In collaboration with Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN), CMF Trends has set out to meet inspiring women as part of a series of articles on female entrepreneurship in the screen-based industries. This sixth profile introduces Sophie Ferron, the trailblazer behind Canadian television format distribution company Media Ranch.

> Read more profiles of women entrepreneurs in the screen-based industry

When you grow up where production, media, and politics meet, there’s a good chance you’ll come away with a good understanding of business and the value of hard work. Sophie Ferron started putting this understanding to work at an early age. From her father, a serial entrepreneur with a thousand skills, including production, she learned the importance of the product, and the key to focusing on customers, sales, and profits. She gets her dogged determination from her mother, a former Member of Parliament and senator.

Ferron’s entrepreneurial drive was first put to good use in the corporate world. “I quickly realized that I needed a certain degree of freedom and managerial authority to achieve results. When I didn’t have them, I wasn’t a happy camper,” she said. She honed her management skills at Astral Media and then at Technicolor, where she was vice-president of distribution. She finally ended up as chief operating officer at the TQS television network.

Lessons learned make for best business practices

Sophie Ferron found herself at a crossroads in 2008. She lost her job at TQS when the network changed ownership and her marriage broke up ― two events that led her to re-examine her values and think on what she really wanted to do with her life. The exercise yielded positive results. She decided she wanted to create content as part of a collaborative business enterprise. From a consulting contract with Endémol, a Netherlands-based leader in the international television format market, Media Ranch was born. “It’s not just a business,” she says. “It’s a medium of expression, and literally an extension of myself.”

The Media Ranch business model is as ambitious as it is unique: To be the first Canadian company to produce and distribute formats around the world while developing high-potential Canadian formats at home. And this is where Ferron’s values come in since you often have to collaborate with other producers who can also be your competitors. “When I like a show, I always say so. You have to admit that someone else had the idea you wish you’d thought of first. Someone else’s success does not take anything away from mine. Quite the contrary. We should always be happy whenever Quebec and Canada win,” she said.

Better access to financing would mean greater success

Twelve years later, you can’t argue with the company’s success. The vast majority of its activity comes through international partnerships with organizations such as DR, Denmark’s public television, U.S.-based ICM Partners, or Italy’s Pandora Format. Its formats, like the ‘Watch’ TV game show, are sold in dozens of countries. At MIPCOM 2019, Sophie Ferron arranged a new lease on life for ‘Surprise sur prise,’ which made a big comeback on France Télévisions in spring 2020. In spite of this, she does admit that Media Ranch could do more with better access to financing.

“Assets based on intellectual property don’t fit all that well into traditional banking models when it comes to financing. To explain our financing needs, I often use software as an example. It requires a lot of research and development, and for that you need capital. It’s still very difficult to convince bankers that your product is sustainable, that it can be very profitable, and help in capitalizing your company,” she said.

To make matters worse, at a time when the federal and provincial governments are going all out in their attempts to increase our cultural exports, acknowledging our tremendous creative resources, Ferron bemoans that TV formats are not included in the discussions, and, as a consequence, not included in the funding. “These have been our most successful TV exports to date,” she says. “Plus, game shows. And because production depends on public funding and not on the market, games and everything else that is non-fiction [unscripted] can’t be financed either in development or in production. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like opening a clothing store and refusing to sell the little black cocktail dress that everybody wants!”

Finding inspiration in other industries to blaze new trails

Sophie uses the technology analogy not only to convince banks. She practices what she preaches on the job at Media Ranch, too.

In 2018, she founded L’Écurie in partnership with Québecor. The incubator’s mission is to provide expert mentoring and coaching in format creative and development to groups of six to eight creators. “After just two years, we already have four completed format projects making the rounds on the international market,” she said. Although Media Ranch currently distributes only foreign TV formats, its goal is clear: to have a catalogue of predominantly Canadian formats within five years.

Sophie Ferron’s long-term goal is, above all, to remain authentic and true to her values in everything she does. As her career progressed, she was always able to claim her place, even in places she never expected.

