The proliferation of generative AI, augmented and virtual reality, and new modes of viewing and engaging with entertainment content is likely to have profound effects on Calgary’s creative economy.

According to Calgary Economic Development’s (CED) foresight manager Rachelle Bugeaud, this means opportunities for new entertainment talent, initiatives, and potentially new creative industry infrastructure to support the former.

Speaking at a CED forum on the creative economy on Nov. 27, Bugeaud outlined some of the ways that consumers of media might be viewing it in the future: using generative AI to replace actors with friends, family, or yourself in roles, or even outright changing the style of a movie to other directors, and hybridizing games and movie to allow viewers to choose what aspects of a production they want more of—whether that be romance, action, or other aspects.

“You might be the ones tweaking the dials, or it might be doing it on its own, in a more responsive way. So let’s say you’re feeling nostalgic. Maybe the system recognizes that, and it chooses to alter all of your media to be in a style that kind of suits your emotions,” Bugeaud said.

Other forthcoming changes include the increased virtualization of our world, where consumers buy virtual expressions of fashion or have the capacity through augmented reality, to completely change the way the world looks around them.

“This shift is going to coincide with the metaverse, basically the layer of augmented reality all around us. But what this one is about is digital fashion, digital products, digital interiors that you can essentially design, purchase and own,” Bugeaud said.

“An example of this would be The Fabricant, which is one of the world’s first digital fashion houses. What they produce, essentially, is digital fashion that you can own in the virtual world.”

Technology changes are being looked at for creative opportunities

How mainstream those changes come, and how fast said Bugeaud, was something that CED was tracking. She’s hoping to see more people adopt these technologies in the creative fields.

“So what I hope to see is a bit of—I don’t know if it’s gonna be an explosion—but at least an increase in the amount of Calgary productions, Calgary creations, Calgary projects that we’re seeing hit the global stage.”

Alex Sarian, CEO of Arts Commons and author of The Audacity of Relevance: Critical Conversations on the Future of Arts & Culture, said that the changes in technology would inform how artists create in the future, but that he was bullish on the continued desire for Calgarians to come together to experience arts and entertainment.

“I think these tools will certainly allow people to consume differently at the end of the day—and I have no idea what that will look like, and that is very exciting to me—but at the end of the day, what I still know to be true is that people will still want to have come together to have a social and cultural experience,” Sarian said.

“That’s why I think there is no technology that will ever be developed that will compete with the Arts Commons campus. That doesn’t worry me.”

He said that one of the ideas put forward by Bugeaud that he found interesting was the already existing performance format where live audiences go to see a holographic projection on stage. In this case, a holographic concert featuring the Japanese character Hatsune Miku.

“On the one hand, people watching a hologram boggles their mind. But what I love about it is that they’re still gathering socially,” Sarian said.

Another was Bugeaud showing a clip from a VR experience of the running of the bulls in Spain, he said.

“I have no doubt in my mind that because of that experience, there will be an uptick in people that actually want to travel to Spain and do it in person,” Sarian said.

“Many years ago, the Met Opera in New York City started doing the Met in HD, which was essentially taking New York City operas into movie theaters around the world, and the fear at that point, because that’s all it was, it was fear is that it would be cannibalizing on a different cultural experience under the umbrella of the creative economy.

“What we quickly found out was that cities that actually a Met HD performance in a cinema, were actually more likely to see an increase in people wanting to go see the live thing in their local community.”

What Sarian said was currently lacking was productions that are uniquely Calgarian in a way that presented the city as more than just a filming location to be rebadged as another city.

“I love turning on the TV and watching films that were filmed in Calgary, but I don’t know that any of them actually, like in the narrative of the film take place in Calgary. It’s always Calgary pretending to be somebody else, or some or somewhere else,” he said.

“I think we will have made it, quote, unquote, if I can turn on the TV in New York and watch a movie of a story that is taking place in Calgary. Not that I need, like, a Law and Order Calgary edition, but there are so many stories that could just happen against the backdrop of Calgary.”

Sarian said that we would still need to, and should have the big international productions come to Calgary, but that he also envisioned a future for Calgary’s creative economy that shifted the power dynamic in favour of locals.

