It certainly wasn’t the best of times. But it wasn’t the worst of times either. It could have been so much worse.

At $1.306 billion, independent production and development in Canada was down about 7.5% in 2008 compared to 2007’s $1.41 billion, according to Playback’s annual survey of Canadian independent producers’ spending (see chart, p. 22). And, it was certainly off the lofty high experienced in 2006, when Canada’s production and development totals hit $1.52 billion.

But, for all the strikes down south, a dollar with delusions of grandeur, and a nose-diving U.S. economy that gave advertisers and buyers the heebie-jeebies, the industry again showed characteristic creativity and resourcefulness in mitigating the damages, adapting and then just getting down to business.

In total, domestic production spending was down from $1.384 billion to $1.28 billion. Development stayed roughly the same at over $26 million.

The sectors experiencing the greatest losses year-over-year were animation (down roughly $54 million), drama (off about $45 million), and features (down just under $40 million). Offsetting some of that damage was growth in kids live action (up about $15 million), comedy (up over $11 million) and magazine/lifestyle/reality (up over $9 million).

Numbers such as those suggest the industry experienced losses in labor-intensive production in 2008, while it made gains in sectors requiring fewer or smaller crews, and much less capital investment. (Note the toll on the service industry.) So, while totals show overall declines, they likely don’t fully reflect the total number of hours lost for skilled crews.

It should also be noted that gains were made in sectors often not as friendly to international distribution, which will impact revenues down the road. Will that limited sales potential be offset by greater production volume in those genres? Only time will tell. The industry was forced to shift gears in 2008, and it will take some time to judge the impact.

As noted, one sector particularly hurting last year was the service industry. It’s difficult to judge the overall impact of the downturn on Canadian service as a whole due to regional disparities. While many players in B.C. managed to adapt and flourish, much the rest of the country wasn’t as fortunate. (Or, is that adaptable?)

The numbers show evidence of huge disparities year-over-year. For example, while Toronto’s Don Carmody Productions shot up from $70 million in service in 2007 to $102 million in 2008, Montreal’s Muse Entertainment dropped from over $60 million in service alone to $300,000 in that same time frame. (That’s not a typo.) Good thing Muse focused on its own content last year to more than make up that difference.

Notable players

When it comes to individual companies on this year’s list, some of the biggest stories are the might-have-been’s.

While newcomer E1 Entertainment managed to debut at second place (where it would have landed last year had constituent companies Barna-Alper and Blueprint – acquired by E1 last fall – been added together), E1 would have loomed largest on the listing if the reverse-takeover deal with DHX Media (umbrella company for Decode Entertainment, Halifax Film and Studio B Productions) had not been scuttled at the end of last year. The production-monster-that-could-have-been would have weighed in at around $185 million – far larger than Insight Film Studios’ current $127 million slate.

(Vancouver’s Insight has also readjusted in the face of the economy, and isn’t likely to shoot anywhere near 2007’s $178 million again in the short term.)

Interestingly, if DHX was taken as a whole rather than in its three pieces, it would nudge E1 into third place in the listings. The three DHX companies spent just under $95 million in production and development last year, compared to E1’s $94 million.

Special kudos should go out to Regina’s Minds Eye Entertainment, which jumped from $7.5 million in production in 2007 to $33.5 million last year on a much-expanded feature slate. Minds Eye CEO/producer Kevin DeWalt says the change was the result of an intentional effort to migrate the company away from an increasingly consolidated television market and towards the greater stability afforded by features. DeWalt, whose company racked up countless awards for such TV projects as Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, says they ‘saw the writing on the wall for television. Miniseries, especially historical miniseries, were not going to be a priority.’

That prodded the company towards a five-feature slate in 2008. Moving forward, look for Minds Eye to produce two or three significant film efforts per year, with budgets in the $5 million to $15 million range. (Or higher, depending on partners and other factors.) Perhaps a glimpse as to where the company is headed might be offered by the recently wrapped Lullaby for Pi, a feature which attracted the participation of Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker.

In Montreal, Incendo Productions experienced a similarly significant jump in production, ringing in $42 million in production last year over 2007’s $20 million tab. Incendo has carved out a successful, recession-proof niche for itself, focusing specifically on what it says its international and domestic buyers are asking for – mystery/thriller TV movies aimed at female viewers. It’s a reliable audience Incendo Media president Stephen Greenberg describes as one he ‘can define and quantify,’ and that’s a good thing in this economic climate.

Incendo has two series and five TV movies on the slate for 2010, and suggests it may be looking to expand in the near future through the acquisition of libraries.

Toronto’s Copperheart Entertainment also saw significant growth ($18.1 million to $29 million), based largely on big-screen projects – though perhaps Copperheart’s real claim to fame last year was the amount of press and clamour it caused with its Young People Fucking.

While Calgary’s Seven24 Films and Toronto’s Temple Street Productions made the top 20 in production spend, the coming year will be more challenging, as both fell victim to the CBC cuts – Seven24 lost Wild Roses (though Heartland remains a constant performer), and fewer eps of Temple Street’s Being Erica are on order.

Most consider Temple Street a significant up-and-coming player, as might be further evidenced by the company’s recent appointment of Kerry Appleyard as its new head of development, drama. Appleyard comes to the company with a notable track record in British television drama, including work on the BAFTA award-winning police drama The Bill, and the BBC’s highest-rated kids drama of 2007, M.I.High.