Tim Roth show helps keep Calgary film hub busy
After disappointing 2017, Calgary Film Centre sees an increase in activity
After seeing a drop in usage in 2017, the Calgary Film Centre has increased its numbers for the first eight months of 2018, says Calgary’s commissioner of film, television and creative industries.
Part of that is due to the facility being used by major productions, including the second season of the BBC drama Tin Star starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks, but also because of a new strategy to broaden the sort of activity hosted at the $28-million centre.
“We have been doing activity with parts of the sector that we hadn’t dealt with before,” says Luke Azevedo, who is also chief operating officer of the Calgary Film Centre.
“VizworkZ was in there doing a display of their (virtual reality) technology.
“We have commercial production coming in. We’re looking at the digital media realm. We’re looking at creating an environment where we can attract more of that coming into the centre, as well as maintaining the level of activity with the large productions, which is obviously necessary to not only fill the film centre but to employ our crews and keep the industry growing.”
The centre opened in May 2016. For the rest of that year, it had an occupancy of 65 per cent.
That fell to 52 per cent in 2017, its first full year of operation. But Azevedo says that number is up to 74 per cent so far in 2018.
Tin Star was expected to wrap production on Season 2 this week. Recently, the centre hosted the IMAX project Asteroid Impact and another production that Azevedo couldn’t name due to a nondisclosure agreement.
“The facility filled up,” he said. “All three of the stages had been utilized by three separate productions. So it’s enabled us to bring those numbers up.”
The facility was built on 3.4 hectares at 76th Ave. S.E.
It includes three soundproof stages and more than 15,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Funding for the Calgary Film Centre included $5 million from the province, $10 million from the city and $1 million from anchor tenant William F. White International.
The rest has been taken on by the Calgary Film Centre Ltd., a non-profit subsidiary of Calgary Economic Development that was formed to run the facility.
In 2016 and early 2017, the centre hosted the first season of Tin Star and Season 3 of the Emmywinning FX drama Fargo. Producers announced that Season 4 of Fargo will begin production in 2019, although have not confirmed it will return to Calgary.
A number of projects are shooting in the Calgary area or will be shortly, although they will not use the Calgary Film Centre.
That includes the Netflix zombie series Black Summer, which began production in July. The CTV sitcom Jann, starring Jann Arden, and the Disney film Togo, starring Willem Dafoe, are both expected to begin production in September.
We have been doing activity with parts of the sector that we hadn’t dealt with before.
Existing Calgary-based series Heartland and Wynonna Earp have not used the Calgary Film Centre.
But Azevedo says other projects are on the horizon for the fall.
“We’re chasing them and hoping that we can get them within the month of September to get started and prepped and going,” he said.
“We also have a pipeline to the smaller projects that are coming in. We have one that is locked down for one of the large stages for October and other commercial production that is now looking at the facility as well.”