Hideaway pictures' Hallmark moment: new deal between Sudbury and American production companies 'touches every part of industry'.

AuthorMyers, Ella
PositionNEWS

Northern Ontario can look forward to a steady flow of film projects over the next three years thanks to a deal between Sudbury's Hideaway Pictures and the Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA).

The $100-million, multi-picture deal brings more projects to an already booming regional industry.

Hideaway and the MPCA, best known for its contributions to the Hallmark Channel, teamed up in March, motivated by financial incentives like Northern Ontario Heritage Fund opportunities and federal and provincial tax credits. But it was also due to the success of the first episode, the Flower Shop Mysteries. The mini-series, filmed in North Bay, had the most popular premiere in the Hallmark Channel's history.

"This deal basically brings a steady influx of work to Northern Ontario," said David Joseph Anselmo, Hideaway's founder and CEO. Around 72 per cent of the crew on their projects is from Northern Ontario, and jobs have cropped up to support it.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Micheline Blais was born in Sudbury, and studied nursing at Cambrian in the 1990s. When she moved out West in 1995, she worked on short films for some time, but couldn't support herself. Fortunately, she had the nursing degree and worked in health care for over a decade. Blais moved back home in 2005 but always wanted to get back into film. In 2012, opportunity came knocking when she went out as an extra on a show being shot locally.

"I met with David and he suggested doing some casting."

Four years later, she has a fulltime business doing just that. More than 75 per cent of her work is with Hideaway Pictures.

"To date, we've hired over...

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