Jeremy Podeswa | Temple Street | Item 7 | Comedy Network

Home , Angela Anaconda, Being Erica, Dennis Miller Live, Johnny Test (season 1), Johnny Test (season 2), Johnny Test (season 3)

® A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD. WINTER 2012

BEST OF THE YEAR ISSUE DHX ROCKETS further into kids’ space

ALSO: Bell Media chief on PLANS FOR 2013 LIONSGATE’S BIG GAMES YEAR

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WINTER 2012 table of contents

Unlike the characters in the upcoming indigenous feature The Colony, Playback isn’t so gloomy about what might be around the next corner.

9 Up front 23 Independent production executive 28 Person of the year Top CMF-backed TV exports, creative of the year Bell Media topper Kevin Crull on keeping ﬁ lm distribution, Canuck Big Brother, How Corrie Coe, senior VP of the broadcaster on top in 2013. working with China. independent production at Bell Media, is attuned to a perfect pitch. 30 Digital company of the year 14 3D productions Toronto-based iThentic on the Time to take the plunge into the 24 Distributor of the year company’s 360-degree strategy. added dimension? Mongrel Media maintains its indie ﬁ lm focus. 32 Indie studio of the year Lionsgate expands its share 18 Best of the year of the global market. 25 Director of the year James Podeswa helms marquee U.S. 19 Kids distributor of the year Spotlight on startups cable dramas and international copros 34 Halifax-based DHX Media puts its Checking in with veteran execs who with ease. hand in the Cookie Jar. launched their own companies in 2012.

22 Film producer of the year 26 TV producer of the year 35 Comedy Network Montreal-based Item 7 on Temple Street execs on the company’s Nothing’s middling about the perseverance. recipe to TV riches. channel’s mid-teen years.

® A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD. WINTER 2012

BEST OF THE YEAR ISSUE The cover image was created for Playback by DHX Media DHX ROCKETS further into kids’ space and features some of DHX’s popular TV show characters.

PPB.TOC.2012.inddB.TOC.2012.indd 3 008/11/128/11/12 2:082:08 PMPM PUBLISHER Mary Maddever • [email protected] EDITOR Matt Sylvain • [email protected] NEWS EDITOR Danielle Ng-See-Quan • [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Adam Benzine, Mark Dillon, Etan Vlessing INTERN Jordan Twiss LUCKY ‘13 BRUNICO CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR I look positively upon the fl ipping of the calendar to 2013. For many, of course, the number Stephen Stanley • [email protected] 13 is a bad omen, and perhaps some people in the industry, haunted as they are by the ART DIRECTOR ghosts of this year’s federal budget cuts, provincial tax-regime changes and audiences’ Mark Lacoursiere • [email protected] slow but steady migration to video-on-demand and online viewing will conclude that next PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION SUPERVISOR Robert Lines • [email protected] year will be a doozey. For someone who has spent most of his life living in houses with ‘13’ in their addresses, ADVERTISING SALES and whose wife was born on the 13th day of a month, I simply can’t get such an ill portent (416) 408-2300 out of the calendar. FAX (416) 408-0870 1-888-278-6426 I don’t think you should either. I’m not taking this stance out of some Pollyannaish ADVERTISING EXEC tendency – like most everyone else, the metaphysical dealer at the card table of fate has Jessamyn Nunez • [email protected] dealt some tough hands to me, and even worse to some family and friends. MARKETING CO-ORDINATOR Being in the screen-entertainment industry has always required a healthy balance Vakis Boutsalis • [email protected] between optimism and thick skin. The creative and fi nancial stakes are high, and while the BRUNICO AUDIENCE SERVICES roots of creative success seem clear – good stories that inform and move us (those are ASSISTANT MANAGER easy enough to come by, right?) – the path to fi nancial success seems ever more elusive, Christine McNalley • [email protected] especially since how to make money via digital distribution remains murky, even as it MANAGER becomes more important to the bottom line. Deborah Brewster • [email protected] Indeed, to help you get a better handle on where things may be going in the digital space next year, Playback will be putting together an entirely new spring edition pegged to all ADMINISTRATION things digital. Not to give away editorial secrets here, but that issue will appear not long PRESIDENT AND CEO before the inaugural Canada Screen Week , which will culminate with a glitzy TV awards Russell Goldstein • [email protected] gala that will air on the CBC March 3. We are already brainstorming stories to further VP AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Omri Tintpulver • [email protected] highlight the industry’s successes as they tie into the CSAs. VP AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR The CSAs, as everyone surely knows, is an all-in-one award event that replaces the Mary Maddever • [email protected] formerly separate Geminis and Genies. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television VP ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE decided to combine the awards in part in response to the changes in how consumers enjoy Linda Lovegrove • [email protected] their TV shows and fi lms, changes that are altering the screen-entertainment ecosystem VP & PUBLISHER, REALSCREEN in Canada and indeed globally. More than ever, Darwinian market forces are causing that Claire Macdonald • [email protected] ecosystem to evolve. VP & PUBLISHER, KIDSCREEN There are Canadian companies and professionals who were positively thriving in 2012, Jocelyn Christie • [email protected]

despite the challenging environment. This over-arching idea was in the back of our heads Playback is published by Brunico Communications Ltd., as we debated who to focus on for this issue’s core package of stories devoted to the 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 newsmakers of the year. While in the end we only focused on nine of them, our long list (416) 408-2300; FAX: (416) 408-0870 Internet address: www.playbackonline.ca included dozens of contenders, all of whom, one way or another, are either someone you Editorial e-mail: [email protected] Sales e-mail: [email protected] work with or compete against – or will work with or compete against in the future. Either way, Sales FAX: (416) 408-0870

Matt Sylvain Postmaster Notiﬁ cation Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Editor, Playback Playback PO BOX 369 Beeton ON, L0G 1A0 U.S. Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Playback PO BOX 1103, Niagara Falls NY, 14304 [email protected] Canada Post Agreement No. 40050265. ISSN: 0836-2114 Printed in Canada.

4 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

PPB.Editorial.2012.inddB.Editorial.2012.indd 4 007/11/127/11/12 12:3712:37 PMPM PPB.22123.EpitomeFullPg.inddB.22123.EpitomeFullPg.indd 1 006/11/126/11/12 2:452:45 PMPM What is Canada’s The Year That Was fi lm & TV industry? The biggest change 2012 has wrought may be an incremental and attitudinal one. We’ve passed a It’s producers, directors, tipping point on a key front: an acceptance that online audiences are not just a wayward group in need of distributors, deal makers, “conversion” to live TV, but a force to be reckoned with in terms of influence, growing size and frequency, and therefore deserving of unique digital strategies. agents, advertisers, buyers, I say this because a) networks are paying more attention to online viewers, b) advertisers are paying more sellers, programmers, VPs, attention to digital/mobile consumers, and c) content is always a handy bridge between the two camps’ EVPs, SVPs, some plain monetization goals. So eventually the two dots will connect in a new value equation. ole Ps, CEOs, CFOs, all On the monetization front, many of TV’s traditional big spenders are moving away from mass media image sorts of acronyms, actors, campaigns to more targeted, interactive and transactional tactics. Advertisers began spending money on editors, composers, techies, everything from apps to elaborate digital content builds, so the old barriers to embracing online viewers (rather than just trying to herd them into the broadcast eyeball corral) have eroded. equipment guys, lighting On the digital audience engagement front, while network video players still offer a paltry amount of specialists, hair dressers, episodes (seriously, we know there are rights issues, but when you’re up against Torrent sites, don’t give make-up artists, costume viewers a reason to look elsewhere), there are more signs of acknowledgment and even welcome, such as designers, cinematographers “watch more” invitations during ad breaks. and more. Digital content strategy is growing up as shows with transmedia trappings and robust social media programs have expanded from the teen demo – going beyond Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl to more mainstream fare. For instance, the feature on Playback’s Person of the Year, Bell Media’s Kevin Crull, outlines the company’s In short, it’s people. digital-specifi c strategy – its Much Closer viewer loyalty push, its fi rst pureplay web series Backpackers out of Toronto’s Smokebomb, and the unique strategies deployed to raise awareness of both offl ine and native- online audiences. Comedy Network, still delivering on its original tagline promise of “time well wasted” Reach them all with 15 years later is also catering to the online viewers appetite, from long-form episodes to more mobile playbackonline.ca behaviourially-targetted snacking. and our Many of the companies in the Best of Year wrap are tackling the major change caused by video-on-demand Playback Daily. and online audience appetites, and responding with unique strategies and offerings – with iThentic being the poster child for a digital-fi rst approach paying off. Our next issue, Playback’s newly added spring edition, will focus on Canada’s transmedia and digital successes, so be in touch with editor Matt Sylvain with those stories. When you need to get a Or epic fails, as they also provide invaluable intel. message out – whether So congrats to all the companies and people of the year! 2012 has been an interesting year in what’s shaping it’s to raise profi le or to up to be the most dramatic decade of change yet – with big ideas and big bets (backed by guts and nimble recruit – Playback’s digital leadership), being the common thread weaving through our year-end wrap. platform means you’re Cheers,mm reaching the whole audience, from show-makers to Mary Maddever decision-makers. Publisher, Playback

Contact Jessamyn Nunez today [email protected]

6 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

PPB.Publisher.2012.inddB.Publisher.2012.indd 6 007/11/127/11/12 2:162:16 PMPM 2013 SUBSCRIPTION 2012 PRICE STAY IN THE LOOP. EVERY DAY.

This is your last chance to sign up for playbackonline.ca at the 2012 rates. Your one year subscription gives you access to the deals, the strategies and the people who make things happen in Canada’s ﬁ lm and TV biz. If you don’t have access, you’re missing out.

A subscription also guarantees that you will continue to receive Playback’s quarterly print issues, including our new transmedia edition.

Subscribe at playbackonline.ca/free, or call 416.408.2448 for all the news on the Canadian ﬁ lm & TV industry.

PPB.22173.House.inddB.22173.House.indd 1 007/11/127/11/12 3:393:39 PMPM 50th Anniversary Celebration NATPE2013 BEYOND January 28-30 Fontainebleau Resort, Miami Beach DISRUPTION

THE GAME CHANGER

Exhibit 36a. The remote control – Thought to be the enemy of broadcasting, encouraging channel surﬁng. Instead it opened the door for opportunity, and more importantly served as a catalyst for the explosion of channels and choices.

