Film Industry Busy in Nova Scotia

The film, television and new media industry in Nova Scotia is heading into a busy summer, with homegrown and international productions.

Some of the current productions include the German mini-series Sea Wolf, a Canada-U.K. co-production with Nova Scotia's Big Motion Pictures, the third season of the Showcase series G-Spot, the Discovery U.K. series Breaking Point and the feature film Amelia.

Locally, demand at the first funding deadline for projects this fiscal year is high, both in number of applications received and total money requested, a positive sign that the industry is strengthening.

This is contrast to a disappointing 2007-08 fiscal year.

Revenue generated by the industry in the 2007-08 fiscal year was $76 million, making it the first year in more than a decade that production came in under $100 million.

"Nova Scotia has consistently been regarded as one of the top production centres in the country," said Ann MacKenzie, president and CEO of Film Nova Scotia. "Despite the challenges faced recently, the industry in Nova Scotia is resilient and with the support of the province, combined with the dedication of the many professionals working behind the scenes, it will continue to grow and showcase our province on the international stage."

Film Nova Scotia has identified several initiatives to help the industry continue this rebound. Improving film industry infrastructure in the area of sound stages, expanding the local production community through trade missions and programs designed to remove barriers for emerging filmmakers, and shifting the marketing focus to attract larger feature films, both internationally and within Canada, will help to increase the economic impact of the film industry.

Driving the rebound are the increased tax credit and a push to attract new markets. They have helped to offset a perfect storm of challenges -- the ACTRA and Writer's Guild of America strikes, the rising Canadian dollar and higher tax credits in other jurisdictions -- that affected both foreign and domestic production last year.

"The film, television and new media industry has always been a strong contributor to the economic and social prosperity of the province," said Economic Development Minister Angus MacIsaac. "The province's decision to increase the tax credit is a key initiative that will ensure that a broad range of professions and businesses will continue to see the benefits of this dynamic industry."

There was still notable success in 2007-08 including television series, documentaries and feature films. Two new locally produced television series were added to the list with Creative Atlantic's A Series of Disagreeable Aliments for W Network and Halifax Film's Canada's Super Speller for CBC Television. These join other series of quality television including Ocean Entertainment's lifestyle programs French Food at Home and Chef Abroad, and Arcadia Entertainment's Go Deep, all of which shot their second seasons. Local favourite Trailer Park Boys also added to production with the filming of an upcoming television special.

Other productions provided a bumper crop of documentaries with six local companies exploring issues ranging from the horses of Sable Island to children's literacy programs. In feature films, Ann Verrall's Nonsense Revolution, produced by Thom Fitzgerald, and Jay Dahl's The Harton Interviews, co-produced by Dahl and Bill Niven, also went to camera.

After the October announcement that the film industry tax credit would be increased, Lifetime returned to the province to film back-to-back television movies, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, starring Dermot Mulroney and Gretchen Moll, and The Tenth Circle, starring Kelly Preston in Windsor. Both films were co-produced by Nova Scotia's Magic Rock Productions. These joined other television movies that were filmed including Thin Ice, the sixth installment of the CBS produced Jesse Stone series, Lifetime's Matters of Life and Dating and ABC Family's The Circuit, which filmed in Lunenburg, Halifax and Antigonish.

For more information go to the website, http://film.ns.ca/focus_stats.asp .

Film Nova Scotia is a provincial Crown corporation reporting to the Minister of Economic Development. Film Nova Scotia provides a wide range of programs and services to build the capacity and competitiveness of the province's film, television and new media industries.