Production of one-hour Canadian dramas has declined 62% in three years, says Maureen Parker, executive director, Writers Guild of Canada.

The 2003/04 Licence Fee Program guidelines introduce an evaluation mechanism called ‘Broadcaster Priorities,’ essentially a list of priority programs given extra weight in the oversubscribed selection process. The bonus points associated with the new criteria replace those previously awarded for a program’s ‘Visibly Canadian’ elements.

Thirty years ago, Doug Dales was the new kid on the block. Today he owns several city blocks under the banner of PS Production Services. The equipment supplier boasts a four-acre head facility in Toronto along with offices in Halifax and Vancouver and Prairie centres in Regina and Winnipeg owned in partnership with regional GM Michael Drabot.

Director Atom Egoyan credits PS Production Services with offering him key support, particularly when the acclaimed director was in his early days of making feature films.

It may seem hard to believe, especially for fans of the current Degrassi: The Next Generation, but it was 24 years ago that the Degrassi franchise was born. In 1979, Toronto-based Epitome Pictures, with the support of PS Production Services, first started rolling on The Kids of Degrassi Street, a humorous and touching series about a group of children living in a racially and economically mixed downtown neighborhood.

1972: 22-year-old Doug Dales, who has just finished school and is producing commercials, hears of a Vancouver equipment rental company closing shop and looking to sell its gear. Having been involved in lighting for amateur theatre and fashion shows at his Toronto high school, and having studied film at York University and in England, Dales is determined to be in the film business. He begs and borrows from friends and family to buy the gear for $48,000 and sets up PS Production Services in Toronto.

regional

Regina-based Minds Eye Entertainment has been instrumental in creating and expanding the production industry in Western Canada. The company was founded in 1986 based on a commitment to developing series, docs and feature films out of the Prairie region – and now beyond.

Nazis, the all-purpose villains of moviedom, will be in Paris again this spring when Norman Jewison rolls cameras on The Statement for producer Robert Lantos and Serendipity Point Films.
The $27-million project – backed by Serendipty’s performance envelope from Telefilm Canada, private investment and ‘significant’ funds from Astral Media and Corus Entertaiment – has Michael Caine as a former Nazi collaborator ducking an investigation into his past.

Shoot faster, because there are just two weeks left to enter Moc Docs – the third annual Canada-wide competition for short mockumentaries. Airtime on CBC’s Rough Cuts and a one-year membership to the Canadian Independent Film Caucus will be yours if your phony five-minute doc is among this year’s winners.

Calgary prodco Combustion, in coproduction with Toronto’s 49th Parallel Films, is set to go to camera on a pair of follow-ups to cult hit Ginger Snaps, to be shot in succession at various locations in Edmonton. Ginger Snaps 2 starts shooting Feb. 3 and should wrap mid-March. After a short rest, cast and crew will shoot Ginger Snaps 3, to finish mid-April.

Vancouver: Voted one of the 50 Canadians to watch in 2003 by Macleans magazine in January, writer/producer Chris Haddock has sold the proposed series Street Boss to CBS.
The premise of the one-hour pilot, to be shot during pilot season this March if casting can be arranged to the network’s satisfaction, is about an FBI ‘handler’ who manages, hires, trains and keeps tabs on undercover agents – potentially internationally.

Montreal: Filming goes over 27 days through Feb. 20, most of it after dark, on Erik Canuel’s second feature film, the romantic comedy Nez Rouge.
The film stars Patrick Huard, Michele Barbara Pelletier and Pierre Lebeau and is being produced on a budget of $3.8 million by Jacques Bonin and Claude Veillet of Films Vision 4. Sylvie Pilon and Sylvie Desrosiers are the screenwriters.

Lawrie Rotenberg, president of Charlottetown’s The Talent Group, has a bad feeling about this. First the Asians dropped out, followed by some U.S. broadcasters. He then got the call from a few other TV outfits in the U.K. One by one, the companies he was supposed to meet with at NATPE have canceled.

They don’t call it a merger for legal reasons, but Film Finances Canada and The Completion Guarantors are joining forces this week, leaving Canada with only one production completion bonding company.
Since 9/11 and the financial boondoggles of companies like Enron, the surety category has been in dramatic flux, causing some insurance carriers to cease their participation in the film business.