*Directors Guild of Canada

Feature film policy is top of mind at the Directors Guild of Canada, where president Allan King is calling for a fund framework in which the creative community is represented.

‘We are very strongly of the view that there should be representation of the creative people who make the films,’ says King of the operational structure of any revamped feature film fund. ‘If you don’t give the people who are making the films a voice at the table, it seems to me you are deafening and blinding yourself.’

The dgc did submit its own proposals and take part in numerous discussions with the Feature Film Policy Review committee, but the lack of any dgc representation on the committee is a sore point for the guild.

‘So far, the creative community has been ignored to an extraordinary degree,’ says King. ‘We had no place at the table during the Feature Film Policy Review – we were allowed to watch, we were invited to the consultations, but there was no one on the advisory council from the dgc, the wgc or from actra.’

King is also concerned that the dgc is not represented on the Telefilm Canada board.

Although the guild spoke up against the Feature Film Policy Review committee’s recommendation to shelve the production services tax credit, overall, King says the guild is standing behind the report.

‘We have been extremely supportive of the feature film policy as developed by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps and our primary position is that the industry should mobilize behind the minister on her proposals,’ says King. ‘It is time for the industry to reach a consensus so the minister can be assured of support.’

Tax-credit issues are also being looked at by the guild. The impact of tax credits has not only stirred controversy in Canada with the feature film report, but the labor incentives have also become a point of contention in the lobby by the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America to curb runaway production.

Reports have been circulating about plans to bring forward a federal labor incentive for film and tv production in the u.s. as well as reintroduce subsidies in California, although such proposals died in the state legislative assembly months ago.

The dgc says it will not take a position on the issue of the American incentives, but it did register its concern that the figures in the dga/sag-commissioned Monitor Report were inflated.

According to the study, film and tv projects shot abroad cost the u.s. economy us$10.3 billion in 1998 and translated into the loss of 23,500 full-time, below-the-line jobs.

‘We were concerned that the case being made on an economic basis was totally unrealistic,’ says King. ‘The amount of production that has gone outside the u.s. is not even beginning to be in proportion to the amount [of product] the u.s. sells elsewhere.’

He adds that according to cftpa stats, the amount of work done in Canada on films with u.s. money attached represents a mere 2% of total American production, whereas Canada buys 10% of the u.s. industry’s output.

The dgc has commissioned a major tax-credit review to set the record straight on the impact of labor incentives on the Canadian industry. The study will be brought to the executive board in several weeks and will include a review and report on the genesis of tax credits in Canada and in the provinces.

‘The purpose is to ensure that we are clear on the reality of tax credits and how they affect production,’ says King. ‘The difficulty is people say many things but the research behind it is flimsy.’

Also on the dgc agenda is keeping a sharp eye on broadcasters’ schedules in the wake of the new crtc television policy, which goes into effect in September 2000. When the regulator announced the new television rules in June, the dgc noted its concern over the failure to place minimum financial expenditures on broadcasters’ primetime Cancon schedules, stating that historically if broadcasters are not required to spend, they spend less. King says the dgc plans to monitor how much each broadcaster is spending on primetime drama and notify the crtc if budgets begin to fall.

International initiatives are an increasingly crucial thrust for the guild. National executive secretary Pamela Brand just returned from a meeting in Berlin with the Media Entertainment Industry Council, an organization which includes trade unions, guilds and associations from around the world. The mei deals with issues pertaining to contracting, conditions of work, ensuring proper remuneration avoiding exploitation of labor, as well as copyright issues and ensuring opportunities for cultural expression by filmmakers in each of their respective countries.

‘The dgc needs to be able to respond and contract and monitor arrangements for production around the world because we all have the experience of working in each other’s territories,’ explains King. ‘This is a global industry and we have to find ways to regulate matters between each territory and collaborate on policies to make sure that we are assisting each other, not cutting each other’s throats.’

In the coming year, the dgc will also look at improving its health plan and explore immigration issues to ensure its membership – which has more than tripled over the last 10 years to 3,000 from 1,100 – is protected. by Cheryl Binning

*Writers Guild of Canada

In a proposal sent to Telefilm Canada and Heritage Canada, the Writers Guild of Canada is calling for the new feature film policy to allot $2 million annually for script development.

‘The basic theme of the wgc proposal is writer access to development money,’ says wgc executive director Maureen Parker. ‘We have discussed with Heritage and Telefilm that to make this feature film fund work, we need an adequate pool of money available to develop ideas. To finance the development of three or four scripts a year is not sufficient. The more scripts we have in the system, the higher the chance we have of success.’

The wgc also recommends that a stream of the feature film program should allow writers to directly access development financing, without being required to have their project attached to a producer or distributor.

Parker says she has not seen the recent feature film report prepared by Telefilm’s executive director Francois Macerola, and has only read about his recommendations in Playback.

