No one is predicting a banner year, but the industry in the Prairies is optimistic about the pending season despite bleak production forecasts elsewhere for 2008.

The service sectors in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been slimmed down by the floundering greenback and the unresolved Writers Guild of America strike. They are bracing for another potential strike by the Screen Actors Guild this spring, but plan to keep starvation at bay with slates that include indigenous productions and international copros.

Savvy film commissions are also trying to beef up tempting tax incentives.

‘The 2008 production season is starting off with a bang,’ says Tina Alford, locations manager at Alberta Film. Volume is up as compared to the same time last year, she says, fueled by a combination of both domestic and service work.

Tom Cox at Calgary’s Seven24 Films believes that U.S. projects will still shoot in Alberta, but concedes that indigenous production is his company’s bread and butter.

‘We have decent incentives, incredible locations, strong crews and great infrastructure, so when the project makes sense, the Americans are still coming here,’ says Cox. ‘We make production easy for our American partners, and that counts for a lot.’

Provincial public relations aside, Cox underlines that producing TV for Canadian broadcasters – such as season two of Heartland for CBC – is key to survive. ‘I wouldn’t want to be a service producer in these days,’ he says.

SaskFilm CEO Susanne Bell says Saskatchewan is also getting an early start to activity this year.

‘Inquiries are up right now,’ Bell says. ‘We are getting calls earlier than usual this year from the U.S. and other parts of Canada. As of yet we haven’t felt any effects [from the surging loonie]. The Americans I am talking to say that with the tax credit, the locations, the cost effectiveness of shooting here and [Regina’s Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios], together it still makes sense to come here.’

Saskatchewan saw about $60 million in production volume for 2007, tracking at around the same level as the previous year, adds Bell, with a combination of both indigenous and service work making up this activity. The province offers producers tax credits equaling up to 55% of eligible labor costs.

Meanwhile, Regina-based Minds Eye Entertainment is focusing on feature films (budgeted at $3 million to $9 million) – funded by international private equity, presales and tax credits – to weather the loonie crunch and increased competition for federal financing.

‘We have gone the international financing route of late, as it’s too much of a long haul to wait in line for Telefilm equity financing,’ says Minds Eye head Kevin DeWalt, who is currently in post on the $7.3-million France copro thriller Walled In, starring Mischa Barton.

Manitoba is coming off a busy 2007, with production activity of around $120 million. Manitoba Film and Sound CEO Carole Vivier attributes the busy year to increased domestic production, and is cautiously optimistic about 2008.

‘Going into the spring it is looking good, but like everyone else, we are watching the dollar and the writers and perhaps the actors strikes, which will have an impact,’ she says.

Vivier also tells Playback that a tax credit advisory committee has submitted a proposal to the Manitoba government recommending additional incentives to the labor-based tax credit, which already offers up to 55% in rebates, like Saskatchewan. She declined to elaborate on details until they’re official.

Manitoba’s government has also boosted its MFS equity investment program (EIP) by $500,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning in March. Last fiscal, $1.54 million was available in the EIP program, and MFS is currently working out the total budget for ’08/09.

Winnipeg’s Phyllis Laing says her Buffalo Gal Pictures also has a diversified strategy in its three-feature slate (including one service project and two international copros) and is currently shooting Gold Circle Films’ Chilled in Miami, a romantic comedy starring Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr., which wraps Feb. 28.

‘My feeling is that there is going to be a lot of production activity before May [when a SAG strike may begin], as everyone is trying to get their projects shot before this time,’ says Laing.