As we head into a new year and more uncharted territory in the media landscape, Playback is asking leaders from sectors across the industry to weigh in on what they think 2015 may hold for their companies and the world of Canadian film and television.  In the fourth story in our series, we speak with Cinespace Film Studios’ VP operations, Jim Mirkopoulos. 

What do you anticipate to be the biggest changes to your business in 2015?

As overall Ontario business volumes swell, we are seeing the end dates of old projects bump up against and bleed into the start dates of new projects. While this has already been happening on the streets of Toronto, as heavily utilized locations see film units and trailers drive away only to be immediately re-occupied by a new unit, Cinespace’s office, studio and support space bundles have never before been subject to a zero-vacancy market environment, at all facilities. So these new unprecedented volumes will be the biggest change to our business environment.

What business, economic or regulatory trends will drive these changes?

Already the plummeting dollar has triggered this drastic spike in business volumes, however our clients continue to point to Ontario’s reliable and high-value tax credit as being the main driver of repeat business in Ontario. Also the disproportionately large increase in episodic production has been a primary driver of the current market environment, and as successful projects are renewed and continue to occupy their studio footprints for multiple seasons, we must seek alternate space solutions for new projects. Cinespace’s episodic clients have the highest levels of renewal and facility retention in the industry (Warehouse 13, five seasons; Flashpoint, five seasons; Nikita, four seasons; Beauty and the Beast, four seasons; Reign, three seasons, Bitten, two seasons).

What do you anticipate to be your biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge will be to implement the operational efficiencies required to accommodate this swelling market demand without inconveniencing our film & TV clients and their ever-changing schedules, and while trying to offer the same space options and flexibility to our clients despite these unprecedented space pressures. As we do our part, I would say that this same challenge must be tackled by all service providers in the industry, including our labour unions and equipment providers – if we can all meet this rising demand together as an industry, then we can maximize this opportunity to grow our industry organically, to be able to accommodate more production in Ontario than ever before.

What do you see as the most significant opportunities? 

In addition to the opportunity to grow our industry, we have before us the opportunity to connect our clients like never before.  In 2015 we will begin upgrading our facilities to Gigahertz fibre internet speeds, allowing massive file sharing, crystal-clear video linkups for conferencing and casting with the L.A.-based studios, and unlimited post production and ADR transmissions. As Ontario has surpassed many competitive jurisdictions in other metrics, now we have the opportunity to “shorten the distance to L.A.” digitally and virtually, through the fastest internet connections possible.

What changes to your business or strategy do you anticipate making in 2015?

As we work hard to clear the municipal barriers to further space expansion, which we are confident we will do, we also look to other monetization sectors for Cinespace and our clients. For example, we are shareholders in and board members of 3doo, the world’s largest cloud-streaming VOD platform for 3D content today with over 700,000 active users globally on Samsung, Panasonic and LG Smart TVs, and for 4K and UHD content hopefully by the end of 2015.  As such, we are encouraging lower-budget productions to capture in 3D or 4K and retain those cloud distribution rights to the best of their ability, allowing for geo-filtering of international markets that cannot be retained. In this way, previously untapped VOD markets can be accessed, and we can hopefully create an ecosystem for our clients where these VOD revenues can assist in financing other projects in the pipeline, and lead to even further production activity.