Over the last two years, Saskatchewan’s film and television industry has grown significantly, with production volumes up 58% in 2004 over 2003.

The Minds Eye Entertainment MOW The Tommy Douglas Story, the New Line Cinema feature Just Friends, the feature-length animation A Fairy Tale Christmas, the animated series Wapos Bay and a variety of docs are currently in production or have recently wrapped.

In addition, the 2005/06 production slate includes another season of Corner Gas from Regina’s Vérité Films and Vancouver’s 335 Productions, the dramatic series Crude and Damon and the MOW The Salé/Pelletier Story, all from Minds Eye, as well as various documentaries.

Increased production volumes may explain why the community does not currently feel threatened by tax-credit hikes in the major centers. Take the example of comedy hit Corner Gas, the province’s biggest interprovincial coproduction. Now the most-watched Canadian program, its producers brought the show to Saskatchewan for creative, rather than financial reasons.

For Saskatchewan producers focused on indigenous productions, tax-credit hikes elsewhere will not have much impact, says Ron Goetz, CEO of Regina-based Partners in Motion. Goetz focuses on documentary and nonfiction programming for the television market, and says the province’s existing incentives for local producers are working very well.

The market in Saskatchewan in general is very different from Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal in that production budgets tend to be smaller – usually in the $3-million to $15-million range. However, Saskatchewan recently hosted two service shoots with budgets in the $20-million range.

Director Terry Gilliam’s international coproduction feature Tideland, starring Jeff Bridges, shot in and around Regina from the end of September to the beginning of December.

And it didn’t take long for Saskatchewan to land its next major production, Just Friends. The feature directed by Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions) shot at the Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios in Regina and on location in Moose Jaw from Feb. 4 to March 3. L.A.-based Benderspink and Infinity Media, which has offices in L.A. and Vancouver, produce for New Line Cinema.

Just Friends is a romantic comedy about a successful music executive who left his hometown after being rejected by his high school crush. When he returns 10 years later, he finds his feelings for her rekindled and is forced to revert back to the sweet boy he used to be to win her affections. Ryan Reynolds (Blade: Trinity), Amy Smart (The Butterfly Effect), Anna Faris (Lost in Translation) and Chris Klein (American Pie 2) star.

For SaskFilm CEO Valerie Creighton, attracting Just Friends is evidence of the province’s ability to reel in significant foreign productions. She acknowledges that tax credits play a key role in determining where a production will shoot, but says there are other factors to consider.

‘It’s always a number of factors that lead people to finally make a location decision,’ says Creighton. ‘I think the hysteria surrounding tax credits is a little bit misleading when it comes to the reality of how these decisions are actually made.’

It was a combination of financial incentives and locations that finally brought Tideland to Saskatchewan, but, ‘at the end of the day, if Terry Gilliam hadn’t found the location he wanted, they wouldn’t have done it here,’ says Creighton.

While that may be true, Tideland’s Canadian producer, Gabriella Martinelli of Toronto’s Capri Films, says she would have considered shooting the feature in Ontario if the tax credits there had been increased before she started scouting locations.

In a perfect world, Martinelli would always shoot at home in Ontario.

‘Whenever I can stay in Ontario, I prefer to, because my adventurous days of running around the globe making movies are over,’ she says.

But the producer also acknowledges that incentives in Saskatchewan are still higher than Ontario’s, and it often doesn’t make the most financial sense to stay at home, especially when regional centers like Regina have state-of-the-art facilities such as the Canada Saskatchewan soundstage.

Martinelli says that without the new facility, a production as large as Tideland would be impossible to do there.

In addition, when you’re the biggest production shooting in a small center, you get a level of attention that just wouldn’t happen in a major production center.

For example, there were some major problems with the sound system at the studio when Tideland started shooting. However, Martinelli says the studio completely reworked the audio to exact specifications, changes that ended up benefiting future productions that came to the studio, including Just Friends.

-www.saskfilm.com