Announcements


2012 Report on Canadian Screenwriters

May 15, 2013 – 10:04 am

RYERSON UNIVERSITY RELEASES FIRST-EVER REPORT
ON CANADIAN SCREENWRITERS

TORONTO, May 15, 2013 – The first-ever study of Canadian screenwriters, conducted by researchers at Ryerson’s RTA School of Media, reveals that professional screenwriters in Canada are well-educated, mostly middle-aged, and versatile in writing for a variety of film and television genres in a volatile freelance market. The study also revealed a lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the industry.

The 2012 Report on Canadian Screenwriters, authored by RTA School of Media professors Michael Coutanche and Dr. Charles Davis, provides a snapshot of the screenwriting occupation in Canada including income and employment levels, where screenwriters live and work, age, education, gender and ethnicity.

“Screenwriting is a vital occupation in the Canadian cultural industries, but one that is not often in the spotlight. We felt it was time to begin an examination of who is writing for our screens, what they are writing and how they are writing,” said Michael Coutanche, Assistant Professor with the RTA School of Media and a former film and television industry development executive.

Screenwriting is at the heart of the film, television and other screen-based media industries and successful productions depend directly on the quality and creativity of Canadian screenwriting talent. Despite its importance, the screenwriting occupation has received little attention in Canada. The 2012 Report on Canadian Screenwriters sheds light on the working conditions and career dynamics of the men and women who write for Canadian screens and audiences. The report is based on a survey of 266 members of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), the union that represents professional Canadian English-speaking screenwriters. Similar studies have been conducted regularly in the United States since 1987 with similar results – women, visible minorities, and older workers are underrepresented in the screenwriting occupation.

“This research demonstrates Toronto’s importance as the centre of screenwriting in English-speaking Canada,” said Dr. Charles Davis, ES Rogers Research Chair in Media Management and Entrepreneurship RTA School of Media.

Key findings include:

  • There are nearly twice as many male screenwriters (65%) as females (35%). Men dominate the highest-paying and most powerful writing positions while female screenwriters have less overall experience in the industry and earn less for screenwriting work.
  •  Visible minorities are underrepresented in the Canadian screenwriting industry. 4.1% of screenwriters who responded to the survey are visible minorities – about one-quarter of the representation of minorities in Canada’s overall population. Visible  minority screenwriters have less industry experience than white screenwriters and 36% of them report having experienced occupational discrimination due to their ethnic or racial background.
  • Well over half of Canadian screenwriters are in their 40s and 50s. Middle-aged screenwriters have the most influence and power in the Canadian screenwriting industry as they occupy most (64.8%) of the showrunner and writer/producer positions in television.
  • Nearly half of all screenwriters (49%) live in the Greater Toronto Area, followed by Vancouver (15%), Los Angeles (10%) and Montreal (8%). Screenwriters in Toronto and Los Angeles report higher incomes from screenwriting than writers in other cities.
  • Canadian screenwriters are highly educated with 80.4% of survey respondents having a post-secondary degree. More than half (55%) gain additional education and training through a variety of sources such as internships, professional workshops and industry seminars. In addition to training, mentorship is important to Canadian screenwriters with nearly half of all survey respondents reporting having had a screenwriting mentor.

To read the complete report, click here.

 

The RTA School of Media at Ryerson University is Canada’s preeminent school of media content creation, innovation and broadcasting.  Established sixty years ago as the School of Radio and Television Arts, RTA provides students with an intense and rewarding education in all aspects of media production, art and scholarship.

Ryerson University is Canada’s leader in innovative, career-oriented education and a university clearly on the move. With a mission to serve societal need, and a long-standing commitment to engaging its community, Ryerson offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. Distinctly urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the university is home to more than 38,000 students, including 2,300 master’s and PhD students, nearly 2,700 faculty and staff, and more than 140,000 alumni worldwide. Research at Ryerson is on a trajectory of success and growth: externally funded research has doubled in the past four years. The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada’s leading provider of university-based adult education. For more information, visit www.ryerson.ca

MEDIA CONTACT:
Johanna VanderMaas
Public Affairs, Ryerson University
Office: 416-979-5000 x 4630
johanna.vandermaas@ryerson.ca
@RyersonNews

 

 





RTA UpFront 2013

May 15, 2013 – 9:29 am

 





The RTA Pitch Competition

April 2, 2013 – 11:09 pm

21st Annual RTA Pitch Competition

Saturday, April 6, 2013 at 5:30 PM

Rogers Communication Centre

80 Gould Street, Toronto – Room 204
In a suspense filled evening, five student teams will pitch their dream television project to a panel of industry insiders.  The adjudicators give candid feedback and decide which project most deserves to be greenlit and on the air.

