City ready for its close-up

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This article was published 02/11/2022 (1074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The two-dozen strong Manitoba film industry contingent that blitzed Los Angeles this week established a strong beachhead with the film industry there and officials believe they will see results as early as this spring.

Flying to L.A. on WestJet’s inaugural direct flight from Winnipeg on Monday morning, the team, including Manitoba Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Andrew Smith, capped off three days of meetings with a sit-down with 15 studio heads at the Motion Picture Association of America.

“There was more than $1 trillion in market cap in that room,” Smith said in a press conference in L.A. on Wednesday afternoon. “These were the top executives from all the big studios. They have all heard of Manitoba, they know where it is and they said they are looking forward to continuing to work here. The direct flight will help.”

Rod Bruinooge, head of Manitoba Film and Music, said the large contingent created a chance for the Manitoba film industry to generate some buzz in L.A.

“In bringing such a large delegation it allowed us to have a wider breadth of meetings. It just gave us more exposure for us being here,”he said.

In addition to the direct flight — taking hours off a travel day for film industry folk travelling to Winnipeg — the first new soundstage in 25 years has recently opened in the city. Studio heads were keen to hear more about the new facility and Bruinooge believes they will start booking in December, he said.

The first phase of the Big Sky Studios opened in September with 137,000 square feet of space. (Phase II is scheduled to open by December with an additional 50,000 square feet.)

Located on Inkster Boulevard in the former Nygard distribution centre, the space currently includes two soundproof sound stages, an ample mill and paint shop and plenty of set- and prop-production space as well as production and executive offices.

“I know we will see something in the spring that we weren’t counting on prior to this trip,” Bruinooge said.

The other significant incentive for film executives in sunny California to even think about filming in wintry Manitoba is the province’s film and television production tax credits.

“The studio heads know about the tax credits. We believe it is the most competitive in North America,” Smith said.

The industry attracted about $365 million this past fiscal year and Bruinooge thinks it’s not too unreasonable to expect that will grow to $ 1 billion in the next 10 years.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca