Status of the artist

Working abroad – on our terms

The sentence which condemns Canada’s talent pool, or star system, to eternal anonymity is sounding more than a bit outdated these days. It’s not that, overnight, Canada’s populace has become enamored of homegrown talent, nor is it a matter of taking stock of the substantial talent export/expat industry the nation specializes in. Instead, there is a recognizable and increasingly powerful talent pool that has grown alongside a prosperous indigenous production industry.

Canadian features, series, documentaries, mows and miniseries carry messages from our various talent resources around the globe regularly.

While Canada has a well-established tradition as a fine exporter in this arena, it is only recently that this has started to pay off in providing the industry at home with some serious leverage in international dealings.

Perhaps most indicative of this trend are the accomplishments for Canada in the precious primetime world of American networks.

It’s been five years since Love and Hate aired on nbc, catapulting a ‘foreign’ show into a number-one weekly ratings slot on primetime u.s. network – a first for Canada and the start of what most industry members see as a beautiful relationship.

Bernard Zukerman has been producing tv drama since 1986, including three enormously successful miniseries: Love and Hate, Conspiracy of Silence and Million Dollar Babies. All were written by local hero Suzette Couture.

Zukerman concedes that Canadian talent has much greater leverage than it did when Love and Hate secured its coveted slot on nbc. As a matter of fact, getting Love and Hate on u.s. primetime was initially a case of it’s who-you know, not what-you-have-to-show.

Ivan Fecan was heading up programming at the cbc at the time and, from his days at nbc, he knew nbc chairman Brandon Tartikoff. Zukerman says Tartikoff agreed to look at it and then quickly bought it. ‘The initial thing was the personal connection and then it was the quality of the program,’ says Zukerman.

It was a breakthrough.

‘Acting talent has always crossed borders, and there’s always been a number of successful Canadian actors in the u.s.,’ says Zukerman, ‘but for writing and producing talent, it’s been more difficult. What’s happened is that Canadian writing, directing, producing talent has become much more marketable to American network executives.’

Pitching Million Dollar Babies, which also snagged a u.s. primetime slot (this time on cbs), was done in an unusual way that reflects just how substantial some Canadians’ leverage has become.

The network executives were familiar with what Zukerman calls ‘the first level of talent’ – writer Couture. When Zukerman pitched the show, he didn’t take the idea, he took the screenplay. ‘There’s not much they could have said one way or another,’ he says.

So the deal, once cbs said it liked the story, was pinned on stars. The network wanted at least one American star, and thus Beau Bridges came into the picture. There was a demand for another name, and Zukerman says they didn’t care if it was Canadian. That name became Kate Nelligan. ‘And they pretty well left us alone on the rest of the movie.’

It’s an unusual scenario: no agent packaging clients from actors and producers to directors and writers. Zukerman says he likes to stay out of that loop, but it can mean problems.

‘I’ve been in situations with caa, for example, where dealing with writers, I’ve been able to offer a really, really good deal to do a screenplay, but because the agency isn’t packaging the whole movie or miniseries, I’ve had a hard time getting the writer. For the agency, the real money is in the packaging, not in the individual.’

Zukerman says because he likes to work with Canadian talent for the most part, it means fewer options than if he shopped in the u.s. So to be further impeded by an agency deal would leave him with less flexibility than he cares for. ‘What’s an advantage to the agency ain’t necessarily an advantage to the creative process,’ he says.

Is there a price to pay for all this cross-border shopping? Some argue there is a cultural exchange that means compromise or loss for Canada, while others call these claims ridiculous.

Zukerman encountered some concerns about Canadian cultural protection with Million Dollar Babies – specifically an attack in the press saying he had sold out. He calls this mindset ‘the inferiority complex of the Canadian mind. Somehow (people think) you’d have to make all kinds of compromises in order for an American to buy something you do as opposed to just having the confidence to say, `it’s good and they want it.’ ‘

Zukerman continues. ‘You’ve got to be international, but it’s got to be project-driven instead of deal-driven.’

Sandy Crawley, president of actra, also sees the rewards of the global market, but there is one crucial issue for talent he wants to see resolved regarding any dealings in the industry, whether at home or abroad. For years, actors have demanded legislative protection of artists’ rights.

It’s a struggle with a 15-year history behind it. A victory came last year when the federal government introduced status of the artist legislation.

The basis is a legal framework for artists which encompasses standards both in terms of compensation and productivity. But the federal legislation is not enough, says Crawley, who wants to see status of the artist implemented on a province-by-province basis.

The philosophy – to hand over rights, or shares, in a production to the artist in exchange for his/her contribution to the project – goes against the grain of the American standard where the producer is the major rights-holder.

Although Crawley is more interested in what he calls the European model, or the author’s rights system, he does see the potential for a balance between the two.

‘It seems to me that Canada is in a unique position to broker an appropriate approach that’s neither Catholic nor Protestant, if you will, but something new. It entails recognizing – especially in light of digital and multimedia production – that there are bound to be more than one rights holder in a work,’ he says.

Collective administration of rights is the answer, he suggests, a formula he claims will force its way into productions anyway with the onset of new media.

Crawley says this issue, once resolved at home, will mean a legitimacy, which in turn will mean more activity for the talent pool. ‘More artists and more people will say, `I see I can be an artist. It is a profession. I don’t have to beg, borrow, or work as a cab driver.’ ‘

The current booming status of the industry that supports more jobs, more visibility and means bigger audiences rests partly with the sagging status of the Canadian dollar.

Both Zukerman and Crawley concede this significant factor may well disappear one day. As the old saying goes, you gotta make hay while the sun shines.