Inside:

Distribution on the edge:

Canadian cinema carves an ‘erotic weirdness’ niche – p. B3

Canadian screenwriting:

‘A low-percentage proposition’ – p. B4

Shorts getting longer shrift:

Garnering more slots and more money – p. B20

Film diaries:

Production chronicles from conception to completion – begin p. B7

Features:

The Hanging Garden – p. B7

Shopping for Fangs – p. B11

Gerrie & Louise – p. B14

Pitch – p. B17

Hayseed – p. B19

Shorts:

Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight – p. B22

Permission – p. B24

Linear Dreams – p. B26

It’s the dream scenario that keeps many a short filmmaker struggling at their craft – after screening their film at a prestigious festival a producer runs up, says he loves the film and asks to see the features they have in development.

But with 281 films screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and frazzled international reps run off their feet chasing the hot features, the possibilities would seem unlikely.

Not so, says Showcase programmer Laura Michalchyshyn, who originated wtn’s Shameless Shorts and produced the program for three years. ‘It really does happen, international players do stop by and look at the shorts,’ she says, recalling an American producer who sought out a young filmmaker at the last Local Heroes Festival in Edmonton.

Other industry players agree this dream isn’t as distant as many would imagine, especially at festivals such as Toronto where international producers, press and buyers converge to shop for product and keep tabs on emerging talent.

‘Shorts are a great entree,’ says Joel Roodman, a partner at New York-based Gotham Entertainment Group, who screens the shorts program to stay on top of hot new filmmakers. ‘It’s an opportunity to see emerging talent and their work.’

Gotham can offer new filmmakers the kickstart they need to make the jump into features. Not only does the company develop and finance projects, it also jointly runs a $10,000 feature film fund, Ark Pictures, with Kluge Investments and Kardana Films.

Power of the press

The biggest fans of short films at tiff are the press, particularly the American contingent, says the sales office’s Kelley Alexander. Their ink gets the word out to buyers, talent agents and production executives as to who’s making waves among the new crop of filmmakers.

But even if the big break doesn’t materialize, the festival screening of a short offers filmmakers crucial exposure and the chance to meet programmers, producers and buyers face to face. And, as the National Screen Institute’s Jan Miller points out, it also opens the eyes of new filmmakers to the realities and demands of the international marketplace and what it takes to get their films onto screens and exposed to audiences.

International festivals

To foster opportunities for exposure at tiff, Alexander points short filmmakers in the direction of other festival programmers.

‘A mere invitation to a prominent festival elsewhere in the world gives your film that much more exposure to audiences, press and talent agents,’ she explains, ‘and those invitations often stem from a screening in Toronto.’

Programmers from festivals in Berlin, Melbourne and Goteberg, as well as reps from Sundance, Cannes, and the Sydney International Film Festival, are all in attendance at Toronto seeking new talent to showcase. Broadcast sales in those markets often result after a screening, says Alexander, particularly for films which can be programmed into a half-hour slot. Shorts under 30 minutes are also picked up as interstitials on European broadcast channels such as the bbc and Channel 4.

Windows of opportunity at new services

One sales agent eyeing the shorts programs is Sydney Neter, a Netherlands-based sales agent who sells to international broadcasters. He is looking for comedies, suspense/thrillers and any other impressive shorts with high production values in the two- to 20-minute mark. Experimental shorts are not a good sell, he says.

While the shelf space and licence fees are limited, Neter says the onslaught of new pay-tv and niche channels scrounging to fill airtime is offering shorts new broadcast opportunities on the international scene.

Canal +, for example, has extended its reach to Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia, and is seeking product to program in these territories. Japan’s new pay-tv channel TV Man Union programs artsy features and shorts and Australia is also a good market, he says, with public channel sbs buying comedic and edgy shorts for its Eating Carpet strand.

