Say "hello" to Farewell Studios.

Producers wishing to shoot more in the Toronto area can thank the location scouts for Iron Eagle 4, who prowled the region several years back hunting down studio space for the latest installment of their franchise. In their travels, they discovered an old sugar refinery with 85-foot ceilings in Oshawa, on, tucked into the Durham region on Toronto’s "eastern back lot."

Since the fabled production, shoots have passed through the space at irregular intervals to take advantage of the huge area, which includes 54,000 square feet of shooting space to go along with the ceilings that brush the clouds.

Now, fully removed from its sugary past, Farewell Studios, affectionately known as "The Sugar Shack," is open as a permanent, full-time, full-service studio space. The transformation to full-time studio took place in February under the watchful eye of Barb Chupa, Farewell manager and film industry liaison for Durham.

For Chupa, Farewell is "a pet project." According to her, "we really desperately need something this big in the Toronto area." This was evidenced by the fact that before the studio’s official opening, "the industry beat down the doors."

Already, a Telus campaign through Maxx Films has employed the space as well as long-form projects including Stephen King’s Storm of the Century.

Chupa explains the stage "doubles for many outdoor locations, due to its sheer size, including stadiums, highways or period towns for shooting year-round exterior scenes inside." All this has application for spot work, as well, she says.

"Even the commercials now have a lot more effects than they used to. They’re being more adventurous than they used to be. So it allows a lot of green-screen work, and since we’re getting into the digital age, that’s why it’s becoming so much more popular, it allows the maneuverability for the height.

"You can hang helicopters over a building if you need to. Or drop cars off whatever you think the backdrop wants to look like. So it really lends itself to the commercial industry," she says.

Chupa also expects the "back lots to help offset any overused Toronto locations.

By specializing only in extra-large studio space and back lots not easily found in downtown Toronto, Farewell will hopefully help to increase revenues for all sectors of the Toronto industry and perhaps allow Toronto to attract more large feature films," she says.

With "upgrades being done to the property," the liaison officer, who has a graphic design background, talks about some of the existing support services.

"We do have Celebrity CoachWorks, which is building the beautiful new trailers that are out there. They are making some honeywagons and wardrobe and they’re on the lot. They do beautiful carpentry work and everything else," Chupa says.

Chupa hopes to attract more studio support services to the Farewell complex. "We may have room for more. So if anybody’s interested, give me a call." *

-www.farewellstudios.com