Tag Archive for: hollywood north

Hollywood North: Vancouver Film Industry

What is Hollywood North and what does it have to do with the Vancouver film industry? The answer is, EVERYTHING! Read more to see what makes Vancouver a hub for Canadian film production.

Vancouver Film Industry

If you’re a film fanatic or as aspiring filmmaker, you’ve probably heard Vancouver referred to as Hollywood North. In 2018 alone, the film industry added 3.2 billion dollars to BC’s economy. This included a good balance of international and domestic productions. Every year, hundreds of films, TV shows, and documentaries are shot in Vancouver. As a result, the city is ranked as the third largest production center for film and TV in North America. Because of the amount of activity within the Vancouver film industry, the city has certainly has earned the reputation for being a hub for Canadian film and television. With all that being said, what exactly makes filmmaking so successful on Canada’s west coast? Why has there been so much success within the vibrant Vancouver film industry?

 

Vancouver Film Industry Facilities

Vancouver is home to most of British Columbia’s production and post-production activities. That is to say, the city has the capacity to support the biggest Hollywood movies in casting, set-building, location filming, and audio and special effects. It also has some of North America’s most highly-developed studio spaces, as well as numerous FX and sound stages.

vancouver film industry

Major film studios include:

Top VFX & animations studios include: 

Location, location, location!

A simple 2-hour flight from Los Angeles, both Vancouver and L.A. share the same time zone. This eliminates any issues with operating hours, accessibility, and travel time for actors and key crew members, for example.

vancouver film industry downtown

On top of this, Vancouver’s mild climate allows for year round shooting. Consistent cloud cover also naturally diffuses sunlight. This makes it easier for technicians to add additional light when needed. Furthermore, there is also a strong community of skilled crews, technicians and creative experts to work with within the Vancouver film industry.

 

Vancouverites Love Film

The film festival scene in Vancouver is alive with local and international fare. For example, the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is one of the largest and most recognized film festivals in North America, with over 500 screenings held over a three week period.

vancouver film industry

It also features a VIFF Talks film forum with a variety of high-profile speakers. VIFF 2022 featured Clement Virgo, the director of Brother, and Deborah L Scott, an Academy Winning costume designer of films such as Avatar & Titanic.

Other major film festivals in Vancouver include:

With it’s dynamic film community and mix of Hollywood and indie productions, the Vancouver film industry is a great place for emerging and professional filmmakers alike!

 

 

Related Articles:

InFocus Film Production Program

Vancouver Film and TV Production Hits An All Time High

InFocus Film School Expands,  Invests in Future of Canadian Filmmakers

After Film School: A Guide to Employment in the Film Industry

7 Vancouver Film Director That Made It Big

Studying Film in Canada: What You Need to Know

Vancouver A Hotspot For Fantasy and Sci-Fi Film

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was partly filmed in Vancouver

 

Super, Natural British Columbia. As a filming destination, we could easily lose the comma in our provincial slogan. As the unofficial ‘Hollywood North’, Vancouver draws in a huge number of sci-fi and fantasy productions, and has hosted everything from major blockbusters and prolific television series, to cult classics with rabid fanbases.

There are several major productions slated to shoot here in the upcoming year, including Star Trek 3, Tron 3 and the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Deadpool.

Here are five reasons why Vancouver is the absolute perfect location to shoot sci-fi and fantasy:

 

 

1. ONE STOP VFX SHOPPING 

 

An increasing number of productions that shoot here are opting to work with local VFX production houses to fulfill all their lens-flared-space-battle needs. Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic even opened up a permanent 30,000-square foot studio downtown last spring.

 

Here are some of the notable studios, and the locally shot productions they worked on. Keep in mind some of their credits overlap as production companies spread bigger design jobs to multiple companies.

 

Artifex Studios has provided visual effects for several series that were shot here, including Continuum (Showcase), Almost Human (Fox) and Red Riding Hood (Warner Bros).

 

Zoic Studios is the production house responsible for developing the special effects for Battlestar Galactica (Syfy) as well as Arrow (The CW) and Once Upon A Time (ABC).

 

The Embassy Visual Effects received an Academy Award nomination on their work on District 9 (Tristar Pictures) and have continued to work with director Neill Blomkamp as he moved his productions to Vancouver, and developed the visual effects of the weapons in Elysium (TriStar Pictures).

 

Image Engine has an incredible reel of past feature work, including acting as the main VFX team behind Elysium (TriStar Pictures), Watchmen (Warner Bros) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (20th Century Fox).

 

 

2. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION 

 

Vancouver is widely known for its rain soaked old-growth forests, but it’s just as easy to find rocky beaches, snowy mountains and, if you drive out a little further to the east, sandy deserts. The incredible visual diversity of our city is one reason that crews have been flocking here to film projects, ever since The X-Files proved that it could double for pretty much any location in the United States.

 

The range of climate zones in British Columbia is so extensive that it has been an indispensable resource to television shows that need to cheat locations from around the world, or for any production company that doesn’t have the budget to shoot in several different countries.

 

 

3. CITY OF GLASS 

 

Vancouver is one of the youngest cities in North America, and the futuristic architecture rising out of our downtown core is positively built for a sci-fi setting. It isn’t difficult to imagine a prospective director standing on a corner in Coal Harbour and feverishly quoting JJ Abram’s Super 8: “Production value!”

 

It doesn’t hurt that only a few blocks away the cobblestoned streets of Gastown can easily be transformed into a charming heritage scene, or the deserted remnants of a post-apocalyptic future (and it has!).

 

 

4. MILD CLIMATE 

 

For year round shooting, Vancouver can’t be beat. Warm summers, mild winters – and if you’re shooting a sci-fi or fantasy project the constant rain will just add to the mood of your production.

 

 

5. TRIED AND TRUE

 

Vancouver has been home to dozens of fantastic projects, and continues to be the ideal shooting location for creative and ambitious production teams.

 

Here are just a few of the television series and films that have used Vancouver as a location:

 

FILMS:

Tron: Legacy, The Cabin in the Woods, I, Robot, Fantastic Four, Watchmen, The NeverEnding Story, The Twilight Saga, Rise of Planet of the Apes, X Men: The Last Stand, Elysium, Man of Steel, Godzilla

 

TV SERIES:

Supernatural, The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, Once Upon A Time, Arrow, Eureka, Smallville, The Vampire Diaries, Continuum, The Stargate Series, Dark Angel, Caprica, Taken, Dead Like Me, Highlander, The Flash, The Outer Limits, The 100.