She remembers early on selling in the U.S. market, often in Los Angeles, where she had to put up with some pretty condescending treatment not just because she was a woman, but a French-Canadian one as well. “I really worked hard to make my mark and I’m happy to see the many changes for the better that have taken place over the last few years for giving women their due, and not just in business but in society, too” she says.

For Sophie Perron, the best way to make your way in the world is to be yourself, to love what you do, to be generous and kind, and to never go against your values. Advice she often repeats to her two daughters and to all future women entrepreneurs she meets.

Note: The pictures included in this article were taken before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The post For Media Ranch CEO Sophie Ferron, Entrepreneurship is a Means of Expression appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

In collaboration with Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN), CMF Trends meets inspiring women as part of a content series focused on female entrepreneurship in the screen-based industries. For this fifth article of the series, our guest is Ava Karvonen, the storyteller and cross-platform producer who believes in the importance of giving women a voice.

> Read more profiles of women entrepreneurs in the screen-based industry

Ava Karvonen’s start in the film and television industry was a family affair. Her father became a full-time filmmaker when she was a pre-teen and he initially produced eco-films and radio plays. And, as Karvonen says, he was always asking for help from his five children.

She remembers that family vacations in the Rocky Mountains were often impromptu film sets. “My father, when we went camping or went to the mountains, always had his film gear with him,” she says. “He’d be like ‘Hey kids, can you flush that bear out of the bush’ and that is how we grew up.”

Karvonen and her four other siblings were often called upon to help their father with his film work. In particular, Karvonen took a liking to the screen-based industry. From grades 7 to 9, Karvonen would voice radio plays for her father.

“As kids, we had a big family, we all pitched in and we were always expected to help,” she says. She recalls spending time as a family watching her father’s films show at the outdoor park amphitheatres.

Initially, those summers in the mountains led Karvonen to want to become a park interpreter. But she could never stray far away from a film set. While studying, she would often help her dad with editing, location sound and production.

On being ‘adaptable’

With little to no jobs available as a park interpreter upon graduation, Karvonen continued in the film industry, saying yes to any available job behind the scenes.

“I was always adaptable,” she says. “I did [assistant director] work, cast extras and somehow got into craft service. I’m a mom, I’m a good cook and I like looking after people so craft services was where I was stuck for a while.”

She worked in craft services for several years, while still working alongside her father on his films. She would later take on a job working as a publicist with Great North Productions, once Canada’s largest documentary makers. But she craved something more. In the 1980s and after several years working on Canadian screen projects, Karvonen decided it was time to break free and start her own company.

She created her company, Reel Girls Media.

Thanks to her roles with other production companies, Karvonen was already able to obtain funding for projects. Yet, she says the biggest hurdle when starting out was getting funding as an Alberta-based storyteller.

“The ongoing challenge is it’s a few thousand bucks if you want to go meet the people in Toronto. I ran into obstacles because people refer to Toronto as ‘the centre of excellence’ and how we should be developing filmmakers who are in these centres of excellence. If you’re in the regions, you’re snubbed a bit,” she says. “To be validated, you’re supposed to work with these producers in Toronto but yet, we’re producing perfectly good content out here in the west.”

She also says it was not easy as a woman to obtain funding and that it can still be challenging today.

Karvonen suggests that women filmmakers establish connections with those in the film and television industry by volunteering or attending industry events. But, most importantly, she encourages young women filmmakers to persevere. “More women need opportunities in this industry,” she says. It was through her connections that she landed one of Reel Girls Media’s first opportunities: a special series with CBC’s The Nature of Things.

Since then, Reel Girls Media has tackled a range of projects from documentaries to factual-based productions. Karvonen has created documentaries to children’s programming to directing television shows like APTN’s television series Chaos and Courage.

Many of her projects rely on a storytelling narrative that focuses on people. One of her projects, a 10-part series on rites of passage called The First Kiss and other Rites of Passage, relies on shared life experiences to connect viewers to the subjects.

Another one of her projects, Finding Bobbi, is a documentary about an actor who “spent 50 years in the wrong body” and “returns to the stage, as a woman,” according to the promotional poster.

