Winnipeg film company ramping up production with added COVID-19 protocols

A Winnipeg film company says production is ramping up quickly as the industry starts to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Things are picking up, Winnipeg is the place to be right now." said Kyle Bornais, president and co-founder of Farpoint Films, an award-winning film, television and digital media production company based in Winnipeg.

He said it's a far cry from what he thought back in March when everything came to a halt after the COVID-19 pandemic shut the film industry down.

"We had to shut down three projects, we had crews in New York at the time who all had to fly back last minute," he said. "I didn't know whether we were going to hit any of our deadlines this year."

That's not the case anymore.

Bornais said he's been busy with at least eight projects on the go in Winnipeg, including a six-part series for Bounce (a channel in the U.S.), two feature documentaries and a new 14- part series that begins shooting in August.

"It's back to normal, but a new normal," he said. 

No more love scenes?

Production is being done with new COVID-19 protocols in place like physical distancing on sets, personal protective equipment for crew and extra cleaning staff.

"Safety is paramount," Bornais said. "It's the first time on a call sheet that I've seen a COVID-19 monitor [person] so we're hiring people specifically to monitor the crew and make sure everyone is safe."

Bornais said scripts are also being rewritten to make sure the cast is kept safe too.

"We had to go through scripts and take out anything that's risky behaviour, so love scenes and stuff like that we were writing out of the scripts, and if we wanted a place with a ton of people, we were writing that out of the scripts because it's just not safe to do it," he said.

Feeding the crew is also changing, with individually pre-wrapped meals.

"It's going to change how we budget shows for sure," Bornais said. "We went through three times as many masks as I thought we were going to need in the last nine days."

Lucky to work

He hopes to recoup the tens of thousands of dollars in revenues he has lost over the last few months when production was halted in early March.

However Bornais said he feels lucky to be able to work, while other film producers across Canada and the U.S. are struggling.

"They're very jealous!" he said. "They want to work with us because we can get content made."

"I just spoke with a producer in Los Angeles and his words were that he's resigned himself to the fact that he's not even gonna get to eat in a restaurant until 2021, so I'm very thankful that we work in Manitoba." 

"Our industry is doing well in terms of our resurgence now, of course our low positive COVID-19 cases in Manitoba has certainly been a huge factor in that," said Manitoba Film and Music CEO and Film Commissioner Rachel Rusen.

"I'm very proud of Manitoba for doing their part in dealing with this pandemic," Rusen said.

She says the film industry took a financial hit when the pandemic began in March. She said live-action production was stopped in its tracks, leaving many out of work.

But she now believes the summer looks promising, and calls the film industry resilient.

"There are certain roles that will continue in a pandemic, writers can still write, we found animation to be the most resilient of genres in terms of being able to work from home," she said.

Rusen said the current low COVID-19 cases in Manitoba make the province more appealing to producers in other jurisdictions looking to make movies. 

"Certainly our incentives and tax credits are highly competitive," she said. 

"We're very pleased to see that people are very interested in Manitoba, they always have been but even more so now."