There was a point where I couldn’t ever imagine leaving Vancouver – the fresh air, amazing hikes within 20min of the city, scenery to die for – I was in love. It was in Vancouver I discovered that I could actually make a career out of writing and found some amazing like-minded people who helped me make some really great projects. But, after a tumultuous few years, I found myself gazing south.
I've made a few visits over the last few years. Each time feeling more and more at home with meeting some amazing people.
So after finally convincing my partner, Zach Lipovsky, we decided to pack our meager belongings into a small plywood storage, pack as much as we could into my little Hyundai along with my cats, a full bottle of anxiety medication for them and we were off to see what if we could be one of the few that ‘made it’ in Hollywood.
The first few days were spent unpacking and recovering from what's been a hectic few months. We decided in December we were going to move, had to give notice and pack everything up for January, as Zach had a project that would take him out of town for two months, and lucky me, I got to join him in an undisclosed heavenly location. We were almost ready to leave and Zach got a call to shadow on a tv series, but this time I had to stay home and watch the cats. But since we had no home, it was really living in my cousin's basement (Thanks Trish!) way longer than she probably wanted.
So we finally arrived. Zach's already been hitting the pavement and meeting up with his agent, manager, and previous contacts, being social. I’m napping and catching up on some much needed sleep but almost ready to hit the ground running. Almost.
I don't know who has it harder, writer's or director's. I was inspired to come down here after reading some scripts that had some big names attached and thinking - I can do better! I don't really know that I can though because they got theirs in front of someone who was willing to take a chance and that's a really hard thing to do. Zach has so many people ready to help him out and give him a shot - as soon as he gets a feature notch under his belt. So how do you jump that first high hurdle? Luckily, Zach's got so many irons in the fire that once his first is done he'll have about 9 more to go. Me on the other hand, I've been so used to trying to do it on my own that I have no idea how to stop being a producer and hand my scripts to my Canadian agent and let him do his job. I'm so used to this system that I have no idea how to approach an agent or a manager in LA, how their personal preferences dictate who they sign on and whether or not my Canadian-esque themes, including culturally significant stories told in mainstream formats, will even work in LA. I may need to reexamine what I've been writing and ensure that I've got some good specs and mainstream features in my backpocket.
So we'll be here until Zach's visa runs out and he gets kicked out of the country or until his Canadian feature (which will be EPIC) that's in development goes into prep in Canada. I vow to network as much as I can, grow as much as I can as a writer and get a script sold – okay maybe I’ll be happy with having it read…and maybe an option agreement.
I have no idea what the next few months will hold for us but hopefully we’ll meet as many people who are as passionate as we are about what we do. I've had a rough four years, as we all have, with the economy, unsupportive governments (having our arts/film industry government run is a blessing and a curse) and of course I've had a few hard knock lessons in producing which have kicked me in the ass to get out there and find producers who enjoy what they do and may want to work with me on a fun script and take over the hard work so I can just be creative.
So, here's to a new adventure. Hope that this blog will someday end well!
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