The Canadian production industry seems to be rebounding from what was, by most accounts, a rough year for business in 2001, caused in part by a faltering economy that was shaken even further by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
"The phones stopped ringing," recalls executive producer Andy Crosbie of Sparks Productions, Toronto, of the immediate days following Sept. 11. "The production industry was ailing in the U.S. and in Canada before then, but Sept. 11 crystallized and brought forth the weaknesses of the industry."
Approximately 40 U.S. helmers are represented by Sparks for Canadian projects, including the rosters at Cucoloris Films, Venice, Calif.; bicoastal Zooma Zooma and Public Domain; Motel Films, Los Angeles and Minneapolis; Two Popes, Minneapolis; and the New York companies Tag Pictures, Dogtag Films, and Maysles Films. Sparks also represents individual directors, among them, Jim Manera of bicoastal/ international Great Guns; Tenney Fairchild of bicoastal M-80, Toby Phillips of Area 51 Films, Santa Monica; Clark Anderson of ka-chew!, Hollywood; and Tom Finerty of The Lopes Picture Company, New York.
"Most of us got beat up pretty badly, even before Sept. 11," agrees Don McLean, president/executive producer at The Partners’ Film Company, Toronto. "The year 2001 was terrible, across the board. The budgets were terrible when there was work. Partners’ has an ownership stake in other [industry] companies, and everyone was hurting." Partners’ associate companies include Industry Films, The Directors Film Company, The Big Film Company, Trailer Park Films, Revolver Film Company, Bedlam Films and untitled, all in Toronto.
The fallout from 9/11 was felt particularly hard in Toronto, which now ranks as the third-largest production center in North America (behind Los Angeles and New York) and, with a population of nearly four million, is the fourth-largest city in North America.
"[After 9/11], a lot of projects were put on hold or went away entirely," relates Teri Walderman, executive producer of New New Films, Toronto. New New represents 15 stateside directors, including Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, partners/directors at bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ); Marcus Nispel, a director at MJZ; Riess/ Hill (co-directors Chris Riess and Amy Hill) of Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles; and newly signed director Frank Samuel of Lotion, Los Angeles.
The slowdown hit the Canadian production community on several fronts, as most shops, in addition to repping American directors and companies for Canadian work, get a good share of their business by providing U.S. directors with production services for jobs that will air stateside (with the exception of Toronto-headquartered shop untitled, which represents a few U.S. directors in the Canadian market, but isn’t in the production services arena).
"Service jobs provide forty percent of our business," reports Edie Weiss, president of Radke Films, Toronto. "We had a four-month period [after 9/11] where the service work was shut down. And locally, there was also less Canadian work generated because people didn’t know what to put on the air." Radke represents a number of top U.S. production houses in Canada, and also reps directors Tom DeCerchio (who recently launched his own firm, Incubator Films, West Hollywood), Chris Hooper of bicoastal Bob Industries, and Elma Garcia of Elma Garcia Films, Woodacre, Calif.
Additionally, Radke launched a satellite company, Steam, a year and a half ago, that is run by head of sales Jennifer Sykes. Envisioned as a small boutique house specializing in comedy storytelling, Steam reps the roster of bicoastal Anonymous Content and of bicoastal Cohn+ Co, in addition to repping the directing team Speck. Gordon—Will and Josh, respectively—and David McNally, all of Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica; Boris Damast (of bicoastal Celsius Films); and James Wahlberg (repped stateside by Visitor, Santa Monica). Steam is rounded out by Canadian helmers David Wellington, Stephen Markle and Sammy Ray Welch.
Some execs, such as James Davis, partner/executive producer at the aforementioned untitled, report being minimally impacted by the recession or the aftermath of 9/11. "After Sept. 11, there was a bit of a slowdown," says Davis, "but it was nowhere as deep in Canada as it was in the U.S. Because we don’t roadhouse U.S. companies, we didn’t experience the big spike in business from the SAG strike, so it’s been very consistent for us. In general, over the past three years, it’s been a lot easier up here than in the U.S.—there wasn’t the SAG strike and we never had the amount of dot-com business [that the U.S. had]."
