As new and "old" media overlap and find their common ground, content producers are forced to find new ways to create their products and get them to audiences. The following are four projects that may be from wildly different genres, but what they have in common is an out-of-the-box approach to financing, whether that means looking beyond Canadian borders or embracing non-traditional distribution avenues.

FIDO

Making a film in a commercially viable genre, the producers sought cash from the usual suspects, but were also able to secure substantial foreign advances.

Who's behind it: Cowriter/director Andrew Currie, producer Blake Corbet, Anagram Pictures; Robert Chomiak, cowriter; Dennis Heaton, story; Mary Anne Waterhouse, producer

The concept: Little Timmy Robinson wants a pet. Instead of a puppy, he gets a 60-year-old undead playmate named Fido (played by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly). Think of a zombie-infested Pleasantville.

Who financed it: With a $10.7-million budget and big ambitions, the film's producers had to get creative. Financing partners include Telefilm Canada, the CTF, B.C. Film, tax credits, Corus Entertainment, TVA Films (Canadian advance), Lionsgate (U.S. advance), Entertainment Film Distributors (U.K. advance), Svensk (Scandinavia advance) and FIDEC (gap loan).

How it got out there: Heaton wrote a first draft in 1992 and was then joined by fellow Simon Fraser alums Currie and Chomiak. After two years roundtabling the script, Currie went to the Canadian Film Centre where it came to the attention of Mainline Productions, which optioned the screenplay.

The trio worked on other things through the years and then came back to Fido when the script rights reverted back to them because Mainline couldn't get the project going. When Currie started up Anagram, directing Mile Zero and then The Delicate Art of Parking, they began revisiting the Fido script.

"The cross-genre element caused a lot of fears in distributors," Corbet recalls. "The tone was very specific, the horror not too horror, and the potential of a falling between the cracks scared people."

Deals: So far, Fido has been sold to 38 markets and counting, including presales to the U.K. and Scandinavia and sales to Italy, Portugal, France, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, China and Indonesia, to name a few.

The main marketing push prior to the theatrical release in Canada on March 16 involved targeting zombie fans looking for something original.

"We were actually the number-one trailer for the week [of March 5] on MSN," says Corbet. "Anyone with a teenager knows what that means."

Additional tie-ins include an online game and a Fido Zombie Madness contest through The Comedy Network.

A U.S. release from Lionsgate is set for June 15, as they wanted to position the film to take advantage of summer audiences by platforming out over several weeks. TVA had a different release plan - to go wider from the start, necessitating an earlier release date.

SANCTUARY

Seeing the Internet as the future content delivery platform of choice, the producers tapped private investors and launched on the web.

Who's behind it: Damian Kindler and Marc Aubanel, executive producers and founders of Vancouver-based prodco Stage 3 Media

The concept: To create HD, series-based entertainment using the Internet as the pipeline to a global audience. The pilot project is a sci-fi series starring Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) and Robin Dunne (Dick and Jane vs. The World).

"Most TV networks were simply using the Net as a recycling tool for their products, hoping to draw audiences away from computers and back to their televisions, despite the fact that entertainment was evolving in exactly the opposite direction," says Kindler.

According to Kindler, in the three weeks since the Sanctuary site went live (www.sanctuaryforall.com), it's had more than 1.8 million hits. And the first episode doesn't even stream until the spring.

The revenue model: Pay per download. Given the worldwide appeal of sci-fi content, this is hoped to sustain production for a full season.

"The beauty of making a multi-format series is there are many revenue streams to access: downloads, subscriptions, merchandising, TV broadcast and DVD distribution/licensing deals, and of course advertising," says Aubanel.

"We have the benefit of possessing more data about our audience than Neilsen ratings could ever provide for a TV network. Once our audience is in place, advertisers will find that very attractive. We'll be able to pick and choose which products we want to advertise and how - making the ad model for Sanctuary as clever, entertaining and unobtrusive as possible."

The biggest challenge: "Making people understand the huge impact delivering high-end content on the Net will have on the media world - period," says Kindler. "Once we prove that millions of people truly want to access their entertainment via the Internet, we think everyone will be forced to reverse their traditional paradigm of TV/DVD first and Internet dead last - and then only as a promotional tool.