Your guide to compelling drama, tongue-in-cheek comedy, unscripted shenanigans, engaging children’s programming and much more! Tatiana Maslany Canada’s favourite clone on Orphan Black and international acclaim Why Canada is booming in a borderless business Going Global: Canadian producers on taking their content to the world Contents 2 Canadian TV Scene: DRAMA the Big Picture 4 Opening Credits: A Message from the Editor The Canadian Media Producers Association is Canada’s leading trade 5 Be a Canadian association for independent producers, representing more than 350 Television Critic— companies engaged in the production and distribution of English-language See the World television programs, feature films and digital media. The CMPA works on behalf of members to promote and stimulate the Canadian production industry. Our goal is to ensure the continued success of Canada’s Television Genres independent production sector and a future for content that is made by Canadians for both Canadian and international audiences. 10 Drama 33 Comedy 42 Unscripted 64 Children’s & Youth 78 Foreign Location & Service Production P. 10 Feature Interview COMEDY UNSCRIPTED Tatiana Maslany p.8 Going Global: Canadian Producers on Taking Their Content to the World David Cormican p.18 Karen Walton p.28 Catherine Reitman p.38 P.33 P.42 Cal Shumiatcher p.52 CHILDREN’S & YOUTH FOREIGN PRODUCTIONS cmpa.ca Vince Commisso p.70 Follow us on Twitter @The_CMPA Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/theCMPA All photography property of ABC, ABC Spark, Amazon, AMI, Animal Planet, APTN, Bravo, CBC, CBS, CHCH, City, Comedy Central, Comedy Channel, Cottage Life, CMT, CraveTV, CTV,CTV Two, Discovery Canada, Disney Jr., Disney XD Canada, Family Channel, Family CHRGD, Family Jr., Food Network Canada, P.64 P.78 Fox, FX, FX Canada, FXX, Global, HBO Canada, HBO, HGTV Canada, History, Hulu, Lifetime, Lifetime Canada, Knowledge Network, NatGeo, NBC, Netflix, OLN, OMNI, OUTtv, Showcase, Slice, Smithsonian Channel, Space, Starz, Super Channel, Syfy, Teletoon, The CW, The Movie Network, Travel + Escape, Treehouse, TVO, TVO Kids, UP, W Network, YTV. 1 Canadian TV Scene: The Big Picture Industry Success Measures $7.1 billion in production volume CMT’s Yukon for Sale helps new homeowners in 91% of indigenous the Great White North producers write and Polar Sea 360º direct their own projects $3.2 billion in export value profiles northern communities in one of Canada’s first Virtual Reality TV loves the 148,500 jobs Reality docs North – Ice Pilots, Ice Road Truckers, remember Arctic Air? Canada has 54 audiovisual Timber Kings is seen in co-production treaties and MOUs 162 countries OLN’s Polar Bear Town brings tourists to Churchill Fort MacLeod, High River and Didsbury French-language fiction Cold Water Cowboys feature in Fargo production up 40% pits Newfoundland and The term Saskatchewan in 2014/15 Labrador fishermen Hollywood North has Motion Picture Industry against the North Atlantic been used since 1970 Association membership includes 96 members and 17 companies BRITISH COLUMBIA: Heartland surpasses Street Legal Saskatchewan 32% as Canada’s longest- Republic of Doyle of Canada’s TV government declares still playing in at least running drama April 13 as and film QUEBEC: 11 countries around Corner Gas Day the world production VANCOUVER 23% Anne of Green Gables ONTARIO: of Canada’s TV and film is being adapted into a TV movie and a TV series The W Network, production in 2016/17 originally launched as 38% WTN, turns 21 of Canada’s TV and film Trailer Park Boys B.C. is hotspot pumps $12M production Quebeckers watch 60% for VFX in into Truro Sudbury new TV made-in-Canada TV TV and film production hotspot thanks to Letterkenny and What Would Sal Do? Discovery Canada’s first-ever original series Frontier is shooting APTN broadcasts in in St. John’s English, French and many Schitt’s Creek is Aboriginal languages shot in Goodwood MONTREAL Acting legend Donald Sutherland The Book of Negroes TORONTO was born and raised mini-series heightens in Saint John interest in Nova Scotia’s Haven pumped rich black history TV show Suits hired $1M/year into the 272 vendors from economy of Chester Mississauga is the 1968 40 Ontario communities birthplace of IMAX in 2015 2 3 INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS ARE THE ULTIMATE RISK TAKERS. Consider that only one in four productions that go into development actually make it to the screen. And for those that do, it’s the producer who not only has to raise the financing (with budgets often totaling tens of millions of dollars), but also engage and manage all of the cast and crew, and who has the ultimate responsibility for delivering a great show, on-time, and on-budget – well, it’s that kind of entrepreneurial drive that fuels an industry that generates more than $7 billion a year