Fine Cut 2012

FINE C u t PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN CRISIS

Spring 2012

After a tough year of cuts and criticism, maybe it’s time to

REIMAGINE the CBC?

Film Therapy

Helping youth in Vancouver’s East End break barriers

Voices from the North Inuit stories of family and strife told through film

Fancy Feast

Confessions of a food stylist

FROM FILM GRAIN TO HIGH-DEFINITION PIXEL Comprehensive training, equipment and community for film, video, interactive and installation art.

For more information visit www.li.ca

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Spring 2012

CONTENTS Spring 2012

Culture

Politics

Hello Nolly!

Nigerian filmmaking gives Bollywood a run for its money

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Exploring a cultural past through a contemporary medium

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Film Shorts

Making their way to the mainstream

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A phenomenon in the States, a flop in Canada

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Online superstars dish on what it’s like to have digital fame

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The Tamil Journey

Stories of escaping persecution and starting anew in Canada

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Redemption Inc. 11 Behind The Scenes

Film and TV Booms in Ontario

The province’s popularity grows as a cinematic backdrop

The Horror!

Two filmmakers take their passion for gore to the big screen

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Stylin’ Food

An inside look at the smoke and mirrors of the food styling industry

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Film Festival Volunteers

Where would festivals be without them?

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A Marriage of Words and Images Same industry, different world of responsibilities

Feature:

A Pug’s Life

With an attitude that can rival some of Hollywood’s most glamorous divas, Igor gets ready for his close-up

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At-risk youth in Vancouver get a lesson in creative media

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25

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On the cover:

Public Broadcasting Protectors 22

Second chances are a reality in this CBC show, giving ex-convicts an opportunity to succeed in the business world

Production insiders expose the challenges of indie filmmaking

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A new campaign asks Canadians from coast to coast for ways to reimagine the Mother Corp.

Feature:

Will the purchase of MLSE change Canadian sports broadcasting as we know it?

Film Therapy

How to Make it on YouTube

Canadian Sports Broadcasting: End of an Era? Lights, Camera, ACTRA

Reality TV

The End of Black Film?

The concept of race pulls the genre in different directions

Voices from the North

FINEC u t

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FI N E C U T S TA FF 2012

*

FINEC u t Spring 2012

EDITOR’S NOTE

Everything is political.

Or rather, politics informs almost every realm of our lives. Media and entertainment are by no means immune to this. Television, film, new (social) media and more are all informed by and used to promote or deconstruct political ideologies. The past year has seen a major shift in the political landscape in Canada as waves of red went orange and yet blue took a strong hold at the federal level.

And so, this shift is felt in the film and television industry in Canada.

Not all stories in this issue of Fine Cut are firmly placed in the Canadian political landscape like our cover story on the CBC. Political ripples are felt in at-risk youth in Vancouver taking film classes and Nigeria’s “Nollywood” market in Toronto. They are in the emergence of social media and video websites like YouTube taking over the role of the broadcast journalist. They are still in the voices of Inuit communities of this country. They are even felt in the ethical issue of animals on film.

Fine Cut strives to give an inside view of the world of film and television to industry readers and entertainment aficionados. But this particular issue is cognizant of the fact that entertainment may come at a political price and peeking behind the scenes on set reveals that.

Being an informed viewer is just as important as being an informed voter.

Sarah MacDonald, Editor-in-Chief

Editorial & Production EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah MacDonald EXECUTIVE EDITOR Erin Eaton MANAGING EDITOR OF PRODUCTION Daniel Buzzelli ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR OF PRODUCTION Ali Chiasson MANAGING EDITOR OF WORDS Sharon Tindyebwa ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR OF WORDS Giulia Frisina

Art ART DIRECTORS Javed Khan, Jeanette Liu PHOTO EDITOR & PHOTOGRAPHER Julie Fish

Sections CULTURE SENIOR EDITORS Dipa Haque, J.M. Thomas

FEATURES

Operations ASSIGNMENT & COPY EDITOR Shazia Islam CHIEF OF RESEARCH & ASSIGNMENT Laura Booth

SENIOR EDITOR Shannon O’Reilly

POLITICS SENIOR EDITOR Erika Panacci

BEHIND THE SCENES

FINECUT.COM

SENIOR EDITOR Andrew Schopp CONTRIBUTORS Kollin Lore Sasha Lindsay FACULTY ADVISERS Terri Arnott ext. 4518 Lara King ext. 4513 Anne Zbitnew ext. 4562 PUBLISHER William Hanna www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

MANAGING EDITOR Jessy Bains ASSISTANT EDITOR Basil Rehan ONLINE PHOTO EDITOR Stacey Thompson

Humber College 205 Humber College Blvd.

Toronto, Ont. M9W 5L7 416-675-6622 5

Culture

Hello Nolly!

Nollywood is the new Hollywood

by Dipa Haque When Sarah arrived in Toronto 11 years ago, she found a piece of home in her collection of bootleg DVDs: grainy films with muffled sound, hammy acting, and hardly any special effects.

Sarah Mukasa Kanakulya, a patriotic Ugandan, a proud mother, and an ambitious restaurant owner, chose simply made Nollywood movies over hi-tech Hollywood movies for one overarching reason: the African traditions and values serve as a foundation for the stories. Nollywood films, although considerably behind Hollywood and mainstream Bollywood in quality, are contributing to a positive image of Nigeria and the whole continent of Africa, showcasing the beauty of everyday African culture to those unfamiliar or nostalgic in Canada.

“We have boxes and boxes full of Nollywood movies,” Kanakulya says with satisfaction. “To be honest, I try to avoid Hollywood. Hollywood is not about morals and values.”

Kanakulya runs her humble, mom-and-pop eatery, East African Restaurant and Bar, on Eglinton Avenue West, just a quick stroll from Dufferin Street. The ordinary appearance of the restaurant is deceiving, however, because on Saturdays, it comes alive with large crowds, music and dancing. Kanakulya holds weekly meetings at her restaurant where both East and West Africans, all interested in preserving African culture through the arts, are invited to mingle. Her restaurant is a sign of the burgeoning African population in Canada, which one would think explains the sudden popularity of Nollywood movies in Toronto. English professor, Onookome Okome of the University of Alberta, has a different theory.

“I think the bug may have caught on here because the African diasporic community is looking to see something different from the usual,” says Okome, who has studied and written about Nollywood for the past 15 years. “Nollywood provides that difference and there is also the question of culture and the connection of African cultures to this audience. Members of this community may 6

also feel a sense of pride in having a cinema that comes from Africa – the homeland of all those who consider themselves as having some ties to African ancestry.”

Nollywood films definitely provide a familiar alternative to Hollywood films that may only increase the strangeness of being away from home for Africans in Toronto. Take as an example the 2003 comedy Osuofia in London, one of the best-selling Nollywood movies to date and also one of Okome’s favourites. The movie is about a Nigerian villager who goes to London, England, to collect an inheritance.

While Osuofia’s exaggerated ignorance of the Western world is funny (he stares in awe at a folding bridge), it is also a reflection of truth for many African immigrants.

Nollywood in Lagos The history of Nollywood is not one that’s easy to map. Those in Nigeria who have the privilege to write history, the educated class, tend to dismiss Nollywood movies altogether.

“There is still very little respect for Nollywood among scholars and the intellectual class in Nigeria,” explains Okome. “Among these groups of people, it is nothing but the producers of ‘false culture’. It is common to hear a Nigerian scholar who has not seen a single video film saying, ‘Nollywood is all rubbish, nonsense’.”

This lack of respect from the elite for Nigerian films is partly responsible for Nollywood’s exploding number of productions. With no formal ways to earn funding, anybody can receive donations from families and friends to make films, Kanakulya explains. Directors who have made a name for themselves often receive funding from European governments.

Spring 2012

Courtesy of Christine Piro Christine Piro and her assistant at an Exhibit Africa event.

“Somebody has thrown a paintball grenade in the

middle of Lagos and when it exploded, everybody who got hit is now making films.

”

- Paris Roger “Somebody has thrown a paintball grenade in the middle of Lagos (Nigeria’s capital city) and when it exploded, everybody who got hit is now making films – no matter what they do,” says Paris Roger, a filmmaker and the founder/director of the Toronto African Film and Music Festival.

Nollywood is now larger than Hollywood and almost equal with Bollywood with respect to production. In 2005, Nollywood churned out 872 movies – the equivalent of about 19 movies every week – according to recent UNESCO research. That number has grown along with the films’ popularity.

The reason Nollywood movies are so quickly produced is because they only take two to three weeks to make, including editing time. Production is cheap because movies are usually shot on location by one standard digital camera.

Roger says the average cost of a Nollywood DVD in Canada is “no more than five dollars.”

Actors and actresses are revered, of course, but not so much financially.

According to Nollywoodflicks.com, Ramsey Nouah, one of the highest-earning actors, charges 1.5 million naira per movie.

That’s a little bit more than CAD $9,500 – and a whole lot less than Tom Hanks’ reported $18 million price tag.

Nollywood in Toronto Torontonians who’ve taken a commercial interest in Nollywood are just as passionate about the culture in the movies as are the fans.

Roger, who decided to debut the yearly TAFMF back in 2010, wasn’t always involved in the African movie industry – indeed, he’s currently working on a biopic of Canadian prime minister Robert Borden. It was only after falling in love with

an African woman and being immersed in her culture that he knew he wanted to share African art and entertainment.

“You know, you always hear the bad stuff about Africa,” Roger says as he rolls his eyes. “I want to show the good.”

Roger is especially concerned with the illegal distribution of African DVDs in Toronto – he says there are currently no legal distributors of any Nollywood films in Canada. He has purchased 10 Nollywood titles that he plans on showing at the 2012 TAFMF that will take place this summer. Roger is proud to be the first legal Canadian distributor of Nollywood films, giving money back to the Nigerian artists who made them.

Christine Piro, the CEO and event co-ordinator of Exhibit-Africa, a company that reaches out to African artists and entrepreneurs and sells their products or services at special shows or events, is on the hunt for more Nollywood movies to showcase.

“Nollywood films are important in so many ways,” says Piro. “They provide a sort of escapism from the pressures of the Western world; many people relate to the characters in the storylines that are often very realistic and work to remind us of who we are. Many people also need these movies to mentally reconnect with the motherland.”

Piro launched Exhibit-Africa in 2010 with the same intent as Roger: tell the world that Africa is not all “drought, war, disease.”

“I want to reflect Africa in a positive manner. It is very distressing to hear my own kids ask questions about starving children that they see on mainstream Canadian news channels.

This is why Nollywood – a product of Africa – is important.”

Okome agrees with Piro: “Of course, there are positive aspects of the Nollywood film, which the younger generation of Africans can take away. One such positive effect is that kids of African parents born in Canada may realize for the first time that all is not gloom in Africa. Commonplace as this may sound, they may also come to the knowledge by watching these films that Africans live normal lives and have cities, wear clothes, eat on the table and drive cars as everyone does in Canada. Representations of African cultures are strong, vibrant and active in these films.”

The smile on Kanakulya’s face fades a little when asked about how Nollywood films have affected her Canadian-raised children. She is not unhappy. She is just very serious about the matter.

“The movies can help you raise your kids African. Even if you don’t talk much to your teenagers, they will understand more by watching the films. They will learn how to behave – how to be African and proud.”

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

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Culture

Courtesy of the National Film Board

Voices from the North Inuit reclaim their past through film

by Laura Booth As the theatre lights went out and the big screen illuminated the room, the crowd immediately went silent in anticipation of four Inuit-themed shorts being played from the National Film Board’s Unikkausivut: Sharing Our Stories DVD package. The project celebrates a collection of over 70 years worth of Inuit film gathered by the NFB. The screening began with an older, more serious film about the Inuit way of life. It ended with a contemporary animated short that used humour to highlight conflict between the North and South of Canada.

When the films ended, the audience, mostly Inuit, engaged in reminiscing about their roots in Nunavut and Labrador.

One middle-aged audience member spoke for many when he said the

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films “triggered a lot of memories [of] growing up as a child”.

Napatsi Folger, who participated in the panel discussion, agrees. “It was nice to know that I’m not the only one who feels disconnected. It does help to know you’re not the only person in the world feeling like you’re not really Inuk anymore,” says Folger.

Reconnecting with the past is the underlying theme of a large portion of contemporary Inuit film. Whether it is bridging the relationship between generations or reconnecting those who have moved south of Canada’s territories with their birthplace, contemporary Inuit film is exploring the community’s cultural past from the lens of Inuit themselves.

“The difference is, instead of being made by people staying [up north]

Spring 2012

“It helped me reconnect

with my heritage and feel more at home again.”

- Arnaquq-Baril

Courtesy of the National Film Board

from the south very temporarily (and not having the time to really understand the culture) now [films] are being made by us,” says Alethea ArnaquqBaril, an award-winning Inuk filmmaker based in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut Territory.

Arnaquq-Baril grew up in the Arctic and headed south to Ontario to study illustration at Sheridan College. When she returned home for a summer, she accepted a job translating Inuktitut for filmmakers visiting from the south. It was her experience working on the project that directed her towards her truest passion.

“I knew from then on that I was going to be involved in film,” she says.

For Arnaquq-Baril, film has been a medium in which she is able to explore her culture and share her observations with the larger Inuit community.

“I heard some of our legends growing up and I always felt a strong connection to them but when I was away [at] school, I felt that disconnection, and when I got home I needed to reconnect,” says Arnaquq-Baril. “Learning more about the legends and working on films and animation about one of them was cathartic for me.”

One of her animated shorts, titled Lumaajuuq, retells an old legend of a mother who mistreats and blinds her son by rubbing whale fat in his eyes while he sleeps. The boy, initially unaware of the cause of his condition, seeks the assistance of a red-throated loon who helps him regain his sight and seek revenge on his misguided mother. The short won an award from the ImagineNATIVE Festival for best Canadian short drama.

“That was a really powerful experience for me and it helped me reconnect with my heritage and feel more at home again,” says Arnaquq-Baril.

Allan Ryan, a professor of aboriginal art and culture at Carleton University, explains that an important part of contemporary Inuit film is the authors’ attempts to discover the stories of their elders. Many of these stories, he explains, would otherwise remain hidden. The reclamation of legends, myths, and truths by a younger generation has given Inuit the chance to tell their stories from their own perspectives, rather than filmmakers from the south appropriating them.

“The exciting thing has to do ... with self representation. [It’s] the whole idea of ‘you guys have really botched representing us because you have this strange stereotypic understanding of who we are as a people, so we want to tell the stories,’” says Ryan.

Conflict with past experience is addressed directly in Inuit film. Arnaquq-Baril and her husband, Jonathan Wright, an animator, both explain that the traditional way Inuit handle wrongdoing is an important part of their work.

One of Wright’s animated shorts, titled The Bear Facts, uses humour to retell the story of the North’s colonization by European explorers.

“What better way to get anything serious across than to break down barriers with humour? If you can say it simply with a joke, why not?” says Wright.

His wife, Arnaquq-Baril, agrees that humour has traditionally played a significant role in the way Inuit resolve conflict. Her current project, a film titled Angry Inuk, explores the life of an Inuk woman who has been fighting in support of Inuit seal hunting rights for over 30 years. The relationship between the community and animal rights groups is explored.

“Believe it or not, we’re trying to tell the story using humour, a lot of humour,” she says. “Inuit use humour to relieve tension and resolve conflict in a constructive, healthy way and that’s what we hope to do with this film.”

Whatever tools are used to tell and retell stories from the North, it is the ability of the art form to engage a community with its own heritage that has been most prominent.

“We have more filmmakers and film production per capita than anywhere else in Canada,” says Arnaquq-Baril. “It’s kind of stunning the number of people that are starting to get into this. The ideas that they have are just so creative and so different than anything else you see on television and really...I can’t wait for the world to see.”

With 83 per cent of Nunavut’s population having Inuktitut as its mother tongue, films catered to the audience have been a blessing to the community, Arnaquq-Baril says.

The NFB has been a major supporter of the Inuit film industry. Having the largest collection of Inuit film, the Board selected more than 40 to be included in a DVD box set which was distributed throughout the north to communities with limited access to an internet connection. The films are also featured at nfb.ca.

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

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Photo by Julie Fish

Culture

by Kollin Lore

Film Shorts Making their way to the mainstream

“There are audiences for all kinds of films, and festivals where people pack a theatre to see a movie they never heard of from a country they’ve never been to – there is something about the festival context that entices people to take a chance and see something they might really enjoy. It’s the same with shorts. I think it’s too bad that commercial theatres aren’t showing more short films.”

This quote from Toronto Screenshots blogger, James McNally, perfectly describes the state of the short film in Canada.

In the past, being able to see short films, especially all of the shorts nominated at the Academy Awards every February, was as rare as seeing someone walking around Toronto with shorts on during the winter.

But for the first time in recent memory, from Feb. 10 to Feb. 16, all 10 Academy Award nominees for best-animated short film and best liveaction short film were shown to the public at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

This event, a first in Canada and a tradition in many U.S. cities, came on the heels of the “Shorts That Are Not Pants” screening held a month earlier in mid January at the National Film Board’s Mediatheque.

McNally started this program with a small audience of about a dozen in his apartment. It was not enough. McNally desired to share his passion with the rest of the city, and with the support of the NFB, he was able to enlarge his audience by bringing “Shorts That Are Not Pants” to the 80seat Mediatheque.

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“Short films are a bit like short stories. It’s really nice to be able to tell a story in such a small amount of time and elegantly,” says McNally. “I also find they are very innovative. A lot of times the limitations of short films make people try different things, so sometimes the films are very experimental, you see a lot of animated films for a short that wouldn’t work for a feature.”

And though there is a lack of exposure for short films, McNally believes this works in favour of young filmmakers.

“They’re not made for programming slots, they’re not made for theatre. I think that just gives them a lot of freedom to do what they want,” McNally says.

‘Pants’ is British slang for bad, and it is out of this expression that the proud Irishman, McNally, came up with the name of the program.

And his selections were quite the shorts.

One of the highlights was Wild Life, a 2011 Canadian animated film from Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, about an Englishman surviving in the Canadian prairies.

Wild Life was one of two animated short films distributed by the NFB nominated for an Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards on February 24, 2012.

The night was pants for them, both not winning the prize.

However, Canadian filmmakers like Forbis and Tilby have an advantage because of the National Film Board of Canada. If the pitch is intriguing, the NFB will produce or distribute the film and be there every step of the way to ensure the project gets completed.

Spring 2012

According to a CBC news article, an NFB film has been nominated 72 times at the Academy Awards, with 12 Oscar wins in it’s 73-year history.

What makes 2012 such a unique year is that short films are not usually available for viewing to the public. Anyone interested would have to look for snippets online. Previously nominated Oscar shorts and some entire films can be found on YouTube.

Genie and 2011 Emmy Award winning producer Gerry Flahive believes the internet helps rather than hinders young filmmakers.

“With shorts, it’s never been big money orders, people haven’t paid to see short films. Ultimately we all make films for people to see them.

It’s like the internet and short films were made for each other – people like looking at things that don’t take too long.”

Flahive admits the one benefit of the digital age is how it helps increase the popularity of short films.

“I think there is real potential, suddenly people are having hundreds of thousands of views.

It’s fantastic. It’s something that we take for granted now. Between the years when theatres stopped showing short films and the rise of YouTube, there was a long period of time, where basically short films were only seen at film festivals, so not that often.”

“Shorts That Are Not Pants” screenings will be back at the Mediatheque on July 13.

Redemption Inc. From ex-cons to big business Feature

“So, from shit, life emerges.

That’s kind of a metaphor for my life.”

-Brian O’Dea

by Erin Eaton It was a heart attack from an overdose that was the threshold into a new life for Brian O’Dea – a terrifying reality check for a vibrant, young drug smuggler.

“It’s from shit that life emerges,” quips O’Dea, who often compares himself to a scarab beetle.

“You see, this little beetle pushes around a pile of shit its entire life. But in this shit, it plants its eggs.

So, from shit, life emerges. That’s kind of a metaphor for my life.”

Having completed four years of a ten-year prison sentence for importing marijuana into the United States, O’Dea was more than ready for something beautiful to blossom from his metaphorical pile of stool. What started out as a casual escape from his less-than-perfect reality, turned into an intricate, dangerous life in the world of drugs. The drug trade took him everywhere from his hometown of St. John’s, where he was raised to be a good Catholic boy, to Colombia. Despite his parents’ efforts to keep him safe, his childhood was tainted by sexual abuse – one of many contributors to his love of inebriation.

Shortly after the completion of his sentence, in 2001, O’Dea brashly placed a classified ad in the National Post titled “Former Marijuana Smuggler seeks legitimate employment,” – just a small piece of O’Dea’s long-term relationship with redemption.

When CBC’s Redemption Inc. came into fruition, there was no doubt it was an ideal match for O’Dea, who took on the role of associate producer. With a successful first season behind them, the show’s for-

mat was promptly picked up by other countries, and a second Canadian season is likely on the way.

The show features 10 ex-cons placed in entrepreneurial challenges, competing for $100,000 of Kevin O’Leary’s money. Contestants use the skills they developed during their life of crime to function in the legal world of business. They come to the show with ideas for personal business endeavours that their criminal pasts have prohibited them from achieving.

O’Leary and O’Dea help the participants channel their ambition into practical business techniques.

“It was just incredible how well this suited me, both from my past as an ex-con, and then, my more recent past as a television producer. It was like my life experience landed on the head of this pin called Redemption Inc.,” says O’Dea. Throughout the first season, O’Dea was referred to as Kevin O’Leary’s adviser – his eyes, ears, and a father figure to the ex-cons. He attended entrepreneurial training, challenges and panels alongside the contestants, reporting major successes and failures back to O’Leary.

“Brian is a case study in why this show makes sense,” says O’Leary. “I mean, he’s obviously reformed, and is doing very well. He certainly understands what we’re doing, and is a kindred spirit with the contestants. Our partnership was a great one. I was very proud to work with him.”

O’Dea was the bridge between the contestants and O’Leary. Despite his left-wing lifestyle, O’Leary’s trust for O’Dea was evident at weekly panels.

Courtesy of Proper Productions Brian O’Dea www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

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On set of Redemption Inc

Courtesy of Proper Productions

“Kevin said to me: ‘Brian you’re left of Che Guevara, and I’m right of Attila the Hun. But here we have a common purpose – to create an awareness that there is a huge reservoir of available talent that’s being untapped for unjustifiable reasons,’” says O’Dea, casually quoting O’Leary.

“We want to shine a light on that, and at the same time have some fun in so doing. I think we accomplished all.”

Prior to embarking on the show’s first season, O’Leary decided to experience the prison lifestyle first-hand. He spent a difficult night in jail – a grim experience that fuels his desire to help ex-cons.

“You know, I was quite shocked at how tough that was. I certainly have a new respect for what that’s all about. I had to do it – there was no question of that. But, I must say, it was very sobering. I never want to go there again.

Part of me feels that if people experienced that once, they would never commit a crime, because it’s just too brutal.”

The show was especially careful to ensure it was in no way exploitative or condescending toward ex-criminals. The Redemption Inc. team, including executive producer Cathie James, sought to draw attention to our crumbling penal system and commonly held misjudgments about people who have been to prison.

“I think that it was really important for us to not have a format where people who have been in very vulnerable situations in their life, and are putting themselves in vulnerable situations through the show, aren’t just sort of kicked off,” says James.

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“I don’t think the audience would have been that receptive to watching these people work really hard trying to give themselves a second chance, and then leave empty handed.”

Exit packages and choice were thus included in the show’s format. If a contestant is asked to leave, they may continue to fight for the $100,000, or take an exit package offering resources, skills and training catered to the individual’s needs.

“When they leave the show, they have something that will help them achieve the goal of making their lives better and finding new employment opportunities,” says James.

Members of the production team met with social organizations invested in the rights of ex-offenders prior to airing the show. They screened an episode for representatives of groups such as John Howard Society, and Elizabeth Fry Society, who were then able to share their opinions and concerns about the program.

“They weren’t completely non-critical – they did have issues with certain things about it. But after talking to them about our intention, and the support we had in place for these people, they all admitted that nobody is doing anything to raise awareness for this issue. The fact that this was something dealt with in a network, prime time, big reality series got a lot of people talking,” says James.

“It was interesting because everyone was sort of speaking for these people, yet, the people who I have met who have actually been to prison,

Spring 2012

including Brian and the people who participated – they think that it was a great initiative,” she says.

“At times, there’s a bit of a condescending, paternalistic attitude toward people who have struggled with the law, as if they don’t know what’s right for them. I think that most of the participants would say that it was a really empowering experience for them, and ultimately that’s what’s important.”

Exposure to different sectors of the economy ranked high among O’Leary’s goals for the season one contestants. He helped guide them toward re-employment as they discovered how to fit themselves into the entrepreneurial chaos.

“A lot of reality TV, they throw them in a pit of mud, and have them throw balls at each other, or whatever – that’s all crap,” he says.

“This is a real experience for these people. This is real life. The trials and tribulations of what they go through – this kind of stuff matters, and amazing things have happened to these people as a result.”

O’Dea played a key role in ensuring the participants didn’t feel taken advantage of in any way. As someone who has experienced extreme vulnerability, he worked hard to keep everyone’s pride intact.

“They felt like they didn’t want to be made to look fools of, and I said ‘I am one of us, and I’m here too. So, if you look foolish, I look foolish. And I’m not going to have that for me, in the same way I won’t have it for you,” he said. “‘But the fact is, you’re going to be asked to show up to do things that you would otherwise never be asked to do. Like put on a monkey suit and go sell tickets on the waterfront to a boat tour. You would never do that! This is to show that you can do whatever it takes. If you’re not prepared as the owner of this business, to get up in front and put on your little red vest and hat, flip it around and sell tickets, then probably you’re not going to have a successful business.”

While the show seeks to transcend taboo stereotypes about criminals, O’Dea was keen to draw attention to the important, disheartening realities of individuals who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

The selected group of first-season contestants appear to be intelligent, compassionate, motivated people, who stumbled into dark circumstances, unimaginable to most.

“Well, look, some of the stereotypes about people in prison are true,” says O’Dea, pointing out that a majority of those in prison are fatherless.

“Think of Lord of the Flies. It’s so on the money. It’s what happens to kids when there are no adult figures. The mother is working, the kids are left on their own. These young men – and sometimes, not as often - young women, go out and hook up with the next oldest, toughest, hardest character for protection, because it’s tough to make it on your own. You need to feel protected by somebody, and it’s usually the bully of the neighbourhood, the one who runs the gang.”

Every family is touched by the penal system, says O’Leary, whose cousin spent a long period of time in prison. Through this difficult experience, O’Leary developed sympathy and a strong perspective about the system’s deficiencies.

“People make the assumption that after they spent time there, and paid their debt to society, that somehow they’re rebooted and given a second chance. And of course that’s completely wrong,” he said. “They’re pariahs, they’re tainted, they’re almost radioactive waste. Nobody understands that they can’t borrow money, they can’t get a car loan, can’t even get a job, because any job that does a background check just doesn’t call them back.”

With the cost of federal custody exceeding $300 per inmate per day, O’Leary suggests the repercussions of less-severe misdemeanours are extremely unbalanced.

At a time when Canada is contemplating extending the time that criminals spend in prison, O’Leary says the issue requires immediate attention and action.

“For people who have perpetrated sexual crimes, or murder, I understand that cost to society. But for white-collar crimes or misdemeanours, or people that are young – I don’t think they should spend the rest of their life paying for something that they want to forget and move on from. We had a pretty good showing of that with the contestants at the table. I mean, nobody there was a murderer, but they were paying for these crimes they committed a

“Brian is a case study in why this show makes sense.”

-Kevin O’Leary decade ago, forever. That seems very unfair to me.”

Though O’Dea accepts his “excon” status with grace, he stands by the notion that he never conned anyone. Able to transform his negative past into a thriving present, O’Dea empathizes with young people attempting to do the same.

