I GOT A NICE piece of news this morning, that filled me with a bit of melancholy in the way that only good news about the Canadian Film & TV industry can.
It's bookended with a bit of bad news I got last night. In between there are a bunch of links & information about other matters. There's also going to be a bit of talking about some players in the Canadian TV biz without specifying who those players are. That's the tightrope I'm walking in this post, so if you don't like it, stop reading now.
It's raining like hell in Florida this morning. And maybe that too has something to do with my mood. But there are birds chirping sweetly outside the window, almost like they're trying to conjure a better day. And in the end, though this post is going to start with good news & end with bad -- I'm hoping that there might be a bit of room in there for a few insistent chirps.
Anyway. I opened up my email this morning and received this message:
Mr. McGrath,
In 2004 I wrote a short film script for your screenwriting class at Ryerson University, called "Funky Prairie Boy." You ended up giving me an A for the final draft. It was my first script.
Emboldened by your praise, I entered script in the Worldwide Short Film Festival's Screenplay Giveaway Prize competition. The script went on to win the prize of free goods and services from likes of Panavision, Kodak and Deluxe. Last year, five years after first writing the script for your class, I finally finished the short.
"Funky Prairie Boy" has gone on to play festivals in Australia, Italy, Austin, D.C (where it won an audience choice award), Vancouver and more. Next week, it's finally coming to Toronto, the city where it all began, as part of the ReelWorld Film Festival's shorts program.
Appropriately enough, the semi-autobiographical short features real Canadian FUNK music from the late 60s and 70s taken from the Light in the Attic Records release "Jamaica to Toronto."
Here's a little trailer for the Toronto screening. I hope you'll come and check it out on either Friday April 9th at 4pm or Sunday, April 11th at 2:30pm (I'll be there Sunday!).
Couldn't have happened without you! Thanks for the encouragement way back when!
It's always great to get an email like this. And here's a confession. I can't really conjure the writer/director,
Mike Schultz's face. And I don't really remember the details of the script. But I do remember that title. You don't forget "
Funky Prairie Boy." And I remember exquisitely the joy, and the admiration and the excitement I felt after finishing that script. It is always a thrill to discover a new talent, somebody who can put words together in a way that no one you've read or seen before can do. It makes you want to encourage those people, and help them on their way. Many of us who achieve some degree of success in this very difficult industry do what we can to do just that.
That's what causes you to try and pay it forward, and give back. In April, I'll be doing some more of that. For instance, the
Canadian Film Centre has announced a couple of workshops that will be going on, doubling as information sessions on the
CFC's programs. I'll be doing the workshop in
Toronto on
April 13th, and an incredibly good guy, and great writer named
Alan McCullough (
Stargate, Sanctuary) will be doing one in
Vancouver on
April 10th. I think I'll also probably be going to
Winnipeg to do one later in April. Details about those workshops
can be found here.
And I'll also be guest moderating the
April 7 installment of
Lift Out Loud. Lift Out Loud, sponsored by the
Liasion of Independent Filmmakers Toronto, is a bi-monthly reading series where Actors read out new works -- in this case a couple of pilot scripts. Details for the April 7th Event
can be found here.
My appearance at that event is actually a testimony to the organizer --
Brenda Kovrig. Here's a lesson in tenaciousness for you...Brenda's been chasing me to do this moderator thing for a year now. A full year. Every few months I would hear from her -- but I would be working busily on this thing or that. She didn't give up, and clearly from my schedule it looks like this April is do-able. (Although between the
CFC, this, and
WGC stuff later in the month I'm doing an awful lot of 'rah rah' stuff and not a lot of 'make your rent, dummy' stuff. Hmm. Should look into that.) So anyway, that's how perseverance can pay off.
Also, and I'm sorry I'm late on this, but
RIGHT NOW, today, the
National Screen Institute is
holding an online information clinic on their
Facebook page, for anyone who's thinking of applying to their
Totally Television program. Totally Television's alumni include my friends
Marvin Kaye & Chris Sheasgreen, creators of the acclaimed Canadian comedy series
Less Than Kind.
