Life on the coproduction front

There’s cheerful news on two fronts of the Canada/ France coproduction issue.

On the business side of the ledger, the dictates of financial necessity have taken hold, furiously fueling growth, while French-language coproduction has recovered admirably after a brief stint in the emergency ward in 1990.

But where it counts most, in episodic tv production, nagging doubts about what might be called the natural affinity for partnerships between Quebec and France persist.

A full meeting of the biennial Canada-France Mixed Commission on film and television relations, held in Montreal in late November, reported record numbers for coproduction between the two countries.

The commission noted 43 projects were coproduced by Canada and France between 1992 and 1994, representing an impressive budget total of $306 million. Ten projects were feature films, including six majority Canadian features, and 33 were tv productions, of which 23 were majority French.

Record year

As for 1994, it confirmed Canada’s reputation as a world leader in coproduction: a record 46 projects (11 film, 35 tv) with budgets totaling $328 million – a major hike from $210 million in 1993 – were coproduced last year. Canada’s share of the investment in ’94 stood at $163.5 million. Production between Canada and France made up 57% of the total.

Two clear trends have emerged.

First, a major upsurge in highly exportable animation series production, and second, an increase in original French-language productions, the result of strict language quotas for television networks in France.

Consequently, much of the English coproduction activity with France has shifted to the u.k., Australia and Germany, says Deborah Drisdell, manager of coproductions at Telefilm Canada.

The country’s most active coproducers with France – Cinar Films, Cinevideo Plus, Filmline International, Communications Claude Heroux International, Verseau International, Coscient and Cine-Group – are based in Montreal.

Of 46 Canadian coproductions (including two or three not produced but granted advanced ruling) shot in 1994, 34 originated with Quebec-based producers.

Of the 34, 15 were shot in French, nine in English, and 10, including eight animation projects, were produced in both French and English. There were two double shoots in ’94 – Cinevideo Plus’ Tales of the Wild and Verseau’s Garden of Eden, coproduced with Mexico.

For French-language projects, the 15 productions certified in ’94 represent a 50% increase over 10 projects in 1993 (among them, Jalna and La Glace et le feu), when 20 Quebec-based coproductions were shot.

In 1992, there were 20 Quebec-based coproductions, 10 shot in French (including Coyote and Shehaweh), three in English, and seven in French and English, including four animation projects. Certainly a marked improvement over 1990 when French-track coproductions hit rock bottom.

Twinning financial coproductions

The key business news to emerge from the Mixed Commission meeting is an important modification to Canada/France coproduction rules, namely, the application of twinning rules to financial coproductions for television.

The new measures give the French producer on twinned tv productions – assuming a 20% minimum Canadian investment – vital access to ‘automatic aid’ from France’s Centre National de la Cinematographie. This access can represent about 15% of the budget, and according to Telefilm’s Paris newsletter Zoom, the new financing incentive has ‘real potential,’ and could lead to more Canadian productions on France’s major tv networks.

The formula grants both twinned productions, regardless of category, official coproduction status on the condition the overall investment from each side is comparable, and that the two productions are shot within the same 12-month period.

Up to now, French producers hadn’t shown much interest in financial coproduction because cnc’s 30% minimum ruling denied access to public funds, says Drisdell.

Zoom reports major French broadcasters and producers such as Gaumont TV, Hamster, Ellipse, Pathe and Flach Films have responded positively.

Drisdell says all coproductions involve creative exchange, but confirms the dramatic rise in coproduction numbers is the product of necessity. ‘Most producers in the industry are trying to do coproductions. (The new twinning rule) is interesting, but it won’t revolutionize coproduction,’ she predicts.

Step in the right direction

Cinar’s ceo Micheline Charest says real, creative exchange for coproduction is still the exception, but adds, ‘any recognition of the need for industrial programs on the part of Telefilm and cnc is a step in the right direction.’

Despite the boom, the attitude towards coproduction on the part of most tv networks in both Canada and France is lukewarm at best.

In television, broadcasters in both Quebec and France continue to demonstrate their preference for indigenous production, and with a few exceptions – Les Intrepides, Tales of the Wild, Jalna – the creative crossover on most coproductions can be found behind the camera.

Commenting on the distribution issue examined at a private, post-Mixed Commission meeting attended by the leaders of the French producers association, Union Syndicale de la Production Audiovisuelle, representatives of the apftq (the Quebec producers’ association) and Quebec broadcasters, Drisdell says the outlook for majority French tv fare in Quebec ‘is not particularly optimistic.’

‘The dictum that tv is a local medium was again repeated, and often, at mip-asia,’ she says.

Financial deals

Charest notes the overall rise in coproduction business in 1994, but adds a closer analysis reveals most of the increase went to animation and projects which are basically financial deals, including minority coproductions.

Verseau president Aimee Danis says the biggest impediment to more episodic coproduction ‘is probably the attitude of commercial broadcasters, apart from Radio-Canada and Super Ecran.’

‘They have less money, are very focused on the domestic market, and they don’t believe in coproduction,’ she says.

And although Verseau is preparing two major tv coproductions with France in 1995, including a miniseries called Red River, to be shot in Western Canada and coproduced with GMT Productions, Danis says there’s no real natural affinity between the two French-language broadcast markets.

‘The problem,’ she says, ‘is that the French don’t much like Canadian tv, even if our accent is only slight, and Canadians don’t particularly like French tv.’

