Big plans, hopes hinge on support for Big Sky Studios By: Martin Cash Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Mar. 31, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/03/2023 (906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 1998, when Kenny Boyce became City of Winnipeg manager of film and special events, there was about $7 million worth of film and TV production work annually in the Manitoba capital.

At the time, it was seen as a great accomplishment.

Last year, the industry was doing $1 million per day in production.

It has grown incrementally. Generous tax credits became even more generous, and then permanent. The reputation of having great crews grew, and the workforce expanded.

In those early years, productions only shot during spring and summer months. Now, crews are out all winter long.

“It has been a challenge with crews and scaling up,” Boyce said in a recent interview, “but Winnipeggers are really good at working with what they have.”

They now have significant new piece of infrastructure to work with: Big Sky Studios, a 187,000-square-foot facility with four soundstages and production offices, carpentry, paint, wardrobe and prop facilities all under one roof.

It is effectively the first major investment in the local industry in 25 years.

“It is truly a game-changer,” said Rod Bruinooge, interim chief executive officer and film commissioner of Manitoba Film & Music.

“We believe we can drive $150 million to $200 million in production volume out of these four stages.”–Ed Kolic, CEO of Big Sky Productions

Built at the site of the former Nygard International site on Inkster Boulevard, the $27-million retro-fit includes two soundstages in the old building with 20-foot ceilings, and brand-new construction of two 15,000-sq.-ft. clear span soundstages with 45-foot ceilings.

Built by Vancouver-based Eight Avenue Development Group, with no public money, it immediately triples the size of the province’s soundstage capacity.

It also provides the kind of infrastructure that can service much-larger productions than the province previously could handle.

Ed Kolic, CEO of Big Sky and principal of Eighth Avenue, has seen what it takes to create the $4-billion film and television industry in B.C.

“We believe we can drive $150 million to $200 million in production volume out of these four stages,” he said. That would be about a 50 per cent bump in total productions activity, but all under one roof.

Big Sky business development manager Jocelyn Mitchell is one of only two employees of the studio, which opened its doors late last year.

Her job is to convince producers — primarily but not just from Hollywood — to bring their work to Winnipeg.

“I spoke to a producer recently who said they’d love to consider Winnipeg, but they needed a soundstage and direct flights,” she said. “Well, great. We’ve got that now.”

WestJet Airlines started direct flights to Los Angeles from Winnipeg in November. It is the kind of accommodation that can make the difference attracting talent and producers who don’t want to take a whole day travelling back and forth during production, advocates said.

“I spoke to a producer recently who said they’d love to consider Winnipeg, but they needed a soundstage and direct flights. Well, great. We’ve got that now.”–Big Sky business development manager Jocelyn Mitchell

Previously, with just one local soundstage (the provincially owned Manitoba Production Centre on Pacific Avenue), Kolic said there was virtually no infrastructure that could support A-grade $30-million-to-$50-million productions.

Big Sky is the kind of operation where episodic television can build multiple sets and have them properly stored for a multiple-season run — something that just could not happen in Manitoba before, its leadership said.

It was the province’s tax credits — among the most competitive in North America, with up to 65 per cent of eligible salaries covered for Manitoba labour, or up to 38 percent of overall production costs — that attracted Eighth Avenue and its limited partners.

While Kolic believes the province and city are great supporters of the industry, he hopes and believes they can do more.

“For instance, there’s been talk of FAM (familiarization) tours for a while now. They bring the buyers to your location to see what we have to offer,” he said.

“It is a competitive field: L.A., New York, Atlanta, South Carolina, North Carolina, the southern U.S…. They are all knocking on the producers’ doors all the time.”

Bruinooge said such FAM tours are in the works, with the plan to have one organized over the next couple of months.

Meantime, Kolic believes Big Sky can have the kind of economic impact traditionally equated with a large industrial concern.

“We know that when we are at reasonable capacity, it will represent 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs for the province,” he said, which includes significant in-direct spin-offs with care rental agencies, restaurants, and hotels.

“With that opportunity in front of the government and with the current incentives and, hopefully, with additional effort on their behalf to support and promote the industry, we believe it is attainable to get to the level of utilization.”

Ian Dimerman, president of Winnipeg-based Inferno Pictures Inc., helped make the original connection with Kolic and Eighth Avenue.

He said there are a lot of streaming services and producers that already know Winnipeg is a great place to work but “have been waiting with bated breath” for more facilities. With the prospects of a new digital production operation in Niverville (some 40 kilometres south of the capital) announced in March and the full opening of Big Sky, it’s now happening.

“Everyone has been crying about infrastructure for 25 years,” Dimerman said. “Now we have it.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca