The film and television field in Toronto is in trouble. Notice I did not say 'business'. Actually, there is not much of a field here so it's hard for it to be in trouble. The fact is there are threads or remnants of film and television events in this town. It was big, sorta, artificially, but it was never a big deal. Too many folk got into it for all the wrong reasons. Now they are paying the price, with mortgages and an unsustainable lifestyle... but no work.I received an interesting e-mail from a friend of mine earlier this week. He has worked at the same film and television company for years. This employer has continued to scale back, eventually getting to the point where my friend is doing the equivalent workload of two or three other people, just to keep them above water. They are not alone in this regard. What were once prospering production companies have degraded to skeletal form or to non existence.
The employment situation in this area is tough. As this friend capped off his e-mail he said something to the effect of increasing your chances of upward mobility by being of a certain 'type'. It is pretty pathetic.
Another friend of mine has worked steadily since 1994 in production. We talked at length today and agreed that he has to reorganize, retool, reset, and redefine himself. He has not worked in the career of his choice now for about three months.
As for me? Well, I just got the beep out of the Toronto film and television field. It is a joke: Staffed by fools, incompetents, and non-talents... for the most part. There are very talented people out there -- I know some of them -- but even they find it difficult to get work sometimes. Talent has very little, if anything at all, to do with being employable "in this business".
Yes, it is that bad.
I consider myself to be a realist, so here it goes: The film and television production scene in Toronto is Mickey Fucking Mouse! (Pardon my profanity. I did not originate the application of these certain words in this argument. I am merely repeating what I have heard said many times.)
Sure I sound or come across as bitter, and perhaps I am; but there is no other way to state the truth.
1 comment:
Well Mr. Smight, you've raised a lot of interesting comments in this post, and I agree with your points. Further, it might be worth exploring the reasons exactly why this industry is in such bad shape right now.
But also, if someone brought doorknob repellent to set, there'd only be 12 people left working in this industry.
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