They reuse sets, sort the trash, make sure makeup is non-toxic and ensure water bottles are reusable. Welcome to the fascinating world of eco-coordinators, the new members of film crews tasked with making productions more environmentally friendly.

Shooting a movie or series is a major undertaking where filmmakers see a work, and often a dream, come to life before their eyes. But behind every production there are props, costumes, makeup, generators and a hungry crew to feed, all of which generates a huge amount of waste and requires massive amounts of energy. It’s the dark side of the business. 

According to France-based Ecoprod, which promotes eco-friendly best practices in the audiovisual industry, filming a typical feature film generates 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, an amount equal to 10,000 airplanes making return flights between Toronto and Montreal. 

With such a huge carbon footprint, it’s no wonder more productions are hiring eco-coordinators. 

Louis Cabanac was an eco-coordinator on the Quebec set of writer/director Philippe Falardeau’s Mille secrets, mille dangers, scheduled for release later this year. “I was responsible for ensuring that the production met a number of environmental or eco-friendly objectives and for following up with department heads,” he explains. 

The eco-coordinator position is not yet fully defined and can vary from project to project. 

“It’s a new role in the industry with great potential and it’s all very exciting,” says Melanie Windle, co-founder and executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Society, a Canadian non-profit set up to accelerate sustainable development in the arts, culture and entertainment sectors. 

“There’s a lot of discussion going on about expanding this service,” Windle says from Los Angeles where she’s participating in L.A. Climate Week. “We’re on the hunt for talent in other industries, including the environmental science and sustainability management areas, targeting candidates who probably never gave a single thought to pursuing a career in the entertainment business.” 

While Windle admits it’s still a bit like the Wild West on set, her colleague Zena Harris, founder and president of Green Spark Group, a sustainable development consulting firm for the entertainment industry based in Western Canada, assures us she and her team are working hard to develop clear guidelines and more consistent job descriptions.  

Planning ahead

An eco-coordinator’s work usually begins before filming starts. During pre-production for Mille secrets, mille dangers, for example, schedules were constructed to minimize truck movement at the end of the day. “We left the trucks on set during the evening and hired a security guard. We saved time on travel, technicians working overtime and fuel,” says Cabanac. 

Another task for Cabanac was to ensure the production complied with Quebec’s Rolling Green program, set up in 2021 by the Quebec Film and Television Council, the Quebec Eco-Responsible Events Council and Quebecor. The program calls on audiovisual production companies to implement sustainable measures from a pre-established list. Points awarded for each measure determine a production’s accreditation level.  

No bottled drinks were allowed on the Mille secrets, mille dangers set. Instead, beverages were kept in large coolers, and crew members had to have their own reusable bottles. Tableware provided by the caterer was also reusable. 

Hair and makeup presented a significant challenge. There were 20 to 30 actors on set for a wedding scene and up to 150 extras in other scenes. Cosmetics had to be non-toxic, organic and never tested on animals. Mineral oil-based aerosols and disposable wipes were strictly verboten. And the crew prioritized bulk or minimally packaged products. 

Weighing the consequences

Twice a day for the entire 36-day shoot, Cabanac collected every scrap of rubbish, emptied all the bins, recycling and compost, and carefully weighed each category of waste. Then he removed the waste that was poorly sorted and did a second weighing. The difference between the two weighings determined the contamination rate, which he shared with Rolling Green and his team. 

“I took it up to a level that even Rolling Green didn’t know existed,” he says with a wink. 

While some measures caused grumbling at first, it was a collective effort, and a sense of cooperation prevailed. Cabanac also created a tracking tool to measure the team’s efforts each day and help them reach the 90-point threshold needed for the highest level of accreditation.  

“Many people came to see me because they were getting eco-anxiety on set, and it did them a lot of good to see how conscientious I was,” he says. 

Get the team involved

Zena Harris, on the other hand, objects to eco-coordinators sorting rubbish. She sees that as a waste of talent. They should be coordinating tasks with the team that manages waste instead. 

Ideally, she says, each production should have a dedicated sustainability team with an advisor hired before filming begins, a supervisor and a coordinator. “Of course, the needs of any two productions are never the same,” Harris says. 

“Instead of just one person taking on everything, the sustainability team should arrange things so that the entire crew participates in the decarbonization and sustainability process,” says Windle. 

The cost of being eco-friendly

Making environmentally responsible choices can sometimes be more expensive, especially when it comes to materials. But Mille secrets, mille dangers production manager Pascal Bascaron insists it doesn’t have to be. All it takes is a change in habits. Micro_scope Productions allocated a mere one percent of its budget to its green plan, including Cabanac’s salary. 

The main expense was a $12,000 hybrid generator to power the nine trailers on set. Energy consumption dropped from 24 hours a day to around three, making back 60 percent of the generator’s cost in energy savings. 

Windle and Harris both note that speakers at L.A. Climate Week felt reducing carbon footprints on sets could lead to significant cost savings if done right. One speaker even described how a single set was used for four different productions in Toronto and Los Angeles, transforming from a dentist’s office to a business office, a courtroom and finally a hotel. 

“Yes, our industry is a polluter,” Windle says. “But we’re also innovative and fast on our feet. Our people are known for their talent, their drive and their commitment. If anyone can decarbonize and change their habits by learning from each other, we can.” 

The post It’s not easy being green, but it’s worth it  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

In Canada, the words “cultural” and “sovereignty” have never been uttered together more often, spurred by threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. So what does the term mean?

Key players in our cultural industries are writing passionate editorials about it. Politicians are demanding no effort be spared in defending it. “It” being that thing makes Canadian culture unique. Whatever that might be. 

In the leadup to the recent federal election, discussions of “cultural sovereignty” were everywhere.  

For some Canadians, the term means our nation’s right to define, protect and promote its own values, traditions, languages and forms of artistic expression — free from outside interference.  

For others, it involves a clear commitment to the arts and culture, enabling us to tell our own story or, more accurately, stories, by empowering our local cultures to authentically reflect their own narratives. 

Cultural sovereignty also means not allowing foreign cultural enterprises to monopolize the film, music and performing arts sectors on our own territory. 

Whatever the exact definition, an overwhelming majority of Canadians are concerned about our cultural sovereignty. A poll just released by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) shows that 91 percent of all Canadians want to protect their country’s culture and national identity from U.S. influence. 

What’s more, 83 percent want to see additional investment in Canadian television, movies and digital media. Nine out of 10 respondents believe such content ought to be owned and controlled by Canadian companies, not U.S. studios, and 86 percent want CBC/Radio-Canada, our public broadcaster, to produce content that reflects our history and values. 

Nonetheless, we have yet to define what we really mean by Canadian identity and culture. 

It’s time for a national discussion

In a March 17 opinion piece published in The Hill Times and titled “Urgent: Let’s Be Bold About our National Identity,” Canadian Senator Andrew Cardozo suggested, “We need a national discussion on our Canadian identity — how to maintain it and how to grow it.” 

Professor François Colbert of the Department of Marketing at HEC Montréal shares this view. English Canada, he believes, must start thinking seriously about what defines it culturally, “over and above just saying we aren’t Americans.” 

“In Quebec, we talk about this all the time. I think English Canada is finally waking up,” says Colbert, who also holds the Carmelle and Rémi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management at the bilingual business school. “Of course, the problem for English Canada is its shared language with the U.S. On the other hand, Australia, New Zealand, England and Scotland also share a common language yet manage to have their own sense of cultural pride.” 

Colbert thinks our narrative should be built around both Canadian history and what we’re accomplishing now, particularly with regard to Canada’s First Nations. “We care about our First Nations, we care about rebuilding meaningful connections, which is something the U.S. does not do,” he says. 

Cultural sovereignty was also the topic of a debate in Montreal on April 14. One of the participants, Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux, opened with a quip about how interesting it is that federalists are now talking about sovereignty, too. 

Champoux pointed out that the issue of francophone and Québécois culture has always been his party’s priority. 

New Democrat Marwan El-Attar argued that what defines a society is its culture. “We have poetry, theatre, music. That’s what defines a civilization. Not pipelines,” he said, taking a shot at Canada’s Liberal and Conservative parties, who both expressed support for building gas pipelines across the country during the election. 

Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault reminded the audience that Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed him as Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, as well as Minister of Parks, because identity is one of the most important issues raised by the American threat. “That includes arts and culture and our two official languages, as well as Indigenous languages and cultures. Appreciation of our green spaces and our land is also an element that defines us in terms of identity and point of view,” he said. 

Safeguarding cultural institutions

How do we protect this cultural sovereignty? According to Cardozo, it begins with Canadian institutions. “We need to talk about the institutions we have, evaluate how effective they are, and how they can be reformed for the new world, with all the challenges we face. We need more of these institutions, not fewer,” he wrote in that essay in The Hill Times. 

As examples, Cardozo cites the Canada Council for the Arts, the outstanding museums in Ottawa, Halifax and Winnipeg, as well as art galleries, national parks and waterways across the country. 