In recent years, several of the projects presented on Pitch Night have been optioned by television producers and distributors.  The RTA Pitch Competition is the final project of the two term course Business Aspects of Independent Production taught by James Nadler.

 

2013 Adjudicators are:

Mackenzie Lush, Entertainment One Television

Patrick O’Sullivan, CBC

Steven Levitan, Protocol Entertainment

Charlotte Rose, Greenlight Talent Agency

Mary Bredin, Guru Studios.

 

Door prizes will be given just before the winning team is announced.

The prize for the winning pitch team has been donated by Summit Crescent Productions.

 








Big Announcement from RTA!

March 29, 2013 – 10:23 am

Ryerson’s RTA School of Media and Rogers TV announce Ryerson On The Air – A new programming block that brings student produced programming  to homes across Toronto

The RTA School of Media at Ryerson University is pleased to announce that it will broadcast work entirely produced by students on TV screens all over Toronto through a programming block called Ryerson On The Air. The new block will run on Rogers TV Cable 10/63 in Toronto/Scarborough at various times through their broadcast schedule. For showtimes and to see a promo, please visit www.rogerstv.com/ryersonontheair.

Beginning Monday, April 1st, the pilot episode of Ryerson On The Air will be broadcast to Rogers Cable customers throughout the city. It will showcase the best content created entirely by Ryerson students from RTA School of Media as well as schools of all disciplines. The partnership will provide access to audiences beyond the classroom. From documentaries, dramas, comedies, current affairs, children’s programming, and much more, Ryerson On The Air will offer a variety of programming that will appeal to Rogers Television’s wide and diverse viewership.

Rogers Television and its audience will gain access to a large reserve of high-quality, locally produced content that will help reinforce their core beliefs of Local Matters programming and television that brings communities together.





RTA in Ghana Show & Tell

March 28, 2013 – 3:44 pm





Research Lunch

March 19, 2013 – 9:17 am





Editing Software Changes for Fall 2013

March 6, 2013 – 11:34 pm
Hello RTA,
After weighing RTA’s curricular needs, consulting with staff, faculty, and industry partners, and — most importantly — listening to RTA students, I’m pleased to announce that as of September 2013, we will be supporting three edit platforms: Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Avid Media Composer.Though all 3 options will be accessible to everyone, the most commonly taught and utilized software by RTA classes will be Adobe Premiere Pro. Use of Avid Media Composer will be predominantly – but not exclusively – focused on those students who are interested in pursuing more advanced editing skills.Because Apple has pulled support of Final Cut Pro 7 (FCP7), we will be retiring its use here at the Rogers Communications Centre (RCC) at the end of this school year.  Existing FCP7 projects cannot be opened by any other editing software.  In order to maintain the flexibility to edit your existing pieces in the future, you will soon be provided with support material to assist in the transition of your existing FCP7 projects to a format that is compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro. We highly recommend that you go through this process before exams are over in April because in September 2013, FCP7 will no longer be found on the computers in RCC labs and classrooms.Later in August, we will update you with regards to our plans for additional documentation and material related to learning our new editing platforms, as well as details about extra workshops and support we will be offering to make the transition to our mainstay (Adobe Premiere Pro) as easy as possible.

Please direct questions or concerns about this to Shawn Haswell (Manager, Production & Facilities) at x7554 or shaswell@ryerson.ca.





Pre/Occupy Theory Speakers’ Series

March 5, 2013 – 10:59 pm





Google Email Signature

March 4, 2013 – 1:01 pm
Since the big switch to Google, there has been some confusion about how to add a signature to one’s outgoing email. To add/alter you signature in Google’s web interface, do the following:
1. Click on “Settings” in the Gmail web interface
2. Under the “General” tab, scroll down to the “Signature” area and paste my template into the window.
3. Personalize it to reflect your own information.
4. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page and then you’re done.