The Alberta-based storyteller describes most of her projects as those with strong personal journeys. “A project really has to resonate with me,” she says. “People’s personal journeys really resonate with me because it helps us understand the world we live in.”

She doesn’t work alone and has a small team. Her company also expands for projects by hiring crews when needed to keep overhead low. “My business model is I’m a nimble company. I try to keep my overhead low. I do maintain an office and a team, but I work with an exceptional team of contractors,” she says.

Reel Girls Media has been around for more than 20 years. Karvonen has won more than 40 awards for her work and has had more than 65 worldwide screenings in 12 countries.

Being a woman on set

Reel Girls Media’s founder says it wasn’t always easy to work in the film and television industry as a woman. She was sometimes the only woman on the set.

But a lot has changed since Karvonen started in the industry. She says that women have made great strides in the industry. More and more women are being recognized for their work behind the camera. The Toronto International Film Festival announced that 36 percent of the festival’s films this year are directed, co-directed or created by women. And with more women earning accolades in the industry, it’s time they were reimbursed as much as their male cohorts, Karnoven says. The documentary maker is a firm believer in equal pay.

“As a woman, I have also been on the union side, seen contracts and men are negotiating much better rates than women,” she says. She works hard to ensure women are being paid the same rates as men on her film sets. “I think we have this bias when it comes to paying people […] and we have to be conscious of that. I think people should be paid equally.”

She says that, overall, women just need more opportunities to fill in on roles on set.

Mentoring the next generation

When she is not on a set, she has mentored students through her work as an instructor at post-secondary schools in Alberta and internationally for almost a decade. She also volunteers her time, most recently as the president of the Women in Film and Television Alberta (WIFTA), the non-profit that provides assistance to women in the media and screen industries.

Through her company, she has hired women to help give them essential experience and teach them the skills of running a business. It’s something she wished she got as a young professional. “Mentoring and knowledge-sharing is important. I wish someone had told me about planning for the future 20 years ago,” she says.

The storyteller wants to help women succeed in the industry by providing insight and expertise on and off the set to women and other filmmakers.“For me, industry-wise, mentorship is one of the most important things.”

Photos by Ian Kucerak

The post Ava Karvonen: Mentoring the Next Generation of Film and Television Producer appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

In collaboration with Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN), CMF Trends has set out to meet inspiring women as part of a series of articles on female entrepreneurship in the screen-based industries. For this fourth chapter, we met with Phyllis Laing who, for the past 25 years, has been heading one of the most prolific production companies in Manitoba, with more than 110 film and TV projects to date.

> Read more profiles of women entrepreneurs in the screen-based industry

Art meets business

Phyllis Laing’s first steps into the world of film and TV is a prefect demonstration of the old saying, “Cinema is an art form, but it is also an industry”. After studying arts and literature, she decided to put aside her ambitions to become a writer, feeling she “wanted more of a profession”. So she went and got a diploma in… accounting. In the mid-80s, she founded an accounting firm with her spouse, at a time when the film industry in Manitoba was still in its infancy. Therefore, in terms of film production accounting, everything basically had to be built from scratch. It wasn’t long before the arts and entertainment sector became their area of expertise. Then, in November 1994, having dealt with many productions companies over the years, Phyllis decided to join the club and launch her own company.

“For me, it was the perfect marriage between the creative side and the business side, and I’m very happy that I did both, she says. The fact that I had studied in accounting allowed me to get very familiar with this industry.”

It's all in the name

Going into business in an industry that was still in its early stages – as a woman, no less – required quite a bit of determination. The name Buffalo Gal became a natural fit for the new company, as it symbolizes a sort of feminine version of the western conquest of old, while highlighting an animal that is emblematic of the province.

Still, Phyllis Laing couldn’t avoid the challenges and prejudices that came with being a woman entrepreneur. She points out that you never hear of men being interviewed about their life as a “male entrepreneur” – it’s taken for granted. Like many other women, she felt she had to do more and always had to succeed in order to be treated equally. Still, she acknowledges that her job was made easier thanks to her “just be you” attitude and her soft skills.

