ÂŽ summer 2020
How Re pEN Reinventing Canadian production in the time of COVID-19
+
Film industry adapts as world premieres move online How WFH protocols will impact production companies
A publication of Brunico Communications Ltd.
Join us on July 8, 2020 at 2:30 EDT for an overview of your music’s life beyond production. Go here https://bit.ly/2Muc7UR to register for this free half hour seminar.
Contents
summer 2020
So long, farewell! A mystical sneak peek at what’s in store in the fifth and final season of Baroness von Sketch Show. Photo credit: Jackie Brown
Restarting the engine
Is the couch my new office?
Reinventing the reel
How the Canadian industry is masterminding a return to production
What the rise of remote work means for the screen-based sector
Weighing the pros and cons of the online film premiere
22
26
33
Learning from the streamers 6
See our breakdown of the top shows Canadian OTT subscribers are consuming
A peak behind the Rockies 11
How the team behind the international awards ceremony scaled a virtual mountain
Takin’ care of business (virtually) 14 Canadian creatives share how the pandemic has impacted their routine
The film fanatic 42
Say hello to Playback’s latest Hall of Fame inductee: Wayne Clarkson
8 What we binged in lockdown
Everything from new discoveries to ol’ favourites
13 A hit homegrown medical drama is born The Transplant team on the show’s staggering success
36 Toasting TVO
The educational broadcaster hits the big five-o
3
Editorial
executive publisher
Russell Goldstein rgoldstein@brunico.com editor-in-chief
Liza Sardi lsardi@brunico.com associate editor
Jordan Pinto jp.pinto@brunico.com staff writers
Lauren Malyk lmalyk@brunico.com
If this edition was printed, you would feel its weight. The press workers are stuck at home and the world has changed over the production period. Not only is it the largest edition the Playback team has put out under my tenure, but our team has reached out to a hefty cross-section of the screen-based community. Without the limits of a physical print edition, we were able to bring together dozens of stories from across the country, stories of opportunities lost and insights found during the quarantine. All from the cramped comfort of home. (We hear you Tassie Cameron, when you say, “God, I wish I had stock in Zoom.”) For this issue, we spoke with writers, actors, producers, directors and publicists such as Dennis Heaton, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Thirza Cuthand, Michelle Latimer and Cynthia Amsden. We listened to CEOs and company founders such as Ngardy Conteh George, Howard Barish, Lindsay Nahmiache, and David Kines. We learned where they were when the industry was shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic, of the immediate impacts, how they are keeping their skills sharp – and where they are hunkering down while trying to advance projects. (So sorry that you are in your childhood bedroom at your folks’ place, Carol Nguyen, with your purple walls, stuffies collection and Breaking Bad posters.) While we were unable to tell all your stories, be assured your voices will find a place on the Playback website in coming weeks. Your contributions are appreciated. If there is a thread we can pull that weaves through these stories it is gratitude. “It’s been an incredible learning experience, and I feel lucky to be able to still work and serve the arts community through everything I do,” says Mariam Zaidi, a documentary filmmaker who is executive director of the Breakthroughs Film Festival. “What has kept me going is the caring, compassionate people I work with and the knowledge that I am not alone in the way I feel.” Like Breakthroughs, the Banff World Media Festival has shifted to a virtual event. Virtual livestream has exploded in the industry. Inside this edition, learn more about how the annual Rockie Awards, honouring the best in television and digital programming, made the move to broadcast (watch it on YouTube, June 15 at 3 p.m. EDT). For all we spoke to, it seems the forced work-from-home situation has been a catalyst. New technology is being adapted, new workflows created and new clients met in the virtual ecosystem. With theatrical releases halted, some like writer-producer Corey Shurge signed non-exclusive deals for his film to appear online. Stuck saw a significant boost from locked-down audiences – racking up 11.8 million views and counting. Explore inside how he’s leveraging those numbers for another project in our future of film feature. This issue was meant to focus on sharing stories of hope, to celebrate and support the industry during this trying time. But, like many, we are grappling with the appropriate response to the killing of George Floyd and the troubling scenes of police brutality seen in the following days of protest. Our parent company, Brunico, has supported the BIPOC community through initiatives like the NetflixBANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative and BANFF Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media. We already know that diversity makes for better content and better profits. Now we realize that’s not good enough. We want to use this moment as a catalyst to question ourselves and ask how can we better reflect the diversity and issues of marginalized creators. That one 8:46-plus minute video could spur hundreds of thousands worldwide to flood the streets in antiracism protests is a stunning testament to the importance of the medium, and its ability to turn the conversation. Keep safe. Keep telling stories that need to be heard. Liza Sardi Editor-in-chief & content director, Playback & Banff World Media Festival 4
summer 2020
Kelly Townsend ktownsend@brunico.com contributors
Mark Dillon, Mary Teresa Bitti, Marc Glassman Advertising Sales (416) 408-2300 FAX (416) 408-0870 1-888-278-6426 executive director,
banff world media festival, playback
Jenn Kuzmyk jkuzmyk@brunico.com associate publisher
Kristina Ejem kejem@brunico.com account manager
Brian Boudreau bboudreau@brunico.com Brunico creative art director
Andrew Glowala aglowala@brunico.com production & distribution supervisor
Adriana Ortiz aortiz@brunico.com
Brunico Audience Services manager
Christine McNalley cmcnalley@brunico.com Administration president and ceo
Russell Goldstein rgoldstein@brunico.com svp and editorial director
Mary Maddever mmaddever@brunico.com vp administration and finance
Linda Lovegrove llovegrove@brunico.com
vp and publisher, realscreen
Claire Macdonald cmacdonald@brunico.com vp and publisher, kidscreen
Jocelyn Christie jchristie@brunico.com
Playback is published by Brunico Communications Ltd., 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 (416) 408-2300; FAX: (416) 408-0870 Web address: www.playbackonline.ca Editorial e-mail: jp.pinto@brunico.com Sales e-mail: sales@brunico.com Sales FAX: (416) 408-0870 © 2020 Brunico Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Playback PO BOX 369 Beeton ON, L0G 1A0 U.S. Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Playback PO BOX 1103, Niagara Falls NY, 14304 playbackcustomercare@brunico.com Canada Post Agreement No. 40050265. ISSN: 0836-2114 Printed in Canada.
Lessons
from
lock
down
What were Canadians bingeing in isolation? When life in North America came to a resounding halt in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, audiences were more glued to their screens than ever. Within days social media was flooded with Tiger King conspiracy theories. To get a better sense of Canadian viewers trends, Playback tracked Netflix’s Canadian top 10 chart* for 30 days and collected viewing stats for Bell Media’s Crave and CBC Gem. Here’s what we learned.
TV reigned supreme: The average daily Top 10 chart saw approximately seven TV shows make the list and three films. Too Hot to Handle spent the longest at No. 1, while Outer Banks had the longest run in the Top 10, peaking at No. 2. Audiences eager for originals: It was more likely for Netflix original TV shows to make the Top 10 than films. The Top 10 TV chart had an average 7.5 Netflix originals make the list, while the Top 10 Film chart averaged at 3.5. The Chris Hemsworth-led film Extraction was on the No. 1 spot of the Top 10 chart between April 25 to 27.
Netflix original Extraction had the longest run on the Top 10 Film chart, peaking at No. 1, while Ocean’s 8 spent the most amount of time in the top spot.
Reality series Too Hot to Handle debuted at No. 1 on Netflix’s Canadian Top 10 chart on April 18, one day after its premiere.
Unscripted ranks high: Out of the 30 days tracked, 18 saw an unscripted program land at No. 1 on the Top 10 chart, beginning with Tiger King and ending with The Last Dance. Overall, the list saw an average of 7.5 scripted programs make the Top 10 compared with 2.5 unscripted programs. The scripted titles that hit No. 1 include the films Extraction and Deadpool 2 and three TV series Never Have I Ever, Modern Family and Dead to Me. Canadian love: The only Canadian title to hit the Top 10 chart was the animated family film The Willoughbys (Bron Animation), which peaked at No. 5. *The results are based on Netflix’s Top 10 Canadian charts from April 14 to May 13, 2020.
6
s u m m e r 2 02 0
Never Have I Ever stars Mississauga teen Maitreyi Ramakrishnan who was cast in the role out of thousands of auditions.
HBO’s Westworld was the most watched TV series on Crave in March and April.
Crave saw a 60% increase in streaming on the platform while Canadians flattened the curve** The most-watched programs on Crave during March and April were Westworld, Star Trek: Picard and The Outsider, while films Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and X-Men: Dark Phoenix reached the Top 10. Films featured on the Crave x TIFF Stay-At-HomeCinema program saw a boost in viewership following the virtual Q&As and in the days after
Crave’s Top 10 (March and April): Westworld Star Trek: Picard Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood The Outsider Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Curb Your Enthusiasm Seinfeld Homeland RuPaul’s Drag Race X-Men: Dark Phoenix **Adobe Analytics, Daily Average Time Spent Streaming, COVID Period (Mar 11- May 24) vs. 4 Week Avg Pre-COVID (Feb 10-Mar 8)
CBC Gem saw a 43% increase in unique visitors in March compared to the previous month.*** March was CBC Gem’s bestperforming month to-date since the service launched on Dec. 11, 2018.**** The three most-watched programs on CBC Gem The Schitt’s Creek (Not A Real Company Productions) finale was the most-watched television episode on between March 12 and April 30 CBC Gem between April 5 to April 11. were Schitt’s Creek, Coronation Street and Kim’s Convenience. TV series dominated the Top 10, with three unscripted series making the cut: The Great British Baking Show, The Nature of Things and Family Feud Canada.
CBC’s Top 10 (From March 12 to April 30): Schitt’s Creek Coronation Street Kim’s Convenience Workin’ Moms The Great British Baking Show The Nature of Things Family Feud Canada Murdoch Mysteries Heartland The Oland Murder ***Comscore MMX® Multi-Platform, Total Audience (desktop 2+, mobile 18+), Unique Visitors/Viewers, March 2020 vs February 2020, Canada; Past 12 months = April 2019 - March 2020
Kim’s Convenience, produced by Thunderbird Entertainment, was renewed for a fifth and sixth season by CBC.
****Adobe Analytics, Video Views = Content Starts 7
FAIRNESS IN FACTUAL
The people behind the best productions deserve the very best from the people who hire them. We are working together for fair pay and better standards in the factual/reality industry. Join us!
www.fairnessinfactualtv.ca s u m m e r 2 02 0
7
What we watched
From festival faves to final seasons and new obsessions, Canadian creatives discuss what homegrown content lit up their screens during lockdown.
“ I’m rewatching Rookie Blue with my daughter, which has been incredibly rewarding, because she loves it madly.”
– Tassie Cameron, co-showrunner, Lady Dicks, and co-founder Cameron Pictures
“ I adore Kim’s Convenience, I thought the second season of Diggstown was even stronger than the first, and I’ve been enjoying Transplant as well – Hamza Haq is such a compelling actor. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Canadian creative that comes out of this period of social distancing!”
– Marsha Greene, writer, Coroner
“ Well Mohawk Girls and RUMBLE are always good choices! Ha! A little selfpromotion never hurt anyone! I enjoy great drama series and documentaries. And I finished Transparent! Amazing show – so well written – which made me crave being in L.A. again. Any suggestions are welcome, I’m running out of choices!” – Christina Fon, VP & executive producer, Rezolution Pictures
“ This has been a tremendous opportunity to catch up on all the innovative new content coming out of Canada and say goodbye to some favourites like Schitt’s Creek, binge on Workin’ Moms, rewatch Baroness and try some gently aged family movies. Daniel dusted off his VHS tapes and DVDs.” – Daniel Oron & Natasha Ryan, owners and executive producers, Go Button Media
“ And as far as conventional television, we’re really enjoying Jem Garrard’s Vagrant Queen, a light and charming sci–fi series that’s filled the Killjoys-shaped hole in our schedule, and we’re catching up to Joseph Kay’s Transplant, a medical procedural with a terrific ensemble and a high-concept premise (‘What if House, but a refugee’) that somehow doesn’t condescend to either of its elements.” – Norm Wilner, senior film writer at NOW Magazine, host of the Someone Else’s Movie podcast on Frequency
“ For the most recent Canadian film day, I was able to enjoy a few great comedies: Men with Brooms, Stag, Goon. I still need to check out Transplant.” – Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, star of Kim’s Convenience 8
s u m m e r 2 02 0
“ I’ve been watching some films at Canadian and international film festivals that are online. I watched Toronto Queer Film Festival’s Queer Emergencies program recently which featured work made by filmmakers under lockdown, I think my favourite was Vanessa Dion Fletcher’s Working In which is a sort of experimental parody that takes on the form of a work out video but talks about disability and the importance of rest. It rejects this pressure of productivity in a really humorous way. Also she is a neighbour who lives just one neighbourhood over from me!” – Thirza Cuthand, Filmmaker, Performance Artist, Writer
“ I’ve been watching a lot of the Canadian film submissions for Reelworld.” – Tonya Williams, founder and executive director, Reelworld Film Festival & Reelworld Screen Institute
“ Spending a lot of time on Netflix and Amazon. Loving the Canadian series Cardinal! – Shawn Williamson, President of Brightlight Pictures
“ Vagrant Queen because... it’s Vagrant Queen! And re-runs of Baroness von Sketch Show because it makes me happy.”
“ I’ve been binge watching Transplant, Departure, Fortunate Son, and Letterkenny. On Crave-Best of TIFF, I’ve seen Firecrackers, Giant Little Ones, Antigone, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch and many more incredible Canadian films.” – Jennifer Haufler, producer
– Cynthia Amsden, publicist and brand strategist, Roundstone Communications
“ I did finally start watching Schitt’s Creek. But more often lately, I’ve been watching short docs on CBC Gem. This week, I watched Lisa Jackson’s Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier, as well as the short docs The Condom King of Newfoundland and In the Shadow of the Pines. There are so many great little docs on the Gem website.” – Sherry White, co-showrunner on Lady Dicks
“ I get my Cancon in the form of Baroness von Sketch Show – in my opinion, the smartest show in the country.”
