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MAY/JUNE 2009
$5.00
FILM, VIDEO, INTERNET FILM AND DIGITAL PRODUCTION IN WESTERN CANADA CANADA
Defying Convention Two of the most successful executive producers in television have brought an international cast and four networks to Vancouver for the series Defying Gravity
VISITING RIGHTS Colleen Nystedt is taking set visits to a new level with MovieSet
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30 years of THE BANFF TELEVISION FESTIVAL and a Q+A with MERYL STREEP
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CONTENTS
16 DEFYING CONVENTION Two of the most successful executive producers in television, Grey’s Anatomy’s James Parriott and Desperate Housewives’ Michael Edelstein could see that the best way of making a series about an international space station would be to find international partners. Eventually they worked with Fox Television Studios to put together networks from Britain and Germany and to partner with Canada’s CTV and Vancouver’s Omni Film.
20 BANFF TO THE FUTURE As it celebrates its 30th Anniversary the Banff Television Festival is trying to find a balance between traditional television and new media. While organizers want to keep bringing in producers looking to pitch television ideas to broadcasters, they are also looking for fresh approaches that will encourage people who are aspiring to take content to other platforms.
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PRODUCTION UPDATE
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BITS AND BYTES
10 BEGINNINGS 12 BEHIND THE SCENES 14 QUESTION AND ANSWER 15 EXPERT WITNESS 29 LEGAL BRIEFS 30 FINAL EDIT
24 VISITING RIGHTS Colleen Nystedt was looking for a way to combine her money-raising talent with her producing skills and industry contacts. She found it with MovieSet, an innovative on-line approach to traditional set visits and behind-the-scenes reports. In her diary, she looks back at the founding of the company, its approach to corporate financing and its eventual acceptance by movie producers.
ON THE COVER: DEFYING GRAVITY’S CHRISTINA COX AND LAURA HARRIS AS ZOE BARNES, SHIP GEOLOGIST. ABOVE: LAURA HARRIS AS ZOE BARNES, SHIP GEOLOGIST IN DEFYING GRAVITY. PHOTOGRAPHY: SERGEI BACHLAKOV
REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS A WHOLLY OWNED ENTERPRISE OF REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. IT EXISTS AND IS MANAGED TO PROVIDE PUBLICITY AND ADVERTISING THAT SUPPORTS THE GROWTH OF THE WESTERN CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY. PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER: SANDY P. FLANAGAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: IAN CADDELL. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS: RON HARVEY, PAUL BARTLETT. SALES: RANDY HOLMES. ART DIRECTOR: ANDREW VON ROSEN. PHOTO EDITOR: PHILLIP CHIN. ASST. ART DIRECTOR: LINDSEY ATAYA. REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED SIX TIMES PER YEAR. SUBSCRIPTIONS CANADA/US. $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA). REEL WEST DIGEST, THE DIRECTORY FOR WESTERN CANADA’S FILM, VIDEO AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY, IS PUBLISHED ANNUALLY. SUBSCRIPTION $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO US). BOTH PUBLICATIONS $60.00 (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA) PRICES INCLUDE GST. COPYRIGHT 2009 REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. SECOND CLASS MAIL. REGISTRATION NO. 0584002. ISSN 0831-5388. G.S.T. # R104445218. REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. 101 - 5512 HASTINGS STREET, BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, V5B 1R3. PHONE (604) 451-7335 TOLL FREE: 1-888-291-7335 FAX: (604) 451-7305 EMAIL: INFO@REELWEST.COM URL: WWW.REELWEST.COM. VOLUME 24, ISSUE 2. PRINTED IN CANADA. CANADIAN MAIL PUBLICATION SALES AGREEMENT NUMBER: 40006834. TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 1-888-291-7335 OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.REELWEST.COM. REEL WEST WELCOMES FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS, VIA EMAIL AT EDITORIAL@REELWEST.COM OR BY FAX AT 604-451-7305. ALL CORRESPONDENCE MUST INCLUDE YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, AND DAYTIME TELEPHONE NUMBER.
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PRODUCTION UPDATE
What’s coming. What’s shooting. What’s wrapped.
JOHN CUSACK, SHOWN HERE IN 1408, STARS IN THE UPCOMING HOT TUB TIME MACHINE
Features Returning to BC The feature film is coming back to Vancouver. The devaluing of the US dollar has appeared to have helped and for the first time in several years Vancouver is playing host to several major movies. The much-hyped New Moon episode of the Twilight series and Mordecai, both mentioned previously, have been joined this spring by three additional high profile studio films, Hot Tub Time Machine, Ramona and Beezus and Tron 2. Hot Tub Time Machine stars John Cusack as one of four middle aged men who find themselves drunk in a hot tub talking about their glory days in college. Within minutes they are transported back in time to when they were young rascals. The movie has Mike Nelson as executive producer, Cusack and Grace Loh as producers, Bob Ziembicki as production designer, Brian Parker as production manager, Adrienne Sol as production coordinator and Rino Pace as location manager. Ramona and Beezus is based on the
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children’s books about an adventurous little girl and stars John Corbett and Bridgett Moynahan as her parents. It has Steve Freedman as executive producer, Alison Greenspan producing, Brad Van Aragon as line producer, Elizabeth Allen directing, John Bailey as DOP, Brent Thomas as production designer, Michael Williams as production manager, Neil Robertson as location manager and Rory Cutler as special effects coordinator. Tron 2.0 follows up on the classic film about the adventures of a man who finds himself battling evil forces inside a computer. Jeff Bridges is back and the producers are Sean Bailey, Steven Lisberger, Jeffrey Silver and Justis Greene. The director is Joseph Kosinski, the DOP is Claudia Miranda, the production manager is Heather Meehan, the production coordinator is Jennifer Metcalf, the location manager is Kendrie Upton and Alex Burdett is the special effects coordinator. Several features that are calling Vancouver home this spring are being
made for the DVD market. The list includes the latest installment of a popular series, American Pie: Book of Love, which has Mike Elliott as executive producer, Greg Holstein as producer, Simon Abbott as line producer/production manager, John Putch directing, Ross Berryman as DOP, Tony Devenyi as production designer, Stacey Harris as production coordinator, Jack Veldhuis as location manager and Darren Marcoux as special effects coordinator. It wraps in May after a six week shoot. Horsing around with Flicka 2 are executive producer Janeen Damian, producer Connie Dolphin, director Michael Damian, DOP Ron Stannett, production manager Craig Matheson, production coordinator Judith Swan, location manager Dan Carr and special effects coordinator Bob Comer. Icarus has action star Dolph Lundgren doing double duty as actor and director in a story about an assassin who lives a double life as family man and hit man. Tom Berry, Lisa Hansen and Breanne Hartley are the executive producers with Kirk Shaw and Gordon Yang as producers, John Prince as line producer/production manager, Marc Windon as DOP, Renee Read as production designer, Jim McKeown as production coordinator, Karen Zajac as location manager and Al Benjamin as special effects coordinator. On the Run stars another action star. Stephen Seagal plays a man who is let out of jail after 15 years when it’s discovered that he didn’t commit the crime he was imprisoned for. It has Deboragh Gabler as producer, Keoni Waxman as director, Nathan Wilson as DOP, Troy Hansen as production designer, Eileen Hoeter as production manager, Cathy Fullerton as production coordinator, David Fullerton as
location manager and Tom Blacklock as special effects coordinator. Several pilots were here in April. The list includes Pulling, V and The Vampire Diaries. Pulling has Stacy Traub and Francie Calfo as executive producers, S. Lily Hui producing, Elliott Hagerty directing, Greg Middleton as DOP, Michael Bolton as production designer, Doug Brons as production manager, Carol Schafer as production coordinator, Heather Vedan as location manager and John MacCuspie as special effects coordinator. V has Scott Peters, Jace Hall, Steve Pearlman and Yves Simoneau as executive producers with Kathy Gilroy producing, Simoneau directing, David Franco as DOP, Ian Thomas as production designer, Dennis Swartman as production manager, Clark Candy as production coordinator, Ritch Renaud as location manager and Phil Jones special effects coordinator. The Vampire Diaries has Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, Bob Levy and Leslie Morgenstein as executive producers, Pascal Verschooris as line producer, Marcos Siega directing, Jillian Scott as production designer, Wayne Bennett as production manager, Eva Morgan as production coordinator and Sheri Mayervich as location manager. The mini-series Riverworld is the story of a combat photojournalist who finds himself in a heaven-like world that is home to the entire former population of the planet It has Robert Halmi Sr, Matthew O’Connor, Tom Rowe and Lisa Richardson as executive producers, Michael O’Connor as producer, Stuart Gillard directing, Tom Burstyn as DOP, Michael Joy as production director, Holly Redford as production manager, Lucy MacLeod as production coordinator and Tracey Renyard as location manager.
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BITS AND BYTES Panasonic Introduces Viewfinder Panasonic Canada Inc. recently introduced a new colour viewfinder. According to spokesperson Trell Huether, the AJ-CVF100G incorporates Liquid Crystal On Silicon display technology and a variety of features including a built-in heater for operation in low temperatures. “The AJ-CVF100G far exceeds the performance of competitive models,” said Panasonic’s Terry Horbatiuk. “It will provide cinematographers with exceptional performance and versatility.” He said the viewfinder is designed for operation with Panasonic’s P2 VariCam series including the AJ-HPX3700, AJ-HPX2700, AJ-HPX3000, AJ-HPX2000 P2 HD camcorders, as well as the AJ-HDC27H VariCam and AJHDX900 DVCPRO HD tape based camcorders. Huether said that the by utilizing a one-inch (2.54-cm) diameter imaging system, the AJ-CVF100G delivers cinematographers colour-accurate viewing. “The colour viewfinder delivers low maintenance costs and accommodates larger cine-like lenses. Prevalent in HD projectors and rear-projection televisions, Liquid Crystal On Silicon technology offers fast motion response, excellent resolution, and smooth pixel edges for a natural look and feel. Eliminating the colour wheel used by other technologies, Panasonic’s LCOS viewfinder reduces eyestrain delivering a complete RGB image to the shooter.” Huether said the AJ-CVF100G will be available in the second quarter of 2009.
Jibber Grabs Two YTV”s BC-based animated series, Jibber Jabber, won two awards at the International Family Film Festival Awards in Los Angeles in early March. According to producer Jim Corbett, the show won for Best CGI Animated Short for Race to the Red Planet and Best Director for the show’s co-creator David Bowes. He said another episode of the series, Pride of Frankenstein, was also part of the festival. “We were very pleased that the IFFF selected Race to the Red Planet and Pride of Frankenstein for the festivals public screening and very pleasantly surprised to win an award,” said Bowes. “It truly enforces how much this series has touched all ages from children to adults. Many adults have stated they can relate to the two boys playing in their imagination because this is something they did as kids without all the electronics of today,” Corbett said the show was also nominated for best series for kids at April’s Pulcinella Awards in Positano, Italy.