in economic activity and almost 150,000 jobs across Canada. It gets better: last year, Canadian producers created 700 television series and 103 theatrical feature films on location in every region in the country. On top of that, Canadian directors, actors, writers, cameramen, caterers, taxi drivers, and hotels supported foreign location shooting here, producing another 115 television shows, 111 theatrical feature films and 53 movies of the week, mini-series, and pilots. satellite to Canada where digital effects are added by Toronto’s Canada’s impeccable reputation is recognized worldwide. We now have audiovisual Mr. X Inc. co-production treaties and Memoranda of Understanding with 54 countries. In “I cannot emphasize how much 2014, that translated into 68 co-production projects with many partners, including they’ve brought to our show,” France, the U.K., Germany, Australia and Ireland. In addition, Canadian producers says O’Sullivan. He puts Mr. X’s sold our top-performing shows for roughly $3.2 billion in international pre-sales and special-effects wizards “right distribution advances. up there” with George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. Those figures are impressive. But what stands out for me is how the content we A similar arrangement was produce naturally reflects Canada’s places and its people, giving us a deeper and worked out with South Africa richer sense of ourselves, and fostering pride in who we are as a nation. Yet, here and Canada during production at home we obsess about how to ensure the discoverability of our own “Made in of The Book of Negroes. The Canada” content, and worry that the vast catalog of Canadian-produced stories will Canadian producers behind be buried in the avalanche of content available on Netflix, AppleTV, and the other CBC’s X Company -- Stephanie Internet-based broadcasters that seem to be taking over the world. Morgenstern and Mark Ellis (Flashpoint)—shoot their very Without a doubt, we all need to be thinking creatively about how to ensure pride of Canadian spy story in Budapest, place for our content in an age of seemingly limitless choice. At the same time, what with key scenes this season also you are holding in your hands is a concerted attempt to refocus the conversation Be a Canadian television shot on the beaches where so and look closely at the successes we perhaps take for granted in our industry. Yes, many Canadian soldiers died in for every hit, there is at least one miss – just like in Hollywood. But the variety of Dieppe. productions listed in this 2nd edition of Indiescreen is an impressive chronicle of the critic—see the world. That’s part of the story. The prodigious efforts of hundreds of producers who find and nurture an idea, concept or other is how the world is story and transform it into compelling content for the small or big screen. That’s been my life the past Canada’s Temple Street coming to Canada. nine years. As a Toronto-based Productions, Irish executive Make no mistake--the falling Our ultimate goal is simple. We want Indiescreen to become an indispensable guide freelance writer, I’ve had the producer Morgan O’Sullivan Canadian dollar has helped. So to the best English-language independently produced content – content by and for great fortune to have been based his production on what have provincial efforts to lure Canadians (and on an unprecedented scale, for international audiences as well). To invited to sets and interview he calls “The Tudor Model.” The business. that end, this edition builds on last year’s edition by adding kids programming, and talent in places as far-flung as former CBC series The Tudors “Beyond the incentives?” incorporating some well-known voices from the industry. Next fall, we will further Budapest and Buenos Aires, was shot in Ireland using a mix said The CW president Mark expand Indiescreen with a special edition that will include Canadian theatrical Dieppe and Dublin. of Irish and Canadian actors Pedowitz when asked why he feature films and documentaries. The experience has helped and directors. shoots so many of his network’s me realize that television is a Vikings is produced in shows in Canada. Besides the While we may not have captured all indie Canadian productions now on the air or borderless business. The other association with Shaw Media. new superhero series DC’s in development—and producers being producers, they will let us know if we missed eye-opener: Canadians are The historical drama features Legends of Tomorrow, The their show!—we believe we have included many of the programs that resonate today everywhere in this industry. Canadians Katheryn Winnick Flash, The 100 and long- with Canadian audiences. They are worth checking out. That is especially true when it and Alexander Ludwig and, in running Supernatural—in its 11th comes to historical epics.