“ My 42+ year track record of watching The National on CBC continues unabated. We’re probably watching less TV in terms of total hours because of the absence of sports, but we just finished season two of My Brilliant Friend, and are now working our way through Never Have I Ever and lots of docs. Mighty Trains (but I’m only allowed to watch that alone), lots of great Canadian musicians performing online, and Never Have I Ever has a Canadian lead actress – does that count?” – David Kines, Hollywood Suite, CEO
“ My boyfriend and I are watching The Sopranos for the first time, and also rewatching a lot of comfort-food type movies from the ’90s. Canadian fave-wise we’re planning to re-binge New Eden, and watch some of our friends’ new comedy specials on Crave.” – Jordan Canning, director, Schitt’s Creek, Baroness von Sketch Show
– Corey Shurge, writer/director
s u m m e r 2 02 0
9
VIRTUAL EDITION
Thank you to our partners G R A N D PAT R O N S
P L AT I N U M
S I LV E R
GOLD
BRONZE
P R O D U C T I O N PA R T N E R S
®
B A N F F S PA R K PA R T N E R S
A S S O C I AT I O N PA R T N E R S
FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL
M E D I A PA R T N E R S
banffmediafestival.com
BANFF executive director Jenn Kuzmyk
Blazing a ‘Rockie’ trail By Jordan Pinto
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada, organizers of the Rockie Awards International Program Competition were confronted with a huge question: how to turn a stage show for around 400 guests, set against the majestic backdrop of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, into a broadcast-quality, two-hour ceremony that retained the vast scope of its traditional annual event. And fast. “At that time, there really were no precedents for what a virtual awards ceremony is,” says Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), parent organization of the Rockie Awards. “In many ways it was quite freeing.” From there, the team set about rebuilding the event from scratch, with a mandate to shine an even brighter light on its nominees. “Even when we were shutting down and leaving the office for the last time, we were determined to do whatever we could to provide value and a way of recognizing the nominees,” says event producer Mandi Gosling. “And so we tried to find opportunities in the virtual setting that we didn’t have in a live format.” This year’s Rockies will see 128 nominees from 35 countries vie for prizes across 26 categories encompassing scripted, doc, kids and arts & entertainment.
Part of that virtual spotlight has come through a series of roundtable discussions featuring nominees from across various categories. The scripted conversation, for example, includes Years and Years creator Russell T Davies and Fleabag producer Sarah Hammond. “It’s an incredible opportunity to get all the creative minds behind these shows talking to each other. They’ve been deep and rewarding discussions,” says Kuzmyk of the roundtable series housed on BANFF’s proprietary BANFFXchange platform. This year’s Rockies also aims to raise charitable funds for the Bow Valley Emergency Fund, which was formed to respond to community needs in the Town of Banff and surrounding areas due to COVID-19. The town, which relies heavily on tourism, has been hard hit by the effects of the pandemic, leading to around 85% unemployment. Of course, the Rockies team has also taken inspiration from awards shows (such as the Canadian Screen Awards and BAFTAs) which successfully made their own virtual pivots. It wouldn’t be the Rockies without its own unique flavour, though. And while this year’s awards won’t be take place in Banff’s intoxicating mountain air, they will recognize the nominees and winners in a way that was unimaginable just two months ago. The teams have been working around the clock to create “an entirely new look to the show, inspired by our work-from-home aesthetic,” says Kuzmyk. “People will see a much different Rockie Awards than they have before.” The 2020 Rockie Awards, hosted by the stars of CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show, streams on YouTube on Monday, June 15 at 3pm EDT (12pm PST, 8pm BST). 11
•TV Channel Broadcasting • Asset Management and Digital Distribution • Closed Captioning (Live and Offline) • Described Video (Live and Offline) •Versioning/ Voice Over •Translation/ Subtitling
40YEARS Of Passion!
The above services are offered in English, French,Spanish, Portuguese and more!
CONTACT: Wendy MADAIL, Director of Sales and Business Development I w.madail@sette.com s u mor m e1-833-525-1245 r 2 02 0
11
Some good news Sphère Média Plus and Bell Media execs dive into what made Transplant a hit for Canadian audiences after it dominated Numeris charts. B y K e l ly T o w ns e n d
Good news has been hard to come by in 2020, making any Canadian TV win a bright spot for an industry facing a wave of uncertainty. Enter Transplant, which became a ratings juggernaut for CTV over its 13-episode run from Feb. 26 to May 27. The medical drama, produced by Sphère Média Plus, pulled in an average audience of 1.4 million viewers in Canada, with 1.7 million tuning in to watch the season one finale. The series peaked at No. 2 on the Numeris Top 30 programs in Canada in the week of May 25 and ranked in the Top 20 for the coveted 24-54 demographic. Jocelyn Deschênes, Sphère Média Plus founder and Transplant executive producer, tells Playback that the series’ timely elements about immigration and its nonsoapy portrayal of life as an ER doctor likely resonated with audiences. Mike Cosentino, president, content and programming at Bell Media, notes that the series “examines relatable themes that are deeply human” that make it a hit with both audiences and critics, mixed with “an extensive promotional and publicity campaign.” Transplant’s bragging rights include becoming the No. 1 Canadian series in the 2019/20 broadcast year, according to Bell Media, and CTV’s second most-watched new series, behind 9-1-1: Lonestar. The broadcaster says it’s the biggest new Canadian drama since The Book of Negroes in
Hamza Haq stars as a Syrian refugee who starts over as an ER doctor in Toronto
2015 and the most-watched new series since The Indian Detective in 2017. While procedurals have often been proven hits in Canada, Deschênes says Transplant was still a risk for the prodco when it came to mounting a series with a relatively unknown lead in star Hamza Haq. But they had faith in Haq after working with him on the CBC series This Life, which was helmed by Transplant showrunner Joseph Kay. “[Transplant’s success] proves if you have a good story and good actors, you don’t have to [rely on] stars,” says Deschênes. “You have to have the right actor with the right character and you can build around it.” The verdict is still out on whether Transplant will net comparable ratings internationally – NBC picked up the rights for U.S. broadcast, while NBCUniversal International Studios holds global sales rights. But Deschênes is confident in its continued success. “I think Transplant can compete with any show on the planet,” he says. 13
s u m m e r 2 02 0
13
n o i t a u t i s
n w o d k c lo e h t r e b m me e r e ? w c l i l i m w e d w n o H pa s u r i v a n coro
14
s u m m e r 2 02 0
Where were you when social distancing began? And how did it impact you immediately? “I had just gotten off a week-long cruise ship and needless to say was a bit concerned about what we returned home to. Interestingly, while on the ship, you would have had no idea anything bad was happening in the world. IMPACT: “We’ve been impacted very significantly. Our offices have now been closed for … weeks and we’ve lost our biggest gig of the year. We have produced the branding and image campaign for the CW Network every year in May since the inception of the network. That job went away as well as a feature film we had slated to start.” – Howard Barish, president and CEO, Kandoo Films
“I was in Toronto preparing for the Canadian theatrical release on 4/20 of The Marijuana Conspiracy – the last feature film I produced prior to COVID-19’s unfortunate arrival. The impact was immediate because the theatrical release was cancelled due to COVID-19. Of course, it was very disappointing, but after the enormity of the pandemic sunk in I came to terms with it and counted my blessings that everyone I know is healthy.
IMPACT: “The gigs aren’t lost – but delayed. We’ve had to reschedule our next project, a feature to be filmed in Sudbury, until the fall. It is The Pale Blue Eye, a modern adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe short story.... Covid-19 is making everyone pivot in their approach and scheduling. Personally, I’ve decided to use a mainly Canadian cast for my next production. Jon Comerford at New Life Casting has been very insightful. And of course, safety and set protocols will be top of mind.” – Jennifer Haufler, producer
“We had a number of shows in production, so I was at the office. IMPACT: “I went from working at 100mph to dead slow, and I learned to bake. We shut down seven shows but are hopeful all of them will be restarting later this summer.” – Shawn Williamson, president, Brightlight Pictures
“I moved to Los Angeles last year, so I was down here working on a couple of gigs: a TV movie, and a scripted podcast series I EP called Solve.
IMPACT: “Both projects were at the writing stage, so my day-to-day wasn’t too different, but my world got smaller.” – Corey Shurge, writer/director
“I was in the Coroner writers’ room when social distancing began – we were about to take a planned one-week hiatus, and I remember that Friday morning (March 13) we were discussing if we would have to work remotely for two weeks when we came back. By the end of the day, that was pretty much a foregone conclusion. I was also supposed to go to L.A. to pitch another project that week, but by the end of that Friday we had cancelled the trip. It was astonishing how quickly things unfolded. IMPACT: “For Coroner, I’m grateful we had the time in the room together before isolation began, because we had built up a rhythm that we were able to continue remotely. For my other project, cancelling the trip was very disappointing. We had done a lot of work to prepare for the pitch, and it’s so much more impactful to do it in person. We didn’t know when anyone would even be taking pitches. And we worried that our passion for the project wouldn’t be conveyed through a screen or a phone call. So we postponed the trip indefinitely.” – Marsha Greene, writer, Coroner
“We first began to understand the potential scope of Covid-19 at the beginning of March. We have family abroad, some in the medical field, who suggested we start cancelling international travel. We moved an upcoming shoot in the U.K. to Nova Scotia and within a week, cancelled that also. While the shoot moves were happening, we requested that our office staff take their computers home at night and be prepared to work remotely with short notice. We backed up our files, prepped and delivered hard drives for post work, ensured everyone was set up to resume work offsite and relatively smoothly closed our office Friday, March 13 with plans in place to keep our entire staff employed. IMPACT: “In the early days we worried we might have seemed paranoid but everything we feared might happen, and cautiously prepared for, that has come to be our reality. Luckily with all the prep work, we have been able to keep our symbolic company ‘doors’ open and have even secured three greenlights for new shows with everyone working remotely.” – Daniel Oron & Natasha Ryan, owners/executive producers, Go Button Media
“On Friday, March 13, I was at the office, getting ready to go into official prep on Lady Dicks on the following Monday. IMPACT: “Two days later, I was in self-quarantine with my 10-year-old daughter, waiting to hear if my colleague had tested positive for Covid-19. Our world changed radically in the course of two days. We went from prepping and casting a series to having everything on hold. Those first two weeks, I basically just freaked out, as my mind stutter-stepped its way into the new reality.” – Tassie Cameron, co-showrunner, Lady Dicks
“I went for a beer at The Oxley after work on Friday, March 13, with a good indication we would be working from home starting that Monday. I didn’t quite realize it would be the last time I would be in a bar or having a beer with a mate for weeks. IMPACT: Our team was very quick to pivot and figure out how to turn our programming online so we could stay connected to our members. We sent out a short survey asking about their current work situation and what kind of programming they were looking for. We have been very fortunate to be extremely busy and still working – we hosted our annual general meeting by a Zoom webinar to over 60 people last week, which was both stressful, but rewarding in that we were able to pull it off.” – Karen Bruce, executive director, Women in Film & Television Toronto (WIFT-T) s u m m e r 2 02 0
15
“I was working from my office which is in my residence when the lockdown started. I was wrapping out of the 2nd CAFTCAD Awards which had taken place on March 1, and about to send out press releases for Tokens, the web series that got four CSA nominations, and Queen of the Morning Calm, which screened at the Canadian Film Festival.”
IMPACT: “The impact was like a ton of bricks. But being a publicist, we know how to take bricks and build something new or, at the very least, a bridge.” – Cynthia Amsden, publicist and brand strategist, Roundstone Communications
“I had just begun post-production on my directorial debut When Time Got Louder which we finished filming before physical distancing began.
IMPACT: “I am incredibly thankful that we have our own post facility, Crew Studios (on the North Shore), where my editor Asim Nuraney and I are able to work. While it’s not physically in my home, the studio very much feels like my home office as I pour my morning coffee and have the world’s best director’s assistant Simba with me daily!” – Connie Cocchia, writer, director, and producer
“We just finished shooting and editing Trickster and I was taking a much-needed vacation in Thailand when I got word that I had to get home for fear of being trapped outside of the country. So I bought a one-way ticket home via Japan to Toronto. Nobody was being asked to self-quarantine yet so I went straight to the office (crazy when you think about what we now know). And within five days everything changed drastically. We were all sent home to work remotely. IMPACT: “It’s been an interesting learning curve to say the least. I think everyone has had to process this in their own way and we’ve had to remind ourselves that we are working through a crisis and we have to be gentle with ourselves and each other. Creativity requires brain space – it’s hard to do your best work when you feel anxious or stressed. So this process has also been about giving ourselves permission to process what’s going on in the world (and within ourselves), to support one another and lean into the uncertainty of these times. Because artists are tasked with interpreting reality and making sense of the world in an effort to discover meaning and enhance understanding and interconnectedness. To be working with some many creative people during this crisis has certainly driven home the fundamental values of why I choose to pursue a creative life. We need our artists to help make sense of the world. And this has never been so apparent to me as it is right now.” – Michelle Latimer, executive producer and director, Trickster
“I was actually in between gigs, so I was collaborating with a writer in L.A. on a feature film script, and shopping around another script with a friend, gearing up for March break and prepping for the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards. When the lockdown happened. IMPACT: “Initially nothing was impacted too much the first week or so. Then shit got real and everything was put on hold.” – Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, actor, Kim’s Convenience
16
s u m m e r 2 02 0
ce’s Zoom Karen Bru
anion call comp
“I was in Vancouver shooting a pilot for a TV show called Family Law. The day Trudeau announced no more gatherings over 50, we finished off our morning and shut it down at lunch. I flew back to Toronto the next day. The first few weeks of quarantine were truly a blur of video games and carbs, but the fog eventually lifted and I’ve managed to do some writing in the down time. Though I would say my sharpest skills right now are all related to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.” – Jordan Canning, director, Schitt’s Creek, Baroness von Sketch Show
“I was in Toronto when the lockdown started – but my wife and I had been in London a couple of weeks earlier, so we’d already started being careful about hand-washing and general awareness. We both work at home – she’s an author and knitwear designer – so we’ve long since found ways to cope with being in each other’s office space all the time…
IMPACT: “Social distancing hasn’t affected me too badly, to be honest; I’ve been working from home my entire professional career, and most indie films and documentaries are provided to critics as streaming links these days anyway. ” – Norm Wilner, senior film writer, NOW Magazine; host of the Someone Else’s Movie podcast on Frequency
“I was in Montréal when the social distancing began. I stayed there for the first few weeks before returning home in Toronto to spend the rest of the quarantine with my family. IMPACT: “Like a lot of other people in the film industry, I lost a lot of opportunities and gigs because of the virus. This included events I was really looking forward to like the Canadian Screen Awards and SXSW. All the cancellations left my schedule completely empty. It was devastating at first, but reality hit me pretty quickly. I realize how fortunate I am to be able to quarantine, and to not have to worry about how to put food on the table.” – Carol Nguyen, filmmaker
The out of towners “I was in Palm Springs ‘celebrating’ my birthday on March 15 when social distancing started.