An Eyeon SWAT A US-based software company, eyeon Software Inc., recently announced a new certification program that it says will ensure that new and established visual artists receive the training and support to realize their full creative potential. A spokesperson said that with the new SoftWare Artist Training (SWAT) umbrella program, the company has expanded its international network of trainers, colleges, online resources, and in-house product support personnel. “We can ensure that every eyeon artist is up-to-speed on the latest versions of all relevant products,” she said. The company launched the new program in Las Vegas in late April. “Artists who are trained rise to the top of their fields,” said Fusion artist Aurore de Blois, who won an Emmy for her work on Battlestar Galactica. “eyeon’s new SWAT team approach to training people worldwide is exactly what visual effects artists need.” The spokesperson said eyeon will send trainers to assist new customers on site to ensure that their artists are able to “transition seamlessly to the new software.” She said the SWAT umbrella “consolidates all of the available training options for eyeon applications through eyeon’s VFXPedia.com resource web site.” Training partners on track to become SWAT-certified include Class-on-Demand, cmiVFX, Digital Tutors, NADS, NYU, Seneca College and Sheridan College among others.
CFC Goes Whistler The Whistler Film Festival has announced that it is working with Telefilm Canada to help launch the Canadian Film Centre’s GO WEST Project Lab, a five-day business and marketplace immersion experience to be held in Whistler June 21-25. Spokesperson Jeanette Miller said the CFC GO WEST Project Lab is open only
Online Festival Underway Western Canadian films were front and centre when the National Screen Institute announced the shorts that will be posted to the NSI site as part of its Online Short Film Festival line-up. The list includes several Vancouver area productions led by Breakdown, directed by John Bolton; Kaleena Kiff’s Paper Fates, Anthony Bertolussi’s Prom Night, Chris and Ryan Mitchell’s Man’s Best Friend, Michael Jacobsen’s Room for Rent, Maayan Cohen’s The Art of Contact,
Zia Marashi’s The Empty Room Club and Kent Robertson’s This is a Woman. Also nominated was Winnipeg’s Fish + Loaf, directed by Bruce Claydon According to a spokesperson, this is the third official selection of films in the NSI Online Short Film Festival. The spokesperson said the A & E Short Filmmakers Award of $2,500 for best film will be announced in early June. She said new films are solicited four times a year and must be no longer than 30 minutes.
to western-Canada-based producers and is intended to “advance a producer’s dramatic feature project, facilitate relationships and collaboration on and investment in film projects” that have US and international appeal. “We are once again excited to showcase the many skills and projects of westernbased producers,” said CFC’s Kathryn Emslie. “The CFC GO WEST Project Lab strives to build strong collaboration between Canadian talent and industry professionals that will create widespread appeal in Canadian and international markets.” According to Telefilm’s Earl Hong Tai, the CFC Go West Project Lab brings the Canadian Film Centre model to Whistler, “providing filmmakers with some of the most valuable industry training, networking and relationship-building opportunities available anywhere.” He said that up to six producers will be invited to participate. Miller said each producer will receive individual and project specific feedback from select sales agents, distributors and other key packaging and market experts in order to help build the producer’s ability to create interest in, funding and marketing strategies for their films.
MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
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29th Annual Genie Awards THANK YOU TO THE 2009 WESTERN NOMINEE RECEPTION SPONSORS
www.genieawards.ca The Genie Award statuette was created by Sorel Etrog. / Le trophée Génie a été conçu par Sorel Etrog.
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BC Companies Win Nominations The biggest winners when the 3rd Annual ELAN Award nominations were announced included many of the world’s most high profile companies, some famous games and award-winning animation. However, mixing with Microsoft’s multi-nominated Gears of War 2 and Disney’s Oscar winning animated film Wall-E, which was the only nominee in the Elan category for Best Feature Animated Production, were western Canadian animation companies and their technical wizards. The Saskatchewan-produced animated series Wapos Bay: The Series, from Wapos Bay Studios and the National Film Board, was nominated for two Elans including Best Animated Television Production and Best Director for an animated series for Dennis Jackson, Melanie Jackson and Cam Lizotte. Also nominated in the best TV production category were Zeke’s Pad, a co-production of Vancouver’s Avrill Stark Entertainment; Bardel Entertainment Inc. and Flying Bark Productions. Zeke’s Pad’s Zoe Evamy and Patricia Atchison were nominated for Best Art Direction of a television production. The list of Best Student Animated Production nominees included Midnight Ballet from the Vancouver Film School, Space Bar from the Comox, BC-based visual effects school Lost Boys Learning and The Booty Bandit and Deguiyu, both from the Centre for Digital Media. The third annual Elan Awards were held in late April at the Pacific Ballroom in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. The host was Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants. MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
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A private film equity funding program was recently launched in Kelowna. According to Tina Baird, the Arrowleaf Fund is a Venture Capital Corporation (VCC) and the first private film equity financing fund program of its kind in Canada. The company’s board of directors includes actor Jason Priestly, who said he believes in the potential of the southern Interior to become a stronger force in BC’s film and TV industry. “The region provides great options for production, and with the success of the fund, the industry is destined to really grow here. It’s a great idea and I’m glad to be a part of it.” The Fund was founded by former Okanagan Film Commissioner Sara Shaak and Brent Bolleman. Shaak said the fund is unique because it is based on participation in a slate of films from a variety of established partners including Brightlight Pictures and Keystone Entertainment. “It works because it’s a win for everyone. Production companies will be able to expand their horizons by producing significantly more projects in the southern Interior, investors get to participate in viable film industry investments anchored by strong production partners, and the communities in our region will see increased economic opportunity.” Baird said the Arrowleaf Fund will invest in a slate of three to five film and television productions this year. She said all of the productions will be fully or partially shot in the southern Interior regions of British Columbia. REEL WEST MAY/JUNE 2009
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Guard Goes South Another western Canadian series has been picked up for distribution in the US. CanWest Global’s Squamishshot search and rescue series The Guard has joined Corner Gas and Da Vinci’s Inquest on the list of series getting an audience south of the border. The series was picked up by Ion Productions. Ion’s chairman says the show and CBC’s The Border will be part of a fall line-up that includes such established shows as NCIS and Criminal Minds. The growing trend also includes the CTV drama The Bridge which has been picked up by CBS. Lullaby Wraps A feature film about a musician who turns into a recluse after his wife’s death recently wrapped in Regina. Lullaby for Pi stars Rupert Friend and Clémence Poésy and was directed by Benoit Phillipon. Reginabased producer Kevin DeWalt said he expects that the film will draw attention for its cast and script. “We have assembled a team of highly experienced professional crew to ensure both the emotional and visual elements of Lullaby for Pi are as appealing as the script is enticing,” he
Delta gets Green A short BC film about an attempt to make a completely environmentally friendly film was selected as the only Canadian contender in Delta Airline’s Fly-In Movies Film Competition. Sam Van Schie, a spokesperson for the movies said the short, entitled The Green Film, was one of five films chosen by programmers of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival from thousands of entries. She said all movies are shown on Delta flights and screened online and that viewers are invited to rate the films. The highest ranked MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
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said. “The production value, unparalleled talent of the cast and quality of the script ensures the film will be an audience favourite.” In the film, Friend plays a promising jazz musician who spends his nights secluded in a hotel room in an attempt to reconcile the death of his beloved wife Josephine (Sarah Wayne) until an unexpected visitor (Poésy) rushes into his room and locks herself in his bathroom. The movie is being produced by DeWalt, Jean-Charles Lévy and Christine Vachon and co-produced by Frédérique Dumas.
short will be featured at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. The Green Film has played worldwide with festival screenings at Filmstock in the United Kingdom and The Victoria Film Festival (Canada). It is also slated for showings at the Houston International Film Festival, The Newport Beach Film Festival, The California Independent Film Festival and the Dawson City International Short Film Festival. The film was directed by Andrew Williamson, written and co-produced by Mark Leiren-Young and produced by Scott Renyard.
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Photograph by Phillip Chin
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Betty Thomas Quee “It was hard enough for two of us to operate Thomas Special Effects and I couldn’t imagine doing it on my own...”
