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North Bay film industry growing strong

“North Bay is great,” she said on set of ‘Naked Pursuit,” a suspense thriller being shot downtown. “It’s like a second home for me now. People in town are still excited about having the film industry here.”

The strength of North Bay’s film industry continues to grow as more and more locally shot productions make their way to the silver screen and the small box,.

Producer Roma Roth said North Bay is a growing experience, still fresh to the industry while other locations in Northern Ontario may be feeling a little burned out at this point.

“North Bay is great,” she said on set of ‘Naked Pursuit,” a suspense thriller being shot downtown. “It’s like a second home for me now. People in town are still excited about having the film industry here.”

The 14-day shoot, starring Jewel Staite (Stargate Atlantis, Serenity) and Cory Sevier (Immortals, Tommy Boy) has provided jobs for dozens of locals—with an expected impact of approximately $ 1 million dollars into the local economy.

Local artist Chelsea Bourget said her experience on the set of Naked Pursuit—the second production she’s worked on—has been incredible working as a set dresser.

“Everybody seems to be extremely high functioning and there is more coordination involved than I have ever seen in my life,” she said on one of the sets she dressed for the production—an advanced laboratory setting. “You have to be fast but not messy and make things as perfect as possible.”

“Hopefully I can work in future productions,” she said describing the long hours and hard work that goes into the behind-the-scenes of a production. “It’s so very worth it. I didn’t expect it to be such a complete transformation and I like the idea of constructing realities.”

Although on the right path, Roth said North Bay still had steps to take in order to really come to fruition to meet the needs of the massive film industry.

“We need to expedite training programs, because unfortunately we can have one or two crew maximum and we need so much more for all the productions coming in,” Roma said. “The costs of bringing in so many crew from out of town isn’t advantageous for the production or the city. Why not grow a local industry?”

Roth said North Bay had already reached a strong point for local film, but needed to expand more.

“I think it will develop overtime,” she said. “I think if we’re really going to make a difference in the north, we need to do so as a collective. We have another two productions up here we’re working on and the network is really happy with what we’ve been doing. It looks like it’s going to continue and there isn’t really a sight in end.”