from the internets: Canadian TV? Cancon Overhaul from the CRTC, daytime requirement on local broadcaster drops to ZERO %

The Canadian live action world seems a lot more worried than animation – the president of the Directors Guild of Canada sent this to his members.

March 17, 2015

Dear Fellow DGC Members,

I am writing to tell you that the members of the Directors Guild of Canada suddenly face a challenge of unprecedented dimensions. According to the CRTC, major productions defined in its proposed new guidelines as Canadian will no longer need to be made by Canadians.

Last Thursday the Chair of the CRTC Jean-Pierre Blais announced a new set of proposed guidelines for Canadian television. He articulated a vision for Canadian television which the DGC shares in many respects. As borders dissolve in an internet age of abundance, one of the best guarantors of success for a new generation of Canadian productions is investment – budgets high enough to produce shows made by Canadians which can compete on the world stage.

The CRTC Chair’s speech mirrored many aspects of our philosophy – in all but one crucial respect: The Commission believes that this new generation of Canadian productions need not be made by Canadians.

In his speech the Chair established guidelines for two high profile pilot projects. One is for adaptations of Canadian novels and another is for drama series with budgets in excess of $2 million per hour. These productions will be deemed by the CRTC to be Canadian and therefore presumed by the CRTC, without the benefit of any meaningful consultation with industry stakeholders or other public agencies, to be eligible for tax credits and public equity investment if:

* The production company is Canadian

* The writer is Canadian

* One lead performer is Canadian

* A minimum 75% of the budget is spent in Canada

We applaud the requirement that the production company, the writer and a lead performer on publicly funded Canadian shows be Canadian. However we are stunned that under these proposed guidelines no other key production talent – Director, Cinematographer, Production Designer, Editor, Composer – need be Canadian. This speaks of the narrowest possible definition of a filmed production, and betrays a profound misunderstanding of how storytelling on the screen actually happens.

As a viewer and as a director I can think of nothing more puzzling than the assertion that a production’s identity can be based merely on a corporate mailing address, a script and one cast member. Yet this is exactly what these proposed guidelines assert. They speak to a conception of filmmaking where the voice of the film stops at the financing and the printed word – one where the director’s act of bringing a story to life on the screen with a team of key creatives in no way informs the work’s identity. Yet many would agree that if the new golden era of television has one distinctive quality, it is the prominence of the director’s voice.

A great deal of flexibility is already built into the existing Canadian content requirements for productions receiving support from the Canadian taxpayer. Having rules allows policy-makers the choice to adjust them. Having virtually no rules eliminates this prerogative. If someone asks you why it matters so much that Canadian key creatives be involved in productions supported by the Canadian taxpayer, ask them why they think there should be any Canadian components of any kind. The principled answer is that these rules exist to give Canadians a voice in a world where small countries have a challenge asserting a voice and developing the talent behind that voice. Where some aspects of the Broadcasting Act may be losing relevance in the internet era, this principle remains as relevant as ever.

In his address CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais raised the example of four non-US shows which have become international hits: Downton Abbey (UK), The Code (Australia), Borgen (Denmark) and The Killing (Norway). The overwhelming majority of the directors and key creatives on every one of those four productions are nationals from the shows’ countries of origin. The CRTC is proposing quite a different approach for Canadian productions: Unlike shows like Borgen, the CRTC is proposing that Canadian productions be outsourced.

Canadian directors, production designers, editors, and composers are constantly tested in the international market, working on hit international shows like Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Bates Motel, Arrow, The Blacklist, Fargo, The Strain, Person of Interest, The Walking Dead, Lost, Rescue Me, Law and Order, Being Human, CSI, 24, The Wire, Vikings, House, Bones, Smallville, Falling Skies. It is stunning that the CRTC proposes to bypass the key creatives who already work on the kind of international hit shows we would love to see Canada make more often.

Everyone is entitled to ask what it will take for Canadian productions to move to the next level in a broadcast world which has changed forever. But if the first idea our policy makers are proposing is to outsource the making of publicly supported Canadian shows, we also have the right to ask: “What exactly are we asking Canadians to build here?”

Over the next days the DGC National Office will be proposing ways for you to make your voice be heard. I urge you to demand that Canadian directors and key creative personnel be made an essential component of the next generation of high budget, taxpayer-supported Canadian productions made for our increasingly borderless broadcast world, and to remind the CRTC that even in this new age of abundance, when it comes to the art of filmmaking, Canadian content is content made by Canadians.

Yours sincerely,
Tim Southam

President, Directors Guild of Canada