“A lot of these kids, they lose their way, and find themselves in prison. Things happen to them as children that they can’t talk to anybody about. And when they lose the ability to share their story with words they act it out for us. And how do they act it out? In the most unacceptable ways. Why? Because they’re trying to tell us something,” says O’Dea, his voice drenched in passion.

“What we’re seeing is the end result.

What we need to do is find a way to extract what’s really going on, to repatriate their words, and to not shame them when they use them to tell us what happened. And I think the more that we can encourage people to inhabit stories that they’ve actually lived, the greater the chance of them coming out on the other side as something else – as changed.”

Courtesy of Proper Productions Kevin O’Leary

Reality TV

by Erika Panacci

Phenomenon in the States, flop in Canada

Reality TV used to be called lifestyle television. “Now everything is called reality,” says Karen McDermott, field producer at Pyman Productions. A lot of shows on TV are now reality and viewers are more engaged because we put ourselves in the contestant’s spot. It all comes down to money and timing when a show is in the process of being created. “Reality is a huge umbrella of different kinds of genres,” says McDermott.

Reality TV in Canada hasn’t been as successful as the reality shows we watch from the U.S. There are many factors that contribute to American television being more successful than in Canada. One factor is having larger budgets at the U.S. networks.

“There is more money in the States,” says Barbara Bowlby, executive producer of Canada’s Got Talent.

McDermott says the only shows we see on our local stations from the U.S. are the big budgeted shows that take millions of dollars to produce. The U.S. has local shows just as we do, but we don’t see them. We only see big ones produced in Los Angeles or New York, big city shows such as XFactor and American Idol.

Money is one of the main factors that producers look into when creating shows. “How much does it cost to produce the show, how many viewers do you get, what is it that entices the viewers?” asks McDermott.

CityTV has brought Canada’s Got Talent to their network.

It took so long to come because of “finances and timing,” says Bowlby. Before So You Think You Can Dance Canada’s season began, Canadian Idol had to end. CTV just didn’t have the money to carry these shows on, says Bowlby.

Unfortunately, previous reality shows in Canada, such as Canadian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance fell short because of “financial restraints of the network,” says Bowlby.

“These shows are very costly to do because you have to cross the country – it’s expensive.” This is why private networks go and buy American shows for less. Shows in the U.S. last longer because there is more money involved. “The TV networks only have so much money, and so advertisers support television. The advertisers can only go to so many big shows at one time,” says Bowlby. Once new shows air, advertisers want their commercials and ads on the network because viewers tend to tune in to new shows. Whichever was the best offer given to the network by the sponsor, those are the ads that get to air once the show begins.

Perhaps some of the reasons that Canadian reality shows don’t last is because of the host. “If there is a host involved, the host either makes it or breaks it,” says McDermott. “At the end of the day, good TV – be it scripted or non – it’s all about characters and the story.” And finally, in order to create a good reality show that will last and have a viewer engaged the cast is important. “A good reality show doesn’t have to be forced, because if you pick great characters, the story, the action, the conflict and all of that

is hopefully going to happen because the casting is done really well,” says McDermott.

Whether it’s the host or the choosing of the cast, the producers hope these next two shows that are coming to Canada will engage viewers and have them screaming for more.

Production of these shows isn’t easy. They have to be thought out and timing has to be right in order to begin creating and making sure they don’t fail.

After 16 successful seasons of The Bachelor, the hit show is finally coming to Canada. “It is a big network decision more than it’s our decision,” says Sean DeVries, supervising producer of The Bachelor Canada. “They thought it was time Canadians got their own version – an all Canadian cast, a Canadian bachelor, a Canadian host.”

The bachelor tends to be dreamy, good looking and have a good head on his shoulders. When searching for the bachelor producers look for specific things. “We like to say he’s successful in many ways – both inside and out,” says DeVries. “He doesn’t need to be rich, but he does need to be very good at what he does. He needs to have a good heart, a genuine personality and a sincere desire to meet a woman and get married. And, he should look better than the guy sitting next to you on the couch when you’re watching the show.” They have a few bachelors in mind but nothing is set in stone, and the same goes for the location. The show is set to air in the fall on CityTV. Canada’s Got Talent began airing in March hosted by Humber journalism grad and Breakfast Television host Dina Pugliese, followed by renowned judges, comedian Martin Short, musician Stephan Moccio, and opera singer Measha Brueggergosman. This show displays all types of talent from dancing and singing to acrobatics, comedy and magic tricks.

Timing also came into play when discussing production of Canada’s Got Talent. “With Canadian Idol being so successful, it was just a natural thing to do to,” says Bowbly. Producers thought this was the show to expand to Canadian TV. “It was a natural progression, Canada’s Got Talent was totally what should happen next,” says Bowlby.

Bowlby says, Canada can only have so many big franchises and shows going on at one time, “and the timing was just right that CityTV was ready. It’s expanding, it has new ownership, and it was time for them to get a big show.”

Reality TV is a very popular genre. Seeing as these show have average people, with averages lives, this is what perhaps draws viewers in because they can place themselves in the show. “We all dream of our 15 minutes of fame,” says Bowlby. It gives people an escape from their own lives, and a chance to live vicariously through the people they see on TV.

Photo by Julie Fish 14

Spring 2012

Culture

How to Make it on YouTube

by Shannon O’Reilly Social media sites, with YouTube in the lead, have allowed everyone and anyone to put their talent on display to the world. For about a hundred years previous, the only way for aspiring stars to gain exposure was to hire a great publicist and hope to be pictured with the right people, and mentioned in the news.

Fame now comes easily to people born outside of nobility or wealth. Still, some researchers have argued that people may improve their talents, but they cannot necessarily make themselves famous. That is up to their audience.

Here, famous YouTube personas share their stories and tips to becoming an internet success.

SteveDangle It all started with a 15-second rant, the grainy product of a cheap web-cam in his bedroom, with posters of the Toronto Maple Leafs adorning his adolescent walls. Although not much has changed in terms of décor in his bedroom, five years later Steve Glynn is now famous on YouTube for posting rants about hockey.

Steve “Dangle,” 23, works as an associate producer for CBC, but people know him best for his YouTube coverage of the Leafs and the World Junior Hockey Championships. Steve started a YouTube account in 2007 after the Toronto Star published headlines roughly saying “Better luck next year Leafs,”- after the team had lost only one game.

“I made a video about the overreactions.

It was 15 seconds long, no planning,” said Glynn. “Something happened the next game and I did another one. By the time I hit the third video I was like, ‘you know what, I want to do one for every single Leafs game’.”

There are now over 700 videos posted on YouTube, and Glynn has skyrocketed to journalistic fame with over two million views.

In April of 2009 Glynn was approached

by Nike, which was interested in putting together a segment on YouTube that would cover the 2010 Olympics.

“Someone sent me a message on YoutTube and asked me for my numbers, because I have access to some of my demographics and stuff like that,” says Glynn, recounting the tale of Nike’s approach to see his stats concerning who watched his YouTube channel. “They said it was for a case study and in my head I was thinking ‘I did those in social studies,’ so this is a high school student. A week later they asked to meet up and told me to bring my lawyer or agent.

“I called up my buddy who was taking a law course at the time and said ‘hey man, I need you to wear a suit to something and pretend to be my lawyer.’ He shows up and tells me that no matter what they offer, act like I was offered something better yesterday.

Then I find out they’re Nike and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. It was unbelievable.”

Nike decided to send Glynn to cover the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships and, provided he did a good job, he would be sent to the Olympics as well. At the time, Glynn was a radio and television student at Photo illustration (both) by Julie Fish www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

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Ryerson University, but had yet to do anything on screen in the field. He did have some experience interviewing players because of internships he had worked, but nothing of this magnitude.

Two years later, Glynn is still doing a YouTube video for every Leafs game, still covering events for Nike, and also working for the CBC as an associate producer. Not too shabby for a geeky kid who makes videos about hockey in his room.

Allhockey.ru Andrey Osadchenko, 25, who some may refer to as the Russian version of Steve Dangle, started as a journalist in Moscow before moving to Canada. He is the assistant editor-in-chief for allhockey.ru and a freelance writer for every sports outlet under the sun. Although he dabbled briefly in posting his interviews on YouTube, it wasn’t until he paired up with Steve Dangle in 2010 to create “joining the rush” that he became well known.

“I asked if he wanted to do a project that would be both Canadian and Russian and would cover both the NHL and KHL,” said Osadchenko. “We got nine thousand views on our first video. We published it on allhockey.ru and every other big sports website, and it went over really well in Russia. There was nothing like that that was published on the Russian news sites before.”

The YouTube videos are now a weekly installment, and they’ve also been picked up by a national TV station in Russia that broadcasts the segments across the country.

“People usually don’t look at the author’s name in articles,” says Osadchenko. “Steve used YouTube to make a name for himself. I used it so people could put a face to the name of my other work.”

While most people do not get paid to post their videos on YouTube, it is possible that after enough channel hits, advertisers will give a monetary offer to the account holder to run ads before their videos.

In most cases, YouTube is not a long-term

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profitable scheme. It is best suited for people to showcase their talent and as a launching pad for bigger projects.

For example, stars such as Montreal’s EpicMealTime are now in negotiations with the Comedy Network to host a cooking show, and most famously, LisaNova once signed a contract with MadTV after her YouTube success.

YouTube Tips Becoming a YouTube sensation isn’t easy, and without any views, it’s impossible to make the transition from the screen to the real world.

However, there are a few simple tricks to make sure you’re promoting yourself in the best possible way.

“Everything I’ve done has just spread by word of mouth. The

first way I advertised myself in 2007 was by putting the link in

”

my MSN status.

- Steve Glynn

John Cullen, editor for Big Purple Couch at Western University, manages the YouTube account for the student council. He says there are certain ways to increase viewership with YouTube.

Referring to an interview a Big Purple Couch reporter did with Canadian music star Lights as an example, Cullen describes ways to attain over a thousand hits on a video.

“There are a few ways to label YouTube videos that get a few more views than others,” says Cullen. “It’s a naming strategy. When you type into

Spring 2012

YouTube, for example Lights, UWO, or Western – any of those combinations of words – you’ll get one of our videos in the top five. In the tags in the naming convention, at the very top of the name of the movie, and also in the comments section of that, you’ll have all that information.”

Including names of famous people in the title is a sure way to get hits, as is including catch words such as “XXX.” The most viewed Big Purple Couch video is titled “X-Rated Hypnotist” and has nearly 30,000 views.

“Most views are 92 per cent males, most in the USA, and 62 per cent get this video from other YouTube videos,” says Cullen, rattling off the demographics for this particular video.

Cullen adds that getting people to embed your YouTube link on their website is also a great way to boost views.

“Posting it on Facebook is really the best way to get YouTube views,” says Cullen. “Say we interview XYZ, we can post the video on XYZ’s wall, and they will repost and put that video everywhere that has to do with XYZ’s club or company.”

Steve Dangle adds that social media is incredibly important in reaching out to your viewers.

“I don’t have TV commercials or ads or anything like that. So, everything I’ve done has just spread word of mouth. The first way I advertised myself in 2007 was by putting the link in my MSN status,” says Glynn. “It gets featured on a couple of blogs, and Twitter helps me put things out there.”

For Osadchenko, by speaking Russian as a first language, he can automatically reach more viewers by posting in two languages.

“I use both Russian and English Facebook and Twitter and LiveJournal and basically anywhere I could post something,” says Osadchenko.

Glynn adds that as long as you’re relatable, fans will stick with you. And, he urges, be social on social media.

“It’s a really simple concept, but a lot of people don’t get it. I’m not saying I have all the answers, but it’s important to be genuine.”

The Tamil Journey Stories of a large Toronto community on film

by Andrew Schopp Shots ring out on a quiet street in Toronto’s suburban Scarborough neighbourhood, putting the lives of three young Tamil men in a tailspin.

One of these youths is Anpu – which translates to English as “love”, says filmmaker Lenin Sivam. Anpu is an intelligent young man who, in a strange and foreign landscape, seeks brotherhood and a sense of belonging in all the wrong places. Anpu is a fictional character from the Canadian Tamil film 1999, which was written, directed and produced by Sivam.

Although Anpu may be just a film character, his story is a reflection of the real life challenges faced by Tamil youth growing up in Scarborough in the ‘90s. A story of Tamil youth who, upon immigrating to Canada alone as young men, must navigate through the new set of challenges ahead of them while putting the bitter memories of the war in their native Sri Lanka behind them.

Through the vision of Canadian Tamil filmmakers, Tamil films in Canada reflect the real life struggles that their youth face when trying to adapt to a new terrain and help to promote the voice of the Tamil people of Canada. “If you want to talk about the Tamil people you have to talk about the war,” says Sivam, at Café Mirage, a popular Scarborough coffee shop in the Kennedy

Courtesy of Lennin Sivam

Commons.

Prior to the anti-Tamil riots of 1983 and the eruption of the civil war in Sri Lanka, thousands of Tamil refugees left the country to escape persecution. A substantially large number of these Tamils have called Toronto home since the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, making it the largest Tamil diaspora community in the world. According to the Canadian Tamils’ Chamber of Commerce, Canada is home to more than 250,000 Tamils, approximately 200,000 of them living in the Greater Toronto Area. Many came to Canada alone as teenagers after their families sold their land and other assets in an effort to send their children here for a better life. The challenges faced by Tamil youth immigrating to Canada are depicted on the silver screens of Scarborough, such as those at Woodside Cinema, in films such as Sivam’s 1999.

“Most of these guys came to Canada alone because their parents could not afford to come. The young men are the most dangerous to stay in Sri Lanka. They are killed by any side. So when they come here they have to live and grow up in apartments and they lack family support,” says Sivam.

1999 premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2010. The film presents a

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

powerful story that delves into the Tamil experience in Canada.

“I really liked the film and was quite moved by its honesty,” says Deepa Mehta, the Genie-Award winning Indian-born Canadian filmmaker, in a press release.

For Tamil immigrants, escaping the conflict back home is only half the battle and a new life in Canada brings forth a whole new set of challenges. Many of these Tamil youth must learn to assimilate and become Canadians all on their own without parental support and guidance. In 1999, there are no female characters, a symbol of the void which these Tamil youth experience in their adoptive homeland.

