A beautiful city is a big attraction to the film industry when it comes to making movies says a man who should know.
David Anselmo, President of Production for Hideaway Pictures announced a major addition to the local movie industry today (Friday) with the opening of a 6,000 sq. ft. facility off Gormanville Road.
See: Film studio to open in North Bay
Flexibility is great because in five minutes you can be in the deep forest and five minutes later be in downtown North Bay, which Anselmo says is a real jewel.
"North Bay's downtown is beautiful. It's one of the most beautiful downtowns that I know of in northern Ontario and it is very, very liked by some of the creative executives that I work with on these film productions. They love the esthetic look of downtown North Bay, and the shows and movies that are filmed here are a testament to that because a lot of times they are filming in downtown North Bay."
The Gateway City is recognized as being very supportive of the film industry in all aspects.
"It's a very film-friendly, beautiful city to shoot in. There are a lot of hard-working people in North Bay who are part of the film industry."
In the past four years, Anselmo's company has filmed six movies, the most successful being the Flowershop Mystery series starring Brooke Shields. His company is now gearing up for another Hallmark movie called "Love on Ice" to be filmed here in the next month.
The new Northern Ontario Film Studios venture unveiled today will not only support movies shot by its sister company Hideaway Pictures but also any other producers who are looking at North Bay as a filming location.
It will service all of Northern Ontario when it comes to gear, equipment, props, studio and turn-key office space. Anselmo also expects to expand to building full sets to shoot inside the facility itself.
Anselmo says over the course of the next six weeks, 400 contract jobs will be created filming the new movie, then perhaps workers can move on to another production right after, creating a full-time job in the industry.
Thirty to 40 people are currently working out of the office and that will expand as production gets going.
If you are looking to be in a movie, Anselmo says the company averages about 400 extras per film.
"We'll be soon looking for that same amount for our big ice skating scene that we'll be hoping to shoot in the North Bay area in the upcoming month."
Anselmo believes government incentives are a big reason why the movie industry has found a home in northern Ontario, with another one of the key elements making it a more cost-effective place to do business, being infrastructure, equipment, and prop houses.
"But most importantly is the crew, and training crews is the next step to make sure we have a sustainable industry...partner with the colleges to train local workers to work in this industry."
Show business is having a major economic benefit to the city.
"Per project we spend millions of dollars in all different facets of the community from renting somebody's house, to renting a public property from the city, to the permits, but also we need a carpenter to build us a wall, paint, or change the colour of a house exterior wall and we hire someone locally. That's one aspect of direct spending."
But Anselmo adds there is plenty of indirect spending as crews need hotel rooms, food in restaurants, and entertainment. "We've probably spent a quarter of a million dollars in the last year just in hotels."
And he gave the Flowershop series as another example.
"Per episode, and we've done three so far, we spent 20 thousand dollars an episode on real flowers because our lead character is a florist."