IMPACT: “Work wise, we saw an immediate drop in business 30% due to event-based entertainment and sports clients. However, it thankfully picked up with the new tech-based non-Covid affected clients that came on after a long few weeks.” – Lindsay Nahmiache, CEO, Jive PR + Digital
“I was in Ottawa when the quarantine/lockdown started getting more serious. I was staying in a hotel room for a week and watching the staff getting more nervous and doing more preventative things like changing the way they served breakfast in the morning. My colleagues and I were all gathered from out of town and getting nervous about the growing changes every day. I changed my plane ticket to come back a day early in case domestic travel was shut down, and I remember the Ottawa airport was almost entirely deserted when I finally came back to Toronto. IMPACT: “I lost a couple of jobs. I’ve also got a few film shoots I need to do and those have been pushed back obviously until we can figure out a way to do it safely. I’m doing the work I can do though which is scriptwriting and editing a short video.” – Thirza Cuthand, filmmaker, performance artist, writer
supposed to fly to Saskatoon for the Junos but once those were cancelled I flew home to Toronto instead. Since then I haven’t moved more than a few blocks from our condo, except for some short jogs.
IMPACT: “All our business operations are in the cloud so there’s no reliance on any local physical infrastructure except by our editors. We had to buy portable hard drives for them, laptops for a few people that had desktops. Production has continued uninterrupted on our in-house projects and promotions and there’s been no impact on our programming. There’s been a substantial increase in community outreach, free previews, support for filmmakers and theatres, and rounding up support for projects such as the Stronger Together benefit.” – David Kines, CEO, Hollywood Suite
“On March 9, I flew from Los Angeles where I live, to Toronto – my trip was supposed to be a week returning to L.A. on March 17. By Friday, March 13 I could sense that things were escalating and I was nervous the borders between Canada and U.S. would shut down, so I moved up my flight to that Sunday, March 15. The airport was quiet, very few people – and on my flight back there couldn’t have been more than 20 occupied seats.”
“We had completed filming on two documentaries and I had just returned from a two-week break in B.C. We were in the midst of editing one documentary, about to start a second and had just finished a quick turnaround documentary Inside Wuhan for CTV W5.
IMPACT: “As this was our 20th anniversary year of the Reelworld Film Festival this impacted us a lot. We had a number of events planned through the year. We had a planned event at the Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles that has been postponed. We were partnered with Asian Heritage month to present some films and speakers, but that was cancelled. We had our Reelyouth program schedule at four different schools, but those were cancelled. The emotional uncertainty is the hardest for me – trying to make plans when you have no idea what you’re exactly planning for. My heart goes out to all the film festivals that were to present in March, April, May – they have had to adjust and pivot on a dime. At Reelworld we are struggling to plan out our festival in October when we have no idea what the situation will be in October.” – Tonya Williams, founder and executive director, Reelworld Film Festival & Reelworld Screen Institute
“I was on holiday in Cuba the first week of March – my first time there, inspired to go by the new Canadian film The Cuban. I had a lot of fun at a resort and in Havana. Social distancing and (in particular) avoiding buffet meals was not yet a “thing” although the world news became increasingly ominous.
“I had just returned from a week’s vacation. We had heard about the outbreak while I was away but had no idea of the severity of what was coming our way. I had heard stories of the Holocaust and the Hungarian revolution all my life from my parents and never would have imagined living through a world crisis of any kind in MY lifetime. So it all seemed very surreal, as I’m sure it did for everyone else.
IMPACT: “We were prepared for a work-from-home scenario so had our editors and assistant editors quickly pull together the equipment they needed to keep the workflow going.” – Craig Thompson, president and executive producer, Ballinran Entertainment
IMPACT: “I returned to the office for only two days before Telefilm wisely decided that anyone who had been travelling must self-isolate. And one day after that, it was determined that our entire staff would work from home until further notice.” – Dan Lyon, feature film executive, Telefilm
“I was sitting in a hotel in Whistler after an exhilarating full day of skiing on Wednesday, March 11. We’d already started contingency planning for a potential office closure so I sent a note to our staff to say now was the time to start working from home, and by Friday, March 13 everyone was [to be] out of the office. I went skiing Thursday, juggling my phone and ski gloves on the chairlifts. On Friday I was
IMPACT: “Because I was already used to working from home, I was well set up. Our team at Rezolution quickly transitioned and brilliantly adapted to the home office situation as well. My colleagues and I made sure to reassure everyone on the team that we would be looking into all possible solutions and the various funds to make sure everyone was safe and taken care of. Our first challenge was to find creative solutions to deliver and produce shows that were already commissioned. Nobody wants to leave their clients in the lurch! So I connected with our network execs right away. We took the time to put together our catalogue and offer networks programming acquisitions to fill the gap of delayed productions. In the meantime we continued to work with writers to develop and write new show ideas.” – Christina Fon, VP & executive producer, Rezolution Pictures s u m m e r 2 02 0
17
Meet Meet
It’s all about the stories.
JAXX designs, produces and delivers moving narratives for every platform, serving clients from conception through execution in commercial, episodic, feature-length and now AR & VR projects.
JAXX is proud to have designed and packaged this year’s Rockie Awards. Congratulations to all the winners.
jaxxcreative.com
Fon Christina
How have you been keeping your skills sharp since social distancing began? “To be honest I’ve just been trying to survive. Seeing people sharpening their skills, taking on new hobbies, getting better at languages, instruments, gardening, cooking – it’s been a joy to watch but something I can’t relate to at all. The gravity of the crisis and the impact it has, particularly on marginalized communities who do not receive adequate social assistance or healthcare, has weighed heavily on me and my ability to do much or to find joy in the things that I used to enjoy. I have only been able to put one foot in front of the other and fulfill my existing work expectations and the rest of my time is spent taking care of my basic, dayto-day needs. What has kept me going is the caring, compassionate people I work with and the knowledge that I am not alone in the way I feel.” – Mariam Zaidi, executive director, Breakthroughs Film Festival; associate programmer, Hot Docs; documentary filmmaker “Situations like these, and I’ve been in a few of them (9/11, 2009 Blackout, etc.), really sharpens one’s focus. My background is live television production so I’m used to dealing with a ton of variables and making decisions on the fly. You have to be hyper aware of how much is subject to change these days – there is no certainty of just about anything! I think we’re all learning a few new skills too, whether it’s how to present on a video call, how to keep the cat away from the camera, or baking bread.” – David Kines, CEO, Hollywood Suite “We have been monitoring the progress of editing remotely using video conferencing software and screen sharing. We have also been developing a number of projects which can be filmed remotely. We are doing a lot of technology and software research.” – Craig Thompson, president and executive producer, Ballinran Entertainment
“Because of the uncertainty of the times I’ve spent a lot more time talking to employees, suppliers and clients and I think those conversations are sometimes more meaningful and centered than in the past as we all realize what a fragile world we live in.” – David Kines, CEO, Hollywood Suite “I’m keeping my skills sharp by watching more webinars than I’ve seen in my whole life, primarily on other film festivals and how they are dealing with the new online reality. I’ve had to learn more ‘tech’ than I ever thought I’d need to know in a lifetime.” – Tonya Williams, founder and executive director, Reelworld Film Festival & Reelworld Screen Institute “To be honest, I haven’t been. Unless you count trying not to show how stressed I was to my family.” – Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, actor, Kim’s Convenience “The only ‘good’ thing about this crisis is that it has given Sherry White and I the time to really focus on getting our scripts written and rewritten, so that we might have most or all of them ready by the time we do shoot. So, in many ways, I feel like I’m just as busy as ever.” – Tassie Cameron, co-showrunner, Lady Dicks “My skills are being sharpened on a high-concept project that was brought to me by two Canadian actors, Paul Amos and Rachel Skarsten, who created HOMECON, a two-day virtual pop culture convention for all the fans who can’t attend the brick-and-mortar cons which have cancelled due to COVID-19. Launching this has been a round-the-clock ride, and it’s been fantastic.” – Cynthia Amsden, publicist and brand strategist, Roundstone Communications “I’ve been doing an online course from Yale called ‘The Science of Wellbeing’ and started ‘Ugly Dancing’ which has been amazing.” – Lindsay Nahmiache, CEO, Jive PR + Digital “My work involves sales and establishing relationships so I’ve been using technology to connect with my colleagues and creators. Because the entire world is in the same situation, reaching out and connecting has actually been easier and it gives me a sense that our industry is still alive and dynamic and our projects are moving forward. This definitely keeps me sharp, focused and excited.” – Christina Fon, VP & executive producer, Rezolution Pictures
s u m m e r 2 02 0
19
hnson Naomi Jo
“We started checking in with all of our broadcast partners as soon as this began, to brainstorm creative content problem solving and unique innovations for productions while in-person shooting is shuttered. The accessibility, flexibility, creativity and honesty our clients and partners have demonstrated from day one until now has enabled our company to remain productive, positive and even dynamic as what our son calls “corona season” has waned on. Fortunately, some of our staff have really excelled and even thrived working from home. From researching and enrolling in online classes to upgrading our pre-pandemic systems to generating a massive development slate that we are pitching our way through. We are also fully prepped to leap back into production when it is wise and safe to do so.” – Daniel Oron & Natasha Ryan, owners and executive producers, Go Button Media “The down time has actually given me a moment to pause, reflect, catch up on some TV, play my guitar and cook way too many great meals. I think my hobby skills have become much more sharpened than my industry skills. Having said that, I have also had the time to research new projects, technology, platforms and explore different methodologies of distribution. We’ve actually picked up a few projects during this time that we normally might not have considered.” – Howard Barish, president and CEO, Kandoo Films “I am a great believer of the sentiment that you get better by doing – the whole ‘10,000 hours of deliberate practice’ thing. I keep doing. And I read a lot, feed my curiosity about the world, and I try to get into nature as much as possible.” – Michelle Latimer, executive producer and director, Trickster “Luckily for me, most of my film projects are in the development and scriptwriting stage, so I was able to continue to advance on my projects at home and have meetings online. Aside from film, I’ve been trying to maintain my French courses everyday and try to take care of my mental health, which plays a huge role in my productivity. I make sure to take a walk and workout at least once a day.” – Carol Nguyen, filmmaker “To keep my mind healthy and skills sharp, I’ve been taking a variety of online courses and diving in to some very insightful and informative webinars.” – Jennifer Haufler, producer “I’m lucky enough to still be working (if at reduced hours), so I’ve got movies and television to review and a new podcast I’m producing and hosting for NOW, Now What, where I talk to Torontonians about how they’re coping in this weird new normal. And of course inviting guests to my home studio to record an episode of Someone Else’s Movie is no longer an option, so I’ve learned how to record remotely via Skype and Zoom and mix our separate recordings into a clean track. Everything’s changed about how I create the show, but hopefully the end results are almost as good as a live recording.” – Norm Wilner, senior film writer at NOW Magazine, host of the Someone Else’s Movie podcast on Frequency 20
s u m m e r 2 02 0
What’s unique or challenging about your home office? “I am quarantining in my home in Toronto right now. This means that my home office is my childhood bedroom. My purple walled room, lined with stuffed animals and Breaking Bad posters is always an interesting setting to have my professional Zoom meetings, but it always makes a nice ice breaker, seeing how everyone’s setting is so out of their normal right now. At this point, it is also the longest I’ve spent at home. I am accustomed to my independence and rules back in Montréal, so going living at home for nearly two months was definitely an adjustment.” – Carol Nguyen, filmmaker “Unique in that I can work outside, challenging due to my mini-boss, who doesn’t understand why they can’t watch Blippi when I’m working.” – Lindsay Nahmiache, CEO, Jive PR + Digital “My home office is my couch, which has been true for most of my self employment as a filmmaker so it’s not a huge change. It is really not the most ideal place and so I’ve also been using my sun porch to do writing. I also find the couch helpful for getting film viewing in for work and enjoyment.” – Thirza Cuthand, filmmaker, performance artist, writer “I have a spare room that I use as an office, and I’ve now discovered that the internet connection is weaker upstairs – not ideal when you’re on video calls all day! So functionally, that’s the biggest challenge. But in the big picture, I think the challenge is to create a space that is both functional for work but also inspires me to be creative. So when I’m writing, I often sit in my swivel chair with the computer on my lap. My body will pay for this decision later… “ – Marsha Greene, writer, Coroner “I’ve actually been struggling a bit with the space issue... my husband and I have been looking for a condo. And we finally found one.... and we got possession the first week of March but I wasn’t able to move in because I was still on set. I have no furniture. My living room and my office are composed entirely at the moment of IKEA patio furniture.” – Danishka Esterhazy, director
reene Marsha G
