What happened: B.C. production volume fell slightly compared with the previous fiscal year but it was still enough to come out as No. 1 in the country
Why it matters: Data was compiled prior to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, while industry is now assess negative economic impacts
The B.C. film sector will get to keep its Hollywood North crown at least one more year, no matter COVID-19 grinding the industry to a halt in 2020.
Film and TV production volume in B.C. reached $3.4 billion in the 2018-19 fiscal year, according to the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA) Profile 2019 report released April 2.
That’s down 4.3% from the $3.58 billion generated in the previous fiscal year, but still enough to top Ontario’s $3.17 billion.
The vast majority of volume in B.C.’s film industry — $2.82 billion — was service work for foreign productions.
But big gains were made in Canadian TV productions in B.C., growing 9.3% year over year to $482 million.
Canadian theatrical productions in B.C. more than doubled from $10 million to $21 million during that same period.
The industry accounted for 30,400 direct, full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs on the West Coast, down from 33,620 a year earlier.
Production volume across Canada was up $511 million, or 5.8%, year over year to reach $9.32 billion, creating 85,100 direct FTE jobs and contributing $12.8 billion to the national GDP.
B.C. accounted for 37% of that total national volume, followed closely by Ontario at 34%.
The CMPA acknowledged that the data was all compiled in the previous fiscal year (April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019), which concluded 11 months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down production on film and TV shows across the globe.
It’s now in the midst of partnering with industry and stakeholder groups to measure the negative economic impacts on the nation’s film production sector.
That includes measuring job losses through data provided by unions and guilds, as well as conducting and industry-wide survey to asses impacts on Canadian production companies.
“We’re in hold-and-shutdown mode on multiple projects,” producer Shawn Williamson, president of B.C.-based Brightlight Pictures Inc., told Business in Vancouver last month.
While the company is still proceeding with post-production on 10 series, it can’t, for example, finish some episodes because L.A.-based actors are in lockdown in California and can’t record lines in studios needed for the final product.
One production was filming in Vancouver, London and South Africa when international borders began tightening in March.
“No travel means no production, effectively,” Williamson said.
“We can limp along, and maintain development, and keep projects moving as best we can in preparation for the end of the pandemic and the return of some sort of normalcy here … But nothing will really move until we have free flow across the borders and the ability to meet in groups.”
