CANADA

Melanie Scrofano as Wynonna Earp (left) and Katherine Barrell as Ofcer Nicole Haught in a season-four episode of Wynonna Earp. Photo: Michelle Faye/Wynonna Earp Productions Inc./SyFy

BACK IN ACTION

WITH A LONG HISTORY OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL AID TO ITS HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED PRODUCTION SECTOR, CANADA WAS QUICK TO ENGAGE ITS SUPPORTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE WHEN THE PANDEMIC HIT. AND THE RESULT WAS A QUICK RECOVERY, AS DEBBIE LINCOLN REPORTS

CANADA's audiovisual sector has set the mould for recovery over the past year or so.

For Ontario flm commissioner Justin Cutler: “In many ways the flm and TV industry has been operating under a new normal for quite some time now.” It’s true to say that national and international flmmakers have stampeded back to work in a country that has a long and stellar history of flmmaking talent — in front of, and behind, the camera, in the support industries and with an enthusiastic back-up from local and national governmental and non-governmental bodies.

And the fgures back this up. The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) reported that in 2020 total flm and television production volume reached more than C$9.bn, contributed C$12.2bn to GDP and created some 244,500 jobs.

Teleflm Canada, whose remit is to fnance, develop and promote the country’s audiovisual industry, reports similarly positive progress.

“Our industry was hit hard due to the shutdown of flming at the beginning of the pandemic and the closure of theatres at various times over the past two years,” executive director and CEO, Teleflm Canada, Christa Dickenson says. “During that time, Teleflm and the industry didn’t give up. The government disbursed emergency support funds as well as the Short-Term Compensation Fund to help the industry. And we did not stop there. We updated and doubled our Development Program funding for fscal year 2020-2021. Teleflm redirected funds during the pandemic to support all projects submitted to the Development Program. Great projects were being developed and we will see the results of it in the coming years.”

A strong, established infrastructure provided the foundation for recovery across the country, with Ontario a strong case in point. “In 2021, Ontario reported its highest production levels to date, with 394 productions bringing in C$2.88bn in production spending for the economy. These numbers represent over 48,000 full-time equivalent direct and spin-of jobs,” Cutler says. This success can be put down to a variety of flm-friendly locations, alongside ongoing studio-space expansion, a diverse talent pool and “robust health and safety protocols”.

The province was of to a fying start from the beginning of 2022, with 38 projects under way, including Flint Strong, directed by Rachel Morrison (Oscar-nominated for cinematography on 2018’s Black Panther) and written by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight/2018). The true story is about 17-year-old Claressa Shields, from Flint, Michigan, who achieved an Olympic gold medal in boxing at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. As well as the high levels of feature-flm production Cutler says that there are “record levels of project scouting under way”.

TV is also a powerful driver of activity in Ontario. The majority of projects flming in the province in the early part of 2020 were episodic dramas, including: the fourth season of superhero series Titans (Warner Bros.); Sort Of (CBC), featuring gender-fuid millennial Sabi who struggles to reconcile her job as a bartender in an LGBTQ bar and being the youngest child in a large Pakistani family; the ffth series of The Handmaid’s Tale (MGM/Take 5), continuing the terrifying vision of a future state; the third season of Pretty Hard Cases (CBC), featuring the comically tetchy police-detective duo who struggle to balance work and personal lives; and the pilot for Gotham Nights (Warner Bros.), a muchanticipated slice of life in the dark city of DC comics.

Calgary, Alberta, showed extraordinary resilience in the face of the pandemic. CHCH-DT/SyFy series Wynonna Earp was among the frst television series to restart production in North America and was certainly the frst out of the gate in Alberta since the pandemic took hold. While the producers behind the western horror television series went “above and beyond” to keep people safe while flming the fnal six episodes of season four, the Calgary Film Commission also took bold steps to ensure the length of the shutdown was as short as possible and that all who work on a flm set in Alberta are safe.

On March 13, 2020, when the world shut down due to the pandemic, the Wynonna Earp cast and crew were about to take a week-long hiatus after fnishing the frst six episodes of the fourth season. The Calgary Film Commission worked with the production, city and province to determine how to get the series back into safe production as quickly as possible.

“The frst thing the Commission did was to work with the management of the Calgary Film Centre, where the series was based, and the series’ production management, to negotiate a rent abatement agreement until production could resume — along with an extension of the lease to account for the duration of the shutdown,” flm commissioner at Calgary Economic

Development, Luke Azevedo, says.

The Commission also researched public health orders at all levels of government, assessed current levels of health and safety requirements for the motion picture industry and collaborated with government, funding agencies and jurisdictions across Canada on protocols for COVID-19 health and safety.

And the Commission kept up correspondence with Alberta Health Services, the government of Alberta, the Wynonna Earp production team and the Calgary Film Centre, on all issues related to health, safety and hygiene. “We also worked closely with the City of Calgary to allow the production access to locations around the city in a safe manner,” Azevedo says. “And we worked with the Rapid Testing Program at Calgary Airport. Alberta was the only jurisdiction to test the pilot programme, giving Wynonna Earp the ability to bring international talent and crew back to fnish the season without lengthy quarantine."

