Film and TV Industry Takes a Starring Role
For professionals in the film and television industry, Metro Vancouver is known simply as Hollywood North.
The province is home to the third-largest film and television production centre in North America, following only Southern California and New York. It has grown from a site for shooting and staging to a destination where every aspect of the production process can be met.
Vancouver had long been a popular choice for location shoots dating back to the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s when it became a centre for the industry. That was when the provincial government gave the go-ahead for the creation of a British Columbia Film Commission.
“It took off when the government made the commitment to the industry,” says Susan Croome, executive director of the BC Film Commission, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2008.
U.S. film crews initially liked to venture north to take advantage of the tax incentives created by the government, the diversity of settings for location shoots and the extra mileage afforded the weaker Canadian dollar.
By 1992, television and film was a $211 million industry in B.C. Since then, the industry has exploded to become a billion-dollar enterprise, as the infrastructure grew to encompass the complete line of production facilities. While most of the early film work involved set work and shooting, the industry has evolved to include all of the necessary production and post-production capabilities, such as editing, visual effects studios, digital media offerings and animation.
Additionally, the city and province became not just a temporary site for Hollywood types during shooting, but a permanent home for talented people on both sides of the camera.
“In the beginning, most of the key personnel were from the United States. Today, 99 percent of the people working on a motion picture project are local B.C. people,” Croome says. “We learned our craft from Los Angeles, and now we’ve become world-class; our cast and crew are working other places.”