‘We haven’t looked at it in-depth because it hasn’t been made public, but from what we have read, it didn’t have us dancing in the street,’ says Parker. ‘It didn’t seem particularly writer-friendly. How do you develop material without focusing on the writer who writes the script?’

The wgc has also been focusing lobbying efforts on the crtc in the wake of the recent television policy regulations, which Parker says diluted the emphasis on Canadian drama.

‘The crtc television policy does not give any incentive to the production of drama when a documentary or magazine program is worth almost as much in terms of value under the content system,’ she says.

‘Drama is the backbone of our industry, and without an incentive to produce it, we will continue to see Canadian writers flock to countries where there is drama production.’

The wgc is currently organizing a lobbying committee composed of Canada’s top writers to voice these concerns.

The guild is also taking the position that the point system deeming a project Canadian content needs to be reviewed. The current cavco ‘six out of 10’ requirement allows producers to attach either a Canadian writer or director to a project to attain the minimum level for cavco certification and access to tax credits.

In tv series projects shooting in Canada but originating in l.a., Parker says the production community is generally choosing to go with a Canadian director and engaging l.a. writers, who also serve as show runners and producers.

Lack of work for Canadian writers means a growing drain of talent south of the border.

‘It’s an ongoing and increasing concern that writers can’t make a living in their own country,’ says Parker.

Beyond its mandate to monitor policy issues, top priority at the wgc is negotiating new terms for the writers’ Independent Production Agreement.

Negotiations with the cftpa and the apftq began in March, with the most recent discussions held in Halifax and further meetings scheduled for November.

The key issues on the table for the wgc are bringing animation writers under the wings of the ipa and coming to an agreement with the producers on the writers’ share of back-end compensation.

Animation writers are not covered under the terms of the collective agreement. ‘Our members are operating in a dual system,’ explains Parker. ‘When they are writing drama and documentary scripts, they receive the minimum terms and economic benefits, but when they turn the corner and work for the same production company on an animation script, they make considerably less money with no benefits.’

The wgc is calling for standard fees and an equitable share of back-end profits for writers working on animation programs. The wgc is standing behind the point that writing for a drama or an animated series involves the same process and same amount of work and should receive similar benefits under the collective agreement.

The definition of producers receipts – whether or not this includes minimum guarantees and distribution advances – is the crux of the issue in the disagreement with the producers associations and the wgc over back-end compensation. Writers are issued a royalty calculated on 4% of producers receipts, less distribution fees/expenses and production fees paid for writing services. From its audits on a number of production companies, the wgc found that producers are failing to include minimum guarantees and distribution advances as producers receipts and, according to the guild’s interpretation of the ipa, are shortchanging writers out of thousands of dollars in royalties.

While the wgc asserts that when a producer gives distribution rights to a distributor and receives an advance or minimum guarantee this payment falls under the ipa definition of producers receipts, some producers say they only have to report money that the distributor eventually earns back against the guarantee, i.e., waiting until a program goes into profit.

‘We seem to be making progress,’ says Parker of the negotiations, but with talks at a critical stage, she cannot go into specifics.

In addition to the negotiation of new terms for its members, Parker adds that the day-to-day enforcement of the collective agreements is becoming an increasingly large part of the wgc’s workload.

‘We have a number of arbitrations on the go – the most I have ever seen in my 11 years at the wgc,’ says Parker. ‘The industry is maturing, the business is becoming more complex and the issues are bigger. Where we used to be able to resolve concerns informally with a joint standing process in our collective agreement, we are no longer able to do that. The stakes are too high, the money is too big and the issues are too complex, so we are moving into a very legalistic formal framework for resolving disputes.’

In terms of heightening the profile of Canadian writers, the wgc is gearing up for its fourth annual Top Ten Awards, which celebrate screenwriter talent. Meanwhile, the sixth issue of the wgc’s trade magazine Canadian Screenwriter has been published. By the end of the year, the wgc plans to bring out the magazine for widespread public distribution.

Upcoming initiatives include a writers and directors conference, scheduled for Feb. 25 to 27 in Toronto. This international event is being organized jointly by the wgc and the dgc. The conference will mark the first time in Canada in which writers and directors can come together to discuss the process of development and production, says Parker. A lineup of high-profile Canadian and international writers and directors are expected to speak at the event.

February also marks the first in a series of training seminars to be launched by the wgc. Open to both wgc members and non-members, the pilot workshop in Toronto will feature Canada’s top show runners discussing writing for series television. This will be followed by a workshop on long-form writing. The plan is to then take the seminars across the country.

by Cheryl Binning

*ACTRA

Having just come off completing the newest Independent Production Agreement and the latest commercial agreement, actra is gearing up for negotiations with the cbc, the specialties, ctv and Global.