“I’m still looking for mentors. It is not a question of age. It’s a question of raising the bar in terms of personal challenges. You need to challenge yourself in your business."

Fostering the entrepreneur in you

Nowadays, entrepreneurship – male or female – is both common and trendy in the business world. Perhaps that’s why we tend to forget that, back in the 80s, women already had an interest in starting their own business, even in the cultural community. Phyllis benefitted from the support of the Women’s Enterprise Centre, which offered mentoring programs to help people develop a business plan and start their own company. That said, she believes that mentoring shouldn’t be limited to startups. “I’m still looking for mentors, she says. It is not a question of age. It’s a question of raising the bar in terms of personal challenges. You need to challenge yourself in your business. You can’t manage your company today the way you did 25 years ago.”

The key to success, however, remains to clearly define the type of business you want to run and the services you want to provide, while constantly questioning yourself in order to stick to your vision and remain true to yourself. In fact, that’s the sort of advice she’d be likely to give to young entrepreneurs (she has been on the Board of Directors of Winnipeg’s World Trade Centre for many years). She admits to being quite inspired by today’s generation of entrepreneurs. For them, she believes, work mustn’t just be about making a living. It must be about personal achievement.

Going in a different direction

When preparing her business plan as she set out to launch Buffalo Gal, Phyllis Laing went for more of a niche, boutique sort of outfit that would be creatively driven and based on writers and directors. At a time when most production companies in Manitoba had their mind and wallet turned toward Los Angeles, doing service production work for Hollywood studios, she focused on offering something different. “Service production is a low-hanging fruit you use to pay your overhead when the dollar is low, she says. There were certainly times when we went a little too far off our own path, and we had to realign to develop our own independent projects.”

Phyllis admits that one of her greatest regrets in her career is having chosen to trust other people’s opinions rather than her own judgment.

Yet, throughout her career path, one thing has never changed: every project at Buffalo Gal is people-driven. Whether these are international co-productions like Aloft or Stone Angels, or such national fare as the award-winning TV series Less Than Kind or the feature film The Forbidden Room, directed by Manitoban Guy Maddin, everything is based on how the various partners complement one another, on mutual respect and on a common willingness to work together. That’s the foundation on which the company was built over the past two decades: solid, long-lasting business relationships and, above all, a determination to find partners that truly care about quality content and creativity.

Like many other producers, Phyllis Laing acknowledges that new digital platforms have completely redefined the way the industry develops and finances its projects. There seems to be a never ending need for content. Now more than ever, producers have to seek potential partners, find ways to adapt to rapidly evolving technologies and identify new financing models, especially with documentary films. “Performance documentaries are tough, Phyllis admits. You are constantly changing the creative elements to fit the financing, whereas it should be the opposite.”

She believes that the numerous changes the industry has witnessed over the past decade will lead to even more transformations, whether it’s in terms of broadcasting, working methods or technological advances. One thing remains clear, however: people will always crave great content and excellent stories, regardless of the art form.

Phyllis Laing likes to quote, not without a certain optimism, Franco-Manitoban author Gabrielle Roy, whose words were printed on Canadian 20-dollar bills in the early 2000s:

“Could we ever know each other in the slightest, without the arts?”

The producer has no doubt that people will always enjoy being told stories that they can relate to. That is never going to change. “The rest is stuff, just stuff,” she concludes.

Photos by Kristen Sawatzky

The post Buffalo Gal Pictures: Conquering Great Stories for 25 Years appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

In collaboration with Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN), CMF Trends meets inspiring women as part of a series dealing with female entrepreneurship in the screen-based industries. For this third chapter, CMF Trends met with three women who share the duties of CEO within Tobo Studio, a company that creates digital games and multiplatform interactive experiences for children of all ages. This unique management model was developed by Judith Beauregard, Kathleen Farrell and Florence Roche.

