Vancouver: b.c.’s film volume is on its way to topping the billion-dollar threshold this year, but don’t expect the B.C. Film Commission to be crowing about it just yet.

Unconfirmed reports for the first half of the year indicate production budgets for shows already in the can topped the $500-million mark just as big-budget shows like Disney’s $100-million feature Eaters of the Dead were getting rolling at the end of June. Production budgets for 1996 were just over $800 million.

‘The dollar figures are up significantly over last year,’ says commissioner Pete Mitchell without elaboration. ‘We expect that to flow through to year end.’

What the commission will confirm, however, is the number of productions.

In the first six months of 1997, there have been 80 film and television projects compared to 106 for all of calendar 1996. In other words, b.c. has already completed 75% of last year’s record-setting volume.

The fast start has been fueled by a dramatic increase in mows. In all of 1996, there were 52 television movies. In the first six months, Vancouver has already played host to 41.

In explaining the boffo mow business, Mitchell speculates there has been front-end loading by u.s. producers aware of the July 31 demise of the Production Services Limited Partnership program, a four-year-old federal tax deferral scheme that nets u.s. producers between 6% and 8% of budgets. He’s unclear how the loss of the program ­ the subject of a conservation lobby by Ontario and b.c. producers ­ will affect mow production for the rest of the year.

The ongoing controversy regarding the unevenly applied 15% withholding tax for non-resident producers and directors also continues to be a factor hindering volumes for the rest of the year.

Feature film volumes are on track, with 18 films having been completed. That represents half of 1996’s totals.

And there have been 16 series recorded already this year, the same as in 1996. Mitchell expects an additional four titles to begin before year end.

Animation productions total five for the year and are becoming a growing financial and employment force, says Mitchell.

As for Vancouver’s chronic capacity issue, he says: ‘We’ve managed to absorb the increase in production without a location, crew and stage space crisis.’

Features include Seven Years in Tibet, Mr. Magoo and Mina Shum’s Drive, She Said. Series include The X-Files, Police Academy and Forefront’s Madison.

tv movies include Smudge by Victoria’s May Street Group and animated shows include Mainframe’s ReBoot and Delaney and Friends’ Nilus the Sandman.

Direct spending in the b.c. economy by the film and television industry was $537 million in 1996, representing a net economic impact of $1.5 billion.