Playback Spring 2023

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Steering towards hope

SINK OR SWIM. ALL HANDS ON DECK. STEM THE TIDE. The nautical phrases were plentiful and unavoidable as we assessed the state of the industry and mulled over the theme of this issue.

Between producers’ input on issues such as inflation for our 2023 Indie List survey (pg. 19), and industry executives’ thoughts on the newly passed Bill C-11 (pg. 26) to update the Broadcasting Act, it’s clear we’re in for some major waves.

Our choice of ‘Tide Over’ for the cover represents an industry that is making do with what it has (the 2023 federal budget tabled in March had no additional funding for Telefilm Canada, the Indigenous Screen Office or CBC/Radio-Canada) and floating with the tide until the next big wind comes to fill its sails.

Will the Online Streaming Act provide that wind?

The Department of Canadian Heritage has estimated the legislation will generate $1 billion annually for Canada’s creative sector by making streaming services contribute to the system. But, as our C-11 feature outlines, just how the money will be disbursed is yet to be determined.

Such matters will be addressed in the policy direction Canadian Heritage will send to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission following its public consultation, which has a big task ahead of it as it holds its own public proceedings on the Act.

Adding to industry uncertainty is the Writers Guild of America strike, which was into its second week as of press time for this magazine. As with C-11, the streaming world is one of the key points in the labour unrest, with the guild saying streaming has driven the growth for the U.S. industry revenue base over the past decade yet screenwriter pay has stagnated and declined.

On this side of the border, producers have told Playback that the strike has slowed down production and the buying marketplace but also presents an opportunity for acquisition of strike-proof Canadian projects by U.S. networks and streamers.

In related labour rights action, ACTRA turns 80 this year and we used our Tribute feature to take a deep dive into its history (pg. 31) and future. Meanwhile, we’re thrilled to present our second 2023 Hall of Fame inductee: actor, producer and former member of Parliament Tina Keeper (pg. 35).

While Canadian producers are bracing for an unpredictable economy, our Indie List shows some are also looking to grow their companies within the next year, with coproductions and coventures offering the biggest opportunities. More hope can be found in the Canadian Media Producers Association’s newly released Profile 2022 report, showing Canada’s total production volume hit an all-time high of $11.7 billion in 2021-22.

So, are you looking at our cover and thinking you need to strap in for a storm? Or does it make you feel optimistic – that there’s a life preserver out there to help? Or maybe it’s both?

I’m going with the latter. As I’ve heard time and again from producers, the marketplace is constantly changing and always has been; that’s just the nature of the business. But it seems the ship is steering toward the hope of more money coming into the system to help films and series that are uniquely Canadian thrive on home soil.

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Pitch pressure

AS THE WORLD’S LEADING MEDIA EXECUTIVES PREPARE TO DESCEND on the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), it’s an intriguing time for international buyers. Rapid expansion in the free ad-supported TV (FAST) channel landscape, intensified competition among SVOD streaming platforms, and the extension of traditional linear broadcasters into the digital arena means the buying community’s ability to identify and acquire marquee content has become more mission-critical than ever.

Playback checked in with a cross-section of international programming execs to see what’s breaking through with audiences and how that’s shaping their investment strategy and content focus.

For Jo Clinton-Davis, controller of factual at leading U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV, this will be the first edition of BANFF since her company launched streaming platform ITVX. Consequently, she is in the market for a broader range of programming.

For the company’s flagship entertainment channel ITV1, she says “the holy grail” is mainstream, returnable, factual entertainment formats: “We’ve had success with The Real Full Monty and Long Lost Family brands – so what’s next? For ITV1, formats need scale and noisy presence to cut through. They also need an authentic starting point.”

Clinton-Davis says ITV1 has done well with “immersive vehicles for talent,” naming reality series Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad as an example. “That was a funny adventure revealing a different side to one of Britain’s best-loved faces. Talent needs to speak to U.K. viewers.”

Slots on ITV1 are limited and the competition is tough, says Clinton-Davis, so shows need “sheer audacity and

unmissability” to stand any chance of being picked up. With ITVX, Clinton-Davis says “we still need ‘big beast’ ideas but we’ve been able to diversify our palette. Crime series like Murder in the Family and Social Media Murders have cut through.” With ITVX in mind, she is broadening the crime portfolio and is also “in the market for timely stories about ourselves and our society that feel like reallife dramas.”

The right biopic, such as The Rise and Fall of Boris Becker, is of interest, while factual series Born From the Same Stranger also resonated. “We’re also in the market for copros. Some of our talent-led shows, for example Martin Clunes: Islands of the Pacific, are eminently coproducable.”

Still in the U.K., Channel 4 head of acquisitions and international Nick Lee is targeting both unscripted and scripted coproduction opportunities. “For unscripted, we primarily seek docuseries and multi-part specialist factual; true crime, accessible history, human interest, archive-driven, and personality-driven travelogue are high on our agenda. For scripted, our focus is on crime and psychological thrillers; we want grounded female-skewing stories, and aren’t looking for anything too genre heavy.”

In general, Lee says C4 is “very opportunistic and looking for content that will resonate with the curious audience we serve. Our aim is to create change through entertainment.”

Lee is looking ahead to 2024 now and, in terms of pitches, says: “We look for as complete a package as possible with a credible finance plan. If there aren’t other partners attached, we need to know – who does the producer think it would work for and why?”

Global buyers discuss their content wish lists at the Banff World Media Festival.

At the same time, he stresses that “connecting with like-minded international broadcasters and working out their editorial requirements and financial contributions is as important to us as finding specific content opportunities. We are growing our prebuying model and that requires making connections with new partners.”

Also heading to BANFF is Lauren Frasca, SVP of content and strategy at Warner Bros. Discovery-backed Magnolia Network. Priorities include “premium unscripted series and specials that are the very best stories that come across producers’ desks. We want our content to feel like time well spent to a viewer – programming that is thought-provoking, with bold ambitions and stakes, or access to people, places or ideas rarely seen. Right now, we are interested in programming with humour, where everyone is in on the joke.”

Key genres for Magnolia are home, design, food and lifestyle, says Frasca: “But really we are keeping a wide aperture. As long as the content fits our brand – which is family-friendly, hopeful, diverse, authentic and aspirational – we’d love to hear about it.”

Echoing the situation at ITV, Frasca is now “commissioning for two platforms: our linear network as well as Warner Bros. Discovery’s new Max streaming platform. For linear, we are looking for long-running series that pair well with our existing standouts – like Maine Cabin Masters. It’s a more co-viewing, lean-back environment. For streaming, we are looking for younger, female-skewing, more premium programs.”

Kathryn Tyus-Adair, SVP, original programming, Starz says “representation of underserved audiences” is always a top priority when hunting for new content. More generally, “I’m looking for fresh voices and sophisticated storytelling for ongoing series, exclusively for adult audiences; shows with specific ways of presenting universal themes.”

In terms of genre, she is “drawn to grounded drama, dramedy and comedy,” she says. “I like shows that introduce audiences to unfamiliar people and worlds, but feel familiar in their themes.”

Regarding the pitch, she says: “I am always listening for a clear vision of what the show is and that it is a show that works for what we do. I’m also a fan of brevity. Pitches should be under 20 to 25 minutes with room for questions. I want a sense of key characters and what’s driving them, of the world of the show and why we’ll be drawn to it.”

Aubrey Clarke, commissioning executive, children’s 7+, BBC, will be at BANFF looking for “unique but relatable storytelling where kids can see themselves reflected on screen. Ensuring content is diverse and inclusive is a cornerstone in anything we commission.”

