(Toronto) The strike by American screenwriters also affects Canadian productions, while many Hollywood shoots are made in Canada, such as The Boys of Prime Video in Toronto, and A personal matter from Netflix in Vancouver.
Last week, the Writers Guild of America called its strike, after negotiations with Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down over a myriad of complex issues, including compensation and staffing levels.
Patti Henderson, a costume designer in Vancouver, notes a precipitous drop in shoots that employ local crews.
Last week’s decision by the Writers Guild of America to drop their pens for the picket boards sparked immediate uncertainty over the status of current and upcoming US productions filming in Canada, with Henderson noting a precipitous drop in filming in Vancouver which employ local teams.
“There’s literally nothing on our list of upcoming productions, if you will. And that really hurts a lot of people here,” she says, noting that the situation is particularly difficult for young people starting their careers.
The Vancouver Film Bureau is reporting a drop in applications for filming permits, while the Toronto Film Bureau is seeing less scouting activity.
“The productions were slower and more cautious about the green light or the start of production, the start of production, because they did not know whether or not they would be disrupted by the strike,” says the Toronto film commissioner. , Marguerite Pigott.
At least “one major production” has been put on hold since the May 2 walkout, she said, revealing nothing about the project except that it “employed many, many people at the over time”.
Vancouver Film Commissioner Geoff Teoli estimates permit applications over the past 90 days have dropped 40-50% from the same period last year.
He adds that the decline is not limited to Vancouver or solely due to the strike, suggesting it is part of a broader shift in the global market as broadcasters and producers rethink the way they create content. international.
He notices little impact in Vancouver so far, as most of the American productions already underway can continue with scripts already completed that do not require the work of a screenwriter. But “the longer the strike lasts, the greater the risk that they will run out of the materials they need to continue”.
Victoria Shen of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) says no production has stopped and Canadian guild members — many of whom have dual WGA and WGC memberships — have not the right to accept work covered by the strike. WGA members who reside in the United States are also not permitted to work on a Canadian show while the dispute continues.
Meanwhile, more labor disputes could soon arise, as the Directors Guild of America and the American performers’ union, known as SAG-AFTRA, both have contracts that expire on June 30.
An economic report from the Canadian Media Producers Association released last week found that productions from overseas — almost all of which originated in the United States — spent $6.7 billion on Canadian shoots and involved 141,140 jobs between 1er April 2021 and March 31, 2022.