“There are no females at all in the film. It’s because the Tamils, the first generation, when they try to adapt to this country you can’t call them as fellow Canadians,” Sivam explains.

“They are missing something huge. They are not functioning fully as a Canadian family would do because it’s the process of adapting to this land. That void I wanted to show it as a symbolical thing, because if a woman is not there, how would a family function?”

Starting a new life in the new and unfamiliar terrain of Toronto proves just as difficult a pros-

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pect as escaping the war back home. Some youth get lost in the storm and turn to the gang lifestyle for a sense of belonging and brotherhood. “‘Coming to Canada was enough’ was the mentality of the parents back home. They were sending them off. But here it’s not the war they have to face, the challenge is not over,” says Sivam.

1999 tells a story which strikes at the core of Sivam’s life and experience in Toronto, and many Tamil-Canadians like him.

“The script, it’s about me,” he says.

“That doesn’t mean that I went to gangs and all but I was growing up here and I escaped just like the guys in the film,” says Sivam, who just like Anpu and the other characters in 1999, escaped the war in his native Sri Lanka and immigrated to Canada. “I came here and all this gang activity was going on.”

Gang activity in Scarborough was intimidating for Sivam and other members of the Tamil community.

“As Tamils we couldn’t go to a certain bar and have some beer and watch the Raptors game because it’s the wrong place to be at the wrong time. Because I grew up in that state, there was always a frustration, like ‘why these guys are doing this, after all this country has given us everything?’ Why is that?” Sivam explains.

Although at times Sivam would question the actions of Tamil gang members, the message of his film is that these issues are not always so cut and dry.

“The research led me to understand that this is all a part of adapting to a new terrain and a part of growing up,” he says.

“They aren’t stupid, they just got trapped.

Some of us got lucky and stayed away from it, but most of us got caught in it. I thought it was an interesting thing for the Tamil people to know.

It’ll be an eye opener for them and guide the next generation. That was the intention initially.”

In his research prior to the film’s production, Sivam met with several ex-Tamil gang members, where he gained a broader understanding of what led these youth down such a path, which Sivam says, is out of their hands.

“So many things contribute to this and it’s not just blindly a bunch of guys joining a gang, it’s not like that, it’s far deeper,” he says. “It has to do more with who we are and what are we doing in this country and our parents’ struggle. They are struggling so hard in a country where they don’t know the language, they don’t know the

culture, and they are doing odd jobs and are trying to raise their kids to the Canadian standard.

All these things contribute to it. They are also victims of the whole migration and the war back home and adapting to Canada.”

Many Tamil youth are led astray, and often fall victim to the distractions of the streets and the negative aspects of Toronto’s public school

refuge from the streets, a more positive distraction if you will.

“Movies have always been an important aspect of growing up for me and my friends here in Scarborough,” says Aadhi Nahenthiram, a 20-year-old Scarborough resident, in the Sheppard and Neilson neighbourhood.

“Growing up, going to the movies was always something to do. It kept us out of trouble and by watching Tamil movies, we were engaged with our community,” he says. “These films tell our stories, we relate to them more than American movies.”

While providing Tamil youth a wholesome recreational activity, Tamil films also have the power to inspire the youth to make something of themselves in their new home, to get them off the streets and communicate the message of the Tamil community in a positive way, says Muthu.

“I have had youth approach Courtesy of Lenin Sivam me and say ‘that short film that you are working on, how can I be a part of it? Let me help you with script writing, let me help you with lights’. And I think that’s perfect, their talent’s just not being brought out,” Muthu says.

“I found films to be very magical, and I always wanted to be a part of it, ever since I was a little boy,” says Sivam.

Working on a small budget, with no help from the Canadian government, the production of Tamil -Lenin Sivam films comes from the heart of the community. These films are in the system. “The youth come to Canada and in Tamil language with English subtitles. Tamil schools they get exposed to a lot of things,” says filmmakers do not receive funding from the NaSrirangan Muthu, a filmmaker and founder of tional Film Board of Canada, which only grants Tecmazter Productions, a Tamil film production funding to films with the majority of the dialogue company based in Scarborough. in English or French.

“Apart from their studies they [the youth] get “I had $15,000, money from friends, faminvolved in other things, let it be sports or let it be ily members, things like that,” says Sivam. “We any other related activities or even just wasting were all very passionate about the story. We all time. They may not be given the drive towards liked the script. The biggest challenge was that what their passion is,” says Muthu. “By bringing we shot it 12 consecutive weekends, 24 days, and out music videos and short films, it brings out every one of us has at least one job and some of creativity and they look at such things and say them even had three jobs, so we have to adapt to ‘hey that’s a nice song’ or ‘I’m a composer, I like scheduling. Finishing the project was the biggest music, let me also start creating something’. It challenge for me.” just tackles their own self-interests and lets them “In filmmaking we can communicate Tamil know you can also do such things.” culture in a very positive way, to not only our own Tamil films provide youth in Scarborough a community but also to others,” adds Muthu.

“As Tamils we couldn’t go to a

certain bar and have some beer and watch the Raptors game because it’s the wrong place to be at the wrong time.

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”

Spring 2012

The End of Black Film?

Filmmaking trends take the genre in a different direction

by Sharon Tindyebwa Should the Montreal International Black Film Festival include things that interest me as a filmmaker.” the word black in this day and age? That was the question raised The kind of films that inspire him and the movies that he in 2011 by Charles Biddle Jr., the man hired to rejuvenate the wants to make do not have much to do with his race. “I tend to be festival. In interviews with Montreal newspapers, Biddle says we influenced by more obscure people that don’t necessarily have any should be at the point of judging movies based on artistic integrity kind of relationship with my ethnicity or the type of life that I live,” instead of on race. Others argue, however, that including the word says Fantu. black is necessary, as it differentiates the movies shown at the Raised in Alberta and British Columbia, Fantu says he mostly festival from movies shown in other festivals and in mainstream grew up with a circle of white friends, which led him to feel movie theatres. somewhat isolated. In that isolation, Fantu says he connected with Biddle’s comments are reflective of an on-going conversation comic books, cartoons and movies to transport him to different in the black community. While filmmakers generally agree that worlds. He says these memories still affect what inspires him as a black people are under-represented in mainstream films worldfilmmaker. “I connected to things that were so far away from my wide, there is less of a consensus on what role black filmmakers experience like science fiction, super heroes and stuff like that,” should play in remedying this. Some say that black filmmakers Fantu says. “That led me to connect to things in my adulthood that should make movies that tell black stories, while others say it is were still far from my reality.” more important for filmmakers to tell stories that matter to them.

While Fantu says he tends to stay away from directors who are The question of what role race should play in a filmmaker’s vision known only for black films, Moella would like to see more films and process is not one with a clear answer but one that continues that are reflective of black identity. “We need more of us, more to prompt discussion. films, more of a community,” Moella says. “I see it in theatre – the “It’s still a debate in the black community. Do we have to make theatre community in Toronto for people of colour is amazing. I films that are black?” asks Sabrina Moella, a filmmaker whose wish it could be the same for film.” film Nappy Heads was screened at film festivals around the world For Fantu it is more important that black filmmakers make including the TIFF student showcase. “I don’t think so. For me it’s movies that are true to themselves than having more films that just that I want to.” feature black people. “I think people like Tyler Perry just make Nappy Heads is a silent film that celebrates black hair. Set to black movies to make black movies. I would like to see people tell vibrant music, it features black men and women in Toronto smilstories that are real to them,” says Fantu. “If you are just making a ing, dancing and showcasing their hair. Like all of Moella’s films, movie because it is black, that is not the right way to go about it.”

Nappy Heads was inspired by her own stories and the experiences Fantu says he is starting to see a shift in the kinds of films that of family and friends. “Most of the time the creative process for me famous black directors make. “I think a lot of American black filmstarts with something that happened to me, or to my family, and makers are starting to make films just because they think they are then I have an idea about it and I want to shoot and record it.” good to make and they are interested in the subject matter.”

Moella says she started shooting films because she didn’t see One of the black American directors that Fantu mentions is herself in mainstream media. “What inspires me is that I didn’t see Spike Lee who is known for groundbreaking black movies such as myself on TV, I didn’t see myself in magazines, I didn’t see myself Do the Right Thing and the Denzel Washington driven Malcolm anywhere and I think that is important for self-esteem,” she says.

X biopic.

“So I personally feel compelled to tell black stories first. Because I In Canada the same shift seems to be happening. Clément feel like there are a million black stories to tell before I start telling Virgo, who has often been referred to as the Canadian Spike Lee, other people’s stories.” and is arguably the best-known Canadian black filmmaker, last “There is a tension there,” says professor Kass Banning about made a movie with an all-white cast about sexual relations. Fantu black Canadian filmmakers making movies that are considered says in the future the distinction that is made between black filmblack films. Banning teaches in the cinema studies department at makers and other filmmakers will start to disappear as they begin the University of Toronto and has written about black Canadian to embrace making movies that are more than black movies. “You cinema. “Black identity might be an entry point. ‘I’m different, we don’t have to make Menace to Society. It’s already been made. need more films in this arena. I have these stories which are not You can make other movies now,” Fantu says. necessarily my stories but the community’s’,” she says.

As this shift happens it is possible that we will no longer need For Marcos Fantu, a Toronto based filmmaker and music video to talk about black film. Clément Virgo’s next film will be an adapdirector, inspiration comes from exploring things that may not tion of Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes. It would appear that have been explored before. “Right now what I tend to see is the it is not that black filmmakers are going to stop making movies stories that you can tell when you don’t have any money – these that tell black stories altogether – it may be just that they will not stories are based on minimized production costs. What you have be identified primarily as black filmmakers. to do is start developing stories that you have access to – the city, “I think there will be a decline in the concept of black film,” maybe one or two cast members or a free location,” Fantu says. “If says Fantu. “I think there will be a decline in the concept of film as it wasn’t for those kinds of restrictions, I would probably focus on a skin colour, of film as an ethnicity.” a lot of science fiction, historical dramas, biopics - those are the www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

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Photo illustration by Julie Fish

Canadian Sports Broadcasting: End of an Era? Politics

by J.M. Thomas Millions of Canadian hockey fans will be left out in the cold if the CBC loses its national hockey-broadcasting contract at the end of the 2013-14 NHL season. The public broadcaster has brought the country closer together, sharing intimate free-to-air hockey coverage – a longstanding tradition that gives Canadians a common thread for debate and has helped shape our national identity.

The sports broadcasting landscape in Canada is changing as two telecommunication giants, Bell, owner of TSN, and Rogers, owner of Sportsnet, have made a deal and purchased more than 70 per cent of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment group, for nearly $1.3 billion. This gives the sports broadcasters a major share of the company that owns the Raptors, Maple Leafs and the Toronto Football Club.

Major competitors at one time, TSN and Sportsnet have become co-operators in a joint venture that may help them squeeze the CBC out of their longtime national broadcasting contract with the NHL. NHL on Saturday nights has been a part of the CBC for more than 70 years. Hockey Night in Canada gives millions of fans a highly personal broadcast of the sport Canadians are most passionate about.

In 2006, when the HNIC broadcasting contract was up for renewal, TSN, along with CTV, was reportedly interested in acquiring the national rights, but the CBC held on, signing a seven year deal.

The opposite happened in Quebec in 2003, when La Soirée du hockey, the French equivalent of HNIC, lost its national broadcasting contract to Réseau des Sports (RDS), TSN’s sister station. There was a public uproar at the time, but with government pressure, La Soirée du hockey was able to secure a deal with RDS allowing both companies to simultaneously broadcast the Saturday night Montreal games until the end of the 2003-04 season, when RDS took over the broad-

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cast including playoff games.

For a number of hockey fans across the country, this meant they could no longer watch the Canadiens games unless they subscribed to a cable package.

The CBC has been hurt by budget cuts under the Conservative government. They have long been losing their traditional broadcast rights to curling, basketball and soccer events to private broadcasters. The publicly funded CBC is simply not able to offer up the same amount of money.

“This is only the latest in a series of moves that create an increased concentration and consolidation of television broadcasting in Canada,” says Nicolas Baxter-Moore, professor of popular culture at Brock University. “The ongoing cooperation, rather than competition, between Bell and Rogers is allowing the channels to dominate the market for sports to the detriment of the CBC and the Canadian television audience.”

The private broadcasters have more resources, are able to dedicate more broadcasting time and they can pay more for sports broadcasting rights.

“In the last five years, there has been some massive changes,” says Jay Scherer, professor of physical education at the University of Alberta.

“The CBC had the Olympics, they had the Raptors, World Cup soccer and the TFC and the Jays at one point, but that has all changed. We are entering into a new era of sports broadcasting in this country. Companies are showing sports in all kinds of new ways that have never been seen before.”

As Scherer puts it, “in some ways, if you can afford it as a paying consumer, there has never been a better time to be a sports fan.”

Companies like TSN and Sportsnet are expanding to specialty and satellite channels on pay-per-view TV. They have their own radio stations, magazines, and web-platforms, adding to the 24-hour sports-news cycle.

“There’s good and bad. There are many people who can’t afford to have those things in

Spring 2012

Gord Miller in the booth

their life, and that isn’t the case if it’s on a public broadcaster,” says Scherer.

The acquisition of sports franchises by sports broadcasting companies raises a question of journalistic integrity. When a news outlet is covering a team it owns, will the broadcast be as openly critical?

“Probably to some degree not,” says Scherer. “Are they going to critique each other when they are now partners? It’s getting pretty interesting now.”

All three broadcasters, CBC, TSN and Sportsnet, have worked together in the past.

When they get together, fans are usually treated to the best programming possible.

“Look at a big project like the 2010 Olympics, the way these entities [CBC, Sportsnet and TSN]

Courtesy of TSN

were able to come together and provide a level and depth of coverage that had never been seen before,” says Mike Davies, sports editor for the Peterborough Examiner. “Basically every sport that was offered could be seen live in some format or another, either on TV or on the Internet.”

To cover a spectacle like the Olympics or NHL playoffs, it takes a lot of broadcast time and resources.