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was born and raised in southern Alberta and moved to Edmonton in 1969 after my father passed away. As a huge Edmonton Eskimo fan I never missed a game. It was the long weekend in September 1977 and a group of us drove to Calgary for the weekend to see the Eskimos play their traditional rivals, the Stampeders. We stayed at the Pacific Palisades where the crew of Superman was staying. My girlfriend and I broke away from the rest of our gang and went into the lounge for a drink. Within a short time our waitress dropped off a couple of drinks that “the gentleman in the corner” had sent over. I turned, smiled and thanked him. That was how I met John Thomas, the man who was about to change my life. When John and I were married on March 17th 1979, I moved to Vancouver to join him. However, within one week he was on his way out of town to start working on Klondike Fever. I drove out to Three Valley Gap to be with him and on the way I realized that unless I joined him in the business, I would never see him. Bud Davis was the stunt coordinator on Klondike Fever and he asked me if I would be interested in stunt doubling for Sharon Lewis in an upcoming sequence that was to be shot on the Fraser River. I was ecstatic. John thought it was a great idea too and he quickly arranged for me to have a custom made wet suit. Everything went very well and I suggested to John that maybe I could become a stunt girl! He thought it was the greatest thing! I had always led a very active life and fitness was never really an issue for me, so I took training and discipline in stride. At the time, there weren’t any female stunt girls in Canada; John and Keith Wardlow used to dress up with wigs to double for females and that was about it. As word got out to the local stunt community, albeit small at the time, I started getting regular stunt work, including numerous jobs on Beachcombers. While I trained, I started a prop making business within Thomas Special Effects since there were no other prop-making services available and the demand was growing. John was the first freelance special effects man in Canada at the time and he wanted to be the best he could possibly be. His dream was to build an infrastructure offering services that, at the time, were only available in Los Angeles. Our first special effects shop was at Panorama Film Studios in West Vancouver. With lots of trial and error, working completely on my own, I started manufacturing breakaway glass and rubber guns and knives in 1979; followed by canvas dummies in 1980. Jimmy Chow and Bill Thumm were my first prop master customers. At the same time, John kept building more and more special effects equipment to fill the growing demand. We made many trips to Los Angeles and were dedicated to building our own business, while helping to build and establish a film industry in BC. Unlike today’s dog eat dog competitive environment, we all worked together and shared a common vision. Justis Greene, BC’s first Film Commissioner, would often bring American producers to our shop to show that the Vancouver film industry’ infrastructure was rapidly expanding. At barely 5’2” and 110 pounds my doubling was limited to children and young adults, so I decided to go to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Sonoma, California and the Russell School of High Performance Driving in Monterey. It was expensive and stressful, but in the end an excellent decision. Behind the wheel of a vehicle, doubling for taller people was no longer an issue. I had been working for many stunt coordinators over the years and when Bud Davis came to coordinate on Malone with Burt Reynolds and Lauren Hutton, he once again gave me the key stunt driving job doubling for Lauren Hutton! It was a huge break in my driving career. John Scott, from Alberta was very supportive over the years and he asked me
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to co-coordinate The Boy Who Could Fly with him. I was also the stunt double for Lucy Deakins, the female lead in all the flying sequences. Shortly after that, John Scott encouraged me to start stunt coordinating and sure enough I got my first job as stunt coordinator for the television movie The Room Upstairs, which had Justis Greene as production manager and Stuart Margolin directing. I was the first female stunt coordinator in Canada. By 1987 my stunt career was moving from performing to an additional amount of coordinating. Prop-making demands were booming so we hired a couple of prop makers and a rental manager to join our team. We were extremely busy, working seven days a week with two and three shows going at the same time, and were constantly fighting to meet a growing demand for additional equipment and production supplies. The year 1987 was bittersweet. In February we bought our current building and in July we sold our first house and bought a piece of paradise in West Vancouver. Sadly, my sweet mother passed away! It was a painful loss. I continued coordinating on countless TV movies and a list of features that included Watchers, Cannonball III, Bird on a Wire (with Mic Rodgers), Leaving Normal, This Boy’s Life, The Crush, and Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog to name a few. John’s list of credits also exploded and soon he had many movies under his belt including Superman, First Blood, Alive, Cliffhanger, Medicine Man, Timecop. We were doing very well and the movie industry in BC was growing by leaps and bounds! It was early 1994 and John had just wrapped Timecop, and I was finishing Yellow Dog with Phil Borsos. We were planning on taking a break for a month or so and went to stay at our house in Whistler. On Sunday night, John had a tremendous headache and I took him to the clinic; after a preliminary check the young doctor told me to rush him to Lions Gate Hospital. When we arrived at the hospital they did a cat scan and we were told that the prognosis was grim. John had a brain tumour and a cist! The surgeons did an emergency operation on March 13th and he had a few great days, but on March 17th, the date of our 15th anniversary, he went into a coma from which he never recovered. On March 22nd at 5:50pm, John Thomas passed away! My world collapsed and the industry was shocked. He was only 46! John’s funeral was huge. About 1000 people attended. Prayers and condolences came from around the world. Producer/director Peter Hyams flew up from LA to speak at John’s memorial. The toughest road was now ahead of me. It was hard enough for two of us to operate Thomas Special Effects and I couldn’t imagine doing it on my own. Taking life one day at a time was the only way I could survive. My family and friends in the movie industry rallied around me and gave me tremendous support. In May, Casey Grant asked me to coordinate Man of the House with Chevy Chase. I can remember doing my interview with the director and producer, who also knew John. We cried together and they helped me make my decision. It was great therapy to work on set surrounded by people who supported me in my loss! In December of 1994 the BC Motion Picture Association presented an award to John and Thomas FX for “Distinguished Achievement Exemplifying Excellence in the BC Motion Picture Industry.” He was also under consideration for an Academy Award nomination for Best Mechanical Special Effects for his work on Alive. He was considered again in 1995 for a Scientific & Technological Advancement for his invention of the “descender.” Had he still been alive, this recognition would have made him very proud of the little company we had built together. I went on to coordinate Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, Fear, Jumanji, and Alaska which meant I wasn’t able to spend much time running Thomas Special Effects. However, the little company was cont. on page 13 11
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Dale Brooks and Perry Shaw
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Great Glass On Set Glass founded by popular demand fter being relentlessly pursued by film industry people who wanted them to open up their own glass company, Dale Brooks and Perry Shaw finally gave in. Eleven years later, On-Set Glass has managed to become one of the most respected service companies in the local film industry. Its success is probably owed to its founders’ backgrounds. Brooks came to On Set after spending more than a decade installing glass and working on film sets while Shaw had worked as a purchasing agent for a large glass company. Brooks says they felt that a combination of on-set and purchasing experience would help them be competitive. “We could see that there was a need and opportunity for another company in the industry and we made a commitment to become one of the best,” he says. When they get the glass to set, their job is to make sure it looks good until it breaks, and when Brooks and Shaw are on set, broken glass follows. They are responsible for installing the glass used by special effects coordinators to ease the concerns of stunt people who fly through glass in the pursuit of perfection. They also supply custom clear auto glass that allows the camera to clearly show the actors inside of the cars. The company has moved from being dependent on a small number of suppliers to finding the best clear glass in the US and Canada from as far away as China and Germany. (They also work with five different distributors throughout North America to provide glass to cars and trucks.) “We have become a top supplier to movie companies for clear auto glass,” he says. “In the early days we bought all our clear auto glass from the U S. We now feel that our dedication to the industry has resulted in the finding of great companies for all our clear auto glass needs.” He says that when the construction departments call the company they often need to “rewrite the book.” “We have not faced a challenge that we could not meet and I think we have built some unbelievable things,” he says. “We
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have a great selection that varies from pattern and architectural stained glass to antique glass but we are always looking for different types of glass.” Brooks says that when the set dec department calls for table tops or shelves they generally need them sooner rather than later. “We can get whatever they need to them the same day most of the time,” he says “We pride ourselves on our service to the industry and we have been told by many coordinators that On Set Glass service is second to none. We also have built many water tanks of varying sizes and with our vast experience and method we always have great success and safe tanks. There is so much we can do and it ranges from supplying auto glass to tempered glass that is cut to any size or thickness, or shower stalls to bent glass, mirrors and sandblasting.” If the product and services are varied the movies and television shows On Set Glass works on are just as diverse .They range from the suspense of Thirteen Ghosts and The Andromeda Strain to the action of Blade or Romeo Must Die and the comedy of Scooby Doo. Brooks sometimes has to jump though hoops to get the job done. For the film Are We Done Yet Brooks had to put clear glass in a number of Cadillac Escalades. He ordered the glass from his supplier overseas and had it flown to the Vancouver airport. It arrived at noon on a Sunday and he had to hire customs officers and shippers and receivers to release it. It was installed that afternoon and the SUVs were ready for set Monday morning. “Another show that stands out for us,” he says, “is Blade. The set was a huge undertaking. There was a lot of glass so we are very proud of that show. We have also moved, on the same sound stages, from that show to Stargate and now to Defying Gravity which tells us that, working with the construction departments, we did it right.” Brooks says that he and Shaw are actively working on a new project, one that will be open for business in the next month or two. ■
Beginnings cont. from pg. 11 thriving. In 1996 the Royal Bank nominated me for Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and I was regional finalist in BC. In 1996 John Woo asked me to coordinate and second unit direct a television pilot called John Woo’s Once a Thief in Vancouver. It was a fabulous project, full of incredible action. John Woo was truly a great director and I learned much from him. In early 1997 the pilot became a series and was scheduled to shoot in Toronto. Peter Marshall was hired to direct and I was brought in to direct the second unit. We were asked to go to Toronto to work on it. It was a big move for me to consider leaving Thomas Special Effects, my two pups, and a brand new house. But it was also an excellent opportunity for me to advance my career as a second unit director. It was yet another first: I was the first female second unit director in Canada. It was also in 1997 that I received an award from the BC Film Commission in recognition of my Contribution in Building the Film and Television Industry in British Columbia. I was gone from April 1st to December 23rd and flew home every three weeks to check on things. I wasn’t happy about the direction in which the company was heading and knew that I would soon have to be at home to effectively oversee the business. Meanwhile, I did a few more projects and got yet another big break when Grace Gilroy asked me to work in Alberta as Stunt Coordinator on The Edge, starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. It was a wonderful project to work on. The cast and crew were terrific and Canmore was a great location. It was during that production that I realized it was time for me to make another big change. I wasn’t getting much juice out of coordinating anymore, so I decided to hang up my spurs. In 1998 I turned down all coordinating and second unit work and put my
focus back into building Thomas Special Effects. I owned a great building and after lots of research, decided to convert one half of it into a green screen sound stage, the first of its kind in Vancouver. With architects, engineers and permits in hand construction began in February and by August 1st the studio was up and running with its first client. The studio did very well in the beginning and was a good addition to my company. Once again the Royal Bank of Canada nominated me for Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, for Impact on Local Economy. I was presented with the prestigious award in November 1998 in a gala affair in Toronto. Shortly after that, I received the Ambassador’s Award from Canada’s Ambassador to the United States in Washington, DC. In 1999 I was presented with the Business Excellence Best Business Award and the Business Excellence Innovation Award, by the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. It was such an honour to have this type of recognition. I worked hard to keep the company going. I made some more changes and hired a General Manager to help with day to day operations. Running a company was a little more complicated than being a stunt coordinator or a second unit director. I muddled through but realized that I was not heading in the right direction so I hired a CEO and partner but he couldn’t generate the growth or results my company urgently needed. It was in 2001 that I met John Quee, a wonderful man who was to become my magic bullet, and my second husband. John had an MBA in international business and was a member of MENSA. He also had a huge entertainment industry background, including a stint with IMAX Systems Corporation where he built and launched the world’s first commercial IMAX Theatre and the world’s first ever profitable IMAX theatre. John had also spent more than cont. on page 28
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QUESTION AND ANSWER
No Doubt About It Streep is the greatest living actress
W
hen film buffs get together, arguments ensue. However, if there is one thing that is seldom argued it is the subject of who is the greatest living movie actress. Meryl Streep’s name dominates any conversation. Katharine Hepburn won four Academy Awards and Streep has won only two but Streep has now lost 10 consecutive Oscar bids. Only Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who both have 12, have even been nominated that many times. Streep has 15 nominations in total, 12 for best actress and three for best supporting actress. Streep isn’t going away any time soon. Although she turns 60 in June her most recent nominations came
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for best actress for 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada and last year’s Doubt. And she had the lead role in the musical Mamma Mia!, the second biggest international hit of 2008, bested by only The Dark Knight with a total of $600 million worldwide. In Prada, she played a diva-like magazine editor and followed it up with the role of Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a nun who is convinced that a parish priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is sexually assaulting a young boy. Doubt is set in 1964 and was adapted by John Patrick Shanley from his Tony Award-winning play of the same name. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in April. Streep talked to Reel West late last year about her devil, her saint and women in film.