According to Guilbeault, funding for those cultural institutions is available. He points out that federal budgets for culture have increased by 50 percent in the past 10 years — though cultural needs have also increased, with growing concern for minority groups, including those from diverse backgrounds, and Indigenous peoples. 

Though not in a position to offer guarantees, Guilbeault pledged to do “everything we can” to meet the demand for additional assistance under the various programs of the Canadian Heritage Department and the Canada Council.  

He added that if there is significant negative impact from U.S. tariffs his party will assist the cultural community as it did during the pandemic. 

Confronting the American machine

Competition from the digital giants like Amazon, Alphabet and Meta is also a core issue. “In Donald Trump’s first term he didn’t have all the digital giants on side as friends, urging him to tear down the barriers that prevent them from operating without restrictions here. That’s now a major concern,” Champoux said. 

To defend the Canadian film industry against the American machine, Colbert suggests we need more input from film producers and cinema chains. “We’re supporting the films but not their distribution,” he says. The marketing professor suggests one way around the problem could be to have dedicated movie theatres showcasing Canadian cinema with government support. 

We already have National Canadian Film Day, which broke records on April 16 with close to 2,000 screenings of Canadian films — proof that we care about and want local stories, and also a reaction against U.S. influence. 

Current events “are forcing Canadians to think, which is not a bad thing,” Colbert says. “In any case, 90 percent of Canadians don’t want to be Americans. We’ve been given a push, and now we need to push back by building up some true Canadian pride.”   

The post Defining Cultural Sovereignty  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Canadians get a lot of credit for being funny. From sketch to sit-coms we have a knack for making people laugh. While there’s no one recipe for funny, there are some specifically Canadian ingredients that are spread liberally throughout our wittiest shows. 

Can you feel it? 

There’s a lot of anger out there. 

Canadians are feeling peeved, vexed, annoyed. 

Much of that wrath is directed at our neighbours to the south and a particular American president. 

One way to deal with the stress of tariffs, annexation and whatever else the universe is throwing at us is to turn off the bad news and turn on a TV comedy.  

Laughter may not be the best medicine, but it is something Canadians turn to, and is something we are very good at creating.  

How do we do it? 

We’re a small nation of 40-million people who hail from diverse cultural backgrounds. We live spread out across a huge nation, from remote communities to big cities. And for the past 70 years we’ve gone head-to-head with big-budget American comedies.  

Spend a few minutes channel surfing and you’ll come across any number of stellar Canadian comedies — Letterkenny, Small Achievable Goals, Schitt’s Creek, North of North, Kim’s Convenience, Shoresy, to name just a few. 

The types of comedy, performers and subject matter vary but they all make us laugh. 

So, what is the common denominator? 

It’s our sense of community, or rather communities. 

Communities Ferment Funny

There are shows that celebrate life in small towns where everyone knows each other — and each other’s business. No character escapes scrutiny, but then again no one is ostracized. It’s about connectedness served up as a smorgasbord of comedic dishes.  

The fish-out-of-water Rose family finds a home in Schitt’s Creek. Hockey players, farmers and Mennonites unite using crude wordplay in Letterkenny, and there’s nothing but clever ribbing among the Dog River townsfolk of Corner Gas. 

And our comedies dive deep into multiculturalism. Unlike many American TV comedies, Canadian shows embrace our cultural diversity, playfully tackling stereotypes and exposing them for laughs.  

It’s been part of our media landscape for decades. 

Da Kink in My Hair, set in a hair salon in the heart of Toronto’s Caribbean-Canadian community, broke ground in 2007 as the first Canadian comedy created by and starring Black women.  

Little Mosque on the Prairie enlightened viewers about the Muslim faith. 

Kim’s Convenience found humour by juxtaposing traditional Korean and modern Canadian cultures while opening a window into the immigrant experience as shopkeepers Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and Umma (Jean Yoon) dealt with life in a new nation.  

When the characters spoke with Korean accents some critics took exception, thinking it was used to garner cheap laughs. But in 2016 Lee told MacLean’s, “The accent — the accent isn’t the joke. It’s part of who he is, but it isn’t the joke…. Appa is not just a voice. He’s not a stereotype. A stereotype is the end of a character.” 

These shows paved the way for some of today’s most innovative Canadian comedies. Queer culture is celebrated and skewered in I Hate People, People Hate Me. An unhappy Inuk mother looks to reinvent herself in North of North. We follow the hilarious misadventures of a Punjabi Sikh millennial and wannabe influencer in Late Bloomer. Two young First Nations women make all the wrong decisions on their way to adulthood in Don’t Even. 

Differing Tastes in Canada and the U.S.?

It’s fascinating to compare Canadian versus American comedy. 

While so many of our comedies centre around specific communities, American shows find their humour in the workplace. The Office, Parks and Recreation, Superstore, 30 Rock, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Party Down and Abbott Elementary come to mind. 

Of course we see characters outside of work on those shows, but most of the laughs bubble up from workplace mishaps, relationships and pressures. 

Perhaps it’s because the tenets of American society — the drive to succeed, acquiring status and wealth — are so deeply ingrained in their culture that creators consider the workplace a wellspring of comedy. 

Sketch Comedy is a Staple

When Canadians want to make fun of the workplace we turn to sketch comedy and, not to brag — that would be very unCanadian — but our sketch comedy is world class. 

SCTV, first broadcast in 1976, set the standard for sketch shows and its influence reverberates today. Set in a fictitious TV station in the fictitious town of Melonville, SCTV parodied all things TV, including the pain of working for a low-budget network. The show’s young cast went on to become comedy legends, including Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, John Candy, Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis. 

SCTV’s legacy inspired Kids in the Hall’s troupe of Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Scott Thompson, Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney. The men took great delight in lampooning office work, whether it was in the recurring “Secretaries” skit (featuring Cathy with a C and Kathy with a K), or mocking businessmen (sometimes by crushing their heads), nine-to-five life never looked sillier. 

And a big shoutout to the Baroness Von Sketch Show’s all-female ensemble of Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor, Jennifer Whalen and Aurora Browne, who skewered the modern workplace with piercing feminist humour in sketches such as “Honesty Circle,” in which nervous office workers are encouraged to share their feelings in a “safe space,” and are then fired anyway.  

Add a Dash of Compassion

It’s been said that one of Canada’s greatest exports is our goodwill, whether it be peacekeepers or comedians. 

In a 2019 interview with the website Refinery 29, Catherine O’Hara said, “At the risk of self-regard, I'd say that we Canadians know how to make fun of ourselves without it being all about us. We laugh with the world with intelligence and compassion and, often, with a dark sense of humour.”  

It is telling that O’Hara includes compassion in her definition.  

If there is one thing the world needs now, it’s compassion. We can still poke fun at ourselves and others in these uncertain times, but let’s do so with the understanding that our shortcomings and missteps are what make us human and unite us beyond any borders. 

The post What’s the Secret Sauce Behind Canadian Comedy?  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

To keep things moving smoothly on set, the screen industry counts on a small army of coaches who work with young actors. What exactly do they do, and how do their skills save productions time and money?

Anik Matern has been coaching young actors on Canadian TV sets for nearly 40 years. From Space Cases to This Life (the English adaptation of the successful Quebec series Nouvelle adresse), she’s a bilingual trailblazer in the field, guiding child performers as they develop their characters, learn their lines and follow their directors’ instructions. 

“What’s most important to me is that the young actors fully embrace who they are, because at that age they’re still their own person with the freedom to be really authentic and spontaneous with their emotions and actions intact,” says Matern. 

She feels her work is more important than ever given the accelerated shooting schedules on sets these days. “And with all due respect, directors today rarely have the time they used to for bonding and building trusting relationships with actors,” she says. “So, I make sure they have a safe space to give their best when the camera starts rolling.” 

Like many coaches, Matern is often called in to help young actors who have to shoot emotionally challenging scenes. Even though she’s not a psychologist or teacher, she manages to delve into a child’s psyche with deep respect and sensitivity.  

“It’s something that benefits the whole production team because a well-supported young actor will be more likely to access the desired emotion in fewer takes,” Matern says. She recalls the time she prepared a young actor who’d just lost a loved one for a scene by sharing how she grieved when her own father passed away. 

CHILD’S PLAY 

But how can a coach get the desired results from a young actor without upstaging the director? 
 
For Flavien Demeure, an acting coach who was born and started his career in France, the trick is to make everything like playing a game. “Between takes I often ask my young actors about their interests and motivations over a game of UNO,” he says. “Depending on their answers, I then work with them on a related emotion.” 

Demeure remembers deliberately cheating in a game on the set of the 2023 film Kanaval to help young actor Rayan Dieudonné tap into the frustration felt by his character, a nine-year-old boy forced to leave his native Haiti with his mother and settle in Quebec. “I knew Rayan was a bad loser, so I used that to our advantage in getting him into character,” Demeure says, proud of his strategy. 

Coaches are also responsible for controlling their young actors’ energy, motivation and fatigue levels to ensure they deliver their best at all times. One strategy is to ask that complex scenes be scheduled at the start of the day whenever possible. They also ensure their young charges get enough breaks, and nutritious snacks, throughout the day. 