Scripted and non-scripted projects are of interest, says Clarke, “however there is greater emphasis in finding the next big animated show that will have broad appeal domestically and internationally. Because we have CBBC and CBeebies channels plus iPlayer, we are looking for commissions, cocommissions and acquisitions that can work across media.”

The POV from DOVers

Half a decade in, the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices (DOV) Initiative has already graduated hundreds of alumni from TV, film and digital media, some of whom are now seeing their projects from the market access program come to fruition.

Launched in 2018 by the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), in partnership with Netflix, DOV includes customized industry sessions, market access and industry profile for underrepresented creators and producers. Playback asked five alumni from the program – which also has the support of the Black Screen Office, the Indigenous Screen Office and la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) – about the projects they’re working on.

Angela Hanna Goulene Class of 2022

The France-born, Montreal-based writerfilmmaker-illustrator met a U.S. agent while taking part in DOV, as well as a broadcast executive who ended up investing development money into one of her show projects. Goulene has since founded Hannagie Productions and hopes to see three of her projects – two live-action, one animated – “make it to the big screen in the next few years.” She’s also a screenwriter for a preschool show at Epic Story Media, a full-time screenwriter for PlayStation, and is applying for funding for her own game prototypes. She aims to prove that “bold, original” content can sell well.

The market is “starving for original content… from diverse creators,” Goulene says, noting all of her stories “focus on characters who feel different and out of place in the world they’re in. I think that’s something that everyone, but especially minorities, whether sexual, neurodiverse or ethnic, can relate to. I hope that the content I create can help people not feel so alone – and that it can inspire them to create their own.”

Faran Moradi Class of 2022 and 2023

The Toronto-based, Iranian-Canadian filmmaker of Tehranto met a critical partner through DOV in Wes Ambrecht, VP, content, at Titan1Studios. Moradi is now attached as director of the feature Across Waves, which will be produced by Ambrecht under his new shingle, Only Living Boy Productions. Written by Jonathan Wax and Matthew Hoch, the story is about a widowed father who’s lost at sea and the astronaut he connects with via a ham radio. Moradi is also in development on the feature Cry Wolf, about a biologist in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the crime dramedy series Tehranto Taj, about an Iranian-Canadian lawyer who inherits the reins of a Mob family.

Moradi wants to stay and continue working in Canada, “but we need studios and TV producers who want to do something new, and stop playing things so ‘safe,’” he says. “It’s almost like Canadian execs unanimously hire the same group of directors for every show across all our networks – mix it up a little. That’s how you keep things feeling fresh and avoid things having a homogenous ‘Canadian look.’”

Diversity of Voices participants map out their career strategies.

YOU IGNITE THE CHANGE. WE BRING THE SPARK.

The Canada Media Fund is here to support bold, courageous voices across the audiovisual industry—from television and web series to documentaries, video games, IDM and immersive projects. Wherever there’s a vision and a desire to shine a light, we’re there to light the spark.

Panta Mosleh

Class of

2022

A writer-director-producer-performer in Vancouver, Mosleh signed with Integral Artists’ Ben Silverman and Doreen Holmes after taking part in DOV, and the two helped her meet producer Graham Ludlow of Incendo. That led to her landing three features as a director, the last of which she’s just wrapping up. Mosleh is now in development on her “deeply personal” sitcom Pass the Salt for CBC with Incendo, on which Ludlow and Adam Feigen are attached as executive producers. The series features a first-generation Canadian of Muslim IranianPalestinian descent. She’s also developing the doc feature Queer & Muslim, the sitcom Amara, and the comedy procedural C.O.P.: Citizens on Patrol.

Mosleh says the Canadian industry woefully lacks shows and films with Middle Eastern or North African stories and characters at the forefront. “The networks and bigger production companies need to catch up with the wishes and cravings of the audience for the more diverse voices,” she says. “The time to finally have Canadian media give some representation to Iranian-Canadians is now.”

Mostafa Shaker

Class of 2021, 2022 and 2023

Writer-actor-producer Shaker, who is based in Vancouver and hails from Cairo, is embarking on his third DOV stint this year. In 2021, he pitched an original comedy series based on his own life called Muslim Mingle, which Crave bought at BANFF 2022. Shaker is currently in development on the series with Sphere Media. He’s also looking for a prodco to partner with on the half-hour comedy One Baby, Please!, “about an Arab immigrant and his Barbadian husband who want to have ‘a gayby,’” and seeking broadcaster commitment for an animated series called Marla and Merlin, about a young Middle Eastern witch who solves mysteries with her broom.

Shaker says his content is “unapologetically Canadian” and “often reflects and celebrates the current state of the country, shining light on communities whose stories we’ve yet to see on TV.” Canadian broadcasters and international streamers these days are “looking for local stories told from a unique, specific perspective,” he adds, noting he sees opportunities with broadcasters like CBC, Bell Media and Corus, as well as with streamers both inside and outside of Canada.

Reel lawyers.

Eva Thomas Class of 2018, 2019 and 2020

The Wallaceburg, Ont.-based writerproducer-director found her DOV connections to be “instrumental” in advancing her career. She recently worked on the writing teams for CTV’s Shelved as well as a CBC Gem series and an upcoming Crave series. Thomas is also producing two Telefilm Canada Talent to Watch Program projects, both of which have DOV participants as the writer and director. She also directed a few episodes of CBC’s Still Standing and a short film that she wrote, which is currently in post-production, and is developing her own TV and film projects.

Thomas says she sees “many opportunities” for her content and is “keeping a close eye on Bill C-11,” the newly passed update to the Broadcasting Act, noting it will “take greater account of Indigenous cultures, languages, and Canada’s diversity. I believe this legislation could provide a significant opportunity to create more diverse and inclusive content in the Canadian film and television landscape.”

Prime Video’s “covert” promo

Amazon’s Prime Video turned Torontonians into sleeper agents as part of an activation to promote original spy thriller series Citadel in April. The weekend-long event saw “recruits” track down an immersive Citadel truck at different locations in the city via social media hints for prizes. Consider it training for finding new shows in your ever-growing streamer menu.

Crazy / Brilliant

New adventures in audience (and ROI) building

Soccer TikTactics

TikTok has inked a multiyear partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS), which will integrate the video sharing platform into every game through in-stadium activations and see creators paired with MLS clubs to generate content. With more than 285 billion views on the hashtag #soccer on TikTok, both the platform and MLS seem poised to score audiences under the deal.

Bell, Snap,

swish

Bell and Snap dunked a first-ever, multi-user AR experience on Toronto Raptors fans this season. The Bell 5G Shot Clock Challenge let anyone in Scotiabank Arena with a 5G device compete by shooting hoops using a Snapchat AR lens during four games. Letting fans in on the game (and leaving 4G laggards with just a single-player version) may be the most compelling 5G use case yet.

Next Top Candyfluencer?

Taste the rainbow of brand integration: Streaming network FilmRise and Venture 10 Studio Group partnered with Skittles manufacturer Mars Wrigley on original reality competition Follow Me The series sees aspiring social media stars creating original content inspired by Mars Wrigley products, which also include Starburst and M&M’s, for viewer votes.

Roku knows what you want… in your cart

A new partnership between Roku and online grocer Instacart wants to punch up marketers’ ROI story. The streamer is combining its first-party data with Instacart’s insights to measure ad impact on e-commerce purchases. The win-win data collab hopes to make ad investment more efficient for advertisers, and more relevant to consumers.

All access

WHEN ACCESSIBLE MEDIA INC. (AMI) LAUNCHED THE DISABILITY SCREEN OFFICE (DSO) in April 2022, it did so with the goal of increasing accurate and meaningful disability representation in Canadian media, amplifying voices of Canadians with disabilities, and revealing and removing industry accessibility barriers.

scope and estimated budget. The goal is to publish a framework of first-round findings in 2024, with a full, final report expected the following year.

