Western Standard - IN FOCUS： Hollywood comes to Alberta with booming film and TV industry

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard. Thanks for joining me for another edition of In Focus.

00:00:14.300 Tonight we are going to the glitz of Alberta's Hollywood.

00:00:18.580 We're going to be talking about Alberta's film and television industry and joining me is Tina Alford from Actra,

00:00:24.760 which is the union that represents professional actors and performers.

00:00:30.000 Hi, Tina.

00:00:31.040 Hello, thanks for having me.

00:00:32.480 Yeah, so it's kind of exciting times here in Alberta.

00:00:35.760 It's ebbed and flowed, but we seem to be

00:00:38.260 in a fairly busy time when it comes

00:00:40.720 to our film and television industry.

00:00:42.920 Absolutely, yeah, it's just, it's been fantastic.

00:00:46.260 It's everything that we've been wishing for

00:00:48.980 for the past several decades, being so busy.

00:00:51.760 Yeah, and it really has ebbed and flowed.

00:00:54.840 There have been times where we've been booming.

00:00:57.420 know i know we've had you know big name stars here brad pitt we've had leonardo dicaprio we've had

00:01:04.940 some some big names come our way in the past and uh and and it's really ebbed and flowed there was

00:01:11.500 a point in time though that some some i think maybe some legislation or some policy uh came

00:01:16.620 into play that really kind of slowed the industry right to a crawl uh gee are you were you with

00:01:23.180 actor at the time do you know yes well i've been working in the industry for over 22 years i believe

00:01:30.860 so yeah i mean the a lot of the film and television industry globally relies on incentives um from

00:01:39.100 different jurisdictions you know to help lure the lure the productions and come in and shoot their

00:01:44.540 shoot their projects so depending you know on sort of the uh you know who's in government um what the

00:01:52.140 appetite is um the incentives in alberta have you know gone up and down which of course has a direct

00:01:59.340 uh implication on the the level of production i mean there's also there's also exterior factors

00:02:06.220 like the especially if we're looking at u.s production um where the canadian dollar sits

00:02:11.820 right so if we're at par with the american dollar not overly competitive so sometimes

00:02:17.420 you know that can have an impact on production levels as well sure now what are some of the

00:02:21.980 incentives that um you know that can or can't like it's kind of tax breaks or uh or things like that

00:02:28.780 are you are you familiar with some of the things that can like boom and bust well so we right now

00:02:36.780 we have a tax incentive um and just a general overview i don't think we need to get too much

00:02:41.660 into the weeds here but essentially um when a production wants to come and shoot in alberta

00:02:48.300 to get the incentive they apply there's an application process and they get a percentage

00:02:53.660 back based on the amount of money that they spend in alberto and so you know and that that covers

00:02:59.100 everything that covers you know working in the rural communities and you know food and uh car

00:03:05.740 rentals and gas um all the way up to labor so the cast and the crew um and so the the exciting thing

00:03:13.980 though about the film and television incentive is they don't they don't get the money up front

00:03:18.860 they actually get a percentage of what they spent after they've already um spent their money in the

00:03:24.380 province right so it's pretty low risk and when you're talking you know some shows and some

00:03:30.220 productions are dropping millions of dollars into rural communities um it's it is a really

00:03:36.300 great investment well and for those that don't pay attention i mean there are some communities

00:03:41.740 that are almost built specifically for the film and television industry i know high river has done

00:03:49.260 a huge amount of work to to make that town sort of very appealing and you know and i know it's

00:03:55.820 been used it's used for heartland it's used for i know tin star was filming here a couple of years

00:04:03.020 ago um and there's quite a few other shows that have uh have kind of raced the streets of of high

00:04:09.740 river are there other communities that are doing the same oh absolutely um obviously the whole

00:04:15.820 drumheller uh region in the town of drumheller they've been a very film friendly um community

00:04:22.540 right and they have a very specific look so we get a lot of productions that go there that maybe

00:04:27.260 want like some space age sort of um looking you know when they're shooting out in the badlands

00:04:32.940 irakana has had a lot of work uh car stairs bicycle um you know saint paul in the northern

00:04:41.100 part of the province saint paul outside of edmonton stony plain yeah so a lot of small

00:04:47.420 communities have benefited um from them in television and it's fantastic because like

00:04:52.060 when they move in you know they're the the local cast and crew are going to the coffee shops and

00:04:58.540 you know dropping dropping money in that that community so yeah that's right it is a regional

00:05:04.860 and a rural uh bonus to this industry absolutely and you know a couple of things with that um

00:05:11.980 as somebody who has um has worked with actra i have and and i know that there's a real push to

00:05:18.300 have alberta-based actors and alberta-based uh background and alberta you know it's there's

00:05:23.980 into theirs so so really i mean not only are they supporting um you know some of the establishments

00:05:29.580 in those areas but it's also bringing a lot of work for um you know people in the unions whether

00:05:36.300 you're with actra or you're in the the unions that support um sort of the more technical side

00:05:42.060 like iaxi it's bringing a lot of work to albertans here absolutely i mean you know so we see the

00:05:48.860 headlines right of when a big show comes into town recently fargo uh season five so i know there was

00:05:55.260 a lot of headlines about john ham um you know from madman fame is one of which of course you know

00:06:03.180 who doesn't love love him and so you get you see those headlines but what you don't see behind

00:06:08.300 those headlines is the hundreds of people that are working up like local albertans that are working

00:06:14.460 on that show um you know making a good wage and so you know they're not importing everybody in

00:06:21.100 from the us united states or elsewhere it's it's local it's local work and they're great paying

00:06:26.220 jobs and when you say hundreds it is hundreds the people who have not been on a set if you could see

00:06:34.940 the amount of work that's being done behind the scenes to have just you know a day's shoot where

00:06:40.700 you maybe are capturing two or three minutes worth of footage but you do have hundreds of people from

00:06:45.900 caterers to drivers to to grips to people doing lighting you know all the way up to then the

00:06:51.180 actors in the background and wranglers and uh it's it's an incredible amount of people that come

00:06:58.380 together to make this happen so you're right it is it is bringing a lot of work to a lot of people

00:07:03.180 yeah especially like the higher the budget you know the more economic impact the more people

00:07:07.900 are employed um so yeah we have a lot of those the the high profile shows but we also do have

00:07:13.660 um a healthy sort of local community here too where we have local producers creating canadian

00:07:20.540 television series and web series and feature films you know those those projects are sort

00:07:26.540 of the meat and potatoes and sort of the backbone of our industry and you know sometimes they don't

00:07:31.340 they don't uh get you know sort of all the glitz and glamour and the headlines um that they should

00:07:36.940 but there's definitely a a core of people that are you know creating local content as well

00:07:42.380 absolutely well and one of the big ones that's been filming here it's the 16th season now is

00:07:47.100 heartland uh one of these um gems and uh heartland's been filming here for over a decade and uh

00:07:56.380 it it too like it's it you know it's it catches a lot of attention because it is so well watched

00:08:03.820 in fact i think heartland has a huge uh viewership um beyond canada as well is my understanding um

00:08:11.020 and that's shot here in in rural alberta and in high river and in you know in other areas um

00:08:18.780 pretty much every year yeah it's it's such a great success story so i believe it's the longest

00:08:26.700 running one hour canadian television series i think they're kind of going head to head with

00:08:32.620 Murdoch Mysteries but yeah such a great success story and I mean you're right the the the people

00:08:38.860 that love that show is global. I remember several years ago when there was the floods

00:08:45.500 happened and so Heartland did a fundraiser for the town of High River and so they had one day at the

00:08:51.580 studio where they were allowing a thousand people in and you know they could make a donation and see

