Broadcastthis’s Weblog

*Disclaimer* – I’m not saying that musicians are *better* than actors…there are other blogs for that ….back to our regularly scheduled programming…

When a bureaucratic agency like the CRTC issues a report titled,

Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media

y’know it’s gonna be at least a few years behind the times.

I’ll admit, I’ve only been able to read the Executive Summary so far, but….seriously…I have a job. This is the shit that I read in my *off time*, so….I know….it’s disgusting and my wife is a saint for sticking with me.

All the same…

Government reports and statements are best consumed straight from the horse’s mouth.

Catch this little nugget:

Globally, the pace at which professionally produced broadcasting content is being made available online is accelerating, but Canadian participation is lagging with respect to the amount of high-quality, professionally produced new media broadcasting content available and the level of early stage investment in the new media broadcasting environment.

“Early Stage Investment” is a perfect example of how the film “industry” (specifically, the “gate-keepers”), continues to keep its head firmly implanted in its “Clavin”. It’s this kind of lingo that confirms that the movie moguls have yet to learn what the music industry cottoned on to over a decade ago.

“Early Stage Investment” can be translated as “how much money broadcasters and gov’t agencies are willing to put into a project at the beginning” (because they’re already confident that they’ll get cash out of it in the end). Trick is…you have to convince them that they will indeed make a return on their investment (it’s amazing what kind of research a producer is responsible for in order to “pitch” an idea….research that has more to do with focus groups and market research than it does with *story*). Problem is…they’re all (CRTC folks and their broadcasting cronies), so f****** old and out of the loop, it’s taken until 2008 to table the report that will lead to change….oh….sometime after the next election.

So, while film-makers and actors are out there creating and financing their own projects and trying to participate in the “new media environment” that has been “accelerating” (according to the CRTC….and they’re right about that…), the 800-pound gorilla in the room is *still* distribution.

You may be able to write your script between catering shifts, borrow an HD (or mini DV) camera, get enough time off from work to actually shoot yourself and/or the actors who you’ve been keeping your fingers crossed over (who will hopefully feel like squeezing it in between their restaurant shifts), find an editor who will “work for credit” or beer – or – be lucky enough to have a computer that will run your cracked software and wear the editor hat yourself (not advisable), and have the luck of the Irish when it comes to compressing your new video for on-line streaming. (Oh…and hopefully you don’t have a union membership that you have to “keep on the down-low”, otherwise the budget for your “indie production” will increase significantly…)

All of this work gets done by the wily artists of the digital era, only to have the ISP’s (again, broadcasters….such as Rogers & Bell), head them off at the pass and close the gates between the artist and their audience.

The fact that your ISP is probably spying on you notwithstanding….

I’m assuming that the CRTC is going to frame the debate in terms of how much money the industry can afford to put into developing “new talent” (read: programming), when the industry (read: Jim Shaw, Pierre Karl Peladeau, Hollywood, etc.), can’t properly realize larger profits without first taking control of the airwaves. (the airwaves that belong to the Canadian public by the by…). It’s a bullshit argument. It’s the same one that organizations such as CRIA continue to use with respect to the music industry despite the exodus of major label acts deciding to go independent.

Although, I will say that Bell & Rogers exercising their right to cramp our bandwidth (regardless of whether you’re paying for “ultra high-speed” or not), proves that the movie moguls are chomping at the bit to get right to the heart of the matter: controlling each individual users “on/off switch” to downloading. That’s a damn sight quicker than the labels were able to get Napster to toe-the-line…

But, the film world (from the low-level worker “POV”….that being of an actor who makes money in the blue-collar world), still has a long way to go until they catch up to the music world. They were dealing with downloading over a decade ago. That was then!…..NOW….major acts are giving away their albums and singles. It’s the cost of doing business.

How can you compete with free?? What price point can you come up with for your product that beats “zero”??

It boils down to this….

Actors get pampered when they get paid to work. Especially in any kind of work that gets broadcast on television. Even the lowest on the call sheet has a “substantial snack” made for and delivered to them within a set period of time or else they get paid “over-time”. (I’m not knocking the “sub”…it’s a wonderful thing and a big reason that I even continue to audition at all…it’s part of the freakin’ “working dues”, yo!)

Musicians are lucky if they get enough beer thrown into a gig that it won’t effect the take at the door significantly.

Actors get paid to interpret and participate in the collaborative works of writers, directors and designers.

Musicians pay a club for the privilege to perform (usually in the form of an agreement on expected bar sales).

Actors get driven to and from set in mini-vans (”transport”) paid for by the production.

Musicians get to the club in broken-down Econolines that they have to repair themselves. (And pay the gas).

Actors have union rules about snacks, over-time, dressing room conditions and nudity.

Musicians live on snacks, work for free, (dressing rooms???) and consider nudity a job “perk”.

Actors have dozens of people to answer to before their audience is even allowed to witness their work.

Musicians have total control.

Long Live Rock & Roll!