For St. John’s, good things come in threes
Newfoundland and Labrador’s screen industry is a little busy at the moment, with three series calling St. John’s home.
“This might be our best year yet,” says Laura Churchill, Chief Executive Officer of PictureNL, Newfoundland and Labrador’s film commission. “Our production season is full-on and filled up.” That season starts in May and runs until October, but there’s some leeway. “We don’t get really wintery until December,” she adds.
The province supports local screen industries through six different programs, two of which are tax credits. One is a standard provincial labour tax credit for local producers. The other is the All Spend which covers 40 percent of eligible production costs to a maximum of $10-million per year, available to outside producers as well. This incentive in particular is generating more interest in shooting on location, Churchill says, with producers even considering winter filming.
There was a time when Newfoundland and Labrador didn’t even have a regular production season. While low-budget independent shorts and features have been a cultural mainstay, the local industry earned its bread and butter from the bigger-budget projects that came and went.
“Republic of Doyle was really kind of the jumping-off point,” Churchill says. The successful CBC procedural produced by Take the Shot Productions premiered in 2010. During its five-season run it turned the province’s capital city into a colourful televisual playground. Early on the show relied heavily on outside labour. By the end it had cultivated a strong local crew. St. John’s had matured into a solid one-series town.
Saint-Pierre Makes Three
Today, St. John’s — where most production continues to take place, for now — hosts not one but three successful Canadian series: Hudson & Rex, Son of a Critch and Saint-Pierre.
Hudson & Rex (Pope Productions/Shaftesbury) is a Citytv police procedural from showrunner Ken Cuperus based on a popular European format about a police detective and his canine partner. They’re working on season eight.
Son of a Critch (Take the Shot/Hawco Productions/ Project 10/Gary Breakfast Corporation) is CBC’s half-hour adaptation of comedian Mark Critch’s coming-of-age memoir of the same name. It was just renewed for a fifth season.
Saint-Pierre (Hawco Productions) premiered this year and has already been renewed after becoming CBC’s most-watched new series. Another police procedural, it is set and partially filmed in the titular French territory off the coast of Newfoundland.
Incidentally, Allan Hawco got the idea for Saint-Pierre while scouting locations for an episode of Son of a Critch. Janine Squires of Hawco Productions recalls their fateful visit to Saint-Pierre. “We were sitting on a little cobblestone street outside of the bar having a beer at the end of our day and Allan was like, ‘Nobody has filmed something that's uniquely about this place.’”
This trio of shows forms the keystone of the province’s local screen ecosystem, but the industry continues to diversify. Netflix just announced a new limited series from creator Jesse McKeown, starring Josh Hartnett, which will be set and filmed in Newfoundland.
Here, boom-and-bust cycles feel as natural as the tides. But the local screen industry aspires to survive regardless of the tidal range, focusing instead on sustainable growth.
There’s lots of work to be had
“TV has kept me really busy,” says filmmaker Deanne Foley, who has guest-directed episodes of both Hudson & Rex and Son of a Critch. Though she continues to work on her own feature films, branching out into television allows her to earn a living and develop her craft while raising her family in her home province.
She’s hoping this current upturn in production opens doors for emerging, above-the-line talent.
It’s certainly creating opportunities for positions below the line.
“We’re scrambling for crew,” says Lisa Porter, quick to add, “and that’s not a bad thing.” Porter is president of Pope Productions and executive producer for Hudson & Rex.
When production started on Rex in 2018 they had a pretty strong Newfoundland crew. Now, with so many productions going on, she says they’re spread a little thin. “It's giving us that moment of, okay, what's next? What else can we do? How can we support this?”
“I know it's a ‘rah, rah’ kind of thing to say, but we have good people,” she insists.
She credits her late husband Paul Pope for getting everyone ready. The champion of the local industry who died in 2022, was a prolific producer and mentor to many.
“He really set the bar high in terms of having a crew that's fast and efficient and open, able to pivot, and fun and kind and respectful,” Porter adds.
The province also has strong unions, she says. Not just ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), but also IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) and the DGC (Directors Guild of Canada). “We have real cooperation between labour and producers in the drive to grow the industry,” says Porter.
‘We’ve been plugging away at this for a long time’
Any industry that grows is bound to have growing pains, especially if it grows fast. “The good thing about our industry is that we've been plugging away at this for a long time,” Porter says, referencing the province’s rich history of independent, low-budget filmmaking.
The Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Co-operative (NIFCO), founded in 1975, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. It’s an important reminder that the commercial industry rests on a sturdy foundation.
“Ultimately, it's a good thing to have lots of work,” Porter insists. “We probably had more diversity in our crew [this year] than we've ever had before. And more younger people than we’ve had in a while. It’s really exciting.”
While competition might be more common in larger centres, here in Newfoundland and Labrador it’s cooperation and reciprocity that matter most.
Case in point, Saint-Pierre took a two-month hiatus from shooting last year so some of the crew could return to work on Son of a Critch.
Nurturing a new workforce
“Over the last number of years, we've been working really hard to grow our crew, to get them into the unions, to get them enough hours, whether that's on movies of the week or smaller productions, so that when it came time for all of these three productions to exist together we almost have enough people to support them,” says Squires.
Productions hire from other parts of the country when appropriate but are trying to bring new people into the local industry. Squires says the film school has helped with that, referring to the Paul L. Pope Centre for TV & Film which was established at the College of the North Atlantic in 2024, dedicated to Porter’s late husband.
Students graduating from the centre are getting work on smaller, non-union projects, like those produced by Bell Fibe or the Picture Start program. “We have the lower-budget Hallmarks and the Lifetimes as well,” Porter adds. “Having those are incredible for the feeder system.”
‘A film-friendly environment’
“It's such a film-friendly environment here,” Churchill says. “The cultural industries are well-supported by governments, regardless of what way those governments lean.”
While there is a lot of investment in the sector, “the ecosystem around us has to grow to support the industry too,” says Squires.
“Things as simple as renting cars for the crew becomes a really big challenge when you have so many productions going at once, or trailers for our cast, or trucks to support the set.” Given the limitations, “you end up bringing in more from outside temporarily, until the local ecosystem grows to support it.”
Getting flights in and out can also be tricky as can booking accommodations for visiting cast members. Hawco Productions uses local service providers as much as possible.
A shot in the arm for local businesses
Ted Perrin, the owner and operator of Perrin’s Marine Services Ltd., was delighted to offer his skills and services to meet the screen industry’s emerging needs. Initially, he was hired to consult and provide a safety vessel and crew for an episode of Hudson & Rex. After a visit to his home in Conception Bay South near St. John’s, the production team decided they wanted to use his property as a key shooting location.
Perrin obliged. He also took the team around on his boat, using his local knowledge to provide them with more options. They found the perfect location, adapted the script to accommodate it, and the episode evolved into something that exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Perrin is proud of the result. The whole experience was personally and professionally gratifying. Financially too.
“It was a great shot in the arm for the expansion of my business and the acquisition of new equipment,” he says. It’s almost inevitable that productions in the province will shoot something close to or on the water.
As he sees it, it’s a good investment for the future. “If they call me this year, I can offer more services.”
