Canada’s film labs are run by resourceful optimists.

Challenged by digitized video, tight margins, and clients who must have quality with speed, the operators say things never looked better.

Labs across the country report a boom year in 1994 and an even bigger boom this year, yet they are on the brink of drastic change that could see improved videotape and digitizing processes replace film in five to 10 years.

Stan Ford, vp of post-production at deluxe toronto, predicts cinemas will go to television projection and get their copies directly from satellite, eliminating release prints.

Instead of sending prints to 2,000 theaters, distributors will send one print up to the satellite. Any theater wanting to screen the film will download it from the satellite.

‘We hope it’s many years down the road, but it will evolve,’ says Ford.

Meanwhile, film still rules, and despite Ford’s prophecy, he is presiding over a major expansion. Deluxe is enlarging the lab and adding another screening theater and another mixing stage to those they already have. Owned by the international Rank Organisation, which also has deluxe los angeles in California, deluxe toronto’s lab is already the largest outside of Hollywood with a staff of 250, Ford says.

Joe Scrivo, vp and gm of Toronto’s Medallion/pfa, is optimistic film will remain for ‘quite some time’ because nothing can equal its image quality.

‘It gives you rounded edges, a nice soft look that’s very appealing to the eye.

‘Every project we’re working on is shot on film and finished on video.’

Medallion/pfa is both a film laboratory and a video and audio post-production facility. The latter was converted to component digital about a year ago.

It does not reduce editing time but gives more flexibility, eliminating generation problems encountered with analog.

Eric Beausejour, manager of client services for Sonolab in Montreal, also sees film negative as by far the best registration technology in the world but expects the necessary video quality will be developed to replace it ‘in five to 10 years.’

Work print is already being phased out on lower budget films and television by video editing. Most labs now have an association with a video arm.

In Vancouver, Dave Hardon, president of Gastown Film Labs, which has as a video partner, Gastown Post and Tansfer, describes the process that omits work print.

‘They transfer their negative directly to videotape, edit on videotape, spew out a negative cutting list based on the electronic interpretation of the keycode on the edge of the negative film, and cut the negative to a computerized edit list.

‘The problem with that is they’ve really never seen their pictures on the screen until they take their first print from the cut negative. Photographically, not everything looks the same on the screen as it did on the video monitor. Filmmakers who do not do work print take a bit of a chance.’

Most big-budget theatrical productions edit electronically but still take off conventional work print and magnetic transfer.

Electronic editing is a headache for front-end specialists like Alpha Cine Service in Vancouver, says manager Bryn Dix.

‘They can’t see things like a dead person’s eyes blinking, or a chest breathing, or out-of-focus shots till it actually gets printed.

‘They expect the lab to print the cut negative almost overnight so they can verify the mix. Then if faults show up, there is a mad rush to get the revisions through.’

Al Lindsay, vp of operations at Spot Film and Video in Toronto, says the digital production process is having virtually no effect on his film lab business.

The smaller facility is geared to go after rushes, both video and film, but they don’t edit.

While Toronto giants like deluxe and Medallion/pfa can afford technology to match the best in the u.s., investment is much riskier for smaller players.

Sonolab, with a staff of only 15, is focusing on servicing for rushes. Most of its work is with local episodic television, with some from France. Its video post wing is Centre de Montage Electronique.

Beausejour predicts analog is on the way out and Digital Betacam will be the norm within two years, after its bugs are ironed out.

Sonolab is not investing much this year, says Beausejour, explaining the danger of buying the latest technology still under development. It could become obsolete well before its cost is recovered. Or prosperity could disappear without warning.

‘These machines (priced anywhere from $1 million to $2 million) cost 10 times more than they used to but the customers won’t pay 10 times more.’

His Montreal competitor, the larger AstralTech, majors in distribution release printing for the film house market, which doesn’t interest Sonolab.

AstralTech’s film laboratory director Serge Nadeau says the operation processes release prints for 50 to 60 Hollywood movies each year, including films from Warner Bros., Columbia TriStar Pictures and Buena Vista/Disney. In many cases, Astral handles the French-track versioning or dubbing for these same films, as well as processing prints and original negatives for Quebec-produced movies.

In March, the company officially opened its new motion picture laboratory and dubbing studios at an overall cost of $9.5 million. The facility installed two high-speed FilmLab positive processing machines from Australia, increasing production capacity from 50 to 60 prints a day to 115.

Nadeau says the lab would like to increase capacity to 150 or 160 prints a day, but investing in a third $1 million FilmLab processor is contingent on the market.

‘Electronic distribution of films by satellite (to theaters) is an important question,’ says Nadeau. ‘It could take 10 or 15 yearsbut there are more small screens, and they don’t fully exploit the image potential of film. There will be certain costs associated with distribution by satellite. It’s one of the questions that we’ll have to take into consideration in buying a third machine.’

There has been turmoil in the industry since 1990, with some labs going broke through overcapitalization. pfa and Medallion merged in 1991.

On the upside, the boom has sprouted a new facility on the prairies, Studio Film Labs of Edmonton. gm Colin Minor says business has soared since it became fully operational six months ago. The lab is part of a larger post-production facility that has been in business about 10 years.

Minor says the three Prairie provinces are where indigenous Canadian production is strongest, and that is what supports him.

Minor and other lab managers across the country stress that the key to survival comes in being resourceful, finding more efficient ways of working, since pressure is always on price and margins.

Alpha in Vancouver increased its prices for the first time in four years, by only 5%. Deluxe increased its prices in January 1995, but Ford notes that producers’ margins seem to be getting tighter.

Although production is soaring, individual budgets are not getting larger. At least not when producers are negotiating with lab managers.

Medallion/pfa’s Scrivo confirms this. ‘Do it smaller; do it cheaper seems to be the motto. It’s a sign of the times.’

While computers now efficiently govern digitization and aid efficiency and quality in many ways, basic lab work remains unchanged.

Lab managers emphasize that skilled staff is still the key to success. These artisans deliver the quality so essential to their clients in winning audiences. Film lab staff tend to average 20 years’ experience.

Most believe new labs are not likely to start up. Joe Scrivo says it would take a bold entrepreneur from $3 million to $6 million to launch a new lab.

The present boom rests on the cheap Canadian dollar (around us$0.73) and the u.s. business it attracts.

Scrivo believes labs and production houses have worked hard to achieve the highest standards of service found anywhere, so even if the Canadian dollar were to go back up to us$0.80 or us$0.85, American customers would stay.

Most others do not agree.

They say there is still an attitude among major u.s. feature film producers that post-production should be taken back to l.a. This is something the Canadian industry is still struggling to overcome.

audry down is a Toronto-based freelance writer.