Globe and Mail Misses The Crucial Point of Telefilm's Report
(Toronto) Today the Globe and Mail has commented on Telefilm’s latest report and offered two brief paragraphs without analysis. For readers of Canadian Film Insider, the basic inescapable conclusions of the document regarding English Canadian film were pretty clear in the article published two days ago: Telefilm's Annual Report: This Much is True... .
But, to quote the Globe and Mail, which is paraphrasing Telefilm:
According to Telefilm, the market share of Canadian English-language films was a paltry 1.1 per cent in 2005-2006, down from the previous year's 1.6 per cent. Their French-language counterparts, by contrast, reached almost a 27 per cent market share, an increase of more than five per cent from 2004-2005. Telefilm blames the imbalance on what it claims are weak relationships and a lack of co-operation among English-language producers, distributors and exhibitors.
Well, now, hold on. Hold it right there. If we’re going to play the blame game, let’s lay the blame where it belongs: right on the doorstep of the people who got the lion’s share of English Canadian Telefilm funding in 2005, and an examination of what they created with the money. Why don’t we call a spade a spade, and recognize that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck? So let’s look at the ducks, shall we? The ducks who had millions of dollars thrown to them; a virtual carte blanche from Telefilm, They were: Robert Lantos and Atom Egoyan. Added together this pair dropped, respectively, $17-million dollars for Lanto’s BEING JULIA and $14.5-million dollars for WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. With marketing money from Telefilm included. Which can be verified at the Telefilm site under their Investment Report section. The final budgets for these films were higher, because Telefilm funding attracts more money. Being Julia cost $18-million to produce (plus $3.3 million in promotion money from Telefilm and who can say how much elsewhere?) and Truth cost $25-million to produce (plus $4-million in promotion money from Telefilm). Julia grossed $14-million worldwide, which translates to a $7-million return on at least a $21-million dollar investment, while Truth grossed $2.8-million on at least a $29-million dollar investment. All facts from boxofficemojo.com.
Telefilm could not have been paid back a penny from their (our) $31.4-million dollar investment in the work of Robert Lantos and Atom Egoyan. The two key individuals, with a hopeless track record, who were handed half of English Canada’s feature film investment for 2005.
So Canadians were left holding the bag. In fact, Being Julia wasn’t even filmed in Canada as a sort of “make work project”! So did Egoyan and Lantos make money? Of course they did. Lantos and Egoyan made a handsome sum as they scooped lucrative Producer’s Fees. Normally this is 10% of the film’s budget. You can bet most of that $2.5-million from Truth went directly into Lantos and Egoyan's pockets, while Lantos, as the only full producer on Julia, got at least half of the $1.4-million from that film. It’s a great living being failed Canadian filmmakers, isn’t it?
In any other system, they would have been cut off long before that happened. Eliminated from the equation, with the recognition that there is no audience for what they are doing. Certainly Canadians have little interest in their work, and they are therefore contributing nothing to Telefilm’s mandate of creating Canadian Culture. Canadians don’t recognize it as their culture, plain and simple.
But, to quote the Globe and Mail, which is paraphrasing Telefilm:
According to Telefilm, the market share of Canadian English-language films was a paltry 1.1 per cent in 2005-2006, down from the previous year's 1.6 per cent. Their French-language counterparts, by contrast, reached almost a 27 per cent market share, an increase of more than five per cent from 2004-2005. Telefilm blames the imbalance on what it claims are weak relationships and a lack of co-operation among English-language producers, distributors and exhibitors.
Well, now, hold on. Hold it right there. If we’re going to play the blame game, let’s lay the blame where it belongs: right on the doorstep of the people who got the lion’s share of English Canadian Telefilm funding in 2005, and an examination of what they created with the money. Why don’t we call a spade a spade, and recognize that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck? So let’s look at the ducks, shall we? The ducks who had millions of dollars thrown to them; a virtual carte blanche from Telefilm, They were: Robert Lantos and Atom Egoyan. Added together this pair dropped, respectively, $17-million dollars for Lanto’s BEING JULIA and $14.5-million dollars for WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. With marketing money from Telefilm included. Which can be verified at the Telefilm site under their Investment Report section. The final budgets for these films were higher, because Telefilm funding attracts more money. Being Julia cost $18-million to produce (plus $3.3 million in promotion money from Telefilm and who can say how much elsewhere?) and Truth cost $25-million to produce (plus $4-million in promotion money from Telefilm). Julia grossed $14-million worldwide, which translates to a $7-million return on at least a $21-million dollar investment, while Truth grossed $2.8-million on at least a $29-million dollar investment. All facts from boxofficemojo.com.
Telefilm could not have been paid back a penny from their (our) $31.4-million dollar investment in the work of Robert Lantos and Atom Egoyan. The two key individuals, with a hopeless track record, who were handed half of English Canada’s feature film investment for 2005.
So Canadians were left holding the bag. In fact, Being Julia wasn’t even filmed in Canada as a sort of “make work project”! So did Egoyan and Lantos make money? Of course they did. Lantos and Egoyan made a handsome sum as they scooped lucrative Producer’s Fees. Normally this is 10% of the film’s budget. You can bet most of that $2.5-million from Truth went directly into Lantos and Egoyan's pockets, while Lantos, as the only full producer on Julia, got at least half of the $1.4-million from that film. It’s a great living being failed Canadian filmmakers, isn’t it?
In any other system, they would have been cut off long before that happened. Eliminated from the equation, with the recognition that there is no audience for what they are doing. Certainly Canadians have little interest in their work, and they are therefore contributing nothing to Telefilm’s mandate of creating Canadian Culture. Canadians don’t recognize it as their culture, plain and simple.
posted by atom bruce mckellar at Saturday, October 21, 2006
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