Foreign location shooting in B.C. may have taken a major hit last year, but that was partially offset by skyrocketing domestic production.

According to statistics released last month by the B.C. Film Commission, the volume of service shoots in 2007 plunged 44% to $536 million, affected by the surging loonie, the Writers Guild of America strike and growing competition from tax incentives in U.S. states such as New Mexico. Meanwhile, indigenous activity leapt 47% to $407 million, for a total of $943 million in overall production, representing a 23% drop from 2006.

‘Domestic production had a fantastic year,’ says B.C. film commissioner Susan Croome, accentuating the positive.

Richard Brownsey, president and CEO of B.C. Film, believes that the domestic surge is indicative of an industry trend in the province.

‘The domestic industry has been growing consistently over the past five years,’ Brownsey notes. ‘Last year’s numbers are a reflection of the number of entrepreneurial companies who have consistently grown and continue to mature. I remain optimistic for B.C. companies in the year ahead.’

CBC’s recent cancellation of two B.C.-produced series will knock millions off the 2008 domestic production tally, as both Douglas Coupland’s jPod, from No Equal Entertainment, and Haddock Entertainment’s Intelligence were discontinued.

Nonetheless, other local companies such as Insight Film Studios and Paperny Films had record-breaking years in ’07, while steady companies including Omni Film Productions and Brightlight Pictures also grew.

Insight is on a steep upward trajectory, with $177 million in production volume in fiscal 2007, up from $120 million the previous outing.

‘2007 was Insight’s best year yet, and the fourth consecutive year of production volume growth, up 48% over last year,’ says Insight head Kirk Shaw.

With 140 full-time staff and more than 300 contracted employees, Insight made 40 productions in 2007 (including two series, 22 MOWs, seven indie feature films, two factual/reality series, one doc and one variety special) and has emerged as Canada’s largest independent prodco, marking a first for a West Coast company.

Shaw predicts this will be another strong year for Insight. ‘We already have 32 movies on tap, and we’re shooting 12 in the next 60 days. We’ve also just wrapped producing a real rarity for the Canadian production industry – a sitcom (Under One Roof, starring Flavor Flav). This opens up a whole new business for us. We’re going to expand, we’re going to learn how to move from a small company to a bigger company, and that’s an education for us.’

Meanwhile, Paperny Films president David Paperny is equally stoked. ‘We had the best year ever in ’07,’ he says. ‘It was a huge breakthrough year for us – all our shows were really well-received – bona fide successes, like The Week the Women Went, which [neared] a million viewers,’ for CBC.

Paperny spent $12 million on projects last year, doubled office space and staff (to 24), and is building a pool of contractors from across Canada, inking approximately 700 deal memos.

The Paperny slate includes Glutton for Punishment (Food Network Canada and picked up by UKTV Food), Jetstream (Discovery Canada), Crash Test Mommy (Slice) and Road Hockey Rumble 2 (OLN).

Omni is also in growth mode. As Robson Arms season three premieres on CTV on April 28, more scripts are in the works for season four, although ‘an official renewal decision won’t be made until after several episodes have been premiered,’ says producer Brian Hamilton.

On the scripted drama and comedy front, Omni has six projects in development with CBC, CTV and The Comedy Network. These include an MOW written by Ian Weir that follows up Omni’s Dragon Boys miniseries, and a comedy series written by Paul Mather called Go for Bronze.

Omni’s lifestyle division is also busy, with three series in production or post (for HGTV, W Network and OLN) and a fourth series about to begin shooting for HGTV. On the factual series front, Omni has new series System Crash just starting production, and another in development with Canwest, in addition to two documentaries (one for CTV, the other for CBC).

Meanwhile, Brightlight Pictures co-president Shawn Williamson confirms that Brightlight’s $20-million Global action series The Guard – a coproduction with Halifax Film’s Charles Bishop and Michael Donovan and shot in Squamish – has been picked up for another season.

Williamson, however, feels the local business still has room to grow.

‘We need more creative entrepreneurs – that’s what we’re missing,’ he says. ‘We must be more sophisticated. Our company is surviving well, but we’re part of only a handful in town who can finance and sell. Key is that we have to make a product that will sell internationally. This is a bottom-line business. If you actually produce [your own shows], you will be fine.’

The producer says more projects are in Brightlight’s pipeline. ‘We’re working on more features, some with Fox – two shows are waiting for the green light,’ he says.

Williamson also stresses that his company will shoot the films where it makes the best financial sense for the project.

‘As producers, we need to adapt to the changing landscape. Look, we’re Vancouver, BC-based, this is our home, but as producers, we need to shoot where it makes sense for us to shoot.’

Brightlight just finished shooting Fifty Dead Men Walking in Ireland, and is also about to head for Australia to shoot the Aussie/Singapore/Canada copro Stormworld.

‘We’re diversifying where we shoot,’ Williamson explains. ‘I’d much rather stay home, but our experience in Belfast was fantastic. They aren’t where we are [with infrastructure], but you still can do everything you need to there.’

Shaw echoes the notion that prodcos shouldn’t shy away from looking outside the province. ‘We don’t rely on one model. Be entrepreneurial. Seek out coproduction partners. In fact, we are currently producing our first Australia movie, Malibu Shark, as a copro.

‘Producing in Australia allowed Insight to meet the budget and currency concerns of this made-for-TV movie – a project that otherwise may well have been canceled,’ Shaw continues. ‘Although on the surface shooting in Australia may not appear to be a direct benefit for the B.C. industry, the relationships established are already working toward bringing copro opportunities to B.C.’