Even Keel
Canadian production has generally been on steadier footing; for all the American houses that went out of business in the past year or so (among them, Propaganda/Satellite, The End, Shooting Gallery Productions, Straw Dogs, Shelter Films, Crash Films and Cylo tvc), only one Canadian shop, Rave Films, has closed.
"It’s a cottage industry here," notes Davis. "Directors don’t insist on profit participation. And we have a ten-thousand-square-foot space here, which, were it located in New York, would be unaffordable. To me, low overhead is the ultimate key to running a business."
In January, untitled opened a Vancouver, B.C., branch, and is preparing to do its third job though that office. The firm’s roster of Canadian-based directors is Curtis Wehrfritz, repped in the U.S. by Little Minx, Los Angeles; Wayne Craig, repped stateside by Emerald Films, New York; and David Tennant, who is not currently repped in the U.S. In addition to these three (who live in Canada), untitled represents Robert Logevall, who is handled in the U.S. by Wonderland, New York; John Mastromonaco, whose U.S. rep is Bravo Zulu, Santa Monica; and Tim Godsall, who is with bicoastal Epoch Films.
Rather than making reciprocal repping deals with American companies, Davis and company partner Peter Davis believe that it’s easier to coordinate scheduling and budgets of a select group of directors—three of whom are in the same area code.
"We’re not splitting markup," Davis states, "and we don’t have to negotiate with an American executive producer. We’re getting directors who are acclimatized to this market … they are used to doing more with less. If they live here, we can present ideas in person at agencies. Ultimately, it seemed a more honest approach: Rather than having forty, sixty or one-hundred reels [of American directors], I’d rather have six reels of guys that [actually] work here."
Low overhead and a small group of talent have helped keep Toronto-based animation boutique Head Gear Animation steadily busy, says co-founder/ co-partner/director Steve Angel. Business-wise, the last 12-16 months have been quite good, supplying the shop with a mix of American and Canadian work. On the U.S. front, Head Gear has produced animated vignettes for Sesame Street, out of the Sesame Workshop, New York; a live-action/stop-motion combo spot called "Heads" for Ikea via Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis; and a live-action/cel animation combo Kool-Aid spot, "Grandpa," for The Bravo Group, New York.
"Last year was our best year ever," says Angel, who launched the shop four and a half years ago with co-founder/co-partner/director Julian Grey. "Our board flow has been consistent," he notes. "But we’re not a volume shop. A lot of the jobs we do are quite involved and technically complex, like the one for IKEA, and they take about three months to do. We haven’t really felt the recession or effects from Sept. 11—it seems the ones who are a lot bigger and have a bigger overhead are the ones impacted."
Upswing
However, of the Canadian companies to experience a downswing last year, all report that business overall began picking up around December. "I think people said, ‘We need to do what we need to do,’ " observes Christina Ford, president of Imported Artists Film Company, Toronto. "In December, business was booming and January was up twenty percent over the previous year." Imported Artists handles 30 U.S. directors, including the roster of bicoastal/international @radical.media (marking that company’s first Canadian representation).
Commenting that people began getting their confidence back around late November and December of ’01, Crosbie says that Sparks is now in the midst of a busy February. Among recent Sparks jobs is a Scott’s Paper Towels ad directed by ka-chew!’s Clark Anderson for ad agency Enterprise, Toronto, and a Canadian GM spot helmed by Sparks’ sole Canadian director, David Popescu, for MacLaren McCann, Toronto. The latter, "Super Fan," is a parody in which a man speaks earnestly of his devotion to what we presume is his Olympic training—"When you open for Canada, you’ve got to give it your all." At the end, it’s revealed that the guy is a goofy fan whom we see running around ringing a cowbell and painting a Canadian flag on his face.
New New’s Walderman notes that work has picked up, and is now steady. The shop is doing, on average, three jobs a month. (Only three of the last 15 jobs were service projects, she estimates.) Recently, the company serviced a Palomar job for Riess/ Hill—a package consisting of one :30 and eight :15s for HCA Columbia Women’s hospital via Fogarty Klein Monroe, Houston. New New also produced "Bra," a Canadian Hellman’s mayonnaise spot, out of Ammirati Puris, Toronto, directed by MJZ’s Jankel—one of Walderman’s busier directors in terms of Canadian work.
