Ottawa: Producers and other stakeholders came to Prime Time in Ottawa 2005, the CFTPA’s annual conference (Feb. 2-4), to hear from the two government mandarins who hold the most direct sway over the industry. What they got from Minister of Canadian Heritage Liza Frulla and Telefilm Canada executive director Wayne Clarkson were some reasons for optimism as well as some controversy.

Clarkson, in his keynote address, sought to tone down expectations, referencing a Playback cover story about him that asked, ‘Can this man save Canadian production?’

‘I can’t do it alone,’ Clarkson said. ‘However, I am confident that we can fix the problems together… that we can change the course of Canadian production history – attacking each identified priority and focusing our national creative expertise and knowledge, and public and private resources.’

Clarkson took over at Telefilm from Richard Stursberg in January. In his speech, he distanced himself from the cloudy and contentious initiative under the Stursberg regime that saw Telefilm approach the Hollywood powerhouse Creative Artists Agency to package films for Canadian producers.

‘I believe our limited financial resources are better spent elsewhere,’ Clarkson said. He later told Playback that he had no idea what had become of the CAA deal.

Clarkson also raised eyebrows when he said that it had been ‘fascinating and frustrating’ to watch the Ontario, Quebec and B.C. governments engage in a production tax-credit war, each upping its incentives in recent months. He called for ‘a more balanced approach’ and similar attention from Ontario, B.C. and Alberta towards investment in script development and local talent, pointing to the model of SODEC in Quebec.

‘Renewed investment dollars committed to indigenous talent and productions… would have an incredible impact on the vitality and success of our industries,’ he said. Clarkson knows about emerging talent from his days at the OFDC (now the Ontario Media Development Corporation) and as former head of the Canadian Film Centre.

His comments, however, were taken as somewhat dismissive to service producers, especially in light of Profile 2005. The industry report from the CFTPA and APFTQ shows the dollar volume of foreign location shooting in ’03/04 as virtually on par with that of independent domestic production (both around the $1.9-billion mark).

A later Playback interview with Clarkson was interrupted by producer and CFTPA chair Laszlo Barna, who complained that Clarkson had downplayed the good-news tax credits.

‘We worked very hard for that,’ Barna said.

As the pair agreed to take up the matter privately later, Clarkson stood up, put his hands on Barna’s shoulders and jokingly asked, ‘Does this mean the honeymoon’s over?’ to which the ever-deadpan Barna replied, ‘No, it means the sex begins.’

With the federal budget coming later this month and the Canadian Television Fund needing an extension, it is Frulla who has the ear of Finance Minister Ralph Goodale on behalf of the industry. She gave producers a reason to feel hopeful about the future of public funding when, on Feb. 3, she announced the feds were upping their contribution to the Canada New Media Fund by $5 million, from $9 million to $14 million for 2005/06. The CNMF, administered by Telefilm, provides support for research, distribution and promotion in the new media sector.

‘Canada stands out in the creation of convergent Web products tied to successful television programs,’ Frulla said, citing the example of Degrassi.tv, the popular website for Degrassi: The Next Generation.

‘Are we taking full advantage of our technological strengths in telecommunications, broadcasting and narrowcasting? I don’t think so,’ she continued. ‘Well, here is an incentive to do more – the government wants to encourage this growing sector.’

As one TV producer put it, ‘The mood is nothing like last year.’ The 2004 gathering was fraught with panic and despair over a reduced CTF contribution from the feds and the possibility of production tax credits vanishing in Ontario. Those issues have been resolved (albeit temporarily in the case of the CTF), which could explain the lighter tone this time around.

But it was hardly all sunshine and balloons.

The launch of Profile 2005 by CFTPA president and CEO Guy Mayson and his Quebec counterpart Claire Samson of the APFTQ showed the overall volume of production in Canada from April 2003 to May 2004 as down more than 2% from the previous cycle. CAVCO- and non-CAVCO-certified production as well as foreign-location shooting were all in decline, with next year’s figures likely to reflect a further drop.

Producers seemed to take the news in stride, however. One attendee likened it to Survivor – those who remained on the island that is Canadian production were happy just to still be playing the game.

The two days of panels, which had an air of déjà vu, cast producers at their usual cross-purposes with film distributors (in a session dubiously titled The Next Generation: The Comeback of English Features) and, especially, broadcasters (in the Profile 2005 launch and the Building Audiences for Cancon panel). The craft guilds and unions, including ACTRA and the Writers Guild of Canada, were predictably the most critical of Canadian casters’ commitment to domestic drama.

One of the most important sessions, although one of the poorest attended, focused on the HD Revolution. Moderator Michael McEwen, president of Canadian Digital Television, spoke of the fast adoption rate of HD in the U.S., and said that, relatively speaking, Canada is ‘in an HD deficit,’ with a dearth of content that will have healthy shelf lives and satisfy foreign markets.

‘There is no coherent national strategy. Efforts to date are modest,’ said McEwen, who suggested enhanced tax breaks for private broadcasters to produce HD programs.

-www.cftpa.ca