Popular television show Hell on Wheels, above, is produced by Nomadic Pictures, an Albertan production company. Its co-chair Michael Frislev says the industry is tough because of Alberta’s $5-million cap on provincial funding.
Nomadic Pictures has produced numerous films and television projects in Alberta, including such acclaimed series as Fargo for the FX network and Hell on Wheels for AMC. Michael Frislev, co-chairman of the Calgary-based company, says the government should sweeten its funding incentives for the industry to compete with other provinces and U.S. states and help diversify the economy.
How is Alberta faring in the race for film and TV productions?
At this particular moment, it's not great. The NDP has yet to put their stamp on the guidelines that affect the Alberta Media Fund. There's a caveat within the guidelines that caps each individual production at a $5-million ask, which precludes accessing the full amount of the tax credit because of that cap. It puts Alberta squarely against other jurisdictions – we cap out and other jurisdictions do not. It's why we're in Vancouver shooting Van Helsing [a new series for Syfy]. There's an $800,000 difference in tax-credit financing.
Coupled with that are unions piling on increases anticipating a low-dollar workload. That may come, but I believe every other jurisdiction in the country will fill up for American service work before Alberta does, because of those factors.
What goes into deciding where to produce projects?
There are certain locations that compete for similar productions. We compete with New Mexico, principally, and Vancouver to a certain extent. New Mexico has a decent incentive comparable to what Alberta has, without a cap. We're talking about a business that is under a certain amount of attack financially, given the increased non-television viewership. The kids aren't watching TV; they're watching stuff on the computer and dodging the ads, and it's ad revenue that drives television financing and profits of the companies involved. So every effort is made to reduce costs and take every incentive possible to stay economically viable as a network. Viewership is up. There were, I think, over 400 television series produced in the United States last year. There's a lot of competition for eyeballs. There's a lot of great stuff being made, but there's an economic bubble, a slight oversupply bubble. A first-year series going out to marketplace has risk. People haven't seen it. There are usually high-dollar amounts. Every incentive is important.
The government has stressed economic diversification in Alberta. How will TV and film fit in?
They've been keeping it fairly close to the vest. There was an industry consultation session, and I implored them to remove the cap so that we become a truly industrial model and are allowed to grow. When growth is capped, the economy of how you run your production company is capped to a certain extent. It's difficult to run a business. In Vancouver, there are 35 crews, there's a truly industrial model in terms of uncapped, unfettered production and it operates differently.
How are feature films affected by the constraints on incentives?
With feature film, the days of the $5-million to $10-million movie are waning. Feature films tend to be in the $100-million-plus budget range. So a cap of $5-million has a material impact on those productions. In terms of infrastructure, studios, labs, equipment support, Calgary and, to a far greater extent, Edmonton, are small. So westerns and productions that need that big vista landscape may come here for a unit shoot, but you're not going to see The Magnificent Seven [a remake that is currently filming] coming to Alberta. They wanted to, but they can't because of the cap.
Is there still interest? Is your phone ringing?
We're busy, but a lot of the stuff we're looking at is to be in Vancouver. Stuff we're looking at for Alberta is in the indie feature category, sub-$10-million that doesn't get capped out in the fund. But what keeps people employed, studios employed and grows the industry is television series. So when the cap negates television series, there is a serious challenge to the business model.
Now, obviously, the Alberta government has budgeting challenges, and I do think they're going to address it. It's quite possible that they're going to come out with something that remedies the situation. They're aware of the problem. I certainly made it clear to them.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jeffrey Jones