ACTING AS WATCHDOGS 

Coaches are also watchdogs. Acting in accordance with a strict code of ethics, they ensure the stage direction is never too traumatic, or contrary to their clients’ best interests. 

“We keep our young actors safe whenever a production gets overly demanding or intimidating,” Demeure says. He acts as the middleman between his young actors, the crew and the director.  

“Most actors are hypersensitive by nature,” Matern says. “The last thing we want is their enthusiasm for acting to be dampened because of some unpleasant experience on set.” 

Eleven-year-old Kiara Gaudin confirms that her experience with coaches has been helpful and positive. She had no problem letting her coach know if she felt uncomfortable, or even afraid, while filming L’aréna, a sketch-comedy show in which she played an inept hockey player.  

“Even though everything went very well, I was glad to have a big sister on my side,” she says. “I get more nervous sometimes just going to school than being on set, where I really feel I should be.” 

WHEN THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, THEIR PARENTS ARE, TOO 

Coaches need to create trusting relationships with their clients’ parents or guardians as well. “I make my commitment, and my expectations, clear from day one and I also make sure I’m aware of their limits,” Demeure says. 

Kiara’s mother says the feedback she gets from the set makes a big difference. “I really appreciate the updates from the coaches about her work and what she needs to improve. It guides me in helping Kiara practice her lines at home,” she says. 

To keep things running smoothly, coaches warn against acting out the script with one’s child or being a walking teleprompter. “As a professional actor myself I have what it takes to read between the lines, and am well-versed in what the job demands,” Matern says. She’s seen controlling mothers step in and try to coach their daughters, only to throw them off their game. 

OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND INTO THE SPOTLIGHT 

Acting coaches are finally being recognized for their contributions to the screen industry and rewarded accordingly. 

“We’re a long way from the days when no one here understood the value of what we do, something that has long been understood in the United States,” Matern says. “Today, Canadian acting coaches know they’re appreciated for making a difference in so many ways.” 

Demeure sees his impact in the success of the young actors he coaches and in the recognition from his peers. “There’s no better praise than a pat on the back like that,” he says.  

The post The Value of Having an On-Set Coach for Child Actors Goes Beyond Dollars And Cents  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

If you think you’re seeing more adaptations of literary works on big and small screens, you’re right. Why the surge?

While books have always provided rich source material for movies, TV and web series, this feels like a particularly fertile time for such adaptations.  

On the small screen, think of The Handmaid’s Tale and Alias Grace, both based on Margaret Atwood novels, the comedy Son of a Critch, inspired by creator Mark Critch’s memoir, Essex County, an adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel, Three Pines, based on Louise Penny’s series of novels, or the perennial favourites Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland — both of which claim literary source material. On the big screen, books also mean big success. Recent examples include Paying For It, based on the Chester Brown graphic novel, and Darkest Miriam from a Martha Baillie novel. Those last two were nominated at the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards. And then there’s Women Talking — Sarah Polley’s take on the Miriam Toews book that earned Polley an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. We Forgot to Break Up and Blackberry also sprang from books.  

It's a boom time for such adaptations in Quebec, too, where we’re about to get adaptations of Michel Jean’s Qimmik directed by Anik Jean, Alain Farah’s Mille secrets mille dangers directed by Philippe Farlardeau, Jean Barbe’s Comment devenir un monstre directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, and Sébastien Dulude’s Amiante directed by Yan Giroux. 

While there is little Canadian data to illustrate the trend, research from France’s Centre national du livre (National Book Centre) indicates that, in that country, nearly one in five audiovisual productions (18 percent) is adapted from a literary work, and production of TV series based on books increased by 112 percent from 2015 to 2021.

Quebec’s Happy Camper Média is familiar with this territory. The animation studio/production house has already adapted the children’s books L’Agent Jean!, Mini-Jean et Mini-Bulle, Les Dragouilles and La petite Dragouille for the small screen.  

Its 50-person team — up from just eight in 2019 — is now hard at work adapting the Savais-tu? book collection into video shorts that will be released at the end of the year. They’re also working on a film version of L’Agent Jean! 

Books give you a leg up

According to Happy Camper president and executive producer Renaud Sylvain there’s a good reason behind the wave of literary adaptations. The development process is accelerated when adapting a book because demand already exists and the public knows what to expect. 

“What goes on as part of the L’Agent Jean! and Dragouilles worldview is no mystery,” Sylvain says. “Those books sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies. Anyone working in the children’s fiction market knows what’s up in terms of content, literature, games and the like. And these brands are red hot.” 

But even with the perks of adapting books, Sylvain says it’s crucial to change the existing material so that it translates to the screen.  

“If we skip the adaptation process, there’s a real risk that the content will not meet viewer expectations. A comic book story isn’t told in the same way as an animated version. You’d need a full feature film to do justice to a 112-page L’Agent Jean! comic book,” he says, adding their screen version is just seven minutes long. “The animation in L’Agent Jean! is inspired by the characters in [author] Alex A.’s comic books, but the scripts are all original.” 

Funding for adapting literary works

If the number of book-to-screen adaptations is up, Sylvain says it may be thanks to an initiative called the CMF-SODEC Predevelopment Program for Television Series Based on Literary Adaptations.  

The program was launched by the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and the Canada Media Fund (CMF) in 2020 to support drama, documentary and children’s fiction series based on adaptations of Quebec literary works that do not yet have broadcaster or distributor support, or development funding. 

Of the 56 projects supported between 2020 and 2024, 13 have reached the development or production stage — more than one in five. Mireille Darveau, CMF’s director of French content, says that’s an exceptional performance record. Manuel de la vie sauvage, Frida, c’est moi and Les expériences de Mini-Jean are among the projects produced so far. 

Thirty-seven companies in the Montérégie, Capitale-Nationale, and Montreal regions have received support. 

The detective novels behind the success of Murdoch Mysteries

The Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland are among the most-watched English-language programs in the country and speak to the success of adapting literature for the screen. 

Christina Jennings is president and chairman of Shaftesbury, the production company behind Murdoch Mysteries for the past 21 years. She remembers the day her interest was piqued by the detective novels written by Maureen Jennings (no relation).  

“They were sitting on the corner of my desk when a writer/director came into my office and mentioned that he had read those and thought there was something in them. I love history and I am a voracious reader, so I dove in,” she says. “Since I love history, the idea of showcasing Toronto in the 1890s really intrigued me. Would anyone want to watch this show?” 

Jennings knew changes were needed to make Detective William Murdoch’s story click with TV viewers. One change was to make forensic scientist Dr. Julia Ogden, a minor character in the novels, into a main character who works closely with Detective Murdoch. 

Of course, an adaptation’s success is never guaranteed. But Jennings says drawing inspiration from novels by authors like Margaret Atwood (Shaftesbury has adapted seven of her works) improves the odds.  

“Ultimately, the final adaptation has to stand on its own two feet,” she says. “Its success will be determined by how well the screenwriter, the director, the actors, the producers and all the rest of the team have done their jobs.  

“And one cannot underestimate timing. Sometimes, it is just the time for a project. The zeitgeist. And sometimes that can work against you.”

A new chapter for Premier trio

Raphaël Codebecq is the lead writer of the young-adult series Premier trio (First Line), about the lives of young hockey players. Its third season will be broadcast on ICI Tou.tv starting May 8, and on Radio-Canada in the fall. 

Codebecq agrees that adapting a work of literature has to include changes. For example, with Premier trio he decided to forgo the diary format writer Nadia Lakhdari used in her novels.  

“There was work to be done on the format to make it really work in television and film,” he says. “We’re getting to better understand how to adapt things, to focus on what has the best potential to be interesting on screen. This may explain why we’re hearing less negative feedback about adaptations than before.” 

One danger of adapting a popular book is not respecting the creator’s worldview. This wasn’t a problem with Premier trio, since author Lakhdari had the final word on all creative choices and even contributed as a screenwriter. 

“My characters have particular traits or values that are so fundamental that if certain liberties are taken with them, they will cease to be who they really are,” says Lakhdari. “For example, I insisted that the relationship between my two protagonists, Xavier and Chloé, remain innocent because that’s how it is in the novels.” 

Because the first season of Premier trio was inspired by the first three books in the collection, the storylines evolved more quickly on screen. “In the end, it was kind of funny that the books became an adaptation of the series,” says Codebecq. 

A win-win situation

Unlike original productions, adaptations require producers to obtain the rights to a work of literature, otherwise known as optioning a book or entering into an option agreement. How much those rights cost depends on several factors. 

“An option could go from as little as nothing for the first year to tens of thousands for a one-year option,” says Jennings. “Is the author new to the field? Is the author known in Canada? The world? Do you have a personal connection with the author? Who is the team that is adapting?” 

A screen adaptation can also increase readership of the book. According to Sylvain, a property tends to be more successful when adapted for various platforms, especially with younger consumers who want to experience stories across various media — books, podcasts, series.  

“Why are there more adaptations of literary works today,” asks Sylvain. “Because everyone wins.”  

