B.C. Film Commission: All in the Family
If you look closely as you drive through the Lower Mainland’s more picturesque neighbourhoods, you can still see the red arrows hanging from the street lights. There may not be as many as there were 10 years ago, but they still wave like tiny victory flags, offering direction to film crews looking for the location of their film or television shoot. Only a year or two ago, it seemed these productions might disappear completely. A rising loonie combined with increasing competition from the likes of California, Connecticut and the Czech Republic threatened to put an end to the province’s three-decade effort to create a sustainable film industry.
Indeed, American film production has been rumoured to be leaving B.C. since the early ’80s, when producers first started arriving on a regular basis. It was never supposed to survive a strong Canadian dollar, aggressive tax credits offered by American states or the low labour costs of eastern Europe. If the California-based guilds and unions that have been Hollywood studios’ partners since the 1920s made an effort to bring business home – well, that would be it. And yet, even though all of the above have come to pass, the B.C. industry is still here. And thriving: the province remains North America’s third-largest production centre, with producers spending almost a billion dollars last year on film projects in B.C.
So what went right? How has an industry initially thought to have the staying power of the 19th-century gold rush survived? In a word: co-operation. Hollywood has been a “closed shop” for most of its history, with the studios knowing that they couldn’t get a movie or TV series produced if they didn’t honour their contracts with American unions and guilds.
The need to work collaboratively was noted early on by B.C.’s film unions and the provincial government, and in 1978, working with the then-minister of tourism, Grace McCarthy, they created the B.C. Film Commission.
A few years later, B.C.’s film industry took the American tradition of collaboration a step further, with unions and the government-appointed film commissioners banding together to present a united front to Hollywood. Dianne Neufeld, B.C.’s second film commissioner (1982-94), found an ally in a union leader named George Chapman, who was then the business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 891; when Neufeld flew to L.A., Chapman (and later, other union leaders) would be with her on the next plane seat and in the boardrooms making presentations to studios and independent producers on the province’s behalf.
The B.C.-based film unions gradually discovered that they could be competitive with their U.S. counterparts by approaching the hiring process differently than their Hollywood counterparts. The unions agreed to allow local production managers to hire teams of crew members rather than hiring individuals from a job board – a prerequisite in L.A. and other production centres. Since the crews were continually working together as teams, the shorthand saved producers time and, ultimately, money. In addition, the unions promoted from within, allowing members to take on entry-level jobs and eventually move up the ladder.
Producer and director Chris Carter, who came here to shoot The X-Files television series in 1993, says that when he returned last year to make the film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, he could see that the system was still working. “I think the key to growth will continue to be the approach to training and promotion that has been taken in B.C. When I was there the last time, I felt like I was walking back to the same place, but the community had matured. There were people who were trainees who are now in authority. There were people in union positions who are now working as producers. A lot of people have taken advantage of their opportunities.”
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