Lack of budget in our TV series: “The spitting has gone on too long”

Two important figures in Quebec television have denounced the conditions in which our television series are filmed, the production of which has been severely affected by inflation and falling budgets.

“I’m working on serial projects at the moment. From this point, we used to say to ourselves: no scenes in cars, no crowds, no scenes too far from Montreal, we must not double the characters, nor the places, nor the locations…” Daniel Thibault recently denounced On Facebook, an author and screenwriter from Quebec who has worked on series such asboy girl And Mirador.

In an interview in NewspaperMr. Tebow shared the tangible impact this budget shortfall had on the writing of the historical series Disobedience: The Selection of Chantal Daigle, Available on Crave.

“We had trials and three demonstrations to film, but we had to cut everywhere, so we could only hold one demonstration,” he recalls. “We would also have liked to go through the Parc des Laurentides to show the splendor of our province, but transporting the team would have cost too much. It has been going on for so long with the spit, and we always have to do more with less,” laments Mr. Thibault.

“We have to work our brains more.”

According to Mr. Thibault, at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, a budget of $1 million per one-hour episode was common for Quebec soap operas. Today, production teams consider themselves lucky to get $700,000 for the same amount of airtime.

“Our budgets do not track the cost of living, so we are hit hard by increases, such as gasoline prices, food prices and material prices,” notes José Valle, a producer involved, among others, in rising oil prices. Detective series 19-2. “We have to rack our brains more and sit down together to see what stories we can tell and produce, with the money we have,” she explains.

Producer Jose Valle.

Archive photo, Chantal Poirier

She cites the filming of the second season of the series A one-way ticket, which requires regional travel. To stay within budget, the team had to reduce the number of scenes, remove camera shots, or remove actors from certain segments to save time.

“I’m very proud of what we were able to do, but if we had had more time and money, I could have improved the final product a little more.”

The strength of our state

Mr. Tipu and Mr.^I Vale agrees that one of the strengths of Quebec’s cultural sector is its ability to create high-quality content with few resources.

“With our resources and talent, we are still able to produce very interesting series. We just have to choose them better,” says the producer.

The author adds: “To protect our language, we must inspire this pride through positive gestures, such as pumping more money and encouraging our creators.”