Heads" was part of an extended U.S. road trip to Canada. The :30 for Ikea, a combination of live-action and stop-motion animation, finds a young, buttoned-down man sitting in an apartment across from a good-looking woman. He is droning on about work. The woman, looking bored, gets up and moves behind the man. She casually pulls his head off and takes it to a closet full of other talking heads. Then she picks out another head—a funkier guy’s—and places it on top of the headless body. The tag: "Ikea offers different choices for different moods."
The striking spot, produced for Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis, comes from director Steve Angel, who notes that offering different choices is the theme of his company, Head Gear Animation, Toronto, as well. "We do cel animation, clay animation, 2-D animation design, mixed media, any combination of those—whatever looks good for the project," he notes. "We don’t have any boundaries."
That could also be the theme of the Canadian production and postproduction business in general, which is seeing a heavy influx of spots produced for American and international agencies and/or production houses. "Until fifteen years ago, everything was totally Canadian," says Don McLean, president of The Partners’ Film Co., Toronto. "We had our own clients and we made our own commercials, but in recent years, there has been a great influx of U.S., English, and French directors. The work up here has become very interesting."
International agencies are initially drawn to Canada because of economic reasons. "The cost savings are driving more work in from the States," observes Corinna Lehr, executive producer at Sparks Productions, Toronto. "It is forty percent less on the dollar, so you can generate more profit back home and put more of your money on the screen. Plus, we’re only an hour-and-a-half flight from New York."
The Canadian dollar may be weak, giving more for less, but the talent pool is now stronger. Indeed, there was a time when price was the main attraction, and Canada was considered a place that had great boards for U.S. directors only. "Until recently, there were two tiers—if you had a crap script with no money, give that to a Canadian director. The high end script you’d give to the American," recalls James Davis, partner/executive producer at untitled, which has offices in Toronto and Vancouver, B.C. "It was self-perpetuating because Canadian directors couldn’t build up material on their reel, so they couldn’t get the work because their reels weren’t great."
That’s no longer the case, according to industry insiders. Canadian production houses have been aggressively bidding—and getting—more top-level U.S. production and post work. For instance, editor David Hicks, who is with School, a Toronto editing facility, worked on Budweiser’s "Card" and "Mr. Foot-Long Hot Dog Vendor," both directed by Kuntz & Maguire—Tom and Mike, respectively—of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ). Both spots garnered Bronze Lions at the 2002 Cannes International Advertising Awards.
Some attribute the change to the increased international talent exchange between American and Canadian companies, with more Canadian companies working on U.S. jobs. Most Canadian operations now have affiliations with production outfits in the United States, and the majority of Canadian production companies split their work between homegrown and so-called roadhouse productions, where they co-produce a spot with an American company. Most companies average a 60/40—and sometimes 50/50—split between the two types of work.
"The Canadian market itself has diminished," notes McLean. "There isn’t as much of the homegrown work. We have a hardcore clientele of Canadian banks and breweries, but a lot of the companies up here are international divisions of big American corporations. Our market has shrunk, except we have been benefiting from runaway production from the States. That’s going a long way toward keeping Canadian business alive." Recent credits out of Partners’ include the spot "Tic Tac Toe" out of MacLaren McCann, Toronto, which was recently featured in SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (1/17, p. 11). The spot, directed by Steve Chase, who is represented stateside by bicoastal Reactor Films and in Canada by Partners’, was a co-production between the two companies. For instance, Radke Films, Toronto, has "evolved into a top-notch roadhouse company," according to company president Edie Weiss. In the last year, Radke has worked with a number of non-Canadian production houses, many of which it also has affiliations with, including bicoastal Headquarters; bicoastal/international Partizan; Omaha Films, Santa Monica; MJZ; bicoastal HSI Productions; and Incubator Films, West Hollywood.
"Great directors come here to shoot," says Weiss. One of those directors is Tom De Cerchio, owner/ director of Incubator Films, whom Weiss says she has represented in Canada for seven years at three different stateside production houses. "He just did a Ford Canada spot for Young & Rubicam, Toronto, for us," she says. "He works consistently up here."
