Hello, Hollywood East: Film and TV productions booming in N.L.

"We have Rex and Charlie walking up to confront the bad guys"

The director of Hudson & Rex describes the next shot while filming on location in the Georgetown neighbourhood of St. John's in September. There's a fleet of white trailers, cameras set up on the sidewalk and dozens of people wearing headsets.

From 150 to 200 people a day are working on the show's fourth season, says producer Paul Pope.

"They're well-paying jobs and more and more people are getting into it," said Pope.

As worldwide demand increases for fresh movies and shows to watch, more productions are choosing to film in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"There's a big boom in Canada and we're kind of part of the boom," said Pope."It's a great place to film. People like the locations, love being here. It takes a while to build an industry and you know we're not done yet."

Pope is one of the people who has been involved in developing the industry in N.L. over the past few decades.

"I remember when we celebrated our first year of doing half a million dollars worth of production. And then in the '90s we got to a million," he said.

Big money

Last year, the industry brought in more than $50 million, and that's expected to double this fiscal year, says Dorian Rowe, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, which helps to provide a tax credit and financial support to the industry.

"We don't have the final numbers yet but we're looking at upwards of $80 to $100 million," said Rowe.

Walt Disney Pictures was in the province shooting scenes for Peter Pan & Wendy for 11 days in August, with an estimated expenditure of $9 million.

CBC's Son of a Critch just wrapped filming,as did the feature filmSweetland, based on Michael Crummey's novel.Take the Shot Productions and Blue Ice Picturesfilmed the show SurrealEstate in 2020 and are filming another sci-fi show, calledAstrid and Lilly Save the World.HGTV's Rock Solid Builds is still in production, along with numerous smaller documentary projects, TV shows and films.

With so many productions happening, there have been challenges to find enough equipmentand peopleto do the work. But Rowe said it's also encouraging.

"The industry has always shown that it's very good at training on-the-job, and attracting people in," he said.

Rowe said jobs in film and television are good for N.L.'s economy as a whole.

"Clearly, it helps to retain young people. These are people who are staying here and buying cars, buying houses, paying taxes having children," said Rowe.

Catch-22

Latonia Hartery is a writer, director and producer (Nalujuk Night, The Death of Winter, Sadie) from the south coast of Newfoundland. For independent producers, the current boom is a catch-22, said Hartery.

"The call to have more crew is just the push for more people to enter the industry and get trained and move forward that way," she said.

"If you're going to have a production happening at the time that three TV shows and massive productions are going on, then you just need to be prepared like you haven't been prepared before renting those cars early, booking everything in advance."

Hartery said the industry is on the right track, but she'd like to see more productions happening outside the Avalon Peninsula, and more diversity in the people hired to work both in front ofand behind the camera.

But working on a film or TV crew is not for everyone, said Pope.

"It's like the travelling circus with a bit more money 14-hour days are common. We don't have regular work hours," said Pope. "So the first step is to figure out if this is a lifestyle for you."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador