ATTHEW O'CON-
NOR remembers

% W 6 the formative years
of Pacific Mation Pictures
Corp. (PMP), when it was
known fondly as ‘‘The
Hamilton Ciub.”

We set out blindly and
blithely,” laughs O'Connor, PMP
president and founder, “We used
to joke about our old office on

° Hamilton Street because it didn’t
have a fot of focus. We made up a
lot of stuff along the way.”

_. Sitting at the boardroom table of
PMP’s newer Dunlevy Street digs,
O'Connor projects a new attitude
about the growth of his TV and
film production company.

In the five years since he and

_ partner Tom Rowe founded PMP,
they’ve created dozens of projects
(Ernest Rides Again, To Grand-
mother’s House We Go for ABC
and Green/Epstein Canada Inc.;
Mortal Sins for Blake Edwards TV
and USA,’ The Heights for Spelling
TV and the Fox Network.

As weil, PMP is currently in pro-

‘ duction with The Jim and Jennifer
Stolpa Story and about to cmbark
on a new Katharine tlepbum
movie, This Can’t be Love), and

_ employed hundreds of local film
crews and actors, making it one of,
if not the busiest entertainment
company west of Toronto.

After a rocky start, PRP, O'Con-
nor reports, is now.on sound fi-
nancial footing — no small feat for
a private company that started out
with, in O'Connor's words, a huge
deficit during a dismal economic
climate. : oe

O'Connor, the deal-maker of the
two, and Rowe, the creative one,
credit hard werk and team effort
for theis success. |:

"s"We really subscribe to the

’ philosophy of surrounding
ourselves with the best people,”’
says O’Conner.

“Matthew and | work really
well together,’’ says Rawe. “Our
strengths and weaknesses are
complementary. {t's hard to find a
‘good partner so it's worthwhile to
make it work.”

O'Conner, who fives in West
Vancouver, comes from a well-
connected arts family: his father
was a CBC gaffer for 30 years and
his mother was on the board of
the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre.

CORRECTION
NOTICE

Super Valu 2 page
advertisement which
appeared in the North
Shore News Sun Oct. 3
showed young turkey
Canada grade “A” as .98
ib. — this should have
read 1.18 Ib.

We apologize for any
inconvenience this may
have caused.

eS P

itch for

n creative boardrooms, say N. Shore production team

fie

daveloping more of thelr own projects.

Rowe, whe lives in North Van-
couver with CBC radio host Vicki
Gabereau, got involved in the
business in 1979 as an office assis-
tant for the brutally named All
Washed Up. .

The pair met on the Directors
Guild of Canada and teamed up
together for the first time an Can-
nell Films’ The New Adventures of
Beans Baxter.

After working as directors, pro-
duction and location managers for
other people, they decided te go
into business for themselves.

Says O'Connor: “We said,

‘Hey, wouldn't it be great if we
formed our own company and did
for ourselves what we did for
everyone else?’ ”’

Up to now, PMP has worked
largely with U.S. and Canadian
companies, offering them an array
of services, including pre-
negotiated contracts with local
film unions, a warehouse to work
in and locations. ‘

The duo say they feel the
strongest allegiance to L.A. partly
because the Canadiar television
and film business is centralized in
Taronto and operates pretty much
as a closed shop.

“Our philosophy has always
been that we need to succeed on
the international marketplace,”
says O'Connor.

‘(he Canadian business exists
because the government supports
it, and as governments get mare in
debt, cultural programs are the
first place they look to cut.”

Both feel strongly — particularly
Rowe -- that government has fittle
place in the creator's boardroom.

“B.C. Film and Telefilm-financ-
ed productions meant to be in the
mainstream definitely don’t work.
Look at all the failures they've
had,” says O'Connor.

“Not maay Canadian produc-
tions have been embraced by the
public, so they're failing in a cul-
tural sense as well.

“Of course there are some ex-
ceptions — Atom Egoyan’s The
Adjuster did well, but the amount
of money it spends to support
some work is mind-boggling.

“Two hundred thousand
doilars per hour of taxpayers’
money is going into every hour of
(the TV series) North of 60. And
when you look at the return they
get, it's minuscule.”

Many, however, would argue

& Employers or potential employers can get
free advice and information when an
Employers’ Adviser visits Vancouver on
October 19. ©

A seminar will be conducted at the Park
Royal Hotel, 540 Clyde Avenue, West

Vancouver, B.C.

To register to attend this one-day seminar,
please contact Linda Whittle at 660-7253.
{collect calis are accepted).

7 8
HEWE photo Pau! McGrath

“TOM ROWE (left) and Matthew O'Connor of Pacific Motion Pictures Corp. aro well on their way to

with O'Connor's bottom line of .
creative productions. -

Where government does have a
place is in helping promote the
local industry. ‘ :

Rowe, who favors some sort of
tax credit for investment on pro-
ductions, is disappointed funding
was cut to the B.C. Film Commis-
sion.

ty

“| was very discouraged
because the film commission were
doing a very good job of atiracting
investment into the province,‘' he
says.

While PMP is beginning to
tackle more of its own projects,
O'Connor admits it will probabl
always need partners because o:
the financial risk and other hard-

_ Ships involved in producing in-

dependently.

The pair's ultimate goal, howev-
er, is ta be able to finance, pro-
duce and distribute their own
films.

“We're very clase. Right now
we partially finance films and heip
seek distribution agreements,”’

PMP is currently negotiating two
multi-picture deals and is becom-
ing more involved in music :
specials and TV series, he adds.

While O'Connor and Rowe have
many admirers, some in the in-
dustry charge the two aren't really
producers but “hired guns”
managing for the real producers.

Says O'Connor: ‘Sure, it’s true
with some of our projects.

“There are people who don't
consider what we're doing as real
indigenous producing and yet all
over the world people are -
respected for doing what we're *
doing. Peonle like to sling mud-
‘bails at other people,’ he shrugs.
“it doesn't keep me up at night.”

Promoting their own ideas to the
companies they've worked with is
something else they hope to do

‘more of. It’s one area Canadians

have never really excelled at, he
says.

“It never ceases to amaze me
how as Canadians we tend to
diminish our role as contributors.

a

Does it sometimes feel like you're sitting on the
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Here's your chance to help shape
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Leading up to the October 25th vote, we wiil be
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opportunity to tell local politicians what you think
about the way the country is being governed!

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