“Even though we are in direct competition with them we obviously have relationships on a personal and professional level,” says Paul Graham, vice-president and executive producer with TSN. “There are situations where it makes sense to partner and other situations where it makes more sense to remain competitors. You never say never to those situations, you look through them

top to bottom and at the end of the day make sure it’s the right decision for your company.”

If TSN and Sportsnet gain the NHL national broadcast, they may share the broadcast with the CBC. The stations have simultaneously broadcast the same playoff game in the past, but to share a regular season game would be a compromise.

Perhaps the NHL will show allegiance to the CBC for their long lasting relationship.

The trouble in all of this is if the CBC loses its broadcast rights, millions of people across the country will no longer have free-to-air access to the NHL. It also creates a large window of broadcasting time that the CBC would be hard-pressed to fill.

HNIC is the longest running and most successful program ever to air on the CBC and it supports

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

and finances other network programming.

In 2005, when the NHL went on strike, the CBC was left with hundreds of hours of airtime to fill and little time to produce anything. They ran a series called Movie Night in Canada, showing reruns of Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark – it was a disaster. Hockey fans cried out, suggesting the station show weekly Canadian Hockey League games, such as a Peterborough Petes battle with their rival, the Oshawa Generals.

The station has been struck with budget cuts and there are no signs they will increase funding to help HNIC continue their broadcast. Contract negotiations will continue until a new agreement is settled. Until then, the sports broadcasting scene in Canada will remain in a state of flux.

21

Feature

Public Broadc

In the wake of budget cuts and job losses, a nati

by Daniel Buzzelli The Mother Corp of Canada is under attack. Funding for the CBC was and its ability to adequately fulfill its mandate. cut by $115 million— around 10 per cent— in the 2012 federal budget, in Based on available polls and studies of public opinion, it seems most the wake of a heap of criticism from conservative pundits and politicians Canadians are on board with the latter approach. According to a Harriswho want to see the public broadcaster’s funding cut or Decima survey conducted in October 2011, 69 eliminated altogether. per cent of Canadians would like to see the There has been a public war of words, over the CBC’s funding maintained at current levels or airwaves and in the papers, between the CBC and increased (compared to only 34 per cent who Quebecor Inc., parent company of the Sun newspapers would like to see funding cut or eliminated). and Sun News Network.

The survey has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent Ezra Levant, Sun columnist and Sun TV host, fiercely 19 times out of 20. advocates for the privatization of the CBC. Hackett says public awareness and activism “Why do we have a CBC anymore? I mean what’s around media issues in Canada have exploded the rationale?” asks Levant. In an era of hundreds of TV in the last decade. “I introduced a course channels, satellite radio, Netflix and YouTube, there is no 12 years ago on media democratization and reason for one favoured channel to receive $1.1 billion a the need to make the media system more year at the expense of competing networks, he says. accountable and diverse, more accessible and Advocates of Canadian public broadcasting have more open to political viewpoints in society that their own criticisms of the CBC, but they want to see the were not backed by large corporate funding.

Mother Corp reinvented and strengthened rather than And when I started the course there wasn’t very privatized. much I could point to by way of successful and A new campaign called Reimagine CBC seeks to get large-scale campaigns or citizen mobilization ordinary Canadians involved in sharing and voting on Courtesy of Ezra Levant around those issues. But that’s really no longer ways to improve and enhance the CBC. The campaign the case.” was launched at the end of January by OpenMedia.ca and Groups like Friends of Canadian Leadnow, both Vancouver-based citizens’ organizations.

Broadcasting, and more recently Leadnow and Dr. Robert Hackett, professor of communications at OpenMedia – the two organizations behind Simon Fraser University and editor of Expanding Peace Reimagine CBC – actively campaign on behalf Journalism, says in the past decade or so the CBC has of a balanced and democratic media system in moved away from its mandate to counterbalance some Canada. of the biases of commercial and corporate media. Due to - Ezra Levant Tyler Morgenstern, outreach co-ordinator a combination of budget constraints and ongoing ‘flak’ for Reimagine CBC, says the campaign was from the right over the last 10 years, Hackett says the CBC has cut back on started to take advantage of the changing media landscape in Canada and local programming and restricted the diversity of its political programming, the unprecedented opportunities for citizens to get engaged in their own becoming deficient in several respects. media system. It is a massive brainstorming initiative that asks Canadians Both advocates of privatization and supporters of public broadcasting in from coast to coast to submit, share and vote on ideas to ‘reimagine’ the CBC Canada recognize the need to remedy these deficiencies. But their solutions as a leader in participatory and innovative media production for a digital are radically opposed. future, says Morgenstern. “There just seems to be so many opportunities On the one hand, conservatives and free-marketers argue that the CBC, before us to really create the kind of engagement and participation and because of these deficiencies, should no longer be subsidized by Canadian authentic sense of ownership over the publicness of our media than there taxpayers but should be sold off to compete with private networks in the ever has been before.” marketplace. That way, companies and voluntary shareholders – not Since the official launch of Reimagine at the end of January, Morgenstern the Canadian government or taxpayers – bear responsibility for the says they’ve been overwhelmed by the response. “Our Facebook community shortcomings and biases of the CBC. is now over 5,000 people. Our ‘keep Canada connected’ petition just broke On the other hand, supporters of the CBC argue that public broadcasting 30,000 signatures and our Twitter community is approaching 1,000 is still as important and relevant as ever for Canadians. The deficiencies followers.” of the CBC ought to be fixed by reimagining and strengthening public The next phase of the campaign is to start consolidating these ideas into broadcasting in Canada in order to restore the distinctiveness of the CBC common themes and distill them into a national survey that will be sent

“Why do we have a CBC anymore? I mean what’s the rationale?

”

22

casting Protectors

ional campaign asks Canadians for ways to reimagine the CBC out for further feedback from Canadians. Finally, that data will be amassed into a public report with all the crowd-sourced ideas outlining “principles and practices for CBC to thrive into a digital future,” says Morgenstern. The timeline for the consolidated report is late summer to early fall 2012.

The underlying premise of the Reimagine CBC campaign – in stark contrast to the advocacy of privatization – is that public broadcasting is still relevant and important in Canada today.

It is even more important today, says Hackett, “given that media elsewhere, corporate media are cutting back.” Morgenstern agrees and says that CBC is an essential part of our past and is going to be an essential part of our future.

“We’ve seen [this] in the U.S. when the media system is left completely to the will of the market. We see advertising targeted at children. We see a decline in local services. We see consolidation of power in a few mega companies,” says Morgenstern. “And if we’re completely at the behest of advertisers and profit motive when it comes to our media system, then we’re going to basically be at the will of what the market wants to see and what advertisers are willing to put content into. Which is not necessarily small audiences, socio-economically depressed audiences, historically marginalized audiences – those are stories that need to be told as part of our citizenship process but aren’t necessarily commercially viable or desirable for private broadcasters. So that’s where public media really comes into the fore.”

Hackett refers to the original democratic mandate of the CBC, articulated by campaigners like Graham Spry and Alan Plaunt in the early 20th century, who argued that a strictly commercial network would fall under the control of the wealthy and disproportionately serve the interests and needs of affluent consumers.

According to Hackett, the CBC’s record of counterbalancing such commercial biases is fairly mixed, particularly in the last five to 10 years, due partly to budget constraints and cutbacks.

But Levant says in an era of 500 channels, blogs and YouTube, this is no longer a concern. He says this was not even a legitimate argument back in the days of the Canadian Radio League in the 1920s and 1930s. “If we’re really concerned about diversity of opinion and counterweight to power, why in the hell would you give such power to the government, which is the greatest and most powerful and most dangerous power in the country? I mean that’s the reason that the phrase ‘state broadcaster’ has a negative connotation.”

Indeed, the phrase ‘state broadcaster’ is one that Levant and his colleagues at the Sun use quite frequently to describe the CBC. “The president is appointed by the Conservative government. Their entire board of directors is appointed by the Conservative government. It is regulated by the CRTC, which is appointed by the Conservative government.

It is funded by the Conservative government,” Levant says. “They are, by definition, a state broadcaster.”

Hackett disagrees and says there is a distinction between a state broadcaster and a public broadcaster. “A state broadcaster is something like you have in some European countries, like Italy, where it is owned by the state and basically reflects, with minor exceptions, the views of the party in power. And it doesn’t really give a fair shake to the different political currents in the society. A public broadcaster is one that is also publicly funded. In other words, it gets tax funding but has an arm’s length relationship with government and a mandate, in which there are buffers between editorial decision-making in the broadcaster and the government of the day.”

Hackett says the CBC cannot accurately be described as a state broadcaster that consistently toes the government line, particularly with a majority Conservative government in power. In fact Hackett says in the last five or six years the CBC has become terrified of the Conservative government and has restricted the diversity of its political and news reporting as a result.

“I think that has to do with 20 years of what Chomsky and Herman called ‘flak’ – of pressure and monitoring and harassment almost of CBC, going back to 1989,” says Hackett. That was when the corporate funded conservative think tank, the Fraser Institute, started monitoring the CBC in order to ‘prove’ the public broadcaster was too left-wing.

This, combined with expressions of resentment towards CBC from Conservative politicians, seems to have had an effect, Hackett says.

“So that as a senior CBC journalist put it recently, off the record, ‘CBC management is left-wing phobic’.

They are terrified to be seen as having a left, liberal bias. So that over time you sort of manufacture that myth and it takes hold. And I think we’re seeing that now in CBC’s programming.”

Ironically, Hackett says if the CBC is drifting in the direction of becoming a state broadcaster, it is largely due to the efforts of companies like Quebecor and commentators like Ezra Levant.

“Because if my informants inside CBC are correct – that CBC is leftwing phobic – people like him,

Photo by Daniel Buzzelli

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

23

Courtesy of Reimagine CBC

maybe not him particularly, but his allies and like-minded souls in the But many Canadians, including Hackett, still believe in the importance corporate think tanks bear a lot of responsibility for that.” of public broadcasting in Canada.

With the broadcaster’s funding slashed by a little more than 10 per cent “We need a public broadcaster. That’s not quite the same thing as in the 2012 federal budget, the quality, independence and distinctiveness of defending the CBC as it now is,” says Hackett. “So I think we should be both CBC’s programming are – and will continue to be – fundamental concerns. strengthening and reinventing public broadcasting.”

Levant says it would be a disgrace if anything else was cut in the federal It would be easy to say more funding is the solution to strengthen the budget in order to “spare the fat of the CBC.” CBC, Hackett says, but “I don’t want to give There might be a national interest for some a blueprint because I think what is needed of what the CBC does, says Levant, but he more than anything is widespread public does not believe CBC offers anything that engagement, understanding, involvement the private sector can’t match. Much of the and mobilization around this issue.” $1.1 billion received annually by the CBC Hackett points to the success of groups goes to purchasing American programs, like OpenMedia and campaigns like Levant says. “Imagine if we cut back on Reimagine CBC as evidence that this type of veterans’ benefits to save the CBC so they public activism has already begun. could buy Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

The Reimagine campaign has received Imagine the disgrace of it.” positive feedback from CBC management, But funding cuts to the CBC are the very says Morgenstern, “because it’s different reason the broadcaster is importing more from other studies that have been done American programming in the first place, of the CBC before. It’s not done by a says Hackett. “The easiest way to make Courtesy of Dr. Robert Hackett contracting firm, it’s not commissioned, money is to import programs that have high it’s not by the government, it’s not by CBC quality production values and are popular itself. It really is coming from the citizens with audiences, or at least acceptable who want to see the CBC thrive. So I think to audiences, and do not cost much to they are quite interested to see what ideas purchase. So that helps explain why in the people come up with and then start thinking middle of primetime we see programs like about the process that they can go through Coronation Street and Jeopardy at 6:30 or to make those principles and those ideas 7 p.m.” There is a growing contradiction actionable in the future.” between the funding situation and CBC’s - Dr. Robert Hackett All progressive minded people in Canada mandate, says Hackett. should support public broadcasting and get Still, Levant says taxpayers should not be on the hook to support the engaged with the issue of democratic media reform, says Hackett. Because CBC and the broadcaster should be sold off. “I think we should sell the CBC. as media scholar Robert McChesney says: “Whatever your first issue of Hell, sell it to its employees, I don’t care. Give it to them. Seriously, give the concern, media had better be your second, because without change in the CBC to its employees, I don’t care. Just get me out of it.” media, progress in your primary area is far less likely.”

“We need a public broadcaster. That’s not quite the same thing as defending

”

the CBC as it now is.

Lights, Camera, ACTRA

Production insiders expose the challenges of bursting onto the indie film scene

by Basil Rehan At a party in a swanky loft in downtown Toronto, the voice of the unsatisfied is loud. Most of the actors and producers at this agency anniversary event have grievances over what they believe is an overly difficult process to get into the Toronto Indie Production program. The fear is that TIP is pushing more indie productions to go non-union.

“We’re not adverse to it [change] but we haven’t seen anybody come up with anything better,” says the father and co-ordinator of TIP, Tasso Lakas.

The Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists runs the TIP program. It was set up

by ACTRA for the purpose of giving small-scale film producers an opportunity to work within the union framework. The application process requires would-be filmmakers to disclose intimate details about their production. Applicants must share everything from their script, the anticipated production schedule and proof that all members of the production are Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Most contentious of all is the requirement that producers share details of their budget and funding to ensure project completion and payment of talent. Once a production completes the program application process and is accepted, it is able to contract willing union actors at a fraction of the normal cost.

Despite the obvious benefits of the program, there are many capable indie film producers who see it as a hurdle along the production process.

Some indie film producers even loathe it.

However, looking deeper at some of the grievances presented against the program, it becomes apparent that most of the criticism is rooted more in confusion than in real understanding of the TIP application process.

“I’d rather have access to union and nonunion as a producer,” says Alex Duong, an independent film producer and ACTRA member from Montreal. Duong says he is frustrated with union restrictions that force him to do a lot of paperwork and cast from a smaller talent pool for his indie films.

“It impacts me because I have to take people sometimes that aren’t to my liking,” says Duong.

His concerns are not unique.

