Post-production houses Command Post & Transfer/TOYBOX West and Magnetic North have laid off staff, citing reaction to strike fears as the cause. Although Hollywood studios and networks successfully averted strikes by the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Canadian post industry has already experienced substantial revenue loss.

Before the WGA negotiated its new contract May 4, and SAG and AFTRA followed suit on July 3, Hollywood rushed to get feature films and TV episodes in the can in the event of strike action. With so much of Hollywood’s annual production schedule completed, the number of U.S. projects shooting and posting this summer has been below average.

‘In a normal year, July and August are two of our busiest months, but this year that will not be the case,’ says Bruce Grant, COO of Magnetic North. ‘The next two months are going to be relatively quiet.’

Magnetic North, a Toronto-based provider of full post services for the film and TV industry, laid off seven employees company-wide in mid-July. Grant says that in a ‘normal year’ 15% to 20% of Magnetic North’s revenue comes from U.S. projects, but this year to date that number is closer to 35%, due to the earlier stockpiling of inventory in anticipation of the strikes.

TOYBOX West, a Vancouver-based full post house for both long-form and commercials, reports that U.S. productions account for 60% to 65% of its business, and describes the degree of its layoffs as ‘extensive.’ A major part of the facility’s business is the AlphaCine Motion Picture Laboratory, which services many of the U.S. features and MOWs shooting in town.

‘In terms of film volume, AlphaCine has gone from processing 175,000 feet on one particular Sunday evening down to under 10,’ says Jon Robertson, Command Post VP Vancouver division. He insists the layoffs are a temporary measure, adding, ‘The staff has been told they will be coming back when the market recovers, which I am anticipating to be about six weeks.’

Grant echoes that sentiment: ‘It looks like it’s going to be a very busy fall, and we hope to be able to call all those folks back.’

In anticipation of a slowdown, TOYBOX West had contacted the federal government for assistance. The government will pay the laid-off employees 55% of their salaries, and the company will contribute an additional 20%. Robertson insists that this situation is indicative of an industry-wide setback, not trouble at TOYBOX West.

‘This is the largest post-production provider in the country,’ he says. ‘We have all the resources of our Toronto facilities to fall back on, and they have been very supportive. Also, by reducing the staff to this level, I’ve streamlined operations to the point where I’m breaking even. Certainly the client services and all the ability to conduct business as usual are there.’

Robertson says producers were hesitant to roll on any projects even in the two months prior to SAG’s June 30 contract deadline.

Speculation has it that this was due to producers’ inability to secure insurance, since insurance companies feared that if actors walked out in the middle of shows, many productions would turn around and file claims to start projects back up again. With the strike fears aside and the insurance companies back on board, cameras are rolling again on the delayed projects, but the post companies won’t be seeing the resulting work for at least two months.

Robertson foresees the quickest return for series work (TOYBOX West posts Peace Arch Entertainment/ Studio Eight’s Big Sound and Showtime’s The Chris Isaak Show), but with studios’ and networks’ annual budgets depleted due to the stockpiling, feature and MOW production volume won’t be back to normal until early next year.

Many shops in Toronto that specialize in animation and F/X work retain a small core staff and bring in additional artists as workflow demands, but Robertson says Vancouver’s smaller freelance pool forces TOYBOX West to retain a larger full-time staff. (At last count it had about 60 employees.)

Robertson’s feelings about SAG’s actions are mixed.

‘I am supportive of the SAG position that everyone is entitled to what is absolutely fair, but I find it very interesting that a particular group could affect such a large thing so dramatically,’ he says. ‘In future it would be wonderful if all parties remained fair and worked very hard to [address] their concerns a lot quicker.’ *

-www.compt.com (Command Post & Transfer)

-www.magpost.com (Magnetic North)