CMU School of Drama


Friday, December 04, 2020

British Columbia Sees Filming Boom

Variety: Following a lengthy production shutdown in British Columbia due to the coronavirus pandemic, the B.C. film and TV industry is now officially back in full swing. Given the jurisdiction’s appealingly lower COVID-19 infection numbers, productions have been betting on B.C. — in fact, it’s even busier than prior to the March 13 shutdown. For example, there were 58 productions in town the week of Sept. 15, 2019. This year during the same period, there were 69. For the week of Oct. 15, 2019, there were 53 productions filming in B.C.; this year, there were 76. And during the week of Nov. 15, 2019, there were 49. Currently, around 60 projects are shooting.

2 comments:

Andrew Morris said...

This is a very nice story article about how the Canadian providence of British Columbia is excelling in the film sector, even as the corona virus is raging across the world. I think it is a testament to the efforts that the Canadian government have gone through to make sure that they handled the corona virus response professionally, as opposed to how the neighboring United States handled the corona virus response. What I find particularly interesting is that the film business actually grew, and did not diminish, after the corona virus and recovery period. This is very cool because the coronavirus actually made the area more appealing for people looking to film television and movies. I wonder if this newfound status as a film and tv center will stay after the coronavirus pandemic is over and business is back to normal. I cannot imagine being on a film set right now with everything going on, and I wonder how much money the production team needs to spend now on al the new procedures and all of the rapid testing which is not cheap at all.

Jonas Harrison said...

This article makes me cautiously hopeful that there will be a boom in the entertainment industry in America as well when there is a vaccine or COVID is a lot more under control. I am glad to hear that people working on these shows right now are more willing to comply with guidelines than not, even if they are strict. It is also encouraging to hear the communication and partnership between studios at this time as everyone works together to develop the most effectively safe way of working. It is still scary and feels unstable to know that only one positive test could shut down and delay an entire production for a couple of weeks, but I am glad to hear that that has not happened much, and maybe it would be more forgiving if a production got delayed now than if it did pre-pandemic. Overall, these developments are exciting to hear, but also daunting as I understand that keeping these safety measures in place can be a huge challenge.