sign in sign up
<<
Home , Cathy Jones, Development hell, Lexx, Picnicface, Salter Street Films, Shawn Doyle

Six men, two dories and the North Atlantic Why it’s an apt analogy for Atlantic ’s industry and its place on the global stage.

52 | Atlantic Business Magazine | September/October 2012 By Stephen Kimber

dawn in the nowhere it’s middle of the Atlantic ocean. How many days have they been drifting out here? Dickie – at 17, the youngest crew member – is supposed to be keeping watch. But he’s asleep, sprawled out in the bow of one of the two dories, his head lolling over the gunwhale. He wakes with a guilty start, stares, tries to make sense of the endless nothingness of dark-blue sea and flat grey sky. Wait! What’s that? On the horizon. A speck? Another vessel? A mirage? He looks back into his dory where his father, Merv, and Pete, the harpooner, are curled up asleep, and then across to the other dory where Gerald, Mannie and Gib are sleeping too. Finally, he decides. He reaches out, whispers, “Pete… Pete.” Pete wakes, growls: “What?” Dickie can only point. Pete sees what Dickie sees. He throws off his blanket, jumps to his feet. “There’s a boat,” he says, then louder, as if convincing himself. “There’s a boat. THERE’S A BOAT!” He’s screaming now, rousing the others. Gerald, the captain, immediately assumes command, scrambling to find the fog horn he’d rescued when their fishing boat sank. He blows a blast. Then another. The rest of the men grab for the oars. Mannie, the first mate, struggles to bring order to their chaos. “Heave,” he orders, “heave—” Wait a minute?… Isn’t Mannie … an actor … the one who plays the creepy politician running for mayor in that American TV series The Killing? Billy Campbell?

On the set of The Disappeared: Director of photography Christopher Porter with two cameras rolling and using a pizza box for a light reflector.

Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 53 Seventeen members of The Disappeared’s cast and crew crowded together on the floating barge that is their open-air control room/viewing platform. Photo: Mike Tompkins

When we pull back – just like in a movie the harbour at Lunenburg, ) the production office, and sometime set, in because this is a movie – we see what we seas are definitely getting rougher. Water their apartment over a pornographic book didn’t notice before. There are two camera sloshes over the low-to-the-water decking. store in downtown Halifax. operators squeezed into the stern of each The danger is probably less than it seems. Salter Street – named after the bobbing dory, 16 mm cameras on their Three Zodiacs, two with safety divers and street where that first office was located – shoulders, filming the six actors playing another with a standby camera, buzz just quickly became a key cornerstone of the out this scene. out of camera range. Beyond them is the Nova Scotia independent film and television We are in the middle of filming The “back lot”: two 42-ft. Cape Island boats production industry, responsible for Disappeared, a low-budget indie feature filled with more gear as well as hair, make- programming as diverse as Life with Billy, about the aftermath of the sinking of a up and wardrobe staff. a reality-inspired movie about a wife who swordfishing boat. Off in the distance toward Lunenburg, a kills her abusive husband, and Codco, the “Six men, two dories and the North shuttle boat chugs out to the “set.” During satirical sketch comedy show that eventually Atlantic,” is the shorthand Shandi Mitchell, the day, this vessel plies the 40-minutes morphed into the long running This Hour the film’s writer and director, uses to between on-shore production headquarters Has 22 Minutes. Salter Street also produced describe her first feature film. and the filming location frequently, , a German-Canadian co-produced If we pull our own lens/eye back still ferrying meals, craft services and gear for sci-fi series that ran for four seasons, and further, we see a purpose-built wooden raft cast and crew. On this trip, it’s carrying , American Michael tethered to the sea bottom. The raft – a 16- Ralph Holt, one of the producers, and a Moore’s acerbic anti-gun film that not only by-20 ft. open-air control room and filming second who is bringing won an Oscar but also earned more than platform – is piled high with camera gear the call sheet with tomorrow’s shooting $60 million, making it, at the time, the and crammed with people: Mitchell, an schedule. highest grossing documentary of all time. assistant director, two camera teams, crew It takes a lot of real life to create the In 2001, -based from props and continuity, a grip, even a illusion of film. bought Salter Street for $82.3-million, only safety diver. Just in case. Welcome to the film business, Atlantic to close its Halifax office three years later. At this moment, everyone is less Canadian style. A year after that, Michael Donovan and concerned whether the six men in the another former Salter Street executive dories will finally catch that illusory vessel opened Halifax Film, now DHX Media, on the horizon and more worried whether Although the first feature film ever a publicly traded, vertically integrated they will make their . made in Canada was shot in Nova Scotia entertainment company responsible for 40 There’s less than half an hour remaining in 1913 (Evangeline, based on Longfellow’s television titles and eight children’s series. in their 12-hour day, and they’re losing epic poem), Atlantic Canada’s Salter/DHX is far from Halifax’s – or light. And while we’re not really in the didn’t really become established until Atlantic Canada’s – only industry success middle of the ocean (turn and you’ll see in the early 1980s when two brothers, Paul story. Today, the TV and film industry in the distance Cross Island and the mouth of and Michael Donovan, set up their first Atlantic Canada has become a major source

