SCREEN TIME
Filmmaker-turned-CEO of Edmonton Screen Industries Office tells Fish Griwkowsky he wants to focus on home-grown production
Last month, Josh Miller began his job as the first CEO of the new Edmonton Screen Industries Office — a rethink and update of the city’s film commission. Absorb the organization’s name to sense its new mandate beyond TV and film into the digital future.
The call for the inaugural screen industries office boss went out across North America, yet Edmonton-born Miller won its board over with his encourage-local vision and resumé, which includes degrees in English and drama, film production and a fellowship at the American Film Institute. This led to writing for TV in Hollywood, being director of development at Super Channel, a partnership at Minds Eye Entertainment and running his own indie production company, Panacea Entertainment.
Given a $530,000 budget by the city for its first two years, the screen industries office so far is a board and 62-year-old Miller, who is figuring out the city’s baseline statistics and collecting anecdotes. Hoping to expand, the screen industries office will be housed for at least a year in the Edmonton Arts Council’s offices at the Prince of Wales Armouries, and it’s here Miller calmly talks about the landscape.
Q Can you describe the kingdom within which you’re working?
A Think about an airport lounge. Mobile devices, iPads, laptops. TV screens with CBC News and CNN and flight info. People are getting information, playing games, using apps, watching entertainment. I’m looking for the unifying theory of the universe, but what’s in common is its companies and entrepreneurs all making what I call media products based on intellectual property, for screens. What we want to do at ESIO is help their businesses grow, give them a system with market intelligence. It’s all very business-y, not very art-y — although there’s my business in the arts council. My background is both.
Q There are a lot of expectations and hopes pegged on ESIO.
A It’s a startup, really. There were surveys, stakeholder meetings — I’ve read all of that. January is me meeting with companies, filmmakers and entrepreneurs, interactive digital media people. I want to sit down with them and ask what is it exactly that you need, and that you think we can do?
Q There are broad, general asks, like “make a strong industry in Edmonton” — but you’re looking for specifics …
A Right. And then I’ll meet with the association boards separately — that’s Alberta Post Production Association, Alberta Production Industries Association, Digital Alberta, the Walkthrough Society — and also the unions. Hopefully the middle of February we’ll have a social gathering, and we can all get together.
Q I’ve noted occasional tension between the film and digital camps — everyone wants a fair share of your efforts.
A Where my learning curve is, is on the interactive/digital media side, which I’m sure they’ll be the first to tell you. (Laughs.) There’s some really interesting stuff coming up with virtual reality, augmented reality, some of the 3-D development that’s happening. I had a great, three-hour conversation with Owen Brierley (executive director of Edmonton Digital Arts College).
Q What were we missing in the past film commissioner concept?
A We were chasing an old paradigm, which is hire a film commissioner and get that person to bring business back by attracting film or TV to shoot here. We’ll always welcome guest production, but what we want to do is enhance and build up our local companies. They’re committed to being here and working here. If they can grow, that’s more work locally. Here’s the most important part — the stuff we used to attract to shoot here was good for employment, but we didn’t own the IP. So it’s a longer game we’re working on.
Q How do we start doing that?
A The thing that’s right between my eyes is the Edmonton Film Fund. That was originally made to invest in features that would shoot here. (The city) did an analysis of it and decided to put the brakes on it. We just have to go in there with a strong proposal. They want to do something — they just have to feel like there’s a plan. They want outcomes.
Q Can you say anything specific about that, or do you have to hold your cards close?
A I’ll just say in general terms it’s going to follow the philosophy of having local, quality IP that attracts investment, so there might be a development component. The beforehand marketing you have to do — networking — you go to people’s head offices and show up not once, but five times. It’s hard for some companies to do that on their own, so if there’s a way we could support that. There’s skills development I think we can help with as well.
Q When you were hired, the Forsaken movie production came up on social media. Can you talk about what happened?
A After doing a lot of projects without any issues, I was a coproducer on that one, and my coproducer was bringing in most of the financing. My role was to bring in the Alberta grant and manage the relationship with the unions. Some equity partners we thought we had vetted just didn’t fund. We actually had redundant financing in case one fell out, but they all fell out. We were able to raise bridge financing that got us almost to the end of production, but we had payroll failure. It took us about a year and we paid off all the wages and benefits. There are investors and vendors that are still owed money, including me, and as the film generates revenue we’re slowly paying them down. I don’t blame people (for being upset), I’ve been not paid. Unfortunately we fell victim to a bit of a scam.
Q Is there a lesson from this that informs this job?
A Yeah, but not just that, from everything I’ve been through. I can say, ‘Here’s the pitfalls, here and there.’ Or bring in relationships with banks to help projects move. I want to be someone people can call and say, ‘Here’s the situation,’ and I can give that feedback.
Q So if someone wants to talk to you …
A Here’s my card. (Hands it over.) Send me an email is the best way to start, and we’ll go from there.