Latest news with #ACTRA
Vancouver Sun
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Hollywood North's first union approved vertical series in the works
The union representing actors in B.C. has signed its first deal with a vertical series production. Designed to be watched on your phone, verticals are feature film-length stories typically broken down into 70 to 150 episodes of 60 to 90 seconds each. Until this agreement was struck between the UBCP/ACTRA union and Vancouver's Service Street Pictures for its upcoming production of Night's Embrace: Crimson Vows, verticals had been strictly non-union. 'I've cried at least five times today. This is such an important step forward for our industry, and I'm beyond grateful,' said Monika Dalman, casting director and co-founder of the Vertical Film and Short Series Alliance (VFSSA) in a statement. ' UBCP/ACTRA has been an absolute dream to work with … They have truly gone above and beyond to keep actors working and to support the growth of vertical production.' The VFSSA is a community-led industry collective dedicated to 'professionalizing and elevating the vertical format.' 'We understood from the beginning that even with the eventual creation of a vertical union agreement, there would always be non-union vertical productions — that's simply the nature of the beast,' said Dalman in an email to Postmedia. 'Our goal was to create a framework where clear protections and expectations could exist for cast and crew, regardless of union status. We wanted to be able to help people even if they weren't qualified to join a union yet.' Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. While UBCP/ACTRA members cannot work on non-union productions, the local Directors Guild and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have allowed members to work on verticals. 'For actors, it opens the door to union vertical work with established minimum fees, insurance and retirement benefits, protections for children, work involving stunts or intimate scenes. For producers and platforms, it establishes a scalable framework, that protects performers tailored to the unique demands of vertical storytelling, offering global usage rights for a defined three-year period,' said the VFSSA statement. The B.C. actor's union acknowledges the growth of the vertical industry and sees this agreement as opening a 'new path of work' for its members, many who have been struggling as the television and film industry around the globe has contracted. Some estimates peg the current industry numbers as being off by 25 per cent. According to Keith Martin Gordey, president of UBCP/ACTRA and vice-president of ACTRA national, the 'pilot agreement' represents a growth opportunity for B.C.'s film and television industry. 'As the industry evolves and exciting new opportunities to tell stories emerge, UBCP/ACTRA is alongside industry to ensure that our members are able to deliver their talent and professionalism to create great productions on safe sets,' said Gordey. Verticals have been criticized by some within the industry for the lack of industry standards. Dalman says that 'in-theory' agencies like WorkSafeBC, Employment Standards, and the federal government of Canada should already be paying attention to what's happening on these sets, but often, oversight 'falls short.' 'A unionized set adds an extra layer of accountability that helps protect everyone involved,' said Dalman. 'It's not just the actors who need protecting — it's every human being on that set, whether they're in front of the camera or behind it. Everyone deserves to work in a safe, fair and respectful environment.' Started in China about seven years ago, verticals began to catch on in North America during the post-pandemic shift away from TV screens and home computers to phones as people began to commute and travel again. The content is watched using apps such as ReelShort, FlickReels, DramaBox and GoodShort. Each platform usually offers between 10-20 free, cliffhanger-packed, episodes to pull the viewer in. After that, it costs between US$20 to US$40 to continue to view. Right now in Hollywood North, around 20 verticals are being shot a month with budgets usually running from US$120,000 to US$200,000. Verticals tend to average around eight days of filming. Dgee@
Winnipeg Free Press
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba film industry eyes Trump tariff threat
Those in Manitoba's film industry are waiting to see what will come of U.S. President Donald Trump's recent declaration on foreign film productions. On Sunday, Trump announced he had ordered a 100 per cent tariff on all movies produced outside the United States, claiming the tax would save America's 'dying' movie industry and that films made elsewhere presented a national security threat. While it's unclear how or when the proposed tariff would be applied, ACTRA Manitoba president Alan Wong is concerned about the potential impact on jobs and content. 'There's so many productions shooting around the world and for good reason — what is Emily in Paris going to be if she's not in Paris? Emily in Paris, Idaho?' said Wong. 'It's so nearsighted and narrow-minded and it could really affect our industry a lot.' In a statement released Monday, ACTRA's national board urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to protect the livelihoods of Canadian performers. According to the Canadian Media Producers Association, the value of foreign productions totalled $4.73 billion last year and generated 90,000 jobs across the country. ACTRA Manitoba represents nearly 900 performers working in cinema, television and radio. Local actors have benefited from the Manitoba movie boom over the last decade, spurred on by the province's 65 per cent tax credit for filmmakers on labour costs. Recurring projects from U.S. companies Hallmark and Lifetime have been particularly fruitful, Wong said. 'It would be such a shame to see that go because we've worked for years to develop these relationships,' he said. In 2024, Manitoba hosted 86 film and television productions — 36 per cent of which were national or international — representing nearly $435 million in production budgets, according to Manitoba Film and Music projections. Jeremy Torrie of Manitoba-based White Bear Films wasn't feeling particularly worried about the president's latest trade war threat. 'It is ultimately a wait and see, but business is not stopping,' he said. He is a producer on Silent Night, Deadly Night, a reboot of the 1984 American slasher flick currently being shot in Manitoba with production partners from south of the border. The president's rhetoric wasn't going to get in the way of finishing the movie, Torrie said. 'There's so many productions shooting around the world and for good reason — what is Emily in Paris going to be if she's not in Paris? Emily in Paris, Idaho?'–Alan Wong 'Producers and projects that come to Manitoba, they do it because it makes the right financial sense to do so and we've got great crews and we've got great locations. They're going to continue to do that because the demand for entertainment is not going away.' Other American projects shot locally recently include Nobody 2, starring Bob Odenkirk, and The Long Walk, an adaptation of Stephen King's novella of the same name. Every Second Friday The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Manitoba Film and Music is monitoring the proposed tariff situation closely. 'We have a resilient local production industry, but we understand this issue creates uncertainty,' chief executive officer and film commissioner Lynne Skromeda said in a statement. Premier Wab Kinew also expressed concern. 'This is a concern because our film and television industry is great for Manitoba's economy and it's great for (local) pride,' he told reporters Monday during a scrum in his office. 'We can drive around Winnipeg or Selkirk or other communities in Manitoba and see shows that are going to be on Netflix, that are going to be on Amazon, shot right here in our great province.' — with files from Carol Sanders Eva WasneyReporter Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva. Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