54 | Atlantic Business Magazine | September/October 2012 of economic activity and employment, generating the equivalent of 3,600 full- time jobs. , for example, the cult Canadian television mockumentary series about friends, drugs and life in a trailer park, ran for seven seasons on Canada’s Showcase channel, sold internationally and has spawned two top-grossing Canadian feature films with a third likely on the way. That second film, 2009’s Countdown to Liquor Day, took in $1.32 million at the box office during its first weekend and went on to gross more than $3 million during its theatrical release, winning Telefilm Canada’s 2009 Golden Box Office Award for commercial success. Chester, N.S.’s Big Motion Pictures, which produced two “wildly successful” mini-series about the life of Pierre Trudeau as well as Black Harbour, a drama series that ran for three seasons on CBC, is currently co-producing Haven, a $27-million American sci-fi series now in its third season. Close to a third of its budget gets spent in Nova Scotia. Thanks to its look-alike New England towns and scenic and historic backdrops – not to mention its experienced crews – Nova Scotia has also become a mecca for such “guest”productions: everything from big-budget Holywood epics like The Scarlet Letter and parts of Titanic to American TV dramas like Tom Selleck’s long-running detective vehicle, Jessie Stone, to movies of the week (MOWs). Most choose to film here primarily because it’s been cheaper, thanks to the formerly low Canadian dollar and attractive tax credits that help offset production costs. Jessie Stone, for example, has qualified for $3.9 million in tax credits since 2004 because it employs Nova Scotia actors and crew. According to Film Nova Scotia, the province’s industry-boosting and investing agency, Halifax is now the fourth largest production centre in Canada behind Toronto, and Montreal. In 2011-12, Nova Scotia productions – four indigenous feature films, 14 documentaries, 12 drama series, five lifestyle series, five animation series and one new media production, The film and television industry in Atlantic Canada is touted as a major source of economic activity and employment, generating 3,600 full-time jobs annually. Among the most successful projects are (starting at top, going clockwise): 1. not to forget eight “guest” productions – , now entering its 19th season on CBC. Cast members, left to right: , Geri Hall, generated $115 million for the economy. Mark Critch, and Shaun Majumder. 2. CODCO, a popular sketch comedy series that aired on CBC from 1987 Across the Northumberland Strait, the to 1992. Left to right: Cathy Jones, Andy Jones, , and Tommy Sexton; photo by Chris Reardon. Photo courtesy of Memorial University’s Centre for Newfoundland Studies Archives (Coll-121, 11.50), reproduced by story is equally upbeat. The Newfoundland permission of CODCO. 3. The Trailer Park Boys, a mockumentary t.v. series about fictional trailer park residents Ricky, and Labrador Film Development Corporation Julian and Bubbles, aired from 2001 to 2007. It has since found new life on the big screen. 4. Republic of Doyle is the largest original television series ever produced in Newfoundland. Shown here is the show’s star/writer/executive boasts that for every dollar it’s invested in producer Allan Hawco, who plays the character of erstwhile private investigator Jake Doyle. The show is now entering its the film industry, “the total GDP return to fourth season. Photo: Duncan DeYoung the province was $2.86.” It may be even more.

Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 55 Consider Republic of Doyle, the idea for The Disappeared begins the quirky father-son detective on a dock in Sambro, N.S., in 2002. series, the “largest original Mitchell, already a veteran of the Nova television project ever produced” Scotia film and TV scene, was directing in Newfoundland. It attracts a a small shoot for television. During the million viewers a week for its CBC lunch break, she decided to stay on the airings. Better, the show – with St. dock by herself to plan her afternoon’s John’s as both colourful backdrop shooting. and key character – is now airing At some point, a 92-year-old local in “96 countries,” according sea captain wandered onto the dock to its star and co-creator Allan and began to chat. “I was a prairie girl,” Hawco. What that means, adds Mitchell recalls. “I didn’t know anything Newfoundland Finance Minister about the ocean.” Tom Marshall, is that Republic of Were you ever scared, she asked him at Doyle is “marketing our province one point? to an international audience.” “I remember he looked away, then Which is one reason why the said very quietly – ‘Once’ – and walked Newfoundland government happily away.” Later, he returned with a five-page invested $3 million toward the typewritten account of his own ordeal series’ fourth season. after his fishing vessel sank 300 miles

Photo: Kharen Hill Kharen Photo: Another reason is that Republic’s from shore. The writing itself was dry – seven-month-a-year production “Day 4. The winds were…” – but the larger schedule “sustains” 110 full-time story captured Mitchell’s imagination. jobs in the province, “with 90 per “What could that be like?” cent… paying over $25 an hour, Four years later, in the middle of writing and with some… over $100 an her own first novel – the acclaimed Under hour.” This Unbroken Sky – Mitchell was fighting And then, of course, there’s a mysterious illness and thinking about consider republic the significant percentage of any “my own fears about mortality.” show’s budget that gets plowed back She took a break and, in 15 whirlwind of Doyle, the quirky into local shops, restaurants, hotels, days, turned out what would become the bars, car rental agencies, house and first full draft of The Disappeared. father-son detective office leasing agencies, contractors and Little did she know it would take six series, the “largest on and on. more years, 14 more complete drafts (plus As in Nova Scotia, Republic of Doyle may too-many-to-count “sub-drafts”) and original television be Newfoundland’s most iconic success more setbacks than she cares to think story but it’s far from the only one. about before the film finally found its way project ever produced” Best Boy Entertainment, a Mount Pearl- to the big screen. in newfoundland. based, vertically integrated film, television and digital media company that recently it attracts a million built its own studio, employs 50 people and “if it’s canadian and it comes from is selling its mix of documentaries (Soccer here,” Gordon Whittaker explains simply, viewers a week for its Shrines, a 13-part documentary series “we’ve been there since Day 1.” cBc airings. about soccer fans and their stadiums), Whittaker is the Atlantic regional docudramas (Pet ER), animation/live kids director, Industry Promotion and Feature shows (Mickey’s Farm) and even mobile Film, for Telefilm Canada, the federal games (Math Fun 123) in 60 countries funding agency that invests in film, TV around the world. and now new media projects. In June, the company won a provincial Canada’s film industry – like those export award for creating “new opportunities in most developed countries except the through innovation.” The company’s goal, – depends for its success, founder Ed Martin told the St. John’s Telegram, and its survival, on a combination of is to locally create products “specifically public and private financing. designed for global consumption. Telefilm, which invested close to “It doesn’t matter that we’re an island in $120 million in Atlantic feature film the North Atlantic that inhibits so many productions in the first 25 years since other industries,” Martin explains. “It’s it opened its Halifax office in 1984 a matter of having great ideas and great (shortly after the Donovan brothers set up talent, which we have in abundance, and shop), is the key federal funding agency, then the ability to take these products to providing up to 49 per cent of the budgets market.” for approved projects, “though not often And it all begins, of course, with an idea. that much,” Whittaker says.

