Now & Next

The guests on this episode of the podcast are Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan and Jim Munroe. They have been tasked with finding out what the shift to working from home has actually been like for game industry personnel. They’re putting the finishing touches on a research report about the sector’s transition from studio-based work to home-based work called “Isolation Nation”. Marie Claire and Jim provide us with a sneak peek into some of their interview-based findings so far, such as the challenges of people having to be their own boss at home, the tendency to work too much, and mechanisms for keeping morale up.

In this episode, we meet Jacob Pratt, an Indigenous film producer from Saskatchewan. He’s the co-owner of Los Angeles based Skoden Entertainment, an Indigenous story-focused production company whose first client happens to be Disney. Jacob explains that the best way to fight stereotypes perpetuated by the media, is to use the same medium to break them.

On this episode, we speak to Hilary Henegar and Fiona Rayher, the entrepreneurs behind the startup Hoovie. The platform is making it possible again to watch a movie with other people and have a discussion afterwards, just like old times but...virtually. This new trend is proving to be both appealing to individuals and profitable to film producers.

The gaming industry has been affected pretty hard by the pandemic, as it has historically relied on networking at large annual in person events. On this episode, we check in with a handful of Canadian independent game studios to find out how they’re adapting to changes in their day-to-day operations and with Nadine Gelly, the executive manager of La Guilde, one of Canada’s largest industry associations for game developers, to learn about the initiatives happening at the industry level.For more information about this or other episodes of Now & Next or to consult the show’s credits, visit trends.cmf-fmc.ca/podcast-now-and-next/

Clara George is the guest on this episode of the podcast. Based in Vancouver, She is the VP of Studios & Sustainable Production Services at Sim International. According to Clara, while the COVID-19 restrictions might seem like a step back in terms of sustainability efforts, they’ve actually provided an opportunity for people to become more aware of unnecessary waste on set, and come up together with new solutions. For more information about this or other episodes of Now & Next or to consult the show’s credits, visit https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/

Leora Kornfeld sits down with Alberta-based producer Andrew Scholotiuk and director Dylan Pearce to discuss virtual production techniques. The pair has been working on the merging of the physical and digital worlds for years and share their advice and experience as interconnectedness and collaboration are increasingly hot commodities in the film industry.Special effects that create computer-generated characters and backgrounds are found everyday in the gaming world and they have been standard fare in higher end Hollywood productions for years. But now, using a combination of more affordable technologies and open source real time 3D game engines as a foundation, these techniques are starting to move closer to mainstream film production. As the film and TV world meets the game world with the help of networked laptops, the possibilities in terms of creation become endless.Our guests, Andrew Scholotiuk and Dylan Pearce have a sizable portfolio of feature films, TV shows, and games to their credit, including a Lumiere Award for advancements and innovation in digital filmmaking. They are currently developing a new virtual production pipeline at Beamdog, an Edmonton-based gaming company. For more information about this or other episodes of Now & Next or to consult the show’s credits, visit https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/podcast-now-and-next/

Film and TV production are back in Canada’s major production centres but, not surprisingly, there’s a ‘new normal’ in place. While there have always been health & safety consultants on set, there are new protocols in place for COVID-19 safety and compliance.To help on-screen and off-screen talent adjust to the new reality, serial entrepreneur Alex Kolodkin launched a virtual company called Safe Sets International. As of June 2020, they’ve been providing both education and certification to the production industry all over the world. In this episode of Now & Next, Alex talks about getting the company off the ground and why he sees Safe Sets International as a personal responsibility.For more information about this or other episodes of Now & Next or to consult the show’s credits, visit https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/

Canada is among the world’s most culturally and racially diverse countries. But what we see on the streets isn’t always reflected on screens. That’s why actor Tonya Williams has made it her mission to bring increased diversity to Canadian TV and film productions. Her first step toward this goal was founding the Reelworld Film Festival in 2001. Initially, the objective of the festival was to showcase Black actors, writers, producers, and directors in Canada. It has since been expanded to include Indigenous, Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and LatinX talent. Launched this summer, the newest feature of the Reelworld Film Festival is an online database called Access Reelworld that helps match racially diverse on-screen talent with writers, producers, and directors. On this episode of Now & Next, Tonya Williams, the founder and executive director of the Reelworld Film Festival talks about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the festival, how she defines success for the various initiatives she is driving, and the important work that still needs to be done.

First, a *major* shout out to Toronto’s Buffer Festival and its staff, who were instrumental in arranging this interview. Buffer Festival is the world's largest international digital-first film festival. It features theatrical screenings, red carpets, educational keynotes, and awards — and you should definitely check it out at bufferfestival.comIn this episode of Now & Next we explore how a major legacy media company is navigating the shift from the “lean back” experience of linear television to the short, snappy, and on-the-go mode of mobile viewing.We dig into this with Brendan Yam, vice president and general manager of Viacom Digital Studios International. He has been with the company since 2005, and for the past year and a half, has led the company’s short form digital content output — and its conquest of global markets.To dig deeper, visit trends.cmf-fmc.ca

On this episode of Now & Next, a look at the growing call for environmental sustainability in film and television production.A sustainability consultant who worked on large-scale productions such as 'Legion,' 'The X Files' and 'The Man in the High Castle,' Green Spark Group president Zena Harris guides us through the array of environmentally sustainable practices productions of any size can start implementing. To download a transcript of the episode, to dig deeper into the topic and to find all of our content, visit trends.cmf-fmc.ca.