Meanwhile, I've been monitoring the news and want to congratulate my friends at
Ryerson University & especially the tireless
Karen Walton, who spent the weekend exchanging tips & inspiration at the
Writing in Dangerous Times conference. And just this morning comes this good bit of news --
Shaftesbury Films is
partnering with the Etobicoke School of the Arts to bring investment & education to that high school's new film program.
All of this is good, and worthwhile. It's hard to develop talent, and it's great to see people give back. I wouldn't do these kinds of events if I didn't think that they were worthwhile.
But.
I'm going to warn you. Here's where we turn toward the rocks.
My thoughts keep coming back to all the Funky Prairie Boys out there. Because at some point Funky Boys become men -- and that is where the trouble starts.
If you're not a resident of
Saskatchewan, you may not yet be aware of the latest doom n'gloom in the Canadian TV industry. In short, last week, Saskatchewan's only true local station,
SCN, was shut down. In addition, the government has
pulled way back on subsidies and tax credits to the province's film industry the government refused to increase subsidies and tax credits to the province's film industry to help it keep up with other provinces, and an equipment supplier who'd set up shop in
Regina is pulling out.
Basically, the entire film & TV production industry in that province is imploding. This is an industry that was built up through a bit of service work, and mainly on the back of
Corner Gas. But with that show shuttered, the dollar high & times hard, everything is tumbling together at once.
In Canada, it seems,
it is ever thus.
In fact, it's the very nature of the industry that promotes this kind of on-the-edge life. Because there are tax credits & subsidies involved, the desire is to spread the industry around a bit. So rather than gather in one place, a la L.A., there's dribbles in Vancouver, Toronto, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax & other places east.
When the jelly's spread that thin it means that one or two series going in and out of production can devastate the industry. Vancouverites, for all the service work in the province, has started to notice that that doesn't mean a lot of work for writers or even Directors. (Crews yet, Actors maybe -- in smaller roles; but writers?)
This weak regionalism means a boom and bust cycle that prevents true expertise from taking root. Crews & artisans build up a certain level of expertise, the work dries up, those people are forced out of the business, and a few years later the cycle starts all over again. This is nothing new. You go back to
Seeing Things, and apparently all the knowledge gained by people working on that show dissipated because most of the people moved south or got out.
What we have then, is an anemic industry that is forever on life support, where nobody ever gets better at hustling and the same mistakes keep getting made over and over. And that's just at the production level. No wonder the Tories look at Film & TV and think we're a bad investment.
Okay, now stay with me. Those few paragraphs were about the crew, industrial, below-the-line model. What about above the line? What about the writers and directors?
It's worse.
Here is the dirty little secret of the Canadian TV industry. It's the thing that I struggle to choke back when I do one of these workshops or information sessions; it's what I struggle not to tell the 4 or 5 people coming out of the
NSI or the 10 or 12 people coming out of the
CFC every year:
Getting your first job isn't the problem.
It really isn't. The Academy has great shadowing programs that let you follow somebody around and be mentored. At the
CFTPA in Ottawa, they had the
Jump Start! program, where up-and-coming young producers get to meet & gladhand and present projects. Everybody wants to meet the new CFC talents -- writers, directors. They can get meetings at the networks. "Pitch us your projects," they say. "Come see us! Our doors are open!"
Roads in to things like the Canadian Animation industry remain open for an enthusiastic young writer looking for a break. If you have talent, you can get that first contract. That's not where the problem is.
The problem is that, exactly the same as on the industrial & crewing side -- is the next steps up the ladder. Every year 10 or 12 more people are shot like cannon fodder into an industry where they're fine so long as they're the new thing. But try getting the fourth job. Or the fifth. Or the sixth.
Instead of building upon knowledge gained and excellence, of improving skills, of moving forward & getting a little bit better every time... of building on expertise that comes through experience, through learning what works, through time in a story room crafting show after show and seeing it through production...instead of having a second time feature writer who understands the process better than a new writer -- no matter how talented -- ever could...we continually start over.
