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Toronto film studio cuts fees in half for women

Peter Apostolopoulos dabbled in film and television as an actor and producer before going into the family real estate development business full-time.

Now, as president of Toronto’s newest film production space, TriBro Studios, Apostolopoulos has decided to offer an extra helping hand to productions helmed by women, a group he noticed faced greater obstacles getting ahead in a highly competitive industry.
“The initiative came from years of working with actors and writers and producers, where everyone is sort of trying to get their next shot. We found that the guys were getting ahead of the game so far quicker than the ladies were,” Apostolopoulos said in an interview.

To level the playing field, Apostolopoulos announced in June that any production with a female director or showrunner would get a 50 per cent discount on studio fees at the 70,000-square-foot facility in East York.

Michelle Lovretta, creator and showrunner of Killjoys, a sci-fi adventure series that airs on Space in Canada and Syfy in the U.S., was happy to take TriBro up on the offer. The second season of the series will be shot at the east-end studio from December to April 2016.

“It’s a pretty out-of-the-box idea. The economics aside, it’s a great space,” Lovretta said.

“I think people have been pretty aware of the gender stats . . . and they mostly speak for themselves. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear that a studio would actually try to chip away at the issue with their own creative response. That’s refreshing,” she said.
Need a refresher on those gender stats? The Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University found that only 7 per cent of the biggest feature films produced in 2014 had female directors.

The same study found that the number of women showrunners — the people who oversee the day-to-day production of TV series — is less than 23 per cent.

The issue became front-and-centre two weeks ago when the New York Times Magazine featured a comprehensive cover story in which more than 100 women in Hollywood spoke out about rampant sexism and gender discrimination in the industry.

“I think (the issue) is worse than 10 years ago, so we can’t even tell ourselves it’s slowly evolving,” director and actress Helen Hunt told the magazine, a sentiment echoed by others.

Apostolopoulos said he considered donating funds to causes that promote gender equality or programs that train women in film but decided that a 50-per-cent cut in studio fees would have an immediate, direct benefit.

“The discount, depending on how long or how big the production is, can really make or break a project. So we said, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do,’” Apostolopoulos said.
“So we’re going to take a 50-per-cent haircut on the studio rental. I’m not losing money, I’m just not making as much. I have to make sure I cover my costs, which I do,” he added.
The initiative may even find a secondary benefit for women in film and TV, Apostolopoulos noted, by making them more employable.

“If a production company has a female director or showrunner, it’s a great opportunity for them. Is a production company going to be more inclined to hire a woman? They might be,” he said.

There’s also a more personal motive for the initiative for Apostolopoulos and his partners/brothers, Jim and Steve.

“We’re all fathers of little girls,” he said.

Source: Toronto Star