A new soundstage facility that is being built on a 20-acre lot in Mount Uniacke, Nova Scotia is a relief to the film industry, according to the Executive Director of Screen Nova Scotia.
The province is spending $8 million dollars on the project that will provide a home for productions all year round.
Laura MacKenzie tells our newsroom the facility will allow them to “dig our roots a little deeper” into being an essential economic generator.
“Working on this piece of infrastructure, in terms of you know, scoping out land and looking at property for the last three years. And now that we have one, it’s just such a milestone for the industry.”
Troubled times
Nova Scotia had a thriving film industry for decades in the 80’s and 90’s.
MacKenzie says it was really being built up and was thriving until 2015 when they lost government funding, but the industry rallied back.
“Within 10 months we had a new incentive fund that was essentially put in place to support film and television productions.”
She says it was geared more toward local productions as opposed to international projects and in order to build the industry, both are needed.
“We’ve really taken it upon ourselves as an industry, as a community, working with the governments to build the organization into the province’s Film Commission.”
This, MacKenzie says, is something that attracts, supports and celebrates production and advocates for support.
Hundreds of jobs
Thousands are employed in the province’s film industry.
MacKenzie says, she is unsure of the exact number but estimates about 2,500 and their goal is to have that grow with hundreds of jobs expected to be generated by the facility.
“Last year a production that came into film brought in 218 people because we were low on crew. At this point, what we’re trying to do is essentially fill those gaps and try to reduce the number of people that need to be brought in.”
Facility
When the facility is done, there will be multiple buildings with two clear span soundstages, production offices and other spaces.
MacKenzie says, “We expect great things.”