00:08:57.420 the stars and you know there were some silent auction items whatever and so I was there

00:09:01.340 volunteering helping out and i mean walking through the line of the people um that had come

00:09:06.540 to this day just to see the stars and they were hardcore fans i mean they were from all over north

00:09:11.820 america right had flown in specifically for this um yeah it's it's quite a success story so

00:09:20.140 hopefully we'll get season 17. yeah right i know it just it's the it's the series that just keeps

00:09:25.820 giving um and there's you know the the cool thing about it is that alberta is such a diverse

00:09:30.940 province i mean on one side of the province you have the rocky mountains so you know a lot of

00:09:35.660 filming in in the banff and canmore area and cananaskis you know for for things that require

00:09:42.380 that kind of um that kind of terrain then you've got the prairies uh you know so that's always good

00:09:49.260 for the fargos and you know where you where you're just looking for that and then we've got the

00:09:54.060 drumheller area where yeah you can look like a desert over there so there's a massive amount of

00:10:00.940 of change from location to location in Alberta

00:10:03.880 that makes us a really good target

00:10:06.780 for a lot of these productions.

00:10:09.180 Yeah, I mean, and even, you know,

00:10:10.700 and that's always been like historically been the draw

00:10:13.360 to Alberta is the diversity of locations that we have.

00:10:17.160 So, you know, going back to the Unforgiven days.

00:10:20.780 So that's, you know, over 25 years ago

00:10:23.120 when Clint Eastwood was shooting Unforgiven,

00:10:24.920 I think there's a quote from him saying that

00:10:27.620 the greatest thing about Alberta

00:10:28.880 you can get five different looks you know within an hour and a half of the city of calgary that's

00:10:34.400 true yeah well and even uh even um uh kevin costner was talking about uh time that he spent shooting

00:10:42.800 uh in alberta and how much he absolutely loved the the area and uh you know just

00:10:49.600 everywhere that he went same thing with brad pitt uh when he was here shooting what was that one

00:10:54.720 help me um well first with legends of the fall and then um assassination of jesse james right

00:11:02.960 and and so he spoke in fact uh people have have rumored that he owns a piece of land here and and

00:11:09.600 may very well uh but he as has been quoted saying just how beautiful it was here and so you're right

00:11:16.000 it's um just that variety and the variety of seasons really lends to um you know just the

00:11:22.560 beauty of alberta as well being a wonderful place to choose and we have so much shooting here right

00:11:28.560 now let's talk about some yes it's yeah it's fantastic um you know and from we're still

00:11:36.160 working on our for the performers here we're still working on our 2022 numbers but now i mean i know

00:11:43.360 last year so 2021 2021 we saw an over 50 increase in days of work for performers for alberta

00:11:52.240 performers wow yeah so that's that's pretty fantastic again going back to the fact that

00:11:57.840 you know a lot of these shows um it's not just the the hollywood stars um coming from los angeles

00:12:04.720 there's a lot of local performers that are that are working on these projects so it sounds like

00:12:09.680 actors growing all the time with members and and whatnot um would you say that's the case here oh

00:12:15.920 absolutely yeah our membership is i think we have a we have close to 1400 members um and when i

00:12:22.800 started here over 10 years ago we had about 600. okay so more than doubled and then um are we short

00:12:31.520 or do we do does it do we end up struggling with the amount of productions coming here versus

00:12:36.960 um how many members there are available to do these kinds of things i mean there's i mean it's

00:12:43.360 hard to say with performers because it's a little different than crew members right because so much

00:12:47.520 of our membership has to deal with you know how you look or your age um so i know you know we've

00:12:54.640 got such a even even if they're not actor members i mean alberta has such a strong performing

00:12:59.840 community right through the theaters um that we have in all the major centers um so you know i

00:13:06.800 don't i don't think we're short yet of talent because i don't think you know we've uh we've

00:13:12.640 had the opportunity for everybody to to get out there so um yeah i think great talent so some of