The cult series took advantage of the local landscapes to create a distinctive visual style, as well as making the most of the full package of enticements on ofer in Alberta. Emily Andras, creator and executive producer of the hit series says: “I really don’t think we could make the show anywhere else but Calgary.”

Other recent productions in Alberta include Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), which began shooting in Calgary July 2019 and wrapped in 68 days — flming at historic Lougheed House in Calgary, the Turner Valley Gas Plant, downtown Drumheller, the Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod and the Bleriot Ferry which crosses the Red Deer River. Land (2021), Robin Wright’s feature directorial debut, flmed over 29 days in Alberta, largely on Moose Mountain in Kananaskis County.

For Let Him Go (2020), starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, locations throughout the province stood in for North Dakota and Montana, including Fort Macleod, Calgary, Didsbury and Drumheller. Disney’s Togo (2019), starring Willem Defoe, which tells the heroic true-life story of a sled dog and handler

IN 2021, ONTARIO REPORTED ITS

HIGHEST PRODUCTION LEVELS TO DATE

JUSTIN CUTLER

The set of Nightmare Alley’s carnival on Markham Fairgrounds in Ontario which was exposed to the elements during the flming lockdown. Pictured are director Guillermo del Toro, producer J Miles Dale, actors Rooney Mara and Bradley Cooper

distributing diphtheria antitoxin in 1925, shot entirely in Alberta.

And the pro-active work carried out by the Calgary Film Commission and others during the pandemic, has helped to maintain and grown the industry in Alberta. Production activity in 2020 was $482m, jumping to $522m in 2021 and forecast to be at $550m in 2022.

Some of these macro attempts to combat the efects of COVID on the industry are groundbreaking and industries around the world will hopefully share strategies in the coming months and years, keeping them in place for future such crisess.

But there were specifc, of-the-moment measures too, that needed to be taken when COVID hit.

On Guillermo del Toro’s latest movie Nightmare Alley (2021), for Disney and Searchlight Pictures, production stopped abruptly, shortly after breaking for lunch, for what in the early days of COVID was hoped to be a few weeks. But the break grew closer to nine months, after which there was a cautious return to flming. Del Toro speaks specifcally of a scene involving a lie-detector session where the questions and reactions, in close-up, were shot months apart.

Del Toro has shot a number of flms in Canada — specifcally Toronto and Hamilton — including Pacifc Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017), nominated for 13 Oscars and winning four, including Best Film and Best Director, as well as a BAFTA for Best Director. He also shot TV series The Strain (2014-17) and upcoming horror anthology TV series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities in and around Toronto.

For Nightmare Alley, del Toro again chose Ontario for part of the flming, with help and support from the flm commission. A tale of moral decline, set in late 1930s/1940s America, it’s a darkly psychological flm. And as always for del Toro, production design and location is key. A lot of the action takes place against the backdrop and characters of a traveling fair and elements of an original period-specifc carnival were unearthed and erected on Markham Fairgrounds, outside Toronto.

Del Toro says: “We built the carnival in a real place, in an exterior, because we wanted the weather to afect the tarps, the poles, the banners, the steam… We rigged the entire carnival extension with heating and steam systems to keep the ground full of mud and vapours and we researched every single prop that appeared in the flm — prizes, popcorn bags, cooking utensils, vending machines.”

When COVID struck and the production closed down, the carnival was left in the feld weathering naturally. One small and rare beneft that arose from a pandemic shut-down.

Film commissions across Canada have reported robust activity despite the challenges of 2020-2021. As one of the busiest flmmaking areas of Canada, British Columbia’s production industry in 2019/20 is estimated by Creative BC to have reached C$3.6bn and 411 productions, based on direct tax-credit application. Films made in British Columbia in 2021 include: Amblin’s Easter Sunday, Fox Searchlight’s Fresh, Disney’s Peter Pan And Wendy and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2, among others.

TV series shot recently in British Columbia include: two seasons each of Batwoman, Nancy Drew and Superman & Lois; the third season of Charmed; the sixth seasons of DC Legends Of Tomorrow and Super Girl; the second season of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist; and the list goes on.

In the Northwest Territories, recent location shoots include Alone Across The Arctic (2019) and Red Snow (2019); and documentaries Food For The Rest Of Us (2021); Salvage (2019); and Aurora Love (2019). Manitoba has seen a busy shooting schedule for the last year including Lionsgate’s Ordinary Angels; Bufalo Gal’s Unspoken; Hallmark’s ’Tis The Season To Be Merry; and Crashing Through The Snow.

Recent productions in Nova Scotia include TV series Washington Black; The Sinner (2017-21); Moonshine (2021-); Chapelwaite (2021-); and feature flms The Lighthouse (2019); The Good House (2021); and Books of Blood (2020).

