independent movie production companies in toronto

INDEPENDENT MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANIES IN TORONTO SERIES

Those issues, paired with the already increased budget costs due to COVID-19 measures, have led to what Lynas estimates to be a roughly 10 to 15% increase in production budgets over the last two years, creating a gap in financing for premium content. “It can be a real impediment to getting your show off the ground.”īlink49 Studios COO Jeff Lynas (pictured left) says labour rates “have gone up significantly” due to the increase in production in Canada - Ontario, for instance, charted a record-breaking $3.15 billion in production spending in 2022 - as well as construction costs and gas rates. “The biggest challenge is crews at every position, studio space, equipment, locations - it’s just so competitive,” says Schneeberg, adding that it’s not uncommon for competitors to pay thousands to hold studio space between projects, reducing access for other studios and indie producers. Nearly 60% of participants say financing and budgets are the biggest challenge to their business in 2023, followed by staffing and hiring at 38% and inflation and global economic factors close behind with 36%. Indie producers are facing a myriad of challenges to complete financing on projects. That’s not to say the path has been easy. “Optionality is the key, because projects tend to come together in a million different ways,” he says, whether through a financing partner, solo commissioning a script, or independently financing a production. The company’s subsidiaries include Insight Productions and Proper Television.Īs a result, they could shift their focus to investing in content across scripted, unscripted, kids and family, and features.įortier says being a “well-capitalized business” allows them to “be really active when it comes to development,” and “take more risks” when commissioning scripts and refining a piece of IP before taking it out to buyers. Leading the Indie List this year (see chart below) is Toronto-headquartered Boat Rocker Media, coming in at more than $295 million in spend across production and development during 2022.ĭavid Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg (pictured L-R), co-executive chairmen of Boat Rocker Media and co-chairmen of Boat Rocker Studios, tell Playback that taking the company public in 2021 allowed Boat Rocker to get out of debt and clean up their balance sheet after a string of acquisitions. More than $2.1 billion in domestic production and development spend was captured in the survey, as well as more than $1.4 billion in additional service work. However, the results also reflect a significant volume of work accomplished by Canadian indies in 2022.

INDEPENDENT MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANIES IN TORONTO SERIES

Survey results also showed a sense of uncertainty around the future with the impact of the passage of Bill C-11, a series of amendments to the Broadcasting Act aimed to bring streaming giants such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ into Canada’s regulatory framework. 2 and Mawere development funding, access to marketing support, budgeting for Canadian productions, and regional production incentives for smaller Canadian markets seeing a boom in service production, edging out space for indie productions. Roughly 44% of survey respondents say opportunities for indie producers are the same in 2023 as they were in the previous year, while 39% say they’re worse than ever and less than 20% say they’re better than ever.Īmong the concerns for the 67 indie prodcos that responded to the online survey - conducted between Feb. The results of Playback‘s 2023 Indie List survey reflect a duality of circumstances facing Canadian indie producers, who see opportunity in the ever-changing market, but are concerned over the amount of resources available to help take advantage of it.

Canada’s independent production sector is holding its own amid a sea of challenges.

Independent movie production companies in toronto