Electropolis Studios, an ambitious venture between Salter Street Productions, Citadel and Cochrane Entertainment, will open its doors in Halifax Nov. 1, vying for work with Imagex’s Cinesite Studios, and other smaller Nova Scotia studios also pushing ahead with expansion plans. The flurry of soundstage activity in the province is leaving many asking whether the province’s industry ­ which up until two years ago was without a studio ­ can support the growing number and increasing size of its stages.

Electropolis president Berni Smith answers with a resounding yes. ‘I see each of the Nova Scotia studios as complementing each other,’ he says, with Electropolis geared primarily towards marine-based productions. ‘Clearly this is the only studio adjacent to water, with ship mooring capabilities, floodable stages and 70-foot-high clearance.’

Refitting of an existing waterfront building into the Electropolis stage comes with a $3.3 million price tag, one-third financed by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The new facility will offer four soundstages ranging from 2,300 square feet to 12,000 square feet, state-of-the-art sound insulating qualities, high-end air exhausting capabilities, and a traveling crane capable of lifting a 747. Discussions are also in the final stages for an equipment rental company and film processing lab on site.

A studio viability study undertaken before greenlighting the project showed Nova Scotia to be undersupplied, with only half the level of studio space per unit of production as compared to Toronto, says Smith.

‘But even if we are overbuilding this year ­ which I find difficult to imagine ­ the need for Electropolis will be there over the next couple of years,’ he says, noting the province’s film industry has experienced an average annual growth rate of 30% over the last four to five years, with production this year expected to reach the $100 million mark.

Smith says the production budgets of local producers can handle Electropolis’ rates and the stage will be an efficient, economic alternative to renting a warehouse on the docks. He is already close to signing deals for two features and a tv movie.

Smith says while the volume of American work is down, coproductions are booming and this is where he is laying most of his cards while also anticipating to land some major American shoots.

Sod turned on new N.S. studios

Mill Cove Park, located on Nova Scotia’s North Shore, is looking towards a second studio to reel in American and out-of-province productions.

Managed by a community-based non-profit society, Mill Cove was the former site of a military base, converted a year and a half ago into two studios of 6,000 square feet and 4,000 square feet, with a 60-acre back lot and on-site crew housing thanks to empty army barracks.

Production of Black Harbour has monopolized most of the space since its opening so a proposal has been sent to the federal and Nova Scotia governments asking for financial aid to develop an additional 10,000-square-foot studio. A decision is expected by September. The expansion budget is $1.2 million, one-third to be provided from the organization’s community development fund.

‘We don’t expect the indigenous industry to represent our bread and butter,’ says gm Mike Montgomery, citing that non-indigenous work has accounted for 50% of Nova Scotia’s industry (averaging between $16 million and $25 million a year) over the last six years, many of which, including Dolores Claiborne and Two If By Sea, shot in the Mill Cove area.

Tour Tech East’s Peter Hendrickson says his year-and-a-half-old Dartmouth studio is still at the break-even stage and can’t yet survive on film and tv productions alone. Over its first year and a half the studio’s profit margins have been low and Hendrickson is just recouping operation costs.

Rental rates are one of the problems, he says, with local producers accustomed to budgeting based on the price of renting warehouses. ‘When they look at our rates they don’t take into account there are costs of operation associated.’

Commercials, music videos, concert tour prepping and preproduction provide the bulk of bookings and his 14-year-old sound, lighting and staging rental/sales company generates the revenues.

But Henrickson projects that within five years Tour Tech should be thriving on film and tv work. Anticipating future opportunities, construction is underway on a second 6,000-square-foot stage, 10,000 square feet of production offices, hair and makeup facilities, a carpentry shop and a craft service area.

Tax credit a boon to N.B. studios

The recent introduction of a tax credit in New Brunswick is sparking copro thoughts across the Canadian industry and soundstage development from out-of-province players.

Film NB executive director Sam Granna has received a soundstage proposal from a group of b.c. line producers to convert a large hangar at a closed air force base an hour outside Moncton. They are asking the province to throw in the building and $1 million in cash.

But treading cautiously, Granna sent them back to rethink their business plan, calling the project ‘too big, too soon and too rich for the province’ as well as too far from urban centers.

Rumor has it an equipment rental company in Ontario is also looking at the possibility of building a soundstage in the province, but Granna has not seen a proposal as yet.

But with the New Brunswick industry just getting off the ground, the funding crunch at the ctcpf making regional producers particularly uneasy over their future, and marketing of the province as a location just beginning, he remains leery of committing the province to a soundstage.

‘Let’s not put the cart before the horse,’ he says. ‘We need some good momentum before we seriously sit down and look at a soundstage.’