PPB.22268.NATPE.inddB.22268.NATPE.indd 1 006/11/126/11/12 2:572:57 PMPM EXPORT, EH? While the international success of The Borgias may come as no surprise, true crime series TOP 5 The Devil You Know also rang up multiple foreign TV sales in DOC EXPORTS 2011-12 PROGRAM # OF REGIONS 1 The Devil You Know 12 2. (Tied) Mega Builders, Storming Juno, The Canada Media Fund in October released its 6 The Pig Farm, The Real Mash, X-Weighted annual report, shedding some light on its $358 million investment into Canadian TV and digital media projects 3. Derrière le miracle 5 in the 2011-2012 ﬁ scal year. Among other things, it 4. Outlaw Bikers 4 explained that a total of 85 CMF-funded digital media 5. Ghost Encounters 3 projects were sold internationally, the most being kids content, followed closely by documentary and drama The Devil You Know projects (see chart). The U.S. and Australia were the top buyers of CMF-funded content. The CMF’s Valerie Creighton says that the ROI value of Canada’s co-production treaties, is evident in this year’s TOP 5 top exports, several of which are coproductions. And what of the international appetite (or perhaps guilty pleasure), for the secret lives of men and KIDS EXPORTS women, in the case of true-crime series The Devil PROGRAM # OF REGIONS You Know’s international popularity? eOne’s Loren Mawhinney, VP factual development and an exec 1. The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That 19 producer on the show, says that it’s about making the 2. Almost Naked Animals; Mr. Young 14 subject matter relatable, to feel real and visceral for viewers, regardless of the territory. 3. My Babysitter’s a Vampire 12 In Mawhinney’s opinion, The Devil You Know’s secret 4. (Tied) Degrassi; Stella & Sam 11 sauce is it’s appeal to the female demo. “Women like crime stories and they like stories about families, so it 5. Vacation With Derek 10 gives perspective,” she says, adding, “There’s so much The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That blue collar boy stuff on the air; I think this is another kind of story that women are looking for.” The Devil You Know is created by Lynn Booth and produced by Vancouver-based Make Believe Media. TOP 5 BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN DRAMA EXPORTS PROGRAM # OF REGIONS 1. The Borgias 21 2. Sanctuary 7 3. (Tied) Bomb Girls, King 6 4. Call Me Fitz 3 5. (Tied) Lost Girl, Saving Hope, 2 Todd and the Book of Pure Evil

The Borgias Source: Canada Media Fund annual report, 2011-2012

winter 2012 | 9

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CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION SPACE BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN The emergence of fi lm distribution on digital screens and video-on-demand has led to an expanding number of platforms through which indie fi lmmakers can get their movies to audiences. Here are some tips Playback has picked up in the recent months on how fi lmmakers can leverage online fan bases, either their own or those of niche fi lm distributors and marketers – companies who are themselves investing in growing their audience via new technologies.

ONE SIZE BUILD AUDIENCE THEATRICAL DOESN’T LOYALTY THROUGH RELEASE GIVES FIT ALL SOCIAL MEDIA LEVERAGE ON VOD

Simply put, distribution strategies on digital Pablo Gonzalez, COO of Tugg, an on-demand and theatrical A theatrical release is still one of the best ways to make a platforms differ depending on the fi lm. release service that lets audiences create movie events they want splash before taking the next steps to digital, according to “Five years ago, every movie either went straight to see using social media, says that the marketing for a fi lm should Cinetic’s Brown, who says that a fi lm on VOD that has had a to DVD or went theatrical, and then DVD, then pay start on the day it starts to be made. Social media is a way to build successful theatrical release on, for example, fi ve screens in TV, then free TV [in that order]. That was it,” says a fan base through a direct conversation between the fi lmmaker major cities can parlay that exposure to revenues in the seven Janet Brown, CEO of New York-based Cinetic Rights and the audience. fi gures in the digital space. Management/Film Buff. But these days, she says “There is no formula – you have to be smart and have to “Any kind of marketing exposure, where people are more while speaking during a Toronto International Film understand from day one whether your fi lm is going to be likely to have heard of the fi lm, will help when they go to see Festival industry event, the imaginative stories marketed to a very narrow segment of the population,” he explains. it on a platform where all they have to judge it by is a postage coming from indie fi lmmakers don’t fi t into either of Drafthouse Films director Evan Husney says that it’s important stamp-size poster,” she says. those two conventional distribution routes. Indeed, to create a community around more than just the single product And a digital release doesn’t close the theatrical window, either. fi ve years ago these stories might not have made it you’re trying to sell. With the emergence of services like Gonzalez’ Tugg, it’s past the cutting room. He says the Texas-based company has built a theatre fan base possible that a fi lm that goes digital fi rst may get its theatrical New storytellers can customize their distribution for Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, of which Drafthouse Films is a niche day in the sun down the line. It’s also a viable option for fi lms strategies to fi t niche audiences, she insists, and distribution arm, in addition to the specifi c fi lms they’re marketing to trying to reach specialized audiences for a second run on the therefore, their marketing too. This means that audience. To those ends it has partnered with L.A.-based direct-to- big screen. releases on both Netfl ix and iTunes, for example, consumer platform Topspin to build up fan communities, “early looks” at “Just because you released it on a digital platform doesn’t can fi nd very different audiences, because the fi lm new products and newsletters to share their offerings in a tasteful way. mean a theatre is never going to play your fi lm,” says Gonzalez. release marketing, rollout strategy and consumer “We’re not trying to engage the audience in something that’s He cites Incendiary: The Willingham Case, from U.S. directors demos all differ between these platforms. shilling our product all the time. We try to build fan communities Steve Mims and Joe Bailey, Jr. as an example. The fi lm “We don’t use the same marketing or distribution around appreciation of our fi lms or certain things that we like.” premiered at SXSW in 2011 and had limited runs in a few for every fi lm because the kind of partnership we’re Brown says that afterhaving made the mistake of being too scattershot states. It saw more success in local theatre events organized going to work with on a documentary about organic in the past and blasting out messages to the masses, Cinetic’s approach via Tugg, through leveraging its strong social media presence., food is going to be completely different than what is to hone the strategy for an more effective execution. he says. Established fi lmmaker, Morgan Spurlock isusing Tugg we do for a genre fi lm from Fantastic Fest. So it’s “Let’s not try to boil the ocean, but fi nd the right ponds or lakes and for his Comic-con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope doc. important to think, ‘What’s the fan base for that?’” get those ones excited about a fi lm instead of trying to go everywhere.”

10 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

PB.22120.AstralHalfStrip.inddPPB.FOB.2012.inddB.FOB.2012.indd 1100 1 06/11/12007/11/127/11/12 2:275:215:21 PMPM BY ADAM BENZINE Next year will see Shaw Media airing a Canadian version of Big Brother, one of the original reality TV formats. Barbara Williams, the network’s senior At least 10,000 applicants turned out at the Toronto casting call for Big Brother Canada in October. VP of content, talks to Playback about the risk and reward of bringing international formats to BROTHER’S KEEPER Canadian viewers.

After airing the American version of Big Brother for more Big Brother’s arrival, scheduled for February, bucks a audience is already very familiar with the brand. than a decade, Shaw Media will next year launch the ﬁ rst broadcaster trend, coming at a time when many Canadian She also points out that the formats business can work Canadian version of the pioneering reality format on its networks are betting against local versions of expensive in the opposite direction, with programs such as Insight female-skewing channel Slice. overseas formats. Production’s Canada Sings (picked up for international The broadcaster airs the U.S. show on Global and earlier this This year has seen cancellations for So You Think You Can exploitation by Endemol after airing on Global) and Temple year began airing the uncensored live feed from the American Dance Canada and Canada’s Got Talent, with Citytv halting the Street’s Recipe to Riches (its international format rights house – entitled Big Brother: After Dark – on Slice. As such, latter due to the “economic climate,” rather than ratings. acquired by FremantleMedia) having notable export potential. the move to commission a local version of the format marks “Cost is absolutely a factor in all of our original The challenge for network content chiefs, she offers, is a logical progression for the franchise, according to Shaw commissioning,” offers Williams. “It’s cheaper to buy a U.S. managing the balance between what you create yourself Media’s senior VP of content Barbara Williams. drama or decorating show than to make a Canadian one. with what already exists for acquisition on the market, to put “We have big expectations,” she says. “It’s a huge show and “When choosing to exploit someone else’s format, as together a successful schedule. it’s been an enormously important show to the Global schedule opposed to making your own, what you’re playing with there is for 13 years now.” maybe a little more cost - as you have to invest in the purchase The Canadian version, for which Toronto-based Insight of the format - but you’re also investing in something that’s Productions held casting calls for in September and October, a little more tried and true. It’s likely already worked in your is “a huge production,” Williams adds. “It’s three times a week market and has often already worked around the world. So over 10 weeks – that’s a 30-hour commitment. You rarely, with you’re managing down your risk a little bit, although you have any show, make a 30-hour commitment out of the gate, so Big to pay a little bit more to get that.” Brother absolutely comes with a signiﬁ cant investment. A key factor, she adds, is in whether having a local version “But I think the time’s right – Slice has really established adds enough value to the overall viewer proposition. “There’s a itself as a kind of network that can carry this big a format.” subtlety here that’s key,” she explains, noting how the domestic

winter 2012 | 11

PB.22120.AstralHalfStrip.indd 1 06/11/12 2:27 PM PPB.FOB.2012.inddB.FOB.2012.indd 1111 007/11/127/11/12 5:215:21 PMPM REDCHINACUES With its domestic ﬁ lm industry seeing unprecedented growth, Chinese ﬁ lmmakers want to produce movies that have global appeal and are seeking the skills of Canadian prodcos. BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN

There’s no question that China’s fi lm market is red hot. According principles that [western producers] stick to, that they have learned to the China Film Producers’ Association, by 2015 China will have and practice – these are things that the Chinese industry can built more than 7,000 new cinemas, and have an annual box learn from. And screenwriting – yes, defi nitely. China has a rich offi ce of more than $5.5 billion. China is now the third largest fi lm history and culture, it has thousands of good stories worth being producer in the world – the country made more than 520 fi lms in told to the international audience. But how do you take those 2010 – behind India and the U.S. Harry Sutherland, the executive resources and modernize them into good stories? In China, there’s producer of Vancouver-based Illustrato Pictures who next year still a lot to be learned in terms of how to tell a good story. Those will shoot features Stuck and Disoriented in China, compares are things I think we can learn from peers [in Canada]. the current growth and evolution of China’s fi lm business to the golden age of 1950’s Hollywood – lots of theatres, lots of star What types of fi lms is the Chinese industry looking to power, lots of big genre pictures to draw audiences. make? What type of fi lm business is China looking to build? Milner And while traditionally a tough market to crack, China’s fi lm business is said to be ripe with opportunities for Canadian JM: Mostly China wants to become really competitive on a world producers who have the commodities that the Chinese market is scale with their movies. They want to appeal to their domestic looking for – namely, screenwriting skills and fi lm fi nancing acumen. market fi rst obviously, but they also want their fi lms to appeal to Ahead of the Whistler Film Festival’s fi rst China-Canada script an international audience. China doesn’t have a rating system, so pitch sessions at the end of November (when Canadian producers everything has to be cleared for distribution to everybody. So you vie for a slice of $15 million in fi nancing), Playback spoke to not only have to know exactly how far to push the envelope, how much Sutherland but also Jane Milner, the festival’s managing director, and skin you show, how much violence there is. If you look at the fi lms Lifeng Wang, executive director of Wuxi Studio (mainland China’s that make money, they tend to be simple commercial fi lms – great major digital production hub, which this year received a $1.57 billion action thrillers, great romantic comedies. investment from the Chinese government) and CEO of Beijing-based 2D/3D animation and VFX company Xing Xing Digital, about the ins HS: What we’re looking to get into the game in China is very and outs of working in China. solid genre pictures – well-written, well-made, well-fi nanced and Sutherland well-produced. [The thinking is] we make movies for the Chinese What can Canadian producers offer to China’s fi lm business? market fi rst, because that’s where the growth is and that’s where the money is, but if we’re bringing in international elements, it will JM: They offer China the access to Canadian writers, Canadian still have a structure that will start to appeal to the commercial storytelling. The other things that the Canadian producer can put market outside of China.” on the table are tax credits, and our tremendous talent in the digital world and our visual FX. LW: To quote from the chairman from the China Film Group [Han Sanping’s keynote at the U.S.-China Film Gala Dinner at USC in HS: China really needs a better hand on script-writing. It was very October], China really needs to understand better genre fi lms, and obvious that China doesn’t have the same tradition that we have learn how to do those well, because the line between comedy, in terms of Shakespeare, plays, novels, Hollywood. So there was horror, science fi ction, action in China is always a little blurred, not a real lack of understanding of how the script process works and very clearly identifi ed. how it fi t into production. Another type of fi lm the Chinese market really needs, and Wang producers and directors should do, are franchise fi lms. Those are LW: The professional way of producing – that during the the types of fi lms that make the most money long-term. We don’t production the budget is followed as much as possible. The really have that yet, but we are just starting to do some of those.