The post Why Literary Works Are So Popular on Screen  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Usually, cinema revolves around images. Yet with documentaries, a project’s source material can sometimes be sound. Last year, two documentaries demonstrated it’s possible to construct a hard-hitting narrative around audio: Like a Spiral, by French-Moroccan director Lamia Chraibi, and Intercepted, by Canadian-Ukrainian filmmaker Oksana Karpovych. The two filmmakers spoke about their projects. 

In the documentary short Like a Spiral five migrant women tell director Lamia Chraibi about the traumas they experienced working in Lebanon under the kafala system. The sponsorship program connects migrants’ residency permits to their employers and exposes workers to exploitation and other human rights violations.

Some of the women requested anonymity for safety reasons.  

“I must admit that at the beginning of the project I saw this as a constraint,” explained Chraibi during a discussion titled Navigating Sensitive Topics at the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM). “I thought it would be complicated to make a film without seeing their faces.” 

But Chraibi knew the risks for the women were real — loss of employment, passport confiscation, imprisonment or deportation. So she decided to conduct the interviews alone, with neither a crew nor a camera.  

The choice paid off.  

“It allowed me to establish a real closeness with them,” Chraibi said.  

A Dialogue With the City

The tone is set from the beginning of the film, as the domestic workers explain the heart-rending experience of leaving their young children at home in the hopes of earning money through the kafala system to provide their kids a better future.  

The women speak of feeling rejected by their employer families, the harassment they experienced in the street, and other daily acts of violence. “They allowed me to access something very authentic,” said Chraibi. 

She took inspiration for the film’s visuals from what her protagonists said in their interviews. 

“The women started to speak to me about Beirut by personifying it, as if they had a love-hate relationship with the city. From a creative point of view I thought it would be interesting to establish a dialogue between them and the city.” 

As we hear the migrant workers’ stories, a camera weaves through the city, showing various beige buildings in a sequence shot, static nighttime shots punctuated with fireworks, balconies, low-angle shots, and a window lit up at night through which we see a woman in a kitchen. This all conveys the feelings of dizziness, being trapped, and uprootedness experienced by someone living under the kafala system. 

Singing and Smiling Faces

Halfway through the documentary, Chraibi broadens the film’s scope by showing a wide shot of the capital with its cluster of residential buildings and skyscrapers. The migrant workers explain how they were affected by the port explosion of 2020, when improperly stored ammonium nitrate detonated causing more than 200 deaths and thousands of injuries.  

“With this crisis…Lebanon crumbled,” one says. “Even if we are of many colours — Black, white, yellow — at heart, it hurts us to see the Lebanese in this state. Before, we witnessed a very nice, bright Lebanon. Now, Lebanon is dark,” says another. 

Chraibi took care not to “invisibilize” her protagonists through her creative choices. “The fact that these women are already invisible in society raised a lot of ethical questions for me.” 

Instead, she created a visual montage where the sequence shots of building facades give way to Beirut at night, punctuated with fireworks, then to a “dancing” Beirut, where we see women’s faces. They’re dressed in bright colours, full of life, dancing, singing, smiling, all to lively music.  

“I want to speak for those who cannot,” one of the protagonists says, as if to offer solace to the women still living under the kafala system.  

Intercepted: Putting Images to Phone Calls

The soundtrack that inspired the documentary feature Intercepted feels like it belongs to a horror film. 

Soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, filmmaker Oksana Karpovych learned that excerpts of intercepted phone calls between Russian soldiers and their families back home were being posted by Ukrainian security services to their YouTube channel every day.  

In these three- to four-minute excerpts, the Russian soldiers expressed all the bad things they thought about the Ukrainian people, often using brutal, cruel language.  

“At first, I was very disturbed,” Karpovych recounted at a discussion dubbed Socially Engaged Cinema and Contemporary Forms during RIDM 2024. “Then I thought it was extremely important material, and I have to absolutely do something with this.”  

The challenge was how to create images to accompany a soundtrack that conveys the war’s worst atrocities. “The way we decided to approach the film visually was as a sort of nontraditional road movie,” said Karpovyck. “We travelled across Ukraine with a small crew of four people.” 

She decided to focus on three visual threads.  

The first was a series of long sequence shots that showed vehicles driving through the devastated country, creating a disturbing, oppressive atmosphere. In the gripping opening scene we are in a Russian tank, captured by the Ukrainian army, that is advancing on the small, muddy road of a Ukrainian village.  

“It was very important to me, and also very subjective, to create a nightmarish vision,” the filmmaker explained. 

The second visual thread is made up of static shots that testify to the impact of the war. We see classrooms, kitchens, living rooms, courtyards and public places devastated by what we presume to be shrapnel. 

The third thread shows scenes of daily life: Ukrainians cooking in a bunker, gardening, taking care of their livestock, playing volleyball, smoking while looking out a window, all with stoic, unshakeable expressions in the face of war.  

“Another expression of the resistance is that people get very quiet, and each time the attacks happened, the ones that I witnessed, people were not crying; they were always very, very quiet. They looked deeply sad, but there was something in the silence that I found very strong, and something that eventually [I was] trying to bring into the film,” explained Karpovych. 

She chose not to show any scenes of war, bombing, or explosions. Nor did she show any Russian or Ukrainian soldiers. Instead, she concentrated on the Ukrainian people’s daily resistance.  

“It’s thanks to this part of the film that I found the courage to listen and to work with audio material as heavy as these Russian conversations,” she said. 

The post Building a Documentary Around Sound  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

A new report from CMF publication Perspectives examines how IP and audiences can foster a stronger industry amid global-trade pressures.

Perspectives, a publication of the Canada Media Fund’s Foresight and Innovation team, has released its latest report on the audiovisual (AV) and interactive digital media (IDM) industries.  

Focusing on IP, The Currency of Audience invites creators to go back to basics.  

The publication combines market analysis with international and domestic case studies to demonstrate how the relationship between IP and audiences can offer strategies for Canadian producers to succeed internationally. 

From tapping into underserved markets to leveraging success across multiple platforms, these strategies represent a significant global growth opportunity for the sector in a moment of disruption within the industry and from US trade pressures.  

Reviewing the fundamentals of the AV (movies, series, etc.) and IDM (video games, virtual reality) industries with a fresh perspective, the report examines a relationship that is foundational to the development of content — audiences and IP.  

1. IP is an audience-development strategy

“IP-focused strategies can focus on reaching and expanding audiences, which is critical for success in a fragmented and saturated media landscape,” explains Jon Montes, Research Lead in Foresight and Innovation at the Canada Media Fund (CMF). 

In collaboration with CMF Analyst Corinne Darche and research partners at the international consulting firm Nordicity, the team developed an IP framework with the potential to rethink the “production value chain,” which refers to all steps in a product’s creation. 

They found that creators who take an active role in finding and cultivating audiences — and who can provide evidence of engagement and interest — are better positioned to negotiate financing and distribution deals.  

This means the traditional order of events would change. 

While the global marketplace still operates on the premise that creators sell content to distribution platforms and those platforms sell content to audiences, today’s reality is that audiences are no longer captive; they are seeking out content that is meaningful to them.  

A competitive market, therefore, doesn’t require more content but content that has already earned an audience. Audience is key to breaking through at a global level, says Montes, “how can IP be developed in tandem with audiences so creatives and producers are set up for success?” 

One clue can be found in video game development, where direct engagement with would-be players is often built into the earliest stages of prototyping via social media, development logs, newsletters, alpha/beta releases and other activities.  

Using such channels to validate IP appeal is used less often in AV sectors but worth exploring, since developing content while building an audience supports success from production through to distribution. 

2. IP gives creators leverage

Investing in the creator-audience relationship can put creators in a stronger position when they bring content to market, affecting the entire value chain. Creators who are involved in cultivating a loyal community of interest, as well as marketing and promotion of their IP, have more leverage with platforms. 

And if the objective is to create a sustainable AV or IDM company, developing the connection between IP and audiences is critical, as platforms are in the business of attracting and monetizing those audiences.  

But what would this look like in the funding space?  

Rather than the status-quo model that supports specific content projects, Montes believes that funding “platform-agnostic IP development” could offer some stability to production companies, “[allowing] them to step off that project-by-project treadmill and develop IP that is informed by audiences so that they can then create content that meets those audiences on the right platforms.” 

But, he adds, more work needs to be done here. “Some programs are starting to dip their toes in [but] it’s an emerging way to think about this,” he says. “How would it actually work? What are the metrics? It can’t be one-size-fits-all.” 

3. IP transcends geography, language and culture — lessons from Korea

Canada can learn a lot from K-content models, as the international success of South Korean media exports demonstrates how IP transcends domestic borders.  

Webtoons, a form of typically episodic, digital comics, are one example of successful Korean IP that has disrupted traditional, top-down production approaches to development. Uploaded by Korean creators who make, share and monetize their work internationally, webtoons represent a low-risk way to engage directly with audiences and have been a starting point for some of the country’s most popular IP. 

These examples also illustrate how engagement with audiences can span geography, language and cultural communities. Content that is rich and authentic can still be rooted in specificity of place if the story has universal themes. This concept is not new to Canadian creators, nor is leveraging an audience attached to a specific content format.

