Paul Hoffert is the chair of the Guild of Canadian Film Composers. He is also a veteran film composer and former chair of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

A new era for Canadian film composers began on May 23, 2003, when the Guild of Canadian Film Composers was certified for collective bargaining under the Federal Status of the Artist Act. The certification brings new powers to the GCFC and has wide implications for producers and composers of film and television music.

Producers including the National Film Board and the CBC and all television broadcasters can now be compelled to enter collective bargaining with the GCFC on behalf of all composers, whether they are members of the GCFC or not. The GCFC has also been having informal discussions with independent producers for some time and expects to enter collective bargaining with the CFTPA in 2004.

The GCFC created a Composer/ Producer Model Agreement for contracting music composition and production several years ago. It has been used by an increasing number of industry lawyers and producers who find its wording more clear, simple, and relevant to the Canadian production environment than the frequent hodgepodge of boilerplate clauses cobbled together from U.S., Canadian and European composer contracts. Many of those are contradictory, and some do not apply under Canadian law.

Now that the GCFC is a certified bargainer, its focus will move from these suggested contracts to binding collective agreements.

The GCFC certification covers all of Canada except Quebec, which is represented by the Societe professionnelle des auteurs et des compositeurs du Quebec. There are a few cases in which the GCFC has jurisdiction in Quebec and SPACQ has jurisdiction outside of Quebec.

In addition to composers, the GCFC is certified to bargain for related music creators, including arrangers, orchestrators and music editors if they are necessary to deliver the final music score. The bargaining for related creators is subject to separate agreements with the American Federation of Musicians and the Writers Guild of Canada, with whom the GCFC has negotiated practical solutions for non-duplication of representation.

The GCFC bargaining strategy breaks new ground because it deals with copyright issues. The GCFC has negotiated agreements with the copyright collectives SOCAN and SODRAC that acknowledge the GCFC’s right to represent composers’ rights for works not represented by the other copyright collectives.

So, if a broadcaster opts for an MBL (modified blanket licence) from SOCAN for a TV program, and SOCAN grants the performing rights back to the composer for the musical works in that program, the GCFC now represents those works for collective bargaining with the broadcaster.

The GCFC members gave careful consideration to their decision to bargain collectively. Historically, film and television composers had distanced themselves from collective representation and unionization. The Federal Status of the Artist legislation opened the door for the GCFC to be certified as a collective of creators – different from a union, but with many of the same legal powers.

The GCFC agreements will, in some cases, include minimum fees, pension contributions from producers, the collection of work dues, and other union-like provisions. Still, the GCFC will not be a union and its members will not be considered employees of production companies.

The GCFC board expects to retain its traditional industry-friendly relationships with producer and other stakeholder groups and to make common cause with them on issues including Cancon, copyright reform, and expanding Canadian film and television opportunities.

The GCFC has been successful in achieving a key strategic goal – certification as a collective bargainer. That is good news for everyone in the Canadian film and television industries. They now have a stronger participant with whom to cooperate and collaborate. Composers are no longer outsiders, and that is surely the start of a new era.

-www.gcfc.ca