There was a different array of entertainers showcasing their performance chops between the screenings and industry meetings at last fall’s Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).
Apart from the regular actors, writers and directors, Creative BC CEO Prem Gill recalls throngs of musicians also dotting the landscape at the film festival.
But the artists performing at VIFF showcases weren’t the ones who’d play orchestral music for a film score. Rather, it was the types who’d noodle on the guitar or beat the drums.
Creative BC, the government agency responsible for promoting the province’s creative sector, partnered last year with the Music BC Industry Association to bring music supervisors from Los Angeles film and TV productions to check out local bands at VIFF.
“The goal being that perhaps the music supervisor from Grey’s Anatomy might choose one of those bands’ songs to place in a show,” said Gill, who worked eight years at Telus (TSX:T) and developed content and distribution services for the telecom giant’s Optik TV.
Gill, who took the helm of Creative BC five months ago, wants to see more of those initiatives.
Her agency was created through a provincial mandate in 2013 to promote the province’s creative sectors. Prior to that, those responsibilities were divided between the BC Film Commission, and BC Film and Media.
High-profile movies and TV shows like Deadpool and The X-Files take the spotlight during talks about the province’s creative sector. But Creative BC is also responsible for promoting visual effects, video game and animation houses, as well as the music industry and book and magazine publishing. Up until the end of January, when Creative BC announced changes to its board, there were few representatives from those other sectors.
“It will be interesting to see areas where we can draw on that strength [of the film and TV sector] to the benefit of other creative industries in the province,” said Gordon Esau, Creative BC’s new board chairman and a partner at Dentons Canada LLP. “We’re just getting our arms around how we can assist book publishing and music.”
In addition to a new CEO and chairman, Creative BC’s No. 3 position was also shuffled recently as Force Four Entertainment president Rob Bromley took on its vice-chairman role last month. Newcomers to the board include Watchdog Management general manager Sarah Fenton and Tom Gierasimczuk, publisher and general manager of Vancouver Magazine and Western Living.
Fenton said she’s counting on more cross-pollination between B.C.’s music sector and big industries like film and TV.
“There’s immense potential to be able to have one organization represent the various creative industries in B.C.,” she said. “In any successful cultural city, it seems to be all of those industries are working symbiotically with one another.”
Over the past five years, Fenton said she’s seen a mass migration of the B.C. music industry to Ontario, where the provincial government created a music fund providing incentives to major labels, independent labels and management companies.
The catch is that all the work has to be done in Ontario, which is why Fenton said notable B.C. bands like Mother Mother are recording in Toronto instead.
“There’s sort of a brain drain happening where maybe the artists are still based here and maybe still writing songs here, but when it comes to spending money here, they’re not able to do it as easily,” she said. “Prem is super, super passionate about all cultural industries and especially music … so I know the commitment from Creative BC is really strong to support the music sector.”
Meanwhile, Gill said new board members like Fenton would help the agency with its new strategic plan, expanding its focus from TV and film to other sub-sectors of the creative industry.
Both Gill and Esau said the new plan would build on the momentum of the film and TV sector, which has been buoyed by U.S. productions taking advantage of the Canadian dollar’s declining value.
The agency is also consulting with experts at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business to help develop the new strategy.
Gill added that Creative BC is creating non-governing advisory committees that would meet two to three times a year to have formalized feedback regarding some of the smaller sectors.
“This is something we need to look at every 18 to 24 months: what are we doing, how are we doing it, why are we doing it?” Gill said. “We need to be thinking strategically all the time, not just when we’re in strategic planning mode.”
