BANFF – Mountains, cocktails, double espressos and screenings with senators and stars, sure. But the Banff World Television Festival, as with almost every major international entertainment confab, is all about l’argent. Dollars for deals and creators hopes running as high as the bar bills at the Banff Springs Hotel.
The biggest rightnow payoff for those high hopes is the CTV Documart pitch session where a total of $100,000 worth of program development cheques is handed out to three teams of documentary pitchers. Walking away with the top prize of $50,000 Wednesday morning was Brett Gaylor, a producer at Montreal’s EyeSteelFilm, a man who is putting together a stellar pitching track record, having won last year at the less prestigious but still significant New Player’s Pitch.
Gaylor’s hit proposal at Documart is for Puff Daddy, a documentary proposal that Gaylor will develop and offer first to CTV, as the event sponsor, before taking it to other broadcasters. Second prize of $30,000 went to Daniel Cross, president of EyeSteelFilm, for his pitch for Game Over: The Rise and Fall of Atari. Cross and Gaylor have created such well-known docs as S.P.I.T.: Squeegee Punks in Traffic and The Street: life with the homeless. Third prize of $20,000 went to Roxanne Gregory of Madeira Park, B.C. for Forgotten Lives.
The final day of Banff has always been heavy on docs and 2005 was no exception. The Documentary Channel used the occasion to make a joint announcement with the National Film Board that adds several hundred thousand dollars more to the cause of feature doc production.
Following up on the earlier announcement by CBC and Telefilm of a year-long, $2 million feature doc funding pilot project, the Documentary Channel and the NFB each pledged $400,000 toward feature documentaries. Although NFB Government Film Commissioner Jacques Bensimon says the Board’s portion of the dinero was originally set aside for “other priorities”, it’s been diverted for this purpose.
Says Bensimon: “As the NFB has been a major player in Canadian feature docs, with box office successes like What Remains of Us, we will be enriching the non CBC component of the Telefilm pilot program. This means, that on top of the existing theatrical feature docs that the NFB is co-producing at the moment, we will earmark this fiscal year alone a further $400,000 for theatrical feature doc co-productions.”
But there’s more, the part of the announcement involving The Doc Channel. For the 2005-06 fiscal year, the digi-net will invest its $400,000 with the board, a minority partner in the channel, on new projects.
With all the money moving towards feature docs over the past few days here, there have been no hints as to where these longer-than-one-hour films will find airtime. Typical slots on many conventional and analogue specialty channels, with the exception of filmmaker centred strands such as TVO’s The View From Here, are 60 minutes long.
Of course, The Doc Channel (owned by Corus Entertainment) is a national exception. “Feature docs are the cornerstone of The Documentary Channel’s programming. (Our) commitment will help ensure that we get more high quality and high impact Canadian feature docs to build our distinctive programming,” says vice-president and general manager Michael Harris. “The powerful combination of NFB equity, distribution guarantees and TV licences will ensure funding for a number of theatrical feature docs in the coming year.”
Some estimates flowing out of the CBC/Telefilm announcement earlier this week suggested three to five films might be produced as a result of the initial $2 million pilot project, with others tapping into completion, distribution or development financing and receiving licences from other broadcasters.
The festival’s opening day saw the largest cash-centred announcement by far and, although the news involves funds to be made available beginning in 2006, it nevertheless provides peace of mind and stability for producers of all genres, on the spot. Heritage minister Liza Frulla told delegates that the feds will ante up another $100 million through the Canadian Television Fund for 2006-07 and she hopes to secure multi-year stability for the CTF before too long. Frulla also told reporters that she is urging the CRTC to review the impact of its controversial 1999 Television Policy as part of licence renewal hearings for the major conventional broadcasters over the next couple of years.
Another theme out of the Frulla announcement, as part of a restructuring of the CTF and Telefilm boards so that a single board governs television funding, is the move to include creators and “independent” voices on the new board. Producers have already been repped on the CTF board, but unions such as ACTRA welcomed the news that years of lobbying would finally give them a seat at the board table.
Broadcast Act should recognize producers
Other speakers also changed the tune of their crusades to add a call for creator representation, not only at board tables but also at the CRTC and in the Broadcasting Act itself.
The newly minted chair of the English producers association (CFTPA), Ira Levy, told a packed luncheon that while the CRTC’s Canadian content rules have made it possible for Canada to have an indie production community making such hits as Corner Gas, This is Wonderland and Trailer Park Boys, “it is also time for the CRTC to ensure the Commission works, not just for broadcasters. It has to work for producers. Remember, it’s the producer who creates the content and it’s the broadcaster who has been given access to the public airwaves. It is our mutual responsibility to make sure Canadians see even more great Cancon on their screens. But this won’t happen unless the CRTC recognizes the central role of the independent producer. That is why we would like to thank the CRTC for encouraging terms of trade negotiations between producers and every broadcaster in this room.”
He called on the Commission to monitor broadcasters’ adherence to these deals, once signed.
Levy did not comment on remarks from CRTC chair Charles Dalfen, who earlier insisted that the Television Policy was right to scrap broadcasters’ minimum spending requirements for Canadian drama. Dalfen argued the regulator’s recent move, offering financial incentives to reward increased drama hours with extra ad minutes, is sound policy. “The Commission is going to continue down an incentive-based path for the foreseeable future,” Dalfen told a lunch audience.
But Levy hinted producers could achieve more of their aims if they, like the CRTC, are recognized in federal policy “We also believe,” Levy continued, “the Broadcasting Act should be amended to reflect the central role of the producer and include the economic well being of the production sector as an objective. I know every regulator here must be cringing at the thought of opening that up, but it needs to be done if production companies are to thrive and grow rather than stumbling from project to project.”
Levy, who heads Toronto-based Breakthrough Entertainment (Atomic Betty, Kenny Vs. Spenny), emphasized that the producers’ world is not all bad news. “Our tax credits federally and provincially continue to improve. But again, we have to be diligent to ensure they remain competitive… the finance standing committee has recommended a 5 per cent increase on the domestic credit… But can we cut the red tape and get more money into production when we need it, not years after it’s been wrapped up?”
Finally, he warned that producers can’t rely on government subsidies, and reiterated a CFTPA plea for “greater contributions from broadcasters through licence fees and equity investment.”
HD, iTV: beyond the TV broadcast
Finding the money was also a common theme – if understated – at sessions spotlighting the move to high definition and the explosion of interactive applications. Discovery Networks USA was an early adopter with its Discovery HD Theatre.
Program development manager Shana Vickers discussed a wide range of shows that make the strand – including a show that reveals sunrises as they happen, all over America!
To bridge the funding gap for pricey HD production, Vickers says “when (our unit) gets independent program proposals, we compare the proposed budget with the cost to produce in HD and if they want the show, they pay the difference to get it in HD.”
She adds there’s no average upgrade cost because much depends on the shooting format. Discovery Theatre allows up to 25% of any program to be non-HD, because so much archive footage is used in docs, etcetera, but no source footage can be DV or mini-DV. She adds that average production costs have dropped about 20% in recent years, with kit and post costs falling.
As to the debate over film versus HD, another HD panelist, Randall Dark of HD Vision Studios in the U.S., says high def is an art form, and although it can’t replace the art form that is film, “Los Angeles is full of bean counters” and they’re always looking at the money.
In interactive, technology is bustin’ out all over, with more and more gizmos, remotes, set-top boxes and flashing lights to grab viewers.
Panelists at this session do not think “the clearly immature platforms” for interactivity are building audiences yet, but they argued iTV can build loyalty for a program’s existing audience. CBC’s Claude Galipeau quoted CBC stats showing 47% of respondents have a computer in the same room as a TV.
But more interesting was the finding that of the 68% of respondents using the TV and computer at the same time, “only 21% of computer use is directly tied to what’s on TV.” He says these multi-taskers are usually young men.
But after all the iTV innovation discussed and the special effects wowing the audience from the clip reels shown at this panel, only one person raised the issue of cost. Guy Charbonneau, a VP at Bluestreak Technologies, said there’s still no solid business model in place for making more than you spend on iTV linked to programming.
– Sue Tolusso
