Previously I’ve blogged about this excellent program and suggested you join your local media cooperative to apply. That was when that was the only way. Now things have changed! (Of course, there are a myriad of other reasons to join your local media cooperative!)
Last year was the first year people from underrepresented groups could apply directly to Telefilm, bypassing the Industry Partner stream. And they were rewarded with half of the sixteen projects.
This, then, emerges as the best strategy for Talent to Watch: pull your team (Producer, Writer and Director) together from underrepresented groups and apply directly between April 17 and May 1, 2023.
Telefilm considers people from these groups as underrepresented:
Indigenous
Black
People of Colour
Women
Gender-diverse individuals
2SLGBTQIA+ individuals
Persons with disabilities
Members of an Official Language Minority Community
My take: still the best odds for getting your first feature financed! I predict this may be the last year for the Industry Stream. Certainly, if your full team qualifies, you should definitely apply directly to Telefilm Talent to Watch.
“After years of digitizing everything, people are rediscovering the value of physical assets. DVDs, vinyl records and film cameras are all experiencing a renaissance. Even cassette tapes are making a comeback.”
“‘More people are spending a lot more time consuming media at home. And they’re building rooms, or are collecting in some way. And DVDs are physical objects. They look nice in a room. The physicality of it is part of the joy you’re getting from the fandom.'”
My take: True, not everything is available to stream. But frankly I can’t remember the last time I watched something on physical media. Oh, it was an obscure British crime drama on DVD from the library last year! I think physical media is very much a secondary market and can’t be a viable means of distribution again; it’s merch. The value for collectors should not be underestimated, though.
“AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) streamers often license unknown or obscure movies in bulk from distributors like FilmRise, Gravitas Ventures, Shout! Factory, Cinedigm, and… Homestead Entertainment, a tiny distributor in Laguna Beach, California that specializes in working with filmmakers to access non-exclusive AVOD deals on dozens of services.”
He adds:
“Also in the game are self-service film aggregators. FilmHub cofounder Alan s’Escragnolle said his company has distributed more than 17,000 movies since January 2020, supplying as much as 15 percent of Tubi’s 50,000-film library. He said FilmHub works with upward of 100 services and claimed distributors have started leaning on them to reach more niche or international streamers.”
Note that at pennies per view, millions of streams are required to make serious money.
My take: this is empowering. It kinda hearkens back to the Roger Corman days when cheaply-made “B” movies connected with their audiences and launched the careers of many directors and actors. The key is to start with the audience, reverse-engineer a riveting story for them and then make the film reasonably. And to stomach ads… gulp!
As quoted in the article, Fisher specializes in discovering existing content viewers still yearn to watch:
“‘If I could identify and measure the viewer demand to see content, irrespective of what the industry thinks the demand is, I could find that disconnect between demand and market evaluation…. It really comes down to our algorithms. We’ve found a way to measure audience demand and see where demand for a piece of content is much higher than what that content is being valued for in the market.'”
FilmRise, and companies like it, are fuelling SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand,) AVOD (Advertising Video on Demand,) ASVOD (Ad-Supported Video on Demand) and FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) digital media outlets.
This company is on the ball! Not only are they internationalizing their content for the rest of the world, they’re also repackaging shorter web content into more standard half-hour TV length shows.
“If big streamers are like a shiny fast-food chain, where you always know what you’re getting, we’re the food truck parked across the street with daily specials and better ingredients. We’re hoping that JustWatchMe.tv can grow to feel like home for Canadian producers and their content, which we all love but rarely get to see.”
Most content on the service will be free. A premium tier will be $4.99 per month.
My take: Hey Michael, let’s talk about doing a web series!
This comprehensive study on the engagement of Canadian directors by both Canadian and international producers, studios and networks for 2021, focuses in on region, gender, production type and the entities commissioning film and television production.
Some highlights:
75% of all Episodic work in Canada was from US-based studios and networks.
Together, Warner Media and Netflix shot more television in Canada than all Canadian networks combined.
Canadian Directors directed on average 41% of the US-financed TV episodes across the country.
Across all the DGC Episodes, women directed 43%.
In 2021, BC shot almost half of the 1,256 Episodes produced in English Canada, with BC accounting for 43%, Ontario shooting 40% and the remaining provinces and territories accounting for 17% of the episodic work shot.
Only 4% of all productions in BC were funded by a Canadian studio or network.
Nearly 70% of the CBC’s English language shows are shot in Ontario.