“My patio is my ‘office,’ which I’m grateful to have, but it has its limitations. The temptations and distractions of home are still right there on the other side of the doors. The bugs start biting around 5 p.m.. There’s a squirrel that seems to have some kind of a problem with me. The squirrel itself isn’t the issue, it’s that I’ve spent so much time in isolation that I’ve started personalizing my relationship with a squirrel.” – Corey Shurge, writer/director “I get to work in the basement. It’s challenging because of the lack of space and it’s now doubling as my set for my YouTube channel show aptly called My Geeky Basement. It’s hard because it’s not a dedicated space – my boys use the basement because the Xbox One is there. We also use much of the basement for storage so space is at a premium! I’ve also had to create a recording studio in the back storage room for voice auditions and run a 100-foot length of ethernet cable down there.” – Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, actor, Kim’s Convenience “I write in bed, and I always did. It looks like an insane woman sleeps here, plus I have half a dozen dogs that are lounging on it at any given point of the day. So it looks CRAZY up here.... When it’s nice out, I work in the backyard. I even got a patio heater... just so I can feel like I went somewhere.” – Sherry White, co-showrunner on Lady Dicks “I’ve been in Vancouver for months... We had a launch of our new facility in Vancouver on [March 12] and on [March 13] everything was shut down. My home is London, so I’m actually very happy to be stuck here in Vancouver. We had a launch here and then I had set some meetings in L.A. and then stuff started shutting down in L.A. but then also I didn’t want to go down there and then that following week then it started getting bad in the U.K. and then I was like OK, if I don’t need to travel I shouldn’t travel so that’s why I’m still here. – Daniel Jones, CEO, Vaudeville Sound Group
“I have my office set up in my dining room. I recently cleaned it out, did a purge and set up a more zen space to make it more pleasant. I spend a lot [of ] time there so I might as well enjoy it! I think the challenge is, again, balance! We are all stuck at home with household responsibilities and work goals and worries. I want to be sure to give my kids enough time so they can talk to me and feel supported and not scared and also give work enough time. And then, let’s not forget about self-care. – Christina Fon, VP & executive producer, Rezolution Pictures “My ‘home office’ is our [kids’] playroom... our children tend to pop in to get toys which as always fun when I’m on a video call.” – Ngardy Conteh George, Oya Media Group co-founder “About two months ago I left Toronto because I found it hard to get out into nature and I was starting to feel very creatively stifled. So I came back up to northern Ontario (Thunder Bay - where I grew up and where my family is). I’m staying in a cabin on Lake Nipigon about two hours north of Thunder Bay and this is where I’ve set up my office. The cabin is completely off-grid, powered by solar and I use kerosene lanterns at night. I have a big window that looks out over the water. The challenge has been access to fast and reliable internet. So I travel two hours once a week to work at my parent’s house in Thunder Bay and it’s here that I do any downloading of large media files and where I do VFX or heavy post meetings. Otherwise, I’m secluded by the lake and I love it!” – Michelle Latimer, executive producer and director, Trickster “Working remotely you have to take a more structured approach to staff interaction, and so there’s actually been more of that than normal which is great, and particularly necessary in these uncertain times. There’s somewhat of an artifice to it since we’re all on a video call as opposed to the casual interaction of wandering into someone’s office or chatting with them in the kitchen, but the regular staff calls are a great leveller as everyone is there. And we’ve celebrated a retirement, some birthdays and had a baby shower!” – David Kines, Hollywood Suite, CEO “Finding the right space within my house was a major challenge. I started out at my vanity in the bedroom, where my three-year-old son Charlie took it upon himself to become my own personal hair and makeup artist. Apparently, in his eyes, Mama always needs a touch up.” – Naomi Johnson, executive director, imagineNative
s u m m e r 2 02 0
21
‘ Mission critical’: Staging the grand reopening of Canadian production The door is gradually being pried open, but myriad challenges – from insurance to safety guidelines to complications with international travel – mean the next three months will be among the most important in the history of the domestic production sector. B y K e l ly T o w n s e n d , L a u r e n M a ly k , J o r d a n P i n t o
The week of March 9 was characterized by disbelief, panic and utter bewilderment. As the dominoes started to fall, startled producers from coast to coast speedily shut down sets as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across North America. By March 16, virtually everything was closed. The subsequent months have been financially and emotionally punishing on the production sector, which has been propped up by emergency relief funding to see it through a situation no one envisioned. But throughout a grim few months, bright minds from across the sector have spent countless hours on Zoom wrestling with some of the most intricate challenges ever faced by the Canadian production industry. Now, after 12 weeks of uncertainty – many of them taking place in an environment where day-to-day survival took precedence over longer-term concerns – answers to some of the big questions seem to be 22
s u m m e r 2 02 0
emerging, potentially setting the table for the grand reopening of Canadian production. The celebrations will be muted, though, and not just because of social distancing. In mid-June, big questions remain. What’s not in question is that what comes next will be a defining period, as the domestic sector attempts to restart in a post-pandemic world. “The next three months are absolutely ‘mission critical,’” Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO of the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), tells Playback. “We’re in this transitional period where we are still managing the hugely negative impact of the shutdown – and making sure that production companies and the people that they employ are able to ride out this crisis – while at the same time doing everything that we can to remove obstacles to production resuming. That’s the balancing act.” The local industry has worked tirelessly in recent
months to put Canada’s $9.32 billion yearly production economy ($3.32 billion of it in domestic production) back on the tracks. Estimates predict at least a $2.5-billion shortfall in Canadian production spending this year. And for a sector hurting desperately after a three-month production hiatus, the prospect of moving into an era in which production is more expensive, slower and trickier to execute is a daunting one. According to CMPA estimates, production costs could increase anywhere from 8% to 25%, based on a number of factors including genre and scale of production. (Read on for a breakdown of how producers are working with new protocols and safety guidelines.) Those increases are complicated further when considering projects with budgets that were finalized prior to the shutdown. With everyone hurting financially, no one is clamouring to foot the bill and Mastin says the CMPA and others are in discussion with the government about ways to cover additional costs for such projects. He points to encouraging signs in Quebec, which in early June announced additional funds partly to offset increased costs.
The elephant in the room
For all the endless talk about adhering to safety guidelines, the issue of insurance has remained the elephant in the room. The devastating impact of the production shutdown led insurers across the world to swiftly change their policies to exclude COVID-19-related claims. Those exclusions have created a major conundrum, as bank loans, interim financing and financing contracts are typically contingent on the presence of insurance to cover costs of delays or stoppages. The situation is simple in the majority of cases: no insurance means no production. There is, however, potentially a light at the end of the tunnel. In early June, the CMPA proposed a marketbased, shared-risk solution that would see the federal government serve as a backstop for COVID-19 insurance claims. Under the proposal, producers would pay premiums to access COVID-19 coverage, which would go into a funding pot designated for potential claims, and the government would only contribute financially if the funds generated through the sale of the policies was insufficient to cover the claims made. (While the exact size of the proposed government backstop is still under discussion and subject to change, it is thought to be in the range of $100 million.) Unprecedented times have put unprecedented stresses on the public purse, however, and the domestic screen sector is competing with every other industry for muchneeded support. “It goes without saying that if we don’t find a solution to this issue, there are a number of Canadian
productions that likely will not get off the ground,” says Mastin, adding that the “urgent and essential” discussion around insurance has yielded “productive dialogue” with government thus far. Even with new exclusions for communicable diseases, the cost of insurance will increase. Damian Schleifer, EVP at Front Row Insurance Brokers, says there isn’t a rule of thumb for pricing film and TV insurance. “Many people think the rate is roughly 1% of the budget, but if that works out it’s a coincidence,” he says. Now, rates are poised to rise significantly as a bruised insurance sector implements new price models. “Prior to COVID-19, we were seeing rates increasing slightly in the 3% to 5% range, but, at present, rates are going up faster – from 10% to 100% – depending on the insurer and type of production,” he notes. In addition, insurers are reducing limits for some coverage and increasing deductibles, meaning it will be more challenging and costly to obtain coverage as productions start to resume. Despite ongoing uncertainty, Cinespace VP Jim Mirkopoulos says U.S. studios are eager to return to Canada. Across all its Ontario studios, Mirkopoulos says Cinespace’s clients have all indicated they are returning, including Netflix, which leases 250,000 square feet of studio space across Cinespace and Pinewood on a long-term basis. And if, as some industry watchers have speculated, Canadian projects are up and running before service productions, Mirkopoulos says he might be able to provide assistance. “If we can assist some Canadian clients with overflow spaces we have here and there, we’d love to be able to do that, if in fact Canadian productions are first to start rolling again.”
“ We are still managing the hugely negative impact of the shutdown – and making sure that production companies and the people that they employ are able to ride out this crisis.” – Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO, CMPA
All eyes on Manitoba as first province to lift restrictions
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a seismic shift for the Canadian film industry, now grappling with the fundamental question of how to roll cameras without risking the safety of cast and crew. Manitoba producers were able to give the first glimpse at what the short-term future of production might look like with the May 28 release of its COVID-19 health and safety protocols. The province became the first in Canada to loosen production restrictions, giving the green light as of June 1. s u m m e r 2 02 0
23
Seven of the province’s production companies – Buffalo Gal Pictures, Eagle Vision, Frank Digital, Inferno Pictures, Merit Motion Pictures, Tripwire Media and Zoot Pictures – formed a committee to develop the 12-page list of protocols. Rachel Margolis, Manitoba Film & Music CEO and film commissioner, says she served as a liaison between the film community and the province’s public health chief to get the protocols approved. The Manitoba government released a shortened version of the document they were provided as part of a larger province-wide guidance on its second phase of reopening. “We’re hoping the entire [provincial] industry will apply the more substantial guidelines to their individual productions,” said Kyle Irving, president of production at Eagle Vision, noting that producers have collaborated with Film Training Manitoba to hold an information session on the guide, which is currently available on the On Screen Manitoba website. He says consistency among production protocols will give cast and crew some level of security as productions ramp up. “I’m happy to be part of the place that’s going to help lead the way, but we want to make sure we lead in the right way,” he says. “We’re not going to have a second chance at this. We have to get it right the first time.” Other provinces have started rolling out guidelines since the beginning of June, including Quebec, which said production can begin June 8, while British Columbia’s WorkSafe released a template on June 4 for producers to build specific protocols for production. In Ontario, Section 21 Committee has submitted protocols to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development for review and approval. Overall, each province’s protocols look into health and safety issues specific to the film industry, such as makeup and costume fittings, craft services, how to physically distance when filming in an indoor set, as well as more general issues like providing sanitization areas, PPE and daily screenings of employees. What they don’t cover are pressing issues such as insurance, how to measure the added cost of securing PPE, and the less-discussed topic of how to deliver high-quality content while also keeping cast members physically distant. Manitoba-based producer Juliette Hagopian of Julijette Inc. crafted her own protocols when the government first announced domestic production would reopen, collaborating with department heads on health and safety best practices. That meant creating detailed protocols on cleaning measures, independently sourcing PPE and setting a system to keep track of equipment in use. Hagopian was in pre-production on Bitter Harvest, a film for Lifetime (U.S.), when production shuttered in March. Now that production is able to restart, her prodco has pivoted to another feature, titled Let’s Meet Again, that requires a smaller 10-person cast to “have a little more control” over the amount of people on set. As of press time, Hagopian was in pre-production after picking 24
s u m m e r 2 02 0
up additional funding for COVID-19 measures, and plans to go to camera in July. Based on her calculations, the cost of added safety measures increases the budget by 10%. Producers in B.C. have also been creative in keeping production going during the pandemic. Thunderbird Entertainment president Mark Miller says its factual arm Great Pacific Media has used small guerilla crews to stay in production on two projects during the pandemic. He notes that B.C. productions were never mandated to close, but voluntarily did so for the safety of employees. The company works with a safety auditor regularly to evaluate protocols for dangerous jobs on series like Heavy Rescue: 401 and has shifted gears to consider protocols from a health standpoint, calling it a “different kind of risk” for crews. “It’s got to be a thoughtful and patient Unplanned pirouette: CBC’s Battle of the Blades is expected to feature a approach,” cautions Eagle Vision’s Irving on virtual audience for its sixth season. the timeline to getting cameras operating. “It’s great to have [cleared] the hurdle of the government saying, ‘go ahead and get back to work.’ Let’s just make sure we get it right.” John Lewis, IATSE’s international VP and director of Canadian affairs, concurs and says the devil will be in the details when executing on the guidelines. “Are people being trained to meet those news standards? And are they being enforced so that everyone lives by them? That is my concern. I hope everyone comes back knowing it can’t just be business as usual. They must take into consideration this new reality and come back with a sense of patience.”
What are broadcasters saying?
