Friday, January 21, 2005

RANDOM WEATHER THOUGHTS, AND A NEW AGENT

Crunchy snow this morning. Snow squeaks when it's this cold. Supposedly it's -17F/-26C. I say supposedly because my face didn't actually hurt walking the dog this morning. Granted I was weathing ski gloves and a ski mask, and I wasn't out above ten minutes. But the last time it was that cold my face hurt.

I am always amazed by people who insist on going out without hats. Didn't their mothers teach them better than that?

Jesse Anne is well and truly walking. Or, at least, tottering. It's amazing how she's got the hang of it in the last three weeks. She is less and less interested in crawling.

As, I think, Neil Gaiman wrote, the two hardest things in the world to learn are walking and talking. Fortunately, kids will learn both of these with little help from you!

I have a new agent as of yesterday, who's very well liked and respected around here. She represents quite a few people I know and have worked with. Nothing bad about my old agent, but I need to meet new people in Montreal, and she lives and works here, and he's in Toronto, and what I need from an agent can't be done long range. Your agent needs to know the producers you work with, talk to them constantly about their various clients till they get to know their quirks, be in the mix hearing about how this guy's founded a new production company, that company is having financial troubles, etc.

I'm also considering trying to get an LA agent. I haven't had one since I moved here. I think it's unrealistic to try for a TV job in LA from here. I'd have to spend two months a year in LA just being available for meetings around staffing season, and who knows if I'd get a gig? Moreover there are too many experienced writers chasing too many jobs in LA right now, thanks to reality TV. The jobs are going to go to writers who know other writers, not me. I'd be lucky to get a junior story editor position. And while those pay as well as showrunner positions here (you'd be lucky to get CDN$ 6000/week here -- and junior story editors get US $5000-$6000 / week there), it's more fun to run your own show, isn't it?

But, there's rewrite work, and maybe someone should take Unseen around down there and see if anyone's interested. It's on the high budget side for the Canadian feature market.

At any rate, couldn't hurt.

I didn't like LA. Didn't enjoy my experience. Found my friendships to be shallow. Found that people didn't have lives beyond their careers. Never caught a break in my writing career. But it is, as Fellini said at the Oscars, The Big Nipple. It's where the resources are to get movies made. It's where the best creatives are. One day I may go back there.

It's where you move when they send you a ticket and a signed contract...

But right now I'm deliriously happy here.

8:45 AM

1 Comments:

I never wear a hat.The problem with agents is that you can't get a good one unless you're already well known!

By  Anonymous, at 7:07 PM  

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