Starting in November, the union will be sitting down with cbc to forge two new agreements – one covering performers in tv and the other in radio.

‘Our negotiations are traditional and ongoing,’ says Stephen Waddell, national executive director of actra. ‘Earnings at the cbc now represent 3% of the overall earnings of performers in our jurisdiction, which is a function of the cbc moving its production into the independent production sector, as well as the fact that the independent production sector has surged in terms of dollars, so we’ve seen a significant drop in terms of earnings under that agreement,’ he explains.

Negotiations with the specialties, primarily the Alliance Atlantis family of channels as well as those of ChumCity and Astral Communications, will kick off around the same time.

In 1996, the union was granted jurisdiction over the specialties under the Federal Status of the Artist Act, and now it is exercising that right by entering into first agreement negotiations. ‘The specialties tend to purchase programming from independent producers, so the amount of actual engagement of performers bought directly by these companies is limited. And inevitably, we get arguments that their budgets are limited so rates should be lower than those under the ipa,’ says Waddell.

actra will also be seeking to renew agreements with ctv and Global, which, like the cbc, have shown a significant drop in performers’ earnings because of the increasing use of independent producers. Past agreements reflected the fact that both private networks used to produce directly, but now, says Waddell, ‘they’re doing it through licence arrangements and they’re mainly employing performers to do variety shows or network ids.

‘We haven’t really put any emphasis on increasing the level of engagement by the networks directly because it’s being done by the independent production sector where we’re seeing an overall rise in earnings, and we’ve got that area pretty well covered off with the ipa,’ he says.

The union will, however, be placing an emphasis on the issue of neighboring rights. In response to an amendment to the Copyright Act to provide performers/musicians with the ability to exercise rights in sound recordings, actra has formed a neighboring rights collective. The collective has filed a tariff, which it has successfully defended before the Copyright Board, and for the first time, moneys are now flowing to performers in sound recordings.

‘Having established that regime, we are now attempting to promote the amendment to the Copyright Act nationally and internationally,’ says Waddell. ‘We’ve been lobbying the World Intellectual Property Organization for years, and we’re getting close to achieving an international protocol on audiovisual which would establish moral and other rights. We’ve also been lobbying Heritage and Industry Canada.’

Until now, performers’ rights were only established through actra’s collective agreements.

actra is also continuing to lobby for amendments to the feature film policy in an effort to increase the number of points available to performers. ‘We want to see [performers] having more weight in terms of the overall point structure,’ says Waddell.

As for actra membership, this year the union boasts a record high of 14,000 – 10,000 full members and 4,000 apprentice members – up almost 3,000 from last year.

Waddell attributes the rapid increase in membership to the amount of production taking place in the independent production areas of feature film and television, coupled with the surge of new media production and specialty channels.

However, the issue of work opportunity for Canadian performers remains the biggest challenge. There is still a major discrepancy between the number of indigenous performers and the number of roles available to them, which is particularly discouraging in an environment where the main production is industrial as opposed to the cultural variety of the past. ‘In this environment, we’re producing primarily for the international marketplace and, inevitably, the leading roles are going to non-Canadians who are being imported,’ says Waddell.

In an effort to rally for Canadian performers, the union tries to approach producers at an early stage of the casting process to go over scripts with them and question why they are bringing in non-Canadians for leading roles when they can find equally (if not more) affordable and capable talent in Canada.

Also, there have been ongoing discussions with the cftpa and apftq for almost a year about a new, low-budget feature contract that would encourage the engagement of performers in low-budget films.

‘With what we believe to be an impending $100-million feature film fund, and the fact that we need, as Canadians, feature films that speak something of our country, we’re trying to find a structure whereby Canadian performers covered by actra can appear in low-budget films for substantially less than the book rates,’ says Waddell.

The idea is to lower the front-end fees in order for the talent to make money on the back end.

Interestingly, independent producers and the union are on similar sides of the table in this particular case. ‘Independent producers are almost as vulnerable as performers when it comes to trying to recoup moneys from distributors,’ says Waddell. ‘We’ve had a few meetings together with some of the major distributors and we’re trying to sort out how revenue can flow back to the producers and the performers on a basis that’s equitable for distributors and beneficiaries.’

As for actra’s position on ‘runaway productions,’ Waddell says it’s within the rights of u.s. unions, primarily the Screen Actors Guild, to lobby for tax-credit systems in their country in the same manner they’ve been attained in Canada. He is confident that because of the low Canadian dollar, the availability of talent, crew, locations and tax credits, the u.s. unions will be hard-pressed to replicate at home the benefits of shooting in Canada.

However, ‘what would be regrettable is any effort by the u.s. majors to squeeze our brother and sister performers in the u.s. to reduce their rates and residual fees,’ says Waddell. ‘We should be raising our rates and residual rights to a level that’s comparable to the u.s., not the opposite.’

by Samantha Yaffe

*IATSE

The main focus at iatse these days is Toronto Local 873’s efforts to establish a one-union city.

