What I am, at present, as I told him; is an electronics assembler and tester. I work for a firm which is a leading manufacturer of head-end equipment for wireless; cable television, Internet, VoD & VoIP...at least I think that's what we do.
Countless years ago I dreamed of a career in film, but even at the outset I was more interested in Art Direction and Cinematography and had hopes of breaking into the biz from one of those angles.
After veering off of my carefully chosen path into the cul-de-sac of animation with its inherent reductionist mode of film making I soon discovered that if a picture is worth a thousand words I'd rather write the thousand words than draw one more @*#&ing! picture...
However, it was many more years 'til I finally started to write my still unfinished script...if anything I've said or will say comes across as arrogant...Please accept my apologies in advance...any writers' presumption that they have something to say worth listening to requires a certain degree of over-confidence to begin with...I'm starting to think that all creative endeavours are a thankless task to the creator...it's no big news that lots of writers hate to write, painters hate to paint etc., but still, they just have to do it...
my incredentials...
The following is from a letter which I sent to the Director's Guild of Canada a couple of years ago when it looked as though;
a.) I might be able to join in some very minor capacity without jumping through hoops and signing away the souls of my loved ones to Beelzebub;
b.) it might actually be worthwhile for reasons which I've long since forgotten...
...it has occurred to me that part of this also comprises the "back story" to Manila Envelope.
Thank You for your call re my query regarding membership. Thank You also for your candidness and encouragement. The following letter was written from; what I hope you’ll appreciate is a somewhat jaded perspective and before I contacted your office. I include it here only because it is the most up to date summation of my on again off again career...so be warned...
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to ask you most sincerely if there would be any point in my seeking to apply as an associate member of the guild; or, if I even qualify.
In 1977-78 I attended the London International Film School in the U.K., and subsequently returned to Vancouver where I hoped I might break into the local film biz. Being neither pushy, nor well connected, I quickly discovered that the union was virtually impenetrable. I was even advised by the film liaison officer for the B.C. government, that I could, in a desperate pinch, try to get in by joining a “farmers” local, i.e., somewhere out on the prairies.
I did luck out however, when I met an American art director, who was working on a Paramount Pictures project entitled “All Washed Up”...later released as “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains”. This gentleman aware of my need to accrue some recognized work experience, took me on as his assistant.
I should point out that this was frowned upon by a local union man, who coincidentally was foisting a rather attractive young lady on the art department at the same time!
This was all so long ago that I suspect the parties concerned are long since retired from extensive and rewarding careers in the industry, the likes of which I, myself, can only dream of!
I've never seen Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains; it is now a Cult film...LANGUAGE WARNING
I do have fond memories of going to a wrap party at a chic Vancouver restaurant with a beautiful actress friend. John Lydon also starred in the film and was there; he was very pleasant, not rotten at all...
I had, during this period applied to whatever, I.A. locals would respond to my requests for applications. In 1980, while still living in Vancouver, I was accepted into the Toronto Camera Local as a second assistant cameraman. Obviously I was thrilled...I packed up, and headed to Toronto. I arrived to discover that I and a host of other hopefuls had been duped. (Including an Argentinean guy I’d gone to Film School with in England!)
The local was in desperate need of funds (our dues) as they were engaged in a legal wrangle. At that time, the Toronto camera local was part of New York...Wow!, technically I belonged to the New York local...and, look Ma, no Green Card!
The Toronto people, quite rightly, wanted a separate charter; hence the sudden intake of members and their hard, cold cash; ($1800 in my case, borrowed from my Mom, on top of all my moving expenses etc.).
You can't get job without a ticket...and you can't get a ticket without a job...and you can't get a job without a Green Card...not so much a note of bitterness; rather a symphony of resentment and contempt! (and yes; that's my real name...or is it?)
After a year of working in a picture framing shop...how apropos...and one day of work shooting camera tests in a dusty corner at Magdar studios with a surly camera operator (who shall remain nameless), I returned to Hooterville, en route to Australia.
Foolishly, I made one last attempt at getting work here before heading to the Antipodes. I answered a small and cryptic ad in the local paper. I correctly deduced that the mystery project was SCTV Network 90, which had just moved to ITV Edmonton. I sat up all night reworking the best pieces from my portfolio and doing some new artwork which I couriered the next day.
I was hired as assistant Art Director.
