Vancouver: While the actors union has signed collective agreements with Police Academy and Sleepwalkers and has an agreement in principle with Wrongfully Accused, the legacy of its summertime uprising is haunting the Vancouver industry.

Local producers connected to u.s studios contend the situation threatens to erupt into crisis proportions while ubcp representatives maintain the whole issue is overblown and is another example of the u.s. majors leveraging fear to keep the vested interests here aquiver.

Line producer Warren Carr, for one, says the Vancouver industry should be worried about lost business. Sony/Columbia/TriStar, Disney, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox are all ‘very reserved’ about coming to Vancouver because of ongoing issues with the performers, he explains.

His own experience negotiating Wrongfully Accused was ‘abominable,’ in that it involved tactics ‘out of character’ for ubcp and hearings at the Labour Relations Board. The performers union, Carr adds, is not interested in negotiating and is resorting to ‘back-room bullying’ and ‘take it or leave it’ offers.

As a result, Vancouver is seeing projects originally destined for b.c. hesitate or drop out.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas, a $20-million Disney road movie about a hitchhiker heading home for nog, had been budgeted for Vancouver for more than three years, but will shoot in l.a.

Jerry Ketcham, vp production for Walt Disney Motion Pictures in l.a., says: ‘I know there are some problems with the actors union. It has had some effect [on the decision whether to shoot in Vancouver]. Labor relations [at Disney] is very concerned about the actor problem. It’s frustrating, but it hasn’t gotten to the point where they say `Don’t go there.’ ‘

An unnamed $100-million-plus Universal project by Robert Zemeckis that was apparently scouting Vancouver has pulled up stakes because of the actors’ dispute. Universal labor relations referred calls to the amptp.

Carr says he had a deal brewing with Fox for a $60-million sci-fi feature that fell apart specifically because of the actors.

At issue is the apparent relevance of the ubcp, which negotiates autonomously from the Independent Production Agreement that governs performers in the rest of Canada. As negotiations move the local union closer to the ipa, producers like Carr wonder if its existence is threatened.

Kate Robbins, vp of ubcp’s executive board, says she can only point to the union’s record: even when the issues around Police Academy, Wrongfully Accused, Sleepwalkers and Rupert’s Land broke open, ubcp was still signing collective agreements with other shows. ‘It’s usually just a phone call and a handshake, by and large,’ she says of negotiations. ‘The process of bargaining has been straightforward and civil.’

She says concerns are overblown in that local actors represent less than 5% of production budgets and that lingering concerns have to do with the publicity around Police Academy. ‘We’ve never had to be noisy before,’ she explains.

Union representatives deny that an internal squabble between ubcp and the national actra office is behind any perceived labor problems in b.c. The master agreement was rejected in July by 96% of the voting ubcp membership.

Carr says he and others are working on an industry confab that would address these issues and resolve them as quickly as possible. He also wants a master agreement that simplifies negotiations.

‘We want the actors in b.c., not the extras who run the office, to wake up and get involved in their union,’ he says.

At the same time, the long-awaited, three-year master agreement authored by the B.C. Council of Film Unions and producers is still being ratified. Votes are not counted until Oct. 6. The agreement is expected to pass, but not without acrimony.

Members of Teamsters Local 155, a council member with IATSE Locals 891 and 669, have their trucks emblazoned with ‘Vote No’ signs.

Tom Milne, Teamsters representative, says he is recommending his members reject the Council’s agreements because of issues including replacement workers and second meals.

*Playground starts to swing

Vidatron has committed to another series, this one a weekly half-hour on video games: Electric Playground. Produced in association with Vidatron subsidiary, The Eyes Multimedia Productions, the information series will include news, reviews, and interviews with publishers, developers and celebrities. The show premiered Sept. 28 on kvos in Vancouver, Citytv in Toronto, and stations in l.a., San Francisco, Seattle and Fairbanks.

Vidatron, which is also behind Deadman’s Gun and First Wave, holds worldwide distribution rights. Victor Lucas, the creative driving force of the show, acts as executive producer and Tommy Tallarico (abc’s In Concert) will host.

*VIFF-a-vavoom

A few of the homemade films making it into the Vancouver International Film Festival are:

* Barnone, a feature by director Mark Tuit and Burning Giraffe Pictures, is a humorous tale of jaded bartenders.

* Barbecue, a love story, a feature by director Stacy Kirk and producer Bob Millar, is a quirky character-driven love story about obsession and compulsion in a incompatible relationship.

Shorts are:

* Savour Me, by Claudia Morgado Escanilla, a 20-minute story about two women and their mutual longing.

* The Time Being, a 52-minute piece by Kenneth Sherman, is a drama about euthanasia in the era of aids.

* Darkly Machiever, a $30,000, silent, black-and-white project by David Birnbaum, is about one man trying to fathom his role in the grand scheme of things.

* Keith Behrman’s half-hour drama White Cloud, Blue Mountain makes it to viff screens after a troubled genesis that included camera problems and 5,000 meters of ruined 35mm film. Coproduced by Trish Dolman, the film focuses on the troubled relationship between a father and son.

* Everybody Loves Nothing, an 11-minute film by Steve Reinke, is about becoming a man in the modern world.

* Codes of Conduct, an eight-minute piece by David Rimmer, challenges moral order.

* Road Movie is a 25-minute mockumentary by Steven Haworth about a filmmaker who finds it’s tough not to sell out.

* Bad Thoughts, a 20-minute piece by Jacqueline Levitin, is about a researcher of sexual telepathy.

* Once Upon Our Times a 28-minute anthology of works from Vancouver’s Cineworks co-op.

Also higher-profile local features Drive, She Said (by Mina Shum) and Kitchen Party (by Gary Burns) will be on view. New Western Canadian directors – short- and long-format – are vying for the Best Emerging Director awards.