Why?
There's a lot of reasons. But a whole lot of it is due to the fact that there simply is no incentive to really get better. Many producers are just working for fees, on project after project. You don't have studios, with a long track record of producing product. A producer who gets a second drama or comedy series off the ground is a rare breed. No, no, the idea is to spread it around, you see. To give others a chance. To maybe correct the regional imbalance. It's been a few years since the Vancouver industry died, maybe it's time to greenlight a series there. There's talent in Yellowknife that could use a boost. Halifax has had a good run...maybe let's shut'em down.
Meanwhile, here are a series of uncomfortable meetings going on in Canada right now:
- Somewhere, a writer who's worked on four or five series and dealt with network notes on all of them is in a meeting with a production company who's gotten their first series. They have all the power, because that's how it works. The writer can see the freight train of disaster coming months away, but cannot do anything to stop it.
- Somewhere, a writer who has twice as much experience as the writer in the last example, is being passed over for the job of running a new series that a Canadian network is really excited about. She won't get to run the series now. Oh no. They will turn to her in four months to come in to save the show, by which point it's too late, and what we'll have is another Canadian show that gets to 'okay' by episode nine, long after the audience has recoiled in boredom or horror.
- Somewhere a network is putting a Showrunner through the ringer on hiring the story coordinator for a show, making them jump through hoops. After that meeting's over, they will greenlight a show to someone who's failed twice before and doesn't do good work because they're connected through what would be a clear conflict of interest in any other industry.
- Somewhere, an American network executive is wondering why they can't talk to the writer of this Canadian co-pro they're involved in and why when they talk to the non-writing producer none of their notes ever come through quite right.
- Somewhere a writer is listening to a bunch of newbie producers talk about how much Canadian TV sucks and how their show is going to be so very awesome, while she thinks back over the last week and recalls how the producers made every mistake she'd seen the producers make on all those shows that turned out kind of sucky.
- Somewhere a bunch of writers are pulling their hair out, not being able to do their jobs because the brilliant salesman who can sell anything also thinks they're the true creative talent, and that the way it works is that their ideas are golden and given to people to just make the words pretty.
- Somewhere a production company is meeting to figure out how they can get their latest projects classified as Canadian without using any Canadian writers at all.
- Somewhere an actor is getting a writing deal for a show that will grind through two years of development without ever showing a lick of craft. It will get made or not depending on the tax credits. Everyone will praise it openly, and behind the scenes talk about what an awful piece of shit it is.
And finally...
- Somewhere, a writer who's worked on three series, been nominated for a Gemini or two, maybe won a WGC award, is sitting down at a kitchen table with his wife or partner. They're having a tough talk about whether they really can take the risk, and get out, and go to L.A. The writer curses the industry he's in, because there seemed to be no trouble getting those first few jobs, and he got lulled. Now he's got a wife & mortgage, and a kid on the way, and why NOW? It would have been better to get out before he had all these strings tying him down.
Hart Hanson did an interview years ago where he talked about how hard it was to pick up and leave Canada. He'd been a successful writer here, having worked on
Traders & a bunch of other stuff. He had kids, he had a wife, a life -- but the opportunity in Canada just wasn't there anymore.
He went south, and of course
Judging Amy begat
Bones and maybe now
Pleading Guilty. (Which I'm excited about -- probably the most perfect of the
Scott Turow legal books from a TV adaptation standpoint.)
And once you rip your life up like that (not to speak for Hanson, whom I don't know, and who seems like a pretty nice guy in every interview I've ever read) you don't look kindly on the people who made you do it. Come back and help out? Sure. Sure. Now that you forced me to become an economic expatriate, you want me to come back. Typical.
There are a whole bunch of things wrapped up in this post. None of them suggest easy or simple solutions. But I truly believe that they all spring from a common cause, which is this: we do not have an industry that values talent. We value the deal, because it's hard to make. We do not manage talent. We do not support talent, except for "up-and-coming" talent because that looks good in a press release and is politically saleable.
