Downtown North Bay movie buzz

It may be spring in northern Ontario but that is not stopping Hideaway Pictures from filming two movies less than a kilometer away with each depicting a different season. 

On McIntyre Street in downtown North Bay, they are filming Christmas by Chance, and then downtown near the 100 block of Main Street East, you could find a fall movie called, "Swing into Romance" is being filmed. 

"This really shows how skilled and qualified Northern crew members are," said David Anselmo, CEO of Hideaway Pictures. 

"We have similar teams who work hand in hand on occasion who are now working on two separate movies who can create a beautiful fall look in the spring and a beautiful winter look in the spring to really enhance the vision that the directors and writers have put for each individual film. 

"We are shooting a few blocks away and we are creating an entirely unique and different look for each movie where the audiences won't know that they are filmed just a stone's throw away from each other."

Anselmo, who is originally from Sudbury, but now lives in a loft in downtown North Bay, believes Downtown North Bay has become a huge attraction for the film industry noting that another production was taking place between his two sets at the corner of Main Street and Cassells.  

"The beauty about North Bay is that fact that our downtown is absolutely gorgeous," said Anselmo who took BayToday on a tour of his two downtown area movie sets last week.  

"This is something that needs to be preserved, maintained, and added onto. Hideaway Pictures loves to shoot in North Bay because of how beautiful downtown is."

Anselmo believes the city is doing a wonderful job with the redevelopment and he's excited to see it come to fruition so that they can showcase it in their movies.

"Downtown North Bay is great and we hope the businesses want us and love the economic development that we bring to the city of North Bay and especially downtown," he said.  

"I live downtown and I really want to support it but it is really a fabulous asset to have especially for filmmakers that come to the region."

He says with all that work comes a lot of jobs.  

"We have 70 crew members from the North and 500 extras that are going to be working over the next three weeks on this film set," he explained.  

"It will air around Christmas time and we have a whole bunch to do this year. We are looking at in between 5 and 10 projects in Northern Ontario this year."