It was a summer to remember for North Bay when it comes to all the film and TV projects that have taken place in the area.
Jerry O’Connell took over the city as the lead character for the TV Series Carter which wraps up this month, while Hallmark’s Angel Falls concluded its filming a few weeks ago.
The productions have been great for the economy of North Bay but Angel Falls producer David Anselmo, who is from Sudbury, gives a lot of credit to Canadore College, where many of its cinematography students are getting first-hand experience.
See related story: The movie industry loves downtown North Bay
Anselmo, who sits on the Canadore Cinematography Board, says having part of a school dedicated to training local northern technicians in this highly technical world is great for the northern film industry.
“I can sell a region or city to my executive producers or the networks by saying we have a fully functional professional crew here locally, that just helps tremendously to sell the region; and it helps us make a more cost-effective film, and spend more putting it on the screen, which is great,” he said.
Anselmo has produced more than 30 movies over the past five years and having the opportunity to ply his trade so close to home has been priceless.
“I’m a local boy from Sudbury, I moved home to do this, we’ve done some thirty odd movies the last four or five years, and the reason for me to come back was because I never had the opportunity to do something that I loved in my hometown, in a place that I love,” said Anselmo.
“Now, with the incentives that we have in northern Ontario, it’s opening up a whole new diversified economy for the region but also it’s given the opportunity for young people, and a younger generation to have a choice of what their career path is. I never had that choice growing up. I had to move away to be in this industry. So now we have the opportunity to have an industry that allows people to stay at home and be passionate about something that they do.”
Anselmo credits the people and the beauty of the north for helping make Film such a success recently.
“That laid-back feeling that the north has really resonated with them; so that’s why they keep coming back,” Anselmo said about how the industry is reacting to the north.
“And obviously the stunning beauty, you get to go sailing or fishing on the Lake Nipissing. I know people in LA who pay tens of thousands of dollars for fishing trips when now, they can just come up. I had James Brolin here for a couple of movies, and James drove himself from Toronto, and on the weekends, it was a winter movie, he was on the fishing huts out on Callander Bay, fishing; You can’t do that if you’re filming in LA. So these are all the added bonuses that we have.”