4. Authentic IP = global opportunity — lessons from Kim’s Convenience

A few years ago, a Canadian series that engaged an underserved community proved that authentic, community-oriented IP can tap into global audiences.  

Korean-Canadian creator Ins Choi turned his own life and experiences into international success by debuting his play Kim’s Convenience at the Toronto Fringe Festival and Soulpepper Theatre before it was adapted into a 30-minute episodic TV series on CBC and ultimately picked up by Netflix.  

The series was a massive hit, averaging just under a million viewers on CBC per episode. It ran from 2017 to 2021, during which time Parrot Analytics found peak demand was more than eight times higher than that of an average Canadian show, with a steady season-over-season increase in audience interest and engagement.  

“It’s a growth opportunity that the Canadian sector is well positioned for,” says Montes. “Underserved markets have export potential. And it’s very clear that there is talent in this country that can reach them.” 

5. “Transmedia” offers new clues to engage young audiences…

A throwback from the 2010s, “transmedia” refers to storytelling that isn’t bound to a single medium and stories built on interaction between traditional and digital platforms. Today’s creators have fully embraced this former buzzword, and while it used to be a nascent strategy, today it is the expectation since once-novel digital platforms are today’s established media players.  

Young audiences have been immersed in digital worlds since birth, so revisiting how children and youth interact with content across platforms can help creators understand how audiences of the future might engage.  

For better or for worse, kids’ digital and real-world lives collide constantly. Entertainment and community don’t exist in one or the other anymore, and evidence is clear that this generation rewards content that does both. Crossovers and cross-platform interactions are crucial strategies for engaging with a young audience and potentially expanding it. 

6. … and so does User-Generated Content (UGC)

Digital creators have become especially popular with young audiences as they foster a sense of community. From YouTube to Ryan’s World, Roblox to Piñata Smashlings, a modern pipeline has developed that moves audiences from digital hubs of UGC to more traditional AV.  

“Children really are the future for audiences,” concludes CMF Analyst Corinne Darche. “And they are likely still going to be as digitally immersed as they are now. [Our industry] can start adapting engagement strategies now to expand and embrace that.” 

The post Timely Takeaways from “The Currency of Audience” appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Showing documentaries in classrooms is a valuable tool. It can expose students to cultural content while teaching them important lessons. But, in reality, teachers often have a hard time finding and sourcing documentaries, making them inaccessible to students. 

Reel Canada executive director Jack Blum has every right to be proud of what he and his team have done to fulfill their mission — promoting Canadian films in schools.  

They amassed an inventory of 148 documentaries, created a comprehensive teaching kit, and organized 1,000 screenings at schools across Canada in 2024.  

“We have achieved far better results than we had initially imagined,” says Blum. But it’s been a tough slog.  

The team’s first challenge was to choose which documentaries would be included based on their educational value and the cultural context in which they would be presented.  

“Films must be appropriate for schools,” Blum says. “The criteria vary across the country depending on the school’s teachers or principal. It varies between rural and urban communities, and particularly between Quebec and English Canada.”  

Reel Canada’s programming team does test screenings with teachers and students to determine the right matches. 

Hard to find

Another issue is discoverability, or making content easily searchable online, especially for those who don’t know exactly what they’re looking for.  

Unfortunately, there’s no centralized platform in Canada where teachers can search for appropriate documentary films. Instead, they’re left to their own devices as they bumble through a half-dozen existing, unconnected educational platforms.  

Alongside Reel Canada’s Education Program, there’s NFB Education, Radio-Canada’s Curio, and Télé-Québec en classe. There’s also the Hot Docs festival’s Docs For Schools, which is expected to return in 2025. 

“The Canadian educational system is extremely tricky,” says Blum. “There’s no central organization whatsoever. Every school and every school board makes its own decisions. It certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some kind of national education strategy, especially now, when the political climate in the U.S. is showing signs that we need to reinforce national ideas if we’re going to protect our sovereignty.” 

Quebec’s homegrown solution

Until a national Canadian strategy can be put in place, Quebec is tackling the problem at the provincial level.  

In 2022, the Documentary Observatory (Observatoire du documentaire) began an ongoing consultation process with all concerned stakeholders — teachers, the Quebec Ministry of Education, SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelles), documentary filmmakers and producers, the major viewing platforms — in order to develop a solution for educators. 

Last November, during a roundtable at the 2024 Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), Documentary Observatory director Amélie Lambert Bouchard announced the publication of The Action Plan for the Integration of Independent Documentary Films in Quebec Schools.  

“We came up with a splendid solution,” she said. 

Their first project, steered by the Arrimage (anchoring) committee, is to compile a standardized educational information sheet for each documentary, also called an educational-cultural information sheet, that can be easily accessed from anywhere in the school system.  

“Teachers have a lot of subjects to teach,” said Arrimage committee member and learning specialist Jade Ménard. “And so, if a film has no direct link to the content or skills they need to develop in their students, they won’t get access to show it in class.” 

The educational-cultural information sheet will make it easy for teachers to determine the value of any documentary based on the subject matter and grade level. “The information sheet needs to be produced with the help of educational experts who speak the same language as the teachers and are familiar with the curriculum,” said Documentary Observatory member Denis McCready. 

Libraries to the rescue

The Documentary Observatory has been working on a content discoverability system that won’t require a new viewing platform. According to the authors of the action plan, “The Ministry of Education has made it clear that it has no interest in developing or funding a new platform.” 

Based on its consultations, the Observatory chose the library network for its referencing portal. “It’s not well known, but librarians are the experts in how knowledge is categorized and how it’s best presented to different audiences,” said Mathieu Thuot-Dubé, senior director of education and cultural initiatives at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ).  

The Observatory decided the BAnQ catalogue is the best choice to serve as the master database for all cultural content, including documentaries. 

Finding the best place to store and host the films, on the other hand, has yet to be resolved.  

“The three leading platforms in Quebec have shown great interest in collaborating to host participating independent documentaries,” said Lambert Bouchard. “However, they do not want to deal with the technical side or to include educational-cultural information sheets on their site.”  

So, what’s the next step? 

This year, the Documentary Observatory will continue conversations with streaming platforms about hosting docs, with the library network about a portal to catalogue titles, and with the Ministry of Education to confirm funds for the creation of educational materials and to pay copyright fees. 

According to the Observatory, this extensive project is expected to take two to three years. 

The post Making Access to Documentaries Easier for Educators  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Currently based in Vancouver, Canada, Deborah Chantson is the Writer/Narrative Designer on Rooster and the newest unannounced title at Sticky Brain Studios. Her career in games and television spans over 17 years, specializing in preschool and educational projects. She was also a Community Manager for 9 years. Deb has written for several games in development, blogs for Sony PlayStation, and several featured blogs on GameDeveloper.com. She is a Writers Guild of Canada member and a Certified Accessible Player Experiences® Practitioner. She identifies as Canadian-South African-Chinese-American.  

In this chronicle, she shares her personal experience and insights on the importance of a racially diverse team to the quality of her work and overall working environment.

LITERALLY A DREAM COME TRUE

When Sasha Boersma, co-executive producer of Toronto-based Sticky Brain Studios, asked me if I wanted to work on Rooster, she said that it was the fastest positive response she’d ever received. Rooster is a beautiful point-and-click narrative adventure video game based on the animals of the Chinese zodiac. 

It's literally a dream come true for concept creator and art director Connie Choi, who dreamt of the zodiac animals in a racing game and woke up to sketch out images. She expresses herself through pictures; I express myself through words. As the first two creative leads on this project, it has been an amazing collaboration. I often feel like we give wings to each other’s ideas. 

PROVIDING A RUNWAY FOR THE BEST WORK

While the team was originally the four of us – Sticky Brain co-founders Sasha (Boersma) and Ted Brunt, Connie, and me, our successful funding from the CMF and Ontario Creates for prototyping allowed us to grow our team to six, with E. Joan Lee coming on board as animation director, and Gabriela Kim Passos as technical director. I was thrilled to be getting my first real break as a writer and narrative designer on a game I could be so thoroughly involved in from start to finish. It was also an incredible life and career change to be able to leverage my Chinese culture and heritage in a marketable, viable product. 

While we worked on the Rooster prototype part-time in addition to our regular jobs, our team of six included four women and non-binary people, and two white disabled persons. I already felt comfortable with Sasha and Ted, having worked well with them at the start of my career – and so well that the team won a then-Gemini award for our project. But for this project, and under their own company direction and management, it was a refreshing experience to be a racialized person in the majority.  

I spent so much of my career in the minority or being the sole person of colour on a team, whether in television or games. But on Rooster, the combination of being a creative lead, on a majority racialized diverse team, and with a culturally-based project, was the trifecta I had never thought of. Finally getting the psychologically and emotionally safe environment I didn’t know I needed as badly until now allowed me to do my best work.  

