Ontario's Behind-the-Scenes Talent Boom Sparks Collaborations With Hollywood

Ontario talent has long graced Hollywood screens, from Ryan Gosling and Mike Myers to Rachel McAdams and Sandra Oh.

But just as the province has become a major Hollywood production hub for major studios and streaming services, the world’s top film and television producers are also embracing local talent to realize their creative ambitions behind the camera.

“When amazing shows come along and bring with them crazy writing and the ambition of it all, we’re able to rise to the challenge, which is gratifying to see,” said Shayne Fox, who just received his third Emmy nomination for his production design work on the series. What we do in the shadowstells The Hollywood Reporter on giving the maximum in the field of special effects.

From Francis Ford Coppola's dystopian epic Megalopolis to Tim Burton Beetle Juice Beetle JuiceOntario talent is bringing its all to some of the fall's biggest titles, as the Canadian province and Hollywood's biggest filmmakers collide more frequently and seamlessly.

A key player in making this possible is the Directors Guild of Canada — Ontario. In addition to negotiating the Standard Agreement, which governs pay and working conditions for its members on local and foreign productions, DGC-Ontario also conducts extensive skills training programs, industry and community outreach, and diversity and inclusion initiatives to ensure its talent below the line is employed.

“We really have great talent that gets recognized when it's seen. The trick is to get it seen,” says Victoria Harding, executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada — Ontario. DAY.

Film editor Cam McLauchlin developed a shorthand with major Hollywood directors after cutting Coppola's film Megalopolis and Guillermo del Toro Nightmare Alley AND Cabinet of Curiosities“Working with directors like Guillermo and Francis is clearly a gift,” says McLauchlin.

He credits having worked with del Toro in the editing room in various roles since filming the Hollywood horror maestro Pacific Rim in Ontario to have him next to Coppola for Megalopolis. “The city has been challenged by [del Toro’s] filmmaking skills. A lot of people jumped at the chance to work with someone with that work ethic and creative command,” McLauchlin adds.

Coppola was a fan of Nightmare Alleyand so he tapped McLauchlin to edit his self-financed epic, which is set for a North American debut at TIFF. “Working with Francis has been fascinating, baffling, incredible, exhilarating, everything under the sun. He’s very collaborative, very open to experimentation and very open to letting the editor do his thing at that point,” says McLauchlin, who also edited Gia Coppola’s film The Last Danceranother TIFF-bound title.

Since the 1970s, American films and television series have been regularly shot in the Canadian province, with an exponential growth in salaried workers, such as cameramen and film and sound editors, and with local talent finding work on high-profile projects and national films and television series.

Other highly regarded Ontario collaborators include editor Jay Prychidny. He began working with Tim Burton on his stylized Netflix series Wednesday like the Batman AND Edward Scissorhands the director branched out into TV. Prychidny went on to become one of the director's film collaborators on Beetle Juice Beetle Juicewhich received an enthusiastic reception when it premiered in Venice.

“With all the people [Burton] working closely with him, it creates a mental fusion. He likes to communicate in a few words and work with people who immediately understand what he means. So I had that connection, and I think that's why he wanted me to continue working with him,” Prychidny recalls.

Chris Donaldson, editor of the Oscar-winning film Women who speak for Sarah Polley and David Cronenberg The shroudsThe Cannes competition film, which also screened at TIFF, says the success of both Canadian directors, who shoot virtually all of their films in Ontario, has opened Hollywood’s eyes to local talent.

“David helped create the idea that [Ontario] had that world-class talent here. Sarah's success and David's success means that as they raise funding outside the country, they can feel like their talent pool is in Canada,” Donaldson says.

Cronenberg drew from the talent pool, and it certainly worked out well for Donaldson, who early in his career worked as an assistant to editor Ronald Sanders, a frequent collaborator with the auteur. When it came time to shoot Cronenberg's 2022 sci-fi horror film, Crimes of the Futurethe director chose Donaldson to cut it, since Sanders was unavailable. “I never dreamed in a million years that I would be able to work with David in this way. It's just an extraordinary privilege and incredibly inspiring,” he explains.

Production designer Zosia Mackenzie will have a busy TIFF this year, having worked for the first time in Budapest, Hungary, alongside three Canadian directors, Guy Maddin and longtime collaborators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, on voicesthe absurdist comedy starring Cate Blanchett, which features zombies living in a forest and a swamp and a giant foam brain that interrupts a meeting of G7 leaders, then goes out of control.

“I tried to create that Guy Maddin look and make it look like it was in the studio, even though it was on location, with a lot of variables like the weather and the wind and even our pond scene, with our leader going into the water,” Mackenzie recalls. voices shoot.

Closer to home, Mackenzie worked with Rachel Morrison, an American cinematographer known for her Oscar-nominated work on Muddy AND Black Pantherwhile making his feature film directorial debut shot in Ontario The fire inside, which will receive a special presentation at TIFF.

For Mackenzie, the biopic about Claressa Shields and her real-life rise to Olympic boxing gold had mostly studio builds based on archival photos and a previous documentary, T-Rex. That included a boxing ring from Flint, Michigan, and equipment from the United States for authenticity, and Shields’s vintage childhood home recreated in Oshawa, Ontario. “Since we had access to a lot of those materials, it made sense for us to build as many of them as possible,” he says.

Elsewhere, Joe Bracciale and his team are up for an Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing for their work on Fargowhich is filmed in Calgary and post-produced in Ontario. Working with showrunner Noah Hawley allowed for a lot of creative freedom, Bracciale recalls, especially after he and his team won an Emmy for their audio work on season two.

“It means a lot when you get that recognition. Then other American producers aren't afraid to come and use us. I would say we've gotten a lot more work because we won that Emmy or even just because we were nominated. People know they're obviously doing something really great up there,” Bracciale says.

Emmy wins and nominations also represent the reward for the long hours and effort put into their work.

“Everyone in this industry works so hard, day in and day out, hours, weekends and stuff like that, so it’s really nice to know, ‘Oh yeah, we’re being recognized for doing something special.’ It’s awesome,” Bracciale adds.

DGC-Ontario's Harding says local talent appearing in national films and TV shows has made Ontario the hotbed of Hollywood's star power behind the camera.

“We approach things with the belief that we have a lot to learn, and we have learned over the years, not just from foreigners, but from our own system,” he says. “Because even if American jobs weren’t there, we would still have a domestic industry that provides a breeding ground for that talent to continue to emerge and be honed.”

Harding says the work DGC-Ontario is doing to help emerging talent starts early and is clearly paying off.

“We do a lot of outreach and we go to schools across the county, we go to job fairs, we go to film schools to try to help people find their way through what can be daunting,” she says. “When I first started, it was a niche industry, and now it’s a big industry with big needs.”