The Pinewood Clarion Resort was abuzz with the production of a movie in recent days.
The production, Cubicle Warriors, starring Alan Thicke, has been filming at various locations within the city, creating a large work project for a growing local talent base of entertainment industry professionals.
The film, about two young men (played by Michael Seater and Joe Dinicol) who take on a corrupt system, is a comedy that deals with two serious subjects of late; student loans and the tumultuous world of predatory banking.
Adam Bradley, executive producer and co-writer, says the film’s premise came to him while he was working in investment banking and as an actor in Toronto.
“I had been trained as an actor in New York and so I was looking around for a project to do and eventually came across this idea of these two college grads working at an investment bank, so I was put in touch with Rob (Budreau),” explains Bradley.
“So we sat down and hashed out the story and we came up with this idea and some of it was drawn from his experiences working at a law firm, some of it came from my experiences working in a bank and then we knew that student loans was going to be a really big problem coming up in the next few years so we thought ‘well, let’s make it about that’ … it’s topical and hopefully it doesn’t blow up before our movie comes out.”
Although the script is original, Bradley says it follows the Hollywood formula enough to be considered a commercial product.
“Nobody is going to be surprised, we’re not doing anything crazy or radical with this story telling and it’s funny, and one thing that I’ve learned is if it’s funny, people, they’ll kind of watch anything that’s funny.”
Bradley says that he is been blown away by how much the cast has brought to the film thus far.
“To the words of the dialogue to the scenes, things that I’ve written that weren’t intended to be funny but just basic story telling points, now I’m sitting on set, I’m watching the monitor and them and they’re hysterically funny.”
“If the scenes that weren’t supposed to be funny are now funny, then we’re golden.”
It’s now apparent that North Bay has developed a talent pool of local artists, skilled in the production of motion pictures and television.
With this production, North Bay has continued to generate a steady stream of ongoing productions that have based their work in the area and proven it viable for resources and skilled locals to help maintain the professional level required in today’s television and movie productions.
As exciting and glamorous as it seems, what many people fail to recognize is the amount of behind the scenes people employed in this industry that have specialized skills in various fields.
From personnel in makeup, costume, lighting, sound, acting, electrical, even catering and the list goes on, the city is quickly establishing a wealth of talent in the fields required to make these productions a go.
The interesting thing is that now, producers who have nearly the whole world to choose from are now choosing to come here to North Bay to produce their productions.
When asked why writer and producer Robert Budreau chose to bring his company, Lumanity Productions, to the North, he had the answer it was the people in the community that seemed so nice and the willingness they had to bring energy and their skills to the production.
Budreau says this production points out the investment being made in getting local people trained in demand fields can provide to the region by bringing productions like this to the area, benefiting everyone involved while creating a top notch product.
“Part of shooting in the North is bringing the key crew from Toronto and then working with some of the secondary crew, in this case, its key crew here, and working with mentor training programs.”
“That’s part of the idea, is the more we can train them for my future projects, obviously they’ll be more experienced and it will help and they’ll be able to fulfill higher positions on those projects,” he says.
The use of incentives by the provincial, local and federal sources has again brought North Bay to the global film and television soundstage.
“I think that’s a big part of why the North has become much more booming in the film industry, it’s because the NOHFC (Northern Ontario Heritage Funding Corporation) provides regional incentives for people to come up here and help build the film structure so that, and with the fact that I have some roots here and I’ve been here before makes it an obvious choice for certain types of projects to come and shoot here,” says Budreau.
Cubicle Warriors star Laura Vandervoort, (Ted, Smallville,) made a point of noting that Canadians stick together in Hollywood somewhat and the industry has really begun to take notice of the high quality and depth of talent being produced out of Canada.
“The last couple of years have been really great for me,” she notes.
“It’s picked up and I’ve been working on some stuff that I’m really excited about and I’ve been doing some roles that are difficult and challenging.”
Cubicle star Alan Thicke, an industry veteran, agreed that there was a well-connected Canadian group in Hollywood that has been flourishing for years and even more so lately begun to again be even a greater force in the entertainment industry.
Thicke spoke of the local growth being on an off shoot of the Cancon initiatives that, for years, has helped develop Canadian talent and generate industry professionals at every level of the entertainment production industry.
“There really was no industry to speak of back when I started here in the 70’s, largely limited to television, some recording, almost no film, but encouraged enough at least by the National Film Board and by some independents, some government agencies to at least start to build an infrastructure but certainly nothing globally competitive or commercially viable coming out of this country.”
“Now, it’s a burgeoning industry all over the country, from literally Halifax to Vancouver,” he says.
“I’ve filmed a lot in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver, and now to see it happening in North Bay, in Northern Ontario, my native country, Elliot Lake and Kirkland Lake, that’s where I’m from and it’s pretty exciting to see it happening here.”
