Following the success and notoriety of his Genie Award-winning directorial and screenwriting debut The Hanging Garden, Nova Scotia-based Thom Fitzgerald is back directing and producing his next feature and hoping to avoid the sophomore jinx. A stylish and comic docudrama examining the gay culture surrounding muscle magazines of the 1950s and ’60s, Beefcake began a month-long shoot Nov. 25 on two Halifax-area soundstages.

Supplemented by interviews with photographers and models of the period which will be shot in late January and February in Los Angeles and other foreign locations, the drama part of the film focuses on the life of photographer Bob Mizer. Mizer (played by Daniel MacIvor) was a mogul in the world of muscle magazines. Publishing Physique Pictorial Magazine, Mizer eventually bought up an l.a. city block and built the Athletic Model Guild Studios, where he shot muscle films with his young male actors who he often ‘discovered’ at the bus station.

The drama portion of the film also stars Joshua Peace, who plays character Neil E. O’Hara, a young muscle boy from Pugwash, n.s., who attends Mizer’s trial after he is charged with conspiracy to run a prostitution ring.

Speaking of trials, with Fitzgerald’s recent success and notoriety has come increased scrutiny and expectations. All parties involved say Fitzgerald’s new high profile may have contributed to an actra decision to discipline five or six of its members for working on Beefcake, which is not an actra signatory production.

actra Maritimes branch representative Gary Vermeir says the five or six actors involved (including stars MacIvor and Peace as well as cbc Jonovision host and Torrential Pictures principal Jonathan Torrens) were in violation of three separate bylaws, namely working without an actra contract, working for less than actra minimums and working with non-qualified (union sanctioned) personnel.

The actra branch council chose to waive two of the violations and fine the members $2,000 each for working for less than applicable union fees. All members have filed appeals with their local branches.

The eternally soft-spoken Fitzgerald is clearly miffed with the actra action and the impending controversy.

‘When we financed the film (pre Toronto International Film Festival and Genies) I was a nobody,’ says Fitzgerald, who along with Emotion Pictures coproducer Shandi Mitchell managed to finance the $755,000 production through a presale to Britain’s Channel 4, Telefilm Canada, a Canadian distribution deal with Cineplex Odeon Films and a recent sale of the films’ worldwide rights to Alliance.

‘Beefcake has been financed as a low-budget, gay- and lesbian-oriented documentary film. It just doesn’t have the money,’ says Fitzgerald, adding that to make the film under actra would have meant a drastic alteration to the project by limiting the number of performers.

Vermeir says Fitzgerald and Mitchell were very up front about their intentions and that the real ‘sticking point’ in negotiations came with their inability to pay user fees or residuals to the actors. Fitzgerald says ‘profit points’ have been assigned to every member of the cast and crew.

Fitzgerald paid the actors $100 a day, the same rate every other crew member was given. ‘actra would ask that we prioritize the actors over the crew and in this case we were very egalitarian and everybody was paid the same except for me. I didn’t get paid,’ says Fitzgerald.

‘Any implication that I’m an exploitive producer is ridiculous, I’ve never made a $100 a day at any job in my life, including directing The Hanging Garden. I can’t feel like I’m pillaging anybody.

‘I think actors should consider joining the union when it’s appropriate. It’s not smart for an actor to join the union based on having had three on-camera extra parts,’ says Fitzgerald. ‘That would eliminate the possibility of gaining any acting experience. This has happened to a lot of our local people. If they don’t get any acting experience then they will never get to work on those big imported productions.’

Aside from the actra problem, things seem to have gone quite well for the month-long portion of the production shot at Tour Tech East and Electropolis Studios in Halifax.

Fitzgerald thinks the film should be screamingly funny. ‘I’ve never seen a crew gathered around a monitor at rushes howling with laughter,’ says the director. ‘I think it’s partly because if you turned on the tv and started watching this film, you’d never know you weren’t watching a ’50s movie.’

Trying to recapture the look of a ’50’s b musical has been a team effort with all the cast and crew pitching in. Director of photography Tom Harting is shooting the film on 35mm, but is shooting some sequences on 16mm reversal film in order to match archival muscle footage. In some cases characters are being shot blue screen to be composited into existing footage. For the courtroom scene, Harting is shooting in black and white and has emptied the local William F. White of all their lights, according to Fitzgerald.

The enormous building exterior sets in the studio from production designer D’arcay Poultney and set decorator Darlene Shields are adding to the b movie camp feel of Beefcake as is costume designer James Worthen’s wardrobe design, which includes Mrs. Mizer’s outfits made from tea towels.

Though the production has already been grueling and the interview portions still have to be shot, Fitzgerald is able to reflect positively on the experience and says that people have a different perspective on him now.

‘On The Hanging Garden everything I said was up for debate and that seems to have changed. When you’re a first-time director people assume that you’re not in the know,’ says Fitzgerald. ‘In reality I was smarter than they thought before and I’m not as smart as they think I am now.’