As someone who has turned on a television in the past five years, I’ve seen a lot of productions based out of Georgia. The state in the southern US has done a lot of work getting film production to set up shop, with a lot of the credit going to some appealing tax incentives. As a result, Georgia is the place to go if you want to do a TV show, and is giving the television a distinct, slightly muddy, but otherwise appealing look.
But I would argue that there is a place in the world that is being under-used for film production, somewhere with many of the locations you need, whether you want to make something unique and distinctive or something that could be set pretty much anywhere. And that place is right here, this province, right now.
Location-wise, there’s not much you can’t do here. Need a city? Saskatoon and Regina can do it, they’ve got the look of an urban center and can be endlessly adaptable as a result – you can see some distinct architecture in both places, but you can also see some very indistinct architecture if you want a production that can be set anywhere. Need a rural town? We have plenty. Need a lake? We are well supplied with lakes, you could find a lake to fit any lake setting you desire. Need somewhere for a western? Wide open prairie is a trademark. Need to set a film in modern Ukraine? We actually have a pretty similar landscape, and you can make your point about what is happening in that country without actually dealing with the dangers associated with the current political situation. Need somewhere post-apocalyptic? Why not go to Uranium City? We’ve got all four seasons, which is handy if you want to set anything in winter – which you can’t do in Georgia.
So what can we do? Well, we do something that nobody in the current government actually wants to do, given their history with the film industry. In short, we take the Georgia model for tax incentives, and do the same thing. Film production loves tax incentives, it’s part of the reason why Georgia has a booming industry.
Saskatchewan can use that as leverage, but also use the fact that it’s a Canadian province to its advantage. We can produce a ton of Canadian content, which the CRTC would very much like to exist and to air, whether on streaming services, on traditional television or in theatres. We can do productions for studios south of the border for a relatively low amount of money, something that has lead to Vancouver being one of the big guns in North American film production, right under Los Angeles and New York. If we made an attractive province for film production, we could be Canada’s Georgia.
But then the other question, why do we want to do it? Film production, from a low budget documentary or a big budget Hollywood thriller, employs people. Lots of people, beyond just the cast, the entire crew. Let’s make a hypothetical film production in Yorkton. A lot of the actors would come from out of town, but not all of them – some roles could be cast locally. Lots of people in the crew would come from out of town, but other roles could be filled with local people. There’s not much of a film specialization in the city right now, nobody is filming anything here, but I’m sure local catering companies would love to serve as the craft services team for any potential film production. It would pump a lot of money into the area.
But the other advantage could be tourism. I know watching Stranger Things – produced in Georgia, and part of the reason I got this idea in my head – I was struck by some of the locations in the show. I thought it might be nice to visit some of those places. It’s a well shot show, and the geography is interesting enough to make the idea of visiting the locations it uses very appealing. So let’s go back to the idea of a film production in Yorkton. If the film or series is good, people might want to come here and see the locations first hand, travel in the same places as their favorite characters.
It is a tiny rush to see places you have been on the big screen. For instance, since every western for a period of time was filmed in the Monument Valley in America, and I’ve also been there, I find myself pointing out that I’ve been to these places and have visited those sites up close. It also happened the one time I saw a film that was made in Saskatoon – they’re rare, and the film in question was really bad, but I still liked it a lot more thanks to spotting some old haunts among the filming locations.
It has been a long time since the old film tax credit disappeared, and nothing has really replaced it to the extent that would make film production a major industry in the province. That’s a shame, because we have much to show the world and nobody willing to use us to show it. When I look at Georgia, and I do almost any time a television gets turned on, I see what we could do, and aren’t doing.
