The Momoa effect: N.L.'s growing film industry funnels millions into province, says report

Jason Momoamight bean outlaw trapper obsessed with murderingcompany fat cats inthe 18th-centurydrama series Frontier, but he's actually making modern Newfoundland and Labrador quite a lot of money, according to a new economic impact report.

The Canadian Media Producers Association, which issued the report,selects film productions across the country and conducts analyses of where the cash goes and who it helps.

It laid out a rosy pictureof Frontier'seffect on Newfoundland and Labrador.

Over three seasons of filming, $41million has been spent on goods and services as diverse as after-work pints to homes for the show's producers, while hundreds of crew members and actors are nabbinggigs on the series 539 full-time equivalent positions in N.L. alone, by the report's count.

The report estimates economic output from the show at more than $63 million, while production spending in the first season was equivalent to nearly a quarter-million cruise ship passengers.

At least one business a snowmobile rental shop also saw a tourism uptick thanks to Frontier, which often films on the northeast Avalon and near Gros Morne National Park.

"Money gets run through the economy a couple times," executive producer and co-creator Rob Blackietold On the Go host Ted Blades.

Blackiesays there's good reason to keep producing the show, which airs on Netflix and Discovery Canada, on Newfoundland soil.

"There's so much production value," Blackie said.

The "sheer cinematic quality" of locations such as the west coast's Tablelands,plus the growing experience of a crew that got its start with the CBCprivate-eye seriesRepublic of Doyle, means the show is able to thrive here, he added.

New frontiersthanks to Frontier, filmmaker says

There could be even more money coming in, says St. John's-based filmmaker Justin A. Foley, who started off as a self-described "meat popsicle" on the set of Doyleand ended up as the assistant locations manager for Frontier.

It was Republic of Doyle, Foley says, that kickstartedbig-picture production in the province.

"The industry here is growing like a wildfire," Foley said."Frontier changed the scope of that a lot too. Wewent from something that was the biggest thing we'd ever seen, to, 'OK, this is the biggest thing we've ever seen.'

"Through that, there's been a lot more productions coming here."

Foley pointed out that Frontier led directly to Jason Momoabringing the upcomingAquaman production to the province for a few days of shooting.

"Newfoundland is part of what's going to become one of the biggest cinematic spectacles coming out this Christmas," he said.

There are dry spells, Foley added, calling the local industry a "feast or famine kind of thing." Unlike bigger markets in Toronto or Vancouver, the province doesn't have the infrastructure to support multiple major productions simultaneously.

For instance, there's only one studio,he said.

But for its size, Newfoundland is holding its own, Foley says and it's why, despite once entertaining thoughts of leaving, he's now looking to get his own production off the ground.

"The fact that we're making a go of it, and we're doing this well with it, is incredible," he said. "I see a great potential for the film industry becoming one of our top industries, along with tourism."

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