Montreal: Galafilm is in its 10th year, and has a remarkable record particularly in documentaries (The Valour and the Horror, The War of 1812). The house has also coproduced a couple of well-received features, Lilies and The Hanging Garden, and more recently has deepened its production slate to include movies, tv movies, a successful international children’s series and a major broadband multimedia project. Galafilm and president Arnie Gelbart produced for close to $10.5 million in 1999.

New production in 2000 includes the third season of the u.k./Canada coproduction The Worst Witch, budgeted at $8.5 million and sold internationally to hbo and zdf in Germany; Stork Derby, a $4.5 million Quebec/Ontario coproduction slated to film this fall and licensed by chum and cbc; Chiefs, a four-hour doc profile of great Native leaders from directors/writers Brian McKenna and Gil Cardinal budgeted at $2.4 million, and sold to History Television/Historia, tfo and scn; and IGulliver.com, an original, upscale travel-tourism website designed for advanced broadband distribution.

Worst Witch is in production on its third season – 13 half-hours plus a half-hour Christmas special – for a total production run of 40 episodes. It was filmed this summer in Montreal and at the Twickenham Studios in England, with Montreal director Stefan Pleszcynski helming on five episodes. The show airs on ytv and itv in the u.k., with second windows for tfo/tvontario and Radio-Canada.

Gelbart says the u.k. is emerging as an even more important drama partner ‘and is open to real coproduction with significance to Canada because of the subject matter.’

‘They (the u.k.) are opening up to history, to their colonial past, which was a closed subject in the past 10 years because they weren’t interested. And all of that is now changing (as is partly) reflected in the re-structuring of the bbc where BBC 4 (now called BBC Knowledge) will be a kind of pbs. They are looking for material, some dramatic, but documentary as well.’

Galafilm titles in delivery include After Darwin, Martin Lavut’s two-hour doc examination of modern genetics; the docusoap Niagara Falls (six half-hours licensed by cbc and hbo), produced by Anna Paskal; Josh Freed’s weather-obsessed doc The Sky is Falling (aka Weather Worship), shot across Canada, in the u.s. Midwest tornado zone, Florida and the u.k., and set to air on cbc’s Witness on Nov. 22., and the Arto Paragamian feature film comedy Two Thousand and None.

New Paragamian movie

Paris-based Pandora Cinema (Shine, Kolya, Tango) has sold Two Thousand and None to nine countries, significantly reducing the distrib’s risk. Screenings are set for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Independent Feature Film Market in New York next month, while Seville Pictures’ theatrical release in Canada is set for October.

A comedy about life, death and memory, the film stars John Turturro (Quiz Show, Barton Fink), Oleg Kisseliov and Katherine Borowitz, and was shot in Montreal last summer on a budget of $4.8 million.

Gelbart says the movie needed a comfortable budget, and at its original $3.5 million budget, the Canadian funding agencies felt it was too expensive.

‘Our rationale was basically if we go outside the country to find money, it would validate the project, and the other thing is that they (the Canadian investors) would feel they were involved with a bigger film, with more potential and some international life. As we said earlier, when it is a coproduction or you have an international distributor, you have some guarantee the film will be seen outside Canada,’ says Gelbart.

‘Your casting is influenced by who’s out there and there just aren’t that many Canadian actors who can carry it, or, if they can carry it they are usually working in Hollywood with an exaggerated sense of their own worth. The script was sufficiently strong for Pandora who have won a bunch of Oscars with (their) films. They felt the script had enough potential to say, ‘Look we’ll put up a third of the money (close to $1.5 million) if you can give us a star.’ The person we wanted from the beginning was John Turturro, but he wasn’t available when we wanted to shoot, so we just waited for him which meant waiting another six months.’

Gelbart says a Canadian film without a marquee name may earn great reviews, as was the case with The Hanging Garden, or a new film like The New Waterford Girl, but a marquee name directly opens doors to international financing and distribution.

Pandora’s investment covers world rights except for Canada and the u.s. although Pandora is the agent for the u.s. sale. ‘It’s a way for us to guarantee that if we do sell the u.s., we can pay back our investors, including Telefilm Canada and sodec. I’d be very happy to walk into Telefilm and give them half or all of their money back,’ says the producer.

Seville paid about $300,000 for all Canadian rights, licensed over an extended period, in the order of 15 years.

On the u.s. deal, Gelbart says the likely approach will be to go for ‘the richest up-front bid – because it’s going to take a long time before we see any money. Let me give you an example. With Shine, a huge success and an Oscar-winner, the original (distribution) advance was something like us$5 million but they (the producers) didn’t start making money until they had made $30 million back, because they spent $20 million in marketing.

Gelbart says it’s a question of ‘the right balance’ and there will be an attempt to somehow cap spending by the state-side distributor. The distributor pays an upfront guarantee – anywhere from nothing up to $5 million on a film like Two Thousand and None – and from there, holds on to all subsequent receipts. Typically, that adds up to 35% in the form of a commission, plus expenses, with the remainder of the backend going to the producer. ‘They get their commission, which is off the top, but there are no points (for the distributor),’ he says.

Financing sources on Two Thousand and None include Telefilm and sodec, the Canadian Television Fund, the provincial and federal tax credits, Pandora, and Canadian broadcasters Citytv, TMN – The Movie Network, Super Ecran, Superchannel, and Seville Pictures.

Docs and new television

Gelbart clearly intends to pursue the production of documentaries and doc series, but feels docs are increasingly difficult.

‘We are not a volume producer but more of a higher-end, difficult-show producer. (The docusoap) Niagara Falls is another axis I want to follow, which is like ‘new television,’ the bastard children of which are (shows) like Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Survivor.

‘It’s very interesting and I’m working with people in the u.k. who want to explore these new formats as we explore the frontiers of new television. I don’t think the system in Canada encourages this because broadcasters aren’t willing to gamble. I mean, nobody here would have done Survivor before it existed although they were given proposals. They had proposals from us, among others, to do similar things (the latest wave of reality shows) as they came out or before, but they weren’t willing to gamble.’

Jump to new media

Galafilm has been active in new media for the past three years, opening as a natural off-shoot of the house’s doc production.

‘The team was brought together for The War of 1812 and After Darwin, etc. But out of that work has come original web projects that are pure web projects, including a project we hope will fly on its own merits – a travel site called IGulliver.com, which allows for virtual visits to cities around the world.’

IGulliver.com is aimed at the future-oriented, broadband market. It incorporates original photography shot around the world, including photo techniques combining 360-degree panorama shooting and video, narration in six languages and original music. The start-up is being financed by Galafilm with equity investment pending. ‘We’ve spent a lot of money developing this thing but we think it’s a fair gamble,’ says Gelbart.

The next step in IGulliver.com’s commercialization is a prototype style launch at the world’s biggest travel show – The World Travel Market in London, u.k. in November.

Gelbart says broadband production is time-consuming and complicated because of its interactive elements – basically, hours and hours of programming and testing. The cost of producing and delivering the website will ultimately depend on the success of its commercial roll-out (including an e-commerce component), but the producer says the general, long-term investment is literally many millions of dollars – as much as $15 million in production costs in the first three years.

‘It’s also very important to move quickly because you want to be first,’ he says. *

-www.galafilm.com