Of course, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis has been no less damaging to the broadcast sector, which has dealt with the double whammy of a steep decline in ad revenue and the issue of filling schedules while being drip-fed new programming. CBC was the first Canadian broadcaster out of the gate on May 27 with its virtual Upfront presentation, renewing factual titles like Family Feud Canada and skating-meetshockey show Battle of the Blades. Others will present their slates later this month. “There are no guarantees for what the future holds, but we were certainly not going to greenlight these series until we felt very comfortable that the producers had strong and field-tight plans around safety,” says Sally Catto, GM, entertainment, factual & sports. For instance, Battle’s sixth season is expected to feature a virtual audience. “We see audiences are craving connection through live events more than ever before, so it’s a unique opportunity,” she says. Over at APTN, most productions are on hiatus, but a few – such as Coyote’s Crazy Smart Science Show – have managed to innovatively work around restrictions, says Danielle Audette, APTN’s acting executive director of programming and scheduling. The science show
Home schooling: season three of APTN’s Coyote’s Crazy Smart Science Show was filmed entirely from home.
opted to shoot its upcoming third season via a stay-athome production model. Meanwhile, projects such as signature APTN drama series Tribal are waiting for information on how to proceed. The pandemic also forced Groupe Média TFO to halt production on two projects and close its LUV studio, according to acting president and CEO Eric Minoli and CCO Nadine Dupont. The team was able to pivot quickly, launching Le Camp TFO en Famille, an initiative aimed at supporting French-language kids and audiences, and started relying on teams to produce content at home. “While we are facing significant challenges, the great news is creativity is flourishing, so when the all-clear is given to resume production, we’ll be ready with the safety of our cast, crew and all members of production in mind,” says Rogers Sports & Media director of original programming Nataline Rodrigues. “Story departments are holding virtual story rooms and opening up opportunities for writers wherever they live. They are writing the same escapist entertainment viewers are craving more than ever, while considering the safety of our cast and crew. This means imagining new story worlds, settings and how many characters are really needed to bring a story to life.” In terms of the projected budget increases for production, Rodrigues says Rogers is supportive of producers’ efforts and is working to rethink how things are done across all budget line items so it can manage costs while not compromising viewer expectations. OUTtv COO Philip Webb says producers haven’t broached the topic of additional costs so far. “I think it’s inevitable that there will be either a financial impact or a quality impact at some point. That’s just something that we’re going to have to learn to live with,” Webb says. “It will come at a cost and it’s a matter of figuring out who’s going to carry that cost,” adds APTN’s Audette. “It’s going to be a collaborative effort among all the different organizations. I’m hoping those extra costs will be considered eligible labour for tax credits and eligible expenses under the Canada Media Fund. All of the players within this industry will need to look at sharing the financial burden to support our producers. Because at the end of the day, what’s most important for us is that these Canadian stories are being told, and told safely by the Indigenous voices from those communities.” While the CRTC has not commented publicly on what the production shutdown will mean for Canadian production expenditure (CPE) requirements, it says it is “mindful of the significant impact the pandemic has had
and that it continues to closely monitor the situation and communicate with stakeholders.” It’s been a bone of contention in other territories, including Australia, where the production community was unimpressed with the federal government’s decision to suspend local content quotas for the rest of the year. While there’s no suggestion such a measure would be enacted in Canada, Mastin says “the last thing we want is to have draconian reductions in CPE, and then run the risk that there isn’t a restoration of those requirements once the crisis passes. We all need to be thinking creatively about how to ensure those CPE obligations can be maintained in a way that takes into account the crisis we’re facing.”
New models for the short and long term
One way documentary producers are hoping to get creative is through lobbying the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) to relax the six-point rule required for Cancon certification. Cineflix Media cofounder and co-CEO Glen Salzman says doc producers are seeking a solution whereby they could use local camera operators and have the Canadian director work remotely. “It’s just hard to get people from A to B right now due to restrictions,” he says. Others are looking at the current situation through a wider lens. Earlier this year, the Canadian Association of Content Exporters (CACE) put forward a proposal for the creation of a $40-million production and development fund. Under CACE’s proposal, the Department of Canadian Heritage would put up $20 million of new money and CACE a further $20 million, with CMF administering the fund. The idea behind the fund is that “qualified distributors of scale will effectively step into the shoes of the broadcasters,” says Vince Commisso, chair of CACE and president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group. It’s an example of a dynamic new approach to funding the creation and monetization of Canadian content.
Don’t take your eye off BTLR
While the next three months will be critical in understanding whether domestic production can resume, Mastin has an eye to enacting legislative reform following the release of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) panel’s report, which recommends reintroducing terms of trade, regulating foreign-owned digital services and merging the CMF and Telefilm. In particular, the importance of a terms-oftrade agreement has been highlighted over the past three months, argues Mastin. “Understandably, we’ve all been consumed by the COVID-19 crisis, and we will be for a while yet. When everyone’s attention turns back to the whole issue of modernizing our system, we need to have, as an underpinning of legislative reform, a Canadian IP creation and monetization strategy,” he insists. s u m m e r 2 02 0
25
What will the
new
work
normal
26
s u m m e r 2 02 0
be?
B y M a r y T e r e s a B i tt i
About six months before remote work emerged as a critical response to COVID-19, Toronto producer and distributor marblemedia had started making the transition to a more digital operation. The goal: to create more flexibility for people to work from home. “A lot of us are reading scripts, looking at casting, giving notes – tasks that are easier to do from home without interruptions,” says Mark Bishop, marblemedia’s founding partner and co-CEO. The transition involved switching over to Microsoft Platform and installing collaborative tools such as Microsoft Teams and virtual whiteboards for remote real-time communication and task management. Just before Christmas 2019 the company installed an IP-based phone system so the team could connect with the office phone system from home. In January, as rumblings about coronavirus started to emerge in the West, it installed a new server to facilitate video-sharing remotely. The timing could not have been better. The production company had just completed shooting two live-action competition series – both required a winner and a finale and both needed to be ready for a fall release – when, on March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Between the two shows, it had 15 edit suites running. Two days later, Friday the 13th, marblemedia made the pivot so its editors would be able to work from home almost seamlessly. “Our IT and post teams worked quickly to secure additional hard drives and more equipment so we didn’t have down time,” says Bishop. The pandemic hit at a crucial time in the production cycle when the industry was already in flux adjusting to an increasingly digitized and mobile world. Streaming services have upended traditional business models and production schedules, with digital platforms such as Disney+, Quibi and HBO Max, pushing the industry into an entertainment-as-a-service paradigm. What’s next? More specifically, what will COVID-19 mean for the future of how creative content is made and delivered?
What a futurist thinks The pandemic has accelerated trends including the move to remote work and the shift to flatten organizational structures where knowledge and power is more widely dispersed. Could the coronavirus be a catalyst for business transformation? It could be a matter of size and legacy operations. Futurist and CEO of strategic advisory firm Exponential Minds Nikolas Badminton thinks so. For some organizations working in older ways (i.e., top-down management) hierarchical structures of control are becoming obsolete in real time. “In the entertainment industry I have not seen specific examples of the flattening of the hierarchy except in small production houses where you have teams of three to five people working together on multiple projects, where people have a telepathy with each other because they’ve worked with each other so much,” says Badminton, who recently advised Robert Downey Jr.’s team for the Age of A.I. documentary series on YouTube and was the subject of Smart Drugs on CBC Gem. “When you get to larger organizations, it’s difficult to have that virtual telepathy. We’re talking about an industry that changes very slowly. It’s traditional in its process and hasn’t had the same democratic change across the board for larger productions that music has had. You can create a song and release it on Spotify the same day.” Badminton points to digital players such as YouTube and TikTok as important disruptors when it comes to how content is made. “People create their own series of content without boundaries. Mistakes are amplified as part of the value of what
Learning from nature for quick results
Pre-pandemic, in an article he published Dec. 1, 2019, futurist Badminton predicted 2020 would be the year of resiliency. He describes resiliency as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and described the transformation businesses would have to undergo to achieve that resiliency turning to one methodology in particular: Amoeba Management. Developed in the 1950s by Kazuo Inamori, founder of what is now Japanese multinational electronics company Kyocera Group, Amoeba Management is a system that starts by restructuring an organization into small business units or “amoebas.” Every unit has its own leader who sets the vision, objectives and strategy. Collaboration is critical and success relies on the input and effort of every member of the “amoeba.” That means each employee in the unit is also a manager. Done right, Amoeba Management results in bottom-up innovation and sky-high workforce engagement. Autonomy is balanced with full responsibility for work. The Amoeba Management System has been implemented at approximately 700 companies, including Kyocera, KDDI, and Japan Airlines. Badminton has yet to see its application in the entertainment industry. s u m m e r 2 02 0
27
Production, budgets and force majeure including but not limited to pandemic
they are doing.” Traditional broadcasters seem to be taking note with a nudge from COVID-19. For example, CBC has earmarked $2 million to help fund the development and production of innovative Canadian programming through the CBC Creative Relief Fund. It prioritizes projects that can be made from home. Corus Entertainment has created its first social platform series on Pinterest. Made You Look is an effort to build brand loyalty for Slice viewers while Pinterest enters the video space. For its part, marblemedia is amping up its direct-to-consumer digital content. Current hosts and past stars of shows on its YouTube channel marbleKids are shooting videos for the site that are also being shared through social media. “In order to create the agility and resilience needed going forward, we’ll see decentralized approaches develop with more freedom to take action,” says Badminton. Post-pandemic, flexibility, trust and open mindedness will be paramount. Employees will need to clearly understand the best ways to work to allow for transparency and task tracking. “When you truly decentralize operations, you have to give people the power to make decisions and at certain determined milestones those people come together and very quickly have to make decisions,” he says. “That means trusting those people will be doing the right things for the whole group.”
28
s u m m e r 2 02 0
Toronto-based Cameron Pictures was crewed up and getting ready to start filming its newest show, Lady Dicks, a 10-episode buddy cop drama set to air on CBC in fall 2020, when the pandemic hit. The plan was to start prep March 17 and begin shooting April 28. “We were going to add two weeks to our six-week prep schedule to let COVID play out,” says Amy Cameron, who co-founded the independent production company with her sister Tassie Cameron. “It all seems so naive now.” Lady Dicks’ production schedule is typical for network shows in Canada, where the fiscal year-end is March 31 and the funding window for new spending opens in April with filming taking place through spring and summer. While they wait to hear when they can get back to work, the focus is on trouble-shooting safety protocols in a typically high-contact environment, streamlining and anticipating what a new production schedule and budget might look like. So far, plans for moving forward have been high-level. First, they considered whether to hold on to studio space and could they afford to keep crew ready-to-go at a moment’s notice, says Cameron. “Now we’re focusing on tactics. For example, makeup artists have to work very close to cast members. How do you protect people? Do you ask the artist to wear a mask? We’re starting to focus on the very specific challenges that will likely be with us until we have a vaccine.” She is also looking to other jurisdictions that have resumed filming for cues. In an article in the Los Angeles Times, Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix shared how its productions are currently filming in South Korea, Japan and Iceland. Among the best practices: regular temperature checks, providing masks and other PPE supplies, strict controls around the number of people on set, no ride-sharing, buffets replaced with boxed meals, regular breaks so people can wash their hands and equipment, and the sanitization of door knobs and props. “Circumstances vary significantly country by country, and even city by city,” writes Sarandos. “So, directors and showrunners need to work with local health authorities to adopt safeguards that take account of the situation on the ground. There is no one size fits all.” In terms of business models and budgets, Cameron Pictures is putting contingencies in place and looking for ways to finance the new costs associated with COVID-19 by building efficiencies into the production process. This includes doing as much as it can now, while production is at a standstill, so it can hit the ground running when production returns. For example, the majority of the scripts are being written; sets
To make bingeable TV or not?
It turns out, the pandemic has been great for video-streaming and binge-viewing. Netflix added a record 15.8 million paid subscribers during the first quarter of 2020, more than double its own forecast of 7 million. While traditional broadcast TV dramas and procedurals such as Transplant or The Rookie often air one episode at a time, video-streaming series launch all at once so viewers can binge-watch episodes. “When there were fewer options for delivering content, there were fewer philosophies for how to generate that content,” says screenwriter and producer Dennis Heaton. “Now you’ve got Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Crave, as well as CTV, CBC, CityTV, Global, and everyone has their own ideas about how to shoot and the length of seasons.” For example, Cameron Pictures’ Lady Dicks for CBC will be 10 episodes. CTV’s Cardinal is six episodes. Netflix’ Unorthodox is four. “Traditional broadcasters used to typically have 13-episode series and now 10 episodes are happening more often,” says Amy Cameron of Cameron Pictures. While it’s still to be determined what the impact of COVID-19 will be on the evolution of TV, Cameron posits it may be the producers pitching shorter orders and asking for the same amount of money because budgets will demand it with the new safety precautions that have to be put in place.
are being designed; the head of construction is looking for ways to streamline; the company is planning for shorter work days to avoid overtime; it is looking at being strategic about crowd scenes and trying to focus on studio-based shoots, which are more controllable. But what about TV series with high location counts? “When you think about the efficiencies that have come into the industry because of digital there has been a profound compression of the time required to make a show,” says Vancouver-based Dennis Heaton, executive producer and showrunner of The Order on Netflix and president of the Writers Guild of Canada. “Now we are going to see all those efficiencies accordion back out as we try to figure out how to do this safely because we don’t want to be in a situation where we have everybody on set at the same time – at least in the short term. It’s too much of a risk.” Liability is a particular concern going forward. “There are a lot of issues with the force majeure of it all,” says Alex Patrick, executive producer at Cameron Pictures. “This legal term is being interpreted in many ways right now. What happens if a second wave of COVID-19 hits?” Will the uncertainty of COVID-19 make it harder for productions to get bonded? How will it impact contracts? Cameron Pictures is also looking at how to remain nimble and building in the ability to have productions go up and down more quickly. “Those conversations are happening with guilds and unions,” says Patrick. “We’re also looking at our own model and trying to find a solution that makes sense.”
The rise of remote work
Over the past decade thanks to the rise of the knowledge economy, cloud computing and digitization, remote work has become more viable and accepted as a way to attract and retain workers, limit an organization’s environmental footprint and cut costs. A growing body of research shows it also helps drive productivity. According to a study by Sydney, Australia-based online outsourcing company Airtasker, on average, remote employees worked 1.4 more days every month and got more done in a day than their counterparts in the office. London, U.K.-based market research company GlobalWebIndex has found employees who largely work from home or remotely are significantly more likely to be positive about company strategy with 72% believing their company is prepared to adapt quickly to industry changes. In line with the shift to more decentralized structures, 70% of remote workers feel empowered to make decisions compared to 47% of employees who are based in an office. For Bishop and marblemedia, productivity remains high. “We’re all working to find that balance between work-life and home-life. The silver lining piece of this is we all get to spend more time with our families,” says Bishop. How is work different today at marblemedia? The sales team has done a number of pitches both in Canada and the U.S. over Zoom. The casting director is finding participants for unscripted casting by Skype or video. Physical location scouting is on hold but Bishop and his team are turning to tools provided by Ontario Creates, which offers a complementary scouting service and continues to populate its database of images. What will carry through post-pandemic? In order to keep everyone informed and not inundate staff with emails, marblemedia has instituted weekly, company-wide virtual town halls. Screenings have also gone virtual. The company will also look critically at its travel budget and attending conferences and live events both from a safety and economic perspective. “We’ve been connecting with buyers directly and our sales are growing,” says Bishop. “I think we’ll see more targeted sales pitches with specific buyers, more Skype calls and picking up the phone. [Our U.S. ] agent tells us “the buyers appreciate this because it gives a lot more focus and you can bring more people together. I think that trend will continue.”
s u m m e r 2 02 0
29
CANADIAN FILMS
Right at your fingertips.