56 | Atlantic Business Magazine | September/October 2012

In 2009, he teamed up with partner Karen Strategic Partners is especially important Franklin, another ex-Telefilm executive, to for Atlantic Canadian producers because form Toronto-based Hill 100 Productions. 30 per cent of the coveted spots at the Because of his earlier experiences at invitation-only event are reserved for them. Telefilm’s regional office and the fact he’d Miller points proudly to Strategic been born in Nova Scotia, he was especially Partner’s recent “instrumental role” in interested in finding “Maritime properties” connecting New Brunswick producer Tony he could help develop. Whalen and Winnipeg-based Phyllis Laing. During one scouting trip to Halifax, he Their co-produced feature, All the Wrong met with Forsyth, whom he’d known from Reasons, was filmed in Nova Scotia this his work in the industry. “He had a few summer. suggestions and, at the end, he said, ‘Mind It doesn’t always work out, of course. It if I send you a script?’” didn’t for Ralph Holt. When he was regional It was a draft of The Disappeared that director at Telefilm, he’d encouraged Forsyth and Mitchell had now been fiddling Miller to launch Strategic Partners. As a with on off and on for the past five years. newly minted producer, he returned with “I read it and this was like the hammer on a portfolio of potential projects, including the head of the nail of what I’d worked for at The Disappeared, to . Telefilm. There were these rich characters There were no takers. and this very powerful, very Maritime story. But that didn’t mean, he is quick to add, it I said, ‘let’s go, let’s do it.’” was a waste of time. But making a film – as Holt knew, or “We learned a lot about what works – and should have known, from the other side of what doesn’t.” gordon Whittaker the desk – is never that simple. Atlantic regional director, Industry Promotion and Feature Film, in the winter of 2010, Holt, Forsyth Telefilm Canada Jan Miller smacks her tambourine and Mitchell were ready to begin pitching against her hip. It’s her signal to wrap up their movie in earnest. Although Ottawa has lately been this round of half-hour, one-to-one pitch “It’s a chicken and egg thing,” Mitchell squeezing Telefilm’s budget, the agency has meetings, and for the pitchers to move on reflects. “You need the people (the cast, still managed to invest an average of more to the next table to meet their next pitchees. the director, the crew) in place to get the than $2 million a year for the last eight years The pitchers are producers with film and funding, but you can’t get the people into a total of 30 regional films, 18 of them TV projects seeking investors; the pitchees without the funding.” helmed by first-time directors like Mitchell. are producers, distributors and broadcasters They haunted film festivals, hoping It helps that most regional films are looking for film or TV projects to invest in. for a chance to hand a script to an actor low-budget affairs, often costing less than This session in a Halifax hotel ballroom they’d like to cast, or to schmooze with key $2 million to make. dotted with dozens of small round tables decision makers. The rest of a film’s budget comes is part of an annual international co- “You’d get one piece of the puzzle in from a cobbled together combination of production marketplace known as Strategic place,” Mitchell remembers, “and then you’d investments from provincial funding Partners. Over the course of three hectic lose another.” agencies, tax credits, distribution deals, days in the middle of the Atlantic Film broadcast licenses and private investors. Festival each September, 200 carefully Telefilm’s own investment in The selected producers and industry dealmakers Disappeared began in 2007 when the agency from all over the world participate in over provided seed money to allow Mitchell and 1,000 pre-arranged face-to-face meetings, her initial producing partner, Halifax-based hoping to strike co-production deals – or Walter Forsyth, to polish the script and at least make the connections that may production plans. ultimately lead to deals. has invested close Miller, a former actor and industry veteran, created the now 15-year-old event – to $120 million in ralph Holt had decided he wanted to the only one of its kind in Canada and one of Atlantic feature film see the world from the other side of the film the few in the world – in part because it has funding desk. become too expensive and too complex for productions in the After more than 20 years with Telefilm individual producers to make shows on their Canada – including a stint as its Atlantic own. They need the kind of international first 25 years since regional director, during which time he’d partnerships they can forge at events like it opened its Halifax green-lit the agency’s funding of such iconic Strategic Partners. And they do. regional productions as Random Passage, Combat Hospital, a recent, short-lived office in 1984. Rare Birds, The Hanging Garden, Trailer Canadian-American-British TV series Park Boys, 22 Minutes and Theodore Tugboat about military surgeons in Afghanistan, – Holt decided he wanted to try producing was conceived during Strategic Partners in himself. 2009.

58 | Atlantic Business Magazine | September/October 2012 LEAD THE WAY WITH CONFIDENCE IN ALL YOUR MARKETS.

2012 Legacy • World-class style, handling and safety • Subaru symmetrical full-time All-Wheel Drive • High-performance SUBARU BOXER engine • Optional Lineartronic® CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission)

Top Safety Fuel economy (L/100 km) ∆ ® † CVT Lineartronic City 9.1 / Hwy 6.4 Pick 6MT City 10.6 / Hwy 7.4 ‡ PZEV version available on Legacy, Recommended minimum octane: 87 Outback and Forester Estimated Data Choose PZEV technology, the affordable 2012 LEGACY eco-friendly alternative without the compromise. Great fuel efficiency with the optional BEST MAINSTREAM BRAND subaru-pzev.ca Lineartronic® CVT (Continuously 2012 SUBARU LINE-UP Variable Transmission)

For more information, please visit www.fleet.subaru.ca or call 1 877 293-7272 for the National Fleet Sales Department.

