“We’ll go through and cut children and animals wherever possible: they’re too expensive,” says Britney. Writers bang out a script, and then producers go through it with a fine-tooth comb to cut any potentially expensive locations or unnecessary characters. You’ve got three or four weeks to get ready to shoot and streamline your costs. “If you bring it to them already made, they’ll just watch the first 20 minutes to make sure the quality’s good.” Step 3: Prep Time (September 15) “Too many people involved off the top can be a disaster they’re always giving notes,” says Britney. You can send them pretty much anything.”īetter yet, get a loan to finance it yourself (on a budget of less than a million, you’ll get approximately $200,000 to $300,000 in tax credits, so most banks will lend to established producers), and then sell to broadcasters after it’s done. “There are channels all over the world that just need content.
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“You’ll go to France and say, we’re producing this for Hallmark, do you want to kick in and get the French rights?” says Britney. Where you’ll make your money from there is selling international rights. Once your idea is greenlit, the production company will hand over about 20 percent of your budget for North American rights.
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It’s interracial, LGBTQ, beautifully shot… and a prime example of a Hallmark-style movie that would never make it onto Hallmark.” Step 2: Find Your Funders (August 30) “The reason they all look and sound the same is because the network is involved, and they know their main audience is Midwest Christians,” she says. If you want a greenlight, don’t get too crazy. Producers send over a few possible plots, each with a pitch deck featuring major plot points and a dream cast (wouldn’t A Birthday for Christmas be perfect with Josh Duhamel as the widower next door?). If you want to do something more diverse, you’re not taking that one to Hallmark,” says Britney. The production company invites you, the producer, to pitch them on-brand ideas. “Best-case scenario, you make enough money to make something else with a creative risk.” The Life Cycle of One Made-For-TV Hallmark Christmas Rom-Com Step 1: The Big Brainstorm (August 15) “Worst-case scenario, they’re breaking even,” says a Vancouver producer we’ll call Britney. They operate on microbudgets-less than $1 million Canadian-which allows some production companies to fly under the union radar and keep crew costs low, and tax credits take the edge off even that.
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The typical pitch-to-delivery cycle for these low-budget, high-volume Hallmark-style movies is less than three months. The short answer? They make a ton of money. We spoke with three key players in the industry-a development producer, an actor and a key grip, all of whom asked to remain anonymous-to understand just why so many of these cheeseball movies get made. Even Netflix is digging in: hands up if you watched The Knight Before Christmas with your mom over the holidays. The Lifetime Network produced another 16 in 2019 Burnaby-based Lighthouse Pictures is in on the game too. The Hallmark Channel filmed 173 made-for-TV movies in the province over the past three years alone-among them Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen-though the brand name has become a catch-all term for any (admittedly beloved) feel-good schlock filmed here.
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It may be predictable, but this Christmas rom-com formula has made “Hallmark Movies” a cottage industry here in B.C. A beautiful but jaded interior designer who doesn’t believe in Christmas decorates a mansion for a handsome businessman and the sparks-and holiday magic-start to fly. Even if you haven’t seen Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses, you’re probably more than familiar with the plot.