Only 39% of the features shot in English Canada were directed by Canadians. Of these, 31% were directed by women members.
My take: this makes fascinating reading! If I understand it correctly, nearly six out of ten productions in Canada are directed by non-Canadians.
He then reveals his philosophy and how living a dolly zoomed life helps him achieve it:
“One of the tools that we can use is a term that I borrowed from cinematography called a dolly zoom. And what a dolly zoom is, is where the camera is rolled back, or dollied back, at the same rate as the lens is zoomed in, and it was used in “Jaws” and “Vertigo” and many other films. And what the filmmakers use that technique for is to give altitude to a scene, and as the foreground stays the same and the background stretches. But we could also apply that term to the challenges that we face. If we dolly zoom a situation, that means that we zoom out to the widest geographical area we possibly can, ideally the entire planet, but as we zoom out to that big picture, we don’t lose focus on the worms-eye details on the ground. We don’t zoom out to the point where people become numbers on a spreadsheet or a workforce or a voting block or a consumer block. They maintain their value as valued members of our human society. There’s also a temporal aspect to this. We need to zoom out to the longest time frame possible, ideally multi-generational, but in the process, we can’t lose sight of the short term. The last part of a dolly zoom is to see things from different perspectives, and so we understand the depth of our problem, and that makes our solutions that much more lasting and that much more effective…. What I try and do is to live a constant dolly-zoomed life. I wake up every morning in my bed, but I also wake up on a planet.“
Chris has worked in the film and television industry for almost thirty years as a Creative Producer and has shepherded over two dozen projects, including Good Will Hunting, American Pie, Project Greenlight and Manchester by the Sea.
He begins with:
“The nature of the creative producer’s job doesn’t allow a lot of time to stop and ask questions about the changing industry around us. However, over the past few years, I’ve given myself some time to reflect. Between MANCHESTER BY THE SEA being released by Amazon, and the world shutting down due to a pandemic, it became clear that the job I have now isn’t the one I had when I started back in 1994.”
He continues:
“Many producers of my generation had a business plan for our careers. For me, it was directly dependent on the success of each individual film. Not long ago, profit in the film industry was based on a hit-driven business model. If a lot of people bought tickets to see a film in theaters, rented the DVD, or paid for a digital download, it sometimes made a profit, and was considered a hit. At the time, producing a box office hit led to an easier time getting your next project made and usually with a bigger budget.”
More on the good old days:
“The 1980s through the 2010s was a great time to be a creative producer. Put deals together, own the library of content, and make big money. I came into Hollywood when this was just exploding, and at the same time, foreign markets were opening up, home video was becoming much bigger with the release of DVDs, and cable allowed for many more channels for a piece of content to reach audiences. In comes windowing, in comes licensing, in comes new markets for content. Speculation became a new business model worth pursuing if a creative producer had the stomach for it; there were new buyers and talent looking for content, and all were free agents. It was awesome.“
Then he arrives at the crux of the issue:
“Unfortunately, the hit-driven business model I built a career around is not the reality of the industry we are living in today, and I can finally admit that we are not going back to the way it was. I realized I hadn’t acknowledged how much things had changed. Today, there is a very small speculative market compared to the 1990s and early 2000s, and large companies are no longer driven by the profit of each individual film. The current subscription-based business model removes the opportunity to create a hit. In this new model for storytelling, volume is more important than quality.“
He then list the shortcoming of the streaming model in detail, concluding with possible strategies:
“Become an executive. Choose a specific genre. Choose talent to work with. Work inside a production company or become a manager/producer. Work for a non-profit. Take on a larger company’s liability. Or accept that the old version of a creative producer is now a hobby.”
He firmly believes: “We have to be honest with the next generation that the system we are all in right now is not working nor does it offer the life you might have been promised in film school.”
His final rallying cry:
“All of this soul searching has led me to the simpler solution which is creative producers need to become part of something bigger than themselves and their projects. Rather than wait around and see if the industry is going to make room for us again, we must take matters into our own hands and find the thing that replaces the hit-driven model. If we want sustainability, we have to create a new business model that works within this new era of Hollywood.“
My take: a lot of people blame new economic realities when their job disappears. Chris Moore, however, argues that streamers have distorted the free market because it is now impossible to use the box office to measure success (other than for blockbusters and who cares about them.) Perhaps we need a new Streaming Decree that splits production from distribution once again?
