Celebrating 20 years as Canada's leading supporter of script development hasn't changed the hard-working ethos of industry veteran John Galway and his staff of three at The Harold Greenberg Fund at the Toronto offices of Astral Media.

Galway, who has previously worked at Telefilm Canada, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Canadian Television Fund and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, took over as president of the HGF last September, replacing longtime chair Wendy MacKeigan. Astral did some restructuring at that time, appointing seasoned board member Bryn Matthews as co-chair. Their equivalents at Le Fonds Harold Greenberg, the French-language program in Montreal, are president Odile Méthot and co-chair Rock Demers.

"The two boards get together once a year," explains Galway, who is preparing for a meeting of the English-language board this month. "Each board meets separately four times a year to discuss projects and disburse funds."

The current HGF board also consists of indie film producer Camelia Frieberg, former Vancouver International Film Festival Trade Forum producer Melanie Friesen, screenwriter Suzette Couture, Astral SVP, marketing and sales Domenic Vivolo, and Shaftesbury Films VP marketing and sales Shane Kinnear.

Galway's coworkers are Lila Karim, who manages script development and administration, Karla Bobadilla, director, business and legal affairs, and administrative assistant Andrea Langford.

The fiscal year for the fund ends in August, so the June meeting will be the last for 2005/06. At each quarterly session, approximately $200,000 is expended on scripts, with additional amounts disbursed for family projects, training programs and story options.

The HGF supports four separate stages of script development, and each is considered in the meetings. For the first phase, established writers with one 90-minute drama already produced are allowed to apply by themselves, although a letter of interest from a producer is required.

"In the earliest stage, it's all based on skill and passion," Galway says. "If someone were to walk in off the street and we liked the treatment, we'd strongly suggest that, for the next round, they partner with an experienced producer."

For this initial phase, where treatments are turned into first drafts, the fund can advance up to $18,000 per project.

The next stage, from first to second draft, offers funding up to $12,000. Galway acknowledges that a second draft "is a bit of a fiction," in that scripts are constantly being rewritten. That phase, and the third one, in which up to $10,000 can be disbursed for final drafts, are important because projects then receive greater scrutiny from the fund, with an eye towards their feasibility as feature films.

"Philosophically, we're more prepared to take risks at the treatment phase based on good writing, interesting subjects and talent," states Galway. "We like to see how it plays out. Later on, we have to look more closely and judge whether the project can actually go into production."