The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is in the midst of several initiatives aimed at stimulating the recording of music for film and television. One of its key initiatives is promoting its Canadian Film Production Agreement, first forged in late 1997 and designed to meet the particular needs of both Canadian musicians and producers.

Under the terms of the new agreement, musicians’ fees have risen approximately 25% to $100 an hour, with a three-hour minimum.

‘Basically, up until two years ago, we were operating under the u.s. master agreement, which provided the same rates to be paid both in the u.s. and Canada,’ says David Jandrisch, afm’s vp for Canada. ‘In the u.s. agreement, there were a number of special payments that took place after the initial buy, but in Canada, we needed an all-media buyout in perpetuity. So we came up with $100 an hour with a three-hour minimum, plus a 10% pension plan payment on top of that. So, the important thing is that producers in Canada get a clean buy.’

Not all projects are eligible for the agreement. The project must pass a Cancon checklist or possess a cavco certificate. A Canadian composer must be attached to the project.

In the previous agreement (which still stands for Canadian musicians working on u.s. projects), approximately 1% of a project’s revenues went to a special payments fund for films, from which musicians were paid. However, most Canadian producers were not set up with the ongoing payroll departments to deal with this administrative side.

‘In Canadian films, we’re talking budgets of $4.5 million at the tops, with the odd exception going up to $10 million,’ says Jandrisch. ‘In television, we’re rarely talking $1 million an hour. It was on those amounts that the u.s. agreements were predicated.

‘In the case of Canadian films, if a film goes into theatres and then gets shown on television, the licence fees paid to the owners of the film aren’t going to equate to anything near a lot of dollars. So we said, `Okay, we’ll do this for this price and walk away.’ Then the product belongs to the producer at that end point.

‘Once the music is matched to the picture, it’s for synchronization with that picture only – and then the film can be sold with no other payment to musicians.’

Under this agreement, which covers only theatrical films and television movies and episodics, afm musicians have collected $605,000 in 1998 and $198,000 in the first three months of 1999.

Jandrisch, who is meeting with the cftpa to promote the agreement, expects the growth to continue as more producers try out Canadian studio musicians for their productions.

‘We have some excellent composers in this country – as good as anyone in any other North American centre. Our musicians are excellent as well, and we don’t have any problem of our studio musicians leaving for the States. They are keeping busy right here, usually doing a combination of work – films, television, phono recordings, commercials.’

Naturally, Jandrisch doesn’t see any need for producers looking for music to go offshore. ‘I am confident that we have as good if not better players right here than in other countries. Now it’s even better for producers because we have first-class musicians – and we also have a clean buy.

‘Also, there have been instances over the last few years, both in Toronto and Vancouver, where producers who previously went with solo synthesizer and computer scoring were introduced to a situation with 18 or 20 musicians. They couldn’t believe how great it sounded, how quickly it came together – and the fact that if they wanted something different it took only a few minutes – rather than a few hours – to change tracks.’

Jandrisch says that among the challenges today’s musicians face is the lack of adequate soundstages to accommodate the musicians and their gear.

Also, the small percentage of budgets spent on music can make earning a living as a film/television musician tough. ‘It has gotten better,’ he concedes, ‘however, music is often the last thing producers think of to put in their films, and by then there is no money left. In the u.s., one of the first considerations is often who a producer can get to score a film. Here, it’s a matter of education – getting producers to realize that there’s more to it than just a synthesizer player on the job.’

Among the afm’s other initiatives are talks with socan on putting out a Canadian composers sampler to promote homegrown talent to television and film producers.