Along with participating in a Canada Media Fund-led discussion with its industry peers about the future of the funding body in March, the WGC has submitted a supporting letter to CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton.
In the letter, the WGC emphasized that screenwriters are the creators of IP, so any vision for the future of the domestic audiovisual sector focused on Canadian IP must also be focused Canadian screenwriters. The Guild also pointed out that television is a writer's medium, and there is no greater act of creation than to start with an empty piece of paper, or computer screen, and to fill it with stories, characters, ideas, emotions and details, all within the framework of the television form.
Along with maintaining that the Canadian authorial voice is, and needs to remain, central to the meaning of Canadian content, the WGC also submitted that the CMF’s 10-out-of-10-CAVCO-point requirement is a fundamental element of its programs, and must be retained. The requirement cannot be diluted or diminished with additional exceptions or with the expansion of CMF funding for lower-point productions, if we are to ensure the future of the industry for Canadian creators.
We also submitted that the CMF should continue to support script development, which is the “R&D stage” of audiovisual content creation, and also the most precarious stage of work in the industry.
The letter in its entirety is available HERE.