Like others surveyed, Ford cites the high quality of creative scripts generated from Canadian agencies—the majority of which are comedy driven—as a compelling lure for American directors. "Most of the time," says Ford, "if an American director is going to do a spot, he’s not going to make as much money, so it becomes [a matter of],’Do you want the spot for your reel?’ "
Crosbie confirms this and notes that, for example, Sparks’ Jim Manera has about three to four Canadian spots on his reel. "Toronto is very much like Minneapolis, in terms of the type of creative coming out of its agencies."
A prime example of this is Bud Light, out of Palmer Jarvis DDB Downtown, Toronto. "The work is very comedy driven, dialogue based," states Ford. "It has a fixed fee, so we know the budget going in. They’re one-day shoots, usually set at a bar or apartment, very clever and simple."
Weiss adds that several Bud Light spots procured by Radke for directing team Kuntz & Maguire (Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire) played a key role in establishing them in Canada; the team is repped stateside by MJZ. Along with spots for Eggo waffles via Leo Burnett Co., Toronto, and Ikea via Roche Macaulay & Partners, Toronto, the Bud Light ads helped serve to give Kuntz & Maguire "huge notoriety," says Weiss.
American directors have always been popular in Canada, which, much like the U.S. ad community, is always looking for what’s next. That said, some Canadian shops must walk a fine line in order to get work for their Canadian helmers and still service the American directors on their rosters.
Ford comments that while runaway production remains a contentious issue for Americans, it is the U.S. directors who consistently get the best Canadian work. "Overall, [Canadian agencies] are fickle," she remarks. "Being the smaller neighbor to the North, Canada has always looked to see what the Americans are doing."
Homegrown Talent
McLean asserts that Canadian production companies "couldn’t exist without American directors." He adds, "The one problem with taking American companies is that to get the five or six stars, you have to take all the other guys who are tougher sells, like the up-and-comers."
Partners’ reps between 35 and 40 U.S. directors, and an additional 17 directors who are either Canadian residents or natives. Among the most salable in the latter category is Partners’ director Steve Chase, who returned to his homeland late last year to helm a corporate GM spot titled "What If?" for MacLaren McCann. The ad consisted of car wreck footage run in reverse; its voiceover asked questions such as "what if" GM hadn’t invented seatbelts or devised other innovations. In December, Chase also helmed a more lighthearted Labatt spot—"Quest" for Ammirati Puris, Toronto—in which a guy chases the Canadian hockey team to the Olympics to return a dropped item: a cup from a jock strap. (Chase is repped in the U.S. by bicoastal Reactor Films.)
While executives are divided on the current popularity of Canadian directors in their own home market, most say they are keeping their homegrown talent working. Walderman has found projects to occupy her one Canadian helmer, Ron Baxter Smith, who also works as a still photographer. Ford reports that her company’s sole Canadian director, Dale Heslip, has been very busy. For one noteworthy project, Heslip teamed with D’Alessio; calling themselves Jerry, they co-directed a Fidelity Investments spot for Zig Advertising, Toronto, which was shot over eight days in Toronto and Prague.
Radke handles five Canadians: Phil Brown, Martin Shewchuk, Eddy Chu, Steve Gordon and Matt Eastman. "It’s our mandate to keep them working," Weiss says, adding that they’re also trying to get U.S. work for all except Brown, who is represented stateside through bicoastal/international Partizan.
Most of the executives predict an improved economy in the not-too-distant future, although few are willing to go out on a limb and pinpoint when a full recovery could be expected. "I’m not convinced that this is a return to normality," says Crosbie. "I think it will be well into the summer before the economy returns to normality."
Ultimately, Canada has much to recommend it; in McLean’s words: "We’re close by, we have a cheap dollar and a very sophisticated commercial industry." And while McLean expresses gratitude for the return of some of the American work that had been lost in ’01, he offers a more cautious outlook for the year ahead: "It can’t be as bad as last year."