The first set I designed for SCTV, for Bobby Bitman's Julius Ceaser...
I also designed the soviet mini-cam which appears later in this episode; but it was prop master extraordinaire Bruce McKenna who breathed life into it..Bruce has incidentally gone on to write and direct...his first feature was a charming family film called Saltwater Moose, filmed in his native Nova Scotia and starring Timothy Dalton.
When the two and a half months of work came to an end on SCTV, I was back at square one...The show became a big hit in the States and, of course, had to be relocated back to T.O. I had been offered the chance to go to Toronto, but declined...gee, can’t think why?
During the delay in my departure, my Australian Visa had lapsed and the reissue now had severe restrictions regarding work and length of stay.
I did, however go to Australia; tried to get work in stage, film or television, but ended up working for Hanna Barbera Animation...all within two weeks of my arrival.
It was still my intent to find work in live action, though I was now simply grateful to be working at all. My first priority became staying put in Australia. After a year at Hanna Barbera I was offered a better job at another studio.
Animation layouts, had rather more in common with art direction so I leapt at the chance. I was also fortunate enough to have been allowed two weeks away from that job to do some story-boarding assisting on Mad Max III: Beyond Thunderdome.
with Bill Hanna and the gang; Sydney 1981
(captions to follow)
I fought tooth and nail to stay in Australia, applying for extensions, then appeals with the Immigration Department. After three and a half years my luck ran out. Knowing of my dread at returning to Canada, my employers offered me a job at their newly established studio in the Philippines...a stop gap measure...'til my residency in Oz was resolved one way or another.
While working in the Philippines I gained considerable and varied work experience, not the least of which was trying to finish a show for a client in the States while the U.S. puppet regime of Ferdinand Marcos was being overthrown in a revolution....Difficult to get those animators to fill their quotas when they’re out being tear gassed and lying down in front of tanks...
Returning to Canada in June ’86, I was able to quickly (two years later) parlay all of this accumulated know-how, into a grudging offer of some inbetweening work on the Care Bears Movie...at Nelvana back in beautiful T’rona the Good...to them I was still just some hick from the Snowy Boondocks...
One blisteringly cold afternoon...in Ottawa this time...where I was beavering away on the Raccoons...if that makes any sense...I happened upon the British Consulate. With less than nothing to lose I furtively enquired as to whether or not I could get a work visa. I was assured that I qualified for a Grandparent Entry Certificate and could stay and work indefinitely.
Less then a month later I was once again walking along High Street Kensington in the rain...and not looking back.
Australia scenario redux!; within two weeks in London, I was fortunate, or unfortunate enough, to find work...this time on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Like it or not...and I didn’t; I would remain stuck in animation for years to come.
My animation career in the U.K. was book-ended rather nicely by Roger Rabbit at one end and Space Jam at the other. The former was entirely composited using old school methods; hand painted mattes, multiple passes through an optical printer etc. All the drawings in Space Jam were scanned without a cel (or a rostrum camera) in sight, computer composited then scanned onto film.
By 1998, the London animation scene was in tumult; Warner’s had shut down rather suddenly the year before. Numerous “classical” animation projects were on hold, as CGI was taking over. I hadn’t the resources, or the opportunity, to learn computer animation.
Work was scarce, and thus I resolved to make a major career change.
I took a course in fibre optic splicing and testing, but was unable to find work in telecoms until early 2000. When even this work started to dry up in 2001, my situation became untenable.
It was with great reluctance that I returned to Hooterville in late 2001; now with a wife and son; to even less opportunity than my justly cynical self could have imagined.
To summarize, quite simply, I can not offer a great deal of bona fide local experience, nor can I offer much that is relevant and current...a bit of story-boarding on “Body and Soul”. I have neither the time nor the inclination to work my way up through the ranks as an I.A. umpteenth assistant craft service guy to become a clapper loader by the time I’m 75.
I have written a screenplay and am a card carrying member of the Australian Writer’s Guild. (at least they let me join!)
I would very much like to get my project off the ground as a co-production, and am working towards those ends at present.
If nothing else, I have had a great deal of experience working with some amazingly talented people, from all over the world. I am not stupid (I'm sure that this letter has opened up that debate).
Despite what you might think from the tone of this letter, I don’t have an “attitude”...other than a dislike of needless bureaucracy. I have nothing to lose.
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