To stimulate the recording of music for film and television in Canada and provide producers with a simpler set of rules, the American Federation of Musicians recently forged a new Canadian Film Production Agreement.

Under the terms, musicians’ fees have jumped 25% to $100 an hour, paid up front and based on a three-hour minimum.

Eligible for the new agreement are feature films with budgets of $5 million or less, tv movies budgeted at $2 million or under, and episodic television.

The producer must be certified as a Canadian company designated by the afm’s eligibility application form or possess a cavco certificate. A Canadian composer must be attached to the project.

Prior to this agreement, all recording sessions for film, whether produced in Canada or the u.s., came under the same collective agreement. The previous agreement was designed to serve the needs of Hollywood studios, but was difficult to apply to smaller Canadian productions.

Musicians had been paid an up-front scale rate of $217.26 to $249.87 for a three-hour session, depending on the size of the orchestra. Approximately 1% of the gross revenues from the project went into a Special Payments Fund in l.a., from which musicians were paid. The money was then distributed on the basis of the contract filed by various locals which recorded under the agreement. The amount paid out was based on the participation of the musicians and original scale wages.

Problems arose because producers needed to be able to give their product to distributors with no strings attached so the films could be marketed unencumbered by the restrictions of extra payments.

Furthermore, Canadian films rarely had returns where special payments were relevant, and small production companies were not equipped to deal with the bookeeping involved with continuously updating sales to distributors and/or exhibitors.

The afm is an international union, but to a large degree its strings are pulled by the New York and l.a. operations. Therefore, trying to get the notion across that the Canadian industry needed some autonomy has not been an easy proposition, explains Len Lytwyn, vp director of policies and procedures AFM Canada.

‘The budgets for Canadian films are considerably less than those in the u.s.,’ says Lytwyn. ‘We had to find some kind of consensus and convince the afm that the best way to produce music for the majors in the u.s. was not the best way to produce music for films in Canada.’

Glenn Morley, vp of the Guild of Canadian Film Composers, lauds the new arrangement as one of the best bargains in the film industry and a win-win situation for everyone involved. He has been pushing for nine years to come up with a deal which would satisfy all musicians and give producers all the necessary clearances.

‘Producers are happy, they have their buyouts, there is more money on the screen and they are free from any encumbrances,’ explains Morley. ‘Musicians are making a normal scale payment plus 25%, composers have a proper palate of instruments to work with, and the Canadian film industry is happy because it is designed to work with them in creating Canadian product.’