Incentives spark new beginnings for filmmakers.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: SUDBURY

The face of cinema in the North has started to change in recent years, allowing greater opportunities for up-and-coming filmmakers choosing to ply their craft within the region.

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"It's actually a really exciting time in film right now," says Dennis Landry, executive director, Music and Film in Motion.

"It's the first time new kinds of advantages have been available to their current degree. When you combine all these financial incentives, it really puts Northern Ontario on really sound footing with respect to film and television production."

Incentives are helping to spark the beginnings of a film industry in the North with the recent emergence of medium- to large-budget film productions in Wawa and North Bay and a $12,000 provincial funding boost for Sudbury's annual Cinefest Film Festival.

"Right now, there are some pretty significant advantages that exist only in Northern Ontario," says Landry.

"That's essentially through a loan program through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation's Emerging Technologies program. Depending on the nature of the project, they would look at it in other programs as well, such as the Youth Entrepreneur program, which is more of a grant scenario."

Landry also points to a tax credit program overseen by the Ontario Media Development Corporation that allows for a base 30 per cent credit for labour costs, with an additional 10 per cent for anyone shooting outside the Greater Toronto Area.

These elements represent a change in attitudes at the provincial level enabling a greater degree of viability for the film industry in the North, he says.

"Other provinces have subsidies and projects which help to fund film and television production, which Ontario hasn't had for the longest time," says Landry. "This is starting to change now under the McGuinty government, which is great to see."

One of the areas currently in need of improvement, says Landry, is the lack of substantial funding for newcomers to the industry. Young filmakers may have a couple of short low-budget feature films under their belt and require help reaching the next level.

With his first feature film, Slave Inc., having been presented at this year's Cinefest Sudbury, resident Gregory Tremblay fits this profile as he knows all too well the advantages and obstacles facing young film producers in the region.

With no training or formal education in the industry, Tremblay's love of movies began when he picked up a camera nearly...