New Brunswick’s production community is hearing a buzz this summer from places outside the province – and even outside the country. For a growing number of producers looking for an alternative to shooting in tried-and-true locations, the East Coast is becoming a viable contender.

Film New Brunswick executive director Ray Wilson says in the last few months the province has been visited increasingly by those in the production world looking for alternatives to Toronto, Vancouver and the other major Canadian production centres.

‘We’ve had a lot of interest and a number of producers from in the province scouting recently,’ says Wilson. ‘We’ve had a good deal of interest from independent producers both Canadian and American.’

The reasons for this, he believes, are not only the tax credit system in New Brunswick, but also the chameleon-like qualities the region possesses in its varied locations.

‘We’ve had productions here that have been passed off as New York or Boston,’ says Wilson, who adds that, with the right amount of polish, parts of n.b. can be a dead ringer for Beantown. ‘The producers were quite pleased with what they saw. They seem really pleased with the work we do as a film commission and the service we give and how we are giving back to them.’

Wilson also points out that as the buzz about the region grows, the crew base in the province is becoming larger and more talented than ever before. He believes these factors combined are going to make the region a contender for production dollars in the near future.

Production growth may lead to new studios and service shops from elsewhere either defecting or expanding to New Brunswick. He admits to having already heard from business people looking to open shop in the province.

‘I know we have a couple of groups actively looking at building production studios and soundstages,’ says Wilson. ‘There has been a renewed interest in [building studios] here in the last two or three months. They have all been serious people looking at this seriously.’

Wilson has also heard from a number of business owners looking to open up service shops in New Brunswick, but says he will continue to be a little skeptical until the businesses have actually arrived on the scene.

‘Like anything else in this industry, you never count on it until you see them open their doors,’ he says. ‘But there has been a fair bit of interest. As the quantity of quality production increases and as our production level goes up, which is happening here, companies are often more interested in providing their services.’

Although the outlook for the New Brunswick production industry is good, Wilson says at present Film n.b. has not yet spearheaded any initiatives to further attract new production-related businesses to come east. He says the thrust of Film n.b.’s current work has been in helping local filmmakers get their projects off the ground. That is not to say that initiatives and incentives to attract out-of-towners will not come along in the future, but currently the film commission is more concerned with indigenous projects – which in turn may help out-of-towners discover New Brunswick. *