of Dirty and Double Happiness, to create a diversified business plan.

‘If I had tried to jump in as a content producer, I would have had a hard time,’ says Williamson. ‘Service and indigenous production are two very different worlds. But both of us have established track records, so we appeal to both worlds.’

Brightlight is generating revenue from three streams: domestic production (CHUM series Alienated, which is going into a second season of production, and the feature Punch); service production (features La La Wood, House of the Dead and the upcoming Alone in the Dark); and international copros (the thriller White Noise, set for production in Vancouver in August, and Peachland, both U.K. copros).

In the case of White Noise, the coproduction came about after doing service work on La La Wood for L.A.-based Gold Circle Productions, which has a U.K. division and which produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

‘Diversification means we are less tied to any one source,’ says Williamson, with a nod to the decreasing value of the U.S. dollar and the frustrations posed by the CTF. ‘When there is a drop, we are shielded to a greater degree.’

-www.bardelentertainment.com

-www.brightlightpictures.com