Film and Televison Industry Booming
Film and television production activity is thriving in Nova Scotia, contributing more than $99 million in production dollars to the provincial economy, reports the Nova Scotia Film Development Corp.(NSFDC).
This fiscal year, local production accounted for $64 million in revenue for the province. It included productions such as the Liography series, starring Leslie Nielsen; Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111, a CTV movie of the week covering the Swiss Air crash; This Hour Has 22 Minutes; Made in Canada; Blackfly; and the Trailer Park Boys series, to name a few.
The renewal of Salter Street Film’s series, LEXX, with the SCI FI Channel in the United States for another 24 episodes also adds a great boost to this year’s production. Further, imX’s New Waterford Girl had tremendous success at the box office, realizing revenues of close to $1 million to date.
"Assistance in targeted areas within the film industry is paying repeated dividends for Nova Scotia," said Economic Development Minister Gordon Balser. “And every successful project here adds to our reputation as a film industry centre worthy of star status. This is all about playing to our strengths to maximize prosperity in our province."
Through various programs, the NSFDC supported three feature films, one television movie, seven television series, 22 television specials and many development projects in all genres.
Guest productions made up $35 million of total production activity. They included exciting projects like Glimpse of Hell with James Caan; Passion and Prejudice, starring Francis Fisher of Titanic fame; Bailey’s Mistake, a Disney movie starring Linda Hamilton, and Scotland PA, a New York independent film featuring Christopher Walkin.
Currently, Miramax has set up its production offices for The Shipping News at RCMP quarters in Halifax, starring Academy Award winners Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench, and Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore.
In February, Von Zerneck-Sertner Films started filming Three Days, starring Kristin Davis, Reed Diamond and Tim Meadows.
To Forgive Devine begins production in May. K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, has opened its production offices, with shooting scheduled to start in May. Many more projects are currently scouting the province.
"It is not surprising that guest productions like to shoot in Nova Scotia," says Ann MacKenzie, chief executive officer of the NSFDC. "This is a direct result of our talented crews, beautiful locations, the province’s financial programs and existing infrastructure."
Other major initiatives included the NSFDC’s Business Issues seminar in December, which focused on the new-media and converging-technology aspects of the film and television industry, presenting the latest information in the industry for film, television and new media producers. November’s Broadcast Forum in Nova Scotia brought industry producers and broadcasters together, including CHUM, the CBC, Life, Vision, History, CTV and Teletoon. Several of these broadcasters announced that they would be airing shows this year that were pitched to them during last year’s forum.
In addition, the Shelburne Film Production Centre hosted the NSFDC’s first-ever Scriptwriting Seminar in November, bringing significant exposure to the new facility. The five-day seminar brought some of the biggest heavyweights in the Canadian film industry together, such as Academy-Award nominee and Genie Award winner Atom Egoyan and Jeremy Podeswa, who both hosted some of the sessions. Five successful candidates received a $2,000 non-refundable contribution from the NSFDC at the completion of the seminar, to assist in the continuation of writing their scripts.
The NSFDC, a Crown corporation that reports to the Department of Economic Development, provides a wide range of programs and services to stimulate the growth of the province’s film, television and new media industries.