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"This is a thriving industry," Peter Whitley, president of the Toronto's Dufferin Gate Films, told the Globe and Mail in reference to the Canadian film industry.
In Ontario, foreign producers spent $442.7-million on 84 movies and TV series in 1999, up from $363.7-million on 77 projects in 1998. British Columbia played host to $1-billion in film productions for the first time in 1999. While almost all of them Hollywood films, including Mission To Mars and Reindeer Games, they employed Canadian actors and crews and other professionals in the business.
Then there are the made in Canada indigenous productions.
"It's now possible to make your career without leaving for L.A., which you had to do in Norman's Jewison generation," Wayne Clarkson, head of the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto, told the Globe and Mail.
The Ontario Film Development Corporation (OFDC) reported a record year in 1998 with revenues of $743.2 million dollars. ACTRA statistics show 64% of members, almost 7,000 actors, live and work in the Toronto area -- an area Isabel Basset (when she was Ontario's Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation) described as: "The third largest film making centre in North America, after Hollywood and New York."
Then there is theatre.
"It's boom time in Toronto's theatres," writes Robert Crew, Toronto Star Arts Writer. "Sales at T.O.Tix, Toronto's half-price ticket outlet in the Eaton Centre, have increased eight percentage points this year. And 78 per cent of those tickets are purchased by people outside the GTA. It's tempting to conclude that the audience base for live theatre in Toronto is rising significantly and that people are becoming increasingly sophisticated."
This trend can be seen at theatres across the country. Canada's venerable Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival have never been healthier and the theatre scene is growing and attracting attention in other urban centres and smaller communities that offer summer stock.
In short, actors and entertainment industry professionals are in demand. And they are demanding information about their craft, about professional development opportunities, auditions, each other and more.
Actors who aspire to produce, direct or write are demanding information about film, television and theatrical production as well as screen, television and play writing.
ACTRA and Equity represent the collective bargaining and the professional development interests offer their members. However, their members make up only a portion of the professional, amateur and aspiring actors in Canada.
Until recently, there has been an information gap for many professional and non-professional actors in Canada. What better way to fill that gap than with an online portal by, for and dedicated to Canadian actors?
With the involvement and support of ACTRA and Equity members, CanadianActor Online was born.
CAO is the brainchild of Lynda Mason Green, veteran Canadian co-actor and co-author of Standing Naked in the Wings: Anecdotes from Canadian Actors (Oxford University Press).
She created a Web site to support Standing Naked in the Wings and decided to complement the anecdotes on the site with links to resources that would be of interest to actors, particularly information that would help protect actors from unscrupulous operators that work on the entertainment industry fringe (and have now moved online). CAO soon overtook the Standing Naked in the Wings site.
CAO has been recommended by university theatre professors to students, by agents as a resource for new actors and parents with children in the business, by industry professionals and by actors to actors.
As actors began to find the site, they started asking the site "webmaster" questions. It soon became apparent there was a real thirst for knowledge about the industry, training, rules and regulations, opportunities, talent agencies and the vagaries and subtleties of the business. That led to the development of a moderated CAO discussion board.
Then parents with kids in the business discovered the site. Several parents asked for a discussion board that catered to their specific needs and CAO agreed to set one up on a test basis. It is an understatement to say the discussion boards have been a hit--growing from hundreds of hits per month, to hundreds of hits per day to about 250,000 page views (and literally millions of 'hits') each month.
Once, the participants on the Kidz board helped a teen whose over-enthusiastic Mom wanted her daughter to get a nose job thinking it would lead to more work. The teen did not want a nose job, nor did she want to act much. She and her Mom both ended up talking it out because of the support they got on the board. No nose job. No acting. And Mom and daughter are doing fine.
CAO also works to support and promote Canadian culture. To that extent, the site links to theatres and festivals across Canada, Canadian television stations, and news about Canadian actors and productions. CAO carries reviews of Canadian films, plays and television programs and links to web sites developed by or about Canadian actors.
CAO has accomplished a great deal by spending a great deal of time and almost no capital. Imagine what CAO could accomplish with and infusion of financing and the work of several new media specialists, researchers and writers.
To keep the site current, to make it more inclusive, to incorporate and the multimedia and interactive capabilities of the Internet and to inform more people both in the entertainment industry (and those who are not) that they have a home on the Web, CAO has launched a fundraising program.
With that in mind, CAO has developed:
Now that you know where CAO fits into the Biz, we hope you feel fit to support CAO.... Thank you for your support.
Linda Mason Green
Co-Founders
CanadianActor Online
Funds from sponsors will be used to support our discussion boards and promote CAO. Over time, we create original content. CanadianActor Online Inc. is incorporated nationally under the laws of Canada. If you have any questions, or if you want more information, please email email@canadianactor.com.
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