“If you were doing non-union you could film

it [your project] tomorrow, but going union is a lot of hassle. They make you wait and they might not even approve it,” says Roe Montez, a creative director who also writes, produces and acts in his own films.

There is a general frustration with the application process, he says: it’s too long and vague.

Producers like Montez and Duong need to be better informed of the benefits the program has to offer. Then, maybe going through the multi-step application process and casting from Photo by Basil Rehan the union pool won’t seem so bad.

Indie film directors discuss their work at an annual ACTRA members conference Janine Short, a film producer and director, responds, shouting over the party’s inLakas is the person who designed the procreasingly louder music. She says her experienc- gram, and he is highly regarded by many actors es working with TIP have been positive. and producers as a person who understands what “It was a learning experience going through it takes for a production to succeed. In his nearly the program [application process] and learning 30 years of experience, he has been involved in how to work with ACTRA, but it was also very every area of the industry from performing, writmuch a selfish thing. We wanted the best actors ing and producing to policy and the union. and we couldn’t afford them, so here is this per“I know what needs to be done correctly to fect opportunity to work with the best actors we make it work,” says Lakas. “My background is could possibly convince to be on our project, but highly technical, highly creative and highly legal. on a budget of our scale.”

I have done everything I can possibly do to make Short agrees that there is a bit more work to this work so that when people do a TIP project do if a production goes union, but she thinks it’s and they complete it, they have a complete unall stuff you should be doing anyway if the proderstanding of what is going to be required from duction is to be successful. them going forward into the union industry.”

At TIP headquarters in downtown Toronto, He explains that the program asks for nothing Lakas helps indie film producers with their asmore than what is asked for by a serious investor, pirations to work within the union. In the ten producer or broadcaster later in a filmmaker’s cayears since he began the program, he has helped reer. “So the answer is what we’re doing is right produce more than 440 indie productions, 72 of and what we’ve done is we’ve set the bar not so which were features. And he boasts that nearly high that people can’t achieve their creative goals 300 of them have gone on to win awards at film but well enough up there that people, when they festivals around the world. achieve their creative goals, do so with a quality Lakas admits he is aware of the grumblings that gets them the recognition so they can proamong newbies to the industry, people who comceed forward with their career.” plain that there’s too much paperwork associated Short believes the practical value of going with going union or that they don’t get the actors union for indie filmmakers is all in the quality of they want. To them, Lakas points to the many acting and the careful detail of the process. producers who have completed a film through “For all those people who are confused about TIP and says that if you can’t finish the applica- our program, how it works, and the benefits it oftion process and provide the paperwork, which fers, all they have to do is pick up the phone and in their view is minimal, then you shouldn’t be I’ll be happy to help them,” says Lakas. making films. www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

25

Politics

Film Therapy At-risk youth in Vancouver get a lesson in creative media

by Shazia Islam The colourful WordPress page belonging to “Pretty Beautiful” is an ode to youth engagement and empowerment. The young woman who runs the online blog describes herself as a “sister, community minded liaison, gardener, event planner, writer, artist and public facilitator.” She writes about her love of nature and the desire to seek unity with the various communities in Vancouver, B.C. She didn’t have the privilege of being raised with the support of her family. She had to look for that sense of home elsewhere.

Pretty Beautiful is not only a profound writer, but also a budding documentary filmmaker. Two short digital films feature prominently on her blog.

The first one is a PSA that highlights the efforts of the Passion Foundation, which helps young women find their voice. She is a volunteer mentor in the organization. In her second film, she and two peers have a conversation about violence and the hu- Chantal Solo on set. man urge to show aggression. The conversation is shot outdoors on a clear sunny day against the backdrop of Vancouver’s signature mountain ranges, but interspersed with images of people being plain cruel to each other.

Pretty Beautiful is Chantal Solo and her thought-provoking videos are products of a groundbreaking non-profit initiative. She, along with disenfranchised youth from other ethnically and culturally diverse communities, learned far more than how to make good videos.

Intersections Media is a non-profit organiza-

26

tion that operates in the East End of Vancouver and offers unique skills development training to at-risk youth. Young people who are between the ages of 19 and 25 can participate through referrals from other agencies. But what does the atrisk category actually mean? Katarina Thorsen, youth co-ordinator and art therapist at Intersections, says “The most common ones we’ve noticed

are risk of homelessness, childhood trauma, fetal alcohol syndrome and mental health issues.”

According to the Government of Canada, there are approximately 65,000 youth who are homeless or living in homeless shelters nationwide.

A family history of violence and socio-economic barriers are factors that precipitate homelessness among young people and increase the number of street-involved youth. In 2006, Raising the Roof, a national organization committed to eradicating homelessness in Canada, pioneered a research study for its subsidiary program, Youthworks.

Spring 2012

The study was conducted over a period of three years and followed 689 street-involved youth living in Calgary, Toronto, and St. John’s. The study suggested creative programs that promoted longterm stability and good health should be part of the national strategy to improve living conditions for vulnerable sectors of society. Intersections Media is one such creative community program giving young people the inspiration and hope to achieve their full potential.

The organization was founded in 2007 by Vancouver film producer, Bill Vince, who wanted to help troubled youth learn important life skills and explore their creativity in a fun, safe and supportive environment.

“As soon as they find out that it’s all about filmmaking and being creative, and then getting paid minimum wage to do it, they get very excited and they feel safe,” says Thorsen.

Sessions are five weeks long and there are on average six students registered.

Because the students are paid, they are expected to treat the program like a full-time job.

One of the challenges of teaching the students is having to keep the lessons on schedule when some students are absent due to external factors, says Thorsen’s brother, Fredrik, the key mentor and instructor at the organization. “Life does intervene at times, so it makes it difficult for me to keep consistent teaching going on with the whole group if I have to step back and pick up where some people have left off.”

But eventually the participants get it and

when they do, the effects are far-reaching. “What we ultimately produce at the end of the program is what we call bio-video, where they produce a short piece that demonstrates they’ve learned some technical skills,” says Fredrik. “They can choose to be really confessional. Once the students realize that they do have creative souls and the ability to reveal that side of them, it gives them a real sense of accomplishment and a boost of confidence and makes them realize they don’t need to turn to other means of getting that high.”

The Youthworks study says atrisk youth have a tendency to turn to alcohol and drugs to self-medicate when they are dealing with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Art therapy-based programs offer youth an alternative strategy to coping with stressful life circumstances and have the potential to steer young people to sustainable life skills. “We teach here that the creativity, when allowed to be expressed, proves to them it’s worth something, which makes them more likely to want to be on time and to be there every day, and they realize that’s

the habit they need to keep with them the rest of their lives,” says Fredrik.

The program really worked for Solo, now a recent graduate. Solo attended the five-week paid workshops at Intersections to improve her film editing skills and to give her the opportunity and insight to craft a better life for herself. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of money and I’ve dealt with being homeless and the anxiety around that as well,” says Solo. “The program inspired me to do what I really love and it taught me how to manage my money and have a healthier lifestyle.”

One of the central tenets of the Intersections program is self-directed research. “We teach them how to self-teach so how to go online and look for tutorials, YouTube videos and whatever else can help them learn how to do these different tasks,” says Fredrik.

Solo has taught herself different kinds of gardening methods by utilizing the Intersections approach, but she already had a passion for learning from the start. Intersections gave her the skills and opportunity to make her vision a reality. She says she wants to make documentary films about permaculture that will teach young people the joys of sustainable gardening.

She hopes her films will be instructional and also motivational to a youth audience. “I want to make positive films about lifestyles. I think if young people need a video to inspire them and get them outside, then that’s what I want to do.”

But digital video production is not the only mechanism to obtain valuable life skills at Intersections. The participants receive a fair amount of support through other therapeutic activities like journaling, constructing vision boards or learning traditional crafts. “The first day is all about doing sock monkeys together, which is the best ice-breaker,” says Thorsen. “Each of us makes something out of a pair of socks. It’s the most healing, comforting thing to do and I find it’s a real dialogue creator. Everyone’s laughing and it brings everybody in that frame of mind that we’re all in this together.” Students also pick up some practical knowledge on writing resumes, eating healthy and administering first aid. Thorsen will often bring in other community partners to give talks on HIV prevention or on ways to tap into support services in Vancouver.

For Solo, Intersections has been the ultimate transition experience and has literally helped turn her life around. “It helped me focus on what I truly love and that’s to create art and do good things with my time.

“Once the students realize that they do have

creative souls and the ability to reveal that side of

them, it gives them a real sense of accomplishment

”

and a boost of confidence.

- Fredrik Thorsen

Intersections Media student learns how to work a camera.

Left and above courtesy of Kat Thornsen

www.humberjournalism.com/finecut

27

Behind the Scenes

Film and TV Booms in Ontario 2011 was a great year for Ontario film

by Jessy Bains You may be watching a movie set in New York, but don’t be surprised to see an intersection you’ve crossed, a restaurant you’ve eaten in, or even the building you work in.

More and more films and TV shows are being shot right here in Ontario, mostly in Toronto.

“It’s got great streets, great buildings, great light. The crews are hardworking and there’s less drama than there is in Hollywood with the unions. Toronto is a great place to work. The vendors we have access to are excellent. The prices are competitive. And you’ve got great finishing facilities,” says Todd Cantelon, a producer, director, and writer from Ontario.

In fact, Ontario had a record year in film and television this past year, contributing $1.26 billion to the province’s economy.

Reasons for the surge include co-production, tax incentives, and Ontario’s growing reputation as a quality location to produce film and television.

“Film and television, in fact, had its best year ever in 2011. The industry contributed almost $1.3 billion to the economy in Ontario and that’s the best result we’ve seen since we started keeping records which was back in 1986,” says Karen Thorne-Stone, president and CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, an agency of Ontario’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

The OMDC’s film commission department’s main purpose is to attract and support feature film and television productions shooting on location in Ontario.

The industry also accounted for around 30,000 jobs in Ontario in 2011, according to fig-

Photos by Julie Fish 30 28

ures compiled by the OMDC. The domestic side, which remains the backbone of the industry, has enjoyed a 165 per cent increase over the past year.

Reasons for that include co-productions in films like Resident Evil, Foxfire, and Cosmopolis, and TV series such as Nikita, Degrassi, and the Tudors, says Thorne-Stone.

Co-production involves splitting shooting and production between Canada and other countries which are approved by Telefilm Canada.

“A project certified as an official treaty coproduction allows Canadian producers and their foreign counterparts opportunities to share in the creative, artistic, technical and financial resources while preserving their mutual status as national productions in each of the jurisdictions, and are therefore able to benefit from incentives such as tax credits and other indigenous funding sources,” says Dave Forget, Telefilm Canada’s Director of business affairs and certification.

Telefilm Canada has treaties with 50 partner companies generating close to $500 million a year in productivity, says Forget. Currently, France and the U.K. are the two biggest partners for Canada.

“The numbers for domestic activity have been growing steadily over the past 10 or 12 years. We have demonstrated that we have built a strong, stable domestic industry here in Ontario,” says Thorne-Stone.

Foxfire, which is a domestic film production, was shot at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Foreign film and television also jumped to $412.9 million in 2011 from $338.7 million in 2006. “There has been a big bump in foreign film

Spring 2012 Spring 2012

activity here in the province with some of the biggest blockbusters we’ve ever had, such as films like the Total Recall remake and Pacific Rim,” says Thorne-Stone.

The American film, The Thing (2011), was also filmed at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Total Recall was shot on Lakeshore Boulevard and The Vow was filmed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

What has been most astounding about the success is that the numbers come in spite of a very strong Canadian dollar, which remained near or above par with the U.S. dollar throughout 2011.

“It’s fair to say that Ontario built its industry many many years ago on a low Canadian dollar.

That was a big part of the attraction and this is a bottom line industry. The fact that the Canadian dollar was so low certainly made it easier to be competitive. But we’ve worked pretty hard over the years to overcome that discount positioning,” says Thorne-Stone.

Ontario is no longer a place to get film and television made at a cheap price, but rather a desirable location for anyone wanting to shoot movies and TV shows, says Thorne-Stone.

“Even in the past year or two years as the Canadian dollar has steadily risen, and now at par and even above par, the phone is ringing more than it has ever rung before. We’re on people’s short list and they’re coming here because of the remarkable quality and capacity that Ontario has to offer.”

Along with Ontario’s strong reputation, the availability of quality studios in the province, and co-production with other countries, the OMDC

has played a key role in the success.

The film commission is a division of the industry development group at OMDC and markets Ontario to the foreign film industry as well as the domestic industry.

Donna Zuchlinski is the film commissioner of the Film Industry Development Group and runs the film division of the OMDC. “The film commission provides marketing and support to the screen-based and preliminary film and television sector. We provide location and facilitation support and location scouting assistance to productions that are interested in shooting here. When they are in production, we provide as-needed facilitation and troubleshooting assistance.”

The commission also maintains a very large digital database that it uses to market the province’s locations to the domestic and foreign industries.

“The database is also used as a daily working tool for virtually all of the film and TV shows in production in Ontario, which has 2,000 locations and 200,000 images,” says Zuchlinksi The OMDC also provides tax credits to help entice filmmakers to shoot in Ontario.

The Ontario Production Services Tax Credit (OPSTC) is a 25 per cent credit for eligible foreign film and television production , which can be bundled with the federal government’s tax credit of 16 per cent of Canadian labour costs credit, for a maximum rate of up to 37 per cent of labour expenditures, says Zuchlinski.

The domestic industry can access a credit called the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, which is a labour-based credit of 35 per cent of the Ontario labour on a production. These are for domestic-only productions.

There is also a 10 per cent bonus for productions that shoot 85 per cent of their shooting days outside of the GTA as well as a 20 per cent credit for animated projects, says Zuchlinksi.

However, the tax credits are not new, and were implemented between 1996 and 1998.

“Last year saw the feature film, Total Recall, at the time, it was the largest feature film to shoot in Toronto. Currently we have Guillermo del

Toro in house, who is shooting a feature film.

The working title is still seized, for Legendary Pictures, and that has in fact surpassed Total Recall as the largest feature film shooting here,” says Zuchlinski.