12 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

Steadicam Owner / Operator Jib Owner / Operator RED Owner / Operator Director of Photography

CSC, SOA Russ De Jong www.russdejong.com Toronto Vancouver USA & Overseas

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PB.22248.RussDeJongHalfStrip.indd 1 06/11/12 2:29 PM What role does censorship play in these productions? What are some cultural and business do’s and don’ts for HS: You have to know your co-producer. If you’re a Canadian Canadian producers looking to work with China? producer and you think you want to go into the Chinese HS: China’s biggest hurdle is that there is no rating system. marketplace, you have to say, ‘I’m going to go to China twice a We don’t really deal with censorship issues in the sense JM: Know what kind of story to pitch. I would say avoid Chinese year every year for fi ve years’ – work or not. One of the things that when you’re dealing with a Chinese company as a co- legends, and avoid historical drama. They want something about about China is that it changes so quickly – if you’re not there producer and you’re making something that has to work in the the modern world. They’re most comfortable with stories that for six months and you go back, everything will have evolved. Chinese marketplace, they will help with all of that. Really, the actually take place in China or have to do with Chinese families censorship issue is you sort of turn around and look at it from in the world. LW: On the business side, be very honest with your partner their point of view, as a Chinese producer. The second thing is being prepared to work with the Chinese and make sure the other side is very honest with you as well as partners, as opposed to just coming in with your hobnail [in keeping timelines and fi nancial expectations met]. On the LW: China has censorship: They don’t want things to be boots on and telling them how it’s done. They are the ones who culture side, I think modern day fi lms have a better chance of controversial, politically especially. There are guidelines on the know best what’s going to get through the approval process for getting made, or science fi ction. Period pieces are a little [more China Co-production Corporation website. A producer who wants distribution. diffi cult], but that’s just my personal opinion. If you do anything to do a co-production in China should study those. A Western The third thing is be prepared to come to the table with related to the government, do your homework – make sure producer should fi nd a partner earlier in the game, so they have “producer gravitas” – the ability to make a serious deal on the you get it right. A lot of people just give up in the middle – they a good local partner who understands the rules, and meet with Canadian side too. Canadians over the years have become very don’t start early and they go there when they’re already in the them even from the idea stage. If you engage someone familiar dependent on government funding and I think this is a way to tenth version of the script. If that’s the attitude, they are never with the censorship, then it is a lot easier to get the script [done]. step away from that but get some serious investment dollars going to make it happen. on your side of the deal too. Try and own half the deal, and negotiate who owns the IP properly.

winter 2012 | 13

Congratulations to our good friends at

on being named Indie Distributor of the Year

and to all who have been named to Playback’s best of 2012!

from your friends at

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IN ON As ever more ﬁ lms are beingg released with the enhancedd visuals, the time may havee come for adventurous indiee ﬁ lmmakers to capitalize thee extra-dimension trendd

BY JORDAN TWISS

Is now the time to jump into 3D? That is the question an Stewart, who entered the 3D game in 2004, has directed 3D understand 3D they need to study and learn about it, and know increasing number of indie Canadian fi lmmakers are pondering. commercials for Lexus and Samsung, and worked on Werner what works best for their fi lm and storytelling style,” he says. And the answer, as a surge of Canadian 3D fi lm production Herzog’s 3D fi lm Cave of Forgotten Dreams. His prodco, Geneva Dev Singh, a Toronto-based editor who is slated to edit the in the last few years on the heels of Canuck James Cameron’s Film, is working on 3D features Foxed, a kids animated feature upcoming action thriller Fangs of War 3D, argues that sticking to massively successful Avatar continues to build, may be yes. in which a 12-year-old girl is kidnapped by animals, and Beatrice tried and true genres that have already had success, including However, it’s a niche that is continuing to develop, which makes Coron’s Daily Battles, an animated short comedy. horror and action, could prove to be the wisest strategy for an fi nancing and producing a movie project that much tougher. Stewart adds that technical savvy and a deep understanding of indie looking to break into 3D. To begin with, as Toronto-based director James Stewart stereoscopy is what Canadian producers will need if they want He cautions, however, that fi lmmakers must be sure to use the notes, producers looking to work in 3D should anticipate a to take advantage of the opportunities fi lming in 3D presents. new visual experience as more than a parlour trick or cash grab. 25% increase in production and post-production costs, as well Three-dimension fi lmmaking, he says, “is not something “The fi lm has to be designed as a stereoscopic fi lm. That as 10% increase in related computer-generated imagery costs. you can fi gure out as you go or fi x in post. For fi lmmakers to aspect must be integral to the style and storytelling for it to work, otherwise it’s simply a gimmick and audiences will see right through it,” he says, pointing to Cameron’s Avatar as an example of how to do it right. But even though the Canadian post-production industry has been busily working on VFX-heavy 3D productions such as Resident Evil: Retribution, Silent Hill: Revelation, Pacifi c Rim, and The Smurfs 2, post-production giants Technicolor and Deluxe Toronto aren’t convinced that indie fi lmmakers are fully ready to take the plunge. “There’s good 3D and bad 3D,” says Louis Major, VP of post- production at Technicolor. What’s seen as a damper on the 3D craze recently he adds “is bad 3D, where the consumer’s not having a good experience.” The problem stems from a lack of consistent industry

Toronto-based Geneva Film is at work on 3D animated kids feature Foxed.

14 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

PPB.Post.2012.inddB.Post.2012.indd 1414 007/11/127/11/12 5:335:33 PMPM PB.22036.Triangle.indd 1 06/11/12 2:57 PM The Legend of Sarila is an animated feature with a voice cast that includes Christopher Plummer and Rachelle Lefevre.

standards for how 3D fi lms are produced. Noting that “studios 3D TV KEY are looking for a certifi cation process,” Major says Technicolor Looking forward, indie fi lmmakers wanting to shoot in 3D will worldwide rolled out “Certifi 3d 3D,” a standard “which could help have to help fi nd ways to get even more audiences interested in the creative community deliver a high level of safe 3D content and watching 3D fi lms. To that end, Stewart argues that a major 3D maximize the comfort and enjoyment of the 3D experience for studio or a full-time 3D broadcaster is needed to help Canada Major consumers,” he explains. fi nd its place in the niche. “There are more than 50 full-time 3D Technicolor, along with Montreal-based post house Modus FX, networks globally and they need content, so there’s a big opportunity recently worked on The Legend of Sarila. An aboriginal-themed there. But in Canada, the broadcasting dollars keep getting smaller animated feature from Quebec-based 10th Avenue Productions and smaller and there’s no 3D network. If you produce 3D content in and CarpeDiem Film & TV, it is directed by Nancy Florence Savard, Canada you’d have to sell it locally in 2D to make money, and then and has a voice cast that includes Christopher Plummer and sell it globally in 3D.” Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight). Singh and Iannelli, both agree that 3D’s profi tability to domestic Modus FX president and co-founder Marc Bourbonnais indies will expand once Canadian audiences are willing to turn on cautions that a growing level of complexity in 3D content means their next generation TVs, don the goofy glasses (if needed) and higher audience expectations.“Entry into the 3D market is easier tune in to content in their homes. because of the lower costs of off-the-shelf software and out-of-the- “If it becomes exceedingly popular in video games then it might box hardware. However, the level of complexity is rising and this start to take a fi rmer hold in [small-screen] fi lms,” says Singh. means expectations are higher. If you aim to do high-quality work as Thus far, the signs indicate that the 3D TV market in North Lanneli we do, expenses are in fact rising,” he says. America is growing slowly, with 3D TVs accounting for about 11% Deluxe Toronto, meanwhile, recently worked on post for of 248 million total TV shipments in 2011, according to a report the drama Flight of the Butterfl ies (see sidebar) and did the from California-based research fi rm Display Search. 3D conversion on the Titanic theatrical re-release. Its VP of Stewart argues that future of 3D depends on content producers’ operations and customer services, Nick Iannelli agrees that the ability to harness smaller screens. “We’ve barely touched the pool of Canadian post-production players offering 3D services is surface of the potential of 3D content. TV, mobile and tablet deepening, and that the barriers to 3D fi lmmaking have lowered. platforms haven’t embraced it yet. These last categories of Major notes that further post-production savings can be found by screens are huge. They’re, in fact, bigger than the movie industry. planning down to the granular level in pre-production and shooting. These platforms need content,” he says, adding that smaller “If you can control what’s in your shooting environment you can screens will also allow viewers to experience glasses-free 3D. control your costs in post-production. If you’re doing a studio shoot, you can plan. If you’re out on location you can’t always plan Stewart what challenges arise in a day,” he explains.

winter 2012 | 15

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3D PROJECT SPOTLIGHT BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN Canadian producers have been putting in the legwork and teaming with international partners to make independently produced projects in which 3D is integral to their stories. Here is a look at what two producers are currently working on.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet with Kyle Flight of the Butterﬂ ies Catlett and Helena is a Canada-Mexico- Bonham-Carter on the U.K. treaty Spivet set.. coproduction. THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS SPIVET FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLIES 3D, FOR IMAX

THE DETAILS: The fi lm is based on the novel The and Canada (tax credits), totalling approximately THE DETAILS: The dramatic fi lm follows the fi lms, 3D or otherwise. And since our primary Selected Works of TS Spivet by Reif Larsen, which $7 million. Telefi lm Canada came on board with monarch butterfl y’s winter journey, woven with market is the worldwide network of cinemas was optioned, developed and scripted by French $500,000. The remaining 80% of the fi nancing the story of a scientist’s 40-year search to in science centres, museums and other director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The fi lm follows a came from France. uncover a mysterious migration site. The fi lm is educationally-mandated public institutions, there 10-year-old genius from Montana, who sends airing in science centres, museums and select is no funding body which has a line item in its a prototype of a perpetual motion device to the PRODUCTION NOTES: The team opted to use theatres in the U.S., Canada and international annual budget to fund these items,” says Barker. Smithsonian, then sets off to Washington, D.C., Cameron Pace Group equipment, the same that territories like Kuwait. after hearing that he will receive a prestigious was used for Hugo. They chose not to work with The fi lm is a Canada-Mexico-U.K. coproduction FINAL THOUGHTS: Barker says 3D is a tough award. The fi lm was shot in Alberta, Quebec and the Alexa M, a camera tailored for 3D productions, with fi nancing also coming from the U.S. SK Films sell for conventional features outside the horror the U.S. capital. says Girard, because it was at the prototype stage producer Jonathan Barker says they incorporated genre, though he says Imax-size documentaries Jeunet secured producer Suzanne Girard of at time of shooting, and demanded more complex fi nancing from across North America since the fi t the bill, and that there’s good potential in the Montreal-based BBR Productions to budget, fi nance data control. She adds the delays they encountered butterfl y’s migration route spans the area. natural history 3D feature market. “Certainly and produce his script. “He also wanted to work in came primarily from cable and camera location “Mexico was a logical partner because the the viability and economics of producing in French, and nowhere in North America other than moving time, as well as changing lenses, and their fi lm celebrates a natural phenomenon that 3D have improved in the digital era, and with in Quebec can you fi nd a French-speaking shooting decision to transfer RAW, which was also costly. occurs in Mexico and I knew that the Mexican advancements by hardware suppliers,” he says. facility,” Girard tells Playback. leadership has had a serious commitment to the “3D was the only way [Jeunet] would have shot FINAL THOUGHTS: Girard says she would like environment,” he says. The U.S. National Science CREDITS: Directed by the U.K.’s Mike Slee, who Spivet,” she says. “He studied the system, watched to explore other ways to shoot in 3D, citing Foundation joined as well, as the project fi t its also was a co-writer and co-producer. Produced all the fi lms and storyboarded his fi lm with 3D in Wim Wenders’ upcoming 3D fi lm. “3D is a very science education mandate, he adds. by SK Films’ Jonathan Barker. Wendy MacKeigan mind, exploring all the possible ‘fl oating’ episodes interesting shooting device; it needs to fi nd its is co-EP/co-writer; Mexico’s Rafael Cuervo is possible without making it a regular effect.” public,” she adds. PRODUCTION STRUCTURE/FINANCING: The total co-producer. Toronto’s SK Films is worldwide Girard adds that hiring a Canadian 3D crew, budget was $12 million: $3 million from the NSF; distributor to Imax, giant screen museum and including Toronto-based stereographer Demetri CREDITS: Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, more than $6 million from the Mexican federal and science-centre market. Portelli, who had worked on Martin Scorcese’s produced by BBR Productions, Epithete Films, state governments and two companies, Coca-Cola Hugo, was important. Fimarto, Gaumont and Tapioca Films. Producers: FEMSA and Grupo Bimbo, and the balance from SK Suzanne Girard, Francis Boespfl ug, Frederic Brillon, Films and tax credits. PRODUCTION STRUCTURE/FINANCING: The Jean-Marc Deschamps, Joseé Lacelle, Gilles budget for the fi lm, shot over 72 days, is $34 million. Legrand. Canadian distributor: eOne. World sales PRODUCTION NOTES: The fi lm was shot Producer Girard put together a structure permitting agent: Gaumont. Post-production in France. on location in Toronto, the U.S. and Mexico. 20% fi nancing from all possible sources in Quebec “Nothing is very easy about funding independent