Adds Charest: ‘Despite the need for more business on both sidesÉwe continue to meet with resistance from broadcasters who devote too little airtime (to coproductions) to have an impact on audiences. They’re reluctant to depart from the success of domestic programming.’

So far, majority French productions, movies aside, are rarities on conventional Quebec tv, with some exceptions: the Rose Films/ Cineteve and sfp series Jalna has been picked up by Radio-Canada and tvontario’s La Chaine francaise and Mourir d’amour, the Telefiction/Le Sabre series (it used public funds to finance a mixed Canada/France writing committee) broadcast on Radio-Quebec this fall and licensed by tvo. But Catherine Courage, a French series twinned with Productions du Cerf’s Shehaweh and sold to Radio-Canada amidst much fanfare at mip-tv three years ago, has been consigned to the shelf ever since.

Danis says growing budgetary restraints and a new director-general of programming at Radio-Canada, Charles Ohayon, have helped to spur coproduction activity.

But the popular 90-minute format preferred for tv drama in France is still a poor fit in Quebec. And even when French-produced drama does make it to primetime on Quebec tv – the miniseries La Revolution francaise comes to mind – promotional efforts by broadcasters have been half-hearted.

A language barrier

Accents and language are still a big problem.

Wiser heads suggest Quebec does whatever it takes to have its programs distributed in France, but the industry in Quebec has to balance export goals with union demands and actors’ rights. At any rate, the industry here shares a collective sigh of frustration when it considers the export fate of its top-rated drama series, Productions sda’s Scoop. cbc bought it, but people are beginning to wonder if it will ever be seen in ‘l’Hexagone.’

There is a positive side, in fact one that runs deep.

Danis says there is an affinity between Quebec and French culture attested to by the popularity of French films such as La Reine Margot and Les Visiteurs, which have done well here, in both theaters and on tv.

She says the popularity of Cite-Amerique’s Les Filles de Caleb and Blanche, post-synched for broadcast in France, might suggest other productions could be done in the same way.

From an industrial perspective, Quebec coproduction activity with France can only benefit from two recent regulatory rulings – a hike in production investment quotas placed on French tv networks (15% of total revenues for TF1, 17% for France 2 and France 3, 22% for M6, and 4% for Canal Plus), and a requirement to broadcast 40% original French-language production.

Perhaps the most reassuring aspect of Quebec coproduction is the growth in new partnerships, and a widening range in program diversity.

Episodic leaders

About a dozen or so Montreal-based producers led the way with episodic production in 1994. They include:

– Cinevideo, producer of Tales of the Wild, six 90-minute adventure films coproduced at a cost of $24 million with Ellipse Programme and Gaumont, has followed up with the announcement of a new round for early 1995.

– Filmline, producer of Highlander: The Series (episodes 45-66) with French film and tv giant Gaumont, and The Young Classic mow collection, coproduced with France’s Images Television International and Screen Partners in the u.k., also teamed with the u.k.’s Winchester Pictures to produce Rainbow, a high-definition feature film shot in Montreal this past fall.

– In 1994, Cinar became Canada’s most active coproducer with France, producing two rounds of The Busy World of Richard Scarry with France Animation; an initial 26 episodes of the Exploits d’Arsene Lupin, also with France Animation; episodes 27 to 52 of Histoires du Pere Castor, coproduced with France’s GMT Productions; Robinson Sucroe, coproduced with France Animation; more episodes of the live-action tween series Les Intrepides, coproduced with Marathon Productions and one of a very select group of extended drama series to sell on both sides of the Atlantic; and Bonjour Timothy, an English-language feature film shot with partners in New Zealand.

– Cine-Group revamped with animation in 1994. The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo was coproduced with Ares Films; 26 additional half-hours of Spirou et Fantasio were coproduced with Editions Dupuis France; and 13 episodes of Les Tribulations du Cabotin were coproduced with Cameras Continentales.

– Allegro Films plans to produce two twinned tv films, Presence des ombres and Regle du silence, with Septembre Productions, and has completed the first four installments in the 90-minute mow series, Les Nouveaux exploits d’Arsene Lupin, coproduced with Mars International and slated for broadcast on Radio-Quebec.

– Coscient completed production on episodes 105-130 of the science show Omni Science, coproduced with Creativite Strategie Media, and has announced several coproduction projects for 1995.

– Cite-Amerique was a minority partner on the three-hour miniseries A. Rimbaud, shot in North Africa last fall and coproduced with Septembre Productions.

– Prisma Productions and German partner g.u.m. coproduced 52 episodes of Anna Banana, and followed up by announcing new projects with Winchester Pictures in the u.k., The Big Garage and Platinum, a dramatic tv series to be shot with partners in Germany and the u.k.

Other coproductions of note in 1994 include Productions La Fete’s V’la l’cinema, a feature film and the first of many film and tv projects planned under a new partnership with France’s Pathe Television.

Also out of Montreal, Habitat, a science-fiction feature from Transfilm and Kingsborough Pictures and coproduced with Holland; two Harry Palmer films starring Michael Caine, shot in Russia and coproduced by Montreal’s Cinepix and partners in the u.k. and Russia; and Le Confessionnal, shot in Quebec City by director Robert Lepage and coproduced by Cinemaginaire, legendary u.k. producer David Puttman and France’s Cinea.

Other Montreal-based producers either active in the coproduction arena in 1994 or expected to become more active in 1995 include VideoTheme, Productions Tele-Action, Productions Pixart, Films Stock International, Galafilm, Inform-Action Films, Aska Films, Productions D’Amerique francaise and Productions du Cerf.