On the heels of its one-year anniversary, the DSO has made plenty of advances in achieving those goals, including framing out its board of directors with the financial support of Telefilm Canada and completing phase one research on a Canada Media Fund (CMF)-supported Best Practices Guide for Disability Engagement in the Canadian Film and Television Industry.

“It’s been a wild ride,” interim executive director Andrew Morris tells Playback of the past year. “We’ve been building an organization that has the capacity and governance to make the kind of changes that are needed for the industry to be accessible as a whole. And I mean everything – from education, to development of programs, to production, to showcasing your projects at events. It’s a huge task.”

He says the DSO also supported AMI’s initial Accessible Writers’ Lab and increased its presence at key industry events, including the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA) Prime Time event earlier this year in Ottawa and Content Canada in Toronto last September.

Morris does not self-identify as a person with a disability, which he says has been his biggest challenge. The DSO expects to name a permanent executive director soon.

“The majority of our board members are people who live in experience of disability,” says board chair Yazmine Laroche. “But Andrew didn’t just dream up the DSO, he did a lot of great work.”

Looking ahead, the DSO is close to beginning the second phase of its best practices guide, which involves assembling a committee of community representatives to oversee the project now that they’ve figured out the

“The best practices are going to evolve, so we may need to do more research or make sure it’s always upto-date,” says Laroche. “We’re also learning from what’s happening internationally, like the U.K., Australia and the U.S., and seeing what we can learn and apply in a Canadian context.”

In the interim, the DSO is working on unrolling training modules and a hub on its website comprising accessibility resources for those in the industry and anyone looking to enter it. As they do so, Morris says the CMF and Telefilm will continue their financial support. Laroche adds the DSO is also actively seeking new partnerships following a big strategic planning session in early February.

“You can’t do everything, so we’re figuring out and focusing on the things that are going to make the biggest difference based on our research,” she says.

One potential initiative is a production accessibility coordinator project, which would help train and implement a go-to person on productions for anything to do with accessibility. It’s a role Laroche says is emerging internationally, and that can make a huge difference in the Canadian screen industry. Another is figuring out how to increase mentorship opportunities so people with disabilities can get the experience they need.

The DSO also has a lead on a potential project on access funding, which could level the playing field and help lower-budget projects finance required accommodations when hiring someone with a disability. Finally, the DSO is also working on a training program for associations and businesses, and will continue to do event delegations.

“We’ll continue to work with event producers to help make their events accessible,” Morris adds. “And continue to create opportunities for disabled creatives looking to network and get involved in the industry.”

One year in, the Disability Screen Office has made big moves to make the screen industry more inclusive.

Little Bird takes flight

Award winner

ON THE HEELS OF HER 2023 CANADIAN ACADEMY BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ TRIBUTE AWARD, Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi actor-writer-directorproducer Jennifer Podemski is proving once again why she received the honour for having an “extraordinary impact” on the growth of the industry.

Podemski’s new Crave and APTN lumi original Little Bird (Rezolution Pictures, OP Little Bird), which she developed and co-created with head writer Hannah Moscovitch, hits Canadian screens on May 26.

The Indigenous-led, 6 x 60-minute series – about a woman (Darla Contois) who was removed from her childhood home on a Saskatchewan reserve and adopted into a Montreal Jewish family – recently won the audience award at Series Mania.

Talk about the development process for Little Bird.

I began developing this project with Rezolution Pictures in 2017 with CBC. Hannah joined the team shortly thereafter and we spent a significant amount of time in development. Unfortunately, CBC decided not to move forward with it, which happens, and we were very lucky to pitch to Crave and be greenlit by the beginning of 2022. Shortly after that, APTN came on board.

Hannah and I did a deep dive to restructure and elevate the series to its premium and prestige potential, with the incredible support and guidance of Jeremy Podeswa, who had been with us for a year during development.

How was it implementing the training program for Indigenous creators and crew on Little Bird?

Behind the scenes, Podemski’s non-profit organization the Shine Network Institute continues to offer support for Indigenous women, while Little Bird provided an on-set training program to build capacity and sustainability in the Indigenous screen sector. She’s also getting a Creative Voice Award at the Rockie Awards during the Banff World Media Festival.

Playback: What does Little Bird mean to you in the realm of your career?

Jennifer Podemski: I’m very proud of this project. This project was incredibly difficult to make. Every day presented new challenges and barriers, and through it there were trauma triggers that felt insurmountable at the time. But with [directors] Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Zoe Hopkins and all of the Indigenous actors and crew with me on the front lines, knowing that we were all facing the same things made me feel less alone. So I now know how important it is to have more than one Indigenous person on the team when making Indigenous content. I also think a lot about what this show will mean to Canadians and policy, my community and all Indigenous people including Sixties Scoop survivors.

It was incredibly difficult to push through. I call all unions, specifically IATSE, to the table to begin the hard conversation around training and employment for Indigenous people in this sector and the genuine barriers we face. That said, we ended up with a really great group of trainees who made the entire experience better for everyone.

What does the Shine Network Institute have planned for the next year?

We have PACT, our online cultural humility course for the screen sector. We will be launching a membersonly portal where Indigenous professionals can access resources and tools to help support their work and create access. One of those resources is a Legal Vault that will provide industry standard legal agreements that have been custom-designed for Indigenous producers, productions and processes.

How was the Series Mania experience?

From what I am hearing, there is interest and excitement. The producers, along with [distributor] Fremantle, are working hard to bring this to the world!

Jennifer Podemski discusses how the limited series soared as a Crave and APTN lumi original.

PROGRAMMER PROFILE

CBC Unscripted

From Bollywed to baking, CBC’s unscripted and documentary team wants to engage new audiences by shining a light on remarkable Canadians and their achievements.

Jennifer Dettman, executive director, unscripted content, CBC, tells Playback they’re focused on finding projects featuring connections to the country – whether it be through people or geography – and sparking a cultural conversation about what makes them unique.

Recent examples include competition reality format Canada’s Ultimate Challenge (Insight Productions, The Gurin Company), which sees athletes coaching players through challenges across the country, and unscripted series Push (Fenix Film & Television, Small Army Entertainment), about a group of friends and wheelchair users known as the “Wheelie Peeps.” Both premiered in February and have been renewed for second seasons, Dettman reveals.

Then there’s docuseries Bollywed (HeartHat Entertainment), about the Singh family and their bridal shop in Toronto’s Little India neighbourhood, which launched in January and was renewed in March. Also renewed is the Canada-Australia copro docuseries Stuff the British Stole, a co-commission by CBC and Australia’s ABC from Toronto’s Cream Productions and Australia’s Wooden Horse and WildBear Entertainment.

Playback: What is the current overall commissioning and content strategy for CBC unscripted?

Jennifer Dettman: There are specific buckets of work that we do. In the factual entertainment side of things, there’s the uniquely Canadian competition series. We’re finding real success in shows like The Great Canadian Baking Show (Boat Rocker’s Proper Television), Best in Miniature (marblemedia), Race Against the Tide (marblemedia), and we have another one that we’ll be announcing soon. We’re always looking for competition shows, but there’s a real gentleness to them. They’re about Canadians and their passions and the niche work they’re doing, but have broad appeal. Canada’s Ultimate Challenge is one of the most ambitious shows I think we’ve ever done. It made you fall in love with this country and its geography.

The other is point-of-view docuseries, where you’re landing in a community that often hasn’t had a light shone on it and applying the genre of docuseries to it. So we’ve got Bollywed and Push, and we certainly are looking for more of those types of productions. Both of those did really well – they had a distinct point of view, were highly engaging and entertaining with big characters that you wanted to spend time with, and you got to know a little bit more about the world that they live in.

