Thursday, November 09, 2006

I'm in Toronto again. Yesterday I taught a class of up-and-coming writers at the Canadian Film Centre. Gee, I wish UCLA had brought in more industry pro types to meet us when I went to film school there. I hope they're doing it now.

So a shout-out to all the students I met yesterday, and good luck making it in the biz. One thing I'd like to add to my remarks: it never gets easy, no matter what level you're at. If you're talking to someone with series in development, they're wondering if it will get picked up. If you're talking to someone with a go series, they're dealing with the problems of production, and wondering if they'll be cancelled. Everybody's trying to take it to the next level and hoping they don't screw up and slip to the next level down -- which might be the level you're aspiring to.

Went to the CFC "rebranding" party last night. As far as anyone can figure out, the rebranding consists of turning the second "C" in the CFC's logo ... backwards. Cooooooool. That changes everything, y'know.

Today is all meetings and pitches. I'm up for adapting a book, and I'm pitching a series, and I've got a call with a network at 5. Toronto really shows me the love. I sometimes wonder if I ought to move here. But would I get the love if I were here? Or is it all that Montreal mystique working for me? Anyway, I love Montreal too much to move. And the train is pretty nice.

Tonight I'm flying to Fredericton, where tomorrow I'm doing an industry seminar at the Silver Wave Film Festival from 10 to 12. So if you're in Fredericton, do drop in. And bring questions. You know, people do not ask enough questions. We ran out of questions yesterday after three hours, which I guess is a lot of time, but I did have the impression the students were winging their questions as opposed to having necessarily prepared specific, provocative questions -- the kinds of questions you could not have answered by reading books or blogs. I've even had interns who didn't ask enough questions, when asking questions was the only payment they were getting. I know it's hard to come up with questions. But the mere exercise of trying to figure out where the holes in your knowledge lie, helps you fill those holes in...

11:42 AM

2 Comments:

Holy smokes, you're having a busy week. Alex! All of this in addition to being featured rather prominently in the latest issue of Canadian Screenwriter. Nice, dude!

By  Kelly J. Crawford, at 2:02 PM  

Alex,

They've got nothing but industry professionals rolling into UCLA now. We've got to talk. I wonder about the difference between how the film school was set up when you were there, and how it's set up now. It still has issues, but the set up for you still seems a LOT different than what it is now.

By  Lawrence, at 5:18 AM  

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