Source : Toronto Star

Actors scrambling to find work; Funding cuts, SARS to blame

As an actress living and working in Toronto, I remember exactly where I was when the announcement of the Canadian Television Fund cuts came down. I was sitting in Ted's Collision (our usual starving artist watering hole) and, already on a two-drink limit, I quickly cancelled my order and asked for water. The screenwriters, directors and producers I was with did the same.

All together, the war in Iraq, the (oddly) rising Canadian dollar, "runaway" Hollywood productions going to New Zealand, Australia or Eastern Europe and, of course, SARS have all conspired to make this the slowest summer for TV and film production in Toronto in more than 10 years.

And the cuts were just one more thing. The Canadian Television Fund is the bottom card in the fragile house of funding for the television industry. When $25 million from the CTF was slashed in Finance Minister John Manley's budget in April, this season's funding house came tumbling down.

The finance structure of most productions is contingent on getting the fund's help. If that falls through, you don't get any of your other funding, either. Yes, there are other ways to close the gap (i.e. Rogers Telefund), but while you're waiting for that money to materialize, your chances of getting your show ready for market in September is next to impossible. My friend Semi Chellas, head writer and executive producer of The Eleventh Hour, said, "No show in the world is expected to deliver in such a short amount of time.

It's impossible from a writing perspective, as well as it completely undermines the quality."

Those in the industry are obviously up in arms about this devastating loss of lifeblood from an already dying Canadian culture. But the more imminent problem is that many of us are out of a job.

More specifically I am out of an acting job. One Toronto agent told me, "Top actors are taking scale (the minimum union payment) when they never would have before, because there's no work. Even the big actors are so desperate they'll take anything."

That means I, an emerging actor, won't even get seen for a role.

This is in direct contrast to last summer when I was working my way up the ranks of small roles in American sci-fi series, bigger roles in burgeoning Canadian independent films and the big fish that got away, a close second for a lead in a major Canadian TV series.

Now, no American production plus no Canadian production plus a feeding frenzy of top Toronto actors when there is production equals no work for the up-and-comer.

So what do I do? I write articles for newspapers, sign up for pharmaceutical testing (want to freeze my eggs for $5,000? Noooooo problem!) and I take crew jobs.

Yes, luckily, I have a crew job because I happened to hook one friend up with another friend and together they created a TV show. That means I get work. Even though the show was delayed for months because of the Canadian Television Fund cuts (leaving me unemployed with no insurance), I now have a job.

Most others don't. I've stopped going to industry parties in order to avoid the inevitable,

"You're on a show? How did you get that? I thought you were an actress? Have you got your crew all lined up? I'm free. Do you need anyone? I'm free. I'll be anything you need. Anything."

People are desperate because this drought is happening during what's supposed to be the busiest time of year. Crew and actors do nothing from December to March except write their memoirs and wish they had more than basic cable. They dream of summer, the time they will make their money for the year.

This year, however, there is no busy season, just a lot of anxious people wondering if they can make their mortgage payments or pay their rent.

A screenwriter friend who has been plying his trade professionally for five years related that "every show I was attached to has been scrapped. I'm going to start looking for a bartending job." Not that that's an option: SARS has put a squeeze on the restaurant industry as well.

Bread-and-butter writers like my friend are being forced out of the business because producers are forced to look for cheaper ways to do things.

That means fewer scripted programs (the most expensive because they require writers and actors) or using material that is just plain cheap (read: crap). Mid-level writers can't take those jobs because it devalues their reputation and results in a stiff fine from the Writers Guild of Canada for taking non-union work.

That means "reality" programming. Lots and lots of it.

But we can't blame the producers because they're scrambling, too. My friend Meredith Caplan, head of development at Associated Producers, says that broadcasters "are holding off on decisions for new development, as well as for projects that have already been green-lit." Producers are running around, spending time and money trying to come up with any viable programming for the coming season so they can have a job.

For Toronto in particular, all this cost-cutting is creating a "runaway production" problem of its own. Once the most funded province in Canada, Ontario has seen its TV and film support disappear under the Conservatives. When producers can get funding for up to 20 per cent of their production by shooting in Manitoba or Nova Scotia, that's the difference between a go show and no show.

Translation: Toronto is now our least competitive city to film in.

The Many Trials Of Jane Doe, a CBC movie-of-the-week that aired last season, is a story set in Toronto. However it was shot in Winnipeg because the CBC couldn't get enough money to shoot it here. That means they used Manitoban actors and Manitoban crew and Toronto film money went to Manitoban businesses.

Jon Baltrusaitis, an independent editor, said, "For the first time in years it's hard to pay the rent. It's even worse than after Sept. 11. Everyone's on hold waiting for money, productions are in jeopardy and it has led to a real air of uncertainty."

Crew members have already left Toronto for Vancouver, which is supposed to be having its busiest season yet. Can you blame them?

Performers are going, too. Trevor Hayes, a Toronto actor, is moving to Montreal because "there's nothing going on in this city for me to make a living. So I'm going where the work is. I'm going somewhere where they make their own art a priority."

Three months after the first announcement, Manley said he was restoring half of the Canadian Television Fund cuts. The extra money has been borrowed from next year's fund allotment, meaning we'll get even less next year. Unable to take the uncertainty anymore, many industry people are getting out of the business altogether, going to more secure jobs, like teaching the next crop of filmmakers how not to get work.

But maybe I'm looking at this wrong.

With all of those industry people dropping out, maybe I'll be the last actor standing. I'll be the best actor to hire in Toronto because I'll be the only actor in Toronto.

Of course I'll also have to write, direct, produce, cast, grip, light, design and cater.

© The Toronto Star