Being able to convey my personal vulnerabilities and emotional experiences in an interactive art form requires a very supportive environment. I believe it is impossible to express oneself fully while expecting pushback and second-guessing creative decisions or input in general. With racialized individuals, there’s a certain level of instant ease with one another – something I feel more strongly as I age and become more confident in who I am. It was validating to read about the on-set experience for the team behind Afro Canada, where the shorthand of lived experience made a huge difference. 

With Rooster, I feel as though I’ve been able to be myself. In media interviews, I’ve said that with this team, 95% of my jokes land the way they’re supposed to, and that is primarily because I don’t have to explain the context before landing the punchline. And I love that this is a group of people who will collectively share in both my joys and sorrows – from signing my book deal and cheering elatedly, to hugging me tightly for the deaths in my family. 

BUILDING THE TEAM

When given the opportunity for growth, racially diverse teams will effectively expand themselves. Racialized people who are happy in their work environments can confidently refer friends and former colleagues, which is how we got our UI artist, junior developer, and contract illustrator. 

As a professor at Centennial College in Toronto, Sasha strongly believes in mentorship and training through job placements. As such, Sticky Brain has hired and retained employees through Centennial job placements, as well as the Black Youth Action Plan, and Sheridan College co-op programs. 

When looking for artists and co-op students, a description of Rooster was a part of the job posting, drawing applicants who loved what we were making, and enjoyed creating art in an East Asian style. While an art test was the final part of the interview, Sticky Brain has made it a policy to pay an honorarium for such tests, and not to include any assets that would be used in the game without official employment. I really love this policy, because too often, I’ve spent ages on writing tests which go nowhere, or stopped the process altogether when realizing it was a ploy for free labour. 

When our team was at its peak, including co-op students and contractors, Sticky Brain Studios was 70% racialized, 76% female/gender-marginalized, 30% disabled, and 30% queer. Most of our team is also intersectionally marginalized, meaning that they belong to two or more marginalized groups. 

ONCE PAST THE DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSIVITY & ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVES

Having experienced the gratification of knowing that I brought my absolute best work to the collaborative table, my hope is that all racialized and Indigenous creatives get a chance to feel that exhilaration. Finding the joy and support that frees and fuels the most creative and innovative ideas becomes possible when we listen more to the fresh and unheard stories that racialized and Indigenous people have to offer. Rooster is a proudly Canadian-made product that is gaining traction in the game development space, catching the attention of multiple Chinese publishers, and players of all backgrounds in the global market. 

DIVERSE TEAMS MAKE MORE MONEY

Reaching Global Audiences

According to Forbes, companies with greater diversity are 70% more likely to capture more markets. Having several diasporic East Asian team members also provided insight into reaching out to their communities in such countries as Brazil, Korea, and the United States, and greater incentive to localize in languages outside of the “standard” EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish). Being a team of predominantly native English speakers, we also knew how to bridge the knowledge gap, shaping our game with the perspective of cultural enlightenment in fun ways.  

And while we didn’t quite know how Rooster would resonate with people in China, the cultural core of the game is meeting its mark in the loveliest way. 

We’ve seen positive feedback from multiple Chinese publishers, who complimented Rooster’s Chinese brush painting-inspired art style and were dazzled by its cultural authenticity. Moreover, they were delightfully surprised that it was largely created by Canadians of East Asian heritage.

Video games are a forward-facing experience that requires an investment of interactivity, as opposed to the passive experience of reading a book or watching a movie. When made available through a platform like Steam, the marketplace is open 24/7 around the world. 

Inclusive Accessibility Also Makes Money

Making accessible games is a part of the Sticky Brain philosophy of being as inclusive as possible, but it’s important to note that individuals with disabilities comprise approximately 20% of the nearly 3 billion gamers worldwide, according to AbleGamers, a US-based charity that advocates for gamers with disabilities. 

Some of the things we’ve implemented have a “curb cut effect,” meaning that they’re beneficial to players with and without disabilities, improving the general game experience.  

For example, a feature to enlarge font sizes helps players of all ages who may be struggling with reading smaller print while also helping grandparents read to children. Text-to-speech options allow screen readers to be used by players who are blind or have low vision but will also be helpful to people who prefer to have text read to them. Visual cues are there not only for those who are deaf but also for additional player feedback so that there’s an added layer of understanding success or failure. 

Overall, having a racially diverse team that includes people with disabilities, who identify as LGBTQ2S+ and as gender marginalized, and of all different ages, allows an internal vetting where people get to advocate for themselves as players. This ensures that we serve a variety of demographics and their needs. 

Diverse Teams Build Better Products

Bringing a variety of people together means that the culmination of lived experiences is widely varied as opposed to groups with many similarities. On our Rooster team, we have such a wide spectrum of interests in books, hobbies, and video games, that we can draw references from many different titles for gameplay mechanic examples, or confidently decide that something is new and innovative. 

Having internal representation also leads to better character building if based on real people, or at the very least, people of those cultures being able to vet the authenticity of traits, behaviours, and language. In the case of screen media and video games, the end-user experience is improved because the storylines can be more nuanced and meaningful. Authenticity improves relatability and provides deeper resonance for a longer-lasting impression.  

SUPPORTING A DIVERSE TEAM

Build a racially diverse team

Having been the sole racialized person on many otherwise all-Caucasian teams, there’s often a default pressure to represent and defend all racialized people everywhere from the beginning of time, attuned to all cultural sensitivities. Yet sole racialized people frequently face an internal debate over whether to risk one’s social standing as “The Complainer” when having to police outdated or offensive language and/or content. I’ve also had experiences where the few East Asians in a majority Caucasian group are confused for one another despite markedly different features (e.g. glasses, varying accents, lengths of hair). It’s frustrating and frankly, dehumanizing. 

When the team is racially diverse, this takes away the pressure to represent everyone else when people can represent themselves; it reduces or even eliminates (micro)aggressions; and creates a safe space recognizing individuals for who they are.  

When hiring, it’s important to take internal referrals seriously, because they reflect established professional relationships and an existing level of trust. There’s also faster team cohesion when colleagues can trust each other more quickly.  

Ensure everyone is being heard

During our first marketing meeting for Rooster, co-executive producer Sasha Boersma pointedly asked me, “Is there anything you wanted to add? Anything you’ve previously suggested where a former company ignored you?” This gave me the floor and patience to think about what I had to say, while also recognizing my expertise on the subject – nine years as a former community manager in the video game space who also dealt heavily with marketing and launch campaigns. 

When leading teams, individuals should be conscious of the importance of acknowledging and validating team members, making sure that everyone gets a chance to speak when they want to. Many racialized people have been inadvertently trained to expect being shut down or purposely ignored, that they are now too afraid, or too tired, to volunteer any ideas. 

Everyone keeps learning

This heading is two-pronged – one, in that diverse teams keep people learning with inclusive language becoming second nature (e.g. they/them pronouns) and continuously evolving, but also that team members learn about each other in terms of cultures. Over the course of this project, our team has learnt more about disability accommodations and better usage of terms, thanks to Sasha, who is on the Board of the Disability Screen Office.  

Secondly, marginalized people benefit from company-sponsored training. Training is an investment in people as well as the end product. For example, six of us are Certified Accessible Player Experiences® Practitioners, and four of us are media trained, which has helped us market our game in media interviews, at convention booths, and in speaking engagements. Mentorship is a big part of the company ethos, whether mentoring internally or finding external help, it’s an ecosystem that keeps paying forward. 

Make accommodations beneficial to everyone

A number of our Rooster team members are intersectionally-marginalized, meaning that they belong to two or more marginalized groups. Our remote-first workplace, as well as flexible hours, helps both disabled team members (e.g. managing chronic pain) and myself as a mother of two children, working in a different time zone. I’m still able to fulfill my responsibilities as the Writer/Narrative Designer without needing to uproot my family from British Columbia. But I do appreciate that we try for larger gatherings when I am in Toronto.  

At the end of the day, all people just need to feel respected both for who they are as individuals, and the skills and talents they bring to a job. I’ve had the pleasure of being part of a team that allows me to be my most authentic self. There’s a freedom in safely bringing my best ideas that I know were never meant for some other teams. The Rooster team has developed an incredibly supportive, collaborative environment where I’ve been able to focus and flourish. That is a feeling I want other racialized and Indigenous creatives to experience too. 

The post How a Racially Diverse Team Was the Key to My Best Work   appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Indie creators Taylor Patterson and Temilola Adebayo discuss the projects they’re currently pushing toward the finish line, and give emerging producers advice about how to hone their visions and make their ideas irresistible to funders and audiences  

For independent television creators, getting a project from development to green light has always been an uphill battle. The process, once merely difficult, has become even more challenging in today’s media landscape. With increasing financial constraints on networks and streamers, many productions are left in limbo, struggling to secure the funding and partnerships needed to move forward. 

However, as most entrepreneurs know, in chaos there is opportunity.  

Despite the barriers, emerging producers are finding new ways to break through. Whether via inventive grassroots marketing, leveraging digital media or securing non-traditional funding, indie creators are reshaping the path to success. 

