[Sneak Peek] The State of Film & Television in 2026 ft Joel Stewart
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, we sit down with Joel Stewart to talk about what's happening in the film industry here in Canada. From tax credits to tax incentives, there's a lot going on in the industry here, and Joel joins us to discuss it all.
Transcript
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canada's doing okay i think in a larger sense i mean as an industry the movie industry is just
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very interesting i mean all the industries anyone who tells you this is where it's going
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doesn't know what they're talking about thanks for joining us tpl media and by the way we might
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little bit and we would certainly appreciate it all right let's get on with what's happening today
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an opportunity i have once in a while to sit down with joel stewart to talk a little bit about
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film in canada among other things joel stewart joins us thanks so much buddy well i am the least
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qualified person you could have rounded up from the streets of toronto i want to see you to be
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here let me test you on that joel because let's see uh network television producer correct yes
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stage performing uh rock star still yes uh recent movie in theaters actually you know the more you
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bring this up the more you're right yeah i hate to be your promo guy but you're perfectly qualified
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for this and i do appreciate you taking the time uh here we are in the throes of summer and coast
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to coast in canada that means something from a production standpoint generally speaking it means
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we're usually pretty busy yep what do you feel is going on out there now how's your gauge on how
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busy the studios the producers and the tech teams are doing out there you know what i think the tech
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teams are doing great uh there there is still the the uh you know we're known for having great crews
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in very interesting places not just toronto and vancouver but winnipeg has become a film hub okay
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dot dot you know all those uh great bob odenkirk movies the nobody movies they filmed there right
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the new little house on the prairie that is coming out on netflix which is set in california is
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filming and you know in winnipeg uh but you know winnipeg really rallied around you know the
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government said hey we have to turn this into something and then they created a tax credit
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environment that attracted american producers so in addition to the exchange rate and all those
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incentives that were there but what happened was back a bunch of years ago uh when the opposite was
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happening in alberta a bunch of the alberta people moved to winnipeg and and made that their home and
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And I'm talking about grips and gaffers and technicians.
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I mean, they should maybe change it to Hub Manitoba because it's now a hub for, in many ways, for all of the logistics that go on in many parts of Canada.
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There's a lot of space there for studios, I would imagine.
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And you have the incredible buildings in Winnipeg proper.
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it often doubles for chicago or new york and all that kind of stuff as well so
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they they've you know so as far as crews go crews are working uh i think crews are thriving here in
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canada um there was an article in variety today what is today june 16th but again it was about
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the uh people escaping the scene in la too expensive to shoot in la there's there's the
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entertainment capital of the world los angeles where else are they going do you think because
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I was reading this thing, and somebody said, well, the tax credits are better here than they are in California.
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because i think i've i've participated in tax credits a couple of times uh in my life uh with
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various uh television shows but let's explain to people how that operates because i think that
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there's a misconception that a huge amount of money from our government is put into film when
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really what it is in many cases and and this kind of production many cases it's just a tax relief
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it's just a tax arrangement that makes the budget go further i don't know if that's true i think
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there is cash involved no no you get the cash yeah you get cash but i don't think that comes
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from the federal government so essentially what happens is it offsets the cost of production
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based on where you yes okay so in manitoba for instance uh i don't know why i'm bringing up
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manitoba all the time what are you the king of manitoba i didn't know this but as an example uh
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uh just because it's recent in my head i believe it's 30 of all of the labor costs you would have
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would be subsidized by the tax credit and northern ontario has a similar they have yes people might
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not know there you get a tax credit in ontario just for doing something in ontario okay if you
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go to northern ontario which is why a lot of things are filmed in sudbury you know sudbury
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wow film capital of canada capital of canada there's a northern ontario tax threshold so
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if you were able to move your production out there uh you get a bump to the existing
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ontario tax credit and you know you think about it this is significant these are significant
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dollars because oh let's go there and we'll get a tax credit well to go there you have to
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kind of go there a bunch of people have to be in hotels you need to have the cruise are
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you need a localized crew which i think is hopefully the net result of this that
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in in for example winnipeg you get a film community and and a resource community there
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that can continue to make films that continues to be a destination no matter who's coming in i mean
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the creative keys will come in like you know when they made fargo in those five seasons of fargo
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in calgary uh a lot of the crew were the same crew but a lot of the the keys the writers they
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all from hollywood and stuff right come up and do that sort of thing so there is a cost to it but
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you know canada's doing okay i think in a in a larger sense i mean as an industry the movie
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industry is just very interesting i mean all the industries anyone who tells you this is where it's
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going doesn't know what they're talking about because they don't know and nobody knows no it's
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changed so dramatically really yeah but here's the thing that's stressing me out now uh as an older
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guy who made a movie wants to make another movie well there's this great thing happening now people
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are flocking to the theaters right now the young people are flocking to theaters to see backrooms
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and obsession both of which you know backrooms was based on a fella's web series dot dot dot yeah
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he's in his early 20s he got a budget and he's making he's making bank now yeah and then this
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movie obsession same story so it being a copycat industry you know that every every head of every
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whatever company is like let's find another 20 year old i can see that what i think is interesting
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about that is well that's truth cinema is i mean it's changing uh i think i've got tickets upcoming
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to a symphony for goodness sake uh you can see live events and things like that and there's a
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huge uh ethnic element now uh to the forum film uh showing going depending on where you are in
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the country you know a number of theaters are showing punjabi or uh other ethnic related to
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that community uh and there's less theaters for just straight away film when you add a back rooms
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for example which by the way freaks me out the whole idea of it freaks me out and so good for
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that kid alongside those there needs to be this epic series of movies or epic element of movies
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i think that keeps people uh within the magic there has to be genre of film that has impact
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to people's emotions and then there has to be these throwaways that are what i like to call
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viral fascinations in film and i don't think the industry can survive very long on just viral
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uh fascinations i don't think i don't i think it'll be a fad you know i think it'll be but
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it'll be a fad for a while you know and it'll be there'll be somebody who gets a new job at a new
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place who said this is what we're going to do and they will forget about experience and all these
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sorts of things joe let me see how many followers do you have right right like i get it oh my gosh
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you know we were just talking before we went to camera about about these things that happen now
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and and the way things are done now and it's like you don't look for the best actor for the part
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you you wonder you you have a person going how many followers do they have on instagram and it's
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like well but can they act it doesn't matter how many followers do they have on instagram yeah
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this becomes a thing what's their viral pattern online are they tiktok or instagram yes oh my lord
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these things matter these things are discussed and come up and i'm gonna make a fantastic movie
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and they'll be viral the rest of their lives well you know exactly uh when paul thomas anderson won
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the golden globe for one battle after another he said something very specific in his speech and he
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pointed to one studio person in the audience and said that person is responsible for this movie
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weapons and sinners now sinners in one battle after another i think are you could just redo
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the top 10 greatest movies of all time really didn't nail it and you could you could make an
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argument that those movies should be on it those movies made me want to go to theaters again yes
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yes and marty supreme as well i guess supreme another great example just a singular