Vancouver?

Scott Willis · January 27, 2008

I'm a few months shy of graduating from film school out here in Boston and I'm trying to plan out my life after May. I'm not terribly inclined to stay around this city (despite the recent increase in massachusetts productions) and have always heard Vancouver mentioned as a city that hosts lots of film work.

Is this really true? How much stuff is really going on and would it be a good place to try and start a career in cinematography.

The other reason I'm drawn to Vancouver is that I was born there, but grew up in the states. So I've got Canadian citizenship and passport and such. So i wouldn't have to be concerned with immigration or work visa stuff.

Any thoughts? Anyone work out there? Anyone have good/bad experiences with the city?

Thanks.

January 27, 2008

I'm in the TO area, but Vancouver is the same as TO, it's a service town to the US industry. Remember Canadian films makes up 1% of the English Canadian box office so no one is working in Canadian films in TO or Vancouver.

US productions have fallen off drastically all across Canada with the collapse of the US dollar. The US dollar doesn't buy even one Canadian dollar at par these days so obviously Canada is not an attractive place for Hollywood to shoot a movie.

BC and Ont still have tax credit schemes that bring in a few films here and there.

I think you'd be nuts to move to Vancouver if you can work in the USA. Go to LA, at least that way you are in the centre of it all.

Breaking in in TO or Vancouver is very very tough. Plus all of the above the line crew for these service productions come in from the USA, it's very rare for a Canadian DOP to be on a US movie being shot in Canada. The people that get hired here are grips, props, carpenters, drivers, extras, that sort of thing.

Take my advice, skip Vancouver and Canada all together.

R,

sj trinidad · January 27, 2008

Vancouver is a very busy place -

I am an actor based in Toronto, and many actors here on the east coast debate going west all the time-

Although I know with the weakness of the US dollar production has been down in Toronto and I would assume its the same for Vancouver, but I'm not sure-

I also have two brothers that live there and love it!

it is a very laid back place to live- but I hear it rains a lot!

Good luck!

Jason Sikorski · January 28, 2008

If leaving the US is out of the question for the previously-mentioned economic reasons, both Austin (TX) and Shreveport (LA) are both very popular cities for independent filmmaking.

I know shooting in Louisiana is desirable (at least in part) due to various post-Katrina tax breaks; however, I'm not 100% clear why Austin is so popular.