Mar
7
Podcast: Play in new window
Show Notes…
Anthony is pissed off his new mic went for not due to a volume knob malfunction of his own design; pardon the occasional pop of the webcam mic which did yeoperson’s duty under adverse conditions.
Full Dysclosure
Wireless wonders and social media BS:
Canada’s coming wireless free-for-all.
WIND will buy out your ECF — WTF?!!1! (also see Andrew’s 2007 round-up of ECFs…)
Rogers sees red, users see suck.
Planes, trains and tethered mobiles.
Oscar noms and other noms:
A torrent of free SXSW tunes — actually, two of them.
Canada can has Oscar gold?
A healthy Ontario economy is a danger to a healthy Ontario economy.
Tony Clement talks WIPO (but not ACTA).
Your weekly reminders that:
- Region-locking content doesn’t work;
- Digital locks don’t work;
- File sharing ain’t going anywhere soon.
Sites of the Week:
Anth – search all 137 years of Popular Science Magazine online
Andrew – get a free email addy that doesn’t suck at GMX.com
Music:
Dead Messenger: “Fat Black Heart”… great track! — with bonus video!
Re: Filming in Toronto/Ontario.
I work in the industry. We have already been feeling the effect of the stronger dollar. What has harmed us most recently, has been the union issues like the ACTRA strike, the writers strike & SAG threatening to go on strike for over a year. That, combined with the dollar spiking delayed any foreign production from coming to town. We were really screwed for the last 2 years and that resulted in Toronto Film Studios shutting down its Eastern Avenue Studios to pay for the new Filmport studios (now Pinewood)which they eventually had to sell off. This resulted in a lack of studio space and productions by-passing Toronto for Montreal and Vancouver. We are finally seeing a resurgence in production in town but a stronger dollar will likely have an effect.
We shoot a lot of films here that have crews of hundreds of Canadians but are not considered “Canadian” because they are backed by foreign money. I don’t care where my paycheck comes from as long as it doesn’t bounce and it comes regularly.
Cool. Do you work production in some capacity — I mean, actual work as opposed to sitting around all day and then being fabulous for 15 minutes on-camera like I did as an actor so many years ago?
Do you agree that Hollywood is just going to go where the cheapest skilled labour is, and that an industry dependent on a weak Canadian dollar is maybe a bit short-sighted?
Setting up to do my Avatar sequel in Gdansk where I can set up a craft table for 600 crew for only 20 zloty.
Andrew: Yes, I work in production as a set designer. I spend 12 hours a day on my ass in front of a computer drawing sets. Hollywood does seem to be going wherever they can find cheap skilled labour and cheap services. Bulgaria comes to mind. But, there are some Hollywood producers that come to Canada because we actually have highly skilled people that can make great film or television. It is dangerous to have an industry dependent on a weak dollar. We need to sell ourselves as more than cheap labour. We need to sell ourselves as high quality creators or find a resource that only Canada (or Toronto more specifically) can offer to the film industry; whatever that may be.