00:13:20.880 the things that are shooting here of course we were talking about heartland season 16 that's

00:13:26.240 filming into december um we had joe pickett season two that just wrapped up it looks like um very

00:13:34.000 recently yeah um ride this is another one that's uh that's here filming do you know a little bit

00:13:40.240 about ride yeah so ride is um it's in a it's it's it's a story it's a ranch based in contemporary

00:13:49.760 not a period piece but yeah so it's based on a ranch um it's sort of like uh an american version

00:13:56.800 of heartland i heard somebody say so okay similar similar kind of look and feel with that sort of

00:14:02.480 western western genre so that's that's going to be really exciting and of course coming up in

00:14:08.560 january the last of us on hbo back well they're they're gonna be i mean there's talk about them

00:14:16.000 coming back but then i think everybody's really excited that um i forget the exact date in january

00:14:21.440 but uh the first episode is going to air in early january so that will be super exciting to you know

00:14:28.560 they were here for 11 months yeah all over the province you know all over like up in grand

00:14:34.160 Prairie, down in Waterton. And so even if maybe you're not interested in the video game or the

00:14:39.800 story, I think it still will be a lot of fun just to watch it just to sort of spot the Alberta

00:14:44.300 locations. Yeah, absolutely. I actually did a little bit of background work on that one. And

00:14:51.100 that was in High River as well as out in Fort McLeod. A little further. So yeah, it's always

00:14:59.480 exciting to to tune in even with heartland you know to tune in and see oh i recognize that i've

00:15:04.520 been there you know it's it's always it's always kind of neat for people and i know the last of us

00:15:09.320 needed so many background for some of their big large scenes i know they did quite a few in calgary

00:15:16.120 so i think there's probably a lot of people who you know maybe don't do this regularly and are

00:15:21.000 very much excited to see how how it all looks once it starts coming out so a lot of people waiting

00:15:27.480 for that one well in that one too they had um like a huge uh stunt component there's a lot of action

00:15:35.720 so a lot of alberta stunt performers i mean who you know if you're not sort of entrenched in the

00:15:40.760 industry yes we do have a lot of stunt performers here in alberta and so it created a lot of work

00:15:45.960 for uh male and female stunt performers so that that was great yeah absolutely and uh fargo season

00:15:53.640 five we mentioned that's filming now right through till april um jen arden uh her show

00:16:01.160 shoots here and it looks like her holiday special just wrapped up recently correct

00:16:07.400 and then dark match this one is out of edmonton filming out of edmonton what's the basis of that

00:16:13.400 story that one is a a wrestling horror horror story yes so okay yeah it's a canadian feature film

00:16:23.080 shooting up in edmonton so uh they just started this week we're super excited um i think if you're

00:16:29.320 a wrestling fan when this movie i of course can't say too much but if you're a wrestling fan um

00:16:35.080 that'll definitely be something that you'll you'll want to check out but yeah right and then uh i'm

00:16:41.480 probably going to say this terribly wrong raffinus rapper manis yes thank you um that is the old

00:16:48.600 fraggle rock right yes it is uh-huh that is filming here with puppets puppets yeah fraggle

00:16:59.960 rock shot here last year was their first season and they um they have a they have a holiday special

00:17:06.040 coming out i think in a couple days or this weekend um so of course yeah everybody's super

00:17:10.920 excited to see the reboot of fraggle rock totally i watched that when i was a kid every sunday every

00:17:17.560 Sunday, I think Fraggle Rock came on and then it was Disney. I can't remember which one.

00:17:22.280 Yeah, exactly. And again, I mean, that's such a great story for Alberta puppeteers,

00:17:30.200 right, that fall under actors' jurisdiction. And so, yeah, we're seeing a tremendous amount

00:17:38.760 of work opportunities for our local puppeteers. And so what do you know, or I imagine some of

00:17:45.080 of it's under wraps but do you know of other things that will be coming in the new year because

00:17:48.440 i feel like there's sort of is there sort of shooting seasons it kind of gets quieter around

00:17:53.160 christmas than through the yeah i mean like before it was sort of our peak shooting season was we

00:17:59.560 would always say from like may to october um but now you know with with the additional production

00:18:06.040 here it's it is turning into sort of a year-round series but things do tend to kind of slow down

00:18:11.160 around december january february yeah um but you know at the same time that's two is when some of

00:18:17.400 the the smaller productions the local productions um they might kick kick off and do some of their

00:18:23.480 work just because they have the access to the crew and the locations and the equipment when

00:18:28.440 some of the big shows aren't happening here so it definitely is turning into a year round uh

00:18:34.600 jurisdiction well and it certainly doesn't help uh doesn't hurt that we have such a huge production

00:18:40.440 facility that's been around now for gosh i feel like that's got to be 10 or 15 years now yeah and

00:18:45.880 the calgary film center yes yeah yeah so the purpose-built studio space and then but because

00:18:52.200 of you know the the province investing um in this industry there's been a lot of private uh

00:18:59.160 private companies that have stepped forward and so we have several other studio spaces um that

00:19:05.240 have been retrofitted from warehouse space like just sort of your traditional warehouse space

00:19:09.400 into studio space causing more you know private investment um in the province and in the industry

00:19:15.480 so that's good news too so would we say we're booming are are we are we in a boom we are in a

00:19:21.480 boom we're 100 in a boom and uh you know and it's looking like it's going to stay that way

00:19:28.520 um i know that can you tell us i know i mean there's a lot of things i don't even know um you

00:19:34.600 know and and some of these projects are kicking tires and you know running numbers and and looking

00:19:39.960 at crew depth and checking weather patterns and all of this sometimes like a year in advance

00:19:44.840 yeah um so but yeah we're feeling very positive for uh 2023 for sure wonderful i have heard uh

00:19:53.000 from the uh the other side of the of the coin and the you know the um the technical side from

00:19:58.520 iatzi and some of the unions that supply the grips and the lighter lighting and ads and all of that

00:20:03.320 kind of stuff that that they do uh from time to time when we have these big booms struggle and so

00:20:09.080 you know it's uh it's probably good to to be a beacon of you know um having some some of these

00:20:16.600 skilled workers coming to alberta to to make up some of this workforce yeah so well and i know a

00:20:23.560 lot of the you know the other guilds and unions as well as actors like we have really scaled up

00:20:30.440 our training um so you know some of our members you know who maybe don't have all that experience

00:20:37.960 we're getting them trained up so that they are ready to take on these roles and to take on these

00:20:42.680 jobs so yeah it's it's exciting in that regard that you know we're boosting the training we're

00:20:48.680 working with post-secondary institutions to get some of these new graduates into the industry

00:20:54.680 yeah and it's been impressive i've noticed actra is doing a lot more of that now with um this extra

00:21:01.960 training and you know just helping and there's there's a lot of things people can do uh if you're

00:21:06.680 interested in getting involved in the film and television industry um on the acting or performing

00:21:12.040 side uh lots of different things that people can do to look into it i mean you can you can look

00:21:16.920 into finding agents and i noticed that actra has linked through on the website to to be able to

00:21:23.640 find agents um and then there's there's there's auditioning classes you can take in that in

00:21:29.240 calgary and edmonton and um auditioning and set etiquette classes and even acting classes of

00:21:35.720 course lots people can do and probably uh you'd be encouraging that just to absolutely i mean again

00:21:44.920 you hear these stories of you know these movie stars that hit it big as they're walking in a

00:21:49.560 mall or something but you know those stories are few and far between a lot of the you know to be

00:21:54.440 a working performer um yeah you have to get training you have to understand your craft and

00:21:59.800 a lot of our members that even have seen great success and work on a lot of these projects

