In the wake of the flood of American directors into their marketplace, Canadian directors have two choices, says director David McIlvaney. They can either sit in a downtown bar and curse their American counterparts, or they can look at the whole world as their market and get out there.

No one is about to deny that American directors have had an impact on the domestic directorial base, says McIlvaney. There was a time when Canadian directors resented ad agencies choosing from the u.s. talent pool.

But eventually people have to adopt an `if they can do it, why can’t we?’ attitude, says McIlvaney.

‘Every day another wall comes down in the world. I don’t think we should only be marketing ourselves south of the border. Let’s go all points out from where we are. The funny thing is that once you start to do a few jobs, your reel starts to pick up this international flavor and it’s very different because the work going on in these regions is like night and day. You come back into this market and people see things they haven’t seen before. It makes you more desirable in this market.’

Born in Hamilton, Ont., McIlvaney began as a classical animator doing special effects, then moved into art direction. He started as a commercial director a couple of years ago and is now working out of Spy Films in Toronto.

One of the keys to selling yourself in other markets is setting up individual representation in the other country, says McIlvaney. The old `I’ll show you my company’s reel and you show me your company’s reel,’ doesn’t work anymore. Inevitably you end up being just a reel on a shelf.

‘You have to target the individual markets yourself because that’s what you’re selling. Sometimes you get the job not because of your reel but because of the presentation you make and how you handle yourself personally,’ he says.

McIlvaney’s most recent project was a series of spots for Clorets out of jwt in Mexico, filmed in Mexico for the Mexican market. For McIlvaney, the experience made it clear that Toronto is only one small piece of the world.

‘There’s a lot of good work coming out of Canada, but we look at Toronto as this whole huge market without realizing that the markets in l.a. and London and Sweden are as big or bigger. Mexico City is 22 million people – that’s almost the entire population of Canada, and look at the volume of work. Why aren’t we taking advantage of this? Why not try and access the other work that’s out there?’

Threats to the Canadian director pool are coming from all sides, including technology where special effects are taking the place of shooting creative concepts. Special effects artists with technical skills are taking their trade all over the world. Directors don’t have that kind of expertise, but what they have to offer isn’t any less valuable to foreign markets, McIlvaney says.

‘If we look at foreign directors as exotic, we have to realize that other countries look at us the same way. What we can bring is our vision, and that’s enough. We have to believe that what we have to offer is worthwhile. We offer our brains and that’s what we have to market.’

The reason Canadian directors haven’t aggressively marketed their talents in foreign markets goes back to a ‘whacking big inferiority complex’ that characterizes the Canadian psyche, says McIlvaney. It’s not a trait specific to the production industry, but if we don’t break out of it and begin to market what we do, we’re going to be left behind, he says. AV