Another big area of focus for us would be on the documentary side – premium features, premium documentary series. We’ve got a big documentary series coming up this fall on the Black experience in Canada, it’s an eight-part series [called Black Life: Untold Stories (Studio 112, Northwood Entertainment, Ugly Duck)]. Very high production value, great storytelling. So we’re looking for more of those types of both features and series – premium, high-end and documentary.

Are there any trends in unscripted you’re eyeing?

We look at different ways that we might take on a travel show that could work for us. Still Standing (Frantic Films) is a version of a travel show, so we ask ourselves, ‘Could

we do something else to complement that, something more in that space?’ It’s personality-driven travel shows – someone leading the show who might be well-known, who takes us to places. But it’s what else they do, how they do it, is where the uniqueness would be for us.

We’re open to a lot of different things. We haven’t been as much in the space of things like studio-based music shows ... because it has been a very crowded space and we haven’t felt that audiences have responded very well to them.

Some of these series seem to have a high potential for binge-watching on CBC Gem. Is that important?

Yes, now when we commission, we commission for that audience, and we’re thinking about [the demographic] 30 to 49. One of the things which is exciting is we’re thinking more about how we window our content – how do we release it out into the world? How many episodes?

We don’t think about, ‘What are we going to do for CBC Gem, what are we going to do for CBC television?’ We just say, ‘How are we going to serve our audiences?’ And that audience is young and diverse.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

CANADIAN INDIE PRODUCERS

NAVIGATE RISING COSTS AND OTHER FINANCIAL PRESSURES.

Canada’s independent production sector is holding its own amid a sea of challenges.

The results of Playback’s 2023 Indie List survey reflect a duality of circumstances facing Canadian indie producers, who see opportunity in the ever-changing market, but are concerned over the amount of resources available to help take advantage of it.

Roughly 44% of survey respondents say opportunities for indie producers are the same in 2023 as they were in the previous year, while 39% say they’re worse than ever and less than 20% say they’re better than ever.

Among the concerns for the 67 indie prodcos that responded to the online survey – conducted between Feb. 2 and March 23, 2023 – were development funding, access to marketing support, budgeting for Canadian productions, and regional production incentives for smaller Canadian markets seeing a boom in service production, edging out space for indie productions.

Survey results also showed a sense of uncertainty around the future with the impact of the passage of Bill C-11 (see pg. 26), a series of amendments to the Broadcasting Act aimed to bring streaming giants such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ into Canada’s regulatory framework.

However, the results also reflect a significant volume of work accomplished by Canadian indies in 2022. More than $2.1 billion in domestic production and development spend was captured in the survey, as well as more than $1.4 billion in additional service work.

Rocking the boat

Leading the Indie List this year is Toronto-headquartered Boat Rocker Media, coming in at more than $295 million in spend across production and development during 2022.

David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, co-executive chairmen of Boat Rocker Media and co-chairmen of Boat Rocker Studios, tell Playback that taking the company public in 2021 allowed Boat Rocker to get out of debt and clean up their balance sheet after a string of acquisitions. The company’s subsidiaries include Insight Productions and Proper Television.

As a result, they could shift their focus to investing in content across scripted, unscripted, kids and family,

and features. Fortier says being a “well-capitalized business” allows them to “be really active when it comes to development,” and “take more risks” when commissioning scripts and refining a piece of IP before taking it out to buyers.

“Optionality is the key, because projects tend to come together in a million different ways,” he says, whether through a financing partner, solo commissioning a script, or independently financing a production.

Staying afloat

That’s not to say the path has been easy. Indie producers are facing a myriad of challenges to complete financing on projects. Nearly 60% of participants say financing and budgets are the biggest challenge to their business in 2023, followed by staffing and hiring at 38% and inflation and global economic factors close behind with 36%.

“The biggest challenge is [finding] crews at every position, studio space, equipment, locations – it’s just so competitive,” says Schneeberg, adding that it’s not uncommon for competitors to pay thousands to hold studio space between projects, reducing access for other studios and indie producers. “It can be a real impediment to getting your show off the ground.”

Blink49 Studios COO Jeff Lynas says labour rates “have gone up significantly” due to the increase in production in Canada – Ontario, for instance, charted a record-breaking $3.15 billion in production spending in 2022 – as well as construction costs and gas rates. Those issues, paired with the already increased budget costs due to COVID-19 measures, have led to what Lynas estimates to be a roughly 10 to 15% increase in production budgets over the last two years, creating a gap in financing for premium content.

“Producers are having to step up to the plate and try to handle this gap that is not being [fully] financed

Story continued at bottom of page 23 >

The list

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The list

Every year, Playback solicits data from the industry on the volume of independent Canadian producers’ production spending in the previous annum. The surveys are voluntary, and reflect data compiled by each individual company. The exception is public companies which were tallied by Playback based on publicly available quarterly reports. Certain fields may have been left blank as they are not applicable to the production company listed. Minimum spend set at $1 million.

by the traditional financing models,” says Lynas. That often results in the need to secure multiple commissioners or presales for content, which Lynas says can slow down the greenlight process, or producers covering the deficit themselves if they’re unable to secure other sources of equity.

“Inflation for crewing costs has been very real,” says Toronto-based Collective Pictures founder Jeff Chan, speaking with Playback near the end of postproduction on the sequel to the 2019 film Code 8. “We were surprised at how quickly there was a shift between the first and second Code 8… my first project was around $3 million and even then it felt tight. I couldn’t imagine trying to make a movie at that range [now] in the same way.”

Chan also points to the spike in interest rates as a point of difficulty when it comes to interim financing. The Bank of Canada has steadily increased the interest rate since March 2022, coming to 4.5% in January, compared to 0.25% just 12 months prior.

He says higher interest rates make it more difficult for indie producers to own their IP, as more rights control means taking on more financial responsibility and risk in production. “When the value of money changes and interest rates change that quickly, it’s going to have an impact on any independently financed production,” he says.

All that is compounded with the end of the Short-Term Compensation Fund on March 31, which helped cover the cost of a production shutdown due to COVID-19. As a result, producers are facing the additional hurdle of covering the cost of future shutdowns. Telefilm Canada, which administered the fund, estimated that 22 production companies received a total of $4.1 million in compensation as of March 31, 2022, in its annual report.

Insurance broker Kevin A. Hutchison says there is no incentive for an insurance company to provide coverage in case of a shutdown, even three years into the pandemic. “The risk of loss is high and insurers want to be compensated for the risk they take,” he says.

From development, to production, to IP monetization — all while running a business — the action never stops for Canada’s independent media producers. How does the CMPA support producers and promote the success of the Canadian production sector? With action.

cmpa.ca

Chan says larger-budget movies will likely have a support system in place from partners, but smaller, independently-owned films may face hardship without that safety net.

“On a case-by-case basis, when circumstances warrant and to the extent that funds are available, Telefilm may agree to increase its participation to share the increased and unforeseen burden with producers,” a spokesperson for Telefilm tells Playback, stating that COVID “represents a small portion of the exclusions in standard insurance policies.”

Room for optimism

The Indie List statistics aren’t all doom and gloom, however. Nearly 70% of companies say they plan to expand their business within the next year. Expansion plans include additional staffing, bigger development and production slates, breaking into new genres, and building out business affairs divisions.

Roughly 54% say coproductions and coventures are the biggest opportunities for their business, followed by international partnerships at 47% and exploiting existing IP at 38%.

“The industry’s cyclical, we’ve seen downturns before,” says Vancouver-based Thunderbird Entertainment CEO and chair Jennifer Twiner McCarron. “I’m feeling more on the optimistic side.”

