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Film productions in Hamilton are now permitted to restart

Although the empty streets and storefronts during lockdown sometimes felt more like a movie set than real life, film and television productions were nowhere to be seen in Hamilton over the last few months.

One of the city’s fastest growing and most lucrative industries was put on hold when Hamilton began tightening COVID-19 restrictions back in April. 

But, after spending almost four months on hiatus, productions that began filming in Hamilton are allowed to restart as of July 6th. 

“Film and television is a creative industry, so as you’d expect people have been creative about ways to keep active during the shutdown,” said Kimberley Adrovez, Senior Project Manager for the Film Department at the City of Hamilton.

“A lot of people used their talent to give back to the community, for example sewing masks and creating PPE for health organizations. Others took advantage of the quiet time to write and edit scripts, or to polish and pitch their ideas.”

Many productions have been on hiatus with instructions released last week on how to safely continue. During the financial crunch of the hiatus it hasn’t been reported that any film projects have been totally scrapped due to the closure. 

“Fortunately we are not aware of any productions that were filming in Ontario shutting down completely,” said Adrovez.

“At the moment, all productions are officially on hiatus and we anticipate that they will return as restrictions begin to lift. We anticipate that film will bounce back strongly and help support overall economic recovery.”

The film industry in Hamilton has been booming over the last few years with the city quickly becoming a desired location for major movie and television productions. 

Film productions have jumped about 50 per cent over the last two years bringing in approximately $60 million in 2019 with 141 productions in Hamilton last year including The Handmaid’s Tale, Mrs. America, and the Amazon Prime series The Boys.

For the industry to have another successful year in Hamilton, many productions will need to resume following a strict set of guidelines designed to stay within the public health orders from the province. 

Productions will be required to refer to guidelines created by the Section 21 Film and Television Safety Committee who are a public and private advisory body of the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development of Ontario.

Those working on the production will need to develop a plan to screen and monitor anyone on set including written questionnaires related to symptoms of COVID-19. Diagnostic testing with the help of trained health care professionals could also be required by some productions. 

They will be required to develop a detailed list of protocols concerning each part of filming while health and safety restrictions are already in place during COVID-19. This comes down to specific scenarios such as how to deal with new equipment, crew workers wearing PPE, and having performers style their own hair and make-up. 

All of this could make certain types of scenes and camera shots even more difficult as everyone on set is also required to remain two metres apart whenever possible.

The guidelines laid out by the Section 21 Film and Television Safety Committee recommend to avoid filming scenes that require large groups of people as well as using the same group of performers to limit open casting calls and the number of people on set. 

Another area that has changed after the lockdown is selecting a location where filming can safely take place. According to the guidelines, locations will need to have reduced entrances in order to control screening of individuals coming to the set. Also, locations will require enough space so that everyone can continue physical distancing.

This includes a recommendation to avoid locations that have high traffic public interactions, which could be challenging for productions filming in downtown Hamilton. 

But, the film industry is in a good position to help support the overall economy in Hamilton with productions looking to rent out hotel blocks and some seeking businesses that have been financially impacted or remain closed due to the phased reopening. 

“Many productions will be looking for additional spaces for holding cast and crew between scenes; businesses that are not yet able to open to the general public are actually very attractive to productions for this purpose,” said Adrovez.

“It would be a big win to be able to see some revenues flowing to these businesses ahead of a more general loosening of restrictions.”

Local businesses could also be called on by some productions if they have access to large private parking lots in order to reduce the amount of crew working in busy public spaces. This could benefit local businesses as productions will be looking for more parking to stay within the proposed guidelines. 

“Parking is also a major consideration and we are working very hard alongside productions to source as much off-street parking as possible. The opportunity is there for business owners that might have vacant or underused space that could be rented to a production for parking,” said Adrovez.

As for new productions looking to start filming in Hamilton, they will need to provide a detailed plan of protocols showing that they are following the guidelines set out by the province and the city. The plan has to be approved by the City of Hamilton as the Film Department continues to work with productions to ensure the health and safety of the community is at the forefront of everyone’s plans.  

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