Toronto’s Dark Slope and L.A.-based Group Effort Initiative (GEI), the charitable organization launched by Canadian expat Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively in 2020, have entered the next phase of their existing partnership to expand GEI’s reach in Canada.

The organizations co-hosted a mentorship and training session at Dark Slope’s Toronto facility on Wednesday (Sept. 3) with 42 attendees from underrepresented groups. The participants received training from Dark Slope’s heads of department on working in a virtual production environment, followed by an opportunity to shoot a short film using equipment from Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV.

Representatives from GEI also met with several non-profit organizations in the Canadian industry, including BIPOC TV & Film and the OYA Black Arts Coalition, as well as post-secondary programs from Toronto Metropolitan University, Humber Polytechnic and the Ontario College of Art & Design University.

While in Toronto, representatives of Group Effort will meet with a number of film, TV and VFX companies to support paid internships, including Neshama Entertainment, Little Engine Moving Pictures and Sinking Ship Entertainment.

GEI first announced its partnership with Dark Slope in 2024, with the latter company committing $100,000 to the initiative.

Dark Slope will support an additional three paid internships as part of the partnership, with the first starting in December. The company previously hosted an intern for the GameTV and Paramount+ series Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story (New Metric Media).

GEI and Dark Slope are also planning another Future Forward mixer to connect their network with job opportunities in Canada.

To date, GEI has established paid internships in 19 cities worldwide, including Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.

Image courtesy of Dark Slope