“The main buyers, the large streamers and networks, are reevaluating their strategy, but what I’m seeing emerge is a real focus on everyone wanting to keep quality as their north star and a focus on premium content,” she says.

Thunderbird has utilized a partner-managed approach as a company that does original and service production (chart above), where they “handle everything from tip to tail,” starting from the writers’ room and ending with final delivery, and thereby receive a portion of the back-end.

“There’s almost more of a need for that as the big buyers look to lessen their own overhead and outsource,” says Twiner McCarron.

Lynas says Canada is an enticing market for international coproductions because of the creative talent and the country’s reputation as a production hub, which Toronto- and L.A.-based Blink49 Studios has been leveraging through a string of partnerships and first-look deals with talent such as Lilly Singh and Sheri Elwood since it launched in 2021. “We think there’s a lot of opportunity right now in the marketplace,” says Lynas. “We’ve been growing very rapidly, obviously, so we’re excited about the future.”

As a Canadian studio, Blink49 is better positioned than smaller indie outfits to negotiate rights agreements. As an example, the studio partnered with SEVEN24 Films on Ontario/Alberta copro Ride, with Hallmark Channel licensing U.S. rights and CTV Drama Channel picking up Canadian rights. Blink49 was able to hold international distribution rights, and anchor investor Fifth Season is a sub-distributor.

Lynas says “building strong Canadian companies” is how the industry will be able to sustain itself, as they use their capital for the development and production of more Canadian programming. “That’s how we grow our business.”

THE DOMESTIC FILM AND TV INDUSTRY LOOKS TO CANADIAN HERITAGE AND CRTC TO ENSURE

HOMEGROWN CONTENT REMAINS DISTINCTLY CANADIAN IN A NEW BROADCASTING ACT ERA.

Assessing the act

CANADIAN MEDIA PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION

(CMPA) PRESIDENT AND CEO Reynolds Mastin has had “many conversations over many months” with Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, his political staff and officials in his department about the urgent need to update Canada’s Broadcasting Act, which was introduced more than 30 years ago – long before “Netflix” entered the lexicon.

Those conversations paid off when Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, received royal assent in April after some back-and-forth amendments between the House of Commons and the Senate.

Mastin says he believes the amendments to the Broadcasting Act – which include recognizing the online transmission or retransmission of programs as “a distinct class of broadcasting undertakings” – will provide the CMPA’s 600 film-and-television producer members with more of a level playing field with such foreign streaming giants as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video.

“The bill provides a legal framework that will facilitate investment in Canadian content’s production, which is a very positive development,” says Mastin, a lawyer who previously served as the CMPA’s chief negotiator and chief legal officer. “What remains to be seen is the level of that investment and what the terms of that investment will look like.”

Bill C-11, as outlined, will require digital streaming platforms to “contribute in an equitable manner to strongly support the creation, production and presentation of Canadian programming,” akin to how domestic broadcasters are currently regulated.

Mastin expects that guidance on how that money is to be disbursed will be addressed in the policy direction Canadian Heritage will send to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which will then implement a regulatory framework following public consultations.

Those consultations will cover topics including what should qualify as Canadian content. Brad Danks, CEO of Vancouver-headquartered OUTtv Media Global, expects that Cancon will become the “battleground” that emerges from the Online Streaming Act.

“Some streamers have already said they’ll make Canadian shows here, but they want to own them,” he says. “However, the core value of Canadian content has been the ownership that has built Canadian companies.”

The CMPA is preparing a proposal to the CRTC on what it sees as the appropriate distribution mechanisms for the new investment from foreign streamers.

“The two key criteria we’re using are: which mechanisms are going to ensure the greatest level of investment and the most impactful terms of the investment so Canadian production companies are able to work with Canadian talent, broadcasters and foreign streaming services to create great IP [intellectual property] and that production companies are able to meaningfully control and monetize that IP,” Mastin explains.

Canadian producers, he says, “will do everything they can to leverage that investment to create the most compelling Canadian content out there.”

“The Broadcasting Act is there in part to serve policy objectives that the market all by itself doesn’t achieve,” says Mastin.

“That’s why the focus in the policy direction has to be on requirements to fill the gaps that the market cannot or does not fill by itself, rather than incentives, such as tax credits,” he says, adding that CBC’s Heartland (Dynamo Films, SEVEN24 Films) is “a great example of a series that benefited from Cancon rules and has gone on to huge global success as the 13th-most-streamed show in the U.S. last year, according to Nielsen, beating out The Simpsons and Friends with over 18 billion minutes streamed.”

The CMPA applauded the government for including one provision – subsection 10.1.1(a) – in C-11 “that will go a long way to ensuring that Canadian independent producers have meaningful ownership and control over their own IP when they partner with Canadian broadcasters or foreign streaming services,” explains Mastin.

He says the CMPA is also working with Canadian Heritage officials to ensure that the government’s instructions to the CRTC “mitigate any potential unintended consequences from the two-tier framework in the bill.”

Subsections 3(1) (f) and (f.1) of Bill C-11 will hold foreign streamers to a “lower standard” than Canadian broadcasters and “result in foreign streamers using fewer Canadian creators in the production of Canadian programming,” according to the CMPA.

The two subsections would require “each Canadian broadcasting undertaking” to “employ and make maximum use, and in no case less than predominant use, of Canadian creative and other human resources in the creation, production and presentation of programming,” while “each foreign online undertaking” would only be asked to “make the greatest practicable use.”

Neal McDougall, assistant executive director at the Toronto-based Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), says there remains concern that “those subsections could be misinterpreted to allow foreign streamers to make so-called Canadian content without using a meaningful level of Canadian creators, including screenwriters.”

“The streamers can be expected to look for as much flexibility in the definition of what Canadian content is as possible,” he says. “If that were to be granted, it would be a complete gutting of the purpose of C-11.”

However, John M. Lewis, director of Canadian affairs at the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), says C-11 must contain flexibility in order to recognize the unique business models and content strategies of foreign and domestic players. “Section 3(1) (f.1) deals with how foreign and domestic entities are different and this must be considered when determining how each is treated,” he says.

It’s also “simply not realistic” to require foreign entities shooting in Canada to meet the same bar as domestic companies for the use of Canadian talent, says Lewis, whose union represents members employed by both domestic and global entities in Canada.

“Whenever foreign entities can use Canadian talent, they do. From a purely financial standpoint, it makes far more sense to use local talent whenever possible,” says Lewis,

“What remains to be seen is the level of that investment and what the terms of that investment will look like.”

– Reynolds Mastin CMPA president and CEO

who also posits that “global studios and streamers are expanding the availability of Canadian-owned content, generating new audiences, revenues and discoverability for Canadian creators and producers of that content.”

Lewis also points to the high number of jobs that foreign service work provides in Canada’s film and TV industry (in the CMPA’s Profile 2022 report, it accounted for more than 141,000 jobs out of a total of nearly 241,000). “Making changes to the status quo will endanger the industry that we’ve worked very hard to build,” he says.

WGC president and screenwriter Alex Levine says that notwithstanding the “problematic language” under section 3(1) in C-11, he is optimistic that the federal government will, in its policy direction to the CRTC, “continue to recognize the primary place of Canadian creators in the making of Canadian content” to facilitate “a robust Canadian production sector.”

“That can’t happen in the new playing field with the streamers dominating eyeballs unless this bill does what it’s intended to do, which is to continue to place Canadian creatives at the centre of Canadian content,” says Levine, a writer and co-executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning, Toronto-shot sci-fi series Orphan Black, produced by Temple Street Productions (now folded into Boat Rocker Studios).

