Roll Credits, Northern Film Commission Coming to an End

Thursday, February 21, 2008 03:55 AM

Prince George, B.C. - The Northern B.C. Film Commission will be winding up at the end of March this year.

The NBCFC contract with the Regional District of Fraser Fort George expired at the end of 2007. Since then, there hasn’t been any interest shown by any community in the north to carry on with the Film Commission and cover the costs necessary to continue its operations.

The Board of Initiatives Prince George has recommended the Film Commission wrap up by the end of March and IPG will default on the last year of the agreement with the B.C. Film Commission.

The 2007 budget for the Northern B.C. Film Commission was $140 thousand dollars. Of that amount, the Province contributed $40 thousand as did Prince George and the Regional District of Fraser Fort George. The $20 thousand dollar balance came from other communities.

IPG, the umbrella organization for the Film Commission, says for Initiatives Prince George, the Film Commission is a dead issue "The dollar is very strong, there just isn't the incentive to come to the north. All the crews are in the lower mainland, all the studios." Even with the new tax incentives offered by the Provincial Government in the latest budget, it won't be enough to offset the high dollar and lack of facilities. "Producers have to get a full crew here, find them a place to stay, and the studios no longer accept that a projecet will go over budget." Offet says the most recent project, which was to have shot crowd scenes at the CN Centre for the movie about the US Hockey Team, was $2 million over budget, and that was enough for the producers to move that crowd scene to a studio in Los Angeles.

Just last October, the Film Commission celebrated its 10^th anniversary taking credit for $30 million dollars worth of production in the north.

In it’s presentation to Prince George City Council, Initiatives Prince George indicated the Film Commission was no longer a "strategic priority".

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Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008 03:55 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: The_grandinquisitor on February 21 2008 5:32 AM

IPG is no longer a strategic priority either!

Posted by: Eagleone on February 21 2008 7:40 AM

I never did understand the Film Commission strategy of getting other people to film their movies here in PG. IMO it was too much salesmanship required.

I think a better strategy would have been to promote local screen written movie plots from the north that involve the north; and then try and get the movie people to make that movie here in the north. Thus the idea of promoting northern talent and culture that in time creates a market and as a consequence requires movie production to come to the north to film the northern movies.

My movie idea would be to make an action thriller about a secret science lab located at UNBC that invents a world changing geeky techno-named city-shield device that blocks all incoming missiles through magnetism or something. Obviously the Chinese (or a secret society hidden government unit) would want this kind of defensive weapon as well, thus a 5th column infiltration force hidden in shipping crates full of toys from Shanghai via the new Port of Prince Rupert only to initiate their mission on an unsuspecting backwoods town with the mission being to seize either the scientists, the device itself, or both? Can the locals hold the fort and contain them long enough for back up to arrive? Is the escape plan as audacious (ie aircraft carriers and fleets to save a single plane) as the infiltration plan, and if so do they succeed? Can it leave you all sure you know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are only to find out it turns 180 from that and then in the end settles out into some kind of grey area in between....

That�s just one potential plot that would require the inquiring mind to travel and get to know this region through the fast paced action thriller movie that tricks people into actually watching a movie about this region. IMO, my movie idea would have been a success and worthy of funding ;-) (eg I think I know al about New York and I�ve never been there before)

Posted by: Eagleone on February 21 2008 7:42 AM

I'll also second the IPG irrelevance....

Posted by: northman on February 21 2008 8:09 AM

How about prince george girls gone wild? Just kidding.:) Have you ever heard of "ghost writing"? Eagleone? Dont be too quick to post the framework of your ideas. Cheers!

Posted by: Eagleone on February 21 2008 9:18 AM

Never heard of it before. I'll look it up.

Posted by: bohemian on February 21 2008 9:22 AM

I think real results have a chance now that Offet is not there. I met the new guy; so far I'm impressed. We'll see.

Posted by: Death to Socialism on February 21 2008 12:25 PM

"How about prince george girls gone wild?"

Thanks, I just lost my appetite!

Posted by: seamutt on February 21 2008 12:37 PM

Northman I see you have been to the Ranch or should I say the cougar cage.

Posted by: northman on February 21 2008 6:30 PM

LoL cougar cage! never heard that one before.

Posted by: astro on February 21 2008 7:24 PM

Northman said, "Eagleone? Don't be too quick to post the framework of your ideas." Maybe the Hollywood producers will steal your idea. I believe he meant that this idea is ridiculous enough to be made into a movie, given the product of Hollywood today. I think they should make a reality TV series, set in winter, at the Bowron Lakes or some setting further north. Of course, the participants must wear bathing suits.