Rogers posts loss

Open letter to CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen

It is becoming an annual tradition in this space to crow about the Canadian film business’ accomplishments at the Academy Awards. Last year it was about Denys Arcand’s win for best foreign-language film for Les Invasions barbares, a masterful showcase for both Quebec’s creative talents and crews. The year before it was for the blockbuster musical Chicago, which shot in Toronto.

It helps to be released in English Canada. In a recent Playback online poll asking ‘What should win the Genie Award for best motion picture?’ the big winner was the animated Les Triplettes de Belleville, with 43% of votes. Runners-up were: Being Julia (26%), Love, Sex & Eating the Bones (20%), Mémoires affectives (9%) and Ma vie en cinémascope (2%).

Over the past three years, the relationship between Ontario sound editors and the productions they work on has changed significantly. For a decade, these sound editors had wanted to be hired as individual artists on film and TV projects, and not treated simply as employees of large post firms. Through concessions on their part, they have achieved their wish, and, despite some tough sacrifices, most in the local industry say it has been worth it.

The music scores vying for this year’s Genie Award are as versatile as the films they were created for, with classical approaches competing against French jazz and electronic beats.

When one thinks of cities with top audio post houses, Regina doesn’t usually spring to mind. But then again, nobody would have associated hit comedy productions with the Queen City either, at least not until Corner Gas. And Brent Butt’s smash series about the goofy goings-on in Dog River, SK, entrusts its audio post needs to local shop Talking Dog Studios.

IN the past few years, high tax credits and incentives in the Prairie provinces, coupled with relatively low tax credits in major production centers, have helped regional producers to build film and television industries in Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and Calgary. However, recent tax-credit hikes have made Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia more competitive and may be enough to lure production back to the centers.

Over the last two years, Saskatchewan’s film and television industry has grown significantly, with production volumes up 58% in 2004 over 2003.

Tax-credit hikes in neighboring Ontario, as well as in B.C. and Quebec, may have kept important coproducing partners away from Manitoba, but that problem has possibly been averted by a recent tax-credit hike of 10% in the province.

While other provinces are upping tax credits, some in Alberta’s production community are pushing for different ways of attracting bigger productions.

Toronto: Having sent crews to Costa Rica, Mexico, Rome, Australia and other exotic ports of call for her teen travel series Get Outta Town!, producer Debbie Nightingale is, for her next big project, looking to go somewhere a little less hospitable, and is planning a trip to Afghanistan next summer to shoot the story of newsman Arthur Kent.