Films won’t die without studio
Production centre not essential for growth: insiders
Ottawa’s film industry is poised for slow, incremental growth after the city’s recent failure to build a production studio, say local experts who see public investment as an important component to industry growth.
Members of Invest Ottawa, the city’s publicly funded economic development corporation, thought they had a partner in Toronto-based Cinespace Film Studios to build a sound stage but, much to the dismay of local stakeholders, that deal fell through earlier this year.
Critics of the botched negotiations say investing in infrastructure and marketing is the best way to evolve beyond the low-budget films, specialty television and government productions that are staples of the region’s film market.
Invest Ottawa refused to talk about the deal but told the Citizen last week it has no plans to move ahead with the project any time soon. A studio, however, represents just a single component of a comprehensive strategy necessary to attract big-budget Hollywood-style productions.
“I don’t want to downplay the importance of a studio. An asset like that is definitely something Ottawa needs in its arsenal,” said Rob Menzies, president of Zed Filmworks, an Ottawa feature-film production company. “But I think we can grow the industry one step at a time by creating a local industry of local talent.”
Getting Cinespace interested in Ottawa was the work of Tina D’Angelo, who grew up in the nation’s capital and has extensive industry experience. She wanted Cinespace to repeat accomplishments achieved in Toronto and Chicago, two cities with nowbooming film industries that began with significant investment from both the public and private sectors.
D’Angelo drafted the production company’s proposal to Invest Ottawa and led discussion once Cinespace was selected as the preferred partner for the studio.
“Ottawa was fortunate to have been considered by Cinespace as the next city to put on the map as a filming location for Hollywood,” she said. “Unfortunately, we were discouraged with the end result, but without full co-operation from the city, community, local colleges and universities and local industry, this project would not work.”
Industry experts say Invest Ottawa’s failed bid to build a full production studio, at the very least, slows the industry’s expansion.
“A properly funded studio would be attractive to outofproducers, and it might have attracted higherbudget productions, which would create higher value production cycles,” said Pat McGowan, chief executive of video production company inMotion Group.
Invest Ottawa’s request for proposals also recognized local industry growth in the long term is “constrained by the lack of production facilities.” That same document suggests the city’s $1.5-million contribution might be the “impetus to obtaining additional funding from both the provincial and federal governments.”
That sort of investment, even if matched by the private sector, falls far short of the estimated $15 million required to build a studio equipped for big-budget features, McGowan explained.
“You cannot elevate a market from one level to the next with $3 million,” he said. “That’s just not possible.”
‘You cannot elevate a market from one level to the next with $3 million. That’s just not possible.’
PAT MCGOWAN
CEO, inMotion Group
A studio alone will not elevate Ottawa as a filming destination, but it would put the city on the map, according to Film Ontario, an association that represents more than 30,000 film companies across the province.
Having space for set construction, green screens and offices would go a long way to accompany the strengths Ottawa already has, said Chris Cornish, a regional representative from Film Ontario. The city already offers a host of outdoor locations, including historical sites, urban centres and rural neighbourhoods.
But even without a studio, some local experts say growth is on its way.
Zed Filmworks alone has five feature films to shoot in Ottawa this spring and summer with combined budgets totalling about $15 million.
That number of productions is higher than the city has seen in a single year, Menzies said, and though the films are small they mark the incremental growth required to projects with bigger budgets.
Menzies said he saw vital signs of a healthy industry at a job fair last week when more than 300 people showed up to talk to production experts at Invest Ottawa headquarters on Aberdeen Street.
Many in attendance were students, who will have jobs as soon as they graduate in the coming weeks, Menzies said, but within days he also hired several new staff with plenty of experience. He expects growth to come gradually, instead of seeing the city suddenly hosting $50-million productions.