By: KRISTOFER BAKER
James Hardie believes the golden age of Torotno’s film production industry is over.
Despite a rise in industry spending in the past three years, the 65-year-old Post-Production Chief for Creative Post Inc. is concerned about the state of filmmaking in Toronto.
According to Hardie, the industry has fallen so sharply since the year 2000 that Toronto may never be a beacon for local and international filmmaking ever again.
“We were huge but I don’t think Toronto is ‘Hollywood North’ anymore,” Hardie said.
Economic changes after the turn of the century led to far lower budgets on average for film production. Hardie describes today as “a nasty time”.
“The recession absolutely killed us,” Hardie said. “The banks won’t lend you enough money to make a decent amount on. Our clients are having cash flow issues which impacts down the line.”
Hardie said hundreds of people still leave the television and film industry annually because there is less money available in the city. This has led to stagnation in the business.
“We are having to work twice as hard with half the people so things stay the same,” Hardie said.
Eric Jensen is the manager for the Toronto Film and Television Office, a city department that oversees filmmaking. He argues work in the city’s film and television industry has exploded in the past three years.
“It’s been busy. I tried to have a meeting yesterday where I needed input from location managers. There weren’t any available because they were all working.”
In 2009, total spending on film production in the city was over $610 million, a 43 per cent increase since the previous year, according to the TFTO.
“The major studio spaces that we have, Studio Line, Cinespace and the recently completed Pinewood Studios,” Jensen said. “Those are three state-of-the-art production studios or studio lots that are as good as any lots anywhere.”
Jensen said Pinewood Studios are fully booked "deep into next year."
Hardie said Toronto has already lost the attention of international filmmakers and faces a daunting task at recovering the industry.
“We have nowhere near the amount of clients from abroad than we used to and now the majority of our business comes from indigenous production,” Hardie said.
But the TFTO has been working to get those groups back to the city, according to Jensen.
“In September we brought up 11 studio executives from L.A. and we showed them everything Toronto has to offer and they were blown away,” Jensen said. “They told us that we have everything they could possibly want.”
Hardie paints a bleak picture for the future of employment in Toronto. He said there is not enough space for young people who want to break into the industry.
“The problem is that most of the colleges of Ontario have all their different film courses and are probably turning out more people that are already working in the business. So who’s going to hire you? We’re laying off.”
Tomas Pal is a film and broadcast student graduating this year. He acknowledges the competiveness of the business but doesn’t share the same bleak vision as Hardie.
“I think Toronto as a filmmaking city is starting to turn some heads from around the world,” Pal said.
The 20-year-old touted Toronto as one of the best places to start a career in film.
“There are a lot of programs that can get you into the business if you’re good enough,” Pal said.
“There are internships, networking opportunities and unions that can help you get in the business and stay there.”
Jensen said the TFTO is discussing programs to keep Toronto’s film students in Toronto after graduation.
“We don’t want to see our best talent being recruited by L.A. We have to keep our talent pool here.”
The TFTO hasn’t specifically released a plan to encourage filmmakers and production workers to stay in Toronto.
But Jensen said Toronto and the province have a far better program that encourages companies to stay and return.
“Downtown L.A. is a thousand dollars a day for on-street production. We don’t charge you a dime to shoot on our streets,” Jensen said.
“To top it all off, you get outstanding service from us and from the industry here and then you get tax credits from the provincial
government.”
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