Northern Ontario, Hamilton, and Ottawa are the three main areas outside of the GTA that are popular filming locations, along with small towns throughout Ontario, says Zuchlinksi.

The OMDC has a partnership with the Toronto Ontario Film Office in Los Angeles with staff dedicated to the task of attracting filmmakers to shoot in Ontario.

Cantelon has produced more than 2,000 episodes of television including Fre TV, The Daily, The Weekend Edition, and Unscripted.

“It’s definitely higher octane, it’s definitely higher stakes, it’s Hollywood, there’s definitely a difference. It’s much more intoxicating. Toronto has these pockets that you can just go and get your work done. Hollywood feels much more like the whole city is dedicated to getting stuff done. I’ll be getting breakfast in Hollywood and every other conversation is about getting a project started,” says Cantelon.

Cantelon says the quality of crews between the two locations is equal.

“The talent and skill level is the same. If anything, I find that the Hollywood crew is even a little more jaded. Canadians, I think, are a little more laid back though, while in Hollywood they are very go go go.”

In spite of the record numbers, Cantelon says there are challenges involved with getting projects off the ground, especially for television.

“Five to seven years ago, you could close a deal in almost one pitch meeting. And the budgets were around 80 per cent of what you needed.

Now I find it’s six to eight steps before you can lock in a deal and you’re getting around 20 or 30 per cent of what you’re looking for. And that’s just because there are so many stations around these days. That’s just been my experience.”

Cantelon says an ever-increasing number of channels available as well as the growing impact of the Internet have contributed to the current state.

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“The biggest challenge has been a decreasing amount of money as funding migrates away from traditional broadcasting to online and as advertising migrates away from TV to other outlets.

The broadcasters just have less money to spend and they’re super paranoid about making sure that every show they spend money on is worth it.

People are not going to come here to shoot anymore because of the exchange rate. I think the reason Toronto is so busy is because Toronto is a great place to shoot. It doubles for New York and Chicago.”

Cantelon also points out that tax incentives are simply not enough to attract the film and television industry.

“Upstate New York offers a lot of tax incentives, but you don’t see anyone shooting in Syracuse,” says Cantelon.

Michael Chan, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture and sport, is pleased with the numbers.

“It is a testimonial to the fact that Ontario offers a ‘total package’ of incentives to attract foreign and domestic productions. Our province has the right mix of government support, stable and competitive financial incentives, world-class infrastructure, superb talent and skills and diverse locations,” says Chan.

Chan says the film and television industry is very important for Ontario, and the provincial government has put a great deal of money into it.

“Since 2003, we have invested an estimated $1.5 billion in program and tax credit support to screen-based industries. These tax credits help our province remain competitive and support knowledge-based jobs in Ontario’s culture sector.”

Based on how the years have been going so far, Thorne-Stone is optimistic that the trend will continue.

“The signals for 2012 are good. We’re busier than we’ve been at this time of year traditionally.

The studios are steady in terms of the activity going there and our phones are ringing. I think the extent to which Ontario has established itself as a reliable, valuable destination is not going away.”

31 29

Behind the Scenes

“Once you’re dead, you’re dead.”

-Gabriel Carrer

Left and bottom right Courtesy of Gabriel Carrer

The Horror!

In Guelph, ON

by Stacey Thompson The journey to filmmaking started with two young men in 2002 who had a mutual love of garage sales and old VHS horror movies. Gabriel Carrer and Chad Archibald would watch them in Carrer’s basement and dream up ideas of making their own movies one day.

Soon thereafter, they began to write, direct and film their own visions of horror. The project took them out of Carrer’s basement, into the neighbourhood and out to the countryside.

“Once you’re dead, you’re dead,” says Carrer, who believes “life is short with no time for bull.”

He says his hot-temper and black coffee fuel him to do big things. He is fittingly paired with Archibald, who Carrer describes as having a fun-loving attitude that helps ensure the creative process remains enjoyable in times of stress. Carrer and Archibald both say filmmaking was not a phase. The hard work, struggles and craziness of the business kept them motivated for success.

The Beginning: Guelph, ON Guelph, according to the description of the city on the Guelph University website, is considered “a small country town”, Carrer com-

30

plains, and sports or drinking are the major pastimes. These guys were seeking something more.

With no prior experience in filmmaking, Carrer and Archibald went to Chapters and bought Screenwriting for Dummies, and began working on Desperate Souls. Carrer and Archibald describe their first film as a weird version of Evil Dead. The movie is about a haunted book called The Book of the Circle of Re-entry. If someone steps into a particular circle, their body becomes possessed. Three kids learn the hard way when one of them falls into the deadly trap. It is then up to the two remaining characters to save the fallen.

Archibald and Carrer called on family and friends to be part of the creative process in an attempt to keep the film’s budget as low as possible.

“We got two cameras with our little bit of savings. We had no idea how they worked,” says Archibald. “We asked our buddies to come and act in the movie. We figured it out as we went along.”

The film was shot over the span of a year and a half and it wasn’t always simple.

“We didn’t know anything about permits in Guelph,” says Carrer. “No one was shooting movies in Guelph. We knew you might

Spring 2012

have needed something, but we were so under budget, we thought we could just go to the local high school at night and shoot.”

During one rowdy night of filming, the actors were dressed like demons and playing up their roles. People in passing vehicles looked on with horror, says Archibald.

“Someone called the cops, explaining that there were people hitting each other with shovels. The police didn’t really know about permits for filming either.”

The officers did not break down the filming operation and no one was arrested. Instead, the officers thought it was really cool and came back with coffee for everyone.

Eveneshen created a film called Dead Genesis about three years ago, which was originally intended to just be a backyard film. Dead Genesis is now being distributed to different countries, though distribution was no easy task.

“It was extremely difficult to get it distributed,” says Eveneshen. “When [Gabriel]

“Alliance Atlantis had

“All the gold is not glitter” With writing, filming and editing done, the duo was anxious to make their work available. They say it took some convincing to get Desperate Souls viewed by Alliance Atlantis.

“We lucked out in a sense,” says Carrer.

“We knew someone who knew someone, who knew someone in the industry, who was heavily involved with Alliance Atlantis. Before we knew it we were driving to Toronto to have a meeting.”

With Desperate Souls’ production set in stone, the film crew was excited to officially call themselves filmmakers.

But the industry was changing.

It was going through a rough economic turn. The guys were worried they wouldn’t be able to break even.

“All the gold is not glitter, we learned this very quickly,” says Carrer. “The rental stores started going down one by one. We realized we were in trouble, because after the film festivals, no one is going to pick the film up.”

After the meeting with Alliance Atlantis, they returned home to Guelph. The money didn’t start flowing, but their work was out there.

Carrer and Archibald opened the doors for the next generation of independent horror directors, including Reese Eveneshen and Torin Langen.

“The generation that Torin and I are dealing with is the new old way,” says Eveneshen. “We take the older concepts of films and revamp them for our generation. We open the door to show those films again.”

given us a release date, and that’s when our jaws dropped.”

-Gabriel Carrer and Chad made Desperate Souls, they really lucked out. That was when independent films weren’t as on demand as they are now. Everyone and their dog is making an independent film, you can make it on your iPhone.”

Carrer and Archibald were itching to do it all over again. They created their second film, Kill, composing the script in just two weeks.

Kill takes a look at six people dressed in white who wake up in different rooms of a house.

The windows are boarded and bricked with no chance of escape. The characters are distracted with mind games and puzzles with their every step being monitored through security cameras. They come to realize that to make it out, they need to kill each other, and the last survivor will be freed. For each person

killed, their significant other is killed as well.

Company Creations After the filming of Kill, technology had changed and restructured the film business.

Even with a company supporting a film, there was no guarantee it would be a financial success. Canadian DVD rights were the bread and butter for a creator.

“One day on break, we went on Google and Alliance Atlantis had given us a tentative release date, and that’s when our jaws dropped. We saw Desperate Souls’ cover art. It was an abomination. There was some kind of tree monster person on the cover and there was nothing like that in our movie. We then read the synopsis for Saw 2 which hadn’t been released yet, and it was the same synopsis for Kill.”

“We had done everything ourselves up to this point, so why don’t we bite the bullet and just make a distribution company and put it out on our own. We created Black Fawn Distribution Company,” says Archibald.

Black Fawn Distribution puts the money in the pocket of the creator because there is no middleman. It is a strictly Canadian company that distributes films to HMV and Amazon. Viewers and fans can go directly to Black Fawn Distribution’s website and watch a movie for $2.99.

Behind the Scenes

Stylin’ Food An inside look at the smoke and mirrors of the food industry

by Ali Chaisson In a time when there are as many food shows on television as self-proclaimed “foodies”, one cannot turn a corner without experiencing an unshakeable culinary craving. It’s in a picture of gooey chocolate chip cookies on a billboard, or an impossibly juicy looking burger on the cover of a magazine. The reason these images jump off the pages and out from our television screen to titillate our empty stomachs is thanks to the genius of image masterminds. Sure, your favourite chef may have conceptualized the recipes, but the images we get to see are the product of the backbreaking and sometimes Tim Burton-esque work of a production manager and their food stylist.

The professional stagings that go into food photo and film sets rival those of high fashion shoots. “Most people in the industry would agree, the three most difficult subjects to work with on set: animals, children and food,” says Danielle Peters, production manager at the Buchanan Group, a large advertising agency in Toronto.

“Animals are unpredictable, there is only so much you can demand from a kid, but food is so temperamental that it easily takes an extra three to four hours on set.”

A spray of water can keep the food from looking dry and lighting effects can be applied to enhance its appearance. But how do these images leap off the page with such pizzazz as they do? If you were to ask this question to Toronto Food stylist Marianne Wren, you would quickly begin to realize just how influential food imagery is in our lives and how for the bigwig consumer packaging companies, it also means big business.

If you are someone who looks at an ad and kicks themselves for not getting grill marks just so on your steak, or the syrup drizzle just right on your waffles, then please, go easy on yourself because details like that are what food stylists live for. “I might use a hair dryer to melt butter on a stack of pancakes on set, dental tools to make a perfect bite out of a cookie or a blow torch to get a realistic BBQ look on a steak. Paint brushes and tweezers are very important to me as well.”

Wren insists that old and unnatural techniques used in the early days of food styling have long passed. Gone are the days of lipstick on strawberries, trying to pull off mashed potatoes

for a round scoop of ice cream or applying some shellac to a decidedly dull piece of fruit.

“Everything is more organic [now] since we aren’t bringing in any synthetics,” she says.

But the production team doesn’t always get creative freedom over the direction these advertisements take. As Peters says, it depends on what a client is specifically looking to advertise.

“For example Dairy Queen’s new RiDQulous campaign is humour-based with a funny actor and quirky graphics—that’s more about brand advertising. When clients are looking to sell a feature of a food product they get very specific to make sure for legal reasons that their product is not misconstrued in any way.”

Peters continues, “Now, don’t get me wrong, in the past we have relied on tricks of the trade.”

That is where the mind of a food stylist gets to play. As Wren puts it, “Nothing beats great

heavy cosmetics and even a dousing of alcohol for every shoot. Wren explains, “It takes hours and hours to fully cook a turkey. I cook the bird for about 1/4 of the time and then I use a recipe for a Turkey Paint that combines things like Kitchen Bouquet, dish soap and Bitters to get a roasted look on the bird. If the bird needs to be carved I would then use a steamer to cook the exposed meat as it wouldn’t be fully cooked.”

Guerilla styling like this doesn’t come as a surprise to Peters who has had a stylist resort to extreme measures to please a client before.

“We were doing a video shoot for a large Canadian grocery store chain that decided they really wanted steam to escape from the product.

The stylist showed up with tampons, which we found odd. She put them in a bowl with hot water and into the microwave. She took them out and nestled them in and around the product just out of sight enough that we got our live steam and it looked great. See, those elements are fine because technically we aren’t tampering with the food itself.”

The Global Newswire reports that the consumer packaged goods industry is valued at approximately US$2 trillion. A large slice of that number is largely based on culinary smoke and mirrors. Who knew? A production manager’s attention to detail and a food stylist’s bag of tricks make the consumer world go around.

Photos by Julie Fish

sources for produce and meats. If you start with a great product then you don’t need to have tricks like the lipstick. A lot of my job is knowing where to get difficult-to-find items, like out of season produce. Or in the case of a client such as [a burger chain], having a lot of product on hand is key. You might spend the day searching for the perfect bun, or patty, etc.”

Getting the perfect turkey presents a whole world of styling challenges. Like the most glamorous divas of Hollywood, styling a whole roast turkey can be temperamental, requires

Film Festival Volunteers Where would festivals be without them?

by Julie Fish Two months after I graduated from the film and broadcast program at Centennial College, I began an unpaid part-time internship for a now defunct film festival. I had few expectations on my first day - I was just pleased to have the opportunity.

Work started six months before the date of the actual festival and 18 hours a week were put towards organizing submissions from around the world and creating a social media presence for the company. As the date for the big day drew closer, I became busier with organizing contests and solidifying details for the events. I was the only intern at the festival and was never paid for my time. I felt used.

At my part-time retail job, I was hardly making ends meet and was looking forward to the internship being over so I could work full-time and have spending money again. But after the festival finished, the owner of the company asked me to stay on to work on a different project – I would of course be paid. Two months later I was $200 richer, waiting on empty money promises, and extremely frustrated with my internship venture.

I discovered this is a very common experience for interns and volunteers based on the numer-

ous venting in blogs. Some, like myself, became jaded and decided to pursue other job opportunities. Others were more optimistic and accepted the time they gave for what it was: a learning experience.

A Centennial classmate, Kyle Surowicz, now works at Bell Media as a studio camera operator after putting in hours as a volunteer at other organizations. “It wasn’t what I had prepared myself for at all but I was eager and needed the experience,” says Surowicz “When I was asked to do it again, I turned it down unless I was going to get paid.”

Companies who use interns and volunteers are not necessarily evil and don’t always treat them like disposable workers. “It’s tough because none of them [film festivals] are really cash rich, which is unfortunate,” says festival manager for the Worldwide Short Film Festival, Amy Burtoiske. “ I would love to pay everybody who donates their time to us but we don’t have the resources to do that.”