∆ The fuel consumption data are estimates based on information compiled by Natural Resources Canada. Actual fuel consumption will vary based on driving conditions, driver habits and vehicle load Vehicles shown for illustration purposes only. Technical specifications are subject to change without any prior notice. ‡ ALG 2012 Canadian Residual Value Award for the Subaru line-up: first place in Mainstream Brand category. † Top Safety Pick for the 2012 Legacy. Rating of ˝Good˝ is the highest rating awarded for 40-mph (65 km/h) front offset, 31-mph (50 km/h) side-impact and 20-mph (32 km/h) rear impact crash tests and in the roof strength test (rollover protection) conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) (www.iihs.org). A ˝Good˝ rating obtained in all four crash tests and the availability of the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) (Vehicle Dynamic Control) is necessary to achieve a ˝Top Safety Pick˝. Technical specifications are subject to change without any prior notice. Vehicles shown for illustration purposes only.

SUBMI-6136_AtlBusiness_Legacy.indd 1 12-08-09 12:16 PM on the set of the Disappeared Photos by: Mike Tompkins; provided by: Ralph Holt

(Left) Actor Brian Downey discusses the scene with director of photography Chris Porter and director Shandi Mitchell. (Above right) Shandi Mitchell providing direction to actor Neil Matheson.

They ended up in a typical kind of with other filmmakers with other equally But the entertainment business is , scrambling to put together compelling projects, all of them hoping for a changing – and quickly. DVDs, video a package that included a cast and budget piece of the same very small pot of available on demand, online streaming, festival in order to take to funding agencies like money. screenings, awards, international sales… Telefilm and Film Nova Scotia, as well as Telefilm turned them down. all offer new revenue streams – and new broadcasters, distributors and even private There were a number of other worthy ways of measuring commercial success. backers. projects ready to go that fall, Whittaker Which is good news for Atlantic Film Nova Scotia, the provincial film remembers. “If we divided the pot and filmmakers. and television funding agency, liked The provided what we could to everyone, it Consider. Disappeared, but wouldn’t commit until the wouldn’t be enough to make the film they Hobo with a Shotgun, a gory, cult horror project had its other financing in place. wanted. [The Disappeared] was an ambitious flick that premiered at the famous Sundance So they made presentations to Canadian film, very ambitious, and we were afraid Festival, began life as a two-minute short distributors, the powerful folks who control trying to do it with less money would by first-time Halifax director Jason Eisener. what gets shown in Canadian cinemas. jeopardize the project.” Posted on YouTube, it became a viral “They said they liked what we wanted to do,” Saying no “is the most difficult part of sensation and won the Grindhouse Trailer Holt recalls, “but it wasn’t their kind of film.” my job,” he admits, “especially when you’ve Competition, which generated enough It wasn’t, in other words, what Holt already helped develop and encourage the project. industry buzz to secure funding for the full- knew it wasn’t – a Hollywood blockbuster. And, of course, it’s a small community where length feature. They applied to the Canadian Film everyone knows everyone.” Last year’s Rollertown, a film featuring the Centre’s features program, which provides “It was really disappointing, incredibly Halifax comedy troupe – which 40-45 per cent of production costs for frustrating,” Holt remembers. “I got really also won its initial international fame with selected projects – but it didn’t select The emotional with Gord after and, later, I had to viral YouTube videos – was partly funded Disappeared. go back and apologize.” by crowd-sourcing. The movie, which had They had better luck at Canada’s pay “You go away and you cry,” Mitchell says. a record five sold-out screenings at last television networks – the Movie Network “You swear you’re done, you’re moving on, year’s Atlantic Film Festival and went on to and Movie Central – which agreed to invest you’re finished with film… and then someone showcase at Utah’s Slamdance festival, has in, and eventually broadcast the finished resurrects the idea. And the process starts all since secured a U.S. distribution deal that film. over again.” will make it available as a video-on-demand With a broadcaster on board, the movie in millions of American homes. producers could finally return to Telefilm Grown Up Movie Star, a Newfoundland- and Film Nova Scotia. traditionally, success in the film produced flick about a disgraced NHL star They’d initially hoped to shoot in the early business is judged solely on the basis of box who returns to Newfoundland and life with fall of 2010 but, as they waited that spring office receipts. his precocious daughters, not only became for the key green light from Telefilm – “the It’s a yardstick on which Canadian films the first-ever Atlantic Canadian feature last wall” – they became increasingly boxed – especially Atlantic Canadian films, and selected for the coveted international in. Actors they’d cast landed other projects. especially small, “auteur” films like The competition at 2010 Sundance Film Festival And the longer they had to wait for funding Disappeared – can never measure up, largely but one of its stars, Tatiana Maslany of the decisions, the longer before they could start because Canadian cinema screens are CBC Heartland, also won a filming, which meant the less likely the dominated by Hollywood blockbusters. They special jury breakout role award. Which will always-chancy Maritime weather would co- each often have more cash in their marketing help sell it elsewhere. operate… budgets than Telefilm has to dole out to make Although Gordon Whittaker had They also knew they were competing a year’s worth of Canadian films. reluctantly said no to The Disappeared, he