What did you see in Doubt the play that made you feel it was worth turning into a movie? “I think that in film there is a power in this paring away of everything but the encounter between human beings. We make snap judgments about each other. Movie characters have been so reductive and the more complicated and contradictory they are the more interesting they are to watch and to play and to recognize as familiar because we are all complicated and we all have a lot going on. I thought it would be very gratifying to see a film contend with the complications of humanity. How mysterious are the ways of men and women. It is so rich this landscape of human beings and their conflict. And I think I was right. There isn’t one area of fat
or indulgence or show-offy directorial flair in the film. It tightens as it goes because it is beautifully plotted.” One of the things that people have remarked on is that the film is somewhat funnier than the play. There is one scene at the beginning of the film that stands out. Sister Beauvier enters the church and the children quake in fear. It’s very funny. Is there a danger in introducing a character humourously if you eventually want the audience to take the character seriously? “In the case of the opening scene John had a very specific thing that he wanted. It was completely thought out. He said ‘you have to bend down and turn and look at the kids’ and I chafe against such intense direction sometimes. It drove me nuts but that
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was his vision because he wanted to set an expectation so the audience can make judgements about her very early on. He wanted to set that up and then complicate it. He wanted to make you trust your first instincts about who she is and what she is so that he could bend that as the film goes along.” She lives in a separate world from the other characters. Was that difficult on set? Did you have to stay in character? “To a certain extent. And it’s interesting because people would say ‘you must be having fun playing this mean woman,’ but it wasn’t fun to be this person. I didn’t stay in character when they yelled ‘cut’ but I couldn’t enter into the fun that has always been the real reason that I make movies. I felt it wouldn’t help the dynamic if I immediately went over and was joking with the other actors. They were always having a party in the corner but I couldn’t join in. It was sort of a lonely position that I staked out for myself but I think it paid off ultimately.” Was it frustrating playing a woman in the 1960s who has the right idea but has no power to be able to change things? “Yes, because Sister Aloysius was contemplating jumping ranks and at that time you were told ‘you can’t do that.’ It’s like the military. John said that he has always been interested in women. He was interested in people who were outside of the power structure because he was an artistic soul. He was interested in women like the nuns, which is half the battle: being interested and seeing through the eyes of others. I was telling my daughters that in 1967 I graduated from high school and I was going to go to college but I would have gone there with the idea of meeting someone that I could get married to and maybe doing a little studying. The professions open to me, and I was smart, were teaching, hairdressing and show business. Not law school. If you read about (US Supreme Court Justice) Sandra Day O’Connor you read about someone who was the only woman in her law class. It was a completely different world and it was not that long ago. My daughter is applying for college this year and the enrolment in the California university system is 60 to 40 women to men.” There have been changes in a lot of professions but it doesn’t appear that the Catholic Church has made much progress. Would a Sister Aloysius be as powerless now as the character is in this period piece.? “I think so. There is no woman cele-
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brating mass. That is where Sister Aloysius sits, having made a career choice as a person who wants to make the world better. I met a nun who is 96 and ran the New York school system in 1963 with 70,000 kids in Brooklyn alone. That is the size of a corporation and yet there were no women in New Jersey when I was growing up who were running businesses of that size. She had a gigantic responsibility but she was subservient to her parish priest. That is an interesting power dynamic and I am sure it feeds into whatever the antagonism is in this. How could it not?” Your character in The Devil Wears Prada has power. She is modelled after the legendary editor Anna Wintour. Was Wintour an inspiration for you when you were preparing to make the movie? “There still aren’t a lot of women in power for me to model the role after so most of my models were male. Actually, compared to the people that I was thinking of, Miranda is very well behaved. In fact, she is almost a diplomat compared to some of the people who are powerful in our business. I did meet Anna at a benefit auction screening of the film and we were introduced and she was a good sport but it was much more fun for me to create this ‘uberboss’ out of my own pastiche of experience.” Could you relate to Miranda at all? I mean you are one of the most successful women in your profession. “Well, I am an extremely undisciplined person in many ways. In fact, I am the polar opposite of her. However, there were some things about her that I really admired and I could see the bind that she was in. I couldn’t relate but I could empathize.” You have been in movies a long time but you have never had as big a hit, internationally, as Mamma Mia! Were you surprised at its incredible success? “Not really but they were surprised at Universal because they’re all men! There is nothing wrong with their approach but it puts blinders on in terms of what is going to be popular. But it is very gratifying because it was hard to get financing even though the budget for the film would have fit into the props budget for any Matrix film or Hellboy. And it so outdid Hellboy (II: The Golden Army) at the box office. But you can’t get them to understand that you will pay them back. And by the way I am personally supporting Universal pictures with that film and all the other Hellboys they put out in the past year, like Wanted.” ■
EXPERT WITNESS
“It is a lot easier to just be an actor in a movie and not have to be the producer and writer as well. I am just one of the actors really and every time there is a conversation on set with (Observe and Report director) Jody Hill and the producers I am so glad I am not in that conversation. Normally I would have to be one of those guys and then I would have to act in the scene too. But now I can go to my trailer and watch movies for an hour and they have to deal with whatever that is all about. So it was a lot easier. I enjoyed it a lot more. It was a lot less stressful on a day to do basis.” – Ex-Vancouverite Seth Rogen on the difference between being an actor for hire on Observe and Report and being actor/producer/writer on other films. “If you take a look at television as a medium it has lost 40 percent of its viewer-ship since the strike. I was aware of the terrible ramifications for major league baseball when it went on strike. And when the NHL went on strike it was replaced by poker and poker did better. Now you can’t find a hockey game on television (in the US.) So I was terrified.” – Canadian actor Keifer Suthlerland on strikes. “I worked in a restaurant in Kits. I was a busboy but no one ever ate there. I think I was actually working for a Peruvian drug lord. I had this abusive boss who had a fuse that was minimal at best. I worked there during the day and then at night I would work graveyard shift at a grocery store throwing fresh fruit at my coworkers.” – Ex-Vancouver actor Ryan Reynolds on the bad jobs he had in his hometown. “My grandfather (Carmine Coppola) came to America because of his skills as a flautist. He was the first chair flautist for (Arturo) Toscanini. So the reason we are here (in America) is the Arts. I think the family was grooming my father to be a medical doctor but he had an interest in books and was particularly interested in literature and philosophy. That was his calling and that was before Francis decided that he was going to be a filmmaker. My father had already gone on his philosophical journey via a literary path and that was a train that was not going to stop. Nor did he want it to stop and I am happy to say that he is continuing to write his books. The other members of the family have taken a different path and I believe that my own son is returning us to music.” – Nic Cage on the artistic roots of the Coppola family. “It surprised my agents that after all the scripts I passed on that Superbad was the one I wanted to make. I did Daytrippers because I was purposely trying to build a fantasy career between low budget indie stuff and mainstream studio stuff. But I have made an agreement with myself that I will try and stay away from movies about people under 20 for a little bit. I don’t want to find my films in the young adult section of Netflix for the rest of my life.” – Superbad and Adventureland director Greg Mottola on being stereotyped as a director of films for teens. Excerpted from interviews done by Reel West editor Ian Caddell.
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Photograpy by Sergei Bachlakov
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Defying Convention
By Ian Caddell
Network television may not be as strong a force as it once was, in terms of its popular appeal to US viewers, but creating programming for it is still an attraction to writers and producers out to buy into the American dream. Hundreds of scripts are still submitted and some make it as far as pilot season. Few get on air and most of those last less than a single season. The odds are always against success. It’s arguable that the best way to attain it is to work with people who are proven story tellers. However, there have been few consistently successful writers or executive producers in recent US television history. For every Steven Bochco, David E. Kelly or Dick Wolf there are dozens of one hit wonders whose shows quickly fade from memory. It’s unlikely that James Parriott and Michael Edelstein will end up on the latter list. For one thing, Parriott has been a writer and executive producer on Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty. Edelstein is the executive producer of one of the new Millennium’s biggest hits, Desperate Housewives. They are currently working together on a series that has a good chance of being a bigger international hit than any of their other shows. Entitled Defying Gravity, it is a coventure between Fox Television Studios, CTV, Canada’s Space and Vancouver’s Omni Film Productions. Their international partners are Germany’s ProSieben and the BBC. The series is calling Vancouver home and lists Parriott, Edelstein and Omni’s Brian Hamilton and Michael Chechik as executive producers. Hamilton admits that the company was excited when they got the phone call from CTV to ask if they wanted to be involved in the production. “You should have seen the looks of glee on our faces when we read the script,” he says. The show is currently shooting 13 episodes in Vancouver and has, as one would expect, an international cast. Led by American Ron Livingston and Germany’s Florentine Lahme, they tell the story of a six-year mission through the solar system. Since they are being broadcast into the living rooms of the world everything they do is monitored and every emotion they feel scrutinized. Eventually they come to the conclusion that their real assignment is far from what they perceived it to be. Edelstein says that he had been looking for a way of working with Parriott for several years and was inspired to call him after he watched a BBC docudrama. “I had always been interested in the idea of Jim and I finding a way to work together. A couple of years ago I was watching a show called Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets that had been produced by Impossible Pictures in the UK. It was a fake documentary of solar systems that featured two hour trips through the systems with a group of astronauts. It was something that appealed to me and I thought Jim would be interested in the wonder of space. I told him about the show and he got excited about it. I had been exploring the idea of doing an international coproduction as had Jim and I said ‘let’s do it with this one.’” The first phone call was to Nancy Cotton, the senior vice president of scripted programming for Fox TV Studios. She says that since Edelstein and Parriott had already helped to take two conventional TV concepts - hospitals and the suburbs - and found new ways of telling the stories, she assumed that working together they would reinvent another well-worn theme, the space adventure. “When they approached us with the concept we knew that a lot of people had created variations of the space travel show but this one felt modern and fresh. It was like Jim’s approach to medical procedural shows where he put it in a different setting as a way of telling the story from a different approach. It was a way to take something that would be of interest to the science fiction MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
