The spirit of friendly co-operation that helped build the West is today fueling the rapidly expanding production industries in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Mark Prasuhn, who recently moved from Ontario to become general manager of Saskfilm, says the co-operative nature of the Saskatchewan film industry is one of its greatest strengths. And it’s not only producers, but government and broadcasters who are sharing this co-operative spirit. The results, he says, are now starting to pay off by creating a high degree of stability in the industry.

Stephen Onda, president of Heartland Motion Pictures in Regina, explains: ‘Saskatchewan producers haven’t had a rich government or industrial base of clients. We also live in a very sparsely populated province with a small broadcast market, so we’ve always known that we would have to work with others. As a result, we’ve evolved into a very co-operative community.’

Onda cites as an example Heartland’s recent production of Guitarman, a $2.2 million television movie that brought on board Kevin DeWalt of Minds Eye Pictures as executive producer, Gail Tilson of Independent Moving Pictures as associate producer and Don Copeman from Camera West Film Associates as production manager. ‘We have no choice but to co-operate on a large project, we all need each other,’ he says.

That outward attitude extends beyond just helping one another on productions. Saskatchewan producers also have had to develop licensing arrangements well beyond the borders of their own province.

Says Onda: ‘From word go, we’ve all been thinking about how to sell our product and how to create product that will sell beyond Saskatchewan. This has now become an advantage to us because we already know how to function in a coproduction environment.’

Prasuhn agrees. ‘Producers here are highly entrepreneurial. There’s a real understanding about making productions that succeed in the marketplace that in some ways exceeds the experience base of the industry. They’re further along than you would expect given their level of output so far, and I think that is in large part due to the amount of cross-fertilization that has occurred.’

Carole Vivier, general manager and film commissioner of the Cultural Industries Office in Winnipeg, reports a similar trend emerging in Manitoba, one that she believes has been catalyzed by the creation of the Prairie Initiative, a program aimed at producing six low-budget dramatic features. Conceived by producer Derek Mazur, president of Credo Group in Winnipeg, these films, also known as ‘the Prairie six pack,’ are being produced over three years by emerging producers, directors and writers from across the three Prairie provinces in a coproduction arrangement that has Mazur and his company acting as executive producer.

Says Vivier: ‘The Prairies are starting to see themselves as a joint voice even though we all have our own independence. In the bigger scheme of things, they recognize they have a shared voice that speaks louder when spoken together.’

Eighteen months into the program, Credo has now completed its first film under the initiative, Rich and Strange, in coproduction with Glynis Whiting and Arvi Liimatainen of Edmonton.

Next on the boards is a film entitled Playboy, scheduled to go before the cameras by April 1. Based on the play Playboy of the Western World, this quirky, dramatic comedy will be coproduced with Gordon McLennan of Regina. Three other productions have already been selected: Till Death Do Us Part, to be coproduced by Richard O’Brien Moran of Winnipeg; Beautiful Lake Winnipeg with coproducer Ken Rodeck and Phyllis Laing; and Yuletide Blues with Cinepost Productions of Saskatoon. The search is currently underway for a sixth film from Alberta to complete the six pack.

As testimony to the impact of the program, Mazur says there are already further coproductions being spawned between the provinces that grew out of ideas submitted for the six pack, but for various reasons just didn’t fit into the program.

Mazur says the Prairie Initiative ‘has been very difficult to do on a triprovince basis, but I do think it will become a model for interprovincial coproductions between two provinces.’

The difficulties, he says, stem from the provinces having their own, often conflicting, needs and agendas in addition to having to deal with four separate government agencies.

Although Credo has been in existence for over 19 years as a production company, it is only within the last four years that it has moved from commercial and industrial into dramatic production to emerge as the province’s major producer.

Besides coproductions with other provinces, Credo has also been looking south of the border. Last year, in a coproduction with Sojourn Pictures of Vancouver and Atlantis Films of Toronto, Credo produced Heads, an mow for Showtime in the u.s. and First Choice in Canada. In another coproduction with Atlantis, it produced the mow Harvest for Family Channel in the u.s. and the CTV Television Network here.

And while some companies like Credo have been successful in starting to wean themselves from public funding – Mazur says only two of its last six productions have relied on Telefilm Canada for financing – most Manitoba and Saskatchewan producers insist what is really needed to encourage more private investment is some form of provincial tax incentive or rebate program.

To this end, preliminary studies have been conducted in Manitoba, while in Saskatchewan, a tax incentive program figures prominently in a new five-year strategic plan prepared by the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association.

As for the likelihood of such a program being passed by the Saskatchewan government, Prasuhn is guarded. ‘The government is likely to support initiatives that link the industry more closely to private industry financing, but on the other hand, it does cost the government money, which is difficult in this kind of economic climate. Still, I think it has a reasonably good chance of success although it’s still early in the process.’

Other issues addressed by the strategic plan include the renewal of Saskfilm (whose funding expires at the end of March) and enhancement of its equity investment funds; a renewal of the government-supported scn and an increase of its overall expenditures on licence fees as well as more professional development programs for industry personnel.

Prasuhn would also like to work more directly with producers in Saskatchewan to target corporate business plans. This, he says, would be aimed at giving production companies a clear sense of direction and reducing their reliance on government funding.

‘Clearly the example of major eastern Canadian companies like Alliance and Paragon becoming public and going to the private sector to find their financing is a model that we would eventually like to see happen here too,’ says Prasuhn. ‘But we’ll definitely need the support structures like tax incentives to make that transition.’

So far, most of the major Saskatchewan production companies like Minds Eye Pictures, Heartland, Film Crew Productions, Cinepost Productions, Camera West Film Associates and Birdsong Communications have been able to make it through the critical five-year mark, the point at which a small company’s survival rate improves significantly. Onda says these companies have been able to survive because they each have some form of ongoing non-dramatic television series that gives the company some kind of stability as it also starts to pursue more dramatic production.

Onda cites as evidence recent published statistics on the Saskatchewan production industry. In 1991, the gross industry was $6.5 million, in 1992 it had risen to $8 million, and for 1993 $12 million is being projected. And that, he says, ‘is remarkable given these years have been some of the worst economic times we have seen. So it certainly proves Saskatchewan producers can work under adversity and still thrive.’

Producers from both provinces, however, agree the big challenge remaining for the Prairie production industry is to maintain a steady stream of production. ‘We need that to continue to develop our local crew base so they don’t leave the province,’ says Mazur. He adds: ‘But I think we’ve proven quality production can be done anywhere in Canada.