-
Moving to/working in Canada
I realise this has been kinda been covered in the thread below “UK lad looking for advice/info for working in USA AfterEffects/compositing work” and i also noticed there’ll be an article in the next cow magazine on a similar topic but i thought i run it by you and see if anyone has any knowledge of it. I’m at present an editor & motion graphics designer (FCP & after effects) in the uk and am hoping to move to canada sometime in the future. i have a one year unconditional visa. I was wondering has anyone got any experience in this kinda thing? how did you go about making work contacts from your home country? Or go about getting work? whats city is best for post-production? Does anyone know any companies its worth contacting? Or any helpful advice?
thanks in advance for your help.
-
1 Reply
-
I’m a VFX Compositor living in New Zealand but I did a couple of months work for a Canadian facility last year. Vancouver would be my pick of places to go to (that is where i was based, but I have travelled a lot in Canada over the past few years), …it is known as Hollywood north as so many US productions shoot and do post there (as it is cheaper than shooting or doing post in LA). Toronto would be next in line (as it is big with Canadian productions), followed by Montreal. Vancouver has great scenery and the mildest winter, so yeah, thats my recommendation. In regards to getting permanent work there, editors and compositors are highly sort after, there seems to be a bit of a shortage of compositors (at least) for the number of jobs going there (I may go back there later this year after my NZ work commitments end), …and due to this Immigration has a special expedited work visa program for Editors and VFX artists, all you need to do is make sure you get a company there to sponsor you and you should get a visa no problems (after your current one expires). One of my kiwi friends has just become a landed imigrant there (the step between work visa and residency), he started out on a working holiday visa, then got sponsored for a work visa, then got landed imigrant. So yeah, you should have no problem. Just google production companies in the city you wish to live.
goodluck,
andrew
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up