Hanks Tom

Hanks Tom

Canadian Locations Being Utilised By American Film Companies

The locations that American cinema favours seem to vary with every generation. There have been periods of obsession with Italy, Mexico, Europe and even the Far East, but now Canada is the producer’s location of choice it seems.

Canada has in fact been used in some popular films, including Lucky Number Slevin which stared Josh Hartnett, The Terminal, and the soon to be continued X-Men films. In fact in last 10 years over two thousand American TV and film productions have been shot in Canada, a figure which is set to increase for the next decade.

A film called ‘White Out’ was recently shot in Canada and director Dominic Sena was questioned over the reasons why this location was chosen for the film. The plot is that a US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) tracks a killer in Antarctica, as the sun is about to set for six months. Sena suggested that the biggest motivation for using Canada was that they could find terrain similar to that found in Antarctica, but close enough to civilization to make filming possible. This is a point that is echoed by many film producers as Canada has such as diverse range of climates and settings, and yet has a developed western economy within which filming logistics are made easier.

Other industry experts have suggested that aside from the fact film crews like Canada holidays, many films are shot there because it is so close to America and so easily accessible, making it the perfect place to shoot film in fresh and new surroundings that have not previously been seen by the American public. Additionally, it is cheaper to shoot here due to the weaker Canadian dollar. In fact many scenes that could be shot on American soil, such as Alaska cruises footage, is actually shot in Canada due to the reduced production costs. If you fancy being part of the next big Canadian-shot film or just fancy Toronto holidays check out Canadian Sky.

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