Location Transport

Moving to Vancouver Canada?

In the next couple months I may decide to move to Vancouver. I am 30yr old filmmaker from NYC living in Portland, Oregon. From what I hear Vancouver has a great film industry. My questions are 1) what neighborhoods are best to move to for a real funky/artsy vibe, mom and pop shops, good public transport but not too expensive type of thing and 2) is it hard to find work in canada being american? thanks, i didn't know that. was hoping maybe it could keep me from going to LA. I still want to take a trip up there and check it out, any info on the areas would be a big help, thanks!

Public Comments

1. You might like the Commercial Drive area. But not so fast. Getting through the process of immigrating to Canada can take several years if you qualify at all. I don't know if "filmmaker" is one of the occupations that's in short supply up here. I think we already have a few of our own who aren't getting all the work they'd like. You can visit for up to 6 months but you can't work. Yes, Vancouver has a pretty good film industry but most of it is unionized(what isn't doesn't pay very well), and it's not always that easy to get a foot in the door especially without local connections. The unions want to see the Canadian members of their locals fully employed or close to it before they let anyone from elsewhere get work, even a member of a sister local. There are a fair number of Americans working on projects that are shot in Vancouver, but almost all of them have been hired by the production companies which are US based, and the people they are allowed to bring in are always actors, department heads(not many), writers, top production office people, directors and such. Anyone below that is almost always a Canadian. Being American doesn't make any difference one way or another as long as you're legally entitled to work in Canada at all. If you are, you get hired based on your skills, etc. Same in the US, right? You can't just move there from another country and pick up a job. You need to apply for permission to work.
2. i hope you realize that to move to Canada you must apply to immigrate,this can take a year or more IF you qualify i don't think film making is on the required occupation list