Q. I've just moved to Montreal from Toronto. A lot of people say it's a backwards move (in terms of English TV), but it's only for a year. Are there things I can do here (besides writing alot) to help my chances? Is it possible to find an agent in Toronto if I'm living here? And are there English-only TV writers in Montreal?Personally, I'm feeling more and more of a strain trying to be a TV and feature writer in Montreal. I get up to Toronto every month or so, and in two days I usually have more meetings, and more focused meetings, than in a month in Montreal.
I think anyone working outside of Toronto needs to get to Toronto on a regular basis and, yeah, have a Toronto agent. It's possible to live elsewhere, but you have to be familiar to the networks and the major producers. There just isn't the critical mass anywhere else.
Montreal has a fair amount of animation writing, so if you're doing that, maybe you don't have to travel so much. But of the English writers I know in Montreal, I would say that most of the successful ones are writers I tend to bump into in Toronto as well.
Show business is a face-to-face business, and a lot of it is just showing up.
(In the States, there's no comparison. It is quite difficult to be a TV writer in New York, and almost impossible to be one anywhere else outside of LA.)
