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Stop the Presses! NOVA SCOTIA ANIMATION INDUSTRY SAVED!

Last updated on November 29, 2010

Tomorrow is a day off for my daughter, so we stayed up and watched Back to the Future.  She’s never seen it before, and I try to inject a healthy dose of watchable movies into her diet of Princesses and singing high-schoolers.  The movie’s better than I remembered, and a good time was had by all.  After trucking her off to bed, I hopped online to check my email, and, after such a fine evening, my day actually got better.

Waiting for me was a message from Mark Cappello of Invisible Entertainment in Nova Scotia.  For those among you who don’t know, the animation industry has been all but decimated out east, due in large part to a re-interpretation to previously existing tax-credit legislation.  It ‘s a long story, and Mark’s promised to write about it.  But for now, the good news:

Hi all,

We at DANS (Digital Animators of Nova Scotia) received this brief transmission from Film Nova Scotia this afternoon:

Dear Producers:

At a recent Treasury Board meeting, the following amendments were made to support the film industry via the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit:

– the production cost cap has been removed!

– the residency requirement has been changed so that employees resident during the production are eligible.

Further details will follow.

Sincerely,

Film Nova Scotia

Sweet victory. In fact, complete and utter victory. We even gained the ability to ‘deem’ talent into the province and make them eligible on our productions (a critical piece that will allow us to rebuild).

Many thanks to everyone who supported our efforts, it was a hard political fight and a completely draining and frustrating experience most of the time. Copernicus Studios deserves full kudos for gathering the group of producers and organizing DANS. This is undoubtedly a midnight call from the warden to save us from the electric chair, and the best part is both Helix and Copernicus are sitting on Full productions ready to burst. Rebuilding will not be easy with the talent we’ve lost, but we at least have a shot now to be competitive with other regions in the country and we can rebuild the Nova Scotia industry.

Sweet victory. It’s nice when the losers win every once in a while.

Please spread the news around the province, we’ve waited a long time for this.
~M

This is absolutely unbelievable news.  Congratulations guys.

m

12 Comments

  1. Gene Fowler Gene Fowler November 26, 2010

    This is absolutley fantastic news for Nova Scotia. Now if only New Brunswick would see the light.

  2. Neil Neil November 26, 2010

    Awesome. Nice to see the good guys win once in a while.
    🙂

  3. Nick Macdonald Nick Macdonald November 26, 2010

    Couldn’t be happier to hear this. I really hope that I can find employment in my home province next year. 🙂

  4. Glenn Curry Glenn Curry November 27, 2010

    Wow, super happy for all my friends back home! Hope to rejoin you someday… ditto on Gene’s comment too. Let’s go, NB! Make it happen!

  5. David Boudreau David Boudreau November 27, 2010

    This couldn’t have happened at a better time, since I am moving back this weekend after living in LA for the past 17 years and an undecided future ahead.

  6. David Boudreau David Boudreau November 27, 2010

    This is great news since I have decided to move back to the Maritimes after living in LA for the past 17 years and having been working in the animation industry for over 20. It’s about time that I may have a future back home… Horray!!!

  7. Greg Bailey Greg Bailey December 3, 2010

    That’s really great news for Nova Scotia. I’m glad to see the Nova Scotia government come back in and support the animation industry to that extent. I really hope this leads to a boom and permanently establishes an animation industry in the province. The change that allows the free movement of animation artists in order to work in another province of Canada has been a long time coming. This hardship placed on the personal finances of modestly paid animators has long been an unfair practice of all the provinces in Canada. I applaud Nova Scotia for seeing the injustice and being the first province to end this restriction.Now it’s time to ask the other provinces to support the artists and make the same changes.

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