Putting UK-Canada filmmaking in the spotlight

I’ve always wanted to walk the red carpet at a film premiere, and within days of arriving in Calgary I had my chance. The grand occasion was the opening of the new Calgary Film Centre last week.

This ‘megaplex  odeon’ on 3.4 hectares of land in Calgary, hosts 15,000 sq ft of warehouse workshops, multi-purpose production areas and 50,000 sq ft  of purpose-built sound stages with acoustically-sealed construction. It is quite the spectacle, even in pre-production phase.

But beyond the event’s glitz, the highlight for me as British Consul-General was the announcement from  Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi that a British production company will be shooting the very first project at the centre.

British TV series, Tin Star, first production to be shot at new @YYCFilmCentre #FilmisGREAT @UKinCanada https://t.co/qTAzC4rpWh

— Caroline Saunders (@CSaundersUK) May 19, 2016

Tin Star, a British “western-noir” series starring Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and Pulp Fiction’s Tim Roth, will be the first film to make use of the new centre.

British director and screenwriter Rowan Joffe is describing the series as an “epic tale of deception, betrayal, murder and revenge set against the backdrop of remote and beautiful Canadian mountain town.”  The ‘remote and beautiful’ is a good fit with Calgary’s gorgeous rolling foothills and mountain backdrop, although I’m not so sure about the ‘deception and betrayal’ angle – you tell me as the newcomer in town!

What isn’t fiction is the UK’s expertise as an international production partner for film and TV. There are more than 6,000 film production companies and over 2,400 post-production companies in the UK, and London is the third-busiest film production city in the world after New York and Los Angeles. There is a reason it is nicknamed ‘Hollywood-on-Thames’!

The UK is also a creative leader abroad too. In 2013, the UK film industry exported £1.36 billion worth of services and last year UK films and talent won 31 major film awards, including 6 Oscars. All evidence the UK is viewed as a major player on the global film stage.

So, you can understand why I left last week’s ‘premiere’ so excited. UK expertise coupled with a state of the art Canadian facility in an astoundingly beautiful region will undoubtedly take British-Canadian filmmaking to the next level.

Something tells me more Calgary red carpets are in my future.