Rental firm cashes in on northern Ontario's growing film industry

Films that choose northeastern Ontario as their location won't have so far to go to rent equipment, now that a supplier is opening a branch in Sudbury.

Dan St. Amour, who helped bring the branch of William F. White to the city, said the company has invested $100,000 in a Sudbury warehouse that offers everything from lights to porta-potties.

One of the reasons the company came to Sudbury is because there are dozens of potential films in the works, St. Amour said.

These are all new productions it's not moving production from the south up to the north. These are all new scripts that would not all have been able to get produced, because they just wouldn't have had the funding ability down in the south, St. Amour continued.

I was getting a lot of calls from VPs and production managers about the north and I thought this is one place we're going to have to open up in, and we did.

More opportunities ahead?

The companys expansion into the north makes them eligible for a hefty incentive as high as $500,000 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

With funding help like that, there could be more jobs for young people like Ethan Bubba and Hannah Blaio, who are working as extras in the local film project Holiday Help.

Blaio said the film sets were impressive.

[There are] big cameras, big lights and stuff like that, the eight-year-old said.

Bubba, 12, said he was amazed by the work that went into shooting a movie.

We had to do one scene like, fifty times, he said.

Being paid helped with the inconvenience. One young extra said they each received $100 for the day.