It’s shooting in Quebec this spring. No less than 19 fiction series are currently in production.
Posted at 6:30 p.m.
“There are more than ever before,” observes Nicola Merola, president of Pixcom, a major Montreal production company.
Among the series in the works, seven come from Radio-Canada, including Fragmentsby Serge Boucher (Brittle, confession), Eyes closedin which Magalie Lépine-Blondeau plays a high school teacher determined to resolve the death of a loved one that occurred 27 years earlier, and Before the crashby Kim Lévesque-Lizotte and Éric Bruneau, in which the latter plays opposite Karine Vanasse, Émile Proulx-Cloutier and Mani Soleymanlou.
new seasons of Discussions with my parents, Plan Bwith Pier-Luc Funk, Reasonable doubt (since this Monday) and turbulent waters complete this list.
On the side of TVA, we are shooting five series in this second week of May: The breakaway, The perfect moments, Alertsthe daily Indefensiblewith Sébastien Delorme and Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, and Anna and Arnaudthe adaptation of Francine Ruel’s novel, which will star Guylaine Tremblay and Nico Racicot.
At Club illico, the first turns of the crank were given on Portrait-robot and We.
At Noovo, the second season of … Me niether !, with Catherine-Anne Toupin and Vincent Leclerc, is now filming, as is Petthe new series by Simon Boulerice (six degrees) in which Evelyne Brochu portrays a teacher who has a relationship with her 17-year-old student (Lévi Doré).
PHOTO LAURENCE GRANDBOIS BERNARD, PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Catherine-Anne Toupin and Vincent Leclerc are currently filming the second season of …Me niether !
Télé-Québec is on the board with Like chicken headsa new family daily by Pierre-Yves Bernard (In a galaxy near you). For its part, Unis TV has two series in production, Basketball and Detox.
Over the next few weeks, four sequels will unfold: Guys (ICI Tou.TV), Without an appointment (ICI Tou.TV), The complicated life of Léa Olivier (Club illico) and Club Soly (Noovo).
Next will come the spy drama IXE-13 (Club illico), Turn – Double Fault (Noovo), Disobey: Chantal Daigle’s choice (Craves), With beating heart (HERE TV), Pearls (Club illico), Leo (Club illico), 5th rank (HERE TV), Between two sheets (Noovo), good morning chuck (Craves), eye of the storm (ICI Tou.TV) and above all, the Radio-Canada daily news (undetermined title) which will replace District 31.
New actors
How to explain this overheating of filming? The arrival with great fanfare of Bell Media, which now orders series for Noovo and Crave, has something to do with it, as does Quebecor’s increased investment in series.
We can also point out the return of Corus Media which, after a few years of silence, is starting to finance French-language fiction again. Later in the summer, KOTV will film – for Séries Plus – the television adaptation of a novel by Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard, High demolition.
“All these players have decided to do more. This is the result”, comments Nicola Merola, of Pixcom (Anna and Arnaud, Indefensible, Alerts).
“The volume of production is enormous”, notes Louis-Philippe Drolet, principal manager of KOTV, the box behind Plan B and eye of the storm, particularly. “With the arrival of platforms, it means that we produce more than ever. »
Labor shortage persists
Despite this filming boom, things have been going smoothly so far, people in the industry tell us. The labor shortage that we observed in 2021 will however continue to pose problems in 2022, especially this summer, when Montreal will be assailed by American shoots, predicts Sébastien Pigeon, general manager and executive producer at Aetios (Eyes closed, Reasonable doubt).
“The Americans are able to offer conditions that we do not have the means to offer. In this time, teams are more difficult to form. It creates tension to get the best elements. »
“The search for staff, the negotiations, it must take twice as long as before, supports Nicola Merola. When someone is offered three contracts at the same time, it is sure that the wages must be increased to attract him. »
Today, producing a series is like looking for a house in Montreal: it costs more and it takes longer.
Nicola Merola, President of Pixcom
To alleviate this shortage, the Government of Quebec provided $900,000 to the Association québécoise des productions mediasiques (AQPM) to set up a mentoring program to train directors of filming locations, managers and scripts. (person who ensures the continuity of the scenes and their conformity to the scenario).
“These are key positions for which there are crying needs,” says AQPM President and CEO Hélène Messier. A call for applications will be launched in the coming days. “It’s one of our priorities,” she says.
Also, $400,000 was granted to the Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS) to train a cohort of 60 students who will be able to join film crews in three types of positions: production management, production accounting and production coordination.
COVID-19 still present
Although much less talked about than at this time last year, the pandemic is still causing headaches for producers, who have to rearrange schedules each time a case of COVID-19 emerges in their teams. And when filming is suspended, they must make up for the days missed within the schedule adopted at the start, because due to the large number of series in production until the fall, the day after the last day of filming planned, their actors and technicians are usually hired elsewhere.
“Everyone is so busy… We don’t have latitude,” says Louis-Philippe Drolet. Fortunately, we can organize ourselves between producers, sometimes. But it’s not something we needed to do before. It’s a puzzle. »