16 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

PPB.Post.2012.inddPB.20823.NBC.inddB.Post.2012.indd 161 6 1 008/11/1206/11/128/11/12 2:092 2:58:09 PMP PMM PPB.22144.UniversalFullPg.inddB.22144.UniversalFullPg.indd 1 006/11/126/11/12 2:312:31 PMPM THE BEST OF 2012 The season of Christmas offi ce partying, eggnog-swilling and gift-giving is just around the corner. Then, after a bit of Auld Lang Syne-singing and a bit more merry making, 2013 will be upon us. In the nine stories that follow Playback highlights the people and companies whose success and ability to innovate played a key role in making 2012 seem to fl y by so fast and who are striding confi dently into the new year. As the stories show, these newsmakers not only survived but thrived in the evermore challenging – and ever more borderless – screen-entertainment industry. Read on to fi nd out how these execs and businesses are setting the new benchmark at a time when everyone is under increasing pressure to craft their business models to the changing times.

18 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

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With the purchase of Cookie Jar, DHX has more than 8,500 half-hour episodes of character-anchored programs under one roof. KIDS DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR:

BY MARK DILLON

In 2012, one of Canada’s biggest kids show suppliers got a whole lot company president and COO. “One of our goals has been to diversify “One of our goals has bigger. DHX Media’s October acquisition of competitor Cookie Jar Group the revenue across different opportunities in our business and to look been to diversify the has formed what is being touted as the world’s largest indie library of for some geographical diversity as well. We have always seen this as a children’s entertainment content. And with the merger, not only is DHX a sales-oriented business.” revenue across different bigger player in a niche in which it was already a formidable presence, it And DHX now has plenty to sell. The integration of Cookie Jar’s opportunities in our busi- is now poised for a major push into digital distribution. library adds nearly 6,000 half-hour episodes to the 2,550 DHX owned ness and to look for some Publicly traded DHX Media pulled the trigger on the deal – which previously, bringing into the fold such stalwart shows as Caillou, was announced in August but began taking shape behind the scenes Arthur and The Doodlebops, as well as a consumer products division geographical diversity as a year ago – from a position of strength, having recorded $73 million representing more than 3,000 brand licensees worldwide – a potential well,” says Steven DeNure, in revenues in its fiscal year ending June 30, up 31% over 2011. merchandising and licensing goldmine. The $111 million deal is being DHX’s president and COO. Servicing other company’s animated projects accounted for $31 paid with 36 million DHX shares, $5 million cash and the assumption million of that, up a robust 102% versus 2011. Projects included of $66 million of debt. (Toronto’s Birch Hill Equity Partners was Cookie Hasbro’s My Little Pony and Pound Puppies out of DHX Vancouver Jar’s controlling shareholder). and DreamWorks’ Dragons: Riders of Berk out of DHX’s Wildbrain It is the latest such transaction in a ﬂ urry of kids-sector consolidation, Entertainment facility in Los Angeles. Cookie Jar, meanwhile, reported which also has seen Mattel acquire HIT Entertainment (and its 1,500 revenues of $57 million for the year ending May 31. hours of programming) and DreamWorks Animation purchase Classic DHX’s revenues for proprietary productions, meanwhile, dropped 22% Media (owners of 450 movies and 6,100 TV episodes). to $13 million. The Halifax-based company produces Monster Math “Many of these companies have been owned by private equity, and Squad, That’s So Weird! and music-themed phenom Yo Gabba Gabba!, eventually private equity sells or merges the companies they own,” which it acquired in 2010 when it bought Wildbrain. The latter property DeNure notes. “We knew some years ago there would be a change in also accounted for $13 million of DHX’s $16 million in revenues from ownership at many of them, but we couldn’t have predicted it all would merchandising and licensing, music and royalties (up 24% versus 2011). have happened in a 12-month span.” DHX itself was formed from the In September, DHX assumed all international broadcast and licensing 2006 merger of Decode Entertainment, which DeNure co-founded, rights for Yo Gabba Gabba! from Zodiak Rights, setting it up for a renewed and Michael Donovan’s Halifax Film Company. Donovan is today DHX’s push to monetize this lucrative property. chairman and CEO. Indeed, given the unpredictability and high costs of production, DHX is These newly expanded companies, like DHX, believe owning more looking increasingly at its other revenue streams. “There is reasonable content will make for more attractive deals with digital services including demand for original production, although we’re seeing that has Amazon, Comcast, Hulu and Netﬂ ix, the latter with which DHX struck softened a bit with reduced advertising revenues,” says Steven DeNure, a deal in March to make preschool series Franny’s Feet, Bo on the Go!

winter 2012 | 19

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and Mighty Jungle available in the U.S. “We’re having further formed a partnershiprship with children’schildren s publisher Egmont U.K. to distribution and business developmentdevelopment, although his title hadn’t discussions with them about other content,” DeNure says. co-develop ideass that will work fforor books, TV and didigital.gital. been revealed as ooff early November. UponU announcement of Cookie Jar, meanwhile, had a bigger digital footprint than DHX also has oonn its slate the CG-animatedCG-animated preschool series the deal, DHX anticipated $8$8 million inin annual synergies from DHX before the takeover, consisting of numerous branded The Doozers, a ccoproopro wwithith ThThee JiJimm HHensonenson “consolidation ofof locations, marketingmarketing effi ciencies and the websites related to its properties as well as Jaroo.com, where Company that incorporatescorporates characters integrationintegration ofof operations.” programs are free to watch with sponsor messages. Cookie Jar introduced on Fraggleraggle Rockk. It has beenbeen Even thouthoughgh ggoingoing fforwardorw DHX will focus on grew its digital distribution revenues 353% to $8 million in the sold to Turner Broadcasting’sroadcasting’s CartooniCartoonitoto exploitingexploiting iitsts vastvastlyly enenlargedla catalog, DeNure fi scal year ending May 31. channel in Europe,pe, tthehe MiddlMiddlee EEastast anandd assures tthehe expanexpandedded company will remain “Digital distribution had been a relatively small part of our Africa for a fall 22013013 launch. “It’s a ggreatreat a production force. “Both DHX and Cookie business but we were seeing some relatively rapid growth,” project we’ve beenen working on for a JarJar hhadad googoodd ddevelopmenteve slates and DeNure adds. “For Cookie Jar, with its bigger library, it had been while and the show’sow’s llookingooking projectsprojects iinn tthehe ppipelineip [prior to the recent a very signifi cant portion of their international sales. We will now fabulous,” DeNurere says. takeover],”takeover],” hhee saysays. “We’ve combined those be one of the key suppliers to over-the-top companies, including Forthcoming neww shows andand will continucontinue.”e Netfl ix. There’s good demand for catalog.” originated at Cookieokie Most of DHX’s $6 million in new media revenues in 2012 (a Jar include seasonon six Cookie Jar-owned property 119% bump) were attributable to UMIGO (“you make it go”), a of Johnny Test (fallfall 20132013)) Super Mario Brothers is transmedia educational initiative in development at Wildbrain and kids superheroero comecomedydy Dr. among the brands DHX and funded by U.S. public educational dollars. “It’s focused Dimensionpants ((winterwinter 20142014),), bbothoth now adds to its catalogue. on a math and science curriculum,” DeNure explains. “The for Teletoon. business model there includes producing a television series, Meanwhile, formermer CookieCookie Jar CEOCEO which we’re pitching at the moment, as well as web-based Michael Hirsh is aassumingssuming the title ooff content from games to puzzles – much of which is free – to executive board cchairmanhairman ooff DHXDHX,, whiwhilele apps, which won’t be.” former president and COO ToperToper Taylor,Taylor, Keeping multiple platform executions in mind, DHX recently will continue to focusocus on digitaldigital

20 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca CONGRATULATIONS

Being Erica on becoming PPlayback’slay TV producer of the year!

Wingin’ It

From your friends at

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Congratulates PLAYBACK’s best of 2012:

KEVIN CRULL PRESIDENT, BELL MEDIA PERSON OF THE YEAR

AND COMEDY NETWORK ON YOUR 15TH ANNIVERSARY

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BY JORDAN TWISS FILM PRODUCER OF THE YEAR:

It’s been a busy couple of years for Item 7 Despite the producing duo’s crowded resumes, Long-time collaborators and colleagues Marie-Claude Poulin and Pierre Even formed the Montreal-based cofounders Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin. which include Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y., Canada’s 2005 company in 2009. The Montreal-based prodco only opened Oscar entry (on which they worked separately, its doors in 2009, but Even and Poulin are pre-Item 7) and last year’s Café de Flore, long-time collaborators and colleagues, having produced by Item 7, Even and Poulin have tested But the stress of selling it was was selected by Telefi lm Canada as the known each other since the 1990s when they their perseverance over the past three years, nothing compared to filming it in the Canadian Best Foreign Language Film fi rst worked together at Malofi lm. particularly with director Kim Nguyen’s tale about impoverished and strife-torn Democratic Oscar contender, and has now been Item 7 has already put its name and money child soldiers, Rebelle. Republic of the Congo. theatrically released in about 20 territories. behind fi ve high-profi le theatrical features, and Says Poulin, “Based on the script – when we “It was very challenging because you Given such success, it’s no surprise that has a full slate, including the upcoming post- were pitching the fi lm before it was made – we can’t rely on any legal system. [Agreements Even and Poulin plan to continue producing apocalyptic thriller The Colony, directed by Jeff couldn’t give it away for foreign sales. But once are] all built on the relationships, and we feature fi lms. Renfroe and starring Canuck Kevin Zegers, with we showed the almost fi nished fi lm, we had were very fortunate because we had a “The business plan for us is to work in Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton. a bidding war.” Even adds that bidders were production location manager who had English and French. As long as the creative Even and Poulin have also formed a solid attracted by fi rst-time actor Rachel Mwanza’s worked on two fi lms before in Kinshasa,” team behind it is strong and we feel there’s relationship with director Jean-Marc Vallée under strong performance, the power of the story, and says Even of the experience in 2011, a great script, we will work within a broad the Item 7 banner of late. Nguyen’s directorial craftsmanship. adding that the crew had to pay all range of genres, whether it’s a comedy or equipment costs in the country up front, an arthouse fi lm,” says Poulin. and couldn’t secure guarantees they’d get “We still believe in theatrical fi lm, and what they paid for. produce fi lms that have theatrical potential. Associate producer Anne-Marie Gélinas It doesn’t mean that we’re not focusing spent four months in the Congo line on new platforms, but we strongly believe producing the fi lm and even at one point in the format of taking 90 or 120 minutes found herself dealing with the business to tell a story, and tell it in the best way end of the Congolese military, after a possible,” adds Even. communication breakdown brought a battle- Both Even and Poulin credit their success hardened army tank unit to the door of the to their ability to craftily take advantage of compound where they were shooting on the the federal and provincial incentives that fi rst day the crew used gunshots. come with coproducing a fi lm and their In the end, Poulin, who spent fi ve weeks ability to attract the right partners, be they in the Congo, had to appear on national TV in other parts of Canada or in Europe. to alert the public that their gunfi re, which Looking forward, Even and Poulin show is all too often real in the country, was just no signs of slowing their momentum as for the fi lm. they continue shooting Rudy Barichello’s Despite these hurdles, Rebelle had its Meetings With a Young Poet, in which a day at the Berlin International Film Festival young poet forms a complex friendship in January. with Samuel Beckett, through December “We changed the entire post-production in Montreal. The Colony, which is being Kim Nguyen’s Rebelle, after a successful run on the inter- schedule of the fi lm to be able to fi nish distributed by Alliance and Sierra Films, national festival circuit, was selected as Canada’s entry for in time for Berlin. We were supposed to is slated to complete post-production in the best foreign language fi lm Oscar. fi nish late March, and we had the entire 2013, while production on Daniel Grou’s team working through Christmas and New ensemble drama Miraculum will begin Year’s Eve hoping that we’d be chosen for shooting in March. Berlin,” says Even. From Berlin, Rebelle went on to win awards at multiple festivals. Following the Toronto International Film Festival it

22 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

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As senior vice president of independent So as Coe moves from pitch to pitch, her 60-odd channels. The pressure is great. production at Bell Media, Corrie Coe takes antennae is tuned to what is needed or not “We want every time slot to have a hit, endless pitches from producers eager to get needed at a broadcaster that, like a Swiss Army whether that show in the slot is Canadian or their TV shows on the air alongside hits like Knife, has different programming combinations otherwise,” Coe insists. Flashpoint, The L.A. Complex and Saving Hope. to serve a host of channel brands. More recent projects include Coe and her And turning pitches into TV catnip is no That has producers needing to hit an elusive team shepherding a multi-cam pilot for Spun easy alchemy for Coe, who is responsible for sweet spot with series concepts. Out, moving beyond sketch and stand-up on The Bell Media’s two conventional channels, 28 “Even though it might be a drama or an Comedy Network to get fresh talent on the channel. specialty channels and suite of online assets, unscripted reality series, [successful pitches] A wider audience is also sought at Space with and her development team. all have a ﬂ avour or a stamp of personality new dramas like Bitten and Orphan Black, which “We’re looking at dramas or comedies or that the channels are looking for and which came out of the Canadian Film Centre. reality programming or variety and we’re looking we can recognize and help shape,” adds Coe. Looking to 2013, Coe is looking at what the channel brands are, and what the She works closely with lieutenants like Trish to possibly do more projects like programmers for those channels tell us they Williams (drama), Sarah Fowlie (comedy) and Engraved on a Nation, an umbrella need to meet their programming strategy for the Robin Johnston (factual) to push their respective title for a doc series on TSN, CTV upcoming year or two,” Coe explains. development slates along to possible greenlights. and RDS that has established The challenge is further complicated in Also spurring development is a need for ﬁ lmmakers tell human stories the need to develop the new series across Canadian shows that stand-up alongside U.S. from the Canadian Football traditional genres and not simply channels. series and other foreign fare on Bell Media’s League’s past.

winter 2012 | 23

INSPIRING TALENTLENT

CONGRATULATIONS TO PLAYBACK’S BEST OF 2012!

PERSON OF THE YEAR INDIE DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR KEVIN CRULL MONGREL MEDIA DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR TV PRODUCER OF THE YEAR JEREMY PODESWA TEMPLE STREET INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR FILM PRODUCER OF THE YEAR CORRIE COE ITEM 7 DIGITAL COMPANY OF THE YEAR INDIE STUDIO OF THE YEAR ITHENTIC LIONSGATE KIDS DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR DHX

STORIES THAT BRING US TOGETHER DES HISTOIRES QUI NOUS RASSEMBLENT

TELEFILM.CA

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DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR:

Company founder Hussain Amarshi said that managing risk is one of the Mongrel Media, a Canadian indie fi lm distributor launched in BY ETAN VLESSING constant challenges for an indie distributor. a bedroom with $2,000 in the kitty, has in the last year deftly navigated fast-paced industry consolidation and a shift to “While we are increasingly digital distribution. buying bigger independent This feat is due to company founder Hussain Amarshi’s That means feeding its product into the iTunes pipeline, and fi lms, we are always on ability to keep his cool and achieve growth while the industry the Shaw, Rogers, Videotron, Telus and Bell VOD services. dominos continue to fall to the forces of change. “Film Managing risk also calls for a broader release slate. The the lookout for the gems distribution is not for the faint of heart. In eighteen years of Mongrel mix includes releases with one or two prints to as many that may not be the next running Mongrel, I have seen many companies come and go,” as 50 prints for a wide release. In all, the distributor averages blockbuster, but will reso- Amarshi explains. 40 theatrical fi lm releases a year, and more than 100 releases in “I believe that managing risk is one of the constant challenges home entertainment. nate with our audiences,” for an indie distributor, especially in a market the size and nature “While we are increasingly buying bigger independent fi lms, says Amarshi. of Canada,” he adds. we are always on the lookout for the gems that may not be That caution contrasts with competitors adding to their own the next blockbuster, but will resonate with our audiences,” through mergers and acquisitions, not least as Entertainment Amarshi says. One swallows Alliance Films. Looking ahead to 2013, Canada’s third-largest indie distributor Amarshi continues to build organically, backed by a plum is looking to step up its game after Entertainment One’s output deal with Sony Pictures Classics and solid ties to Canadian acquisition of Alliance Films. directors like Sarah Polley, Deepa Mehta and Richie Mehta. “We expect opportunities to acquire a wide range of fi lms that “We have always believed in staying focused on what we do would historically be acquired by these two companies, but with best – we are specialists in distributing independent fi lms, art their combined size, may not be interested in handling them house fi lms, foreign fi lms and Canadian fi lms – and in 2012, we anymore,” Amarshi explains. were able to make many of our fi lms very successful at the box “We will also be seeking new and long term relationships with offi ce,” he insists. Canadian producers who are looking for hands-on handling of Recent theatrical performers for Mongrel Media include Wim their fi lms, and we will focus on acquiring signifi cant Canadian Wenders’ Pina, the Iranian Oscar winner A Separation, Woody fi lms,” he signaled. Allen’s To Rome With Love, and Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz That means not resting on any laurels as a boutique distributor. and Stories We Tell. “Since we don’t have the market clout that a big company has, That release slate was launched into a domestic market we have to be hungry at all times, so that we can grab whatever overshadowed by changing consumer and exhibitor trends. opportunities we see,” Amarshi says. “The demise of the big box DVD rental market, fi rst with the If anything, he still sees Mongrel Media as a startup. closure of Blockbuster and then the exit of Rogers, has led to “We are the small company that can make things happen, we the rise of video on demand, both broadcast and internet-based, are and have to be innovative in how we market our fi lms, we bet and we are very much positioning our fi lms for the VOD market,” on the small fi lms that will resonate, and above all, each year, we Amarshi says, discussing how Mongrel Media looks to get round are growing organically and in a sustainable way,” Amarshi says. the digital curve.

24 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

OOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt1pt1 pppp 18-25.indd18-25.indd 2424 007/11/127/11/12 2:212:21 PMPM PB.21736.CanipreStripAd.indd 1 06/11/12 2:37 PM DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR: BY MATT SYLVAIN

Homeland, American Horror Story: Asylum, The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, The Borgias, Camelot. With recent or upcoming directorial credits on episodes of these household-name status U.S. shows and major Canadian coproductions, Jeremy Podeswa was certainly on a roll in 2012. In addition to soon taking the helm on episodes of the next season of HBO hit The Newsroom and FX’s American Horror Story: Asylum, the director says he’s keen to get more work that’s close to Los Angeles, where Podeswa primarily works, even though he still calls Toronto home. While he’s spending most of his days currently working south of the border, Podeswa, who earlier this fall nabbed a Directors Guild of Canada awards for best direction for The Borgias’ episode Death on a Pale Horse, remains a close follower of industry developments back home. That arms-length distance perhaps allows him to critique the overall approach to growth the Canadian industry is pursuing. While he applauds efforts by the industry to become ever more business oriented, he cautions that emulating the Hollywood model is misguided, since the U.S. industry is so many times larger and private funders much more plentiful, whereas the Canadian system remains dependent on public funds. “Our industry should not simply be an entertainment factory. It has a cultural mandate and does not have to always be as populist. There are virtues in creating culture and not just blockbusters,” he says. To up-and-coming Canadian directors who may want to follow his Hollywood trail, he recommends that they remain true to themselves. “Everyone has to carve their own path,” adding that it’s a career submitted to the Sundance screenwriter’s lab. Podeswa (left) on the set of a Homeland second season shoot, with misstep to be conformist. He says producers at marquee channels Later, they met and chatted at the Toronto International DOP Nelson Cragg and B camera operator Bob Newcomb. Photo: Kent Smith/Showtime. like HBO and Showtime “are looking for strong creative vision, and Film Festival where The Five Senses was screened. uniqueness and distinctiveness are what is valued.” In the mean time, his second break came in 2001 with “That’s the biggest thing I could impart to someone: trust your own the meeting of producer Sheila Hockin, who tapped him gut and your own sensibility as much as you can,” he says. to work with her on Showtime’s Queer As Folk, for which From there he went on to work with Hockin on the So how does a Canadian fi lm director become a much-sought-after Toronto stood in for Pittsburgh. “That became my fi rst Canadian multi-national coproductions The Borgias and Hollywood TV director? Podeswa, who studied fi lm at Ryerson and American TV show,” he says, noting that as recently as The Tudors. afterwards attended the American Film Institute in L.A., credits his 2001 “it was a rarity for Canadians to get U.S. work shot Podeswa is repped by Untitled Entertainment and the success to two breaks, both of which occurred within a matter of in Canada.” Creative Artists Agency stateside, and Green Light Artist months. The fi rst came after his 1999 feature fi lm, The Five Senses, He soon also landed an episode directing gig on Six Management in Canada. was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight. Feet Under. Alan Poul, an executive producer and director of Six Feet Under who Podeswa was then, as he calls it now, “U.S. cable now executive produces The Newsroom, saw the fi lm and had also approved” and worked on Queer as Folk for four seasons read the script as a member of the selection committee when it was and Six Feet Under for fi ve.

winter 2012 | 25

PB.21736.CanipreStripAd.inddOOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt1pt1 pppp 18-25.indd18-25. i n 1dd 2525 06/11/12007/11/127/11/12 2:372:212:21 PMPMPM BESTOFTHEYEAR

BY JORDAN TWISS TV PRODUCER OF THE YEAR:

Toronto-based Temple Street Productions found its own began in Toronto on Graeme Manson and John Fawcett’s recipe to riches in 2012, or at least a good recipe for sci-ﬁ series, Orphan Black, which stars Tatiana Maslany and creating successful factual and scripted properties. already has substantial backing from Bell Media, who will The Recipe to Riches producer saw its branded program, carry it on Space, and BBC America. which is sponsored by food giant Loblaw, get picked up for a “It’s a tremendous boost to Temple Street,” John Young, second season on Shaw’s Food Network Canada (now airing) the prodco’s managing director, says of Orphan Black. and its format’s international rights acquired by Fremantle “It continues our tradition of developing and producing big Media. The prodco is also producing the live competition budget drama shows. There are only a few of them every series Over the Rainbow, which has proven to be a steady year in Canada, and we’re very fortunate,” he adds. ratings-earner for CBC this fall. According to Young, building a diverse production slate Temple Street has a busy slate on the scripted side as well, was Temple Street’s core business strategy entering 2012. The international rights to its original, branded format Recipe having started production on the teen dance series The Next To this end, he says the prodco invested heavily in growing to Riches were acquired by FremantleMedia last year. Step for Family Channel in July. More recently, production its scripted, unscripted, branded and digital teams – the

26 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

CONGRATULATIONS JEREMY PODESWA Playback’s Director of the Year

From your friends at Take 5 Productions

OOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.indd 2626 008/11/128/11/12 2:112:11 PMPM PB.22259.FearlessThirdPg.indd 1 06/11/12 2:39 PM PB.22198.Take5.indd 1 06/11/12 2:59 PM company increased its team by four people in 2012, and plans to hire on fi ve more next year – as opposed to focusing on a particular content niche. To bolster these efforts, Temple Street also opened an L.A. offi ce – part of a push to broaden the market in which it does business. “Part of the plan is trying to create a company that operates in a North American marketplace,” Young explains. “We’re a Canadian company and we’re very proud of it, but realistically, if we want to try to succeed on a wider scale we have to look to the John Young David Fortier Ivan Schneeberg U.S. broadcasters,” he adds. To attract broadcasters, says David Fortier, one “We run Temple Street with a very close eye “We run Temple Street with a very close eye on the margin of the company’s two co-presidents, it’s important on the margin and cash fl ow of our business. and cash fl ow of our business. We need to marry the creative to pay attention to market trends and to bring We need to marry the creative process of the something new to the table. company with its ability to do good business process of the company with its ability to do good business “Trends change, products will come to market deals,” Schneeberg says. deals,” says co-president Ivan Schneeberg. and there’s a lot of competition for creating Looking forward to 2013, Young says content,” Fortier says. “You’ve got to be fi rst Temple Street will continue grow its team, to market. You’ve got to jump on the trends, and is even forecasting a “banner year” for understand the demands and deliver. If you’ve the company as it works toward fi nding ways got the concept and good ideas, broadcasters to deliver in the U.S. in Canada and elsewhere are very eager to get The prodco is also looking to expand its great content and get it going quickly,” adds digital and branded offerings, and branch out co-president Ivan Schneeberg. into programming for preschool audiences. Along with acting quickly, producers must be “Our relationship with Family Channel is very able to identify which ideas have the potential to strong and we are continuing to explore new get into development or get greenlit, as opposed content ideas with them,” Young adds. to sticking with an idea for the long haul and throwing good money after bad.

winter 2012 | 27 audio mixing Johnny THE SECRET DISCO REVOLUTION You Gotta Eat Here Test digital CANADA’S Faces of

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PB.22259.FearlessThirdPg.inddOOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.ind d 1 2727 06/11/12007/11/127/11/12 2:392:342:34 PMPMPM PB.22198.Take5.indd 1 06/11/12 2:59 PM BESTOFTHEYEAR

PERSON OF THE YEAR: BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN

This fall marks year two of Kevin Crull helming TSN, The Comedy Network, Bravo, MuchMusic, from foreign entertainment providers, over the Bell Media, following BCE’s acquisition of MTV and Space. top services and rights. CTVglobemedia in 2010. The company greenlit 11 new productions “I believe there’s a great opportunity for the And despite the derailing by the CRTC (including pilots) this year alone, including new Canadian industry from non-simultaneous of BCE’s plans to acquire Astral Media, series Motive, Orphan Black and Satisfaction, in substitution. That would give us a lot more as the calendar turns a new page addition to okaying seasons of returning series, ability to nurture a Canadian show in a great Crull’s eyes remain fi rmly on the prize ramping up its original Canadian content spot on our schedule,” Crull argues. – that is, maintaining Bell Media’s offerings as it bids farewell to Flashpoint, He notes The Big Bang Theory as an status as the top national broadcaster. arguably one of the most successful Canadian example of the rights integrity challenges the “I would say that it is often harder scripted shows six years in the running. broadcaster faces due to rebroadcast, namely to stay on top than it is to get on top,” CTV had banked on this summer’s Saving that while CTV is the exclusive broadcaster for says Crull. Hope as its next Flashpoint, and, while it didn’t the show in Canada, the show airs 50 times a He adds that the CRTC’s decision take in the U.S., Crull says Bell Media ponied week on stations Canadians can access, only hasn’t affected the company’s independent up more equity to keep the show alive in fi ve actually being CTV transmissions. production plans – the proposed tangible Canada, ordering a second season. Crull agrees that Canadian linear providers benefi ts package from the Astral takeover “There’re a number of examples where we and traditional media companies are having would have meant $96 million in additional indie run a new Canadian drama, it has a successful to play catch up when it comes to OTT production dollars – and they also still have fi rst season in Canada, then it loses its foreign technology, namely in enhancing delivery benefi ts money to spend from the funding and dies. That’s an awful cycle to be technology and consumer experience. CTVglobemedia purchase in 2011. in,” he says. “Canadian production is one thing. “There’s no question that the presence And they are spending: Bell Successful hits that are also Canadian are of foreign OTT in Canada is siphoning off Media owns 28 conventional another thing.” viewing from traditional providers. Whether stations, including CTV, As the head of a private broadcaster, Crull it’s cannibalizing [the market] or taking the and owns and operates 30 is frank about the challenges before him, opportunities for new viewing…that is a big specialty channels, including particularly with regards to growing competition opportunity cost to the system. We have seen

28 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

Congratulations Temple Street Playback’s TV Producer of the Year

PB.22206.PanavisionThirdPg.inddOOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.indd 282 18 06/11/12007/11/127/11/12 2:382:252:25 PMPM “Canadian production is one our rights costs go up as we’re bidding on your mobile phone or wirelessly on your iconic programming, like the MuchMusic thing. Successful hits that are against OTT providers, so while I would say tablet, you really have the full breadth of Video Awards, the World Junior Hockey this industry has never been dull, it’s maybe what’s available on your cable and satellite Championship on TSN and promoting the also Canadian are another never been less dull than it is today,” he says. system,” says Crull. 100th Grey Cup with the Engraved on a thing,” says Crull. Just the same, Crull sticks to the goal of The company in 2012 ramped up its Nation doc series. producing great content for linear TV viewing digital-specifi c strategy as well, via social Crull says 2013 will also be a big year for fi rst, arguing that linear viewing is resilient, media integration (like the MuchCloser Bell Media’s specialty channels, with many even as he sees a need for the TV everywhere viewer engagement loyalty program), indie productions for the channels hitting the strategy due to media fragmentation. spinning off successful linear properties airwaves, the follow through of Bravo’s 2012 “We like the power of the ‘megaphone’ into mini-series online (one example being makeover, and a potential reinvigoration of – when you have a strong linear asset and Switch, spun off from The Listener), and MuchMusic and MTV. strong linear programming, you have that this year greenlighting its fi rst completely promotional ability, so the audience fi nds the non-linear program, Backpackers, from online co-viewing content on their own. And, Shaftesbury’s Smokebomb Entertainment, with other demographics, you can promote it for pure web delivery and digital viewing. linearly to get them exposed to it,” he says He credits the company’s further Meanwhile, with TV everywhere model, success in the year to leveraging the “instead of just pockets of content available opportunities to turn Canadian events into

winter 2012 | 29

Congratulations to CMPA members DHX and Temple Street for Winning Playback’s Kids CORRIE COE Distributor and TV Producer of the year. Playback’s Independent Production Executive of the Year In celebration of excellent Canadian content. and www.cmpa.ca COMEDY NETWORK on your 15th Anniversary The CMPA presents: PRIME TIME From your friends at Zone3 March 6-8, 2013 in Ottawa Give yourself an early Christmas present! Register for Prime Time in Ottawa 2013 before January 11th and take advantage of our non-member early bird pricing for the very first time. www.primetimeinottawa.ca

See you in Ottawa.

PB.22251.Zone.indd 1 06/11/12 2:59 PM

PB.22206.PanavisionThirdPg.indd 1 06/11/12 2:38 PM OOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.indd 2929 008/11/128/11/12 2:362:36 PMPM BESTOFTHEYEAR

DIGITAL COMPANY OF THE YEAR:

BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN In a time when viewers are surrounded by screens on which they the fi lm hits the festival circuit. The project, which wrapped production voraciously consume content – mobiles, online, tablet and TV – it would in Toronto in August, is directed by The New Pornographers’ Blaine make sense for a digital producer and distributor to approach properties Thurier and produced by Brian Robertson and Pavan Moondi (who also The key to Guidestones’ with a 360-degree monetization strategy. wrote the series with Michael Sloane) in collaboration with iThentic and success is in creating This 360-degree outlook has been a key factor in digital content Toronto-based Riddle Films. different choices aggregator, distributor and producer iThentic’s strategy since the Finally, web series Guidestones, an original IP produced by iThentic Toronto-based company launched in 2006, what company chairwoman and Toronto-based 3 o’clock TV and directed by Jay Ferguson, is likely for consumers that and co-founder Catherine Tait calls a diversifi ed business model. the best example of a project that has shown success out of iThentic’s are marketable and “We are fully exploiting the linear, we are fully exploiting the interactive, business model. The web series, which taps into conspiracy theories and monetizable on various but also we are fully exploiting ancillary markets where we can monetize the thriller genre, was created as both an interactive “push” version that the properties. For us, 360 means not just looking at pure internet lets viewers participate and fi nd clues on the web to unlock the series platforms, says CEO content, but also making sure that we are exploring all the potential for narrative, and also a linear version for more passive, serialized viewing. Jonas Diamond. monetization,” she tells Playback. The company greenlit a second 40-episode season earlier this year. A Three of their recent projects typify this approach. 34-ep on-demand version of the fi rst season launched on Hulu in June, For upcoming iThentic projects like SOS: Save our Skins and Everyday through which the company generates revenue share. The series also is like Sunday, this means creating both a web version and a feature launched on iTunes Oct. 1. Keeping the potential audience and version of the projects, so as to not be restricted to internet distribution, It was funded by the prodcos, the Independent Production Fund, monetization opportunities in mind, Guidestones (top) was created with both and to be able to monetize the IP on multiple platforms. grants from the Ontario Media Development Corporation and through interactive and linear viewing versions. Save our Skins is somewhat of an anomaly, being a U.K.-Canada sponsorships, including those with Pizza Pizza and Major League Baseball. digital co-production. iThentic optioned and began developing the Analytics show the series has a 49% user return rate, and 10,000 property after British comedians Nat Saunders and Chris Heyward users reach the series content through the subscription “push’ system, pitched it in the Just for Laughs web pitch competition in 2010. They in which users sign up to receive episodes via email to experience the then partnered up with U.K.-based prodco Baby Cow to produce the content on an interactive level. series for the web. The series won the comedy prize at the Pixel Pitch The key to its success is not only creating content that resonates with competition at the Cross-Media Forum in October. audiences, but creating different choices for consumers that are marketable And Everyday is Like Sunday is a 10-episode web series that will be and monetizable on various platforms, says CEO Jonas Diamond. cut fi rst as a feature fi lm, with the series version premiering online after “The real challenge is trying to be everything to everyone, and I