> Read more profiles of women entrepreneurs in the screen-based industry

The passion for youth content

When you enter the premises of Tobo Studio, you hit a wall... of awards and rewards. We counted 30 of them and it would seem that they have not all been installed on the wall. For a company that has been in existence for only seven years, it’s quite a feat. It must be said that, since its inception, Tobo Studio has developed one hundred or so projects for children and their families, i.e., the company’s target audiences. This orientation is at the core of the alliance of the three ‘co-CEOs’ and most certainly explains their success.

Indeed, all three began their respective careers in the technological and digital fields and it became obvious to them once they had become mothers that they wanted to focus on youth audiences. Moreover, they qualify themselves as ‘digitally motherly.’ Judith Beauregard states the following: “Youth production is what makes sense to us and it’s important to work on things that have meaning.” Kathleen Farrell adds this: “And that enables us to work with smart and beautiful things.” “Not to mention the pleasure of working in a rather healthy sector with people who have good values,” concludes Florence Roche.

It is therefore this search for meaning and values that gave them the necessary momentum to enable the youth division to become autonomous within the ODD1 video game studio. It’s an entrepreneurial adventure that they develop together, as a three-member team.

More effective management through division

Although Kathleen Farrell and Florence Roche both hold MBAs and Judith Beauregard had more or less added entrepreneurship to her bucket list, founding their own company was not a career plan. However, when ODD1 sought to sell off its youth division, all three women saw the development potential of the projects on which they were working and repatriated these projects within Toboggan (the initial name given to Tobo Studio).

“We would certainly not have started up this project individually, but the fact that we were three gave us the momentum we needed and changed everything,” explains Florence Roche. “Our three personalities are similar enough, yet different enough to ensure that everything works,” immediately adds Judith Beauregard.

However, they insist on pointing out the essential role played by their former employers at Tribal Nova. Indeed, they accompanied the women while they founded the company, provided them with financial support and gave them strategic advice to help them manage the legal and administrative aspects of setting up the structure.

“We would certainly not have started up this project individually, but the fact that we were three gave us the momentum we needed and changed everything”

The management mode stems from the role of ‘chief executive officer,’ which was naturally defined on the basis of experience and individual strengths. Florence Roche and Judith Beauregard are the executive producers and they focus on external issues. They take care of project development and financing and handle canvassing and business development in Canada and abroad. For her part, Kathleen Farrell focuses on internal issues and has the studio, its production activities and its human resources benefit from her process optimization and team management skills. “A lot of entrepreneurs do not understand how we manage to work as a team of three. For me, it’s the opposite. I would not be able to operate otherwise. I even feel like telling them ‘But how do you manage alone?’”, she adds. She does not hesitate to conclude by stating that this management mode is one of the things that makes Tobo Studio so unique.

Having visited the studio tends to confirm it. Our management mode is benevolent and influences our corporate culture. Balancing work and family is easy: flexible working hours, possibility of working from home, part-time work, everything is in place for employees to feel respected. However, beyond these accommodations, employee accountability and a real aversion for micromanagement stand out. “We were greatly inspired by the design thinking method when we started up,” explains Florence Roche. “This iterative way of working gets everyone involved and accountable at different stages.” As a result, the turnover rate is rather low in an industry where wage competition is a stark reality.

“A lot of entrepreneurs do not understand how we manage to work as a team of three. For me, it’s the opposite”

What is really obvious is the authentic passion for the projects in which Tobo is actively involved. The studio’s thirty or so employees work on anywhere between 15 and 20 projects simultaneously. “Content that inspires us, whether we produce it for others or our own projects that we are beginning to develop,” explains Florence Roche.

Thinking big while remaining humble

Indeed, if Tobo’s main activity remains producing services, the company is active on two other fronts: advisory services and original projects. Created in 2015, the Tobo Lab provides interested companies with personalized coaching on trends, uses and tools and, especially, community and social media management coaching when it comes to digital youth productions. “Today, discoverability plans have become an important production component. We’ve known that for a long time,” explains Kathleen Farrell.