On this episode of Now & Next we journey into the business aspects of one of the buzziest areas of the media landscape: Podcasting. And really, there’s nobody better to explain the dramatic changes playing out in the audio space than Nicholas Quah.He’s a veteran of a bunch of online media companies that you probably know, like Business Insider and BuzzFeed. He’s also a contributing writer to New York Magazine, he’s been a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard, and he’s also the founder of Hot Pod, the leading newsletter about podcasts.To download a transcript of this episode, to consult the show’s credits and to dive deeper into the topic at hand, visit trends.cmf-fmc.ca. Excerpts in the opening: (00:21) - Podcasts on TV: Big Successes and Major Flops by the CBC on YouTube (URL on trends.cmf-fmc.ca)(00:26) - Sarah Koenig Interviewed the Taliban for ‘Serial’ by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on YouTube (URL on trends.cmf-fmc.ca)(00:35) - Podcasts See Massive Boom in Listeners and Investment by CGTN America on YouTube (URL on trends.cmf-fmc.ca)

This episode presents an in-depth conversation with acclaimed documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, one of the world’s most notable Indigenous filmmakers. She has made over fifty films over the span of her fifty-year career. Her documentary on the 1990 Oka Crisis is among her most widely known works. Now in her late eighties, Alanis has not slowed down. Her 53rd film, Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger, premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It also won the ‘Best Canadian Documentary’ award at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival.So, what does the iconic documentarian make of all the changes afoot in the doc world but of media and technology in general? Find out in this episode of Now & Next as we focus the spotlight on Alanis Obomsawin.To download a transcript of this episode, to consult the show’s credits and to dive deeper into the topic at hand, visit trends.cmf-fmc.ca.

While you may think—and a lot of people do—that gaming is just something that too many kids spend too much time in their basements doing, you can’t get away from how insanely popular it is. The global gaming industry is worth more than twice the movie and music industries, combined.Spurred by gaming’s massive popularity, eSports—or competitive video game playing—are rapidly gaining momentum. The industry is predicted to breach the billion-dollar threshold in 2019.Furthermore, data released by GlobalWebIndex in July 2019 show that almost a billion people had watched an eSports tournament "in recent months." That’s close to a 50% increase over 12 months. The trend is increasingly noticeable among internet users aged between 16 and 24 years old. Within that group, 32% say they watch eSports. 31% say they watch traditional sports.Because there are no borders on eSports, when a tournament happens, it’s a global event. And in some cases, like the League of Legends World Championship, audiences are bigger than the Super Bowl’s.So, have eSports reached a tipping point? Where does it go from here? How does Canada fit into the global eSports scene?On this episode of Now & Next, Leora Kornfeld sits down with five time Counter-Strike World Champion and professional gamer Stephanie Harvey for an insightful chat about the fast-growing eSports industry.For more about this topic, or to consult the show’s credits, visit trends.cmf-fmc.ca/

For several decades, placing long-shot bets and hoping for the best was pretty much all there was when it came to making TV shows and movies. Then along came data and analytics.On this episode of Now & Next we hear from Jack Zhang. Jack is a Waterloo grad who has devised a machine-learning system that breaks movies down to their core elements—tens of thousands of them in total—to predict a movie’s likelihood of success. And as you’ll hear in the inaugural episode of our second season, that’s only one of the many things Zhang’s artificial intelligence program can do. For more information about Now & Next, this episode, to learn more about artificial intelligence in filmmaking, or to consult the show’s credits, visit https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/

Why do Canadian businesses from the entertainment and audiovisual production sectors flock to Texas during SXSW? We sent the Canada Media Fund's Director of Industry and Market Trends, Catherine Mathys, down to Austin – microphone in hand – to find out.For more about SXSW 2019, head over to trends.cmf-fmc.ca.

Even though we’ve been hearing about virtual and augmented reality for years, we’re still far from mass adoption. Could blending VR/AR technologies into physical environments change that? In this episode, industry analyst Alexis Macklin of Greenlight Insights makes the case for location-based entertainment.

How can producers of kids’ content differentiate themselves in a newly global and competitive marketplace? For J.J. Johnson of Sinking Ship Entertainment, the production company behind some of the most popular kids’ shows on streaming and broadcast channels, it’s all about doing what others are not.

What do digital cats have to do with blockchain? A lot, thanks to the game CryptoKitties. In less than a year it’s become one of the world’s most successful blockchain applications, with over $40 million in transactions. Yes, of cats that live on screens.

Wattpad is the online writing platform with 65 million users worldwide, written by 4 million writers, that generates 1 billion data points per day. This episode goes inside Wattpad studios to find out how all this data is helping TV & film companies make better bets.

With Steve Pratt and Dan Misener of the Vancouver-based Pacific Content, embark on an in-depth look at the phenomenon of podcasting and how it’s doing double duty as audio entertainment and as a jumping off point for TV and film projects.

What are the business opportunities YouTube has to offer producers and talent? In this episode, Mark Swierszcz, the YouTube Space Toronto’s head of operations, provides a closer look at the platform’s roadmap for creators.