“[Orphan Black] was made by a Canadian production company that benefited from the success of that show and is continuing to invest in the Canadian production sector with new Canadian programming. The money isn’t just flowing out of the country,” he says, noting that Boat Rocker’s latest TV series, Global’s upcoming Robyn Hood, includes Orphan Black’s Chris Roberts as lead writer and showrunner.

“That’s the way this business is supposed to work. You’re supposed to grow your talent, and keep the money and the opportunities and the jobs in the country.”

While foreign streamers, such as Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Paramount+ and Disney+, have set up shop in Canada “because they recognize there’s opportunity here,” says Levine, “I also think they know regulation is coming and they’re putting their best foot forward to say, ‘Hey, we’ll do business here.’”

“What they really are saying is, ‘We don’t want to be regulated or forced into any decision.’ However, that is not a sustainable plan. We can’t rely on the goodwill of these behemoths from the south to come up here and keep our industry afloat. We have to have regulations that protect our production sector from the whims of the executives in Hollywood,” he says, noting that Canadian screenwriters only work on Canadian productions, unlike the other guilds that continue to work on service productions, the scripts of which “are all written in Hollywood.”

“For Canadian screenwriters, this is an existential issue – and the government has to do something to ensure that Canadians can grow up to be screenwriters and the future

Sara Polleys of the world can receive Academy Awards,” says Levine of Polley’s Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar win this year for U.S. feature Women Talking, which she also directed.

The two-tiered “existential crisis” is one some creators have felt for as long as the Broadcasting Act has been enacted. “Indigenous creators have been living in a twotiered system since colonization,” Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) CEO Kerry Swanson said at the CMPA’s Prime Time conference in February. “The current Act deems special status to Indigenous peoples ‘as resources become available,’ which sounds very much like ‘as best as practicable,’ doesn’t it?”

Some of those impacts are expected to be amended, as Bill C-11 includes language that supports the creation of programming by and for Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities.

“The new bill has the potential to transform the Canadian screen industry by requiring adequate support for Indigenous content creation, and for us at the ISO that means Indigenous-owned content,” said Swanson.

McDougall says the WGC will appear before the CRTC when it holds public hearings on C-11.

“We hope that the CRTC will create clear, black-andwhite regulations and rules requiring a certain amount of investment in Canadian content, which is defined in such a way as to include, to a maximum degree, Canadian screenwriters and other creators,” he says.

“Defining Canadian content is not an exercise in the abstract. It has a function, which is to determine eligibility for tax credits, funding and regulatory obligations, all of which have public-policy objectives to support Canadian creators, Canadian jobs and Canadian culture.”

Danks says it will be up to the CRTC to determine whether it’s time to update the definition of Canadian content. The Canada Media Fund is exploring that very subject matter with an industry-facing survey on how the current definition of Cancon should evolve with the passage of C-11.

“You’ve got two camps. There are Canadian producers and broadcasters who believe that Cancon mostly works since it’s been responsible for building the industry in many ways, especially with the implementation of the taxcredit system,” says Danks, referring to the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit introduced in 1995.

“Then there are people who believe that any show with a Canadian theme should qualify as Canadian content. Does that mean we should give a 30% tax advantage to foreign entities if they’re doing that? We already have a productionservices tax credit for those programs,” says Danks.

He says he would like to see Cancon defined as “a program made with a significant amount of Canadian elements controlled and owned by Canadians,” the latter of which encompasses both copyright and distribution rights.

The Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office has used the 6/10 points system based on the key creative functions that are performed by Canadians to determine the tax credit. Under that system, at least one of either the director or screenwriter positions (two points each),

“That’s the way this business is supposed to work. You’re supposed to grow your talent, and keep the money and the opportunities and the jobs in the country.”

– Alex Levine WGC president and screenwriter

and at least one of the two lead performers (one point each) must be Canadian.

Of the six, out of 26, Senate amendments the federal government rejected was one that would have added flexibility to the definition of Cancon in CRTC regulation, reducing the prominence of such factors as to whether the content is owned by a Canadian independent producer or has key Canadian creatives involved.

“The principle that Canadian programs are first and foremost content made by Canadians is, and has been, at the centre of the definition of Canadian programs for decades, and this amendment would remove the ability for the CRTC to ensure that that remains the case,” the

government said in response to amendments made by the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, which passed the upper house in February.

Lewis says the current definition of Cancon provides “no possible path to having these streamers show Canadian programming, because even if everything about a show is Canadian – the performers, writers, the directors, crew, storyline, shooting location – the program will still not qualify as Canadian if the IP is held by a non-Canadian entity.”

There are also gaps in C-11 regarding distribution, says Danks.

The bill will not enable the CRTC to set terms of carriage for an “online undertaking,” which will have to be negotiated in “good faith” with the likes of Prime Video and Apple TV+, both of which carry OUTtv programming.

However, the Online Streaming Act will require those aggregators to include Canadian services, the network head adds.

“This is a great start. Any Canadian service that’s going to survive needs to be on the platforms,” says Danks, who notes that it has allowed OUTtv to use its distribution revenue to create original programming.

“This bill, if the proper guidance is provided through the policy direction and then implemented by the CRTC, has the potential to serve the industry as well as the Broadcasting Act did when it was brought in back in 1991,” says Mastin.

“I am optimistic that the bill provides the tools that are necessary to ensure a great, bright future for Canadian content and enable the industry to best serve Canadian and global audiences.”

“The current Act deems special status to Indigenous peoples ‘as resources become available,’ which sounds very much like ‘as best as practicable,’ doesn’t it?”

– Kerry Swanson CEO, ISO

Congratulations to this year’s nominees, chosen by a prestigious international jury from entries representing 45+ countries.

See the full list & screen clips from all nominated shows:

Awards show at BANFF: June 12 @ 5:30 PM MT

Watch the live stream: @BanffWorldMediaFestival

June 11-14, 2023

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ALTHOUGH ACTRA (THE ALLIANCE OF CANADIAN CINEMA, TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS) HAS BEEN ENTRENCHED in the Canadian recorded media industries for 80 years, it must remain constantly vigilant on behalf of its performer members.

Even longtime deals are vulnerable, as with the collective National Commercial Agreement (NCA), which has existed in various forms for more than 60 years but is in need of re-upping. Last year, negotiations broke down with signatory advertising, marketing, media and PR firms represented by the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA).

“We are continuing this battle and we will persevere and come out on top,” ACTRA National president Eleanor Noble tells Playback. “As we love to say, ‘We’re easy to work with but we’re hard to fight.’”

Although the media landscape has dramatically evolved since ACTRA’s inception, such disputes have played a role in shaping the performers’ union into the organization it is today.

Such was the case back in 1961, when it was known as the Canadian Council of Authors and Artists (CCAA) and included radio and TV writers. A disagreement between the CCAA’s Toronto branch and other centres over commercial work led to an organizational overhaul and the emergence of ACTRA two years later, then known as the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists.

The country’s fledgling movie industry was soon addressed through collective agreements with the National Film Board of Canada and independent prodcos. (ACTRA incorporated the cinema sector in its name in 1984, also changing “Association” to “Alliance.”) A new deal was also reached around this time with CBC, which had been the nation’s dominant media player starting with its locally written, acted and produced radio entertainment programs dating back to 1936.

Performers in those days worked long hours and wore many hats, yet might only be paid around $15 (about $300 in today’s dollars) per show, according to ACTRA estimates. They could record a block of radio commercials and be compensated only $0.50 (worth $10 today) apiece, even if the spots ran for years.

“Easy to work with but hard to fight.”

The battle over the National Commercial Agreement is the latest rallying cry for the union’s members.

Seeking improved pay and working conditions, performers in Toronto banded together in 1941 to form the union-like Radio Artists of Toronto Society (RATS), which was followed by the Radio Artists of Montreal Society (RAMS).

