Below-the-Line Film and Television Workers - Conseil des ...

CHRC BTL TGA - 11/14/2008 -Page 9Best Practice – The Newfoundland Film Coop, NIFCO, the New Brunswick FilmCoop, and AFCOOP, the Atlantic Filmmakers Coop in Halifax, like many othercoops across the country, are integral players in and major contributors to themainstream film and television industry in their respective communities.Best Practice - One example of many across the country, Guelph, Ontario’s EdVideo, an artist-run centre, despite their prosumer equipment and limited budget,recently enlisted a local Gemini-winning Sound Recordist to give a boom/soundassistant workshop.2.3. Training ChallengesAs revenues decrease and channels proliferate, film & TV workers are workinglonger hours for less money. In the words of one industry professional interviewedfor this study, “It’s becoming less about what you’ve done, or what you’re qualifiedto do, than what (expletive deleted) you’re willing to put up with!” Smaller crews,tighter budgets, changing job descriptions – all are challenges to the effectivedeployment of training resources.2.3.1. Boom or BustA major hurdle for the implementation of an orderly training strategy for film & TV isthe industry’s inherent unpredictability. In four years the BC industry grew from$400 million to $1.3 billion, then last year due to a strong Canadian dollar and theUS writers’ strike, it dropped 26.2%. Intelligent labour pool forecasts arecompromised both by man-made influences like the constant jockeying betweenprovinces for a tax credit edge, and also by outside influences beyond our controllike the SARS epidemic, which decimated the Ontario production industry a fewyears ago, or dramatic fluctuations in international exchange rates. Furthermore,raw statistics measuring simply the cumulative size of a period’s productionbudgets may skew results. Lots of low budget production, for example, mightindicate a very healthy local industry, while one big budget runaway blockbusterwhich looks good on paper, might wrap, go home, and leave nothing behind.The film & TV labour pool is mobile, even itinerant. Workers go where the work is.In boom times sometimes workers move up too fast and don’t get all the skills theyneed. In poor years they leave the industry in droves. It is extremely difficult tomake a case for added training dollars for such a volatile industry, but one must bemade. Concrete provincial and national statistical analyses of the potential impactof film & TV training on the industry is required.Across the West, the oilpatch with its high salaries and benefits and its inflationaryaffect on ancillary industries, is stealing workers and leaving gaps in the Film & TVlabour pool. In booming BC construction crews and electricians are increasinglyCHRC BTL TGA - 11/14/2008 -Page 9