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CANADIAN CANADA $7 SUMMER 2016 VOL.18, NO.3 SCREENWRITER FILM | TELEVISION | RADIO | DIGITAL MEDIA The WGC Celebrates 25 Years PM40011669 BellMedia_WGCmag2016_AD.pdf 1 2016-04-26 3:20 PM CANADIAN SCREENWRITER The journal of the Writers Guild of Canada Vol. 18 No. 3 Summer 2016 Contents ISSN 1481-6253 Cover Publication Mail Agreement Number 25th Anniversary — WGC Marks 400-11669 A Milestone 6 Publisher Maureen Parker From savvy collective bargaining to Editor Tom Villemaire learning to lobby to creating a community [email protected] of writers — an oral history of the WGC. Director of Communications Li Robbins By Steve Lucas Editorial Advisory Board Denis McGrath (Chair) Features Michael MacLennan Optimism Rules! 20 Susin Nielsen Simon Racioppa On such an auspicious occasion, we decided to find out how screenwriters keep a positive attitude, President Jill Golick (Central) even during challenging times. Councillors By Matthew Hays Michael Amo (Atlantic) Mark Ellis (Central) Dennis Heaton (Pacific) Words From The Top 24 Denis McGrath (Central) Working on behalf of screenwriters, the Presidents Anne-Marie Perrotta (Quebec) past and present of the WGC give us a Andrew Wreggitt (Western) look at what has gone on behind the scenes. Art Direction Studio Ours By Mark Dillon Design Studio Ours & Sheida Shekarian Printing Ironstone Media What’s Ahead — A Fresh Perspective From Newer Members 46 Canadian Screenwriter is published three times a year by Newer WGC members reflect on the whys and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). wherefores (and challenges) of creating homegrown stories 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 401 that journey out into the world and reach new audiences. Toronto, Ontario M5V 1R9 By Tom Villemaire TEL: (416) 979-7907 FAX: (416) 979-9273 WEBSITE: www.wgc.ca The WGC Awards 28 The night just for screenwriters, recognizing Subscriptions: WGC members receive a subscription as part of their membership. our best and brightest. Our members are our base Non-member subscriptions: $20 for and it’s all about the base. three issues. With photographs by Christina Gapic Advertising policy: Readers should not assume that any products or services Columns advertised in Canadian Screenwriter are From the Editor/Contributors 2 endorsed by the WGC. Inside/Out — Jill Golick 3 Editorial Policy: The WGC neither implicitly nor explicitly endorses opinions or attitudes From The Frontlines — Laurie Channer 54 expressed in Canadian Screenwriter. Submissions are subject to editing for News length, style and content. Beat Sheet 4 Advertising Sales: Members Spotlight 50 Visit www.wgc.ca or contact Li Robbins at [email protected] New Members 53 Letters to the editor are subject to editing Money for Missing Writers 53 for length. Not all letters are published. FROM THE EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS A Tenacious Guild Is A Summer 2016 Good Thing Laurie Channer is a When the Guild began a quarter century ago, the Internet wasn’t a thing. Toronto writer specializing Streaming wasn’t a thing. Webisodes — also not a thing. in dark fiction. Her debut Heck, most of us were still watching movies at home on VHS. novel, Godblog, has been At least one of us had a pick-up truck with an eight-track player in it. optioned for a feature film. Yes, still in the early 1990s, it lived. Her short fiction has also Who knows what will be around in another 25 years? been published or reprinted in Some stuff will be predictable. But that’s not the thing that will anthologies in the company of turn the world upside down. such luminaries as Bram Stoker, I mean if back in the 1960s someone said that in a decade you’d be Stephen Leacock, and Anton able to buy a metal box you put food in and cook it with radio waves, you’d Chekhov, all of whom she gets be skeptical. Man, I groove to radio waves; I don’t cook with them. (You’d billed above in the alphabetical say something like that because, hey man, it was the ‘60s.) You’d be con- author bios. vinced there would be a better chance of flying cars and jet packs than some box that cooked food with radio waves. Mark Dillon is a Toronto-based And yet the lack of affordable jet packs is still a sore disappointment freelance journalist and former for many of us. Okay, at least one of us. editor of Playback magazine. He And flying cars.... Well, let’s just be thankful they haven’t taken off. is author of the award-winning But microwave ovens, they’re everywhere. Fifty Sides of The Beach Boys. New technology enters the market at an accelerating pace. Who thought you’d ever top having lasers play your music? And yet compact Matthew Hays is a Montreal- disc players dominated for what — only two decades — before being pret- based writer, author, and ty much swept aside by other forms of digital recording. university and college instructor. Film was slowly replaced by videotape, but both seemed to have a His articles have appeared in solid and linear lock on things. Now you have movies and television and The Globe and Mail, The New web shows being recorded on memory chips. And you have 3D and 4K York Times, The Guardian, and virtual reality. Vice, Maclean’s, The Walrus, Not only is the technology coming faster; it’s cheaper and more Cineaste, POV, and The Toronto accessible. Star. He teaches courses in film You can do things with a phone these days that would have seemed studies at Marianopolis College bizarre 25 years ago. When the Guild began, some of us thought technolo- and Concordia University. His gy had reached its heights through the innovation of twist caps that virtu- book, The View from Here: ally rendered bottle openers obsolete. Who would possibly have fathomed Conversations with Gay and that your phone could replace your point and shoot camera and family Lesbian Filmmakers (Arsenal Super 8 or video camera — and many other things — all in one swoop? Pulp), won a 2008 Lambda Well, someone did. People do think about these possibilities. Literary Award and he received All these things — the ‘what-could-be’ things — offer both chal- the Concordia President’s lenges and opportunities. That’s why the Guild is an essential resource Award for Teaching Excellence for writers and the industry. After all, the Guild succeeded against some for 2013-14. pretty big odds, as you’ll see in this edition with our piece on the WGC’s oral history. Looking ahead to the next 25 years, the Guild will continue Steve Lucas is a Toronto- to help define the opportunities and challenges and determine the best based writer-producer with 30 way to address them. productions and more than 100 Because change is always coming, and more often than not, it’s for hours of films and TV shows to the good — if you have a tenacious organization like the Guild to deal his credit. He also coordinates with it. the Advanced Television and But I still miss that old truck. Film Script to Screen Program at Centennial College. He has been — Tom Villemaire a Guild member since 1981. 2 INSIDE/OUT – FROM THE PRESIDENT Truth Only Comes From A Free Voice Two sentences from the game. Sell those eyeballs. But writers are given time, space, CRTC’s 2016-2019 Three Year that model is disintegrating funding and freedom to create. Plan are alarming: before our eyes. Forget channels The result? Series that Danes “The CRTC will participate and networks. Consumers love. Plus the unexpected bonus in a working group with the want access to big libraries of that the same series are highly Canada Media Fund, Telefilm programming that they can exportable — both the original and Rogers Telefund to assist consume at their convenience. productions and as formats. with implementing pilot projects They don’t want gates, In these two cases, the goal in the area of Canadian content restrictions or the fast forward is attracting audiences. In both, certification. The CRTC will controls on their remotes success comes when writers lead process certification requests from disabled. And they definitely the creative; when their passion the production sector in accordance don’t want advertising. for their tales and their unique with the pilot projects.” We’ve entered an era of voices imbue the final product. Obtuse? Absolutely. Here’s infinite choice. When audiences In Canada, stories are one what I think it will mean: some have access to so much, how of our greatest natural renewable projects will qualify for the do you get them to choose your resources. We are a diverse people highest levels of funding and product? When HBO launched spread out across an immense count toward broadcasters’ a subscription service, they had and beautiful country. Our past, CanCon requirements even if to attract an audience willing our present, our future, our the writers, directors and actors to pay for a product which was dreams: these are the stories that are not Canadian. Although already free and abundant on the Canadian media industry has foreigners are taking the key network television. They bet left unmined. It is time for these creative roles, these projects on distinctive programming. stories to be told, by Canadian will be certified as Canadian. They gave writer-creators writers who are passionate about This isn’t just participation in a creative control, allowing their telling them. working group. The CRTC will unique voices to shine through For decades, our certify these projects. And the big as they took us deep into fresh broadcasters have been trying to three funders will finance them.