Snow Needed to Woo Movie-Makers
By 250 News
Kids are wishing for it, so are outdoor enthusiasts, but it's likely no one would like to see snow more than Karen Cameron, head of the Northern B.C. Film Commission.
"We're in the middle of two projects that are looking seriously at Prince George right now, in the New Year, " says Cameron, " because they're just chasing snow, of course."
She says the competition is stiff, but she's hopeful, "Knock on wood, we're in the running. Of course, we're competing with other big jurisdictions, which is always a challenge."
Cameron says because there's the added cost of having to bring a crew up here, that's not associated with the larger centres, the area will usually only attract bigger budget productions.
She points to Smithers as the highlight of the past year, with filming of a large Disney feature film Eight Below (see www.eightbelowmovie.com). The crew spent three months in the community from preparation to wrap up, along with some time in Stewart, B.C., as well.
Cameron says the financial impacts of that project were huge. An economic impact study showed Disney spent $11-million dollars directly in the northwest and another $13- or $14-million in Vancouver. "The total provincial spin-off effect was about $51-million dollars," she says, "Definitely, the trickle-down effect was through the entire northwest and, certainly, Prince George."
The Film Commissioner says 2005 has been a busy one, "Our location requests are up by about 10-percent, which is always positive and our marketing is paying off, we're more on the production radar for our clients." In January, Cameron will host a tour for location managers and producers interested in scouting the City.
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Posted by: Death to Socialism on December 2 2005 9:08 AM
When "Dreamcatcher" was here they almost had to go to Mackenzie to get snow ehwn they were filming some highway scenes which they were doing in the Foothills/Otway area. It was a matter of one day and they would have gone north.
The cabin sets were decked out in artificial snow (white kraft "fluff" from the mills) since there was no real snow. It finally got cold with some snow by the end of January.
Then there was last year when Otway had to bring snow in form out of town for the X-country ski competitions.
I still have newspaper clippings from several years when the fields around PG had no snow on them in January.