During my internship, I was introduced to a socially awkward middle-aged man named Harvey Lalonde, who now has 14 years of experience volunteering at film festivals. He is so passionate

about his work that he lives on social assistance to continue volunteering as much as possible.

There are a couple of theories bouncing around as to why Harvey hasn’t been hired for a coveted paid position. “It might be because he’s been doing it for free for so long that they think they don’t need to pay him,” says former film festival manager Christina Carvalho. “The system isn’t always fair.”

Even though a paid job with the company you intern or volunteer for might not happen, that doesn’t mean other opportunities won’t arise.

“That volunteer position was a great bridge for my career,” Surowicz says. “I made some great contacts and it helped me take massive leaps forward. It’s almost serendipitous that the company that I work for now has a significant stake in the Film Festival.”

If menial jobs are not to your liking, you won’t make it very far. To make it to the greener paid pastures of the film festival world, any minute task you are assigned should be treated with respect and completed properly, on time, and hopefully in front of someone who will remember you when they need to hire somebody just like you.

Photo illustrations by Julie Fish

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33

Feature

A Pug’s Life Paws up for Canada’s rising star, Igor

by Sarah MacDonald At a film set in downtown Toronto on a bitterly cold February evening, all eyes are on a tan pug dog running around in a frenzied state. He pants heavily with a long and languid tongue flopping out of his mouth. His tiny scrunched up face forms a crooked smile as he sprints from one end of the set to the other and back again in what seems like a moment. This isn’t any ordinary pug: when I first greet this pug he high-fives me. Igor (pronounced eye-gore) is an animated little thing. Igor’s owners, Tracey and Sean Silverthorn from London, Ontario, don’t see their pug as just another dog – they see him as their child. At four years old, he’s perfectly obedient and at times extremely stubborn, even refusing to be held in a tight embrace by Tracey.

He’ll cuddle on his own time. He’s new to the entertainment industry but his dynamic character is not lost on those working on set with him. He isn’t just talented, he is the talent. He’s sassy.

Animal actors inject reality into a film, says Georgina Bradley, CEO of Dog Stars, a dog training and talent agency based out of Vancouver. Their cuteness is largely the appeal of adding them to a scene but their presence adds a realistic aspect that can’t always be expressed with human actors, says Bradley.

In spite of the joys they do bring to set, using them in film and television has become an ethical issue. Are animals truly treated like just another object found in the prop closet or have they been placed into the business

because they have some inherently special talent similar to human actors?

The latter is the case with Igor.

When I get to set, cable cords litter the floor and I walk through an obstacle course consisting of hot set lights, grip operators and Gordon Pinsent.

Someone yells “quiet on the set!” as I settle in with Igor and his owners.

The Silverthorns never really wanted a dog. But when Tracey’s illness caught up with her several years ago and she wasn’t working temporarily so she could take care of herself, she thought of redirecting that energy into a dog.

“I’m a diabetic of 37 years now,” she says. “At one point in time I had to stop working. I only have 50 per cent kidney function. I had a lot of time on my hands. I think I was at the vet’s office for a cat and I saw a pug dog and it made me laugh. So I thought about it. Now would be the time if I could have a dog, I would have one.”

After meticulous research about what breed they should get, the Silverthorns settled on pugs. Their first pug dog, Fester, passed away at the age of two after physical complications and they found themselves apprehensive about getting another pug dog. Fester will always be remembered by Tracey and Sean, as they have tattoos of him on their body. Tracey even has some of Fester’s ashes mixed into the ink used for her tattoo.

But then they met Igor.

“He commands attention wherever he goes,” says Sean quietly, looking fondly at Igor.

Tracey agrees, laughing, jumping in on any opportunity to praise her pup.

“It’s been since day one, we’ll take him down to local festivals in [London], and I know we’re biased parents because we think we have a fabulous dog but it’s been the weirdest thing,” she says.

Tracey flicks through a photo album on her cell phone and shows me posed shots of Igor on sets, in costumes, and with his collection of over 40 different dog collars.

Igor also has Facebook. He has over 1,400 friends and is all over the social media site, though Tracey runs his profile. They are committed to Igor’s success and promote him constantly.

Obedience trainers found a special quality in Igor at a young age, Tracey says, explaining that he could pick up tricks in days that would take weeks for other dogs to learn. Igor was classed first in obedience in all of Canada for pug dogs in 2010.

“Pug dogs by breed were meant to be entertainers,” says Tracey. “They were supposed to have that face to entertain people; they were classed as little clowns.”

So, naturally, Igor was meant for the spotlight, she says.

“This was pure luck,” says Tracey. “I support the Toronto pug rescue—the Pugalug—and Stephen [Dunn] must have contacted them because I got an email from them before Christmas about a pug casting call.”

Out of 74 submitted dogs and 17 auditions, Dunn, director of Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, chose Igor to play the pet of an eccentric grandfather in his film. Though this is the dog’s first film, Igor has been in several local print ads, catalogues and show trials.

“The first print ad he was ever in was for Rocky’s Harley Davidson [in London]. That started with just a headshot I took. He rides on

the Harley with us. He wears goggles,” says Tracey with a wide smile. “And that evolved too.”

Igor is a philanthropic animal, which helps on set because he’s used to being around all types of people. Tracey says he is a St. John’s ambulance therapy dog who has been child-tested—meaning he can be left unsupervised with children aged 12 and under.

Jason Krygier-Baum, a pet photographer who did production stills for Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, tells me over the phone that Igor is an extremely easy dog to work with because his owners have allowed him to be in varied environments.

Krygier-Baum also notes that Tracey and Sean have taught Igor especially well to be expressive

While an animal may have some special quality that could be showcased on film, Ryan Huling, manager of college outreach at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says that animals are more often than not treated very poorly on and off set.

“Most people are unaware that animals used for film and TV productions are in a constant state of discomfort and fear,” says Huling. “Stage sets with the bright lights, heavy equipment, boisterous crowds, can be very stressful and traumatic for animals.”

Some animal talent agencies do take note of these issues and work around them in an effort to make the animal more comfortable.

Bradley, of Dog Stars, notes that safety is always a concern whenever she is on set with her dogs.

“Anytime we’re in a studio, I do a walkaround to make sure the facility is safe, no debris or broken glass. I go in and check it out and then I bring the animal in.”

Bradley mentions that an effort to really watch the dog makes a difference in their safety.

“Knowing signs to watch for; health; being able to read the dog’s body language, what’s comfortable for them; and being able to read the animal is the biggest part of safety,” says Bradley.

Tracey and Sean admit they worry about television shows or film opportunities in the future that won’t allow them on set with Igor. They just won’t take the job, Tracey says with sharp concern in her voice.

“I’m not going to let them do anything unless one of us is on set. That’s who he is going to respond best to.”

It’s late now on set. Everyone and everything is winding down. Igor wanders in and out of rooms and in between the legs of a weary Pinsent, who can be found leaning against a doorframe while wearing his jester’s hat askew. He watches the dog, transfixed, as a crowd of on-set stragglers follow suit and form a circle around the dog, watching him play amongst the cords.

“He commands attention wherever he goes.”

- Sean Silverthorn in his face and use his body language. This is no easy feat for animals, he says.

The set is full of chatter as a mix of industry professionals and students run around to get the set ready for another take. Pinsent whistles and mumbles a song, waltzing from room to room, as he prepares for his scene, briefly poking his head into our room and flashes his canine companion a smile.

Tracey and Sean are active with Igor on set with the director allowing them to control and guide the dog during his scenes.

“Sean was down in the dining room [on set] with him and I was upstairs. We made him work to get up the stairs,” Tracey says.

“You have to put your head into what the dog is going to do. He’s food motivated. I had to let him know where I was at the top of the stairs and I had marshmallows in my pocket. Stephen let me say ‘Mom has treats!’ and he knew where I was so he went to find me.”

Above: photo: By Erin Eaton Photo opposite by Sarah MacDonald

35

A Marriage of Words and Images Creative collaboration is the Canadian way

by Jeanette Liu Hollywood is a lot like your average highschool. But, instead of jocks and prom queens versus math geeks and freaks, Hollywood’s popular versus the unpopular is a little bit different.

There, directors are cast as the cool kids and screenwriters are the unfortunate outsiders.

In other words, in the world of Hollywood filmmaking, directors usually get the credit while writers are often left on the sidelines— disgruntled and underappreciated.

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In Canada, the divide between writers and directors is not so obvious. Canuck writers and directors often assume both roles, like Siamese twins stitched at the hip. And, because of lower funding to produce films, the Canadian movie industry wants to keep it that way.

“Here we have directors who are also writers,” says Garrett Kerr, the media production coordinator and professor at Humber College.

Kerr is a graduate of New York University’s film program. His work in postproduction sound has gained acknowledgement in the entertainment industry. Throughout his career he has been presented with two Genie awards, one Gemini, and a Prime Time Emmy in 2003 for his work on Hitler: The Rise of Evil.

David Kinahan, director of communications for the Writers Guild of Canada, agrees with Kerr.

H e says the role between writers and directors often overlaps.

The guild represents, markets and lobbies on behalf of more than 2,000 Canadian screenwriters. It helps to negotiate and deliver industry standard writing contracts and fixes unfair working conditions for its clients.

“People normally believe that the writer provides a template that the director then breathes life into,” says Kinahan. “But, Canada is sort of a different case in particular. In Canada you see many films that are exclusively written by writer-directors.”

Spring 2012

When a film is put to production the art of directing and writing are usually seen as two distinct and separate entities.

“We talk about directing and writing as two separate crafts,” says Kinahan. “But, in Canada it’s encouraged in some way by the way films are made that we look for people that embody them both in one. And of course those people exist.”

Traditionally screenwriters are in charge of penning a script for a film. They are responsible for creating engaging story lines replete with colourful plots, dialogue and vividly detailed visuals. They are thought to be the initial masterminds behind the unraveling story in a motion picture. It is their work that allows producers, actors and executives a project to further enhance, develop and later direct.

“All of the upfront development work moving towards the green light for a production is done by the writer,” says Kinahan. “It takes the skill sets of a writer, particularly in Canada, to create a vision around which people can gather and work. The ability to create a pitch document, express the vision of something, arrange financing and then to have people buy in— like actors— all of that stuff takes place based on the material that a writer creates.”

“Scriptwriters are people who are really looking at the true heart of a story and thinking about it in all of its aspects and details,” says Kerr.

“They are really thoughtful. They think about the big and little picture story ideas. They’re super creative and are very story character driven.”

Directors, on the other hand, traditionally

“There isn’t enough money going around so writers often direct and directors often write.”

-Stephen Dunn take a finished and complete script and flesh it out. They are responsible for controlling the creative aspect of a film. They develop a vision for the script and make it work. They take a script and turn it into a mirage of motion shots. They are usually thought to be responsible for deciding the overall tone and message of a film.

“The traditional role of the director is to take a script and turn it into a visual story,” says Kerr.

“Directors are hired by a producer because of their creative storytelling style. At the end of the day, producers will usually have the final say on almost every decision made—but, they will defer those decisions to the director because they trust their vision.”

For the most part Kerr says, “A director is there to turn a script into a creative visual story and do that within the constraints of the budget and the timeline their producer has provided.”

In Canada, the film industry encourages a more collaborative model of the writer-director because funding to produce a film is cash strapped and tight, says Kinahan.

“It’s so hard to get a film made in Canada because budgets are squeezed. The period of time between development and production are so long that people often need to wear more than one hat to see a project through,” he says.

Canadian director-writer Stephen Dunn wears that double hat.

Dunn won the Toronto 48 Hour Film project for his film, The Hall, which he co-wrote and directed. The Hall is a dramatic film about confronting your innermost fears by giving them physical form. His film was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival gaining the attention of Pulitzer Prize winner and highly accredited American film critic Roger Ebert.

“The film industry is a political one,” says Dunn. “There isn’t enough money going around so writers often direct and directors often write. As someone who works in the industry—I do both and it’s not easy by any means.”

Though writer-directors help to ease finances, critics say it stifles the creativity in the process of filmmaking. They say this money-driven way of running the industry can compromise the quality and intent of a film.

“Absolutely it can ruin the intent of a film,” says Kerr. “Writers spend a lot of time, energy and thought into literally, on a word to word basis, choosing words, story structure and character development for their script. After it’s done, a director falls in love with a particular part of a script. The director obviously wants to stick to the intent of the script but sometimes what they see for a script won’t mesh with what the writer intended in the beginning. It can be very difficult for writers to see what happens to their script after they sell it— but, ultimately a great film could be made.”

Kinahan agrees. He says the amalgamation of the writer and director roles into one single identity of ‘writer-director’ can sometimes impact the quality of a movie.

“It would be to the film’s benefit because we do think of them as two very distinct crafts—two very distinct skills,” Kinahan says.

“The tricky thing about film is it’s a highly creative and expensive endeavor and on top of that an extremely complicated endeavour,” says Kerr. “While there’s efficiency in having these defined roles — what works on paper does not always work once you get into a film that’s based on timing and performance. That changes some of how the story plays out. The director takes the script and figures out how to make it work in the real world.” Though it’s good for there to be a more clear divide between scriptwriters and directors, there needs to be communication to make a good final product.

“In a perfect world the writer will still be involved in making the script work but the director will oversee the creative fundamental drive to creating the project. It’s good to have the delineation but there’s also a real importance to having good will and creative co-operation between writers, directors and the team.

“And, when there is the delineation accompanied by goodwill, mutual understanding and creative trust between the roles the film can be made really well. And, it can get made in a way that’s enjoyable for all parties involved.”

Courtesy FAMOUS WRITER-DIRECTORS (top to bottom) Joss Whedon of cult classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer series James Cameron of Titanic George Lucas of Star Wars

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PREVIEW: THE PRICE OF SEX a film by Mimi Chakarova

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PHOTO GALLERY

MOVIE TRAILERS

+INTERVIEW CLIPS WITH REDEMPTION INC’S KEVIN O’LEARY & BRIAN O’DEA

BONUS: A look at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival

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Many thanks to all involved in this edition of FINE CUT Spring 2012

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Spring 2012