Hello,
As you may be aware, DGC Ontario recently re-introduced the Guild Apprenticeship Program (GAP) for our Post Production departments, with separate streams for Picture Editing, Sound Editing, and Post Supervision/Coordination.
The Post Production GAP was discontinued when digital took over from film, with post budgets being narrowed down with little room for trainees or other junior positions, and none of our Apprentices were getting any work. This has created a vacuum behind our department heads, and it is necessary for the health of our industry to course-correct, developing more talent in this realm by moving new Members up through the ranks of each department.
In our recent intake in November/December, we received 52 applications, conducted 49 interviews and accepted 31 new Apprentices and 11 new Trainees over the three departments, with 26 in Picture Editing, 13 in Sound Editing, and three Post Production PAs.
We are writing this letter to appeal to you to budget for and hire trainees and assistants in our post production departments on DGC-signatory productions as part of our industry’s overall call for workforce development, and also for the diversification of our workforce. If there are no jobs for our new trainees, the GAP program will not be sustainable, and we will face a stark shortage in our workforce in post production in Ontario within the next several years.
DGC Ontario is committed to developing strong, new talent in our workforce, and we will do everything we can to support this program, however, we cannot guarantee that these trainees will find jobs without your help. Even if your production doesn’t have the budget for full-time trainees in all departments, please consider giving a trainee in one of the post departments a shorter assignment, or doing a rotation between departments. Other than the conditions and rates in the DGC/CMPA Standard Agreement, there are few restrictions on how the trainees can be hired, so please give some thought to how your production(s) can best contribute to this initiative. It’s our collective responsibility.
Thanks for your consideration, and we look forward to seeing a high level of employment for all our new Apprentices in Post Production and Editing, in both Picture and Sound. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of any help, or if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
