Around BC
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Working Around BC
Most motion picture activity occurs in the Lower Mainland region of B.C. Production activity in this area is serviced by Creative BC’s provincial film commission in collaboration with 35 municipal film liaison offices. However, increased activity levels have pushed more domestic and some foreign productions into B.C.’s other regions with Vancouver Island emerging as a secondary hub and the Okanagan as a third centre.
For every production choosing where to locate their home base, business decisions must be made. These depend on what the area offers in terms of value, capacity and quality. These business factors intersect with a project’s creative needs – what does the script call for in terms of “look”.
If the production goes beyond the Lower Mainland of B.C., it still requires services and supplies that are highly specialized. This is where regional film commissions step in to provide localized knowledge, crew lists and information about what is required to film around the many distinctive regions across the whole of the province.
For Career Seekers
Looking to Get into #BCFilm and you live outside BC’s Lower Mainland? With increased activity on Vancouver Island and in the Okanagan, there are more opportunities to live and work in motion picture outside Vancouver. Here are some tips to get you started:
- become familiar with your regional film commission office and follow them on social media. They are listed below on this page
- list yourself on local crew listings at your regional film commission office
- check out local training courses at post-secondary institutions in your region. North Island College offers courses for careers in the motion picture industry
- check out online courses available through Actsafe, the motion picture industry’s health and safety training provider. Depending on which type of work you are seeking, the Motion Picture Industry Orientation Course and Motion Picture Safety 101 – General Safety Awareness Course are usually mandatory.
Regional Filming Activity
Below is a guide to B.C.’s eight Regional Film Commissions and an interactive map including Creative BC, home of the Provincial Film Commission.
B.C.’s World of Looks™ serves any script’s creative needs
A script may call for a remote icy mountain top or dense Victorian-era architecture that is not close to the production’s home base.
These creative needs of the script are called “location specific” and inform decisions on where to film some portions of the script for a finite time period. These location- or creative-based decisions often require productions to relocate for a period of time outside the Lower Mainland/Southwest, and into other provincial regions of the province.
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