fans but was also more accessible generally. So it felt smart but user-friendly and we knew that if anyone was going to make it work, it would be Jim and Michael. Jim has such a great artistic vision and approach to the craft and Michael has great visual style and is a real visionary.” [Fox Television Studios should not be confused with the Fox Broadcasting Company. Cotton is responsible for getting shows made but not necessarily putting them on the affiliated network. Instead the show will be available to every American network when its 13 episodes are completed and ready to take out to the marketplace. “We are all connected to Rupert Murdoch but they (Fox Broadcasting) have their own schedule. We might go there and we did do an international coproduction with another show that will be on our summer schedule but with this show we designed it as an international production to get the budget for the show. We hope to take it out (for sale to a US broadcaster) in mid-Spring.”] International co-productions are not a new trend but they have been quite rare. Cotton says that logistically it can be difficult to get all the partners on the same page. She says that given the difficulties inherent in co-producing a series, it made sense to make the show in Vancouver. “We are all relatively new at doing international co-productions,” she says, “so there is a learning curve for us. It’s difficult just to get information back and forth in a timely manner because everyone wants feedback and there are different deals involved. As the organizing entity we (Fox Television Studios) are the lead house and it is easier to go through us in terms of clarity and time. It can be difficult to have so many voices but fortunately we are largely on the same page. We are shooting in CTV’s backyard (in Vancouver) and we are in the same time zone so we can pick up a phone and talk to them or Omni. It’s more difficult with the Germans. Overall, though, given the situation I think we are well organized. There is good and bad from having so many people involved. There are a lot of people reading scripts and offering commentary but several good ideas have come from that. The bottom line is that starting any show is not easy, but we need all the parties to feel the show is working for them. I think that’s happening right now.” Parriott was responsible for taking the idea of a group of astronauts travelling through solar systems and turning it into a series about relationships in the work place. When he and Edelstein took their pitch on the road they emphasized that there were similarities to Grey’s Anatomy, another show about people in need of bonding during times of stress. Brett Burlock, CTV’s director of program development, says that when Cotton, Edelstein and Parriott met with the network, they underlined the sense of familiarity. “We have a relationship with both Michael and Jim through their shows, which are on the network,” he says. “They came to Toronto and pitched the project and left us with a script for a pilot. It was fairly early in the process but the script articulated a vision that showed that they knew what they wanted. It matched their pitch. They had pitched it as ‘Grey’s Anatomy in space.’ You could see from the script that it was a combination of character-driven ensemble drama mixed with space procedural as opposed to hospital procedural. 17
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but would also have something to say to science fiction audiences. I approached it from that point of view and it just wrote itself. We also knew that if we were going to get international networks involved we would have to have an international cast. We already were writing characters who were from different countries because that is the nature of space travel. For instance, we had a female character who was Russian and I wrote some sides and sent them out to Berlin and from that we got audi-
both their conventional network and their genre partner Space. “That enhanced attractiveness because we could run it across both platforms,” he says. “It had to make sense for it to work and the key to us was that it was an international coproduction both in terms of the networks involved and the plot. The genesis is that it is an international space mission with a diverse crew of astronauts. The Canadian creative elements are an organic part of the show and don’t feel bolted on. That is always a challenge of a show that is taking its inspiration and financing from a number of participants. I think that speaks to the clarity of vision at the centre and a respectful collaboration. The chances are good that you are going to end up with a good series.” Parriott says that he and Edelstein knew from the beginning of their collaboration that there was potential for the show to be an international coproduction that could appeal to both traditional television audiences and science fiction fans. “Mike and I both recognized that it was a good premise in that if you took a bunch of astronauts from different countries (the potential for coproduction) is built in. We also felt that if you combined sci-fi with the right demo and female appeal you could get a good audience. You could get something that had a wide demo
tion tapes from several German actresses. The woman we hired, Florentine Lahme, is an amazing actress. We talked about that idea to all our partners and we cast people from Canada, Britain and the US as well.” Edelstein says his partner is being modest. “Jim’s material attracted a lot of actors,” he says. “When we sent it out in Los Angeles and in Toronto there was a reaction that it was just another independent science fiction series. Then when they read it we had all these agents who told us their actors wanted to be a part of it. Ron Livingston responded immediately which was great because he was at the top of Jim’s list months earlier.” Burlock says CTV was aware that the production was going to shoot in Canada but left the decision on the location and the production partners to Cotton, Parriott and Edelstein. “We left the decision with the producers,” he says. “I think Vancouver came first in terms of the choice that was made because of the genre shows like Stargate (SG-1) and Battlestar Galactica. There is a critical mass in terms of crews with experience on sci-fi shows and they are easily accessible. They were looking to us for input but they met with a number of production houses including Omni and they realized that there was a tremendous skill level there.” Omni has been producing shows
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in Vancouver for almost 30 years and has managed, over that time, to forge a balance between documentaries and TV dramas with a short list including TV’s Robson Arms, The Odyssey and Edgemont and documentaries like Weird Sex and Snowshoes, Greenpeace: Making a Stand and Singing Our Stories. The company had recently decided it should have a presence in Los Angeles in order to promote its production capabilities. That helped get them meetings but Omni executive pro-
“It was Jim’s passion for the material that shone through and it was clear he knew where he wanted it to go.” – Brett Burlock, CTV’s director of program development,
ducer Brian Hamilton says that CTV was looking for a company that would be able to qualify as a co-venture partner. “We had just established a regular presence in Los Angeles and so when CTV approached me I was able to meet with Fox and Mike and Jim face to face. Then they came here and met the whole gang and liked what they saw. But I think the key to us being involved was that CTV wanted to deal with producers on the Canadian side who had been involved in multiple situations. I think they said to Fox ‘if we are involved it needs to be a co-venture with a Canadian partner or we won’t be eligible under Canadian content quotas.’ So we got involved with the understanding that we are the Canadian producer looking after our needs and CTV’s needs. “We are not on set all the time but we watch dailies and we are handson for every area of production through early drafts to editing. We don’t want to take away from the fact that we are backed by strong crew led by (producer) Ron French and we are excited about being involved in a production with more than 600 people on the payroll, something that is rare in Vancouver.” Omni president Michael Chechik, says that the opportunity puts the company at an advantage in terms of its ability to create more co-produc-
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tions for Vancouver. “Anytime you have the chance to meet other broadcasters at this level and prove that you have certain skills, you want to take advantage of it. I think we now have the opportunity to participate in other shows and we have had companies contacting us about projects they want to bring to Canada.” That opportunity couldn’t come at a better time, according to Hamilton. “The reality is that Canadian broadcasters are less able to pay full freight right now,” he says. “There have been cutbacks due to the economy in every sector and with Canadian funding programs. These indicators are telling us that we need to be able to reach over boarders and we are working hard to do that. It is a matter of survival. If we have to change our business model to respond to the changing business, we will. We know the game is not being played by the same rules as it was five or six years ago. It means that as indie producers we need to go out and cobble together international financing partners. We are fortunate that this has come together so well and we are optimistic about our future endeavours.” Burlock expects that the network will continue to look for partners in Canada and the US. He says that while he does worry about working with so many partners, he thinks that this particular show proves that the system can work. “There are always going to be challenges when you do things by committee,” he says. “But in this case, Jim brings a clear vision that coarses through the material. And we have been fortunate that anytime a suggestion or a note is put on the table it is to enhance the show. I always feel that the best idea should win but at the same time it has to be consistent with the underlying vision.” Edelstein agrees. He says that both he and Parriott had concerns when they first decided to develop the project but says that he has been pleasantly surprised by the cooperation of the producing partners. “When we first came up with the idea we actually thought we would be left alone. Then we realized that when you take money from different countries they are going to want some input. I think CTV has been very respectful. I know the Germans had trepidations but they have been wildly supportive. I have to say we are lucky with all our partners including the BBC. And Nancy has done a great job of keeping everyone in the loop. She has taken on the task of being the storehouse of info and that has been a big reason why this is working out so cont. on page 28 well.”
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by Ian Caddell
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THE BANFF TELEVISION FESTIVAL is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the midst of a media renaissance that sees many conventional approaches considered somewhat primitive. It would appear to be a bad time to be investing in traditional television programming or even holding conferences to discuss it. Many media companies are in serious trouble. The list includes Canada’s two major media monopolies. CanWest Global is looking to sell off its seven specialty channels and CTVglobemedia recently cancelled news broadcasts in three major markets. While the Festival has always been good at bringing industry leaders together to create greater opportunities for producers and broadcasters, its new executive director, former Playback Editor Peter Vamos, says that it needs to stay focused on the business aspects of the industry. >> MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
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“It’s definitely refocused itself which is part of the reason that I pursued this job. It has become more and more about facilitating the industry’s needs in terms of getting business done which is very similar to what we saw our mandate being at Playback. I felt it was a natural extension from what I had been doing. I have been impressed with the changes that they have made in the past. It has had many incarnations and I am very pleased with the current version in terms of what they have been trying to accomplish. I imagine that the industry is as well. The feedback I had been getting as a member of the industry and someone outside of Banff is that the business element had become key to what it does.” The fact that the Festival has made it to its 30th birthday would have been considered an unlikely event as recently as 2004. Five years ago, the Banff Television Foundation, which operated the Festival, declared bankruptcy, offering creditors ten cents on the dollar. A few weeks later the Foundation announced that Toronto-based Achilles Media had purchased all of the Foundation’s assets and rights. Achilles senior executives polled industry leaders to ask them what would bring them back to the festival. They were told that they felt the Festival was moving away from the business aspects and had become too involved in creating social functions. They felt that the Festival would work better if it put more emphasis on business and keeping up with advances in the industry. Vamos’s job is to keep that approach on track and to assure potential delegates that the individual sessions will feature speakers and panelists who address their needs. He says that while the panels will include several senior executives from television networks, he wants the discussion to focus on a collective vision for the future of the medium. “We are definitely making an attempt, in every one of our sessions, to discuss where the industry is heading and how it is going to impact things. I think if you are doing the job, you are not just putting together the show you are putting together a multi-platform concept as well. So with every panel we will be trying to address the future of television on some level and to give some direction. We are trying to not just bring in executives. We are trying to bring in visionaries; people who can talk about how things are going to evolve. The panels and the master classes should not be about ‘how I am doing my job today,’ they should be about ‘how I will be doing my job tomorrow.’ “I think we are fortunate that the Banff Television Festival goes back to back with (Achilles’ new media conference) Next Media so we can integrate a lot of the discussion about the future of media platforms. Through the two events we can discuss how shows are produced and disseminated online and through mobile platforms. We work hand in hand with Next Media in terms of developing content. We have an entire stream of Next Media conference sessions called Digital 360 which follows producers as they take an established ‘old media’ show and reformat that to the web and stream it on line. So we definitely are addressing these things. There is something that we have planned for next year that is really going to dive into that space but this year the evolution continues.” 22