Confident that it can benefit its members more than rival union nabet, Local 873 began a membership drive in September, hoping to collect some of nabet’s studio mechanics and film technicians.

Local 873 president Paul Harding says there are no strings attached for nabet members who wish to make the jump to iatse. ‘We are offering automatic membership to every nabet technician,’ says Harding. ‘There are no hurdles to go through, and no trade tests. We have a window open that started on Sept. 20 and will go through Dec. 31. It’s been a successful drive to date.’

According to Harding, the membership drive is not intended to create any waves in Toronto’s current production schedule. iatse has been recommending that technicians coming over from nabet stay on their current productions and see them finished before making the jump, to minimize confusion and hardship for producers.

Harding maintains that with two unions in Toronto competing for the same sector of workers there has been a ‘steady race towards the bottom. The only way to get out of that competitive spiral is to advocate a one-union environment.’

Although Harding believes production has been on the rise in Toronto, he feels the city is still losing valuable business to Vancouver and Montreal, both one-union towns.

‘We have a clear understanding that there are very rigid parameters that producers work within in terms of budgeting,’ says Harding. ‘We can design contracts that fit very nicely into the budgets that the producers are constrained by. With a one-union environment, we can do that responsibly, but we can do that without having to be in a competition with another union where rates and benefits are in a constant spiral.’

Another issue iatse is looking at seriously is the unconditional safety of its members while at work on a set, or traveling to and from a set. Harding says the issue of travel zones is of increasing importance as film technicians are made to drive long distances after a long day shooting, only to drive back to the set after too few hours of sleep.

‘Because of the long hours that film technicians have to work, the danger is that people will fall asleep at the wheel and get into an accident,’ says Harding. ‘There has got to be some kind of accommodation set up for them.’

iatse has health and safety coordinators who visit sets around Toronto and speak with the producers and production managers about safety issues, a practice Harding says the producers appreciate.

‘Producers are always looking for the liability factors,’ says Harding. ‘What we are trying to do is reduce the liability factors for the producers so they have the information they need to make judgments.’

Harding says iatse feels it can be the sole voice for Toronto’s film technicians, representing their interests on tax incentive issues to safety measures, and in turn make Toronto the undisputed production capital of Canada.

‘We are making very strong efforts to make sure that the amount of production money coming into Toronto will continue to increase and increase rapidly over the years,’ says Harding. ‘In order to do that, we really have to make Toronto a much friendlier place to do business.’ by Dustin Dinoff

*Canadian Media Guild

The Canadian Media Guild, a national local of the Communications Workers of America, whose membership is primarily made up of news and current affairs workers at the cbc, is steaming up over the government’s presidential appointment process, or lack thereof, for the helmless pubcaster.

As it stands, the pmo appoints the president of the cbc, but has not yet replaced Perrin Beatty, who resigned in August.

‘The board of directors, which is also appointed by the prime minister’s office, doesn’t even have a say, and it’s questionable how much say even the Department of Canadian Heritage has in the appointment of a president,’ says Jon Soper, the cmg’s vp at large.

Nonetheless, the guild is waiting for the House of Commons to constitute a new Heritage committee so it can make overtures to move the cbc up as a priority item in the cultural agenda of the federal government – to discuss the mandate of the Corp, the lack of a president and the method in which a president is selected.

‘We want to have more of an open system….I think it’s unheard of that you have this kind of closed appointment system for any large corporation that’s so important, particularly on the cultural side of the country. It’s a decision that can have a big impact on performing artists, independent producers and the kind of programming that’s to be done,’ says Soper.

‘So far the government has shown no interest in listening to the guild or the Friends of Public Broadcasting, but that won’t stop us from attempting to make a change,’ he adds.’

cmg tends to align itself with Friends of Public Broadcasting as well as other community-based groups, particularly when it comes to the cbc. ‘It’s one thing to say we want to save the cbc because our jobs are there, but we also have to work with groups that have other reasons to ensure the survival of Canadian programming,’ says Soper.

Meantime, the guild is in the process of unionizing programming workers at tvontario, a proposal that is currently in front of the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

It is also looking to expand efforts to help freelance journalists in radio and tv gain copyrights, which Soper says many engagers don’t want to give.

But the guild’s main business is negotiating and enforcing collective agreements, the most recent of which focuses on internal training programs.

The guild, in its present status – representing 4,400 workers, 3,500 of whom are employed at the cbc – was born out of the 1996 merger of several cbc unions, instituted by the Canada Labour Board. As a result, the cmg was left with about 16 collective agreements to bring together under one, at a time of major cutbacks and layoffs.

by Samantha Yaffe