It’s a beautiful sunny morning at Amelia Park. But instead of a game of softball or soccer, the field is covered with multi-million dollar camera and production equipment along with Hollywood stars like Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Jerry O’Connell.
It was just another day of filming of “Carter” which is being shot in the area and the 10 episode police drama series is expected to premiere on Bravo in early 2018.
Crews have been here since mid-July taking in the northern Ontario summer. But within just about a month, the community, and its beauty have captivated the series’ two main characters.
“To me, the most striking thing about shooting in North Bay has been the sheer beauty of this town,” said O’Connell, who grew up in New York and now calls LA home.
“We are about to shoot some stuff on Trout Lake, it’s breathtaking so it’s really been for me the sheer beauty and I really think the rest of the world, the secret is going to be let out of the bag sooner than later."
Poitier agrees. She says her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, who has come up to live with her during production, has fallen in love with North Bay too.
“Of course the lake, that’s the first thing that I talk about, just being able to live on a lake, and being in a city on a lake and always having such close proximity to the water,” said Poitier.
“While I do live in California and we are on the ocean it’s a much bigger city so you have to drive a good 30 minutes to an hour to even get close to the ocean but to walk out your front door and be able to walk down to the lake and that I think is the biggest thing.”
Of course, Mayor Al McDonald, who visited the scene today as part of the media tour, is eating up the North Bay praise.
“Sometimes we don’t realize how special our city is, and it takes visitors to kind of remind us how special our community is and having them say that in their major talk shows across the United States and in Canada is publicity that we just couldn’t buy and it’s all part of the overall strategy of film industry in our community,” said McDonald.
Garry Campbell is the series creator. Growing up in Collingwood, he was very familiar with the area. In fact, he got married to his current wife in Callander more than 20 years ago.
“I have a connection to this neck of the woods, but it’s mostly 25 years old so for me when I get here now I go ‘it’s so much better than I remembered it.’ In 25 years this place has come a long way,” admitted Campbell, who was a producer on programs such as MadTV and the Ron James Show.
Collectively, everyone seems to agree North Bay has become an ideal location to shoot a movie of a TV series.
“Man, there are great restaurants here, the people are amazing, they have been unbelievably welcoming to us,” said Campbell.
“Location wise, we are finding some really interesting locations. We shot at a big sand pit yesterday and I was sending pictures to my wife and she says ‘where’s the desert around North Bay?’ She grew up here she doesn't remember a desert,” he added.
