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Reel West Editor's Advice

Kai Jansson, OP Contributor

 

I had the opportunity recently to interview Ian Caddell, a
prolific film reviewer and the editor of Ree/ West magazine.
He gave me a lot of good advice for surviving as a free-
lance writer. Ian is a very busy man, but he was gracious
enough to grant me, a lowly Douglas College student, a
half-hour telephone interview.

I first wanted to establish if Caddell saw himself as a
film criticehe doesn’t, despite writing over 5,000 movie
reviews—before moving into how this Ree/ West editor got
into writing about film.

Caddell began his career while still a student at Simon
Fraser University (SFU) in the late 1970s, writing articles
and acting as an editor for SFU’s student newspaper, The
Peak. Over the course of several semesters he wrote many
articles, several of which were movie reviews. It was on
the basis of those movie reviews that he got his first post-
graduation job for the Famous Players chain, acting as
their public relations agent for Western Canada.

Caddell then moved to Newfoundland for a time,
where he became a film critic for the Newfoundland Herald.
He quickly gained the status of a minor celebrity there
due to his movie reviews. He was often invited to visit
small towns and villages, and was even given excellent
service or snubbed completely at restaurants or shops
based on whether he praised or panned a given movie.
After his experience as a film critic in Newfoundland, he
left the Hera/d with a distaste for movie reviews. What he
didn’t realize at the time was that his experiences were rel-
atively unique due to the Newfoundland Herald’s status in
that province as the most widely read weekly magazine
since its founding in 1946, mostly because it held a
monopoly on news there until 1974.

After moving back to Vancouver in the mid-80s,
Caddell began submitting articles and reviews to the
Georgia Straight and soon had his own “Hollywood North”
column, in which he discussed Vancouver's film industry.
In turn, this column—having given him the status of
expert on the Vancouver film scene—drew the attention
of the Hol/ywood Reporter and later the Daily Variety, the
two most influential trade papers in the American film
industry. While employed by these papers he was paid to
go to film festivals all around the world—such as
Cannes—to watch and review movies for a living. By 1989
he was hired on as the editor at Ree/ West magazine and
has held that position ever since.

Being the editor of Ree/ West magazine, published six
times a year, has allowed Caddell to continue freelancing,
He has written for more than 80 publications. worldwide
and writes about 500 printed articles per year. Caddell now
knows most of the players in the film industry and has
become the go-to-guy on the Vancouver film industry
scene. He is regularly invited to write about film due to
this expertise, and even acted as a commentator for CTV
after the Academy Awards. His philosophy on freelancing
is to never turn down work and to remain extremely
organized.

Caddell’s advice for beginning freelancers is this: Find
your niche. If you’re interested in a particular subject, find
out how much of a need there is for it, how many aspects
you can write about it, and who will publish it.

Entertainment (as well as books and music) is a good
subject since there is always something to write about,
whether it be films and television, celebrities, or industry
happenings. Caddell had once considered being a sports
writer, but he concluded that it was only possible to do so

for Freelance Writers

if he had a steady job due to the seasonal aspects of that
field. Restaurant reviews are also limited since the subject
matter is very localized, lacking the universality of film,
books, and music.

Finally, Caddell stresses the importance of time man-
agement and organization. Figure out how much you need
to make and how much time you have for writing, then
decide whether it pays off to devote a certain block of
time to a given task. He also plans out his time carefully
and knows what he needs to get done in a day, a week,
and sometimes even several weeks in advance, especially
since much of his work involves lining up interviews and
meeting deadlines.

Despite all the terrific advice that Caddell gave me, it
was one suggestion he gave me early on in the interview
that stuck with me long afterwards: If you’re a student
planning to be a writer, get involved with your student
newspaper. Instead of just thinking about submitting that
article or letter to the editor that you’ve been working out
in your mind, take the time to sit down, write out what
you have to say, and submit it. Then do it again.

Managing Editor's Note: Word up, Ian Caddell. You really hit the
nail on the head with that last suggestion.