Vancouver: Unreel Effects of Strathmore, Alta. has expanded its core business to include film and television production.

Founded in 1986, Unreel Effects has traditionally focused on special effects production for events like rodeos and hockey and basketball games. In a second division, Unreel Effects has marketed proprietary products such as Unreel Snow, which provides snow flakes on demand in any weather, and PyroLauncher, a fiberglass mortar.

Pamela Poole, who manages the Calgary-based film office, says that Unreel Effects – which trades publicly on the Alberta Stock Exchange – is newly certified through IATSE Local 212 and will focus its production business in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

With the addition of Unreel Effects’ new division and crew of nine, Prairie-based domestic and service producers will no longer have to recruit special effects technicians from jurisdictions like b.c., adds Poole.

In the past five months, Unreel Effects’ Calgary office – located in new Studio Centre at the Currie Barracks facility where Disney’s series Honey I Shrunk the Kids is shot – has been involved in seven productions. Six, including two Canadian independent features, were shot in Saskatchewan and one mow was shot in Alberta.