In 1943 a national coalition was formed when RATS and RAMS joined with like-minded groups in Vancouver and Winnipeg. The name was changed to the Association of Canadian Radio Artists (ACRA), an affiliation was forged with the American Federation of Labour (AFL) and the first collective agreement covering radio work was reached within a couple of years.

When CBC launched its TV network in 1952, ACRA talent was front and centre. Performers believed a new approach was needed for this new era, and so ACRA left the AFL, merged with the francophone Union des Artistes (UDA) and took on the CCAA moniker.

Conflict arose later in the decade when the French contingent supported a producers’ strike against CBC/Radio-Canada while the English did not, leading to the UDA’s departure from the CCAA in 1959.

Today, the union’s bargaining partners for film, television and digital media are the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and Association Québécoise de la Production Médiatique, which negotiate jointly. The Independent Production Agreement (IPA) establishes the terms, conditions and rates for Canadian performers, excluding B.C. and Yukon.

The current IPA is good through the end of 2024. With cameras rolling nationwide – CMPA’s Profile 2022 said Canada’s production volume was a record $11.7 billion –Noble says, “the state of the industry is pretty good.”

So while ACTRA will pursue the best possible terms for its members in the next round of IPA talks, she adds, “We are also always after safety protections on set. We’re looking for respect and dignity [for all performers].”

The union has made significant gains in this area, particularly regarding child performers. Ontario’s Protecting Child Performers Act became law in 2016 after years of lobbying by ACTRA Toronto and the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, which represents live performers. The act ensures minors have some of their income put in trust, that their education is maintained, and that they have parental supervision.

“It regulates not just unionized performers, but all children working in the performing arts in Ontario,” says ACTRA National treasurer and past ACTRA Toronto president Theresa Tova, who had been working towards this goal since the 1990s. “The government has used our language. We created the template and they ran with it.”

In its negotiations over the NCA, ACTRA has accused the ICA of trying to cut rates and end retirement contributions and a benefit plan for its members who perform in TV, radio and digital advertising. It has also said the ICA is seeking the freedom to use union or non-union talent as it desires. For its part, the ICA says ACTRA has rejected or not responded to proposed scenarios including one that would see a pay raise for its members and another in which unionized talent would get all the work.

ACTRA called for a boycott of brands it says have commissioned non-union ads, including McDonald’s and Walmart, and its efforts seem to be paying off. Marketing and communications giant Cossette –which counts McDonald’s and Walmart among its clientele – subsequently signed a letter of continuance this past April, honouring the agreement that was in place for the rest of 2023.

Another hot-button issue has been the lack of proper training and materials for hair and makeup artists working with Black, Indigenous and people of colour performers. ACTRA filed a grievance against the producer groups and arbitration was to begin in May. The union’s efforts to level the playing field for visible minorities can be traced back to the 1990 launch of its catalogue promoting diverse talent, Into the Mainstream. (The database for all ACTRA members has since migrated to ACTRAonline.ca, with a special section for diverse performers.)

The initiative was led by the late Sandi Ross, ACTRA Toronto’s first woman and person of colour to serve as president. Jean Yoon, an ACTRA Toronto Award winner for her role as family matriarch Umma on CBC’s Kim’s Convenience, regards Ross’ work as impactful. Yoon has long been involved in helping foster opportunity for people of colour, starting in theatre.

“I avoided film and television out of anxiety of having to deal with systemic racism,” she recalls. “But with Sandi’s advocacy, I felt confident to move forward. That was my first contact with ACTRA, and as I became more successful in film and television, I became more involved through their professional development workshops, which are important in deepening our membership’s skill level and building cohesion in the union.”

Yoon later sat on the ACTRA Toronto Council and in 2020 was given the branch’s Award of Excellence, recognizing both her body of work and union activity.

Union branches can also be found in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Dartmouth, N.S., (representing the Maritimes) and St. John’s.

ACTRA National’s relationship with B.C. has a particularly rocky history. In the early 1990s, when powerhouse Hollywood creator Stephen J. Cannell was turning Vancouver into a hotbed of U.S. TV production with the likes of 21 Jump Street, local performers voted to establish the Union of B.C. Performers (UBCP) apart from ACTRA.

“We were frustrated as we didn’t feel listened to,” recalls Keith Martin Gordey, who back then sat on the ACTRA BC council and is current ACTRA National VP.

“Cannell coincidentally realized the IPA wasn’t enforceable in B.C., because labour law is a provincial matter and ACTRA was not a union in the province,” Gordey continues. “He said, ‘I’m not signing it,’ concurrent with our dissatisfaction. Things got political and a bunch of us got together and created our own union and the British Columbia Master Production Agreement.”

In 1994, UBCP joined the U.S.-based trade union Teamsters, which used its foothold in Canada to try to muscle in on ACTRA’s turf elsewhere. After a couple of years of conflict, B.C. lawyer Stephen Kelleher mediated a settlement that saw UBCP become ACTRA’s B.C. branch.

“It makes a lot of sense to have a national organization that functions well, because you’re better off with greater numbers of people working together,” says Gordey, who also served as UBCP/ACTRA president. “ACTRA’s structure had to change and it became an assembly of autonomous branches.”

Also seeking autonomy were ACTRA’s screenwriting members, who formed the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) as a separate organization within the alliance in 1991, finally becoming independent four years later.

They both partake in the ACTRA Fraternal Benefit Society (AFBS), incorporated in 1975. A Canadian artist’s career is a fraught one. ACTRA says its 28,000 nationwide members earn on average less than $6,000 per year from performing, and so the AFBS looks to help with insurance and ever-important health-care benefits and retirement plan programs for ACTRA and WGC members.

ACTRA has learned over the years to use its members’ skill sets to its lobbying advantage. A watershed moment came in 2003 when notable actors including Paul Gross, Sonja Smits, Rick Mercer and Wendy Crewson travelled to Parliament Hill to ask the feds to reinstate money cut from the Canadian Television Fund.

“It’s so much more effective when you have an organization behind you,” Crewson says. “You’re all on message and you get the meetings with MPs. We did lobby work for a couple of years and that’s when I really saw the strength of the union.”

Crewson had been living in California and appeared in Hollywood blockbusters such as Air Force One (1997), but moved back to Toronto, where she has had an awardwinning run in Canadian series and TV movies. She received the ACTRA Award of Excellence in 2007.

At that moment, she recalls, “I decided that while I was at home most of the time, I could run for ACTRA council and really be part of it day to day.”

She remains active, and just last year was on a picket line on behalf of commercial performers in the NCA dispute. “For many of those performers, that work is a stepping stone into other things in the industry,” she notes. “They need to know the entire union is behind them.”

That’s the kind of unity Noble is proud to see. The national president is also pleased with ACTRA’s efforts on Bill C-11 – which gets international streamers to contribute to the Canadian system as local broadcasters do, and which became law in April – and how it has navigated the challenging past few years.

“We overcame COVID-19 and kept work going across the country,” Noble says. “We lobbied at the government level to make sure that performers who were not working were compensated for that time, when the government wanted a clawback on it. We fought again and we won that again.”

So while there is always a new obstacle to overcome, she says, “our members are in a secure place.”

CANADIAN FILM & TELEVISION HALL OF FAME

Tina Keeper sows the seeds to her own success

THE WORD “KISTIKAN” MEANS “GARDEN”

IN CREE, a name that came to award-winning actor, producer and former member of Parliament Tina Keeper in a dream.

“I was telling my cousin about this dream: I was in a garden and there were beautiful tulips, and the soil was so rich and it looked so great,” Keeper tells Playback. “My cousin then said to me, ‘Well, now you have to stay in that garden.’ And that’s how the production company’s name came about.”

