Canadian Heritage Committee on April 27th, 2015

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I have heard a thicket of challenges: ticket prices are about what they were in 1974, or even lower; you can view a movie on so many different devices anytime you want; international piracy is a big challenge you mentioned; and you mentioned the short VOD windows, Ms. Fitzgerald.

Because no good deed goes unpunished, I am going to focus on you. You are a director of Outward Bound, one of the best organizations in the world—

[Anne Fitzgerald]

Thank you.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

—and the founders live in my riding, Ann and Art Rogers. The best 10 days of my life....

I am going to ask you something similar to what Mr. Dion was asking. What three things could the government could do? I am still not really sure.

By the way, the theatres have closed in West Vancouver, so we don't have them anymore, and people rue that fact.

[Anne Fitzgerald]

Hold your horses on that one.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Can we fix that, please?

[Anne Fitzgerald]

We are working on that.

As for three things the government can do, first, as I said earlier, we are an exhibition. We are not producers, and we are not distributors, so we are at a different end. I can't come to you and say, “This is what Telefilm budgets look like. They are not working, and this is why they are not working.” We see the tail end of it, not the process.

Saying that—

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

If the five of you got together for a coffee and three months later you said, “Boy, that was successful”, what would be the things that happened that made that a successful gathering?

[Anne Fitzgerald]

The first one is exactly what we have talked about, and that is marketing. If a budget comes from Telefilm for a movie to be produced, it should be looking at the beginning and the end of the movie. Not just getting it completed, but how is it going to find an audience? How do you find the voice to reach the people you need to reach?

As I said, with our SCENE program at Cineplex, we have learned so much about moviegoers.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

How does government relate to that?

[Anne Fitzgerald]

It's about Telefilm funding. Have a mandatory minimum marketing spend that is actually substantial. Every time a movie comes out of Hollywood, they don't make the movie and then say, “Okay, now how are we going to market it?” They build that into the original budget, and it is a huge percentage of that original budget. It is about being able to communicate with the general public and tell them, “Hey, this movie is coming out. This is why you are going to like it, and why you should get off your couch and choose to spend your money and time to go see this movie.” They care.

Our customers are very precious about their entertainment time and dollars. Unless you can convince them—

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Are you saying that there is an American counterpart that is spending more than we are spending per capita?

[Anne Fitzgerald]

No, it's the studios.

[Nuria Bronfman]

No, it's the studios. You can think of Telefilm as a mini studio, which it basically is. I know there have been cutbacks at Telefilm, and we are working hard. The association is working with Telefilm to get them to participate in some of our conventions and get themselves and their filmmakers in front of exhibition at an early stage. More of that kind of interaction would be helpful. There is no question. It works very well in Quebec, where the producers and the filmmakers are in front of exhibitors all the time. They don't always have the budget to support things like that, so more of that kind of interaction I think would be very helpful.

[Anne Fitzgerald]

There's no doubt that the Canadian industry is in a difficult place physically, being next door to Hollywood. The French film industry doesn't have the same problem. The German film industry doesn't have the same problem. It's a challenge, and so it's a reality. I don't think it's something that can be fought; it's just something to be recognized. When you're fighting with huge marketing budgets, you're going to have to compete on a marketing scale. That's one of the points.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I consider myself a champion of the film industry in representing the north shore of Vancouver, where so many jobs depend on this.

[Neil Campbell]

Absolutely.

[Anne Fitzgerald]

Absolutely.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I'm available. When Peter Leitch calls, I'm there to help.

[Anne Fitzgerald]

Thank you.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I'm still not really sure, though, what I would be voting on in this committee that would answer your queries.

[Anne Fitzgerald]

Here's the second thing we would say. We don't know where you stand on windows. We've heard rumours that there was an idea that perhaps there should be a sliding scale of windows for certain movies produced in Canada. I can tell you, as an exhibition industry—and this is not just Canadian—internationally, exhibitors are not going to show films that have short windows, period.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Who regulates that, though? Is that government?

[Neil Campbell]

Independent business decisions are made by each company.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

That's not government.

[Neil Campbell]

No, not government at all.