Northern Ontario film crews and producers should find it a bit easier to connect thanks to improvement to a new database.
CION, or Cultural Industries North, made the announcements about the improvements to the database which was introduced in 2014.
"What we presented earlier in the week was a series of enhancements to the service that are part of an overall digital strategy designed to attract producers and connect them with film and television production talent actively working in Northern Ontario," said Patrick O’Hearn, Associate Managing Direction of CION based out of Sudbury.
The improvements came at a price tag of roughly $20,000. O'Hearn believes the Crew Database has been a very effective.
"It has done a good job connecting crew with producers shooting in the North, and it has been a service that has helped attract producers who are choosing which production jurisdiction to film in," he said.
"The enhancements we are making to the service will not only allow this momentum to continue, but it will also more efficiently connect crew with producers (by providing faster, and streamlined real-time information), and will allow crew listed on the service to use enhanced features to strengthen their ability to stand out and compete for jobs. Ultimately, continued success of the service and the enhancements that we announced today will make it easier for producers to access talent from the North, and limit their need to bring in talent from outside of Northern Ontario."
O"Hearn says prior to 2014, crews largely relied on message boards and word of mouth promotions about jobs available in the field.
"While these services allowed Northern Ontario to build a robust roster of crew talent, the crew database created a central source for crews to promote their in the field experiences and garner the attention of productions making Northern Ontario home," he said.
"The enhanced database takes this many steps further as it allows crew to inform productions about their availability. It also allows producers to see and readily sort crew member availability in any Northern Ontario production centre (ie. there is representation on the service Northern Ontario’s active production jurisdictions—Greater Sudbury, North Bay, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Parry Sound and Timmins)."