“Because there exists an intense competition, and it is global, when it comes to producing children’s games. We know how to develop solid strategies to set ourselves apart and it’s a form of expertise that we have decided to monetize,” explains Judith Beauregard. This work is also the fruit of an ongoing monitoring exercise, at both content and technology levels, that both executive producers handle and the results of which can be tracked on an ongoing basis on the ‘Tobo Blog.’

This monitoring, combined to an active participation in numerous international markets, also enables them to anticipate issues that others do not see coming. That is how Smala, one of the original projects developed by Tobo, saw the light of day. It’s an app that can be used to connect in a playful manner the members of a same family, all generations confounded, in a safe context that respects privacy rights—contrary to most of the social platforms out there.

Tobo does not necessarily want future growth at all costs, but it does give importance to diversification, whether in terms of content—the partnerships with the Maison Théâtre app or the Philarmonie de Paris come to mind—or with respect to geography (40% of all sales are currently made internationally). “We are working on a three-year horizon and are fully aware that the third year will be volatile. It’s to be expected in the digital universe where everything changes very quickly,” points out Kathleen Farrell.

In any case, this horizon will always be focused on the quality of these projects “that make sense” and that have Judith, Kathleen and Florence admittedly going to bed each night with the impression of having accomplished what they had set out to accomplish.

Photos by Sandra Larochelle

The post Tobo Studio and the Women Management Model appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

In collaboration with Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN), CMF Trends meets inspiring women as part of a content series focused on female entrepreneurship in the screen-based industries. Our guest in Part Two of this series is Josette Normandeau, the energetic businesswoman at the head of Idéacom International, a production company whose documentaries and multi-platform projects have picked up dozens of awards.

> Read more profiles of women entrepreneurs in the screen-based industry

Josette Normandeau was born into a family of artists – her parents were professional musicians – and grew up in an environment where self-realization was seen as the foundation of all education. It was certainly a solid foundation for a woman who defines herself as “a hyperactive person who likes to make things happen.” And so, she did – right from the start of her career, when, as a receptionist at CKCV Radio in Quebec City, Josette applied for a position as a journalist in the newsroom – and became the first woman in the station ever hired for such a job. But when offered a lower salary than her male counterparts earned, because “she was a girl,” she simply answered that being “a girl” didn’t get her a discount at any store she shopped in. Which put an end to any further arguments over pay equity then and there.

An eight-year stint in Boston brought her into the business world at New England Audio, designers of advanced residential audiovisual systems, where she would head the company’s multimedia division. There she discovered the potential of technology, an abiding interest that would lead her to transform the Montreal communications agency Idéacom. She took over as president in 2000, five years after joining the company as head of international development.

A born instinct for international success

With her fascination for cultural differences and the stimulation they provide, Josette Normandeau was determined to position Idéacom on the global market. Her first approach was through distribution, while the company’s constant presence in all markets helped build a solid network and established its credibility. So, it was only natural that international co-productions become the business model for 95% of all Idéacom projects.

“In the global documentary market, Quebec enjoys a unique position. We’re bilingual, we’re equally at home in Europe and in North America, and foreign broadcasters appreciate our ability to tap into subtle aspects of both English- and French-language cultures.”

Besides her co-producers, Josette attaches an equal importance to cultivating business relationships with broadcasters – the BBC, Channel 4, France Television, and National Geographic, to name just a few. This has come to matter especially in the past decade, when financing documentaries has become more complex, with several broadcasters often working on the same project. Delivering content that fits everybody’s editorial approach without neutralizing quality is a serious challenge that can best be overcome when relationships are of long standing.

“There’s a lot of talk these days about exports. But exporting in our industry isn’t about shipping a container now and then. It’s about having a real export strategy. The Idéacom strategy is based on partnerships and especially on being able to identify the right partners. And the way to do this is to focus upstream, instead of on the finished product.”

Josette also prefers the language of international development rather than export, though she admits that this distinction has yet to be understood in the cultural sector. Working on this front calls for persistence, a lively interest in diplomacy, and an exceptional ability for understanding the other party’s context. This matters all the more in producing high-end projects for cross-platform deployment when multiple stakeholders are necessarily involved.