60 | Atlantic Business Magazine | September/October 2012 remained convinced that – especially in million budget to near-their-maximum 48 “The night before we started shooting, the industry’s new world order – it could per cent when Film Nova Scotia provided I was a broken mess. I couldn’t imagine not only be commercially viable but also, less than expected. shooting one scene, let alone the 17 we and perhaps more important, culturally That said, there were, as always, had planned for the first day. But then, in significant. “It’s still all about telling local compromises. They couldn’t afford to shoot the morning, you walk out there feeling stories that resonate.” for 20 days so they settled for 15, meaning invincible. You’re going to lead everyone And the story of a disaster at sea is, of they had to make every scene work – and into battle and come back victorious.” course, a quintessentially Atlantic Canadian quickly. And they had to switch from their She did. story. plan to use digital cameras because they But completing filming is one small were concerned the havoc the weather triumph in a seemingly never-ending might wreak on them But shooting 16 mm war. Post-production – editing, sound ten years after Mitchell’s inspirational film added to costs. design, etc... – eats up more money and encounter with that old fisherman on the Much of the $700,000 budgeted for the time. Sambro wharf, The Disappeared will finally shoot itself ended up in the local economy. After its regional showcases this premier this month at Halifax’s Atlantic “We hired boats, marine crews, we bought fall – The Disappeared will get a second Film Festival. gas and stayed in hotels,” Mitchell points coming-out screening at Newfoundland’s Though the Festival has long since out. “I think of it as a loop. The money goes International Women in Film Festival become part of the international film out, and it comes right back in [to the local in October – marketing will begin in circuit – Toronto, Venice, Cannes, economy].” earnest. Sundance, – it has not lost its initial “The Nova Scotia crew was amazing,” Depending on the audience reception commitment to celebrate, promote and adds Holt. “They understood the – and hopefully, awards – they’ll arrange encourage Atlantic Canadian filmmakers. limitations, but they wanted to be there screenings in coastal communities around In the past five years, in fact, 17 other because of their loyalty to Shandi and the region (another new-old distribution Atlantic Canadian-made feature films have their belief in Shandi’s script.” wrinkle to get around the stranglehold had their debuts at the Festival. Supporting At a more practical level, he adds, many the big distributors have on traditional the local industry, says current Festival of the crew were already experienced with cinema screens), submit the film to director Lia Rinaldo, “remains the true marine shoots because they’d wor ked on more film festivals, travel to Berlin and heart and soul of the Festival.” big Hollywood productions like Titanic and Cannes to negotiate with international By the time This Disappeared’s K-19. “They knew the tricks.” distributors who’d previously expressed production team returned to Telefilm in By the time filming began, there was interest but wanted to see the finished the spring of 2011, “it was a better project,” a fourth producer, veteran Nova Scotia product first, and… and… says Whittaker. “They were further down line producer Giles Belanger. “He knew Although The Disappeared’s production the road on casting, they had stronger everyone and he had excellent relationships team will know soon enough whether interest from broadcasters and the overall with suppliers,” Holt says, “so he was able to their film is considered an artistic confidence of the team they’d assembled strike deals we’d never have been able to do success, it will probably take another and their skills sets spoke loudly and otherwise, and that helped make the budget three to four years of hard-slogging before clearly.” work.” they can tally whether all their hard work Telefilm not only came on board, they Despite its low budget and the usual has resulted in a commercial success. also increased their share of funding from beyond-anyone’s control issues – “one “The business end is hard, hard,” what was originally 40 per cent of the $1.25 night when were shooting, recalls Mitchell, Mitchell admits. “It’s soul breaking. If “it rained 120 mm. We shot you stopped to work it out, you probably through it, but I’ve never make 10-cents a week…” been that wet my whole Would she do it again? She laughs. life” – Mitchell allows that “Right now I just want to read.” But she there’s nothing sweeter than pauses, adds: “It’s the magic. That’s what the collaborative process of makes you want to come back.” actually making a film. To the reality. | ABM

(Far left) Chris Porter and his camera team working through the logistical challenges of filming on a floating barge in open water. (Left) Camera operator Alastair Muex with actors Shawn Doyle, Ryan Doucette and Gary Levert.

Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 61