Over the past three years, the relationship between Ontario sound editors and the productions they work on has changed significantly. For a decade, these sound editors had wanted to be hired as individual artists on film and TV projects, and not treated simply as employees of large post firms. Through concessions on their part, they have achieved their wish, and, despite some tough sacrifices, most in the local industry say it has been worth it.

Rules agreed upon by the Directors Guild of Canada – Ontario and the CFTPA now see sound editors signing contracts directly with productions. In the previous arrangement, they would simply collect a weekly cheque from their post-house employer, which would be hired by a production to handle all of its audio post needs.

The freelance status of sound editors is not exactly new – it’s a return to the process common in the fledgling days of movie and TV production in Ontario up until the 1980s. But as the volume of service and domestic shooting grew, the major post shops hired audio editors and mixers on a full-time basis to meet this demand and offer clients attractive post service packages.

This factory-like setup was humming along – until the production bubble burst in 2001.

Suddenly, the Toronto post houses no longer had enough work to sustain large staffs, and so were forced to let go of many longtime employees. Veteran sound editors and mixers found themselves in a new role as freelancers, which would have been fine with them except that they had to fight for gigs against their former employers and their remaining staffers. They could not compete against the big shops, which could lump sound editing fees together with other post services into one efficient, economical package.

The DGC-Ontario, which represents sound editors in the province (but not mixers), saw that it had to step in on behalf of its members. The guild sat down with the CFTPA in late 2002 to successfully work on removing the so-called ‘clause K’ from their standard agreement, the result being that producers in the top three of five budget tiers (generally including drama production but not animation, documentary and lifestyle shows) were required to draw up their sound editing contracts with the editors themselves. The application of this new agreement was staggered across the three budget tiers over the course of one year.

According to Ron Haney, CEO and executive director of the DGC-Ontario and a central figure in the negotiations, the producers were not happy about the proposal, as they didn’t want to see the establishment of a precedent for other sectors to follow. In order to bring them onside, the sound editors agreed to a painful rollback of 10% to 28% in their rates.

‘You give up a portion of your rate in order to get access to more work,’ says Haney. ‘It was the only way that guild members were going to see the halt in the erosion of work opportunites for freelance sound editors.’

Haney recalls strong initial resistance from the post houses as well.

‘They considered us to be attacking their ability to conduct their own business,’ Haney explains, adding that the unfortunate part of the new agreement was that post shops had to let go of more longtime in-house sound editors, now freelancers by regulation (but not those working in the lower two tiers of production).

Haney believes that the new agreement has drawn audio post business to Toronto since its application.

‘For one thing, not only do we have an incredible talent pool that can compete with anybody, but with the rollbacks, the rates have made it possible for [outside productions] to do their post-production here,’ he says.

Feature film productions would generally be more conducive – in fact, happy – to select the individual sound editor they want, but in the more conveyor-belt system of episodic TV production, it would often be desirable to have to deal only with a post shop on an overall service package, and let the shop delegate the work. The likes of Technicolor and Deluxe can still assign the sound editor themselves, so long as the editors are guild members working under a guild contract drawn up between the editor and the production.

Post supervisors such as Deborah Osborne (The Republic of Love, Spirit Bear) are often the production members who choose the sound editor, and she, for one, likes sound editors’ new status.

‘[Toronto] has a lot of sound editors who are very specialized,’ she says. ‘Some may be great on features; some may work well with really problematic directors; some are great on series. There’s a lot more flexibility now. You’re not tied to one facility with one specific [editor].’

The new deal for sound editors is good for both the editors themselves and the productions that hire them, according to one veteran sound editor who asked not to be named.

In two ‘tier B’ production sample budgets put together by the sound editor, the bottom line for a production that deals with a freelancer is the same as if it goes through a post-production shop. The difference lies in where the money is spent. According to these budgets, post shops, with their greater overhead, will look to charge more than three times as much for the rental of their audio equipment on a job than would a freelancer, who in this day and age can likewise equip himself with the industry standard Pro Tools audio workstation (at a cost of $10,000 to $40,000).

What these independent sound editors can offer to make up the difference is an additional week of labor from themselves and their teams, consisting of a dialogue/ADR editor, sound effects editor and first assistant editor.

Says one sound editor: ‘An individual sound editor or group of sound editors may, by lowering equipment fees in exchange for more time to do the work, better serve the creative needs of the production while maintaining the bottom line.’

This claim is dismissed by Dan McLellan, EVP and GM of Toronto’s Deluxe Sound & Picture, whose post firm let go of its sound editors around the time of the major production decline. He feels that – major or independent – nobody can get away with overcharging for anything in today’s market.

‘We’re all scrambling these days for less work, and, as a result, everybody’s pretty aggressive [in quoting low],’ he says.

In fact, he adds, sound editors’ freelance status is welcomed by his facility, as it has helped the rise of sound editing/design-specific shops such as Sound Dogs Toronto, Urban Audio and Tattersall Sound and Picture, which was formed when sound designer Jane Tattersall left her role as president and CEO of giant Tattersall Casablanca (now part of Casablanca Magnetic North).

‘We are very happy to be surrounded by three or four exceptionally good sound editorial companies,’ McLellan says. ‘We work hand-in-hand with these folks – they bring us business and we bring them business. It’s a partnership that has worked very well.’

For the sound editors, they have not only given up the security of a weekly cheque, but also have cut their rates – all for the independence that helps bring to light their individual talents.

That case was also made at the recent Academy Awards in the acceptance speech by Randy Thom, corecipient of the sound editing Oscar for The Incredibles.

‘Certain Academy Awards, like sound and visual effects and editing are sometimes refered to as ‘technical awards,” he said. ‘They’re not technical awards. They’re given for artistic decisions. And sometimes we make them better than others, and I guess we made a couple of good ones.’

Surely more than a few sound editors in Ontario jumped up from their sofas and cheered.

-www.dgcodc.ca

-www.bydeluxe.com