Her own brand of innovation and vision

An interest in multi-platform approaches presented itself early on in Josette Normandeau’s career. In her very first production with Idéacom, a series on international affairs, she persuaded them to add a 20,000-page bilingual website on the subject, designed as a reference source for all MBA students in the country. As a result, Idéacom entered the 21st century well ahead of everyone else and has made the convergence known as web TV its preferred model.

Josette firmly believes that this ability to anticipate trends is related to her own mastery of martial arts. She has a black belt in karate and in Aikido – a fact she isn’t at all shy to mention when people ask what sort of business leader she is.

“Practicing martial arts teaches you to always think ahead. You need a Plan A, a Plan B – so you don’t get trapped in a corner. It also teaches you to look at the long term and persevere. All this is essential in business.”

And so, when in 2009 the television–digital media convergence became the funding model for the Canada Media Fund, she saw opportunities where many producers, even some the youngest, saw only threats. The following year, she created the Idéacom subsidiary Zenith ABC, a core player in the digital development, to which we owe, among other productions, Apocalypse: 10 Lives and Apocalypse, the Second Screen Experience, online companions to the series of the same name – also released in a graphic novel and virtual reality app formats, and as a travelling exhibit in France.

Producing historical or scientific transmedia content demands a continual learning process. “You have to read a lot: not only about the evolution of television, but all the technological advances, artificial intelligence, robotics. A producer’s job requires being well informed and asking lots of questions in order to make the right decisions.” Her desire to build bridges between media production and the world of education and research is also what led Josette, early in 2018, to accept a seat on the board of governors of her alma mater, the Université de Sherbrooke.

Another challenge is to link this technical knowledge to content, and here another sort of learning comes into play: new forms of writing, an inevitable consequence of collaboration between teams, each with its own perspective on the project. “Working with unproven technologies means flying blind through stages of production and delivery time frames. This is where your sense of entrepreneurship has to be tough, because an appetite for risk is what makes the difference between a mere producer and a real entrepreneur.”

Another fundamental difference is her ability to adapt to change. As soon as Apple TV appeared, Josette saw that content would no longer be viewed in the same way and that the industry would undergo a major upheaval. To face this challenge, she believes that strategic partnerships still are, and always will be, the way to unite those complementary strengths that make all the difference. Which is why, in October 2017, she signed a partnership with Cineflix Media which, with offices in London, New York, Toronto, and Dublin, significantly strengthens Idéacom’s international position.

And when asked if being a woman has made her journey more difficult, Josette thinks she has never felt disadvantaged. “The only difference I can tell you is precisely my determination to make a difference. If what Idéacom produces can change audience perceptions about war, or about science, then I’ll have succeeded.”

Photos by Sandra Larochelle

The post Josette Normandeau: From Right-Hand Woman to Global Entrepreneur appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

In collaboration with Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN), CMF Trends meets inspiring women as part of a content series focused on female entrepreneurship in the screen-based industries. We begin this new series by drawing up the portrait of Montreal-based animation production company CarpeDiem Film & TV, founded 14 years ago by Marie-Claude Beauchamp. Report of a discussion on ambitions, the showcasing of brands on the world stage and funding challenges.

> Read more profiles of women entrepreneurs in the screen-based industry

The beginnings: “taking stock of the day” based on past achievements

By her own admission, Marie-Claude Beauchamp has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Even though her background in theatre, song and dance destines her to perform before an audience, it is behind the scenes that she makes her mark by founding her own theatre company at the age of 17. She is intuitive, grasps that the film and television industry has potential and begins working for Multimedia Group, where she learns the ropes of distribution. She then founds her first company, Média Max, which offers audiovisual content import-export and international coproduction packaging services.

At the heart of the business model: the development of brands with an international scope

There is a clear vision behind CarpeDiem Film & TV: seeing as youth and family production, and the production of animation in particular, raises both funding challenges and opportunities to seduce audiences throughout the world, the international dimension is at the heart of the business model, whether it be through coproduction—which must remain a project necessity—or through funding. Also, to make one’s mark in a competitive sector that is dominated by American giants, one needs to develop strong and authentic brands that are based on intellectual property with added value and to stay constantly abreast of market opportunities.