00:22:04.200 they're always working on the craft always taking training um one of the thing one of the workshops

00:22:09.800 we've been doing a lot of um through the summer and into the fall was a dialect workshop so with

00:22:15.400 fargo shooting here they have they need to have a minnesota accent oh yes right which is slightly

00:22:22.680 different than our canadian a accents right and so we've been running a ton of workshops with our

00:22:28.200 members on how to have that minnesota accent and it's working right we're hearing from the casting

00:22:33.960 directors and the producers that um our members are nailing it right that's pretty fun yeah yeah

00:22:41.960 so it's exciting yeah for sure and uh and with the boom of course there's there's demand so hey

00:22:48.360 if you are interested in learning a little bit more about the film and television industry here

00:22:54.040 in alberta it's booming it needs you so i think actor is a good place to start the website has

00:22:59.560 lots of click-through resources for you anything else you can suggest for people that are perhaps

00:23:05.720 interested in learning a little bit more uh well yeah probably just start i mean if you're based

00:23:11.000 down here in calgary uh you can check out the calgary economic development website they have

00:23:16.680 a lot of information there and a lot of information that'll link you off so you can find actor you can

00:23:21.240 find the technical unions and if you're in edmonton it's the edmonton screen industries office

00:23:28.920 their website has a lot of information on there too um so yeah just i mean there's a lot of

00:23:33.480 information on the on the interweb and uh yeah just start there it'll definitely keep you busy

00:23:39.880 and we're definitely always looking for people to come and join the fun in our booming sector

00:23:46.840 well it is it is fun and it is exciting and uh you know i think um i think there's going to be a lot

00:23:52.280 of work to come so i definitely encourage people to look into it as well tina alford uh branch

00:23:58.520 representative for alberta actra and uh and thank you very much for kind of sharing a little bit

00:24:04.920 about what's to come and and what we're seeing and it's uh i think it really is a good especially

00:24:10.280 coming out of a pandemic where you know a lot of people um weren't able to work uh fortunately there

00:24:17.480 there was still filming happening and uh and there was opportunity there as well so good to see it

00:24:23.880 being so robust yes yeah it's a it's a great great time right now in the screen industry in alberta

00:24:31.320 Well, thanks for joining us, Tina, and thanks for the update on our film and television industry in Alberta.

00:24:37.260 Thank you.

00:24:38.040 Here's an update on the current commodity prices around Lethbridge.

00:24:41.060 Cash barley and wheat are both unchanged, with barley at $4.55 per metric and wheat at $4.80 per metric.

00:24:47.180 Corn is down $2 a tonne to $4.73 per metric.

00:24:50.580 Moving to the milling wheat markets, December Minneapolis futures are down $0.02 to $9.49 per bushel,

00:24:57.040 with local hard red spring bid for December movement at $12.20 per bushel delivered.

00:25:02.200 Nearby canola futures are down $15.20 per tonne to $8.41.90

00:25:07.160 with deliver values for December movement at $18.86 per bushel.

00:25:12.460 Continuing on to the pulse markets, nearby red lentils remain steady at $0.33.5

00:25:16.680 and yellow peas are remaining at $13.00 per bushel.

00:25:20.680 Taking a quick look at the cattle markets,

00:25:22.700 december live cattle are up half a cent to 153.60 per hundred weight for more information on pricing

00:25:29.740 and picked up on farm options give me a call at 403-394-1711 i'm mike van dyke at marketplace

00:25:36.860 commodities accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options

00:25:44.140 canadian shooting sports association without the cssa our gun rights would have been taken

00:25:49.180 long long ago these guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms

00:25:55.900 regulations and legislation in canada and more importantly educating the public about

00:26:01.100 how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people to become a member it's absolutely worth

00:26:05.980 every penny you can become a western standard member for just ten dollars a month or 99 a year

Western Standard - November 22, 2022

IN FOCUS： Hollywood comes to Alberta with booming film and TV industry

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