Two such creators share their experiences navigating the increasingly complex world of independent development and the sometimes torturous road to getting the green light. Taylor Patterson is the writer-producer behind ICONS, a comedy series set in the offices of the fictional tabloid The Buzz Room. Temilola Adebayo is the producer of the four-part miniseries The Engagement Ultimatums about four best friends who make a marriage pact. Both shows are working through the stages of production, chasing the all-important green light. 

Shaping the Vision

Before any project can be greenlit it has to go through a rigorous development process. At this stage, the focus is on refining the concept, packaging the project for potential buyers, and proving it is viable, especially in today's tough market. 

A great idea isn’t enough, and is rarely sellable — producers must also clarify what makes their project marketable. For Patterson, ICONS evolved significantly during development. When he started thinking about the project in 2018 it was focused on celebrity culture and toxic paparazzi, but it later transformed into an exploration of Black culture’s influence on viral media.  

"My perspective shifted,” Patterson says. “I started seeing patterns in how Black culture drives so much of what goes viral. The longer I worked on the show, the more it grew with me. I didn’t have the same level of understanding or experience when I first had the idea but over time it matured — just like I did.  

“This evolution gave the show depth,” he continues. “It’s not just funny and timely, it’s layered and thought-provoking. A lot of the humour comes from real-life events, and I think that connection makes ICONS relatable while also making people think about the world in a new way."  

For Adebayo, the journey was more about fleshing out her original concepts with the right creative team. While the initial idea for The Engagement Ultimatums was hers, she says collaborating with writers and story consultants made the material “more layered while staying true to their original vision."  

There’s another reason emerging producers should focus on assembling the right team — to make their project more attractive to funders and networks.  

“Packaging is crucial, so I make sure to present a strong key creative team behind the project and also highlight any marquee talent that is attached,” says Adebayo. “If the project is based on existing IP [intellectual property], I ensure that the necessary rights are secured, as it’s very unlikely that a funder or network will take a pitch without this in place. Funders and networks want to know your team has the experience and capacity to execute the project." 

Development Challenges

Funding remains a major roadblock for most producers. However, Patterson credits the Toronto Arts Council for giving ICONS its first major boost, which in turn led to securing provincial funding from Ontario Creates. He says he has encountered very few roadblocks while getting the project off the ground and acknowledges that is “rare and a blessing.”  

“ICONS has been smooth sailing because it started with a strong concept,” he says. “Sure, there’s been rejection here and there but, as a whole, the momentum has been steady. I’ve had amazing opportunities with funding, working with talented industry pros, and getting the story out there. That said, I’m just now entering a new phase, which I’m sure will come with its own hurdles. But the key has been not rushing the process. I’ve let each stage of development breathe, which has only made the project stronger.” 

Those early rejections came at the hands of the Independent Production Fund [IPF], says Patterson. "But that first municipal funding validated my idea and made it easier to secure additional support."  

Adebayo’s project received funding from the Bell Fund Slate Development Program, which she says enabled her team to create a pilot script and series bible. 

She notes that the loss of even one funding source can derail an entire finance plan and says many networks are more cautious with acquisitions due to economic uncertainty, making it even harder for indie projects to break through.  

“It’s not just about having a great story, the onus is on you to prove why it needs to be told right now,” she says. “Having a great script is the bare minimum, you have to position the project in a way that resonates with potential buyers and audiences alike.” 

Moving Toward the Green Light

There has been a lot of industry chatter about alternative funding sources and networks, like YouTube, brand-led funding collaborations such as Mattel and Barbie, and the takeover of the creator economy. All are viewed with equal parts dread and excitement.  

Netflix commissioned a show with YouTube creators The Sidemen, Prime Video has the much-maligned Beast Games, and Crave has led the charge in Canada with The Office Movers, featuring podcast duo/brothers Jermaine and Trevaunn Richards, and Made for TV with TikTok star Boman Martinez-Reid.  

With funding challenges and industry gatekeeping, independent producers have to get creative to keep their projects moving forward. What does this mean for emerging producers who don’t have the track record of a more established producer or the built-in audience of a YouTube creator? 

It certainly calls for some scrappiness.  

Traditional funding through grants and pre-sales has become increasingly competitive. Adebayo acknowledges the need to diversify funding sources including private equity, brand funding and international co-production deals.  

“As a filmmaker and producer of Nigerian descent who is successfully navigating the Canadian screen industry, I’ve had individuals from my community show interest in investing in my projects,” says Adebayo. 

“As a result, I’m actively exploring independent private equity, especially for the smaller-scale projects,” she continues. “We’re also seeing interest from companies looking to partner on projects that align with their values. This diversified approach significantly increases our chances of getting these projects off the ground.”  

Patterson, who has not yet sought out external funding, is open to it, joking, "If you’re reading this and interested…call me!" 

Adebayo says she’s also focusing on smaller-scale but commercially viable projects to keep operations running while still applying for traditional funding.  

For many indie creators, a lack of access to decision-makers is a significant hurdle to getting the green light. ICONS has been trying to overcome this by building grassroots support before approaching networks.  

"A good friend and mentor, Justin Wu, always reminds me that you can’t skip steps — unless you’re a nepo baby," Patterson says with a laugh. "Doing the work matters."  

Similarly, Adebayo stresses the importance of networking early in one’s career. "Network sideways, too,” she stresses. “Your peers today might be the decision-makers tomorrow." 

Rather than reshaping a project to fit a network’s mold, both Adebayo and Patterson are looking for the right partner. Patterson is open but cautious. “I have a few dream networks but, honestly, I just want to work with people who are excited about the project,” he says. “The right fit is everything. I wouldn’t want to build something so meaningful in a space where the process isn’t supported. 

Adebayo focuses on refining the core idea first and then finding the right platform. "We identify networks where the project aligns with their programming and audience demographics rather than tailoring our content to fit them," she explains. "The greenlight process has evolved — while traditional networks still hold power, streamers and alternative platforms have opened new doors for indie creators willing to think outside the box." 

Building Momentum through Marketing 

In today’s landscape, independent producers can’t rely on the same pathways as their predecessors to gain momentum. They must also take an active role in marketing their projects and building audiences.  

Both Patterson and Adebayo use social media and digital tools like Instagram to build an audience early in development. Whether it’s releasing concept art, teasers or behind-the-scenes content, engaging potential viewers can generate pre-sale interest and attract partners.  

For Patterson an early win was the proof of concept teaser they created for ICONS. “It’s tough to sell a TV show these days with just an idea. Everyone thinks they have a great concept, but as creators, it’s on us to prove we can bring that idea to life. A proof of concept is essential — it shows people how your idea feels, looks, and plays out…. That said, timing and strategy matter. You need to think carefully about when and where you release it, and what you choose to include. There’s a big difference between giving people just enough to be intrigued and laying all your cards on the table too soon.” 

Patterson says his ICONS teaser not only helped him pitch the project but also built a dedicated following. "For me, the teaser isn’t just for networks; it also helped build buzz and community around the show. I’d definitely recommend creating one — it helps you see what works and what doesn’t." 

The Road Ahead

The terrain for indie TV projects remains challenging, but as Patterson and Adebayo’s journeys show there are ways to push forward. Whether it’s securing municipal grants, leveraging digital platforms or forming strategic partnerships, producers who remain persistent and adaptable can break through. 

With ICONS steadily gaining traction and The Engagement Ultimatums working to find a co-production partner, these projects serve as case studies for how independent producers can navigate development in the hopes of securing that coveted green light. 

The post How Two Independent Projects Are Navigating Development in Search of a Green Light  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Baroness Von Sketch Show alum Jennifer Whalen talks about finding the humour in menopause, and reuniting with her Baroness co-star Meredith MacNeill, for the new comedy Small Achievable Goals.

For Jennifer Whalen, the personal is also hilarious when it comes to the topic of menopause and perimenopause. 

The writer, actor and producer best known for creating the groundbreaking comedy series Baroness Von Sketch Show (alongside Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor and Aurora Browne) returns to TV with Small Achievable Goals. 

The 30-minute CBC comedy, casts Whalen as Julie Muldoon, an award-winning podcaster who suddenly realizes her hot flashes, flop sweat and simmering rage are not caused by workplace distress but by the onset of menopause. 

She is tasked with producing a beauty podcast with the perimenopausal Kris Fine (MacNeill), an insecure TikTok star dealing with out-of-control menstrual flow, painful cramps and an intense fear of failure. 

The show takes dead aim at the taboos and stigmas associated with menopause and, in typical Whalen and MacNeill fashion, turns uncomfortable menopausal moments into laughs. 

Now & Next caught up with Whalen to chat about making menopause funny, resisting the urge to be perfect and her co-star’s penchant for crawling on furniture. 

What was the genesis of Small Achievable Goals? 

It started during the end of the pandemic. I started to realize that I was possibly in menopause, and I was really shocked about how little I knew about it. I'm kind of a big nerd and as I started to research it, I realized, first of all, that I didn't know anything about perimenopause and that a lot of things that I experienced in my late forties, which I thought was, “Oh, I'm stressed, I'm getting older,” were actually perimenopause. I had no idea that they were very, very common things. And when you look into menopause, a lot of what you hear is so bleak and depressing that I felt like I could use a laugh about it. I figured I couldn't be alone in that, and talking to Meredith she felt the same way. 