But it's irresponsible to push up-and-coming when you know they won't be going anywhere. Except south. Until we figure out a way to build on success, and stop starting over on every project, or in every city every few years, there will be no 'next step.' All our successes will be happy accidents, and our failures will reinforce the idea that we're just not very good at this.
Everywhere I look, there are seasoned, talented, smart creators doing the equivalent of standing on the sidelines saying, "Aw, put me in coach! Ya Gotta! I know I can do it!"
But we're too busy scanning the bleachers, looking for a kid who'll be easier to push around.
Just to keep this from being a "writers are misunderstood" post...don't get me wrong. There's plenty of criticism to go on our side, too. Bad communicators, people who don't know how to take notes or manage the network relationship -- and people who won't upgrade their skills. In just a few weeks, there's going to be a
Toronto Screenwriting Conference. The whole event, two days' worth, is about a third of the cost of something like
Prime Time, the Producer's Conference I attended in February. The whole thing is pitched toward working writers -- sessions (a couple of which I'll be hosting) are meant to convey real, practical, nuts & bolts, on the ground crafty advice not for new people, but for established writers looking for a little professional development. Yet I bet you anything when I look out at the crowd, I'm going to see mostly network & production company people, students, and producers -- and the working writers I know will be thin on the ground. "I have seen the enemy," Pogo said, "and he is us."
Finally -- one more thing. It might not be fair to tag this onto this post. But it's been the thing that's been sitting there on my shoulder all morning so maybe it's appropriate.
Last night through tweets & interwebby chatter, I learned that a comic named
Eric Tunney had died at the age of 45. Some may remember Tunney as the host of a CBC show here, or as one of
Ed The Sock's human playthings. But I remember Tunney from the Toronto comedy scene in the very early 1990's, when I was going to see standup a lot. He was impeccably dressed, with swagger and an ever-present cigar as a prop. His delivery was confident, muscular. His material was wry, and smart, and infused with the stuff that comes only from a perfect fusion of inspiration and craft.
There are parts of Tunney's routines I remember fifteen years later. He was a tremendous talent -- and there's a whole generation of Canadian comedians who will cite him as a big influence. Tunney was a comic's comic -- one of those people who get praised and damned by the phrase that he was sometimes, often, "too hip for the room."
This is not an easy business. The road is always uncertain, and the odds are supposed to be long. And being good is no guarantee. And all of us who toil in this business understand that that's what we're signing up for.
I went online looking for Tunney bits on
YouTube last night. There's nothing, really. Nothing because he never really made it in the USA, and that's the only time Canadians get excited about one of their own. So there are no Eric Tunney web pages and nobody put his stuff up on
YouTube.
But would it interest you to know that Tunney was part of the
1995 HBO New Comedians special? You know who else was in that special?
Dave Chappelle. Dave Attell. Anthony Clark. and Louis C.K.
He was in that class. Here's a link to
Tunney's Comedy Now special. Ironically, I'm in the USA right now, so I can't see this. It's GeoBlocked.
Well. The rain's stopped and the birds' song has gotten louder & happier. A salamander just ran across my foot. You would think that would be gross but it's actually kind of neat. The squirrels are going crazy here jumping from tree to tree. I have a series pitch I'm working right now that would be pretty nifty for one Canadian network. Later this afternoon or tomorrow I'll hit the Library and do the research for that U.S. series pitch I'm cogitating.
I wouldn't say I have one foot in and one foot out yet, but I would say I've laced up a new pair of sneakers. And maybe I'd feel a little differently if I'd found just
one tribute to Tunney from a Canadian site with a little bit of tape. Anything other than a dumped-on-the-web and forgotten
Comedy Now.
But I guess that's what we do. We make it. We dump it somewhere. And we start over from scratch, every time. It's great if you're making spaghetti.
But it's a hell of a way to make TV.
EDIT: Writer & Friend of Sticksville Brent Piaskoski has a warm tribute to Eric Tunney here.