Wherever you want.
How COVID-19 is impacting promotion
Andréa Grau, founder and owner of Toronto-based Touchwood PR, had three major events planned for March 2020: the Green Living Show, Toronto Comicon and the Canadian Film Festival. The 14-person firm was on track for its best year since launching in 2009. Within a span of five days, each of these events was cancelled and client Cineplex had closed its theatres. “The most important thing about bringing people together into a space is the collective experience they will share,” Grau says. “From an audience and consumer perspective, it’s electric and irreplaceable.” But until live events can return safely, she is adapting and trying to anticipate the future. On a tactical level, phone and video calls have replaced in-person media interviews. More fundamentally, Grau sees this time as a reset. “We are going to find new ways of doing things just as we did when social media first emerged,” she says. It’s already happening. For example, the Canadian Film Festival has partnered with Super Channel to create a virtual film fest that includes pre-recorded and live Q&As with filmmakers, access to panel discussions and a virtual awards presentation. Tribeca Enterprises, the company behind the Tribeca Film Festival teamed up with YouTube to launch We Are One: A Global Film Festival. “We are built for change. At the same time, I recognize this to mean that adaptability doesn’t necessarily mean flourishing,” says Grau. “We are adapting in the short term and trying to plan for a time when we are thriving again. That will take collaboration with audiences, clients, agencies. Creativity flourishes in challenging times. We are trying to keep an open mind to what we haven’t thought of yet.”
Why writers’ rooms won’t stay virtual – at least until truly collaborative tech is widely available The writers’ room – the real, physical space in which from five to 10 scribes walk around, riffing on ideas and acting out scenes – is the thing Dennis Heaton misses most since having to work remotely. In person, there is a sense of serendipity and stumbling into new territory that’s difficult to replicate on a Zoom call. “Staring at the screen is hard. We’re evolving into doing a video meeting and pushing writers out the door sooner with a lot less from the group. It’s a lot more call and response creative,” he says. “Spontaneity is gone from the process right now.” There is a gap in the market for a true collaboration tool that allows for people to feel like they are in the same room, says Badminton. “What’s needed is multimedia collaborative workspaces, the use of tools such as VR headsets and other shared resources such as books and movies for easy reference,” he says. Right now the biggest challenge is cost. “Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook are working on this and betting those tools will become prevalent. But we shouldn’t change the way we work as humans. We should use those tools to fit the way we work.”
s u m m e r 2 02 0
31
#ROXY BLACK SUMMER BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN COLD PURSUIT CUT BANK DEAD AGAIN IN TOMBSTONE EQUUS: STORY OF THE HORSE FARGO FAST HORSE FORTUNATE SON GAME OF THRONES GHOSTBUSTERS 3: AFTERLIFE HEARTLAND HELL ON WHEELS HOLD THE DARK INCEPTION INTERSTELLAR JANN JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL LAND LET HIM GO LOST IN SPACE MIRACLE IN EAST TEXAS OPEN RANGE PUPPY LOVE THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES THE REVENANT THE YOUNG & PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET TIN STAR TOGO TRIBAL WINTER IN VAIL WYNONNA EARP
Alberta WELCOMES YOU
Whatever your production needs, Alberta has it covered.
ALBERTAFILM.CA
Olympic swimming drama Nadia, Butterfly, directed by Pascal Plante and starring Katerine Savard, was announced as one of Cannes’ qualifying films.
Festival fallou t Film festivals have been forced to reinvent themselves, leaving producers and distributors to weigh the benefits of online premieres By Mark dillon
Film festivals have been rocked by COVID-19, yet some upcoming events remain optimistic. Fortunate ones Sundance and Berlin wrapped before national lockdowns took hold. In late May, Telluride announced it would proceed with distancing rules in effect, adding an extra day to its Labour Day schedule to space out audiences. Venice also has insisted it will roll out as planned for September 2-12, but perhaps in a scaled-down version. Cannes cancelled its 73rd edition, set for May 12-23, and moved its Marché du Film market online June 22-26. By press time TIFF had not revealed its approach, although it has touted an in-person/online hybrid for this September’s edition. It was one of many festivals that participated in We Are One: A Global Film Festival, which made movies available free on YouTube May 29-June 7. TIFF presented Ugandan action film Crazy World, which screened at last year’s festival. Distributors and producers often look to the festival circuit as the springboard for their releases, but how effective can these events be if they have smaller audiences and fewer industry guests due to physical distancing and travel restrictions, or with the whole enterprise rerouted online?
Although there were no trips to France this spring, no red carpets on the Croisette and no big-screen premieres, Cannes gifted a select group of filmmakers by nonetheless announcing its qualifying films. Among them is the Olympic swimming drama Nadia, Butterfly from Quebec director Pascal Plante. Producer Dominique Dussault of Montreal’s Nemesis Films will participate in the online Marché along with sales agent WaZabi Films, looking to turn Cannes’ stamp of approval into international sales. The film is distributed in Canada by Maison 4:3. Dussault understands Cannes’ reasons for not moving public screenings online – which opens them up to piracy – but also sees the upside of a streaming option after her experience with Santiago Menghini’s short Regret. It played as part of SXSW, which cancelled its March inperson screenings and made its shorts lineup available on the Mailchimp website. “We got great instant feedback and reviews,” she says. “Presenting films online can be good, and I would be happy if TIFF offered that opportunity.” Regret nabbed SXSW’s Midnight Shorts jury award. Plante says that if TIFF accepts his film he would far prefer to present it to live audiences, but would accept the s u m m e r 2 02 0
33
online alternative. Although the team is still eyeing a fall release, he is willing to wait until theatres reopen. “Maybe some filmmakers will use that Cannes label and bang on Netflix’s door for an immediate sale, but that’s not our case,” he says. “I made this movie for theatres. We’ll be more traditional with a domestic theatrical release and then down the line the film will be available online. I don’t want to flip that too much even if the world is upside down.” Trying to make a splash at TIFF is a risky proposition at the best of times, and an online iteration only exacerbates ROI concerns, says Noah Segal, co-president of Elevation Pictures. “TIFF normally works when you have a sale title and want to capture an international audience, and to some extent to launch your publicity, but you can be lost in the shuffle,” says Segal, whose company’s acquisition films The Imitation Game, Room and Moonlight parlayed TIFF buzz into Academy Award nominations and big box office. “You expose your film at TIFF and give away tickets to create buzz, and it has to be worth the effort and cost. We’re challenged with how going digital impacts the value proposition. We’ve been in talks about movies we have that may land, and are working with our U.S. and international partners, but I can’t see it being the same.” That said, Elevation has embraced some digital launches. It has postponed certain theatrical releases in lockstep with its U.S. partners, including U.K. thriller Saint Maud and the Gerard Butler disaster flick Greenland — but went straight to on-demand and digital platforms for Jeff Barnaby’s Indigenous zombie flick Blood Quantum, which tapped into the zeitgeist with its plague theme and reached the eighth spot on the Canadian iTunes rental chart. Segal hopes for similar straight-to-digital success for Semi Chellas’ Patty Hearst-inspired drama American Woman and Jay Baruchel’s horror Random Acts of Violence. “Jay got on the bus quickly because he made a film for people who wouldn’t necessarily run to a strip mall to see it. He knew his audience was ancillary-heavy,” Segal says. “We elevated those films in this time period recognizing the opportunity with the dearth of product to compete with.” Hot Docs moved this year’s operation entirely online, with 149 out of 224 originally scheduled films migrating to the web. (Some could not be completed in time.) It still registered 1,535 registered participants from 41 countries for its digital market and facilitated 1,500-plus one-on-one pitch meetings between filmmakers and decision makers. The Hot Docs Forum unfolded on Zoom with prerecorded pitches, and an edited version of the event was made available on the Hot Docs website. As planned, the festival awarded more than $280,000 in prize money out of its market and public-screening competitions. Films were made available to the public in an ondemand format, generally with 1,000 tickets available per film – reflecting the capacity of a theatre – and they were geo-blocked to Ontario. “Festivals can be important launching platforms 34
s u m m e r 2 02 0
for films, and we didn’t want to do anything that distracts from that potential,” says Hot Docs executive director Brett Hendrie. “There’s a growing consensus that the best way to do that is to make sure films are presented in a way that honours that festival experience, including limiting the number of people who see them.” The online Hot Docs ran May 28-June 6, with some titles available until June 24. Tickets cost about half what they normally would, and only one ticket is required per household, whereas in a theatre one ticket is required for each patron. The festival looks to take a major financial hit. It will mitigate the damage through the support of major partners as well as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Telefilm Canada’s allocation of the COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations. “I am confident Hot Docs will survive and thrive on the other side of this,” Hendrie says. For filmmakers such as Ali Weinstein, participating in an online Hot Docs wasn’t an easy decision, but timing proved a deciding factor. “It’s not the ideal way to premiere a film,” says Weinstein, who directed #BLESSED, focusing on a Toronto evangelical church, and produced Lulu Wei’s There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace, about the teardown of Toronto retail institution Honest Ed’s. The films will air soon on CBC Docs POV (July 18 and September 19, respectively) and so wouldn’t be eligible for next year’s Hot Docs, so there was no point sitting out. “The energy and feedback from that in-person screening with an audience and Q&A are the reward for working on a film for years on end,” she adds. “But maybe we’d be missing the opportunity to get the film seen by more people who are stuck at home right now.” There’s No Place nabbed $10,000 as one of five winners of the fest’s Rogers Audience Award. Prior to the festival, CBC made some affiliated titles available for free on its CBC Gem streaming platform as part of the Hot Docs at Home Collection, and on its Documentary Channel. In the case of Meat the Future, about the emerging lab-grown meat industry, producer-director Liz Marshall was approached about airing the film also on the CBC network three weeks ahead of Hot Docs. “It seemed like a no-brainer, that it would be great exposure,” Marshall says. The production was in talks for a national theatrical release, but that’s off the table because of the CBC broadcast. “But
A scene from #BLESSED. Director Ali Weinstein looked to capitalize on locked-down audiences in the online Hot Docs.
Thanks to a Canadian Film Fest partnership, Steve Markle’s dating doc Shoot to Marry landed on Super Channel Fuse.
“ A key learning ... think about a revenuesharing agreement for everything in the future.” – Corey Shurge, writer/ director, Stuck
that was OK because a theatrical release even in the next few months just seems hypothetical,” she adds. The lack of a big-screen showing at Hot Docs didn’t stop Meat the Future from landing London-based agent MetFilm Sales, which will handle the world (except Canada) with hopes of landing on a global SVOD. And Oscar potential won’t be sacrificed, since the Academy is currently accepting as eligible films that switched from theatrical to online or broadcast premieres and those that screened in online festivals behind paywalls or password protection. “The film contains hot topics: animal agriculture, food sustainability, health pandemics, and climate change,” Marshall says. “It took three and a half years to make and I’m eager to work with great partners to get it out into the world. The sense of urgency doesn’t change; it just means trying to navigate the current system and figure out the right decisions.” The pandemic nearly meant lights out for the Canadian Film Fest, the 14th edition of which was set to unspool in March. Within two weeks of its planned start, CFF founder and director Bern Euler realized the event could not go on as planned. “I thought, ‘I’m probably going to have to declare bankruptcy,’” Euler recalls. “I had already spent much of the money sponsors and funding organizations had given us. If people started asking for their money back, I would have to tell them I don’t have it anymore.” He pitched an online or broadcast pivot, and Super Channel stepped up. The premium TV service came in as a cash sponsor and agreed to air eight features and 25 shorts from CFF’s lineup on its Super Channel Fuse station over three weekends from late May to early June. This support opened up access to the Toronto-based festival to Super Channel’s national subscriber base. The fest kicked off with Sergio Navarretta’s drama The Cuban and closed with Steve Markle’s comedic doc Shoot to Marry, which captured the event’s best feature prize. Two features and two shorts could not air due to pre-existing distribution deals. For Euler, making the films available behind a subscription paywall seemed the most feasible approach. “We have to take into account the filmmakers’ future distribution rights,” he explains. “If your film is being broadcast for free, you’re not going to be able to sell it anywhere else
because of [more exposure to] piracy and the fact it would no longer be considered ‘first run’ on another platform.” He says that in any given year one to three CFF films are picked up by a distributor, but this year Super Channel sweetened the deal by offering all participating features and shorts 18-month broadcast deals at its normal rate. The upside to an online pivot is that films released on non-traditional platforms can explode on a scale they never could achieve at physical festivals alone. Such is the case with the short Stuck by Corey Shurge, an Ontarioborn writer-director whose credits range from The Republic of Doyle to Solve: The Podcast. Shot in late 2017, the Filmcoop production Stuck follows the rollercoaster evening of a couple (Kristopher Turner and Ruth Goodwin) whose sex-toy experiment ends with an awkward hospital visit. What starts off as a raunchy comedy segues into a dialogue about the nature of relationships. After a year on the festival circuit, Shurge signed nonexclusive deals for it to appear online on Prime Video, Discover.film, and Short of the Week, which is backed by Hollywood heavyweights including No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga, and which, despite its name, uploads three new shorts every seven days. It’s on the latter’s YouTube channel that the film really made its mark. Premiering last August, it has racked up 11.8 million views and counting, getting a significant boost from locked-down audiences and making it the 14-yearold SOFTW’s most-watched film by far. The piece has no doubt benefited from a provocative YouTube thumbnail and a “sex and relationships” descriptor. That number of views screams monetization, but Shurge didn’t anticipate that level of response and so didn’t consider a financial deal in advance. “That’s a key learning from this – I would think about a revenuesharing agreement for everything in the future,” he says. But he sees plenty of upside and looks to take advantage of his newfound notoriety, writing a feature script with a Stuck vibe to it. “It means a lot of people have watched the hard work of myself, the cast and crew,” he says. “And it gives me a talking point. I can walk into a meeting and say, ‘I have this film that got 11 million views.’” s u m m e r 2 02 0
35
t e l t u o a edi
Am
36
S u m m e r 2 02 0
s e m i t e h t r Fo Celebrating 50 years, TVO is getting a boost from parents seeking COVID-19 perspective and kids needing educational content By mark dillon
Pictured left, top: Host Mikael Colville-Andersen, right, shooting The Life-Sized City (DBcom Media), TVO’s top documentary series. Middle: The Agenda host Steve Paikin and summer host Nam Kiwanuka. Bottom: Spin Master’s PAW Patrol, TVO’s runaway kids hit.
Plans to raise a glass to its 50th anniversary are on hold as TVO continues to focus on keeping its employees safe and its programming on track. A week ahead of the provincial government’s official closure of non-essential businesses due to COVID-19, the educational broadcaster also known as TVOntario adapted quickly, moving 90% of staff out of its Toronto office. The rest followed by early April as the organization found a way to manage its broadcast schedule remotely. “We made significant transitions and partnerships to get everyone offsite and I’m grateful we’ve all been able to continue working,” says Jennifer Hinshelwood, TVO’s acting chief operating officer. The pivotal partnership was with Toronto’s Stage Ten, which provides an online broadcast platform. “We were the first organization they were able to support in doing a linear broadcast [remotely],” adds Hinshelwood, who took on her role after longtime CEO Lisa de Wilde stepped down last October. The search for her replacement continues.
The organization’s flagship in-house programs — That TVOkids Show and The Agenda with Steve Paikin — have continued in a daily from-home production model. The latter is recorded in the host’s attic with a maximum of three online guests — far fewer than the traditional studio setting has allowed. TVO was already channeling most of its resources online and could have made these shows available only through its website, social media and YouTube channels, but felt the need to honour its legacy TV channel, available through all Ontario BDUs and via nine digital transmitters. “We have keen viewers who have always watched us only that way, and we wanted to make sure we were still getting to them,” Hinshelwood says. Paikin points out that it’s the other broadcasters – including fellow pubcaster CBC – that still care about capturing eyeballs on TV rather than online. “The difference in ad rates is massive,” he notes. “But that’s not an issue for us because we don’t have advertising. We don’t care if you watch us on your TV, desktop, laptop or smartphone or download us as a podcast. It doesn’t affect our bottom line. We just want you watching.” And people have been watching as TVO provides an in-depth perspective on the coronavirus and its fallout — the subject of nearly all recent episodes of The Agenda. According to TVO, during the lockdown the show has picked up 100,000 to 150,000 new weekly viewers in addition to its usual 750,000. This has brought the total reach of TVO’s current affairs and Canadian documentary programming to over two million including broadcast and online views. The website (TVO.org) also features exclusive journalism including microsites serving five provincial regions and the Indigenous community. This Ontario Hubs offering launched in 2017 thanks to donations from Greenrock Property Management chair Barry Green and his wife Laurie, and philanthropist Goldie Feldman. Ontario’s Ministry of Education foots the majority of the bill at TVO, to the tune of $40 million in operating grants in 2018-19. (The PC government subsequently instituted what TVO deems a “small” cut to that allocation in May 2019.) In that same fiscal, earned revenue – including philanthropy – accounted for $11.2 million. s u m m e r 2 02 0
37
Pictured left: Elwy Yost, 25-year host of TVO’s popular Saturday Night at the Movies. Middle: Rick Green, host of Prisoners of Gravity, which explored topics through interviews with purveyors of speculative fiction. Right: Former Ontario premier Bill Davis, who launched TVO as education minister in 1970, poses with Polka Dot Door’s Polkaroo at the channel’s 20th anniversary celebration.
Provincial budget cuts are par for the course. It happened in 1979 in the wake of the brouhaha surrounding The Jesus Trial, Tad Jaworski’s ambitious four-part series about Christ that, among other things, recreates a 1974 French trial that essentially cleared Jews of killing Jesus. The expensive project received a mighty backlash from Christians and Jews alike. In the mid-’90s, Mike Harris’ Conservative government looked at privatizing TVO, but merely ended up cutting its budget. And then Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals, looking for savings after the 2008 economic meltdown, informed de Wilde that TVO should prepare for a 40% reduction in its government allocation. The CEO appealed directly to the premier, laying out TVO’s offerings and reach, and the cut was downgraded to 10%. “That’s something I’m proud of,” says de Wilde, the former Astral televison networks head who replaced Isabel Bassett at TVO in 2005. “We had a very good case. We were a small but mighty organization. We were always able to demonstrate that we were fiscally buttondown and delivered great value for money. One of my favourite comparisons was that we cost a cup of coffee and a muffin per Ontarian.” But does TVO’s dependency on the government call into question the impartiality of its reporting? John Ferri, VP current affairs and documentaries, says there are no compromises. 38
S u m m e r 2 02 0
“The coverage speaks for itself,” he says. “We’re not afraid to ask the hard questions. When Minister of Education Stephen Lecce — who heads the ministry we report to — comes on The Agenda, he’s not expecting softball, and I would challenge anyone to take a look and tell us that’s what we do.” On the documentary front, Ferri cites The LifeSized City from Montreal’s DBcom Media as TVO’s top series. Over two seasons of six episodes each, urbandesign expert Mikael Colville-Andersen has visited international urban centres to explore how design has facilitated liveability. TVO has been a steady partner to many other local docmakers, including Alan Zweig, dating from his first production Vinyl (2000), about record collecting, to last year’s Coppers, focusing on retired police officers. He made Vinyl without planning to sell it to a broadcaster. “TVO approached me to buy it and thus began a 20-year relationship without which I would not be a filmmaker,” Zweig says. “Seven of my films have premiered on TVO. People think I work there — I’m ‘that TVO guy.’ And that’s all right because it’s a broadcaster unmatched in its support of individual and original voices in documentary filmmaking.” Paikin, meanwhile, is the face of TVO to adult viewers. He surprised colleagues in 1992 by leaving his news-anchor post at Toronto CBC station CBLT to host TVO’s town hall series Between the Lines and Queen’s Park show Fourth Reading. His arrival followed that of chair and CEO Peter Herrndorf, previously publisher of Toronto Life.
Herrndorf hired producer Howard Bernstein — who had brought in Paikin at CBLT — to launch a daily current affairs show which became Studio 2, co-hosted by Paikin and Mary Hynes, who was succeeded by Paula Todd. In 2006, The Agenda effectively replaced Studio 2 and Fourth Reading. Appropriately, Paikin was introduced on air by the channel’s then-leading man Elwy Yost, host of Saturday Night at the Movies for 25 years starting in 1974. Yost was a teacher and later manager at the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (OECA), which oversees TVO, and was given the opportunity to anchor the series, which presented a double bill of classic movies. The format was destined to be a top draw, but had to adhere to the mandate stated when Ontario’s education minister — and future premier — Bill Davis launched the OECA in 1970: to use “electronic and associated media to provide educational opportunities for all people in Ontario.” The Toronto station went to air on September 27, 1970 as UHF channel 19 under the name OECA and call letters CICA. Its transmitter was attached to CBC’s tower. (Today, the OECA consists of an eight-member board appointed by Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor in Council and chaired by Chris Day, president of Ottawa public affairs consultancy Winston Wilmont.) So to give Saturday Night at the Movies the necessary educational component, Yost provided context, welcomed guests, and along with producer Risa Shuman picked up interviews with Hollywood legends such as Henry Fonda and John Huston. In 1999, Hollywood’s Academy Film Archive struck a deal to obtain those tapes, now regarded as valuable cultural documents. That same year Yost retired and the series continued with successive hosts Shelagh Rogers, Johanna Schneller
and Thom Ernst, until 2013, when de Wilde, facing more budget cuts and unafraid of change, pulled the plug. “When [it] launched, you couldn’t see uncut films without commercials anywhere else,” de Wilde says. “Forty years later that was no longer the case. So you have to take a sober look and figure out where you can create the most impact with limited resources.” Despite the shrinking budgets, TVO remains the province’s partner in the online learning it touts so much and which has taken on new significance during the lockdown. TVO’s Independent Learning Centre (ILC) allows Ontario high school students to earn credits or a full diploma through province-approved courses. The program costs $40 per course for Ontario residents and $500 per course for most non-Ontario and foreign students. The offering, employed by students from as far away as China eyeing post-secondary Ontario institutions, is an increasingly important revenue generator for the organization. Its ILC and Mathify (Grades 6-10 math tutoring) contracts earned $9.3 million in 2018-19 revenue. These offerings have experienced a boost in usage from children stuck at home, with some course content free to Ontario students during the pandemic. While operating remotely has been a formidable challenge, chief technology officer Todd Slivinskas cites the move toward a fully digital, tapeless environment in 2006 as the most complex technical achievement, leading to the multi-platform outlet TVO is today. When he arrived in 2002, shooting, post-production and broadcast involved much crossover between the analog and digital worlds. “We made the process digital from end-to-end, which permitted us to do more and become a media organization, rather than strictly a broadcaster,” Slivinskas says. “That’s when there was an explosion of content going out to YouTube and other on-demand platforms. s u m m e r 2 02 0
39
Gobeyond t heheadl i nes Br eaki ngand dai l ynews I ndept hanal ys i s
pl aybackonl i ne. ca T r yi tf or2weeksf r ee.
Flagship children’s programs That TVOkids Show (below) and Gisèle’s Big Backyard (right).
Kids content Champion
We were then able to get our content out to the places where people wanted to consume it.” When TVO launched, the competition included CBC, CTV, the U.S. nets and the rare indie such as Hamilton’s CHCH. Today, it operates in an infinitely more crowded landscape, with specialties and digital outlets — often with deeper pockets — playing in its sandbox. Current affairs programming is also available on CTV News Channel and CBC News Network. While viewers can tune in to TVO for British dramas such as Midsomer Murders and Heartbeat, they can also get their U.K. fix on the BritBox SVOD. Previous TVO hit Doctor Who now airs on CTV Sci-Fi Channel. But TVO is confident it can continue to stand out. “We need to stay focused on our mandate and ensure what we’re delivering is powerful moments of learning,” Hinshelwood says. “And when we look into the future and media continuing to evolve, we believe we’re poised to use the latest technology to keep improving that learning for all Ontarians.” And in the more immediate future it would like to celebrate what it’s accomplished over the past halfcentury at in-person events, but that won’t happen until the government and public health officials declare it safe to do so. In the meantime, TVO is asking viewers to share favourite memories through social media on #TVO50 Thursdays.
TVOkids has been a godsend for working parents at home with their children, offering games, apps, and daily programming from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on TV and on-demand at tvokids.com and on YouTube, where separate channels have been created for subjects including science, math and language. TVOkids’ weekly reach tends to range from 3.5 million to 4 million, including broadcast and online video. All content must align with the Ontario school curriculum. “We work with small, medium and emerging production companies, and require them to work with educational consultants,” explains TVOkids director Marney Malabar. “Those educators must show the connections to the learning kids are doing at school — what’s an age-appropriate outcome and learning expectation from the program. So [during the lockdown] highlighting what’s educational hasn’t been a big pivot.” Older generations will fondly recall Polka Dot Door — and its elusive Polkaroo character — which the channel produced from 1971 to 1993. Then there were the interstitials of Gisèle’s Big Backyard (formerly The Nook), which ran from 1998 to 2016. The current runaway hit is Spin Master’s CSA-winning CG-animated PAW Patrol, about a boy and his search and rescue dogs. (The global hit, currently in season seven, airs in the U.S. on Nick Jr.) Several kids prodcos have grown their businesses out of TVO partnerships. marblemedia’s first major multi-platform project was the award-winning Deaf Planet back in 2001, consisting first of a website and then a TV show for Deaf and hearing-impaired children. marblemedia went on to produce This is Daniel Cook (2004-2006) for Treehouse TV and TVO in partnership with Sinking Ship Entertainment, effectively launching that prodco, which produced Dino Dan, premiering in 2010, and the Emmy-winning Dino Dan: Trek’s Adventures for TVO and Nick Jr. TVO currently airs marblemedia’s arts and crafts show Super Mighty Makers and kids competition series All-Round Champion. Based on a Norwegian format, the latter’s first broadcaster on board was the U.S.’s BYUtv, followed by TVO, then B.C.’s Knowledge Network. Malabar served as a creative executive and TVO’s involvement was also crucial in triggering production tax credits and CMF support. “All-Round Champion shoots all over Ontario, qualifying for the [10%] regional tax-credit bonus, but we need an Ontario broadcaster, so that’s additional value TVO helps unlock,” says marblemedia co-CEO Mark Bishop. The prodco can then benefit from sales outside of North America, discussions for which are underway. “It’s been more challenging to get original kids content off the ground in Canada over the past couple of years,” Bishop adds. “Other broadcasters haven’t stepped up to the plate as much as we would like, so TVO continues to play an important part.”
s u m m e r 2 02 0
41
Canadian Film & Television Hall of Fame
42
summer 2020
Wayne Clarkson:
a Canadian tastemaker A film fanatic who scaled the industry’s heights, helping domestic talent create film and TV that has won international acclaim. By Marc Glassman
When the award-winning director Clement Virgo first met Wayne Clarkson, he recalls “people were saying, ‘Wayne Clarkson could be the prime minister one day,’ and I actually believed it because he had that kind of charm.” At that time, in 1991, Clarkson was the executive director of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), having already built up TIFF (then the Festival of Festivals) and Ontario Creates (then the Ontario Film Development Corporation) into major players on Canada’s film scene. Virgo remembers Clarkson from that time: “Wayne was cool, in the kind of hip sense of the word to me, because he was always sharply dressed. It was the summertime so I remember him being in jeans, and cowboy boots — that kind of image. He was always wearing linen jackets with a T-shirt — hardly ever ties, unless it was for something formal. And he was a mentor to me because he was smart and erudite.” While he never became prime minister, Clarkson was instrumental in the creation of the Canadian cinema we celebrate to this day. Starting off in Ottawa, he worked for the Canadian Film Institute (CFI), where he met his lifelong friend Piers Handling, then working at the institute’s library. “The CFI had a big film collection of its own and it was also the flow-through for all of the Museum of Modern Art’s 16mm classics that went on to all the universities,” recalls Handling. “We got our film education together. We hung together, we ate together.”