Norm Bolen knows a little about the need of television executives to be aware of the evolution of media. When he was first asked to sit on the board of the Banff Television Festival Foundation, he was running Alliance Atlantis’s specialty channels. Soon after he agreed to be a board member, the festival collapsed. When Achilles took over he became chairman. After CanWest Global bought up the channels Bolen moved on to work as a consultant and is a director of a web-based video distribution company called mDialog. He says that the festival would be negligent if it neglected to keep up with the options available. “I think that there are few people working in television who don’t think about how they can make the transition (to the new media.) I think the board and staff of the Festival has made a concerted effort to turn their attention to what is going on in the media marketplace and that it is not just about television any more. The CFTPA (Canadian Film and Television Producers Association) has been getting involved in new media, for instance. Most companies who have been involved in television want to transition their businesses as a hedge against change and to do more in the online world. I have been sharing ideas with TV people and I think you will see them increasingly focusing their energy on online and digital media.” Bolen says that despite the evolution of new technologies and the introduction of multi-media platforms, it’s unlikely that traditional television will disappear any time soon. He says that while the federal government is encouraging applicants for funding to include new media platforms, they are also encouraging a blending of traditional programming with online platforms. However, he says that while television still wins out in terms of its ability to attract advertising, advertisers eventually find their audience. “I think that digital media people will be turning towards television as a platform in order to find a balance. The guidelines of the Canada New Media Fund say that one of the requirements is that applicants need more than one platform for their production. That will motivate TV people to include digital media platforms and for digital people to include television in their plans, which will be good for both sectors. For instance, television producers are discovering that mobile phones are incredible platforms for distribution. They are using the iPhone and the Blackberry for video content and creating opportunities to monetize video content. The ad and broadcast industries are conservative but change is happening and they are trying to see where the future is going. I think we are all aware that the history of advertising is that they eventually follow consumer behaviour.” Mark Bishop, the co-founder of Toronto-based Marblemedia, first started talking about platform options eight years ago at Banff at one of four 2001 Future Watch plenaries. He says that at the time most of the emphasis was on High Definition for television but that his company had already made a prototype of HD for mobiles. The reaction to the prototype was surprising. “We were trying to show the future of content but several people mocked us,” he says. “We said that in the future people would be watching television on cell phones but the general reaction was that even if it could be done no one REEL WEST MAY/JUNE 2009
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would want to watch a TV show on a cell phone. Eight years later it is happening because it is about content and not necessarily the device that you watch it on. Anyone who produces content has to look at reaching people and there are more options now than ever. It’s not just about the TV in the living room anymore. I think that Banff was ahead of the game eight years ago and hopefully it can keep a step ahead because these discussions and debates have to take place. We don’t have these big picture discussions in random situations. There has to be a place where content producers can get together and plan for the future and Banff is the perfect place for that.” Bishop’s company is doing its best to keep ahead of the curve. Its animated shows are available on several platforms including in interactive form. He says that getting support from advertisers for the work is becoming easier. “Advertisers are still interested in television but they are interested in content that is engaging and I think you can do that with interactive. The bulk of the iceberg is finding a targeted audience for your content, which then allows advertisers to reach that audience, one that you assume is already interested in their products. But it is an educational process. Ad agency media buyers have to get their heads around the metrics of it. I think that some are still looking at the Nielsen numbers but the smart advertisers are saying ‘lets take some of it (money) out of television and find innovative ways to reach our audience.’” Judith Brosseau, the senior vice president of programming for Montrealbased Canal D, and a member of the Festival’s board of directors, recalls that when she went to Banff ten years ago she made a deal with France’s Canal Plus for a wildlife series that was produced for High Definition. She says that while it was a simpler time, it might not have happened had there not been a place for people to talk about both traditional television and the potential of new media. “A lot of people thought we were spending too much on HD at the time but we eventually sold the show all over the world. We had a vision and we brought it to Banff and Canal Plus was there and we made the deal and made money. Banff plays that role and I think it will continue to do that even though broadcasters are facing new business models. No one has a crystal ball but we still have to go there and talk about trends and discuss what does and doesn’t work. A lot of people thought we were nuts when we were first working with HD and now it is no big deal. So we need to see each other at a regular time to share amongst ourselves the success and failures and in order to stay attuned.” Jon Plowman won last year’s award for Lifetime Achievement for his work as the Head of Comedy at the BBC. Plowman was responsible for getting shows like Absolutely Fabulous and The Office on air before deciding to produce his own projects. He needed to make contacts and headed for Banff in 2003. He says he keeps coming back because the Festival is the best place to share ideas with producers on how to make money from the platforms that are evolving from traditional television. “I think everyone who produces television shows is looking for ways to make money from new media applications,” he says. “I have a friend who has an American talk show that he took to the web. It is five minutes in length but he MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
does it from his garage. It is a wonderful on-line show and he can do it for a few dollars but the question keeps coming: how do you monetize that when so much of what is available on the web, in terms of the competition for audiences, is free? A producer has to know he will get money back. The other problem, in terms of traditional television and its future, is that there is so much of it, and I am using the example of the BBC because that is what I know, that is on YouTube. “The fact is, producers and media companies are entrepreneurs and they don’t feel they can get rich on the internet. One of the great things about Banff is that these people who are looking for ways to monetize these platforms are all there in one place. It’s always been a place where you could see what things were being done in other territories and to talk about what you have available. It’s good to keep up and now there is this new element in terms of sharing approaches to new technologies and how we can make it work as an industry. That makes Banff more relevant than ever I think.” Peter Vamos agrees. He says that while the delegates have traditionally been interested in pitching to executives face to face, the content of the pitches and the professions of the executives have changed. “I think that there has been an evolution in terms of the pitching,” he says. “More and more we are bringing in people from the digital media who will take pitches and this year we are bringing in agents because in this multiplatform world agents play a central role in terms of putting deals together. So while the focus is still about getting the deals done, people want to know where the business is going and how they are going to evolve. That also has to become part of the conference aspect. I think it’s entirely possible that as we become more focused on the evolution of the industry there may be people who don’t find that it is relevant to them. However, if you are not attracting new people you have no future. “It is a fine balance but we try to address the concerns of all of our delegates. We survey them at the end of every festival to see what resonated and what didn’t resonate. I think there will be something for everyone as long as we are bringing in top broadcasters from around the world and give the delegates the opportunity to meet them and to pitch them. A lot of the people who have been coming for many years have already established relationships with broadcasters because Banff created that opportunity for them at one time or another. But while most of our delegates make their living off old media we still have to keep showing the way in terms of where television is heading. I think that is absolutely essential to the future of the Festival.”■
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Photograph by Phillip Chin
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By Ian Caddell
Visiting Rights
Colleen Nystedt was one of the busiest local producers in the 1990s, working as either line producer or production manager for over a dozen films and was the president of her own company, New City Productions. Eventually, she decided to bring together her knowledge of productions and a lifelong curiosity about technologies to create MovieSet, a new media platform that brings behind-the-scenes filmmaking online and serving as a communication resource for producers. 1975 I was a teenager working for my father transposing survey forms results
from the Urban Futures Project onto coding sheets for keypunch in the bowels of the UBC Computer Science building. 1985 I was working on a television movie called Nobody’s Child starring Marlo Thomas. I was the location manager, pregnant with my daughter, Shannon. The production offices were at Riverview Hospital which was also our principal set. Justis Greene was production manager and he had an early copy of Movie Magic. It was on that show that I got my first exposure to film industry production software. 1991 I had worked my way up the production ladder and formed my first production service company, New City Productions. I drew on my urban geography background and transformed soon-to-be redeveloped industrial properties into short-term turn-key studios. Throughout the 90s New City managed the production of several movies a year for the studios and networks. Managing multiple movies underscored the need for better tools. I got my hands on a range of software applications for managing film production, ranging from script to scheduling to budgeting and cost reporting. (For a technology-driven industry, motion picture production has the most arcane of software solutions. It’s still extremely paper-based, despite the fact that more sophisticated solutions are available. As a result, there’s no business model.) 1998 The strategy was to infiltrate the film business, learn it from the ground up in the trenches, and then reverse engineer into producing one’s own movies. By the late 90s I was doing just that, but was frustrated by the limitations of being an independent producer in Canada. We’re crippled by lack of distribution and can access just enough soft money to limp from service gig to service gig. It’s hard to build a real business. That year, I produced a kid’s film called Mr. Rice’s Secret, starring David Bowie. It was a fantastic script and we made it on a shoestring, but it was a labour of love. It sadly got caught up in the Canadian distribution syndrome and was doubly hamstrung because of the insurance-backed financing scheme that partially financed it. It never had a chance, and I remember thinking that if I’d had the ability as a producer to market the film directly to the people who would have loved it, it would have had an opportunity to find its audience. And it was then that I first thought about the internet as a solution. 2000 I sold New City into a public company, where my focus as an executive shifted to higher level finance and distribution activities. 2002 However, when the promised production funds hadn’t appeared by 2002, the writing was on the wall, and I moved toward independence. 2003 In the fall, I incorporated a new start up, New City Entertainment. David Rockwell, my pre-2000 CFO joined me in the new adventure. 2004 I created a distribution company, and sought eligibility under the Province of BC’s Small Business Venture Capital Act as an eBusiness Connection (eBC.) The company was intended to act as the conduit for investment between a VCC Fund and a slate of qualifying independent feature films. Drawing on my knowledge, experience and contacts derived from my production and executive years, I attempted to construct an investment fund for portfolios of locally produced motion pictures. The model was sound but for a variety of political reasons, which I won’t go into here, its creation was repeatedly delayed. As part of the thinking for the distribution company, I had come to focus my attention on technological change. After the first dot.com bubble burst, there was a MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
retreat of sorts. But I remained convinced it was only a matter of time and bandwidth penetration before all distribution came online. Naturally there would be pushback, as there has been with every such revolution – from talkies, to television, from VCRs to DVDs to the internet. Each time, the status quo tries to kill the new technology and business processes until finally they themselves are rendered extinct or successfully adopt the new technology. The examples are legion. But I digress. At ShoWest that year, the themes were familiar: decreasing theatrical audience; the increased cost of media buys (advertising), but also the migration of the audience to the internet. When asked about internet strategy executives looked like deer in headlights. No one had figured out how to monetize internet advertising, and it was generally viewed as a threat to conventional revenue streams. I remember thinking ‘hmmmm, they’re missing the point. The internet isn’t unidirectional. What about online communities?’ We’d been watching the migration of the audience to the internet and seeing them form into communities around shared passions. This was pre-social networking. Families were building support communities around their children’s activities, for example. I reflected on Mr. Rice’s Secret and all the different kinds of people that would have been interested in the themes of that particular movie. Maybe the internet was the place you could go to target and engage with the right people in ways never before imagined. But how would they know about it? What would get them interested in the first place? It is a fact that people like to watch movies being made. People will watch us park the trucks. They’ll stand around for hours and watch the crew set up lights. There is no doubt about it. People have an insatiable appetite for behind-thescenes of movies. But film crews hate the intrusion that represents. It interferes with production. Motion picture marketing strategy has historically skewed toward pre-release activity. During the production process, there is minimum emphasis on marketing, and often the publicity line item in the budget gets cut in an attempt to close production financing. Giving fans early access to movies wasn’t in the cards, despite the clear demand. One day I heard about the Bagel Cam, where they put a web cam in the hole of a bagel on the craft service table. People tuned in, in droves. What a concept. Then Peter Jackson did this daily videoblog thing for his King Kong remake and served up new content daily. People came back every day. The studio later sold the whole set on DVD for $39.95 to accompany the theatrical release. 2005 I went up to Keats Island and wrote a so-called Vision document that detailed how to bring movie production online and generate content for the internet for daily consumption by fans. That features document continues to provide the foundation of what has become MovieSet™. I hired the first web designer to do a basic mock up. We put together an application for prototyping financing from the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF.) June 13 I received a fax confirming the participation of the CNMF. I will always remember that day because it was also my father’s memorial service. With the support of the CNMF and leveraging some of the investment dollars we had raised into the distribution company, we put out a RFP (request for proposals) for technology companies to build the prototype of what at that time was called SETSCOPE. A Vancouver-based enterprise portal company called The Level won the contract. Summer I supervised the wireframes and prototyping while running for Vancouver City Council (another outcome of the death of my father, former City Councillor Walter Hardwicke.) 25
