Canadian Animation Directory

Normally I would post this over on the Directory page, or maybe in Features, but I wanted to make sure that it got as much readership as possible.
I had a chance to scan through a first draft yesterday of the Ottawa International Animation Festival's Canadian Animation Industry Directory. These guys are working hard to put this thing together and it will, as I've mentioned before, also be available this year in an online format. Hat's of to Kelly Neal and Patrick Cross at the festival for doing the hard work to get this together.
This publication is a valuable resource for our community, and one that doesn't exist elsewhere. AWN has a directory on their site, but it's dated and unwieldy. Playback recently started something called the Blue Pages, but the representation of the animation community is poor, much like their coverage of it. This is our resource. It gets distributed all over the world. Used properly, it's essentially our community's calling card on the international scene.
So why aren't you in it?
Now, to be fair, a lot of you are. But so damn many of you aren't! This thing should be a monster. Sadly, though, it just isn't. We're a huge community and there's no one place to go to find each other. This should be it. I really don't know what you're waiting for. It's free to register at the Festival's site. It's free to get listed in the directory. They've tried really hard to provide a variety of categories that will cover everyone out there, and I think they've done a good job.
Go and get listed! Each and every one of you. Be proud of your industry, your community, and your place in it. Are you a board artist? They've got a category for you. An animator? A producer? A director? A casting agent? They've got categories for you. Independent animator? Again, a category for you. Every one of you newbies out there should be lining up to get your name in here. Set up a blog, post some drawings on it, and get the url and your email listed in the damned directory today! And the studios. Why aren't you in here? I can understand the individual animators to an extent, but aren't you guys in the business of doing business? This is free marketing. FREE! For Pete's sake. You are backwards. Ass-backwards. I am tired enough of people out there whining about the latest downturn in the industry. But I promise you right now, the next person that does so, I will look you up in the directory. And if you are not there, I will post your name on a list entitled "People I Know Whose Asses Are Backwards".
This is the least you can do, the VERY least, next to doing nothing at all, to promote yourself and support your community. I'd love to see accurate representation in that book. A big fat tome that you can slam down on a foreign producer's desk and show, proudly, that this is who we are.
So turn you asses around. Right now. And be counted.
You've got til Monday.
Thanks.
m