That company is Winnipeg-based Kistikan Pictures, which partnered with Buffalo Gal Pictures in 2010 and focuses on producing Indigenous films and television. Its film productions have included Road of Iniquity by Mark F. Ennis and Through Black Spruce by Don McKellar, which was also produced by Serendipity Point Films. Kistikan Pictures’ series have included APTN drama Cashing In and CTV Comedy Channel original Acting Good, which premiered last fall. Keeper is a producer on the series alongside Jennifer Beasley of Buffalo Gal Pictures. She also plays the family matriarch on the show, which is loosely based on the life of Anishinaabe star and co-creator Paul Rabliauskas.

“Matriarch” is a moniker that is part of Keeper’s fabric. Producer Nicole Robertson, who has worked alongside Keeper for decades, says she’s known as a matriarch and Kokum (“grandmother” in Cree).

“Tina is incredibly passionate about her community, and it drives her work,” says Robertson. “She’s also a grandmother and matriarch herself, and I think that gives her the power to be intentional and uber-focused on what needs to be told in terms of the story.”

Keeper has also acted in series such as CBC’s North of 60 (Alberta Filmworks) and films including Falls Around Her (The Film Farm, Baswewe Films). She’s dedicated her entire life’s work to making space in the media and in politics for Indigenous peoples and their stories,

The actor, producer and former MP has worked to create a safe place for her culture and people.

paying her homage to her family and community, the Norway House Cree Nation in northern Manitoba.

“I’ve always been interested in our own stories,” Keeper says. “I came from a background of family who were already doing the work. I knew where I came from, and that we had our own history, our own aesthetics and our own authority.”

Keeper describes her education and early career as a time when Indigenous people and their narratives didn’t quite have their own place just yet. “I loved the study of theatre and the arts, but I knew there was no place for me in it as a young Indigenous Cree woman.”

It wasn’t until her late 20s when she landed one of her most notable roles, as an RCMP officer on North of 60, for which she won a Gemini Award. “By the time I was asked to audition for North of 60, it was during a time where an opportunity like this could never be thought of.”

Even after landing the high-profile role on the hit series, Keeper remembers the “condescending” barriers that came with it.

“I was a trained and proficient actress, but people would still ask me, ‘How did you land that part?’ and ‘Did you ever study acting?’ This was very reflective of how Canadians didn’t understand Indigenous people,” she says, adding: “Nonetheless we had really good producers on the show, where they created safe spaces for us. They had culture and community knowledge keepers they worked with directly. This made Indigenous actors feel comfortable, but I also think it contributed to the success of the show.”

Phyllis Laing, president and CEO of Buffalo Gal Pictures, says Keeper is the most passionate person she knows. “Tina’s knowledge of her communities and her desire to create space for Indigenous stories is just infectious. I couldn’t think of a better person to take that role as a producer and create a company that can truly grow… I believe that the garden is flourishing and will continue to.”

Keeper has a strong sense of culture and spirituality that guides her work in the industry and has led her to great success.

“My job as a producer is to protect our ways and stories, and my job is also to say no: ‘No, this is going to be different.’ ‘No, that’s not how this project is going to proceed,’” she says. “That’s how I came to take my job as a producer. Like,

‘No, we are going to be different and we’re going to listen to knowledge keepers.’ Creating a safe place for my culture and people in the industry is important to me.”

Keeper temporarily retired from the screen and served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Churchill, Man., from 2006 to 2008, seeing a need from the government to commit to the assertion of Indigenous peoples. Since 2010, the government’s commitment to advance Indigenous storytellers and producers has been helpful in creating intentional space for Indigenous stories, directors and producers, she says.

She believes giving Indigenous people sovereignty over their own narratives in the media, in a way that allows them to access funding and training, is critical because “we have rich cultures and those cultures are distinct and they’re still alive, but so is colonization.”

As a producer, she prides herself on hiring Black, Indigenous and people of colour talent and crew. Manitobashot Acting Good, for instance, had 25 Indigenous key creatives, crew and knowledge keepers. “It’s very important for me to meet targets for inclusivity when it comes to production work and creating content that’s relatable and important for our communities,” she says.

At the same time, the series resonates with a wide audience, adds Buffalo Gal Pictures head Laing. “[Acting Good] follows the community of a northern reserve, but the humour translates well to other nations. Tina is one to watch and things are going to be up-and-coming in the next year or so.”

Keeper says she doesn’t currently have a production slate, noting she’s a small company, which “has been both an intentional, personal choice, and a condition of the industry norms until very recently for Indigenous-owned companies.”

“The untapped market, I think, is still the domestic market,” she says. “It is important for mainstream broadcasters and streamers to produce content. This is our home territory. It should be inundated with Indigenous content, with diverse Indigenous languages, and in English and French.”

Playback’s Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame was founded in 2007 to recognize extraordinary achievements in the Canadian entertainment industry. Inductees are selected by a jury of their peers.

THANK-YOU!

To all of our incredible production partners that made Wickensburg such a huge global success!

Northern Banner Releasing, Super Channel, NOHFC, Screen Media (USA), DARO (Monaco), SKY-TV (UK), Northern Light & Colour.

And the amazingly talented cast and crew.

A B Cs

As virtual production (VP) industry experts tell it, early communication is key to a smooth pre-production phase and successful shoot in the ever-growing space. But that can be a huge challenge, as VP requires extensive planning and knowledge of the tricky technology terminology, which can sometimes have multiple meanings.

So, from Bake to Volume, here’s a glossary to help you become a VP VIP.

of Virtual Production

Explaining ‘Brain Bar’ and other heady virtual production terms.

Bake

Light baking is the process of rendering or pre-computing the desired lighting of the virtual environment. Light bakes ensure that the lighting looks and behaves as realistically as possible and is the basis of a performant environment.

Real-world impact: speed up processing and reduce lag during filming.

Blend/Integration

The process where the VP operating team rebalances and tweaks the virtual environment to match the physical set, using virtual lights, specularity, textures, and colour rebalancing.

Real-world impact: merging the virtual and physical worlds into one seamless environment.

Brain Bar

The team of artists and engineers, a.k.a. volume control, operating the equipment that drives a smart stage or any space used for virtual production. Areas of responsibility include content distribution, image manipulation, camera tracking, recording, and creative visualization of data.

Real-world impact: like a mission control (as Brain Bar is also called).

ICVFX

(In-Camera VFX)

The process of capturing visual effects live and in-camera on set, such as within an LED volume.

Real-world impact: increases the chance of capturing “final pixel” in camera and confidence in what your project will look like as you’re making it.

LIDAR Scanning

Plates

Footage intended as an element in a composited visual effects shot. Plates often consist of location or sets for use as backgrounds or other elements as needed.

Real-world impact: essentially rear-projection on steroids.

Tech-Visualization

The use of 3D assets to perform technical analysis on scenes: determine camera type, lenses, rigging, portions of sets which need to be physically built vs. virtual, stunts, etc.

Real-world impact: learning what tools you need before filming.

A survey method that illuminates a target with laser and measures the reflected light via infrared sensors to derive a point cloud; useful as part of asset creation and to capture real-world locations. Real-world impact: take your location with you.

Pre-Visualization

A collaborative process that generates preliminary versions of shots or sequences using a virtual environment. It enables filmmakers to visually explore creative ideas, plan technical solutions, and communicate a shared vision for efficient production. Also known as previs.

Real-world impact: a leg up on what you’re getting into before filming it.

Volume (a.k.a Shooting on Volume)

The physical space in which performance capture is recorded. Also refers to a nearly enclosed LED stage in which a volume of light is emitted, or a display surface for projected content.

Real-world impact: where the magic happens.