09-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Do you know where your retirement money is? Study finds thousands have forgotten pensions
Judy Shapiro, 74, admits she wasn't thinking about retirement when she was beginning her career in the 1970s. However, she had been building a nest egg, which she nearly didn't claim. She was in her 20s and working on a contract with the CBC, making a kids' TV show called What's New. She belonged to a union, ACTRA, and contributed to its retirement savings plan for members. She only worked there for a few years before moving on, then left the country for four years. "I was admittedly not really interested in monetary success or anything like that," she told CBC's Cost of Living. The paperwork for her RRSP went into a box and she forgot about it for almost 40 years. About five years ago, she was looking through old files and found a form that said she had invested $8,000 in that RRSP while she was an ACTRA member. She reached out to ACTRA and, after confirming her identity, she was told it was now worth more than $100,000. "I just about fell off my chair, actually. I couldn't believe it," she said. She converted that account to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) that's now managed by the ACTRA Fraternal Benefit Society. That translates into an extra $650 in her pocket every month. Shapiro is not the only Canadian to lose track of retirement savings. Thousands of people may be missing out on unclaimed retirement money. Unfortunately, it's harder than you might expect for pension plans to find people who may be owed a significant chunk of cash. A December 2024 report by the National Institute on Ageing found that nearly 200,000 people with registered pension plans are considered missing in Ontario alone, adding up to about $3.6 billion in unclaimed money. Who thinks about retirement at 20? Sebastien Betermier, an associate professor of finance at McGill University in Montreal, says Shapiro's case isn't surprising. "Who thinks about retirement at the age of 20? You've just come out of school. You have a degree. You have your first job, then your first big investment will typically be to buy a house," he said. "We're always confronting short-term financial priorities, and so the pensions are oftentimes on the back burner." Add to this the fact that many Canadians change employers throughout their career, and may change addresses or phone numbers, making it harder for a pension plan to find you. Over time, it can also become increasingly difficult for a company to connect these funds with a missing member. Eventually, they may just run out of time. "One of the findings from Ontario is that a significant number of the missing members are over 100 years old," said Doug Chandler, an actuary and associate fellow at the National Institute on Ageing and co-author of the study. "So, obviously, those are people who are never going to be found except in the cemetery." If a pension plan administrator can't find a missing member or that person's beneficiary, the money sits unclaimed. A plan might buy an annuity from an insurance company, which takes on the job of monitoring the funds. Or the money might be redirected to an unclaimed property fund in some provinces. Betermier noted that the foundations of Canada's pension system were "built in an era where we had more stable employment and less turnover." If you've worked with the same employer your entire career, you probably didn't have to do a lot to keep track of your pension. "We have, in my view today in the private sector, a system in Canada that is very fragmented, where you have a lot of mini-pensions with different employers. And a lot of the onus on the individual." Finding the missing members Pension plans do try to contact people who have unclaimed pension funds, but it's not always easy to do so. For one, privacy laws mean that the funds can only say so much until a person replies to them to verify their identity. If a person's contact information is out of date, it can be hard to find their latest info. Pension plan administrators like OP Trust, which runs the pension plan for provincial government workers in Ontario, may ask the Canada Revenue Agency to help. The CRA will write a letter on behalf of the plan, advising someone that they may be able to claim a pension. But Jesusa Chow, a senior VP at OP Trust, says people today are just as likely to believe this is a scam. "What I worry about is that there are members out there that don't realize that they have this benefit that will help them in their retirement age and in their old age. And that is a shame," she said. Chow says OP Trust currently has about 1,400 members listed as missing; the average payment they're eligible to receive — and are currently missing out on — is about $470 a month. That's just the average, though; Chow says one missing member could be receiving $4,300 a month — if they find them. WATCH | What does retirement look like for millennials? How might retirement look different for millennials 10 months ago Duration 12:09 Retirement may seem farther away than ever for millennials after the pandemic, inflation and Canada's skyrocketing housing prices. But what does the long-term outlook hold for this generation just coming into its own? Given the economic times, what does retirement look like for millennials? Chandler says connecting forgotten pension funds with their owners likely isn't a major priority for provincial and federal governments in Canada because, for the most part, the missing nest eggs aren't very big per person. "Compared to the size of the Canadian pension system, it's not big. But in terms of total dollars and in terms of the impact on individuals, it can be big," he said. "There's enough money at stake here that you'd think we could get the government's attention. We are talking about billions of dollars of unpaid benefits, and billions of dollars of unpaid taxes." Ultimately, Shapiro says it's worth putting in the time to keep track of where you've worked. And even if you haven't dedicated your entire career to memory, it's never too late to start looking. "Think about where you've worked in the past and contact them, and find out whether you happen to have a pension ... [or] if you've got money tucked away somewhere," she said.