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November When I didn’t win, I threw myself back into completing the prototype. December We conducted a brand blueprint session at the ad agency
TBWA\Vancouver led by Chief Strategic Officer, Jim Southcott. We came away with a defined identity and a new name: MOVIESET™. Ironically, the original name we chose wasn’t available and MovieSet resonated. We miraculously were able to buy the domain name on auction. January 2006 I received an email inviting me to enter the newly-minted MovieSet into competition at the McLuhan Festival of the Future. Frankly, I didn’t know it existed, but my father had given me my first copy of (Marshall McLuhan’s) Understanding Media, and I was hooked. February The Festival was held at the Underground in Toronto and MovieSet was one of 43 companies competing in four categories: IT, mobile and wireless, online gaming and convergent entertainment. I presented on the fourth day and was very pleased to win the Vortex Award for Excellence in New Media Innovation. Now, I felt I had the intellectual validation for what I was trying to build. But I needed the money to do it. March Having eBC status in British Columbia enabled us to raise more capital from friends and family, and particularly colleagues in the BC Film Industry. (Notably the first investor was the late, great Bob Scarabelli). We leveraged that money to build a functional alpha. April We attended ShowCanada in Victoria. We set up a booth and entertained questions from a range of exhibitors and newly emergent digital media executives. May Equinoxe Films of Montreal (who had distributed Mr. Rice’s Secret in Canada,) contributed our first picture and a small media buy to promote it online. We hired four co-op students from various post secondary institutions, and
“We traded in the dining room for a real board room. It was weird to go home and not have the offices there. (It still is in a way.)” - on finally moving MovieSet out of her home, and into its own office set up in the basement of my Kitsilano home. Over that summer we expanded our strategies for online marketing planning and did usability testing for motion picture production personnel. July Over the summer we raised a little more cash, and added a handful of more shows. We streamed live from the makeup trailer during the making of the zombie movie The Undead and we streamed the Bif Naked video shoot in connection to Crossing. October MovieSet added its first feature film from preproduction, Battle in Seattle, thanks to producer Kirk Shaw. Even though the director backed out of streaming live from set, we did receive regular content and were able to refine our editing and approval procedures. At the same time we experimented with identifying specific communities. November I attended the AFM (American Film Market) in Santa Monica and began talking to my friends and producers in Los Angeles about what we were building with MovieSet. Over the fall it became increasingly apparent that we had outgrown our third party technology provider, and needed to think about bringing it in house. Ironically, we had developed the Setup Wizard and Cast and Crew modules at this time, but they were never released and later became part of our SRED (Scientific Research and Development) credits, precisely because the software engineering exercise failed. Various people had suggested that we go Open Source with a CMS (content management system) called Drupal. Vancouver has a substantial Drupal community and I had started to get the lay of the land of the technology industry in BC. It also became clear that raising money without control of your own technology was not realistic. January, 2007 I connected with Anthony Dutton of Primary Capital, who suggested I contact Mark Rutledge to assist in further capital assembly. I had known Mark from various incarnations within the film industry where he had begun as an entertainment attorney. Spring We participated in a variety of events and started to meet the various players in the BC Technology Venture Capital business including the Rocketbuilders, WUTIF (Western Universities Technology Innovation Fund), Telus Innovation, VEF (Vancouver Enterprise Forum), Angel Forum and Canadian Financing Forum. Throughout this period we continued to add more films, and
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struggled to add more functionality within the existing platform until we migrated off The Level to Drupal. July We went to San Francisco and began meeting with investment bankers, VCs (Venture Capital companies) and law firms who specialized in this area. It had become abundantly clear that the Vancouver Tech VC community had limited knowledge and interest in new media. In contrast, they knew what I was talking about in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and San Francisco. I presented at iHollywood and received two thumbs up from the VC panel, which generated momentum. That led to meetings with Intel and further connections within the Silicon Valley technology investment world. We also went to San Jose to meet with Adobe. September The Drupal portal was released. It mirrored the functionality of The Level platform, but again focused solely on the fan-facing side of the platform. The strategy had been to prioritize building the fan-facing features in order to drive traffic to prove the business case. This was frustrating to me personally, because I knew that it was the production tools that would attract the participation of the crew, and therefore content. We had built a demo that showcased online editing of EPK materials which we took to Adobe. There was a steep learning curve as we became immersed in the web technology venture capital world. Momentum was building and by the fall we had our first “term sheet” from a fund in the US mid-west. My travels now included New York and Chicago. November I again attended the AFM, this time with Mark Rutledge and Ryan Smith. We continued to evangelize and educate producers and distributors on the benefits of internet marketing of motion pictures beginning during the production phase and throughout. I also spoke at the iHollywood Seminar held in connection with the AFM. December We finally moved out of my house and into real offices on West Broadway over the FedEx/Kinko’s. We traded in the dining room for a real Board room. It was weird to go home and not have the offices there. (It still is in a way.) January, 2008 A watershed month. We had our first real board meeting in the offices. The original term sheet was terminated. The eBC allocations had been renewed and we were speaking to a number of local VCs, particularly Discovery Capital. Charles Cook was interested but they wanted an experienced strategic investor to lead the round. At the same time, we were endeavouring to add the production tools to the Drupal portal. We engaged another third party developer to build and implement those interfaces in anticipation of an industry launch at the Cannes Film festival in May. Then, a friend of mine in LA introduced me to a fellow in Montreal, who introduced me to Jeff Grammer of Rho Canada. Our first phone call was the most lucid conversation I had had with a venture capitalist. I was impressed by his knowledge and imagination. Early February Jeff Grammer came to our office and met our team. Rho had invested locally in the citizen journalist portal, Now Public, and he was in town for their board meeting. February 18 I flew back to Montreal to meet with the Rho partnership. February 25 I received a message while I was in my Development Permit Board meeting at City Hall that the Rho partnership had elected to invest in MoviesSet. March We received a term sheet and went into due diligence. For the next two months, we went through in-depth analysis of our financial model. Rho decided that they wanted a local VC to syndicate the A-round. I went back to Charles Cook of Discovery Capital. With Rho in place, their partnership was willing to follow on. At the same time, we were preparing for the Cannes Film Festival with the anticipation of launching new software. Mid-May I landed in Cannes and set up our stand in the Palais. Six of us stayed together in an apartment just off the Croissette. The first full day we arrived, I received confirmation that the first $2M hit the bank in Vancouver. It was cause for celebration but sadly the technology failed us again. The Drupal build that was supposed to launch our production toolkit was un-releasable. Undaunted, we demonstrated the software from the staging site, and still managed to sign up seventy productions. June I flew to Montreal for the Rho Canada annual general meeting, as their newest investee company. Then Jeff Grammer, now our board chairman, accompanied me to Los Angeles where MovieSet had been the only Canadian company named to the OnHollywood 100 list of disruptive new media companies. July We closed the Discovery Capital syndication and now were in the position to move forward in developing our own technology to get the MovieSet product to market. We hired Tim Baur as VP Technology. On Tim’s recommendation, we determined to get off Drupal and build our own scalable and proprietary software platform. Over the summer, Tim assembled his team. We revisited the wire frames from the unsuccessful Drupal build. We worked on the UX (user experience) de-
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sign. It was exciting to finally be able to execute the vision. August I went to Ireland and spent quality time with family, friends and colleagues. (My long term plan is to establish a beach head there for MovieSet’s internationalization and localization activities for Europe.) September The bottom had really started to drop out of the stock market. We presented a budget to the Board that stretched out our cash for as long as possible, with a conservative organic approach to building traffic. We were told that unless we emphasized traffic acquisition, it would be hard to bring on additional financing. We changed course. November At the AFM we had a stand and half a dozen people sharing a bungalow in Venice Beach, working to bring more producers online and to add compelling content on location in Santa Monica. We launched the new portal and fan facing site-lets. The production tools were not complete and we had to show a demo to producers. It was déjà vu all over again. Everyone tells me to expect this when dealing with software development, but it doesn’t make it any easier to live through! December We rented a bungalow in Venice as a base of operations in LA. Up until this point we had focused on attracting independent filmmakers as our innovators and early adopters. Now it was time to start working on the studio strategy. My dear friend, Ruth Vitale, former president of Paramount Classics, began to help me set up meetings. January 2009 At our board meeting, it had become abundantly clear that the recession was deepening. Raising additional investment capital was going to be impossible. Our VCs had options to exercise, but needed us to focus on traffic acquisition (at the expense again of building the production tools). With the aid of Michael Fergusson, an angel investor and member of our advisory board, the tech team re-jigged our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) analytics, and began work on integrating our Facebook and MySpace applications. I presented at the Canadian Financing Forum at the end of January and was named Forum Favourite. February Half the month was spent in Los Angeles continuing to educate and evangelize to producers, production companies and studios alike. I attended a social media building blocks conference in San Francisco with an eye to refining our fan-facing features and developing further strategic partnerships. March I traveled to New York City to meet with potential key strategic partners, and also with the managing part-
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ner of Rho Capital. Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, both the online marketing and technology teams worked diligently to add features and traffic. MovieSet’s behind-the-scenes show with Shaun Stewart and Eric Fell launched, with webisodes three times a week, featuring movies on MovieSet, and offering contests and an editorial view into pre-release movies. We also launched the Facebook Behind-the-Scenes Quiz Game where answers come from movies on MovieSet. A similar application was launched on MySpace. Our intrepid behind-the-scenes photo journalist, Quinn Bender, tracked the production of Death Warrior in Toronto and we experimented with targeted community marketing and tested live streaming and other features intended for wide deployment. April 1 At the Board meeting we were able to demonstrate triple the traffic numbers from the previous month. Our VCs indicated that if we could double our traffic leading up to May and cement the relationship with a certain strategic investor that they would exercise their options. By the end of the month, we’ll be launching an iPhone web application, so you can access movies on MovieSet wherever. It is now possible for producers to create and manage their own MovieSet site-lets. Production coordinators can manage their cast and crew lists online. Unit publicists can do everything from distribute their start of production press releases, to managing blogs and news alerts, above the line and cast biographies and production notes (i.e. blogs). Stills photographers can upload, tag and kill photos which progress through workflow to agents, and ultimately to producers and studio marketers for approval and publishing. Fans can manage their own profiles. They can track movies through each phase of production. They can comment on stills, video and communicate back to production. Fans are recipients of “fresh content, delivered daily” by virtue of MovieSet’s tools. I feel like we’re right in the middle of this story, so I don’t know how to end it yet. There are approximately 400 movies on MovieSet as of right now, with new ones added daily. Once a certain key strategic relationship is in place, we will have every movie on MovieSet from development through distribution and beyond. In the long tale, MovieSet then becomes the repository of the equivalent of bonus features on your DVD. And more than that, it changes the relationship between creators and consumers. Next up: Cannes in May of 2009. ■
