Montreal: Telefilm Canada’s director of operations for the Quebec region says the ctcpf-induced spring scramble has worked to undermine project selection based on recoupment potential. With revenues from producers down, Joelle Levie says the issue will be addressed in a Quebec operations business plan.

While the plan is presently on the drawing board and has to be worked out with broadcasters and producers, some indicators have surfaced – the need for more corporate responsibility and accountability on the part of producers, higher quality programs and deeper efforts at export for French-language production. ‘The Quebec ministry has an export assistance program and maybe we will approach them, too,’ says Levie.

The business plan is expected in August.

International children’s series and documentaries are among the best Quebec recoupment properties for the agency, but documentary production is down significantly this year, says Levie. ‘I would like to have a children’s series like Les Intrepides. We have one on the English side [The Worst Witch] with Galafilm, a minority coproduction with the u.k.

‘We have two problems with animation,’ she says. ‘Radio-Canada doesn’t want eip money in animation because they think it can be financed in the international market. On the private side, animation is very expensive and to trigger Telefilm money we need high licence fees, 15% of the Canadian share of the budget.’ A case in point: an animation project with Tele-Quebec fell to the wayside as ctcpf money evaporated.

‘I would like to include one or two animation projects next year and have a chance to have some revenues,’ says Levie.

Telefilm’s Quebec operations office has committed close to $30 million in French-language primetime television and children’s programming for 1998/99, triggering close to $90 million in new production.

Fully committed

All eip for Quebec has now been committed, says Levie.

New Quebec drama with funding from Telefilm for the private networks includes the five-hour Television Quatre Saisons series Tango (Productions Paul Cadieux) and two TVA Network series, eight hours of Ces Enfants d’Ailleurs directed by Andre Melancon (Modus TV/Neofilms) and 18 new hours of the fashion world drama Diva (Sovimage). tva’s Juliette Pomerleau (Rose Films) is also slated for the new season but is part of the agency’s ’97 investments.

This year, Quebec’s private broadcasters handed producers an unprecedented number of commitment letters. The demand represented $22 million in Telefilm funding, an oversubscription of almost double the $11.7 million capacity, says Levie.

Drama series licensed by src in ’98 include Tag (SDA Productions), a promising 10-hour series scripted by Joanne Arsenault, screenwriter on the new feature Nazareth,usa; the 26 half-hour teleroman Les Petites Coeur (Sovimage), apparently set in a fire station; the 13-hour drama Radio (Avanti Cine Video); and the six-hour biography miniseries Chartrand et Simone (Videofilms).

Series renewals in ’98/99 are restricted to Diva and Ces Enfants d’Ailleurs.

New model for drama

The new and improved drama model for Quebec broadcasters is Sovimage’s Diva, a ‘teleroman-plus’ production for tva originated on videotape – but with film-style lighting and finish – at half of the cost of traditional filmed series. It means more episodes for the same money, or less, and a better chance at building audience and advertiser interest. ‘And src would like to have the same thing,’ says Levie.

Levie says src has licensed several traditional film or ‘fiction lourde’ series this year, including sda’s 13-hour crime drama Omerta iii and Emergence International’s Reseaux, funded in ’97 by Telefilm. So, says Levie, the new orientation in drama production, characterized essentially by lower production budgets, will fully come into play in the ’99/2000 season,.

$3 million more to come

Reseaux, a 20-hour, $17-million newsroom drama from writer Rejean Tremblay, halted production after an initial 10 hours for lack of cash. Levie says the fate of the next 10 episodes is uncertain, and hopes to access some of the $3-million, French-language lfp funding slated for September. Up to 80% of the fall lfp envelope is earmarked for drama.

The Quebec operations’ eip French-language tv envelope for ’98/99 is virtually identical to last year – $27.5 million for production and $1.7 million, or 6%, for development, for a total of $29.2 million.

English-language production funding this year is up to $4.6 million from $2.5 million in ’97.

The French-language tv investment represents about 36% of the total national eip allocation.

Telefilm’s ’98 French-track eip funding commitments by program category are as follows: drama, 70%, up from 62% in ’97; children’s programs, 20%, up from 14% last year; and docs down to 14% from a high tide of 24% in ’97.

Children’s highlights

In children’s production, ’98 funding highlights include an innovative t-q series called Cornemuse (Telefiction), two Canal Famille renewals – the preschool series Pin-Pon (Telefiction) and Radio-Enfer (Tele-Action) – and a 52 half-hour series for tfo (tvontario), Papi Bonheur (Paul Cadieux).

src has historically used its Telefilm/eip funding almost exclusively for drama. The policy has not changed, and children’s programs have again been shut out.

In docs, Telefilm is funding a number of one-offs for Tele-Quebec, including a project from InformAction and producer Laurier Bonin, a Riopelle portrait from sda, a regional project called 24 Heures pour l’Histoire, and Insectia, an international coproduced series from Pixcom Television.

English funding

Telefilm’s funding will trigger about $15 million in new English-track production this year including Revenge of the Land, a cbc miniseries from Cinar Films and Toronto producer Bernie Zukerman; a number of one-off docs in the cbc Witness stream; and Galafilm’s kids’ series The Worst Witch.

‘In development [funding] we’re late,’ says Levie. ‘We’re just starting. Because of the ctcpf crisis we had to concentrate on production.’ Some 30 applications on the tv side are under review.

Broadcaster minimums for Telefilm-funded Quebec productions over $500,000 are 15% for children’s and docs, and 20% for drama, with a cap for big-budget drama at $150,000 per episode.

‘The broadcasters really tend to go to the minimum on the documentary side,’ says Levie. ‘And to get 15% you need more than one broadcaster. This is a real problem.’

It’s still unclear if src will fully access its 50% share of ’98 eip funding, but if it does, the agency will be overcommitted on the private side, says Levie.