Fade in on a street scene: a busy sidewalk in a large American city. A handsome young man appears to be lost, but he ignores passersby until a beautiful woman offers assistance. In halting, Italian-accented English, he asks where he might find a certain restaurant. Seizing the moment, he continues: "Please, you join me?" Intrigued, she accompanies him, only to discover that the lost European is actually an American working a fake accent.
The charm of the faux-Continental is not unlike the appeal of Gallo’s Ecco Domani, the red wine that’s advertised in "Lost Man." Though it’s as delicious as most European wines, it was made in the good old U.S.A. Beneath the surface, "Lost Man" points out another type of international relationship. Despite the American flag fluttering in the background, this spot for a Northern California wine was shot not in San Francisco, but at the intersection of Adelaide and Victoria in Toronto. Conceived by Young & Rubicam, San Francisco, "Lost Man" was helmed by Montreal-born, Los Angeles-based director Jeremiah Chechik of bicoastal/international The Artists Company, with an American cinematographer, Allen Daviau, and a mostly Canadian crew. Mick Griffin edited the spot at Toronto-based Flashcut. Is this just another example of Canada reaping the benefits of runaway U.S. production?
"To the American commercial and film industry, it may feel like runaway production," says Andy Crosbie, owner/executive producer at Sparks Productions, Toronto, which provided production support to The Artists Company on the "Lost Man" shoot. "But actually it’s globalization, and that’s something we in Canada have been feeling for years."
"Lost Man," like many other spots, brought work to Canadian production and postproduction companies, and represents what Canada’s film and TV industry would like to continue. The relatively weak Canadian dollar—the exchange rate is $1 U.S. to $1.45 Canadian—means that a U.S. production that moves north increases its budget by .45 cents on the dollar.
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Canadian government nurtured the local film industry with generous tax incentives and welcomed foreign productions. Though the protectionist rules for spot work, which stipulated that Canadian boards had to be shot by Canadian directors, are a thing of the past, several prominent commercial and feature helmers, including Chechik and feature director Marco Brambilla (who is repped in the U.S. by bicoastal Straw Dogs and in Canada by Other World Films, Toronto), emerged from that era. But once the tariffs came down, says Jane Kessler, owner/executive producer of Blink Pictures, Toronto, "it was open season on directors. Now it’s harder for Canadian directors to make the leap to the A-list." In addition to representing Canadian directors, Blink has strategic partnerships with bicoastal Epoch Films, Los Angeles-based Vamp Films, Santa Monica-based Green Dot, and Outsider, London, and represents several American and British directors for work in Canada.
According to the Ontario Film Development Corporation, Toronto has become the third largest production center in North America, behind Los Angeles and New York. Vancouver trails behind in production dollars spent, though the geographic diversity of the city and its environs have made it an increasingly popular location for feature films and television series. To that end, Vancouver Film Studios announced this summer that it would undertake a $50 million expansion of its complex, which would make it Canada’s largest production facility. The plans, which include the construction of six additional state-of-the-art soundstages, are backed by a $14 million loan from the provincial government.
The project, which is scheduled to be completed by October 2000, could alleviate British Columbia’s studio shortage—a shortage that accounts for its dearth of deep inroads regarding commercial production companies. Despite record commercial production over the past year—more than 300 spots were filmed in Toronto alone in ’99—Canada’s commercial industry has been stung by the perception that runaway production is rampant. If that’s true, those in the business ask, then why isn’t Canada’s industry booming at a commensurate level?
Christina Ford, president of Imported Artists Film Company, a Toronto-based production house that represents many American directors, including Jeff Gorman of JGF, Hollywood, and Marcus Nispel of bicoastal RSA USA, for Canadian work, says that "overall business is good, but it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.
"The good news is, a city like Toronto has the support systems, the equipment houses, and the fabulous crews and locations—everything you need to make a good production," says Ford. "The bad news—and we’re seeing it more in Vancouver right now—is that greed is starting to set in."
Ford cites a ’99 shoot her company arranged for Saturn’s "Mr. Saturn," via Cossette Communication Group, Toronto. She calls the shoot a prime example of "the lawnmower theory—or as we might say up here, the snowblower theory": the public perception that film crews in the neighborhood can be forced to pay off uncooperative neighbors. On location near Montreal, director Richard D’Alessio, an American who lives in Toronto and is represented stateside by A Band Apart Commercials, Los Angeles, and in Canada by Imported Artists, was setting up a long-lens, silent shot. Then the crew noticed that one house in the background had a little too much detail. "We saw this man who’d chosen this moment to sit on the porch in his underwear. In midwinter," Ford says. "It takes all kinds, I suppose, but now we had to negotiate with him."