Does this show feel more personal than your other work? 

Other work that I've done had more broad themes, but because of the subject matter this one does feel more personal, for sure. Yes. 

When you pitched the show to funding organizations and networks was there any pushback? 

That's what I expected! I expected there to be some resistance and, I must admit, I formulated the devastating argument for why it was something really important and why I should do it, and I was actually completely flummoxed that the reception we got was positive across the board. People were really interested. And I was like, “Oh, really? I’ve got this great argument!” It was amazing and heartening. 

Were there more women in the rooms when pitching this show as compared to pitching Baroness Von Sketch a decade ago?  

Yes. There are so many more women in broadcasting than there used to be. I think in every single meeting that we were in there was at least one woman who was of the age who was like, “Ohhh, yeah, yeah.” 

When it comes to the show’s humour, you go there! We see the effects of menopause and perimenopause, both physically and emotionally. Do you ever question how far you can go with the humour?  

Both Meredith and I have a taste to see us go as far as we possibly can. And Meredith is amazing, dare I say a genius, at physical comedy. Some of the things are scripted and we know that they're going to happen, and sometimes when we start improvising things become larger.  

When scripts get broken down, production looks at it and says, “That's a stunt.” And we're like, really? That's a stunt? I tell you, we had to test all the desks in the office to make sure everything was load bearing so if Meredith decided to crawl up on them we were ready for it. 

The power of your humour is in how it subverts society’s notions of what it means to be female. 

I think that in the comedy that we do, we want women to be seen. We want women to recognize themselves. But it is interesting because I have had people say to me of the comedy, “Oh my God, it's so embarrassing. You do so many embarrassing things!” It's funny, I never thought about it that way. It speaks to a lot of our sense about women and making mistakes and being socially embarrassed. I think it also could be that as women we have so much pressure to be perfect. And so, I think subverting that perfection, or trying to do the thing that you're supposed to do and then not being able to quite meet it, speaks to women. 

There’s been a shift in the media talking about menopause, sometimes to great effect. A four-part TV docuseries, Loto-Méno, made a big splash in Quebec in 2023. And because of it expensive medication that women were taking is now being reimbursed by the Quebec government. Why do you think we’re experiencing this shift? 

I think there's just a willingness. I think that also, to your point about Quebec, this is a major medical issue for anyone who's got a uterus.  

And it has huge effects. Women fall out of the job market. It affects us economically. It can affect our relationships. It can affect our physical, our mental and our spiritual well-being, because it's this thing that we're supposed to not talk about and just pretend it's not happening.  

It’s also a double whammy for you because you work in an industry focused on youth and beauty.  

Yes, it's super disheartening. We get offered things like playing grandparents. And societally, I think that the message that you get from the media in general is that your work as a human is over. This is a cliff that you fall off, and then after that you're done. But I think that we're aging differently. We're taking better care of ourselves than we did. It's interesting, I was watching TV the other day and there was a commercial about seniors, 50 and over, and it was like, 50? I mean, maybe 40 years ago, when life expectancy was like 70 or 75, but now people are living longer and longer. We have to shift the conversation.  

What do you want viewers to take away from Small Achievable Goals? 

We want people to enjoy it but also take the stigma away from menopause and perimenopause. Partly why I wanted to do the show, for myself, was to try and find some good role models. This can't all be negative! 

The post What’s So Funny About Menopause?  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Buying local is the new normal across Canada thanks to President Trump’s announced tariffs and threats of more to come. Not just for groceries, but for everything. Members of the Quebec National Assembly and patriotic consumers across the country are calling for a boycott of American streaming platforms. But are Canadians really swapping favourite streamers like Netflix and Disney+ for such homegrown options as CBC Gem, ICI TOU.TV, illico+ and Crave?  

Christiane Asselin, Radio-Canada’s head of content and programming for ICI TOU.TV, the public broadcaster’s French-language streaming service, says January 2025 was a record month for ratings. 

But she’s not ready to credit U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff spree and threats to Canada’s sovereignty alone for sparking the huge “wave of love.” 

“It isn’t like the grocery store where you can see U.S. brands of pasta left on the shelf while shelves of Canadian brands are empty,” says Asselin. “Yes, we’re certainly seeing record consumption levels, but is it because of the winter weather or because we’ve got shows that people really want to see? It’s never easy to pinpoint one specific reason.” 

Subscriptions have certainly been growing at CBC Gem, CBC’s streaming service. “Between January 15 – February 15, 2025, new CBC Gem subscribers (free and premium) increased by 40 percent compared to the previous year,” says PR Manager, News, Digital and Industry for CBC Tanya Koivusalo.  

Viewing time was also up, by 66 percent.  

The program with the greatest ratings surge is Schitt’s Creek, up a staggering 166 percent. The public broadcaster’s satirical current-affairs show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which has been making fun of the news since 1993, enjoyed a ratings spike of 88 percent year-over-year for the same period. With a full slate of content devoted to Canada-U.S. relations, the five most recent episodes of This Hour drew the fall-winter season’s largest audiences so far. 

Videotron’s French-language content streamer illico+ prefers not to share its ratings, citing their “commercial and confidential” nature. And while Crave didn’t give us their numbers for the beginning of 2025, the Bell Media streamer’s subscriptions says it hit the 3.6-million mark in 2024, up 18 percent over 2023.  

Goodbye Netflix? 

Notwithstanding all this national rah-rah, a new Léger poll shows Canadians are having a harder time getting rid of Netflix than giving up Heinz ketchup. Some 28 percent of respondents said they had cancelled or planned to cancel their American streaming subscriptions. Another 34 percent, however, are staying put. 

By comparison, out of the 1,590 Canadians surveyed between February 7 and 10, 2025, more than half, 56 percent, intended to cancel trips or avoid travel to the U.S., while 59 percent said they would boycott American alcohol.  

An upsurge of Canadian pride...even in Quebec! 

One interesting poll shows Quebec with the highest percentage of respondents among Canadians willing to ditch U.S. streaming services: 36 percent compared to 14 percent in Alberta, the province with the lowest percentage. 

Patriotic feelings are particularly high in Quebec. In an Angus Reid poll, 58 percent of Québécois said they are “proud” or “very proud” to be Canadian, up a full 13 points in a matter of weeks, even more than the Canadian average which rose just nine points from 58 to 67 percent. 

This U-turn in Quebec nationalism comes as no surprise to Professor Johanne Brunet of HEC Montréal.  

“American movies and television are part of everyday life in English Canada,” says Brunet. “But they don’t have a star system of their own, like we do in Quebec, and historically they haven’t treated culture the same way.” She adds that, in Quebec, boycotting American platforms “isn’t that much of a sacrifice, whereas for the [rest of Canada] it’s huge.” 

Taking on the international giants 

Why opt for local content on local platforms? For Radio-Canada’s Asselin, a television program or series is a cultural object, just like a book or a play.  

“It represents us, our values, our way of life. Sure, you can get Série noire on Netflix. But Netflix picked up the series when it was already complete and bought it on the cheap. They don’t even commission made-in-Quebec series,” she says. “And they don’t support our culture, our writers, our directors, our actors or our music.”  

Some would argue that placing Canadian content on foreign platforms gives it greater visibility. But Asselin says this comes at a price. “It means handing the keys to our culture over to Americans. The day Netflix decides to make a program that is set here we won’t have any say about our own culture anymore. It’ll be in their hands. We’ll have lost our cultural autonomy.” 

Asselin also points out the challenges faced by local platforms trying to reach people on their smart TVs, the kind of TVs more than half of Canadians own.  

“When you buy a connected TV today it comes with Amazon Prime and Netflix pre-installed,” she says. “But not with TOU.TV, Crave, or illico+. Getting viewers to download their apps is just one more barrier our streamers have to overcome on any already lopsided playing field.”  

She’d like to see Ottawa table legislation to deal with this imbalance. 

A major public awareness offensive 

To counter recent trade-war threats, three networks — Noovo, Radio-Canada, and Télé-Québec — are running a joint campaign promoting how important it is to watch or listen to Canadian content on Canadian media platforms. Some 30 Canadian media outlets have joined the campaign to date. 

Bell Media’s Crave is also promoting itself as “Proudly Canadian,” most recently during Super Bowl LIX, by highlighting original series “made in Canada, by Canadians,” including the Leonard Cohen miniseries So Long, Marianne, a docuseries about the Montreal Canadiens, the hockey comedy Shoresy, and Canada’s Drag Race. 

CBC also launched its “Always Here for Canada” campaign on its various platforms and social media.

While the impact these initiatives will have on Canadian consumption of local content remains to be seen, one thing is clear.  

“The current movement isn’t just a flash in the pan,” says Brunet. “It represents a deep-seated belief in the need to control our media environment by voting with our dollars. We don’t know how long it will last, but there are sure to be lasting changes in our viewing habits. People are discovering Canadian series and platforms in a whole new way. And that’s a very good thing.” 

The post Buying local isn’t just about groceries — it’s TV, too  appeared first on Canada Media Fund.