Written by new-contact on Jan 25, 2013. Posted in On Location

British Columbia film professionals rally at studio for location filming incentives

Around 2,500 British Columbia production professionals rallied this week in Vancouver calling for better location filming incentives in the province. They gathered at North Shore Studios as part of the Save BC Film social media campaign.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is being called on to improve the province’s location filming incentives to stop productions moving east to places like Ontario and Quebec. There are around 25,000 production professionals based in British Columbia, North Shore Outlook reports, and unemployment is currently about 90%.

Peter Leitch is President of both North Shore Studios in North Vancouver and Mammoth Studios in nearby Burnaby where the recent Rise of the Planet of the Apes (above) was partly filmed. He spoke to the outlet: “There’s nobody shooting right now at either facility. I can’t remember ever having nobody shooting, and that’s over 20 years.

“The [filming incentive] differential between Ontario, Quebec and Vancouver, British Columbia is just too great.”

There’s nobody shooting right now at either facility. I can’t remember ever having nobody shooting, and that’s over 20 years.

Peter Leitch, North Shore Studios and Mammoth Studios

Premier Clark is resisting calls to increase British Columbia’s filming incentive. The matter is now becoming a political squabble, with rival politicians calling for greater flexibility, if only on a short-term basis.

(Still: Twentieth Century Fox)