That trend was first exploited by 12-year-old Imported Artists, Toronto, which, says company president Christina Ford, "was the first Canadian production company that decided to focus on non-resident directors. We represent non-Canadian directors from all over the world and sell them to Canadian agencies." Recent spots out of Imported Artists include three Bud Light ads, "Auction," "Parade" and "Worst Nightmare," directed by Frank Todaro of bicoastal/international @radical.media, and co-produced by Imported Artists, for agency Downtown Partners DDB, Toronto. Additionally, director Ken Arlidge helmed "Assembly Line" for GMC Canada, out of MacLaren McCann. (Arlidge is repped stateside by bicoastal Flying Tiger Films.)
Some question the reliance on international helmers, saying homegrown talent is better. The eight-year-old production house untitled (formerly Jolly Roger), which has offices in Toronto and Vancouver, represents seven directors—Wayne Craig, Tim Godsall, Robert Logevall, John Mastromonaco, David Tennant, Stacy Wall and Curtis Wehrfritz. (All but two of untitled’s directors have separate stateside representation—Craig is with Emerald Film, New York; Godsall is with Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles; Logevall is with bicoastal Anonymous Content; Mastromonaco is with Bravo Zulu, Santa Monica; and Wall is with bicoastal Epoch Films.) Untitled does no roadhouse work.
"A lot of runaway production comes up here, and [Canadian] companies end up repping forty, eighty or over one hundred directors [many from the U.S.]," says untitled’s Davis. "How can you properly rep that many people? It’s a false economy, too. You’re splitting the markup, which is already low. There’s no sense in doing it." Recent credits out of untitled include "Golf" for the Canadian Hockey Association, directed by Godsall, out of Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver. The company has additionally done spots for clients such as Rogers/AT&T, Sony Wega and the BMW Mini.
Davis foresees "a swing toward Canadian directors working in Canada. We had seventy-three percent more billings in 2002 over 2001," he reports. "And 2001 was a good year."
Branching Out
Companies like untitled seem to be bucking trends being followed by other operations, some of which have created arrangements between production and postproduction houses as a way to compete more effectively in the international arena. DKP Effects, Toronto—which offers 3-D animation, effects and compositing—works on commercials, features and episodic television.
In order to stay competitive, it recently opened a production company, ‘ello Luv, which, says DKP president Dan Krech, "allows us to do portions of live action for an effects spot or to film a complete, live-action commercial. We saw a niche that needed to be filled—offering our clients full-service production," he says. "We had had experiences where we had gone on the set as visual effects consultants [for live-action jobs with effects], and we saw a lot of people did not understand what needed to be done. We thought we could reduce costs and increase efficiency by having all of that under one roof."
The idea has drawn attention from U.S. clients. DKP and ‘ello Luv successfully collaborated on "Pizzeria," for Maalox, out of Grey New York (creating both French and English language versions). The ad was directed by Derek Vanlint of ‘ello Luv, which is located in the same offices as DKP. The :30 entailed the integration of photorealistic CGI villains in the form of hot pepper flakes and soda in a live-action restaurant setting. The villainous characters’ plan to cause discomfort to the diners is thwarted by the swift arrival of a heroic Maalox tablet bottle.
Such cross-company diversity is not unusual, and it’s being used by many to help combat bad economic times. Partners’ has set up an equipment rental company and also a post facility. "Those affiliated companies help keep us from getting clobbered," McLean says. "It’s better when you rent a camera from yourself—you take money from one pocket and move it to another."
In the post world, things are tougher. Many post house reps admit there is an imbalance at play—a glut of editors and not enough work to go around. "There seems to be lot of editors in Toronto and a limited amount of work," says Sarah Brooks, executive producer at School. "People are being aggressive in trying to get work. Price is often what drives things."
Indeed, although there is much optimism in the brisk Canadian air, there is also a chill from world events. With the looming prospect of war and a sagging U.S. economy, U.S. and other international prospects are, at best, fuzzy. "You have no control over how it all shapes up," Davis says. "If there is an extended war, it will create uncertainty from a client standpoint."
"U.S. agencies have been coming up here, but that will probably change," predicts Sam McLaren, executive producer at Panic & Bob, a Toronto editorial facility. "They will probably not be coming as much. The situation with Iraq may keep people at home, rather than traveling."
DKP’s Krech adds that the way business is conducted is also changing. "Many agencies have their own editorial departments, and some production houses are going directly to the client," he notes. "Everybody is trying to get an edge. One thing that gives you that edge is having creative people. As the costs of equipment come down, it’s the quality of your people that will give you your edge."
