® A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD. FALL 2013 2013 UNSPOOLING the HALL OF FAME FUTURE REVEALED + OF FILM 102WATCH ALSO: FILM DIARIES | STEBBINGS VS. SOBOL | SERENDIPITY POINT FILMS AT 15 PB.Cover.fall13.indd 1 13-08-21 7:31 PM THE ART OF THE STEAL ENEMY TIFF® Gala Presentation TIFF® Special Presentation THE F WORD THE HUSBAND TIFF® Special Presentation TIFF® Special Presentation Credit / Courtesy: Photo © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto Courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Screening at TIFF® and proudly supported by the OMDC Film Fund WATERMARK TIFF® Special Presentation CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ONTARIO FILMMAKERS AND FILMS AT TIFF® OMDC is a proud supporter of the Toronto International Film Festival®. Ontario is home to the third largest entertainment sector in North America, attracting production from around the world. Visit OMDC at the TIFF Industry Centre to find out how our programs and initiatives are helping to create a thriving, multi-billion-dollar industry and a wealth of opportunity. Be part of it. OMDC.on.ca We’ve got it going ® Toronto International Film Festival Inc., used under license. PB.23549.OMDC.Ad.indd 1 2013-08-26 3:46 PM FALL 2013 table of contents Big picture: Canadian director Paul Haggis frames a shot in Third Person, his upcoming feature shot in Rome and New York. 9 Upfront 26 In conversation with... 48 Tribute: Serendipity Point Films New money, new deals, Peter Stebbings and Jonathan Sobol Producer Robert Lantos recalls new businesses highlights from the company’s last 30 Playback’s 2013 Hall of Fame 15 years, and discusses its expanding 14 The new indie marketplace They changed the industry for vision for the future Canadian fi lmmakers are building a the better: here are six icons of worldly profi le as they traverse new Canadian fi lm and TV. 58 The Back Page global and digital frontiers #TIFFTips 42 10 to Watch 20 Film diaries This new wave of talent is tackling The Husband, Gabrielle, Cas & Dylan the changing mediascape with diverse skills and entrepreneurial drive. Cover note: The cover of our fall issue features the work of Tod Kapke. We asked the Denver-based artist to conceptualize the changing fi lm industry environment as a machine: as fi lm is fed in, it is molded by modern infl uences and transformed into a new digital entity. fall 2013 | 3 PB.TOC.Fall13.indd 3 13-08-22 3:38 PM PUBLISHER Mary Maddever • [email protected] CONTENT DIRECTOR & EDITOR Katie Bailey • [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR Danielle Ng-See-Quan • [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Mirella Christou, Mark Dillon, Marc Glassman, David Godkin, Georgia Graham, Seine Shetty, Back to Jordan Twiss, Etan Vlessing BRUNICO CREATIVE ART DIRECTOR the future • Andrew Glowala [email protected] The failure of the summertime blockbuster has loomed large over Hollywood this summer, PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION SUPERVISOR sparking what I’m sure has been many an unpleasant scene in executive boardrooms. The gaps Robert Lines • [email protected] between what was spent and what was earned at the North American box offi ce are staggering: Disney CFO Jay Rasulo pegged initial company losses for The Lone Ranger to be in the range of ADVERTISING SALES $160 to $190 million. (416) 408-2300 Here in Canada, much more modest movie budgets mean those kinds of losses stay safely FAX (416) 408-0870 south of the border. (Which is a nice idea, although of little comfort if you’re a producer 1-888-278-6426 sweating it out at 2 a.m. over a project’s ROI.) However, the Lone Ranger stories brought ADVERTISING EXEC to mind a recent interview I listened to featuring Canadian writer-directors Seth Rogan and Jessamyn Nunez • [email protected] Evan Goldberg, speaking about the making of their latest studio fi lm, This Is The End. Having MARKETING CO-ORDINATOR downsized to a $30 million budget after the $120 million The Green Hornet, the duo discussed Vakis Boutsalis • [email protected] the creative freedoms they gained in making the – relatively speaking – low-budget fi lm. To sum it up, they said: “Mo money, mo problems.” BRUNICO AUDIENCE SERVICES Here in Canada, the situation is a little different: $30 million is a big budget for an MANAGER independent fi lm. But providing a Canadian perspective on the intersection between creativity Christine McNalley • [email protected] and commerce is our director-to-director interview on pg. 26 with Jonathan Sobol and Peter Stebbings. Dabbling in budgets that have ranged between $1 and $10 million, the two TIFF- ADMINISTRATION bound directors are well versed in the art of fi nding the balance between the two. PRESIDENT AND CEO The common thread globally is that fi lmmakers are increasingly