“What happens if we are stopped being on the receiving end of calls, and we are the ones starting to make the calls?” Sarian asked.

Focus is on providing opportunities for Calgarians

For Luke Azevedo, Calgary’s Film Commissioner and Vice President for Creative Industries and Operations at Calgary Economic Development, one of the reminders was that the drive will always be for the people side of the creative economy equation.

“The job creation as well as the infrastructure creation, are ways to a means, right? So how do we ensure that we’re developing talent locally so that they can stay here and create? Then the globe sees it that way, and at the same time brings in that international perspective, so that the dollars continue to run,” he said.

“It’s all cyclical. The international comes in, the dollars are positioned, and we then bring in the locals to be able to utilize that opportunity to grow our sector here, too.”

He said that kind of growth is already happening, spurred on by a pair of major challenges that the creative industry faced globally through the Covid-19 pandemic, and then through the 2023 writers strike.

“One of the things that we engaged in almost immediately was ensuring that the capacity that we had here, that wasn’t being utilized for international production, was automatically being utilized for locals so that locals had an opportunity to work with people that are at the top of their trade, and engaged them so that they could have the capacity to tell that story internationally,” Azevedo said.

“It was a huge opportunity for us then, and we took advantage of it.”

Among the numbers touted by the Alberta Government as successes during 2024, were the sustained performance of cultural industries in the province, to the tune of some 19,233 jobs during the year.

“By investing in almost 190 projects during the year, Alberta’s government is supporting locally-produced films, television shows, books, magazines and music. We are seeing the benefits growing our film and television industries,” said Minister of Arts, Culture, and the Status of Women Tanya Fir.

“The value that brings to Albertans both economically and socially, every dollar of government support towards film and television production generates $4 of investment back into the province.”

The Alberta Made Screen Industries Program administered by the province, also led to support for 62 projects and script developments, while the Alberta Made Production Grant supported 16 film and television projects.

Big production players savvy about tax credits, so the province needs to be savvy too

Speaking about the need for tax credits and grants programs, Hasmi Ferguson, co-founder of Stellar Creative Lab which has worked on projects like Kung Fu Panda and Marvel’s What If, said that there is a battle to ensure that Canadians have a place in the creative economy.

“Our clients are all very, very savvy about the tax credit system, and they’re growing it in California,” Ferguson said.

“There’s a lot of really brilliant, talented artists here who have series ideas, who have concepts, films, scripts, and unless a Canadian picks it up, it’s hard to get it financed. So, one thing I would love to look at is, is there a way to put together a small development fund? Because it doesn’t have to be massive to help them get their products to market.”

What the fast pace of technological change in the industry means is that there was now a shift in the way that creative work is performed and also the demand for quality talent, she said.

“I think the real focus really is on that talent. We really have to get talent, because the kinds of projects we do at Stellar and the features that we’re looking at doing, they require the top creative and top artists, and we do train internally, but you need the best of the best,” Ferguson said.

“You need those brilliant creators who are going to bring you ideas to the table.”

The opportunity for Calgary was that many of those top creative professionals who moved away from the city to places like Toronto, are now entering a phase in their careers and life where they want more than what Vancouver can provide, Ferguson said.

“We’ve had so many have reached out recently, going, I want to move back. I don’t like it. I’m tired. Vancouver’s cool, but the reality is, I can’t have a family here. I can’t buy a house here. My apartment is 500 square feet, including the balcony,” she said.

“What they remember is the childhood and the life that they had wherever they lived in Alberta, everywhere from Medicine Hat to Edmonton.”

Azevedo said that interest in repatriation was amazing because Calgary is no longer facing the cyclical industry it once was.

“We have work year-round. We have jobs that are world-class. Some of the biggest productions in the world have been done here. Now the outside world sees us differently, and we have an opportunity to really showcase the talent base here,” he said.

“So for us, we need to ensure that every opportunity to bring back experienced people into an environment where they can have a life and a job rather than work to live it’s a live and work environment, and I think Calgary and the surrounding area really brings that to the table.”