By Pamela Cuthbert

Looking back on 1994, it was a vision to behold. New media ventures, more specialty licences, digital dallying, headless institutions, union battlesÉon it goes, the lengthy list of happenings in the film and television industry in the past 12 months.

Nelvana went public, joining the ranks of the five newly public companies that had more dough to play with in 1994 than ever before.

Canadian productions went to American channels and, like a star to the spotlight, returned again and again. Alliance Communications rejuvenated the odd-couple scenario with the $33 million, 22-episode Due South, and landed the first deal with a major u.s. network for a primetime show originated in Canada. Cinar Films’ $10 million two-part mow, Million Dollar Babies, scored Nielsen ratings of 15.9 and a 26% share of the American audience. Atlantis Communications is running with a heavy slate of mows produced this year, in addition to the $27 million 18-episode TekWar series and the $30 million series, The Outer Limits.

Out of the public company circle, Skyvision broke into syndication with u.s.-based distributor Rysher Entertainment, handling the $36 million first season of Robocop, an action adventure series that got caught in a downward slide of action hours in the States and is hanging on for a second chance. And the company has a number of new series on the go.

Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan had tremendous production years. Kevin DeWalt of Minds Eye Pictures in Regina signed a six-picture, $20 million deal with Los-Angeles-based Buffalo Films and the two companies coproduced the province’s first major off-shore feature film, Decoy. Nova Scotia was the sight of three major feature film shoots: the American productions, Dolores Claiborne and The Scarlet Letter, and the $4.5 million Canada-u.k. production, Glace Bay Miner’s Museum.

This was also the year producers quit lurking and decided to surf into cyberproduction. cd-rom, cd-i, on-line and the mega-buck game market were embraced by companies from all sectors as a welcome new revenue stream.

Lines between suppliers and producers got substantially blurred when the crtc announced eight new specialty channels (and two new pay services), and on the broadcast front, Atlantis added a buy into specialty channel ytv to its new venture, Life Network. The deal followed less than six months after ytv founder and head Kevin Shea moved to become Atlantis coo in January.

Jack the government ripper kept busy in 1994, beginning with a chop to the film and television industry’s tax shelter and winding up with the program review out of Privy Council, which threatens a possible 5% to 8% cut over four years for any federal agency.

Ottawa heard from the industry as it never had before. The Canadian Film and Television Production Association gathered members on Parliament Hill in November to meet with government officials and address the issue of protection for the industry.

Still pending are two bills in Ottawa – C53 and C46 – which would establish the division of the ministries of Culture and Industry for years to come. Copyright legislation is caught in the middle, likely to land in the Industry portfolio, say culture industry activists.

Kids tv made headlines. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ launched an anti-violence campaign in April. Last month, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ broadcasters struggled with the dilemma: to pull or not to pull the popular, violent show. Kids programming was also leader in production and merchandising and a prominent user of new software in 1994; Kealy Wilkinson of the Alliance for Children and Television estimates the production investment this year at well over $200 million.

Far from the mouths of babes, the Union of British Columbia Performers was caught up in a heated union battle between the Teamsters and actra-b.c. On Sept. 16, ubcp officially moved over to affiliate with the Teamsters and production sets have since been the sites of ongoing turf wars.

Box office boomed this year, if only with a few select titles that ran out in front. Malofilm, in addition to signing a lucrative, exclusive deal with Samuel Goldwyn, topped the box office winnings with Louis 19 at $1.8 million in French Canada alone.

Alliance Releasing signed with Miramax and New Line, hitting its stride with The Mask ($15.6 million) and Pulp Fiction ($5.6 million).

In distribution news, b.c. got a distributor, Everest Entertainment, in February for the first time since Festival Films bit the dust in 1990.

Rogers Communications announced its intention to buy up Maclean Hunter. Rogers has yet to get approval from the crtc, but in the meantime, the regulatory body ruled that telcos are free to compete in the fiber-optic delivery market. For now, telcos can test market video-on-demand alongside cablers, but are awaiting the go-ahead to get into distribution and packaging.

Broadcasters made international acquisitions, such as CanWest Communications adding a 50% interest in La Red Television Network in Chile to its broadcasting stable, and producers tackled new foreign markets like the inaugural mip-asia.

So much more, so little space.É

Looking ahead to 1995, the year is already packed with expectations. How will the specialty channels perform? Will the telcos become an instrumental part of the production industry? And what place will cd-rom, interactive games and other new media take in the industry? A mystery today, news tomorrow.

In this year-end report we take a look at how a cross-section of industry players charted a course through the turbulent film and tv waters in 1994.

The following articles were written by second-year media writing students in Ryerson Polytechnic University’s Radio and Television Arts program.