being asked to do more Russell Goldstein • [email protected] with less. Viewership habits are changing, media is content-saturated and investors are more risk-sensitive than ever. But in this issue of Playback, you’ll see plenty of evidence that it’s an VP AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER environment that Canadian fi lmmakers are thriving in Omri Tintpulver • [email protected] Home-grown fi lmmaking success story Serendipity Point Films, lead by Canadian fi lm mogul VP AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Robert Lantos, has found a fertile niche in making highly regarded, modestly budgeted fi lms for Mary Maddever • [email protected] 15 years, most with The Right Kind of Wrong, a $15 million fi lm that debuts to gala treatment at VP ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE TIFF this year. We pay tribute to its achievements on pg. 48. And our fi lmmakers are landing big Linda Lovegrove • [email protected] stars even with comparatively low budgets, such as the approximately $2.5 million Cas & Dylan VP & PUBLISHER, REALSCREEN starring veteran Richard Dreyfuss and rising Canadian star Tatiana Maslany. You can read the Claire Macdonald • [email protected] fi lm’s funding story in the fi lm diary on pg. 24. VP & PUBLISHER, KIDSCREEN Watching this industry change and grow is the reason I’m so excited to re-join Playback’s Jocelyn Christie • [email protected] excellent editorial team, alongside our newly promoted associate editor, Danielle Ng-See-Quan and longstanding contributor, Etan Vlessing. I look forward to the opportunity to speak with many of you at TIFF. Katie Bailey Playback is published by Brunico Communications Ltd., Content Director & Editor, Playback 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 (416) 408-2300; FAX: (416) 408-0870 Internet address: www.playbackonline.ca Editorial e-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Sales e-mail: [email protected] Sales FAX: (416) 408-0870 © 2013 Brunico Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: 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 fall 2013 | playbackonline.ca PB.Editorial.Fall13.indd 4 13-08-22 3:40 PM PB.23233.NBC.indd 1 13-08-20 5:05 PM What’s now. Connecting What’s the dots next. Since it’s our TIFF issue, we asked Playback’s new art director Andrew Glowala to give a nod to the Cannes-calibre red Playback magazine and carpet glitz and glam side of the festival on the cover, but also refl ect the new market reality of viewership: more small- screen self-scheduled viewing, where everyone is truly both critic and programmer. Andrew, who comes to us from playbackonline.ca cover Kidscreen, is used to the bright, shiny packaging that belies the complexity of the kids biz, and the image by illustrator the whole industry, Tod Kapke also casts a game-like veneer on the machinations of new factors changing an old formula. Cannes itself is an interesting example of the change, as all the industries affected trek there each year at their duly from breaking news to appointed times – as they have done for decades – with the fi lm, TV, digital and brand world skeds not intersecting. While there recently for the Lions Festival of Creativity, I spoke to PwC global entertainment leader Marcel Fenez to in-depth features. get his insights on the trends impacting the industry, as more new digital platforms (as well as advertisers) get into the content game. Observing that perhaps there should be more Cannes contingent cross-pollination, Fenez says “the one thing that is completely true is that everyone wants to own their own content.” As to where the budgets for all this new Stay in the loop. longer-form content everyone wants is coming from, he explains, “there is an opportunity to fund good ideas and forge partnerships, so we keep seeing more and more of that – and they’re not media sales, they’re partnerships.” Every day. All year. He added that beyond forging new partners and deal models, appealing to the digital audience requires content development re-orientation. “You have to go the other way round, ‘who am I designing this for, and where are they?’. For only $12 That may change what you’re designing. We have to think about the outcome fi rst.” And as more of the audience tips and dips into the streaming space, the rejig extends beyond content to the a month. corporate mindset. “The biggest challenge of all is that we have to be bold and be prepared to fail quick, and that’s the domain of small innovative tech companies, not broadcasters.” To help with this sea change, Playback has been collaborating with our marketing publication strategy on various A subscription to initiatives lately – like the AToMiC Awards and BCON Expo – to recognize the folks who are getting it right, and connect the dots between new partners.