Beginnings cont. from page 13
20 years as a turnaround expert reengineering and repositioning companies in the marketplace. Of course, I asked him if he would help me with my company! Although in semi-retirement at the time after turning around a public software company and then writing and publishing a selfhelp book, he agreed to help me. He would take on a six month contract and give me a hand in putting the lustre back into the Thomas name. The rest is history. Eight years later he is still at my side, and under John’s leadership the Thomas FX brand has become known worldwide. Our company now supports the global film industry and provides critical production supplies and equipment to special effects coordinators working on film projects around the planet. We have also developed a strong design and manufacturing focus, distributing more than 1,000 proprietary products, including seasonal set dec and props, and we ship products to film projects, special events, attractions, as well as military and retail customers in 40 countries and six continents. Our company has evolved dramatically these past eight years and is now multinational in scope, operating as the serious business that it always had the potential to become under the right management. With numerous patents pending on our biodegradable snow and volcanic ash, our proprietary products have quickly become favourites amongst many of the world’s leading cinematographers, directors and special effects coordinators. In 2006 Ernst & Young wanted to nominate John and me for their Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Since we were so busy growing our company at the time, we declined the nomination. In 2006, we also found ourselves once more being considered for another Academy Award nomination for Scientific & Technological Advancement for John’s invention of our biodegradable snow manufacturing process and formulation. It is quite serendipitous that both of my husbands are named John, and that both Defying Convention cont. from page 19
The key to success for Parriott is that he hasn’t had to compromise on his creative vision. He says that while he had been trying to meet the needs of the partners in the scripts he has written, they have not been overly demanding. “I think every country feels that the scripts should be written specifically for their audience. For example, the Germans want more trouble with the ship that
of them have received consideration for Academy Award nominations for breakthrough products they invented. There are no coincidences, but I still haven’t figured out what I have done to have been so blessed twice in my lifetime! During the past three decades in the film industry I came close to death more times than I would care to think about, surviving car and plane crashes. However, I also enjoyed the privilege of working with many of the film industry’s greatest legends; people like Charlton Heston, Robert DeNiro, Mel Gibson, Robin Williams, Anthony Hopkins, John Woo, Lee Tamahori, Ed Zwick and countless others. My personal credits include Prop Maker, Stunt Performer, Stunt Coordinator, and Second Unit Director. My company’s credits during the past 36 years; and the credits of the people we brought into the industry, trained, and continue to support, would be impossible to count. I can honestly say that no matter where I travel in the world today there is always at least one feature film or television show that we have supported being aired on our plane, on hotel television sets, or in the local film theatres of the countries we are visiting. During these three fulfilling decades in the film industry, my little company has been considered three times for Academy Award nominations and has received numerous business excellence and business innovation awards. I have also had the privilege of receiving a Lifetime Membership in Women In Film & Video. Thirty-six years since our company’s inception, our friends and the Thomas FX alumni have helped to firmly establish Vancouver as one of the great film locations in the world. Wow! When I consider the various roles I have enjoyed within an emerging and vibrant industry, I feel truly blessed and honoured by the many people who I have had the privilege to work with these past thirty years. Meanwhile, at Thomas FX every new day brings a new challenge, and a new miracle! ■ would result in action and rescues. We have a little of that. At the same time Mike and I have a lot of experience with this and we are being true to the show which is character-based drama. I think that we are all in synch about what we want and that the partners are happy with what they are getting. More importantly, we are doing that without compromising the show which makes me very happy.” ■
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LEGAL BRIEFS
CAVCO Changes Could Have Impact on Productions In 2007 CAVCO (the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office) issued a new set of guidelines for Canadian content productions. Among the most crucial of the changes were the changes to the Producer Control Guidelines, found in Appendix I. The new “Non-Canadian Exemption Policy” replaces the old policy section of the Producer Control Guidelines originally issued in 1996. Under the 1996 guidelines, CAVCO allowed for a maximum of two non-Canadian credits for the following positions: executive producer; senior executive; supervising producer or supervising executive; production supervisor and associate producer These credits could be accorded so long as the functions didn’t interfere with or negate producer control. Any non-Canadian being accorded such credits would have to sign an affidavit outlining their duties and specifying that they would not have final creative or financing decision-making authority. In addition, only one individual non-Canadian courtesy credit was allowed for the following positions: production executive; production associate; executive/production consultant and creative consultant. Producers also had the option of granting an executive producer credit to either a non-Canadian leading performer or writer, provided that it is a vanity credit only, and further provided that no credits are granted to non-Canadians from the list in the above paragraph. Additionally, producers were limited to two non-Canadian presentation credits. Under the new guidelines, nonCanadians may be given courtesy screen credits from Group A and/or Group B (listed below), provided that such credits do not exceed the number of credits given to Canadians from the same group. Put simply, credits are completely at the producer’s discretion, so long as there is a Group A Canadian credit for every Group A nonCanadian credit, and a Group B MAY/JUNE 2009 REEL WEST
Canadian credit for every Group B non-Canadian credit. Group A: executive producer; senior executive/executive in charge of production; supervising producer; associate producer. Group B: supervising executive; production supervisor; production executive; production associate; executive/production consultant and creative consultant As with the 1996 guidelines, non-Canadian individuals accorded a courtesy credit would have to sign an affidavit outlining their duties and specifying that they would have no final creative or financing decision-making authority. These new credit guidelines represent an interesting change for Canadian producers. While it seemingly offers more flexibility for producers, allowing them to accord credits to non-Canadians as they see necessary, it also adds a subjective element to the credit-granting process, in that producers may be required to justify the credits accorded or risk being denied tax credits. Theoretically, a production can have an unlimited number of nonCanadian courtesy credits. In fact, one recent British Columbia production had 16 executive producer credits (eight of which were given to non-Canadians). However, in practice, the producer now has to be able to defend the granting of such credits to CAVCO, and could potentially be deemed off side, if CAVCO does not agree with the credits accorded. For more information of the 2007 guidelines, please refer to: http://www.pch.gc.ca/Cavco/pubs/ avis-notice/2007-01-eng.cfm Lori Massini’s practice focuses on the entertainment industry, assisting clients with all aspects of entertainment law from drafting agreements and negotiating the hiring of actors, writers, and directors to advising musicians and recording artists. Lori is actively involved in the arts, and is an accomplished dancer and musician.
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FINAL EDIT five film funding support programs available through the Yukon Film & Sound Commission.
PASSCHENDAELE
BC Back in Business
West Hot at Genies In what was easily the best year for western Canada in two decades, the majority of Genie winners at the recent edition, held in Ottawa on April 4, had some affiliation with the western provinces. Passchendaele, which was shot in Alberta, won six awards while three of the four acting prizes went to films shot in the west. In addition, Vancouver’s Greg Middleton won the best cinematography prize for Fugitive Pieces. Passchendaele won for best picture with Alberta producer Francis Damberger sharing the award with the film’s star/director Paul Gross, Niv Fichman and Frank Siracusa. It also won a Genie for art direction/production design for Carol Spier and Calgary’s Janice Blackie-Goodine and one for costume design for Calgary-based Wendy Partridge. The film’s other Genies were for sound editing (Jane Tattersall, Kevin Banks, Barry Gilmore, Andy Malcolm and Dave Rose) and overall sound (Lou Solakofski, Garrell Clark, Steve Foster and Don White.) The film also won the Golden Reel Award, which goes to the Canadian film that made the most money at the box office in the previous year. Three different western Canadian films won Genie awards for acting. The Manitoba film The Stone Angel won a Genie for best actress for Ellen Burstyn while Callum Keith Rennie won the best supporting actor award for Carl Bessai’s BC film Normal and the BC-shot Young People F***ing won a best supporting actress Genie for Kristin Booth. The award for best actor went to Natar Ungalaaq for Necessities of Life. The Stone Angel also won the original score award for John McCarthy. The Necessities of Life won the directing and editing awards for, respectively, Benoit Pilon and Richard Comeau, and the original screenplay award for Bernard Emond while Marie-Sissi Labreche and Lyne Charlebois won the adapted screenplay Genie for Borderline. The best documentary award went to Up the Yangtze and the live action short drama prize went to Next Floor. The Claude Jutra Award for best first film went to Quebec’s Everything is Fine and the make-up design award was won by Cruising Bar 2. Northern Incentives The government of Yukon recently announced it was making changes to the Yukon Film Location Incentive program. Economic Development Minister Jim Kenyon said the key change was the raising of the tax rebate by basing it on total Yukon expenditures rather than on labour expenses, thus raising the requirement for employing 30
Yukon labour to 50 per cent. “Yukon is a prime location for film production and has a thriving local film industry,” Kenyon said. “These amendments will make our spectacular locations more cost effective for national and international film production companies, and will continue to support the local film industry. The Film & Sound Com-
mission meets regularly with local filmmakers and film organizations, and strives to incorporate their comments when improving programs. Changes to the location incentive will provide additional opportunities for financial support for local productions and employment opportunities for skilled Yukoners.” Kenyon said the program is one of
Motion picture production spending in British Columbia in 2008 was $1.2 billion, an increase of more than $250 million over 2007 according to BC’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Bill Bennett. “Our province continues to be a top location in the global film and television industries, with our stunning locations, skilled professional workforce and world-class motion picture infrastructure,” said Bennett. “Even in these challenging economic times, the work we’ve put into strengthening and diversifying B.C.’s economy means that motion picture production and many other industries will continue to grow and thrive.” The Commission said total motion picture production spending and numbers of projects in British Columbia in 2008 were up almost 30 percent over 2007, with the majority of the increase in foreign features. A spokesperson said foreign features totalled $442 million in 2008, an increase of 146 percent over 2007. He said that while domestic spending as a whole decreased slightly, domestic animation spending increased 79 per cent, to over $96 million. In addition, both domestic television and film projects were up 75 per cent and four per cent, respectively.
Stargate producers win Leo Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright, creators of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have been selected to receive a Outstanding Achievement Awards at the upcoming Leo Awards. Leos spokesperson Walter Daroshin said that a second Outstanding Achievement Award will be given to stunt coordinator Jacob Rupp. “Robert and Brad’s achievements with the Stargate franchises have brought international attention and acclaim to BC film and television and, in the process, made them an institution on the West Coast,” said Daroshin. “Meanwhile, Jacob set the standard for stunt work, long before it became a (key part of the)industry. We look forward to celebrating the achievements of these deserving individuals. The 2009 Leo Awards will take place at Vancouver’s Westin Bayshore over the course of May 8 and 9 .
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