By 1974, Handling was head of the CFI’s publications division and Clarkson ran the National Film Theatre and Film Expo, one of the country’s first festivals. In 1977, Film Expo scored a tremendous success with the Canadian premiere of Outrageous!, the groundbreaking black comedy about a gay transvestite and his female schizophrenic best friend. The producers of the film, Bill Marshall and Henk Van der Kolk, came up for what turned out to be a brilliant opening at the National Arts Centre. Clarkson remembers, “Not surprisingly, the Arts Centre was packed – 1000 seats – I mean jammed. It was a genuine Canadian hit. Bill and Henk were impressed.” By November, Marshall and Van der Kolk, who were two thirds of the trio that started the Festival of Festivals (now TIFF) asked him to become the director of their festival, and he accepted. During his vibrant reign at Toronto’s premier festival, Clarkson hosted one of the hottest opening nights in film history, the 1978 gala opening of Robert Lantos’ In Praise of Older Women and presided over his and Piers Handling’s astonishing retrospective of Canadian cinema in 1984. He left after establishing the potent mix of European arthouse cinema, Canadian indies, international films from Asia and South America, and Hollywood and indie American flicks that is still successful for TIFF. When Clarkson arrived in Toronto, he struck a deal to move the Festival’s offices to the Park Plaza. “The
summer 2020
43
STREAMING LIVE June 15th 3PM EDT Watch it on
More than 128 nominees from 35 countries are vying for this year’s coveted Rockie Awards. HOSTED BY: The stars of CBC/ Radio-Canada’s Baroness von Sketch Show, Aurora Browne, Carolyn Taylor and Jennifer Whalen As a part of the virtual Rockie Awards ceremony, we have partnered with the Banff Canmore Community Foundation to raise awareness and fundraise for Bow Valley COVID-19 relief benefiting the residents of the Town of Banff. Viewers can donate to this important cause here.
Canadian Film & Television Hall of Fame
Clarkson with Canadian filmmaker and friend Atom Egoyan
Harbour Castle Hilton found out about it and locked us out of our office where all our documents were,” Clarkson recalls, with a rueful laugh. “I don’t want to belabour the point, but there were huge debts out there, understandable of a startup...” Martin Connell, who was chair of the board, loaned the organization $5,000 and asked each member of the board to do likewise. That helped immensely. In 1984, Clarkson took a huge step towards placing Canadian cinema alongside the world’s best at the Festival of Festivals. He presided over a massive retrospective of Canadian film organized by Handling, whom he had brought down from Ottawa. “Wayne was so incredibly supportive. At the end of the day, he gave us 50% of the real estate of the festival that year to the Canadian retro – well over 100 films,” recalls Handling. That same year, Perspective Canada was launched as a forum for festival films made in this country. Ever restless, Clarkson decided to leave the festival after 1985, to the immense surprise of such friends and colleagues as Handling and Helga Stephenson. He accepted an offer from then Ontario Premier David Peterson to start the Ontario Film Development Corporation (now Ontario Creates) in 1986. There, he built up a creative team – Tecca Crosby, Bill House, Jonathan Barker, Wendy MacKeigan and, latterly, Louise Clark – which could work with filmmakers to bring their visions to the screen. “Wayne assembled a team of interesting, relevant and passionate people who went on to work successfully in the business,” notes Stephenson, who ran the Festival in the late ‘80s and ‘90s. What Peterson wanted and what Clarkson and his crew delivered was a coherent strategy on how to build a creative sector in Ontario films. The OFDC was offered space in a government building but Clarkson refused. “I wanted our own building offsite, where there could be concentrated spirit, inventiveness, and commitment.”
The test case was Patricia Rozema’s first feature I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, a lovely intimate lowbudget film about a woman’s fantasies and reality in Toronto’s art scene. Clarkson relishes the story: “It was submitted to the Directors’ Fortnight (the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) and it got in. It screened at the old Palais at Cannes, a favourite place of mine, and it was packed. In the first five minutes they started cheering. And it got a wonderful standing ovation. Outside, who walks up but Harvey Weinstein. True story. He says, ‘I want to buy your film.’” Louise Clark had a passion project, A Winter Tan, financed solely by the OFDC. A bravura one-woman performance by Jackie Burroughs, the film was codirected by Clark, John Walker, Burroughs and two others. Clarkson’s only comment to her was “make sure the film is exposed properly.” Clark laughingly recalls that she reassured him on that matter. A few years later, Clarkson brought her into the OFDC after House departed to become head of production at Telefilm Canada. Clark recalls, “We weren’t debating funding regulations; we were talking about the merits of scripts and talented filmmakers. How do we find a way to support talent and make it work? It was a creative environment with some pretty sparky personalities.” After Peterson’s Liberal government unexpectedly lost the 1990 provincial election, Clarkson found that Bob Rae’s NDPers were less interested in the OFDC. When Peter O’Brian, the producer most famously of The Grey Fox and then the executive director of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), approached Clarkson with the prospect of taking over at the CFC, the timing was right. O’Brian observes, “I wasn’t an institutional guy. We needed someone who could go to the government for grants and run the organization. I’m proud of the role I played in developing the CFC and very glad that I suggested Wayne to Norman (Jewison) to replace me.” summer 2020
45
For Clarkson, the CFC was a place where “you would have the opportunity to enable filmmakers, not just to learn, but also to make shorts if they hadn’t already done it before. So I could see it, almost, as a gap between the Film Festival and its role, and the OFDC and its role.” After spending a couple of years there, Clarkson came up with a new concept for the Centre: low-budget feature films. Virgo’s Rude was one of the early successes of the CFC project. House remembers that “I wanted the Telefilm office in Toronto to focus on people’s second, third, and fourth films. That made it easy for me to support the Feature Film Project.” The Centre’s big success was Cube, a sci-fi film about a group of people trying to escape from a huge and deadly cube. “It was a classic example of a first
feature out of the Centre – in the best meaning – with the support of the industry because the services that the guilds and union gave to enable those films was amazing. I mean if you really put a price tag on it, it would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. We put up the $500,000 and had Colin Brunton and Justine Whyte run the production. It was 99.9% shot in the studio. And lo and behold, what happens? It gets invited to TIFF. And it gets sold to a savvy but small American company, so you know you’re going to make some money on video. But soon after, I remember reading Variety and seeing, ‘Cube is the second biggest hit in France.’ [laughing] And I remember going, ‘Right, Jerry Lewis and Cube, of course!’ And then I thought, What else is going on? Where else? Bigger even in Japan.” A cult hit, Cube’s success helped to support the Feature Film Project in the following years. In 2004, Clarkson applied to be the director general of Telefilm Canada. It was a logical step for someone so immersed in Canada’s film culture but it was different from his other positions. Here, he took on a wellestablished institution, not a start-up. “Telefilm had 46
summer 2020
bad times in the early nineties when the government imposed nasty cuts because they were so much in debt. The golden years of Telefilm, going all the way back to the CFDC in ’68 through to, I guess, ‘94/’95 was over. But I admired it and wanted the challenge. I went to an institution that was firmly established and had been around for years. I think I’m a good administrator and it was a tough job. And I was forewarned, ‘Why do you want to take that job? It’s unforgiving!’ And I’d go, ‘Well, I know, but it’s an important job. It’s what I believe in. it’s got a bigger budget and it’s federal.’” Perhaps the toughest commitment that Clarkson made was to the notion that Canadian film could account for 5% of this country’s box office revenue. “We took on 5%, but unless you have the resources to achieve that task, you are never going to succeed,” he remembers.
“But you can’t promise to do 5% if you’re making your movies for $5 million or $2 million without a strong distribution system.” After Telefilm, Clarkson was ready for retirement. Ten years on, he hasn’t lost his love of cinema. “Before COVID, Wayne and I would go to the TIFF Cinematheque regularly,” says Handling. “Even now during the lockdown, he and I are sharing almost daily emails. He’s still a film fanatic.” As for his importance for Canadian film, perhaps O’Brian’s comment is most astute: “In a country like Canada that has film institutions that are more powerful than the community itself, to have someone of Wayne’s stature who was simpatico with filmmakers and could read a screenplay but also understand the thinking of the bureaucracy gave him a special status and importance. His contribution is immense.”. Playback’s Canadian Film & 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.
Pictured left: Clarkson with Sean Penn during the latter’s visit to the Canadian Film Centre. Right: Clarkson with director and actor John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands.
Canadian Film & Television Hall of Fame
BACK the back page
TO THE OFFICE
Here are some of the things Canadian creatives are itching to do once they can safely return to work.
“ Clean my desk which I should have done before this all started.”
– Howard Barish, president and CEO of Kandoo Films
“ I will pop a bottle of champagne with my Sienna [Films] colleagues. Because they are the best and hardest working people I’ve ever met. And we’ll laugh together and celebrate that we made it through this!”
– Michelle Latimer, executive producer and director, Trickster
“ I’m really looking forward to finishing off Family Law, and am hopeful that the other jobs I had lined up will still be waiting on the other side of all this. Honestly I’m most looking forward to hugging my friends. I’m picturing a giant huddle with Peaches & Herb’s “Reunited” playing over top.” – Jordan Canning, director, Schitt’s Creek, Baroness von Sketch Show
“ I’ll hug everyone, if it’s allowed. If not, I’ll put on my mask and get to work prepping our show in a brave new world of social distancing.”
– Tassie Cameron, co-showrunner of Lady Dicks and co-founder/ executive producer of Cameron Pictures
“ First thing I’m going to do when I get back to Take 5 Productions is arrive early and water my plant. If it’s dead, and it almost certainly is now, I’m going to run to the store and buy another one before anyone realizes. I don’t have the greatest track record with plants there.” – Corey Mayne, producer, VFX artist and co-founder of Formido Films
“ I look forward to seeing my colleagues in person, even if we have to stand six feet away from each other for the first while. I do miss the energy that comes out of getting in a room and collaborating on a problem or opportunity. Once things are 100% back to normal I look forward to a staff meeting with our 15+ staff crammed into our boardroom!”
– David Kines, Hollywood Suite, CEO
s u m m e r 2 02 0
47
CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR’S DIVERSITY OF VOICES PARTICIPANTS! PITCH PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS RICHARD ANGERS CAMILLE BEAUDOIN JULIAN BLACK ANTELOPE MIRYAM CHARLES PATRICIA CHICA ISABELLE COUTURE JENNIFER DAINTY
PAULA DEVONSHIRE CATHERINE DULUDE GEMMA HOLDWAY SCHELBY JEAN-BAPTISTE SARAH KELLEY TANIA KOENIG-GAUCHIER CAM LIZOTTE
CHRYSTELLE MAECHLER GILLIAN MCKERCHER SHIRLEY MCLEAN GILLIAN MULLER CELESTE PARR MARIE-CLAUDE POULIN ANNETTE REILLY
MICHAELLA SHANNON KATIE WEEKLEY SUPINDER WRAICH RAYNE ZUKERMAN
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS CLAUDE BARNES JACKIE BATEMAN MAXIME BEAUCHAMP MARYLOU BELUGOU JOSIANE BLANC TANYA BRUNEL WENDELL COLLIER RYAN COOPER MOOKY CORNISH NORM COYNE MIRANDA CURRIE SAGE DANIELS ERICA DANIELS REBECCA DAVEY NICOLE DEMERSE ISABELLE DEPELTEAU ERICA DEUTSCHMANN CAITLIN ENGLISH KRISTINA ESPOSITO
FLORIAN FRANCOIS JEAN FUGAZZA KELLY FYFFE-MARSHALL JONATHAN GAJ SONIA GODDING BENJAMIN ROSS HAYDEN REBEKA HERRON QUITTERIE HERVOUET WENDY HILL-TOUT SHAELYN JOHNSTON DOMINIQUE KELLER MIKE KLEMAK VERONIKA KURZ JESSICA L’HEUREUX LOUISE LALONDE MISHANN LAU SAMANTHA MCADAM DIJA MAMBU EISHA MARJARA
EMILIE MARTEL VANESSA MATSUI SHANA MCCALLA JESSICA MEYA KATIE MEYER JORDAN MOLARO ANGIE O’BOMSAWIN MURRY PEETERS ELODIE POLLET COLIN RIENDEAU CARLA ROBINSON MICHAEL ROIK LÉA RONDOT AMANDA ROY KELLY SAXBERG KATIA SHANNON GINA SIMONE LANA SLEZIC PATTY SRISUWAN
JANA STACKHOUSE PAUL STOICA BRONWYN SZABO EVA THOMAS JODY THOMPSON LAURIE TOWNSHEND NEEGAN TRUDEL MARGARITA VALDERRAMA MELISSA VAN SOELEN RECHNA VARMA NATASHA VASSELL AMBER VERVILLE KRISTEL VIDUKA COLETTE VOSBERG KRISTINA WAGENBAUER PRISCILLA WHITE DEBORAH WILTON ASIA YOUNGMAN