WIFT-T to undertake broad study of Canada’s “screen media” sector

Women in Film and Television –Toronto (WIFT-T) has embarked on an ambitious study to profile Canada’s "screen-based media," which include film, television and new media. The study will be the first of its kind in 10 years, says WIFT-T president and past chair Kate Hanley, and will report on a broad number of industry-defining parameters with a view to helping government make appropriate policy decisions. With a raft of heavyweight partners on the project’s steering committee and deep-pocketed confirmed and to-be-confirmed financing partners on board, the study promises to be one of the most comprehensive yet of the broad Can-adian entertainment industry. The study, which will explore gender participation in the industry, freelance versus full-time employment, salaries, job definitions, awards and public recognition, how government assistance is apportioned (including on a gender basis) and education, has already begun, as independent consultants Kealy Wilkinson and Maria DeRosa have been sorting through a mountain of secondary material since early January. A report is expected to be issued in September. Exact details of the financing for the project haven’t been announced, but the list of partners in funding the initiative is impressive and bespeaks some significant resources. To date, Human Resources Development Canada, the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC), Bell Globemedia, Industry Canada, the Ontario Media Development Corp., French-language television broadcaster TVA, the National Film Board, Canadian Heritage, and CHUM Limited have been confirmed as funding partners, with more to come. Hanley won’t say, however, what the project’s final budget will be. Hanley says the study is needed as Canada’s cultural community is rocked by changes including new technologies and globalization, which have created a "new playing field. Industry restructuring means we need to be able to understand how we can be ready for the future." The government, she says, needs to know what skills and jobs will be needed moving forward in the sector to be able to create appropriate training programs and policies. According to Hanley, proof that the study is needed was had recently when the CHRC released its report, Face of the Future, A Study of Human Resource Issues in Canada’s Cultural Sector. The report makes several recommendations to begin developing a pan-Canadian human resources strategy for the cultural industries. Hanley says the undertaking is impossible without a framework for systematic analysis of the sector.The findings, besides being important fodder for the CHRC as it develops training policies to help cultural workers take advantage of technological change, will also be used to help WIFT-T strengthen its own extensive professional development initiatives. Sources including Hanley say the project is the culmination of three years of pitching government for funding. The initiative will also be different from others undertaken in recent years, both in Ontario and nationally, in that it will focus entirely on the cultural content producing sectors, including new media, to the exclusion of companies creating non-entertainment-related software. Also being left off the table are the in-house teams of larger corporations, though the for-fee-service companies will be included. Other studies, including one currently being undertaken by the Software Human Resources Council, have tended to be broader and include, for example, ecommerce or other applications developers (CNM, Sept. 18/02). WIFT-T has pulled together an impressive steering committee for the project that includes several high-profile new media analysts and consultants, including Aurel Langlois of the Interactive Multimedia Arts & Technologies Association; Delvinia Inc.’s Adam Froman; Smart Toronto Technology Alliance’s Julian Wharton; and a co-author of Technology with Curves, Denise Shortt.

WIFT-T to undertake broad study of Canada’s “screen media” sector

News | 03/06/2003 5:00 am EST

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