On The Lot: Filming in Vancouver

Canada

On The Lot: Filming in Vancouver

Mon., Jul. 14, 2008 10:56 AM PDT by Rebecca Bollwitt

Marine Building aka Smallville's The Daily Planet

John Bollwitt

Being the third largest centre for film and television production in North America is what has given Vancouver (and the Province) its rightful title as "Hollywood North." According to the BC Film Commission, “…more than 200 motion picture projects were shot here in 2006 generating in excess of a billion dollars in production spending.”

The film industry has become a regular part of living in Vancouver and it’s actually come to the point where what seems like a traffic helicopter overhead is really a camera-mounted production aircraft.

We sometimes play a game of “Guess Where Vancouver” when watching a feature we know was shot in the city. With its many neighbourhoods and breathtaking natural backdrops Vancouver and its surrounding cities can take on many faces. We saw New Westminster posing as New York in Rumble in the Bronx, Surrey’s Central City masquerading as Chicago in the year 2035 for I, Robot and just the other night we caught the tail end of The Neverending Story as Bastian and Falkor fly over Gastown in view of BC Place.

Production is currently underway for feature films like Cats and Dogs 2, Stan Helsing, Night at the Museum 2 and TV shows including Battlestar Galactica and Supernatural (both in their fourth seasons), Smallville (Season 8; photo above is the Marine Building aka The Daily Planet), The L Word (Season 6), and Stargate Atlantis (Season 5). The latest (and much anticipated) Vancouver-produced feature, The X-Files: I Want to Believe will hit theatres July 25th.

The traffic detours, mobile dressing rooms, and lines of cable on the sets cause as little disturbance as possible to locals - it also helps a great deal that crews adhere to the numerous city-imposed guidelines. Regardless, I believe all of this has not only become a welcome a part of life in "Hollywood North" but something we’re all pretty proud of.

GUEST BLOGGER: Rebecca Bollwitt has been blogging about Vancouver since 2004 on Miss604.com, co-hosting two podcasts since 2005 and in 2008 she co-founded sixty4media, a social media consulting firm.