This text is part of the special Cinema section
Sometimes just a few numbers are enough to make you dizzy and convince yourself that the future will always be bright. In 2021, Quebec’s audiovisual industry generated $2.5 billion in direct spending, approximately 63,000 jobs, and hosted 21 foreign shoots, while the economic spinoffs from the visual effects and animation sector alone represented $951 million, compared to $57 million in 2011. Provincially, Montreal still gets the biggest slice of the pie.
These data, contained in the 2021-2022 Activity Report of the Office of Cinema and Television of Quebec (BCTQ), still give a lot of hope, considering the global pandemic context. And the momentum does not seem about to slow down, according to Christine Maestracci, President and CEO of the BCTQ. “This year, there are already 19 foreign shoots, and we are benefiting from several increases in growth: that of content, consumers, and platforms”, underlines this great optimist at the service of this sector which also owes a lot to the dynamism of production. Quebec.
“Montreal and Quebec have undeniable assets for attracting foreign productions, both through its four seasons and through its ability to represent both Europe and North America,” emphasizes Christine Maestracci. But for a long time, other attractions have been far from negligible. “We often forget that Montreal was a pioneer in North America for tax credits and, let’s face it: it’s the first thing that matters to foreign producers,” says Andrew Lapierre, vice-president and founding partner at Grandé Studios, whose facilities are constantly growing (more than 220,000 square feet of filming space) and which also has other expansion projects in the pipeline.
Over the years, Grandé Studios has hosted several American films and television series, from X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) at Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (since 2018), and Andrew Lapierre has known for a while what delights our neighbors… and irritates them! “Other cities are more attractive for tax credits, like London or Atlanta, and even other Canadian provinces appear more attractive. But this is not the only trump card, because the quality of the infrastructure and the professionalism of the teams also count in the equation.
In fact, Montreal must constantly come to terms with the dynamism of Vancouver and Toronto, which are favored by several factors. “If I had a magic wand, I would love for Montreal to be in the same time zone as Los Angeles,” laughs Michael Prupas, founder and CEO of Muse Entertainment, associated with the production of the hit sitcom Ghosts to the CBS network, as well as the series Three Pinesbased on a novel by Louise Penny, and scheduled for release in December on Amazon.
Another irritant, according to Michael Prupas: the smaller pool of English-speaking actors. “We really felt it when we were shooting Ghosts and Three Pines. Bringing actors here from Toronto and New York increases the cost. An observation that Andrew Lapierre shares, and he adds another: the cold! “We see producers arriving with coats purchased in California that do not protect below 0 degrees Celsius, so we offer them much better ones! But if the main actor doesn’t want to come to Montreal because of the cold… That’s another disadvantage we hear in Los Angeles. Hence Andrew Lapierre’s ambition to see minitown studios, hubs, where film sets to suppliers to accommodation would be in the same quadrangle. The model already exists, in both London and Toronto, and is proving to be very attractive.
Other challenges are holding back action, including one that existed long before the pandemic, namely the labor shortage. “In the visual effects sector, there is a shortage of 3,000 workers,” laments Christine Maestracci. This is why she welcomes the initiative of the Mel-Hoppenheim Film School to welcome more students, and thus to “invest in talent”. The industry must also get involved, “by promoting all the film professions, more than 200 on a film production, and 75 in the field of animation and special effects”.
While 2022 is not yet over and promises to be another year of growth, the celebrations will be short, because the cinema planet never stops turning, and fast.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, relating to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.