Written by on Oct 24, 2011. Posted in On Location

British Columbia hosts Mission: Impossible but can’t prevent production slide

British Columbia (BC) - and Vancouver in particular - has a reputation as a global production hub and recently hosted Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, but a new report shows overall production in the province has slipped this year.

The report, from British Columbia Film and Media, shows foreign and service productions brought the province CAD800 million in 2010-11, compared to CAD1.1 billion the year before.

Animation production is doing better than ever, with servicing in the province rising by more than 100%. Part of the problem for live-action production seems to be that projects are increasingly shifting to Ontario, which PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) recently identified as enjoying a 40% share of Canada’s entire production output in 2010.

[It's due to] the more lucrative production incentives available in other jurisdictions and the fact that broadcasters, who commission content, are based in Toronto and are increasingly relying on Ontario-produced product.

Michael Francis, British Columbia Film

Michael Francis is Chairman of British Columbia Film: “It is more difficult to develop and finance scripted drama and feature films in BC than it is in many other provinces. This is a result of a number of factors including the absence of equity funding in BC, the more lucrative production incentives available in other jurisdictions and the fact that broadcasters, who commission content, are based in Toronto and are increasingly relying on Ontario-produced product. These are important issues that need to be addressed if BC companies are to prosper in an extremely competitive and volatile environment.”

While Vancouver hosted the Canadian shoot for Mission: Impossible, Toronto has hosted Total Recall, The Thing and the Spielberg-produced Falling Skies over the past year. According to the PwC report, British Columbia had a 25% share of Canadian production in 2010.