BY KATHLEEN NEWMAN-BREMANG

Taylor Scherberger may not know where his next paycheck is coming from but the 22-year-old Ryerson alum is sure of one thing: he’s a far cry from his dream job.

“It’s going to take me a long time to get the job I want and to make the films I want in this economy,” he says.

Scherberger is just one of many former students searching for work in a relatively stale film and television industry. These grads have had to face the harsh reality that Hollywood is not recession-proof and despite steady box-office revenue due to higher ticket prices, the market has been hit hard by the current economic crisis. Big studios have lost millions and moviegoers are slowly starting to stay at home. In the last three months alone, ticket sales were down 44 per cent.

As a result, studios are banking on sure-fire moneymakers. Sequels are in. Comic book adaptations and romantic comedies are safe box-office bets. Indie films and original scripts are being shuffled to the side as suffering studios scramble to get back on top.

“Studios are trying to capitalize on mindless escapism,” says Yaw Attuah, 25, a recent Toronto Film School grad and unpaid intern at Cinema Vault, a Toronto-based motion picture sales company specializing in independent feature films. “They want people to go to theatres, eat popcorn and forget about their empty pockets.”

Since students right out of film school don’t have big budget blockbusters under their belt, chances are they’ll end up getting coffee and running errands instead of pitching scripts and running movie sets.

“Once you start recycling ideas, the little guy loses his chance because not only are they making the same movie, they’re going to go with the same people in the same jobs every time,” says Attuah.

Sure, film grads have always had to start on the bottom rung but many aspiring Canadian filmmakers take the indie route soon after graduating and try to get small films made before shopping around for financial support. Problem is, these days, the funding needed for distribution is almost nonexistent. Indie filmmakers rely heavily on private equity or industry heavyweights to take chances on unknown talent. In these tough economic times, not many people are willing to take that risk.

“Why take a chance on a nobody?” Scherberger lets out a frustrated sigh. “Every kid out of university can make their own little short film but it’s about finding someone who has the capital to make an investment. Right now, nobody has the capital.”
 
The Canadian film industry also relies heavily on public sources of financing, including direct funding from the Canada Feature Film Fund (CFFF) and other government programs. But to make matters worse, Harper’s government has cut back on many programs essential to assisting the arts and cultural industries.

After cuts were made to programs that were essential to Canadian filmmakers, Brian Anthony, the National Executive Director & CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada, wrote this to his union members:  “The industry now finds itself for a variety of reasons in difficult circumstances. Now is the time for the federal government to recommit to reinforcing programs that invest in film, television and new media production, not undo them.”

Ana Yuvari, a recent Ryerson grad and assistant editor at Dufferin Gate Productions, echoes Anthony’s sentiments.

“The arts are getting pushed aside in this crisis but the government is forgetting about the cultural economy,” The 22 year-old says. “Film and television production accounted for nearly 5 billion dollars and generated 126,900 jobs last year. And yet, funding gets cut and creativity in the industry takes the biggest hit.”

Yuvari fears the financial meltdown will result in a string of homogenized entertainment that the industry may never recover from. Furthermore, she says, the fact that fresh minds are shut out of jobs due to hiring freezes is a severe blow to the quality of produced content and leaves graduates feeling powerless. 

Scherberger says he’s just going to have to get used to studios’ tightening their belts and their budgets.

“I guess guys like me who are further down on the totem pole are just going to have to lower our expectations,” he says. “Or pray for an economic resurgence.”