Licence fees on the rise

Licence fees vary across Europe, says Neter, ranging from us$20 per minute in Poland to as high as us$500 a minute in France. Scandinavian public channels offer us$40 to us$100 per minute for an exclusive one- to two-year window. Most of the top-paying windows generally take nine- to 12-month exclusive rights. Japan tv offers roughly us$100 per minute.

As the older pay channels flex their muscles and expand, licence fees are rising, observes Neter. For example, Canal + used to only offer us$100 per minute and now pays us$500.

The American market, generally closed to shorts, is also slowly nudging open a few windows through Sundance, Bravo! and Short List, a program broadcast on pbs in San Diego that’s dedicated to shorts. Neter says hbo is now picking up one- to two-minute shorts for its special program World of Wonder, with fees running us$1,000 to us$1,500 for a five- to seven-year non-exclusive deal.

Canadian market brightens

The Canadian landscape is also starting to look a little brighter for short filmmakers, although licence fees remain dismally low.

New specialties teletoon and The Comedy Network have shorts strands in their upcoming lineup. Comedy’s nightly spot Canadian Comedy Shorts is seeking films under 15 minutes and paying $100 per minute for a two-year exclusive window, according to the recently launched nsi Web page Show Your Shorts, devoted to the distribution of short films.

Although Showcase currently does not have a shorts strand, Michalchyshyn is investigating the possibility of a window.

‘Short films are an underrecognized and undervalued form of filmmaking,’ she says, noting that in many parts of Europe shorts are highly regarded and Channel 4 and bbc have specific program strands showcasing shorts. ‘It gives filmmakers a voice and a chance to experiment with technique, story and style which they couldn’t do to the same degree in a feature. It’s a daring and mastered art form unto itself. They stand on their own and that’s what tiff recognizes by programming and highlighting the format.’

At tiff, Michalchyshyn is seeking films under 15 minutes as interstitials between movies and half-hour dramas.

cbc’s Canadian Reflections, well known on the domestic scene for offering the top licence fees (roughly $500 per minute), airs 52 weeks a year, and for the first time beginning in October will be repeated Sunday afternoons, doubling films’ exposure. Program advisor Tara Ellis will be at the festival shopping for innovative films aimed at family audiences since the program airs in a Friday afternoon slot. The program takes first-window exclusive rights for a year followed by two years of unlimited plays.

Baton Broadcasting is another new entrant on the shorts scene and will be programming a shorts showcase in b.c., adds Ellis.

According to the nsi Web page, wic’s Movie Max! programs 12- to 15-minute mainstream shorts as fillers between features, offering $100 to $300 for one to two years of non-exclusive plays. Superchannel pays $100 to $300 non-exclusive for light films.

Other shorts shoppers on the Canadian scene: scn’s The Independent Eye presents 13 one-hour episodes per year in a 10 p.m. time slot, paying $33 per minute for non-exclusive unlimited plays; wtn’s Shameless Shorts seeks films under 15 minutes, with licences running roughly $65 per minute for a non-exclusive three-year play; and Bravo!Fact provides up to half the total production costs maxed at $25,000 per project for short arts videos for broadcast on Bravo!

But these licence fees do not fully fund the projects, says Michalchyshyn, and producing shorts is becoming increasingly difficult with the traditional funding sources short filmmakers turned to – the Canada Council and provincial arts councils – all facing drastic cuts.

However, recognizing the importance of shorts as a training ground for new filmmakers, the Ontario Film Development Corporation is developing a short film fund for ‘calling-card’ projects, to be up and running by late fall. It will offer production financing to filmmakers with a production credit to their name to create a 15- to 25-minute dramatic film.

The Canadian Film Centre’s short dramatic film program continues to produce six shorts per year, and its alumni have gone on to have features represented over the years in the tiff lineup. Each cfc film is financed with $12,500 cash and over $150,000 in donated goods and services.

The NSI Drama Prize also continues to support emerging filmmakers, offering six teams across Canada the opportunity to produce a dramatic short, worth roughly $45,000 per film.