A handful of cash ensured that the trouser-less man would trouble the crew no more, but his point was made: Around the largest cities, where film production is booming, some residents have dollar signs, not stars, in their eyes.
"The trouble with locations is real," says Don McLean, owner/ executive producer at The Partners’ Film Company, Toronto. "The province works hard to make it work easily, but some of the feature films are not winning friends. People don’t like when they’ve got twenty trucks parked for four weeks on their street. A commercial may only tie things up for a day, but still, the resistance is real. Production is good for the city, even if it means we have to face the occasional traffic jam. We’re all going to have to be a little more careful, a little more polite."
Still, Canada remains a bargain for many international productions. "We saw more U.S. work than last year, for sure," says Ford. "A lot of U.S. spots are getting the postproduction done in Canada, as it’s still a real bargain." The postproduction boom represents growing opportunities for local editing and effects companies as well as production service outfits, but many in the industry lament the damage being done to the industry’s pride, as creative ideas are coming from elsewhere and the directors, by and large, aren’t Canadian.
The hurt feelings, and even bitterness, are in evidence both north and south of the border. McLean jokes of hiding out in the F.B.I. witness protection program. "If we didn’t have the U.S. work, the business would be in considerable trouble," says McLean. "Runaway production to Canada is a small factor in the overall problems in the U.S. industry, but they’re mad at all of us. It’s understandable. There’s been a boom here in long format, and it ain’t bad in our business either. Over the last decade, we’ve been getting more fly-in directors—American, British—which doesn’t help the cause of Canadian directors. But the problem we have is the same as in the states, and everywhere else: too many directors, not enough boards."
Like a number of production companies in Canada, Partners’ often works as a facilitator for U.S. production shops, and shares in the overall profits. Despite these relations to U.S. companies, much of the work done by Canadian shops is for Canadian agencies on spots that will air solely in Canada.
One recent exception was a campaign that Sparks produced for the Florida Panthers hockey team. The agency, Harris Drury Cohen of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., came up with a series of low-tech comic spots in the style of the old "Mr. Bill" sketches on Saturday Night Live. To promote the Panthers’ upcoming games, crude props—such as a stuffed buffalo to represent the Buffalo Sabres in "Sabres," and a stuffed penguin in "Penguins"—meet brutal fates at the hands of a sadistic "Mr. Hands"-like character who represents the Panthers. The commercials, which were directed by Sparks’ David Popescu, went north—not only because the Panthers trusted Popescu’s innate hockey knowledge, but because production and post costs were about half as much as they would have been in the U.S. Popescu, via Sparks, also recently helmed a Uniroyal tire ad, currently in post in Toronto, for Trone Advertising of High Point, N.C.
BEYOND CURRENCY
Spin Productions, a postproduction company with offices in Toronto and Atlanta, took an international approach to "Shower" and "Jalapeno," two spots for Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese, directed by Mike Bigelow of bicoastal Coppos Films for J. Walter Thompson, Chicago. On a Los Angeles soundstage, Bigelow filmed two actors playing angels indulging in a heavenly breakfast. Visual effects artists from Spin’s Toronto facility flew from Canada for the shoot. Then Connie Dercho, a senior producer at Spin and executive producer for postproduction on the spots, led the team in creating visual effects such as glowing halos and shimmering clouds at its Toronto studio. Total time working on Spin’s Inferno: three weeks.
The savings, even for one stage of production on an effects-driven spot, are substantial. An Inferno suite can run $1,200 per hour in the U.S, while the going rate in Canada is $650-$750. "A two-week session in the U.S. could cost the same as a three-week session in Canada," Dercho comments. "You get more time to play with your effects; more bang for your buck. You’re going to get a better spot.
"That said, though, it’s not about foreign companies coming to Canada just to save money. There is quality work done here, and there’s a lot of talent, and that’s a strong factor, too."
Though U.S. postproduction facilities may wince to hear it, Toronto’s numerous post houses are relatively convenient to Midwestern U.S. agencies. "There’s a thriving community of Toronto post artists," says Dercho. "We deal directly with the agencies in the region, Chicago: New York, Detroit, even Boston. It’s less of a border thing for us."V