30 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

OOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.indd 3030 007/11/127/11/12 2:262:26 PMPM PB.22230.Pixel.indd 1 06/11/12 3:00 PM think Guidestones does a really good job of that in terms of its distribution model - really kind of catering to the audience, and delivering an experience that they would want to consume rather than dictating to them how we think they should experience it.” The past year has been a tipping point for the company. Tait says it was a year in which iThentic had achieved scale in its projects and partnerships, and a year in which they saw a real uptake in the marketplace for their business. It has grown through strategic partnerships formed through distribution agreements (like striking a deal with the CBC for Smiley Guy and Duopoly animated copro The World of Bruce “We are fully exploiting McCall) and by doing more service work. the linear, the interactive, Those partnerships include working with the City of Toronto on and the ancillary markets short ﬁ lm initiative Toronto Revealed, along with the Canadian Film Centre, and administering contests for the Shortnonstop festival and where we can monetize The Reel Challenge. the properties,” says Tait. That’s in addition to providing digital strategy and digital monetization opps to iThentic’s founding partners, like eOne, for which they developed media apps for Call Me Fitz. Chairwoman and co-founder And with multiple screen projects in the pipeline, and the Catherine Tait says the company saw launches of the iFestivus digital platform to help ﬁ lm festivals to an uptake in the marketplace for their business in 2012. reach larger audiences, a Greenspace app and game based on their Green Minute musician touring series, 2013 promises to see the company continuing to expand as a digital studio.

winter 2012 | 31

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INDIE STUDIO OF THE YEAR:

BY ETAN VLESSING Some year. Some Canadian studio. That library also contains, in addition to the movie division Leaving behind the mini-studio tag to challenge Hollywood studios on properties, titles from Lionsgate’s expanding cable TV business. The fi rst installment of their turf, Lionsgate acquired Twilight movie franchise producer Summit Besides popular titles like Mad Men, Weeds and the Charlie The Hunger Games grossed Entertainment in January 2012 for $412 million in cash and stock. Sheen comeback sitcom Anger Management, Lionsgate is also $700 million at the worldwide To get the leveraged buyout done, Vancouver-based Lionsgate enjoying success with network TV, most notably this fall’s ABC box offi ce. had to assume Summit’s $500 million debt. Then, in early October, breakout hit Nashville. Lionsgate paid down that $500 million loan four years before the Here’s where Lionsgate especially sets an example to rival fi nal payment was due. Canadian producers for creating a cradle-to-grave approach It was that kind of a year for the Vancouver-based studio, to product exploitation. The fi lm and TV slates are seen as whose deal for Summit and its Twilight franchise combined two of complimentary to feeding an international and increasingly digital Hollywood’s biggest producers of teen tentpoles, given Lionsgate’s pipeline for content exploitation. success with The Hunger Games franchise. That allows the studio, backed by a new fi ve-year, $800-million Besides the fi rst Hunger Games installment, which grossed nearly credit facility, to develop, fi nance and produce content on its own, $700 million at the worldwide box offi ce, Lionsgate’s recent fi lm before selling product to broadcasters and fi lm distributors in North slate includes The Possession, Sinister, The Expendables 2, Cabin in America and internationally. the Woods, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection and Arbitrage. Then Lionsgate squeezes earnings from the content in home And with the Summit acquisition, Lionsgate also added to its entertainment and digital platforms. library notable box offi ce hits like Red, which was shot in Toronto, Finally, Lionsgate exploits older/long tail content, whether in Letters to Juliet, Knowing and the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker. syndication or via Netfl ix for end-to-end value creation. And the studio’s home entertainment business is feeding a Lionsgate has equally excelled in the last year building out its burgeoning box offi ce-to-DVD and VOD pipeline, underpinned by a international distribution network. library that now has around 15,000 titles. The company made good use of Summit principals Rob Friedman

32 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

OOFtheYear.2012FtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.indd 3232 008/11/128/11/12 2:102:10 PMPM PB.22232.Thompson.ad.indd 1 12-11-07 3:17 PM and Patrick Wachsberger, with Friedman stickhandling movie production, while Wachsberger uses his experience in foreign sales to build out the not-so-mini studio’s international distribution network. The strategy is creating a worldwide network of independent distributors where Lionsgate doesn’t give up upfront money from territories, while gaining partners for wide release of its product internationally. In recent months, Lionsgate inked separate output deals with Belgian’s Belga Films, StudioCanal in Germany, Nordisk Films in Scandinavia, Alliance Film’s Aurum Producciones in Spain, Roadshow Pictures in Australia and Metropolitan Filmworks in France. Meanwhile, the Canadian studio still releases its own titles in the U.K., and has a self-distribution partnership with IDC in Latin America. And Lionsgate is laying down a distribution route into Asia, via a pact with Celestial Tiger Entertainment. The Hong Kong-based cable channel operator releases Lionsgate TV content and fi lm library titles, and Summit Entertainment fi lms, in East Asia, including China. A more recent deal with Celestial Tiger for Southeast Asia now covers the Japanese and Korean markets. Lionsgate earlier this year acquired a stake in the company, along with Saban Capital. With Twilight (above) and The Hunger Games among its assets, Lionsgate has a lock on the teen fi lm franchise market.

winter 2012 | 33

From the director of Hockey Night in Canada’s musical openings, comes a feature length documentary about ¦ ve independent musicians, and the roads they travel to sustain their artistic existence.

Born To It is a ¦ lm about artists who make music for all the right reasons.

Dual layer DVD available at: www.victimlesscapitalism.com

OOFtheYear.2012PB.22232.Thompson.ad.inddFtheYear.2012 pt2pp26-33.inddpt2pp26-33.in d 1d 3333 007/11/1212-11-077/11/12 3:423 3:17:42 PMP PMM BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN The last year saw several industry vets start new chapters on their careers by opening their own companies. Playback checked in with some of these companies to hear about their plans for 2013.

PDM ENTERTAINMENT ROCKETFUEL MEDIA PIVOTAL MEDIA BASED IN TORONTO BASED IN TORONTO BASED IN TORONTO

PHYLLIS PLATT BRIAN DENNIS PETER MOSS STEPHEN ELLIS GINA LIJOI ANDREA GABOURIE SIMON WATTS

BACKGROUND: These TV pros have long track records. Platt is a veteran BACKGROUND: The joint venture connects TV and interactive. BACKGROUND: With a second season order of YTV’s Zoink’d CBC programmer, who left the pubcaster in 2000 to start Platt Productions, Ellis is a long-time TV indie producer-distributor, known for on the table, the former Corus Entertainment execs saw an producing numerous series and movies prior to resuming her old CBC role in Ellis Entertainment, while Lijoi has worked as a consultant and entrepreneurial opportunity to combine their indie production an interim capacity last year; Dennis’ TV producer resume includes several project manager in the digital space. The two joined forces expertise. Gabourie was director of live action productions for series including The Border and Little Mosque on the Prairie; Moss was head to help producers bridge the gap in turning a TV show into two years, while Watts was a senior line producer at Corus. of kids programming at various nets, including YTV/Treehouse, exec producer transmedia entertainment by offering services to get producers for Children’s Television Workshop and president of Cinar Animation. over that hump, including helping to secure potential funding for digital projects. WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS MODEL? We are a full-service prodco. We are equally at home producing large- WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS MODEL? Our model is to stay nimble and lean, and not build a large infrastructure that has to be fed. WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS MODEL? scale reality shows, documentary/lifestyle series, and scripted animation We staff up for production, but keep our core team tight and effi cient. Our goal is to produce The business model is a scalable one that crowd-sources from the projects. We aim to develop partnerships at home and abroad that will great TV, have lots of fun, and with luck, make some money in the process. best on the planet. Our goal is to get established early in this emerging enable us to leverage the unique fi nancing opportunities here in Canada. business, set a high standard and be a pivotal player between WHAT’S YOUR EDGE? producers, funders and projects that can take on a life of their own. WHAT’S YOUR EDGE? We have signifi cant skills and expertise on both the creative and business sides of Broadcasters already know us. We have collectively produced over television production. We understand what makes for a good script, and who can deliver WHAT’S YOUR EDGE? 500 hours of television for most of the major broadcast groups in on that front. Our connections in the industry run deep, and we respect and understand We believe that our edge is the ‘soup to nuts’ service offering which is Canada and the U.S. Also, we have both worked on the inside for major the work of people at all levels of the business. hard to fi nd under one cyber-roof out there - that and the quality of our networks. Very few indie prodcos fully understand the various pressures work, of course. broadcasters are facing. PROJECTS ON THE GO? Still Life (book one in Louise Penny’s Three Pines mystery series), currently in PROJECTS ON THE GO? production for the CBC. Developing Dead Cold (second book in the series), penned by We are currently in various stages of negotiation with a range of PROJECTS ON THE GO? Wayne Grigsby; fi nal outlines for The Best Laid Plans mini-series with writers Susan producers and an exciting array of properties to help extend them into Season two of Zoink’d for YTV, plus projects under consideration at Coyne and Jason Sherman; developing series with screenwriter Amy Cole. the digital realm. several Canadian and U.S. networks and distribution/format houses.

SHIFT MEDIA GROUP PEACOCK ALLEY ENTERTAINMENT OFFICES IN VANCOUVER, LANGLEY, B.C., SASKATOON, WINNIPEG, TORONTO BASED IN TORONTO

NICHOLAS HIRST KIM TODD RON GOETZ ANNELISE LARSON CARRIE MUDD NEIL COURT (ORIGINAL PICTURES) (PARTNERS IN MOTION) (VERIA SEARCH MEDIA MARKETING)

BACKGROUND: Winnipeg- and Toronto-based indie producer Original Pictures, Saskatchewan multiplatform BACKGROUND: Mudd worked for 10 years as Tricon Films and Television’s EVP international content producer Partners in Motion, and social and digital media co Veria Search Media Marketing, headquartered development, while Court co-founded Decode Entertainment and, following its merger with Halifax Film in Saskatoon, with an ofﬁ ce in Vancouver, pacted to combine their expertise as a national multiplatform Company that formed DHX Media, was a principal there until exiting in 2009. They say they saw an factual and dramatic producer. Hirst is OP CEO and Todd is its founder and president; Goetz is PIM’s EVP and opportunity to step up with their experience in creative content with global appeal, and experience with (not shown) Jeff Stecyk is PIM’s GM and COO and Chris Triffo its president; and Larson is a Veria partner. foreign ﬁ nancing and production partners.

WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS MODEL? WHAT’S YOUR EDGE? WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS MODEL? out great talent, whether it be an on-camera personality for a We are producers who want to own and sell Our geographic reach, our product mix and potential for cross- The market leads. We have a privileged ﬁ nancing factual format or a creative team attached to a scripted concept. internationally the projects we develop. In drama fertilization and multi-platform expertise. Our companies have situation in Canada but it’s important to let the Ideally, the Canadian production incentives give us the opportunity selling we combine with international distributors. great reputations – creators enjoy working with us – this is true international market drive your business, not to create programmes for the international market from a well- In factual, we have our own Harmony Entertainment of all three components of Shift. production subsidies. So we will compete like any funded home base. and a deal with Breakthrough and Norwalk, Conn.- other company internationally and seek out those based CableReady. By adding a digital component PROJECTS ON THE GO? opportunities to develop and make great programs. PROJECTS ON THE GO? through Annelise’ Veria we can expand online and The tenth season of Blood Lies and Alibis for Investigation Money Moron, a series about troubled couples, with ﬁ nancial offer consultancy to producers applying to the Discovery U.S. And then a one-hour drama procedural in late WHAT’S YOUR EDGE? guru Gail Vaz Oxlade. And docu-series Boy Meets Girl, with Canada Media Fund. stage development. We’re a boutique shop with a focused mandate to seek transgender beauty queen Jenna Talackova.

