The situation for young directors is nearing a crisis point as work in Canada has all but dried up and commercial production companies are forced to focus on channeling what little work there is to their established helmers.

The board flow has in fact become so slow for neophytes that the fate of the 2002 First Cut Awards – presented annually to directors with less than two years in the business – is up in the air.

First Cut organizers from Saatchi & Saatchi and On The Spot will be meeting in early March to discuss options due to what they believe will be a dearth of viable nominees this year.

‘We need to rethink what it is we’re doing,’ says Anna Tricinci, VP, broadcast at Saatchi & Saatchi, who has seen entries drop from 60 five years ago to just 15 last year. ‘I don’t know what [entries] we’d even get this year. I can’t even think of a handful of people who would be eligible to enter.’

While Tricinci insists the awards will go on, organizers are weighing several alternate possibilities to the format, including opening the competition to other craftspeople such as editors or DOPs.

But the questions surrounding the award are just one part of long-term problem that is leaving both executive producers and new directors wondering what the future has in store.

‘Young directors drive the industry,’ says Jamie Phair, executive producer at Radke Films in Toronto. ‘Once you’ve been in this industry two or three years, you’re already looking over your shoulder to find out what the new look, what the new style is. That usually comes from a young guy.’

But the slow market means these young directors can’t get their feet wet because A-list helmers are competing for low-budget spots and public-service announcements traditionally considered training ground for newer directors.

‘We’ve seen AA guys doing B work, spots for hemorrhoids, stuff they wouldn’t even touch before, which is definitely stealing work from the up-and-coming guys,’ says Brian Atkinson, partner and executive producer at Pure Films in Toronto.

Commercial producers point to a combination of factors that have contributed to this decline, not the least of which is a lack of commitment on the part of agencies to give young directors a shot.

‘The young Canadian director is becoming a dying breed, which is so sad,’ says Eva Preger, executive producer at Toronto-based Industry Films.

‘What do we do when the fantastic directors we have like Richard D’Alessio and Dale Heslip decide to retire or do other things? Do the agencies feel that there is a need to do something about that? I’m not sure. I know that production does.’

At the core of the problem is the availability of top-caliber U.S. directors over the last two years due to a SAG strike south of the border in the summer of 2000, followed closely by an economic slowdown.

These two factors brought a barrage of American talent north looking to keep their reels fresh as U.S. production slowed. Not surprisingly, agency creatives jump at such opportunities.

But this in turn has bumped everyone down a few notches on the food chain, creating a situation where more established directors were pitching projects that have traditionally gone to up-and-comers.

This was all before Sept. 11. Since then work for many young directors has nearly dried up completely.

For Jana Peck, a director at Toronto-based Avion Films, the timing of her move to the director’s chair couldn’t have been worse.

Peck launched her career in the middle of the SAG strike and has been in an uphill battle for 18 months. Still, she’s taking it all in stride.

‘It’s definitely a challenge. But when business is slow, it makes sense that younger directors are going to have a tougher time. The more experienced directors are doing whatever comes available,’ she says. ‘If there is not a lot of work going around then the more experienced directors are going to get what is going around.’

Peck’s last spot was completed in November for Gilda’s Club. That was to be the final piece that both she and Avion executive producers Michael Schwartz and Paola Lazzeri expected would give her a marketable reel.

‘We just need that next piece of work, or the next pieces of work, to take her to the next level,’ Lazzeri says. ‘But that’s not happening at the pace that we would have liked given the economy.’

The fact that well-established helmers are willing to take lower fees just to keep the work coming in has put Canadian commercial producers in a catch-22 situation.

Lazzeri says she has seen a number of scripts in the last six months that would be perfect for a director like Peck. But these come with a lineup of A-list directors in on the bidding, which leaves Lazzeri little choice but to try and match her top people to the production.

Still, most industry players anticipate that work will start to pick up by the summer.

Radke’s Phair says the current situation is simply part of a regular cycle. ‘We constantly go through this. This might be a dip that dipped a little lower than in previous cycles, but it is what we live with all the time.’

Indeed, indicators out of the U.S. point to production already getting up steam.

But by the time the economy rights itself and work really picks up in Canada, it will have been two years since young directors have been able to compete in any meaningful way.

That lag could have a significant impact over the long term.

‘We haven’t really been able to nurture or mentor any young talent,’ says Tricinci.

‘I think there will just be this void in young directors. There will be a handful of young guys to choose from instead of a plethora of young guys to choose from. And there will be guys who aren’t really so young anymore who don’t have a ton of experience or a ton of great spots on their reel. So their careers are going to be diminished as well.’

And how we will fix that is anyone’s guess.

-www.saatchi.ca

-www.radkefilms.com

-www.industryfilms.com

-www.avionfilms.com