“To go beyond the Quebec and Canadian markets, you need to permanently connect to what is done elsewhere. You therefore need to be present in the film and television markets, read multiple business intelligence sources and develop alliances with companies that operate similarly to how you operate.”

Also, each production is henceforth designed as an enterprise that must be sellable as several distinctive brands. The genesis of the Snowtime! project is an excellent example of this. Producing an animated version of a Quebec cult film is a risky gamble: you need to at once find the initial fans, seduce a new generation of fans and produce a film of international calibre. To reach this triple objective, CarpeDiem Film & TV works on several fronts.

If contests and studio visits allow the nostalgic to take part in the creative process and thereby take ownership of the film’s visual, it is the sponsorship research strategy that makes it possible to reach a new audience. Among the main collaborations, we can cite the partnership with Natrel, which led to the sale of 7 million milk cartons presenting Snowtime characters throughout the province of Quebec, as well as the commercialization of tuques by Kombi. The sponsorship thus becomes the financial lever needed to deploy proximity brands, including the “Tournée des Tuques” or a series of six weekends in eight cities in Quebec where 35,000 children rediscover the pleasures of playing outdoors in the winter.

Finally, the strategy around the development of the soundtrack with renowned Quebec artists is a factor of success both locally and internationally. The group Simple Plan is chosen for the English version in the hopes of seducing the Asian market, where the group enjoys great notoriety. The presentation of the feature film on 4,000 screens and the 149 million views that the film has racked up on Chinese platform Youku are testimony to the film’s success.

“We knew from the start that the project would not be limited to an animated feature film and therefore acquired the rights accordingly. We were right to do so.”

Indeed, the “Snowtime!” brand quickly gave rise to a co-brand, “Snowsnaps”, i.e., a TV series targeting younger audiences. Music also plays a major role in this project and CarpeDiem Film & TV enters into a partnership with Musicor to have the Cool Kids band, formed by young singers aged 13 to 16, tour throughout Canada during the summer of 2018, i.e., in advance of the release of the band’s album. And the deployment will be followed by a second feature film, Racetime.

Moreover, if the concentration of different brands within the company is an asset when it comes to showcasing contents, funding remains the crux. Thus, to maximize presale opportunities, in the spring of 2018, Marie-Claude Beauchamp founds a new distribution company, Pink Parrot Media, which is located in Spain and henceforth serves the role of sales agent for the projects developed by CarpeDiem Film & TV among other producers, including French company Favola Films.

The feminine side of the force

The lack of recognition of female entrepreneurs, which we had already covered in a post on women in media and technology, is not a foreign concept to Marie-Claude Beauchamp. What she lacks from the onset is financial credibility not only because she is a woman, but also because financial institutions are not always comfortable negotiating with artists who perceive each project as a prototype. Furthermore, she is actively at work to shake things up, the goal being namely to have institutional funding adapted within the Alliance Québec Animation that she chairs.

Cultural differences are also an issue for a female entrepreneur: “Developing the Asian market takes time but it’s especially challenging for a woman.” However, she is convinced that being a woman helped her along the way: “I believe that we are more intuitive and are more skilled at multitasking, which is a fundamental skill in this line of work. With respect to the rest, as for any other entrepreneur, you need to believe in your vision and have a very good idea of what you want.”

So, then, are things easier for women? “No, things are harder for us and that forces us to develop our leadership and determination.” Her occupation has her cross paths with many women who head television broadcasters’ youth and family programming yet remain underrepresented within certain occupations. “That makes it difficult to comply with gender-sensitive measures at the current time. For example, there are still too few women in the market who direct animation series to meet the criteria and it’s a real challenge for producers.”

She acknowledges that she is ambitious and seeks to push her small team of ten to surpass themselves as she does so that each project put forward by CarpeDiem Film & TV radiates globally. It is certainly this determination that explains why she is a finalist for the Femmes d’affaires du Québec award this year.

Photos by Sandra Larochelle

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