34 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

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THE COMEDY NETWORK @15: THE SPECIALTY’S SUCCESS

IS NO LAUGHING MATTER BY MARK DILLON

Programming humour is Stop me if you’ve heard this one: three groups walk into a Canadian Match Game, a Canadian take on the celebrity game show, premiered in Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing October and is hosted by comic Darrin Rose. serious work, Playback learns each looking to launch a humour-based channel to inject some as the Bell Media property hits levity into Canadians’ humdrum lives. It’s no joke to the regulator, however, which in September 1996 grants a license to The Comedy By far the channel’s most successful Canuck series has been its mid-teens. Network. The winning bid is backed by Baton Broadcasting which Corner Gas, starring Brent Butt and developed under former holds 65% of voting interests, along with Shaw Cable Systems and Comedy president and GM Ed Robinson and longtime VP Astral Broadcasting, which own 15% each. The other 5% is held by programming Brent Haynes. “At the time, The Comedy Network Les Films Rozon, which produces TV shows from Montreal’s Just was also the comedy development team for CTV,” Haynes explains for Laughs Festival. Losing out are Salter Street Films with partner from his New York ofﬁ ce at MTV, where he is now SVP comedy and CHUM/City and Second City with partners WIC and Yuk Yuk’s. animation. “I was such a huge fan of Brent’s standup and still am. On Oct. 17, 1997, The Comedy Network launched alongside a He connects to everybody, and I thought ‘Is there a magical way we clutch of other specialty channels, its mandate communicated in could make that work on TV?’” Haynes met with Butt and director the slogan – since retired – “Time Well Wasted,” rifﬁ ng on A&E’s David Storey, who together pitched Butt’s idea about quirky goings- high-minded “Time Well Spent.” on at a Saskatchewan gas station – and, in 2004, a Canadian While its no secret that like so many channels its top shows are U.S. classic was born. “We made it with the intention it would go on CTV imports, Comedy, which is today owned by Bell Media, must air 60% and then ‘back door’ onto Comedy. We felt it was a bigger, broader Cancon during the day and 65% in the evening, according to the CRTC. network play but it would be nice to share with Comedy Network,” Early on, Canadian programming consisted largely of second windows Haynes adds. of shows that had aired on CBC, such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Comedy’s annual Cancon spend has varied. According to the Royal Canadian Air Farce and The Red Green Show. CRTC, between 2009 and 2011, it dipped 37% over the period

winter 2012 | 35

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The Comedy Network, Hills says, has become the JFL Festival’s lead broadcast partner. They signed a deal that in January will see the channel run original series Just for Laughs: All Access, featuring 13 one-hours and 26 half-hours captured at gala performances at the Montreal event, hosted by such yuk-meisters as Bill Hader, Jeremy Hotz and The Muppets. Hills calls it “the biggest order we’ve ever made in Canada.” Following last winter’s announcement, Kermit the Frog was quoted as saying, “Fozzie [Bear] is so overwhelmed, he may not be able to stand up to do his stand-up.” Comedy also has Montreal’s Zone 3 producing 60 eps of The Match Game, a Canadian take on the celebrity game show which premiered in October with comic Darrin Rose hosting. For four years, Zone 3 has been doing a French version of the FremantleMedia format, Atomes Crochus, and is now helping to provide exposure to a revolving-door of English-Canadian actors and comedians. “It’s almost a talk show, where the six panelists get to roast each other,” says Zone 3 executive producer Michael Kronish. ”It’s a comedy show that has a little game-show mechanism built into it. It’s a great platform. There’s no other venue in Canada for comedians to get up on TV on a daily basis and test out their material.” It’s a perfect example of how the channel is helping foster Canadian talent, as guests could end up on the next Comedy Now! special or CTV original series. When Comedy ﬁ rst popped on the specialty landscape 15 years ago, its ﬁ rst program was a live, six-hour mock-telethon asking viewers to call in their jokes, which hosts Teresa Pavlinek and the late Paul O’Sullivan read on air. Second-window airings of shows like The Red to $14.4 million a year. “A lot of the reason for that was the “It was a big undertaking for the start of the channel and had the Green Show were key to meeting the network’s recession. We weren’t doing a lot of buying in there because it irreverent tone we wanted to set,” recalls Robinson, who was in master Cancon requirements during the early years. was a tough time for [CTV],” says Catherine MacLeod, VP, specialty control with Baton president and then-CEO Ivan Fecan and exec Suzanne channels for Bell Media, the company that now owns the network after Steeves to push the start button back in 1997. several corporate mergers over the years. “It was also an elaborate way of previewing what we had on the channel Bell Media states it is now in a position to increase those – with clips from shows and comedy sketches that were live in the studio,” numbers. “We’re looking for homegrown hits that will resonate adds Robinson, who graduated to EVP programming for CTV and is now with Canadian viewers,” says Sarah Fowlie, Bell Media’s director chair of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. of independent production, comedy. “That could mean developing Early shows included plenty of Just for Laughs material, the homegrown original formats with independent producers. We’re also looking to stand-up of Comedy Now!, Saturday Night Live reruns and, from HBO, specials do some scripted half-hour series down the road.” and the series The Larry Sanders Show, Dennis Miller Live and Dream On. Just for Laughs continues to be Comedy’s biggest Cancon supplier Naturally, Robinson also reached out to Comedy Central, the U.S. counterpart – from the quick hits of Just for Laughs Gags to standup sets taken that had launched in 1991. He succeeded in getting CC’s outrageous, animated from its annual fest. “The Comedy Network is the perfect outlet for South Park for The Comedy Network, followed by The Daily Show with Jon our brand in this country and for the comics we want to expose in Stewart, which it began airing in the 2000-2001 season. Robinson says the this country. Our tastes are very much in line with theirs,” says Bruce relationship between the two channels evolved to an output arrangement, Hills, Just for Laughs COO. where the network took a lot of their shows.

36 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

PB.22101.JFL_ThirdPg.inddPPB.Comedy.2012.inddB.Comedy.2012.indd 3636 1 06/11/12007/11/127/11/12 2:412:102:10 PMPM PB.21759.Whistler.indd 1 07/11/12 2:03 PM Comedy has ascended to the status of number one non-sports specialty channel for adults 18-24 and number two for males 18-34 (stats for September), and it counts 54% of its audience in the key adult 18- 49 demo. Its audience is also 61% male, which, given that male-skewing shows such as The Simpsons are channel staples, is actually less than expected, observes Sunni Boot, CEO Canada for marketing agency ZenithOptimedia. “A few years ago, we were heavily focused on a young male demo, but we’ve tried to offer a more balanced schedule,” says Rachel Goldstein-Couto, the director, programming, comedy and drama for Bell Media. “We’re generally reaching more audience overall, so clearly people are responding.” And with more audience comes bargaining power, as ad buys on the channel come at a premium price, says Boot. She notes that her ad clients are mostly willing to pay. “We like this network,” she says. They’re not the only ones. Thanks to the Corner Gas continued – and in some cases growing – success of long-running series, along with newer hits such as The Big Bang Theory, the channel is on ﬁ re as it The Big Bang Theory celebrates its 15th birthday. In 2011-2012, it grew TOP 5 CANADIAN its adult 18-49 audience by 14% over the previous broadcast year to record its best season ever. The SHOWS OF ALL-TIME TOP 5 SHOWS OF last full season of The Daily Show was its most- ON THE COMEDY watched to date. It has averaged 180,000 viewers ALL-TIME ON THE for its 11 p.m. broadcast – one hour ahead of its NETWORK: appearance on CTV (where it has been averaging COMEDY NETWORK: around 373,000). But as the satirical news program 1. CORNER GAS – 196,000 * 1. THE BIG BANG THEORY – 242,000* has grown in popularity, it has become costlier for 2. HICCUPS – 117,000 2. TOSH.0 – 238,000 the channel to keep. By also putting it on its main 3. JUST FOR LAUGHS GAGS – 105,000 3. THE SIMPSONS – 195,000 network, however, Bell Media can pay some of that 4. JUST FOR LAUGHS – 103,000 4. SOUTH PARK – 193,000 cost out of CTV’s programming budget. 5. ODD JOB JACK – 100,000 5. THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART – 180,000 “There’s nothing I would love better than to have * Average audience per episode * Average audience per episode Jon Stewart only on our channel [and not CTV]. As Source: BBM Canada, (10/20/97-8/26/12), 3+ airings excluding Source: BBM Canada, (10/20/97-8/26/12), 3+ airings excluding we get more successful, the potential is there for us marathons, specials and duplicates marathons, specials and duplicates. to shoulder the complete costs,” says MacLeod. And

winter 2012 | 37

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just as that program migrated from the specialty to CTV, in a case of getting more bang for its buck, Bell Media runs CTV’s top show The Big Bang Theory on Comedy as well, where it’s the channel’s top-rated series ever. On the other hand, Comedy is also the destination for shows that would never air on CTV for reasons of format or content, such as the Comedy Central roasts, which feature, for example, Jeff Ross (of late-night Comedy raunch-fest The Burn with Jeff Ross) skewering the likes of Charlie Sheen with lines like “Charlie: if you’re ‘winning,’ then this must not be a child-custody hearing.” The Roast of Charlie Sheen, which ran in September 2011, set a record for the most- watched non-sports Canadian specialty broadcast of all-time with an average audience of 1.32 million viewers, according to BBM Canada. What this all adds up to is a station that recorded a pretax proﬁ t of more than $24 million in 2011 – twice what it was for 2007, according to the CRTC. It has also spawned a spinoff – the category B specialty Comedy Gold, previously known as TV Land Canada and which was picked up and rebranded after CTVglobemedia bought CHUM in 2007. It mines such evergreens as I Love Lucy and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and local favourite Kids in the Hall. DIGITAL GIGGLES The Comedy Network’s website is capitalizing on viewer’s appetite for ‘snackable’ short videos

The channel’s website, thecomedynetwork.ca, which Segments from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are the most launched in 1999 and introduced a broadband video popular content on thecomedynetwork.ca. player in 2007, today offers thousands of comedian clips and full episodes of many Comedy shows. According to ComScore, this year the site has averaged of a lot of comedy content is well-suited to the web, so 6.5 million video views per month. It’s been the Bell expect more of it. Media site with the highest percentage of video views “It’s a different kind of content,” says Bell Media’s among visitors (63% in July). In other words, most VP of specialty channels, Catherine MacLeod. “It’s not people are coming to the site to watch something, and the 30-minute sitcom and it’s not the hour-long sketch the male component of its web audience is 80% — show. It’s the bits and bytes and snackable stuff. People even more pronounced than for its TV audience. can come in and have a laugh and get onto the next The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the most popular thing. It provides a great opportunity for us to expand program online, garnering two million monthly views, our audience and reach people with our comedy brand. according to Omniture. The site complements that But we’re not closed to anything. Whether it’s short-form program with extended interview segments, while, or long form, if it brings people in and they enjoy it, closer to home, Just for Laughs: All Access will provide that’s what we’re going for.” MacLeod the site with 22 comedian interviews conducted by Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader. The short-form nature

38 winter 2012 | playbackonline.ca

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