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR PRODUCTION

CANADAhas a long history of state and private aid and incentives to the production industry, based primarily on the fact that its neighbour, with whom it shares a language — the US — is the world’s biggest exporter of flms and television. Among the many public and private funds available to producers in Canada is a wide range of local incentive schemes.

In British Columbia the Film Incentive BC (FIBC) — up to 35% — provides refundable tax credits to Canadian-controlled production companies based on eligible British Columbia labour costs. The programme includes six initiatives with diferent percentages: Basic; Regional; Distant Location Regional Training; Digital Animation; VFX and Post-Production (DAVE); and Scriptwriting. The British Columbia Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC), meanwhile, is not subject to any Canadian content requirements. In addition, there is no limit on the PSTC that may be claimed on a particular production and there is no limit that a corporation or group of corporations can claim. This programme includes four initiatives: Basic (28%); Regional; Distant Location; and Digital Animation, Visual Efects and PostProduction (DAVE).

Alberta runs the Film and Television Tax Credit (FTTC), launched in January 2020, which ofers a refundable Alberta tax-credit certifcate on eligible Alberta production and labour costs to producers of flms, TV series and other eligible screenbased productions in the province, for either a 22% or 30% tax credit rate, with a minimum total production budget of C$500,000 on new productions. In addition, there is the Alberta Media Fund, for possible grants and support to Alberta flmmakers.

Yukon, in the northwest of the country, has a development fund available for projects with an economic beneft to the territory. New Yukon media-fund programmes include a Pre-development Fund; Development Fund; Media Production Fund; and Training Fund. Next door, the Northwest Territories (NWT) ofers fnancial incentives to productions flming on location. The programme categories include 25%-40% cash rebate for the purchase of goods and services; travel to and within the NWT; and wages for training and hiring local residents, particularly in flm-industry positions. To encourage production across the region, the programme also provides an increased incentive of 15% for productions flming outside the territory’s capital, Yellowknife.

The vast Nunavut territory across the north of the country provides a complex range of available funds, particularly for residents, including: Story Telling Fund (in direct response to the COVID pandemic); Entry-Level Film Experience Program; Industry Development and Training Fund; Short Film Fund; Creative Content Development Fund; Nunavut Spend Incentive Program; Market Endowment Program; and the Inuktut Language Incentive Program.

Creative Saskatchewan is the economic development agency for Saskatchewan’s creative industries. Recently, the government there announced an increase from C$2m to C$10m into Creative Saskatchewan’s production programme in the provincial budget, in addition to any federal support gained by a production.

The Manitoba Film and Video Production Tax Credit includes generous incentives including up to 65% with the Cost-of-Salaries Tax Credit (including bonuses) or up to 38% on all eligible Manitoba expenditures with the Cost-ofProduction Tax Credit (including bonus).

The Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit (OFTTC ) is based on eligible Ontario labour expenditures incurred by a qualifying production company and is generally harmonised with the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. The OFTTC is generally calculated as 35% of the eligible Ontario labour expenditures incurred. An enhanced rate of 40% on the frst C$240,000 of qualifying labour expenditure is available for frst-time producers. Productions that are shot in Ontario entirely outside of the Greater Toronto Area, or that have at least fve location days in Ontario (or in the case of a TV series, the number of location days is at least equal to the number of episodes), and at least 85% of the location days in Ontario are outside the GTA, receive a 10% bonus on all Ontario labour expenditures incurred for the production. The OFTTC is calculated as 21.5% of all qualifying production expenditures incurred in Ontario. The Province also provides support to productions shooting in northern Ontario through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

Québec has always welcomed flmmakers, national and international. It ofers 20% cash-back on all expenses; and 16% on labour-based computeraided special efects, animation and chroma-key screen activities, with a minimum total budget of $250,000.

The smaller provinces comprising the eastern seaboard of Canada also ofer incentives, including: Newfoundland and Labrador, which ofers the refundable provincial Corporate Income Tax credit for eligible local flm projects at a rate of 40% of eligible local labour costs, but may not exceed 25% of production costs; Prince Edward Island, with The Prince Edward Island Film Production Fund that provides a rebate of 32-35% of eligible Prince Edward Island expenditures for work completed in Prince Edward Island; Nova Scotia, which has diferent ofers depending on the percentage of ownership of local ownership in the province; and New Brunswick, which runs similar support systems for development and production, depending on local investment.

ACTION ON ECO-RESPONSIBILITY

IN EARLY 2022, Teleflm launched the frst phase of its action plan on eco-responsibility. "We are committed to seeing positive change,” executive director and CEO, Teleflm Canada, Christa Dickenson, says. “We were inspired by the Indigenous practices and their relation to the land and the environment, as well as the progressive work done by industry partners in Canada and around the globe. Moving forward, we will look to: attract partnerships to support and lead research and build capacity across the production and promotion value chain; enhance sustainable and measurable best practices; and evolve Teleflm’s and industry’s practices and commitment to lower carbon and environmental footprint through a science-based approach.” Initiatives from flm commissions include BC’s Reel Green, the Ontario Green Screen programme and Rolling Green in Québec.