Ottawa-based film producer Robert Menzies says the city is a hidden gem for movie shoots.
Robert Menzies, film producer and president of Zed Filmworks Inc., says 2013 will be his company’s busiest year since its formation five years ago. It already has seven features scheduled to be filmed in Ottawa.
“Ottawa is a hidden gem for a number of reasons,” he says. “We have great crews, actors and locations here.”
Menzies says his production company films in Centretown regularly. The area often doubles as a different city, he says, such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Philadelphia. Menzies says they frequently film in hotels and restaurants downtown. In 2011, they had to temporarily close Metcalfe Street to film Penthouse North, a movie starring Michael Keaton slated for release later this year.
“It may be a little disruptive, but everyone embraced it,” he says. “We respect our city. We also employ a lot of people and spend a lot of money. In the five years that Zed has been around, I have never heard any complaints."
Last year was Ontario’s strongest ever in the film and television industry, reported the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport earlier this month. The industry contributed $1.28 billion to the provincial economy in 2012 and accounted for almost 29,000 full-time direct and indirect jobs. Economic activity in this sector has increased by 90 per cent since 2008.
“Ontario has a great tax credit incentive, it’s competitive on a world basis,” says Menzies. “It makes Canada a great production centre. B.C. has been retracting their tax credit, and as a result their film industry is suffering.”
Menzies credits Ottawa’s “film-friendly” mayor, Jim Watson, and Invest Ottawa, an economic development organization, for the increasing growth in the city’s film industry.
In 2011, Watson announced that film and television would become an economic development priority, after seeing the industry generate on average $20 million locally each year, Stephanie Davy, co-ordinator of the film office at Invest Ottawa, said in an email.
“As a result, a new film office was created with the added resources, financial and human, to increase the economic impacts of film and TV,” she said. “The industry’s growth can also be attributed to the production companies that attract Hollywood type movies to the city."
Michael Dobbin, film producer and director of Quiet Revolution Pictures Inc., produces movies in Ottawa.
He was a major bidder in an effort to help Invest Ottawa bring a film and television studio to the Bayview Yards. However, after Toronto-based Cinespace backed out, Invest Ottawa plans to cancel the project.
Despite the setback, Dobbin says Ottawa makes for an ideal location to shoot movies.
“The quality of life here is so good. It’s a place I love to live in, so it is an easy sell for foreign partners who come to work here,” he says.
To continue the industry’s growth, Davy emphasized the importance of education.
“Although we have many experienced crews…we need more graduates and other individuals to gain the hands-on experience needed to work in the industry,” she said.
Menzies echoes this idea. He says they have to continue educating and training new people and be open to working with college and university co-op programs.
To continue to draw people to work and film in Ottawa, Menzies says the industry must keep people employed and working in the city by ensuring there is enough work to go around.