Cinema Canada (Mar 1982)

raise. This forces the independents to sell to foreign markets, which means they must compete with international production standards. The successful independents survive by recognizing how their product must be adapted to the needs of the marketplace, in either television, non-theatrical film, or a combination of both. Whatever their market, one fact of life all independents realize is they have to be export-oriented to survive. “For the Canadian independent, it’s life and death to sell abroad. The independents will never get 100 percent of their costs from licensing to the domestic markets,” says Bill Macadam, president of Norfolk Communications, one of Canada’s largest independent television production houses. In 1979, Norfolk burst upon the Canadian television scene with Connec the television production industry. Another high profile television house is Primedia Productions, owned and operated by Pat Ferns and Richard Nielsen. They formed Primedia in 1981 after their corporate backer, Torstar, pulled out of their previous company, NielsenFerns International. Primedia’s record shows a commitment to innovative, quality Canadian programming: The Wars, which technically remains a Nielsen-Ferns property, is an adaptation of Timothy Findlay’s acclaimed novel featuring an all-Canadian cast; the company has an exclusive contract to adapt National Ballet of Canada productions to the screen; in pre-production for 1982 are Billy Bishop Goes To War, starring Eric Peterson, and a miniseries of Gabrielle Roy's novel The Tin Flute. tions ; An Investigation into Organized Crime, an exposé of the Canadian under world produced for the CBC, which aired to high ratings and rave reviews for its high quality investigative journalism. Since then, Norfolk has pre-sold a segment of another series, The KGB Connections, for prime-time use to ABC, the first Canadian independent to make a pre-sale contract with an American network (and one of the few to date); done co-productions with the British Broadcasting Corporation; and consistently turned out quality entertainment programming using Canadian and international talent. Macadam sees Norfolk’s role as a catalyst, acting to bring together the finest available talent for each project. He does not believe in putting a lot of people on staff. Like all the independents, Macadam emphasizes the importance of teamwork: as president and producer-in-chief, he assumes creative control, but chairman Kitson Vincent is responsible for financial planning and development, chartered accountant Mark Moore handles cost control through . a daily system of computer readouts, Paul Kent co-ordinates projects and distribution, and Duane Howard serves as production manager, on a team which has quickly achieved a high profile in 20/Cinema Canada — March 1982 . ey As influential members of the Canadian independent production community, Macadam and Nielsen daily confront the problems which limit the independent producers, such as the need to sell abroad because of the small Canadian market, the difficulty in raising financing, and the government regulations which, whatever their original intention, hamper viable independent production. One essential deal for the producer of primetime television material is the pre-sale contract. Macadam flatly states Norfolk won't handle a project unless it has pre-sale possibilities. The reason pre-sales are essential, Nielsen explains, is that while independents abroad recover between 75-90 percent of their costs from their domestic markets, pre-sale revenues in Canada almost never reach 50 percent; forcing | the Canadian independent to rely on foreign sales. Their strategy is to pre-sell a project to two or more markets, usually Canada and at least one foreign market, then sell to the rest of the world after the film is completed. But the whole wide world is not an unlimited market for pre-sales, Except for pay-television, the American market is virtually inaccessible — they don’t prebuy from foreign suppliers as a rule. There aren’t many commercially viable projects Canadians can co-produce with Asian, African, and South American television. Australia has its own production industry competing in the inter national market. The Canadian independent’s best foreign pre-sale market is Europe, where programming demand is high, and where Canada has .coproduction treaties with Great Britain, France, Italy, and West Germany. Presale funds from Europe can be substantial, often amounting to 50°percent of production costs. But even in getting 50 percent out of Europe, the battle isn’t over. “The problem is, to the extent productions are tailor-made for Canadian and pre-sold European markets, it becomes harder to design the program for the American markets also,” says Nielsen (an after-the-fact sale to one of the U.S. networks often puts a production in the black). “Unless Canada starts “You cannot sell lowest common denominator product around the world. That’s proven.” ° —William Macadam to pay a larger percentage of the production costs, there will be no more independent production industry in Canada. We can’t make the industry go unless conventional and pay-television cover 50 percent of the cost.” Nielsen and Macadam both cite the advantages Canadian producers have in the international market: English acceptable to the American audience's ear, co-production treaties providing money, expertise, and creative input, ‘and a not-yet-fully-tapped wealth of Canadian talent. “People forget that Canadians have had a huge impact on world television,’ emphasizes Macadam. “The perception in Britain five years ago was that Canadians couldn't do drama, yet Sidney Newman, a Canadian, was in charge of the BBC drama department. One-fifth of the American television production community in Los | Angeles is Canadian, and Canadians are behind those American shows ‘imported’ into Canada. Let’s get them back by making. top quality programming and selling it around the world.” Macadam sees no reason why Canada. can’t crack the world television export market dominated by the Americans. “The USA exports 87 percent of the TV seen around the world. They're exploiting a form of culture absolutely astonishing in its power. Every production we do is seen by 100 million people around the world ; 30 years ago, to think of reaching that number of people would have seemed impossible. As a nation, we cannot afford not to be a part of this.” Presently, Canada exports less television product than Great Britain, France, or West Germany, despite its market advantage. Macadam believes increasing Canada’s television exports will not only bring high amounts of foreign currency into the country, but also will give Canadians a perceived image abroad. “Until other people see us as different from the United States, we will have no perceived identity at home,” he says. Aware of Canada’s role in the development of high technology, particularly the area of satellites, cable television, and the Telidon system, Macadam criticizes Canada’s neglect of the high technology explosion’s other factor, the production of software. “There is no sense in us being leaders in satellite technology if they are going to be filled with American television programs,” he says, advocating incentives which would encourage Canadian producers to export their product and compete with the rest of the world as the only way to repatriate Canadian audiences, 80 percent of whom, he maintains, presently watch American programming. : “This country launched a great effort to establish a feature film industry with the expectation that the films would take only 10 percent out of the home market. Nowhere in the world does the home market only equal 10 percent,” observes Nielsen, citing this as the primary reason Torstar withdrew its backing from Nielsen-Ferns. He feels the advantages of television production over feature film are its more controllable costs, more predictable returns, and larger audiences. “TV is the only sensible way to produce. There is a market: the demand for popular entertainment is insatiable. The world market is an ‘honest’ one, with only 2-3 buyers in each country, allowing a producer to reasonably predict his return.” Primedia concentrates its production on made-for-TV features and dramatic mini-series because they are what Ferns and Nielsen believe sell best in the marketplace. Nielsen analyses the market this way : “Single documentaries are almost impossible to do. Distributors hate them, unless it’s a very hot topic. A documentary series must be tied to a successful genre, for example, wildlife. For some reason, variety just doesn’t seem to travel in this country. Drama works well in the international market, but continuing dramatic series are unlikely to be sold abroad.” He criticizes the Canadian industry's weak efforts to find and develop Canadian talent ; one of the objectives of The Wars, he says, is to give worthy Canadian talent some international recognition. “We do have the stars in this country, but we haven't provided them with the vehicles to give them an international profile.” The independents have three basic means of financing projects with their investors : tax shelter, pre-sale, and coproduction. All three systems have their difficulties. Co-productions and pre sales require producers to raise only some part of the total production costs themselves, but such guarantees demand a proven track record and substantial industry contacts at home and abroadthings a young independent can’t acquire overnight. Since tax shelter money must be at risk, a task shelter deal often precludes a pre-sale arrange