The city of North Bay is expected to be a popular location for Canadian and American companies in the movie industry.
Next week the Canadian series Hard Rock Medical will be having a formal announcement that they will be filming and moving production to North Bay.
Along with that, Hallmark, which brought in Hollywood star Brooke Shields to the city in the fall, is back again.
Film crews started shooting downtown at Art on Main on Thursday.
They will be producing two episodes of the Hallmark Flower Pot Mystery Series, “The Dearly Depotted” and “Snipped in the Bud.”
Jim Calarco, an actor himself and the owner of NorthStar Talent agency, believes North Bay has always been a hub for the film industry.
“We have always had a great interest in filmmaking in North Bay,” said Calarco, who also has an acting role in the Hard Rock Medical series.
“Sudbury has managed to, because it’s a larger centre, has managed to get a lot of the work but North Bay I think is coming into its own right now. Part of that is due to the fact that North Bay is extremely friendly, film friendly."
Calarco says North Bay gives filmmakers the novelty and ability to shoot a city scene in the morning and a nature scene in the afternoon.
“We have one of those unique locations where five minutes outside the major centre you have got pristine wilderness. So, in Toronto if you were to shoot, or in Southern Ontario, if you were going to shoot a city scene and then have to shoot an exterior in the bush, you have to travel 3 or 4 hours to get any place and that’s money.”
Calarco admits the low Canadian dollar is a big attraction for the American filmmakers.
“You can come in here with one million dollars US and you are shooting a movie basically $670,000,” Calarco estimates.
“They are gaining about a third of their value and that allows them to really make an improvement in the filmmaking. They can do a $1.3 million movie that would cost one million in the US, and it’s very appealing.”
Calarco believes North Bay has done a great job opening its friendly doors to the industry, which could lead to even more film projects in the future.
“It’s extremely important and that’s one of the draws of the city, North Bay is so accommodating,” he said.
“I mean I live on Copeland street, and they were shooting on McIntyre Street. They basically shut it down but there wasn’t a single complaint. They were shooting across the street from me at the corner house for the Brooke Shields film. There are movie people coming and going, parking on the street and there has yet to be a complaint.”
He credits the movie crews for doing a great job of informing the neighbourhood of their projects.
“They are smart though, before they start shooting locally in a neighbourhood and leave a note at every house saying they will be shooting here on a certain date and if you have any concerns please contact us, and when it’s over they always send a thank you note to everybody so it’s great PR, and North Bay has always been a very friendly city. I think it’s really starting to show up in the amount of productions we are getting here.”
Calarco thinks all this work is going to be a big boost to the North Bay economy this year, as more movie projects are on the horizon in 2016.
“So that’s terrific, I mean there’s a lot of work for crew, it’s great for the local economy. These movie companies come in, TV companies come in and they hire local people to work, they stay in hotels, they have to eat, they have to buy locally so it’s really great for our economy.”
Calarco estimates that work will translate to more than a $2 million dollar boost for the local economy.
