When you work in the movie business, no two projects are alike, and no two work days are the same.
But even industry veteran Pete Mitchell, president and COO of Vancouver Film Studios, was startled by the hordes of fans trying to slip through the studio security gate during the 2008 filming of New Moon, the second feature in the Twilight franchise. Sure, he knew teenage girls would want to gawk at stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. But a gaggle of 40-year-old women from Brazil who flew here in the hopes of a close encounter?
“Not the demographic you’d expect,” said Mitchell, with a wry smile.
Not all surprises in the film and television business are good ones, but the recent turnaround in the fortunes of the Vancouver industry qualifies as unexpected good news. It was only a year ago that Mitchell lamented the fact that 90% of the industry’s 25,000 workers were unemployed as jobs continued to migrate to other provinces, states and countries that offered better tax breaks for producers. That, and a strong Canadian dollar, kept U.S. productions at home or in Ontario.
Since then, the dollar has fallen significantly and producers have learned that when it comes to tax breaks, what you see on paper isn’t necessarily what you get with the bottom line.
“All these other jurisdictions came out with their tax-credit programs, and many of them turned out to be unsustainable,” said Mitchell. “So the jurisdictions have cut back and modified them. A good example is Ontario, because they keep modifying what’s a qualifying expense.
“There’s all this uncertainty elsewhere, but in B.C., there is absolute certainty,” Mitchell said.
Activity has picked up in B.C. since September, primarily in the television market. Feature film work is still sluggish.
“There are no mid-range movies any more,” said Mitchell, explaining that features are either low-budget or mega-budget. “Nobody makes a movie between $25 million and $100 million any more.”
Born in Scotland and raised in Montreal, Mitchell arrived in Vancouver in 1986 and earned his MBA at the University of British Columbia. He served for four years as business agent for the International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 669), then was B.C.’s film commissioner from 1995 to 1999 before going to work at Vancouver Film Studios (VFS), owned by the McLean Group, which created the 35-acre studio from several 1950s-era warehouses it owned near the corner of Grandview Highway and Boundary Road.
In those early years, the company had four employees and one purpose-built studio, gradually expanding to its current state of 12 purpose-built studios and more than 200 employees.
In addition to renting out its studios to productions, VFS also has three subsidiary companies: Pacific Backlot Services, which rents production equipment; Signal Systems, largely an IT and radio communications company; and Blackcomb Aviation, a helicopter and charter company. Only 10% of Blackcomb Aviation’s revenue comes from the film and television industry; the rest derives from maintaining transmission lines, aerial searches for minerals, tourism flights, charter rentals and heli-skiing.
“Pete has provided strong business leadership for the motion picture industry for over two decades,” said Peter Leitch, who, as president of North Shore Studios and Mammoth Studios, competes with Mitchell but also, as chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of BC (MPPIA), works with him to aid the industry. “He has been passionate about minimizing the environmental footprint of the industry and been a thought leader as an executive board member of the MPPIA.”
VFS has just launched a fourth division, Gun Lake Pictures, which will develop and produce original screenplays.
“The McLean family doesn’t stand still,” said Mitchell.
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