Canadian artist Michael Snow has died at age 94. Torontonians will perhaps know him best for his sculpture called Flight Stop, the 60 geese flying in the Eaton Centre.
Snow was a Canadian artist and experimental filmmaker who is considered one of the most important figures in the development of avant-garde and experimental art in Canada. He is best known for his work in the mediums of painting, sculpture, photography, and film. He was quoted in 1967 as quipping:
“My paintings are done by a filmmaker, sculpture by a musician, films by a painter, music by a filmmaker, paintings by a sculptor, sculpture by a filmmaker, films by a musician, music by a sculptor… sometimes they all work together. Also, many of my paintings have been done by a painter, sculpture by a sculptor, films by a filmmaker, music by a musician. There is a tendency towards purity in all of these media as separate endeavours.”
One of Michael Snow’s most famous films is “Wavelength.” It is considered a classic and seminal film in avant-garde cinema and is widely regarded as one of the greatest avant-garde films of all time. The film was made in 1967 and runs for 45 minutes.
The film is made up of a single, static shot that slowly zooms in. It begins with a wide shot of a New York loft space. The camera is positioned in front of a photograph of waves, which hangs on the far wall. The camera gradually zooms in on the photograph, while increasingly shorter wavelength tones are heard (in addition to a clip of the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields” over the radio.) The camera continues to zoom in until the photograph fills the entire frame, and the tone is its most excruciating.
Wavelength challenges the audience’s perception of space and time, and has been described as a mind-bending, time-stretching experience. It has been widely discussed and debated by film critics and historians, and has influenced many other artists and filmmakers. It also helped establish Michael Snow as an important figure in the world of avant-garde cinema, and continues to be shown and studied to this day.
“Wavelength” was widely well-received by critics and audiences when it was first released in 1967. It was praised for its innovative approach to filmmaking, its exploration of the viewer’s perception of space and time, and its use of sound. It had a successful screenings at New York’s Film-makers Cinematheque, in European film festivals and also in a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.
Many critics and scholars have called it a masterpiece of avant-garde cinema and a landmark work in the history of film. The film’s unique, extended long take and use of sound is seen as ground breaking, and it has been credited with anticipating many of the stylistic and thematic concerns of subsequent avant-garde and independent cinema. It also influenced many contemporary filmmakers and has been noted as a huge inspiration in the development of Structural Film.
While “Wavelength” has generally been well-received by critics and audiences, some reviewers have had more mixed or negative reactions to the film. In general, while many have found the film to be a groundbreaking and thought-provoking work, others have found it to be slow-moving, unengaging and difficult to understand. However, it should be noted that avant-garde works of art often elicit polarized reactions as they tend to challenge traditional notions of art and representation and are not easily accessible to a general audience.
My take: R.I.P. Michael Snow. Once upon a time, I had a gig as a part-time Security Officer at the National Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario. I remember studying Michael Snow’s Venetian Blind with bemusement and wondered why he didn’t use a greater depth of field.
Currently there are links to these scripts, with more being added weekly
All The Old Knives (Amazon Studios)
Amsterdam (20th Century Studios)
Argentina, 1985 (Amazon Studios)
Armageddon Time (Focus Features)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures)
The Batman (Warner Bros.)
Bones and All (United Artists)
Catherine Called Birdy (Amazon Studios)
Emergency (Amazon Studios)
Empire of Light (Searchlight Pictures)
The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
The Good Nurse (Netflix)
Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Netflix)
Living (Sony Classics)
Master (Amazon Studios)
The Menu (Searchlight Pictures)
My Policeman (Amazon Studios)
Nanny (Amazon Studios)
Nope (Universal Pictures)
The Northman (Focus Features)
Pinocchio (Netflix)
She Said (Universal Studios)
The Son (Sony Classics)
Tár (Focus Features)
Thirteen Lives (Amazon Studios)
Three Thousand Years of Longing (United Artists)
Till (United Artists)
White Noise (Netflix)
The Woman King (TriStar Pictures)
Women Talking (United Artists)
Scott says:
“Reading movie screenplays is critical to your development as a screenwriter. Along with watching movies and writing pages, it is a fundamental practice you should put into place. Make it a goal to read at least one movie script per week.”
My take: I will be doing a scene-by-scene breakdown of “Glass Onion.” I’ve done “Palm Springs” previously and can attest that the exercise is very valuable. For bonus insight, I also compare the script with the film and note where extensive changes have been made. So interesting!
