A Clear and Simple Message...

To all of the politicians in Canada who ever even entertained the notion of listening to the good Rev. Charles McVety and passing Bill C-10:

Take this message from an America that is twisting and turning because we didn't stand up and say, "No, thanks. That's against the constitution, and besides that -- it's just not right."

If you give in once, dismiss the McVety's of the world as harmless, then they're just going to keep coming back with more demands and threats. Their kind doesn't like the fact they can't control everything around them or that their way isn't the only way to live life. It makes them feel powerless, and frankly no one likes feeling that way.

So please, for the sake of your country, your pride and for the good of all your citizens - show them the door. Let them find their own way -- but leave the rest of you alone. Their truth isn't the truth.

And if that doesn't work then tell them that God is A Fat, Black Dyke.

Your pal,

Bill

Ps. To all of you who are writing letters, posting news, writing columns and making phone calls to oppose Bill C10, I just want to say that you fight the good fight. Hold your head high. You fight not just for yourselves, but for all of us, and we appreciate your effort on our behalf.

Hitting the Reflex Point

On June 6th, 1944 the Allied forces (The United States, Britain, Canada, Free French forces, etc...) hit the beaches in Normandy, and in one of the bloodiest battles over inches of sandy ground confronting high cliffs, the tide of the war turned. (Military) Historians call this a "reflex point" - a point in history, a conflict (War) or nexus of thought (The Renaissance) and action where everything turns in a new direction. D-Day was just such a day in our planet's history. Suddenly the Germans and Japanese (shocked by such a massive campaign launched by the "sleeping giant") were on the defensive. The Allies were truly taking the battle to the enemy...

And now just such a reflex point is being "hit" -- though on an entirely new battlefront.

(The Doctor gets out his little hammer, feels around and whack! "Hollywood" springs its leg out in an entirely new direction)

You can read about it here, and here.

What this means:

1. A viable business model is being put in place for Hollywood to get onto the web. More jobs. More opportunities.

2. All you Canadian creatives out there who are outraged about the CTF and the CRTC?
(see here, here and here...oh yeah and here)

Time to tell your broadcasters and your commitees and panels and investigative bodies to go to hell. YOU DON'T NEED THEM. There is an infrastructure being built that has financing, star power, capability of reaching a much wider audience, and potentially yield far greater benefits than the MBA signed by the guilds.

I am reminded of the story when William Shatner, another Canadian, who made a deal with Priceline.com for stock in exchange for his representing the company in its brilliant ad campaigns. People chastised him for lowering his fees to near nothing, but he laughed all the way to the bank. His stock went to the moon.

3. Oh, and it means that if you have the talent and the gumption you can join the battle and do-it-yourself. You don't have to be an employee - you can own the company.

4. Bear Stearns is predicting that most of the web content will be advertiser supported. There is nothing holding you back from approaching an advertiser to fund your show.

5. The Guilds and Unions have to catch up and negotiate rates for employing its members realizing: a) this is a new business model. It isn't exactly television. It isn't exactly movies. It is the web. b) momentum is going to start slow then pick up...

6. You don't have to live in Los Angeles. If you want to you can do a lot of this stuff from wherever you have a broadband connection (virtually everywhere).

7. This isn't going to be for the faint of heart.

There's going to be a few stumbling blocks - integrating all the media applications for a program, the planning, the new roles being created, redefined and yes, lost. We are all going to have to think and act differently.

"The Battle" isn't over, but damn if we haven't hit the beach and turned the tide.

My Two Cents (.75 cent Canadian)

I was speaking with Jim Henshaw this morning about the situation in Canada with the CTF and how things are a mess with cabler Jim Shaw witholding millions in fees, and corruption at both ends of the spectrum, and Canadian creatives finding fewer and fewer opportunities to do their jobs.

You can read more about it all over at McGrath's joint in multiple posts as well as Dixon's Watering Hole and Alex's Bar & Grill.

I would (and have) frequented Miss Diane's House. She posts a lot of relevant headlines about this situation (that some would call a crisis), that gives incredible insight into the how the Canadian Television Industry is perceived by its own media.

I know I have a lot of Canadian readers (thank you very much) because I look at the traffic on my site meter, and exchange emails with many whom I now consider friends as well as colleagues. I'm even the number one listing on Google.ca when you type in "d2dvd", and one of my clients is a publicly-traded Canadian production and distribution company. Hell, now one of my mentors is moving to Toronto.

What I'm trying to say is: I have ties to the situation - emotional ones and financial ones.

So being an outsider, I have to say that from my perspective, the CTF is fulfilling its mandate quite well... and therein lies the problem.

See, CTF is a government organization:


1. It is an administration. There is no incentive to be creative.

2. Government handing out money to “create culture” doesn’t build an industry - it sets up a welfare state (of mind). We’ve seen that in countless instances with the automotive industry and others. There's no incentive to be good whatsoever.

3. Governments are notoriously slow. There is absolutely no chance to capitalize on market trends or innovations. By the time innovations become the norm, there are new innovations to take their place.

4. Patriotism and sense of pride are good and all, but unless you give an economic reason to do something new - it isn’t going to get done. Businesses won’t back it. Government will actually work against economics because “that’s our policy.”

5. With a government administering a fund, you are essentially divvying up a finite pie. That essentially means that someone is going to be shorted somehow. There is no incentive to grow and expand in new directions - to diversify and build more pies.

6. The government doesn't know television. It knows paperwork, and yet it's handing out money? Hmmmm...

7. Governments (like many other large organizations) ignore the facts to fit the agenda. Even when that agenda is counter to the overall welfare of the citizens or stockholders or whatever.

It's (relatively) easy for me to say all this. I'm not on the front lines. I get that. I also get that I am oversimplifying what is indeed a complex issue with ramifications up and down the pike...

But...

Given that my perspective is wider on the situation, and my immediate future doesn't depend on decisions made in Ottawa, I have to say... your system isn't broken, the premise upon which it is based is wrong.

There is no incentive anywhere to go further and innovate; to be creative:

If a show from last year got funded, then there will be twenty shows just like it submitted this year.
People whose shows did well financially, get funded again (thus we have cooked books).
Cable broadcasters have little say in how the shows are funded, developed or broadcast. There is no promotion, because there's no incentive to promote. No investment in the project.

So yeah, the system works the way it was designed to... shuffling deck chairs while the iceberg looms on the horizon. The question now is:

How do you fix it? How do you get everyone from all levels of the system to invest themselves in the idea and the business of a Canadian television industry?

I have some ideas on that too...

[throw your bricks and ripe veggies - now!]