North Bay: An Industry Town?

There has been a great kerfuffle in North Bay of late, one that centres around the idea that this is an "ideal filming destination". While it is true that this past year has seen an unprecedented amount of productions filming in and around our fair city, I am not sure that everyone is seeing the big picture. North Bay has been used as a small town location in the Kids in The Hall: Death Comes to Town, Oliver Sherman (with the awesome Garret Dillahunt), and in some minds Running Mates (with Henry Winkler, although shot mostly in Burk's Falls), and a northern Production Company and Talent Agency did spill out of Dark Rising 2: Summer Strikes Back, and the accompanying miniseries that was shot in town (primarily on sets built in a warehouse). It is great to see our community embracing this new potential, but there are people worrying that dollar sign pupils are obscuring the vision of this new directive. It is fun and exciting to see famous people walking the streets of North Bay and relishing all we have to offer, but it is not necessarily a guarantee of a bright and prosperous new film industry future.

Death (and the Kids In The Hall) come to town = Fun! Exciting!

Film making is definitely a big-money industry, but it is also one filled with passion and vision. North Bay needs to maintain a clear line of sight and not get too far ahead of itself. Jim Calarco, who has always maintained a passion for the industry even when the glory and riches were not guaranteed, and his niece Brigitte Kingsley who brought the Dark Rising 2 production to town, realize the potential that our community holds and the need to build up the industry essentially from the ground up. That is the kind of vision that North Bay needs. It is great that we have experienced success over the past year, but the film industry is a fickle mistress.

I know this not through experience, but from general knowledge. The beauty of no-budget film making is that there are no stakes and nobody to answer to really but ourselves. For our team, the process is about passion and artistic gratification more than anything. The best reward isn't awards, or even nominations; it is the satisfaction that comes from seeing a few ideas on a page turn into a solid finished product after so much hard work.

I want to see North Bay succeed with its film aspirations. I want a thriving community to grow. When we launched About The Girl out into the world, most of the feedback we received was about the dynamic presentation and great locations. I wrote that script based around those specific locations with a full appreciation of what each location offered. North Bay has those locations, and so many more to offer, but we need to maintain realistic expectations.For the industry, the tax incentives are great, but when the expenses involved in importing qualified personnel outweigh the financial benefits of filming in the north, this perceived money train will find a new station.

About The Girl was never destined for Cannes, but one of our future projects might be. It will just take a bit of time before we have refined our process to that point. I hope that our passionate and committed film community, as well as our civic leaders and champions, can maintain a similar outlook.

Let's make it work!

ADDENDUM: There have been other films produced in North Bay and surrounding area including Captain of the Clouds, That Beautiful Somewhere, Grey Owl and more - but this really has been a good year hasn't?