TV boom benefits homegrown businesses
Ancillary companies busy with jump in TV productions
A look at some of the ancillary businesses that are booming on the back of a busy film and TV sector:
Catering: DM Catering David Mintz provides catering for large TV and films and has been doing about double the amount of business he was last year.
“This is probably as busy as I’ve seen this city in the past 27 years,” he said.
He caters to productions with 90 or more staff, he’s had to turn down smaller jobs. Still, he has a hard time saying no. The company has expanded to meet demand. It provided food for Downsizing and XXX 3 and is also working on a yet-to-be named major TV show.
He’s added two mobile kitchens to the permanent kitchen at Pinewood studios and one food truck.
Mintz is hesitant to take on even more.
“In food you’re only as good as your last meal, so it would be careless for us to take on more than we can — forgive the word — chew.” Equipment: William F. White International Demand for White’s lighting, grip, generators, package trucks and specialty equipment is up about 15 per cent over last year — but they’d be even busier if it weren’t for a shortage of studio space, said CEO Paul Bronfman.
The breakdown used to be twothirds Canadian productions and one-third U.S., but it’s now closer to 50-50, he said.
He’s seeing more American productions interested in equipment for doing post-production here rather than sending it back south of the border, he said.
There’s a lot of demand for specialty equipment, he said. The company recently added camera rental, as an example.
“It’s easy for producers from L.A. to come here knowing they can get all these toys, all these services here.
“As busy as we are they’re probably three times as busy in Vancouver,” he said.
“The biggest single challenge holding Toronto back from doing more business is studio capacity.”
Producers are renting warehouses, lots, “anything that’s a box with shelter right now,” he said. In addition to his traditional equipment rental business, Bronfman is also helping clients find space. Props: Octopus Works Grant Heggie is a lighting technician who also owns a site where TV and film industry types buy and sell everything from Eiffel Tower replicas to scrap pieces of wood from sets.
He can see trends in how the local business is doing based on the num- ber of calls for prop buy and sell.
Arecent set sale where lights, props and construction material were liquidated saw 900 people come through in four hours, he said.
Over the last six months, some 140 tonnes of wood, scenery props and costumes has passed through the site Ready, Set, Recycle.
Even seemingly random items are in high demand.
He recently took in three tanks that held 800 gallons of water after a show closed, which was scooped up for use on the show Dark Matter within a day and a half. Makeup: Janine Holmes Janine Holmes has been doing makeup for film and TV shows for ten years, including for Lady Gaga and Adam Levine.
Since the beginning of the year, makeup requests have been con- stant, which is unusual because the winters are usually slow. “There’s definitely a boom,” she said.
“I just feel like there’s so much production going on and talking with other people on set, every feels the same thing.” She started a bridal makeup company, but requests from the entertainment industry have been keeping her busy.
In addition to many TV commercials, she’s also seeing more requests for makeup for digital media shoots as advertisers flock online to YouTube or Vimeo to follow the entertainment trends. Studios: Pie In The Sky Tim Bewcyk, owner of Toronto’s Pie In the Sky Studios, recently doubled the number of studios to six to meet increasing demand.
He usually books commercials and music videos, rather than big foreign features, but over the past year, he’s seeing more requests from American productions. However, at the same time, he’s seeing budgets for Canadian productions fall as broadcasters face new competition for viewers from new digital entrants.
“There’s actually more people shooting things than there were a few years ago and it’s actually easier to get into,” he said.
But the flip side is that a greater proportion of what is shooting is lower budget. “Because people are shooting for the internet sometimes something is good enough,” he said.
“It’s sort of not good news in a way for the people who made their living shooting because budgets are being nibbled.”