Cold, snow could lure film cameras.
City’s film commissioner tries to lure productions
The irony of shooting The Freezer in Edmonton in the dead of winter won’t be lost on Dylan McDermott when he breezes into town next month to what will likely be bonechilling temperatures.
Still, despite its title, the feature film could have been shot any time. Billed as a countdown thriller, McDermott plays a man who is being held hostage in a refrigerated shipping container, hence The Freezer. When Edmonton film commissioner Brad Stromberg gave the film’s producers and director a tour of the city to scout locations, temperatures were hovering around 30 C — on the plus side.
“It was in the middle of summer,” recalls Stromberg, “and they were looking for cold, the kind of cold where you can see your breath.”
A tour that took them to curling rinks, skating rinks and massive refrigerated shipping/receiving facilities came up empty. While they were all suitably frigid, says Stromberg, the buildings were climatecontrolled in such a way as to remove every vestige of moisture from the air.
“It was a science lesson for us,” says Stromberg. “The only place that could replicate what we needed was the Edmonton Film Studio.”
The Freezer is one of the first projects to be funded under the Edmonton Filmed Entertainment Fund. Announced earlier this year, the new $10-million civic film investment fund is designed to bring more work to Edmonton’s movie and TV industry. The City of Edmonton and Los Angeles-based Kilburn Media have each contributed $5 million to the fund, which will provide investment money for movie, TV, DVD and other pre-sold projects that already have distribution or cash lined up. The Freezer, meanwhile, is a big deal for the local film industry. And McDermott is no small potatoes when it comes to star power. He is best known for TV’s American Horror Story and The Practice and recently appeared in The Campaign with Will Ferrell.
Still, Stromberg hints there are bigger things on the horizon. “We have a couple of other projects waiting for approval that have even bigger names attached to them,” he says coyly.
It’s not as though Edmonton film crews have been buried in work, Stromberg acknowledges, but there is plenty of reason for optimism.
There are ongoing projects that are just as important as feature films, among them TV series Blackstone and Caution: May Contain Nuts, and indie movies Felt Up and Truckstop Bloodsuckers. Moreover, he says, this year marked the first time the Edmonton Film Prize was handed out to recognize outstanding work by local filmmakers. Stromberg said 20-plus submissions were received. The $10,000 cash prize — funded by the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Film Commission — was shared by Niobe Thompson for Perfect Runner and Trevor Anderson for The Man That Got Away. And, says Stromberg, thanks to a significant investment of time, energy and money from Sam Osman, the Edmonton Film Studio has become a hub of creativity, particularly in the past year.
Osman bought the 23-year-old facility at 5305 Allard Way in 2005 and today most of its offices are occupied full-time by producers working on projects ranging from documentaries to animation to 3-D. “To have a great facility like that available for the production industry really changes the feeling of the business here,” says Stromberg. “It’s a feeling that hasn’t been pervasive for a while.”
Stromberg spent five years in the mayor’s office in communications, where he was assigned to the arts portfolio. Three years ago, when the job of the city’s film commissioner became vacant, it seemed like the perfect fit. “Essentially, the job I have now is selling Edmonton as a location. Having spent five years in that other role, it becomes part of your mantra to talk positively about the city, and to focus on all the city has to offer, and the reasons people live here.”
He says work is more plentiful in Calgary, which has gained a reputation for attracting big-budget westerns. There are other realities and challenges, too. “When you get off the plane in Calgary, there are mountains and foothills right in front of you,” he says. “Our geography here is different; we have those things but they’re further away.”
Ultimately, Edmonton is still searching for its niche. Pushing itself as the go-to location for horror movies is one of the strategies. Horror is a genre that can be low-cost and highprofit, a great combination for a city suited to productions with budgets of less than $5 million.
The TV series Fear Itself was shot here in 2008, as were earlier feature films like the werewolf horror film Ginger Snaps in 2000 and Santa’s Slay, a Christmas black horror comedy from 2005. “We have a lot of darkness here, and a lot of dead-looking trees, and we have experience with (the horror genre), so that’s one area we’re pursuing.”
The other is developing winter projects, which is very much in keeping with the winter city strategy recently adopted by council. Like it or not, says Stromberg, the snow and cold makes Edmonton unique and as such it needs to be celebrated, not excused.
“The weather will never change, no matter how big the city gets. And as much as we think we need to work around it, we really should be embracing it and promoting it.”