Everything about Uncategorized, eh?

Canadian union organizing with reality TV workers to stop crew deaths

From a media release:

The Canadian Media Guild is saddened by the news that 10 people, cast and crew of French reality TV series Dropped, were killed in a helicopter crash yesterday in Argentina.

The union is organizing with reality TV workers to improve health and safety standards and working conditions in this country. In a 2013 survey, 54% of workers who go on location told us they have worked in unsafe conditions. That same year, Canadian director John Driftmier was killed in a plane crash in Kenya while filming Canadian series Dangerous Flights.

As one worker wrote recently, “I have come close to dying at sea, in the air and on land.”

Later this month, the union will publish a guide book for workers in the industry that will include information on how to stay safe on the job. The union is also seeking to negotiate with production companies to improve working standards in the industry.

More information is available at http://www.cmg.ca/en/tag/factual-tv/.

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Link: Is Canadian TV “Fundamentally Broken”?

From James Bawden:

Is Canadian TV “Fundamentally Broken”?
Two big new items both affecting the future of Canadian TV clashed this week for our attention. First up the president of Bell Kevin Crull told a TV audience in Ottawa that the current model for traditional broadcasters is “fundamentally broken” and “unsustainable.” And in Toronto the CBC our venerable public broadcaster unveiled a tattered schedule for fall 2015 that is barely a schedule at all. I’m suggesting both events are closely intertwined and both demonstrate how dangerously close to collapse the whole Canadian broadcasting system has become. Continue reading.

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Link: Electric Circus – an Oral History of Canada’s Greatest Dance Music Show

From Aidan Johnston of Vice:

Electric Circus: an Oral History of Canada’s Greatest Dance Music Show
Just the mention of Electric Circus will get any Canadian who danced in the 90s dripping with candy-coloured nostalgia for those asphyxiating vinyl blazers and go-go shorts they hung up long ago. For 15 years the iconic live dance program gyrated its way onto TVs across the country, where viewers eagerly awaited new music videos, exclusive performances, and tried to decipher the lyrics to Jet Fuel’s anthemic intro song. “Hey DJ come with a…choon? A broom?” Continue reading.

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Tonight: Marketplace

Marketplace, CBC – “Dumb Charge Countdown”
Tired of being nickel-and-dimed by unexpected extra charges on your bills? MARKETPLACE viewers sure are; we hear from lots of Canadians fed up with unfair fees. We took hundreds of your picks for dumb charges, narrowed them down, and let Canada vote. Now, Erica Johnson and Tom Harrington are counting down five frustrating fees and challenging the companies to get rid of them.

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Link: Cold Water Cowboys: Reality TV Canadian Style

From James Bawden:

Cold Water Cowboys: Reality TV Canadian Style
So I’m new to the sophomore show which is wild and wacky but also educational in a strange way. It was created by documentary film makers tyson Hepburn and John Driftmier and is a Canadian retort to such U.S. imports as Duck Dynasty. Instead of wrestling crocs these intrepid stars of Cold Water Cowboys search the chilly northern seas for crabs and schools of halibut. Continue reading.

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