Hey. I'm a short 5 hour drive from Toronto and I always hear about interesting shoots happening there, but as an American I fear my citizenship status might make filmmakers hesitant to add me to their crew. I have considered just volunteering my time, but I would love to know if anyone here has any advice to share about getting a Canadian work permit.
Filmmaking / Directing : Working in Canada as an American by Samantha Mauney Aiken
Working in Canada as an American
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If the shoot is done by a Canadian producer, they can't hire you unless you have a skill that they can't find in a local citizen. So you're not likely to be able to get a PA job. If it's a production company from the states that just happens to be shooting in Canada you may have an easier time, although they're also more likely to bring crew they know. 5 hours may not be far to drive, but you don't want to have a 10 hour commute on top of a 14+ hour day (if you do the math, some days you won't even make it home before you have to turn back around, and then there's the whole sleep thing...) I suppose you could volunteer, but it would have to be on a production that doesn't have the budget to pay for crew in the first place, since even if you worked for free on a big production you would still be taking away work from a Canadian. But if you're going to work on something that small, you're better off finding a small production where you live.
Good luck.... They are free to come here to grab our work but not the other way around.