Formal negotiations started Wednesday between Canada screenwriters and indie producers on a new independent production agreement (IPA).

Representatives of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), led by lead negotiator and WGC executive director Maureen Parker, began talking with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), led by head bargainer John Barrack, and the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision de Québec (APFTQ), toward a new collective agreement to govern film, TV and digital media screenwriting.

The current IPA agreement expires on Dec. 31, 2011, leaving just over a month for negotiations.

The WGC is going into the latest IPA bargaining round with a wish list that includes establishing minimum script fees for animation screenwriters, and getting bible contracts to fall under the IPA.

And with Canadian screenwriters increasingly working on digital platforms, the WGC is also looking for revisions to the IPA’s digital section.

Screenwriters tend to negotiate individually with producers for digital writing rates, depending on whether a digital project is tied to a broadcast property, is unfunded or is speculative.

The WGC is also looking to producers to revise their distributors’ gross revenue definition to account for digital and ad revenue streams.

The screenwriters are going into the latest IPA round with more certainty after the striking of this year’s Terms of Trade agreement with broadcasters, and with the CRTC setting out the terms of its new TV policy, and its impact on indie production expenditures.

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Photo: OrinZebest, Flickr Creative Commons