Owl River Runners and New Brunswick’s Film Industry
MONCTON– The film industry is a big business around the world. Blockbuster big.
But not so much in New Brunswick. While Nova Scotia carved out a niche in the industry, at least until the recent film tax credit debacle, New Brunswick lagged behind.
Even if Hollywood isn’t knocking all that often on the province’s door, a growing group of indie filmmakers are telling their own stories, and pointing out the industry’s potential.
Take the 2015’s Owl River Runners for example. The film was shot over 15 days in Hampton, N.B. and features a full cast of Maritime actors. It tells the story of Jaime, a teen from the small town of Owl River who’s going nowhere. But things get interesting when she learns that her deceased grandfather ran the biggest pot ring east of Montreal.
The budget? $10,000, found through IndieCan Entertainment’s “10 k Challenge.”
Compare that the the hundreds of millions of dollars dumped into the latest superhero flick.
Owl River Runners made its world Premier in Halifax at the Atlantic Film Festival. From there it was shown at the Charlottetown Film Festival and the Silverwave Film Festival in Fredericton.
Elaine Shannon, one of the film’s three producers, says the reception was terrific.
“The audience reacted like we hoped they would. They got the humour, and humour is really hard to write.”
She says the film went beyond many people’s expectations, and recalls one tough film critic in particular.
“She looked at me after and said ‘that is not what I expected I was going to see,” Shannon says.
“She said it was like a great episode of Corner Gas. Which is a very good compliment for a low-budget feature film from Canada.”
The film is picking up interest beyond the East Coast. It recently screened at Cinema on the Bayou in Lafayette Louisiana.
“There was a distributor from L.A. who was in Lafayette and before he asked ‘how much did you spend on your film?’ and I said ‘Well I’m not going to tell you that, you’ve got to watch the film then you tell me what you think we spent,” Shannon says.
He guessed $50,000.
“I said ‘no, you were way over’ and his eyes were as big as saucers,'” she says. “To me that’s a really good compliment.”
Crowd funding played a crucial role in the last couple of films Shannon’s worked on. She says in a place like New Brunswick, filmmakers need to get creative to get their work off the ground.
“Once you understand the methodology of crowd funding, if you get the right angle, I think you can have a great success,” she says.
This means you need to appeal to more people than your friends and your parents, though their help is appreciated too.
“We have to look outside of New Brunswick for funds. We’re filmakers who live in New Brunswick, it doesn’t mean all the money is coming from New Brunswick,” she says. “Because we have to understand the population here is small. You have to be creative and you have to reach out to communities.”
André Goguen helped edit the film and has been involved with other projects through the NB Film Cop-op.
He admits that the province’s film scene isn’t as strong as in other places. One of the reasons is many people still view film as “art” and not as an industry.
“It is an art, yes, but it’s an art that can actually keep people employed and create work. I think there is a perspective that needs to be changed here in this province,” Goguen says.
“It almost seems as if there’s a lack of vision or a lack of understanding of how investing in the film industry will actually help generate revenue.”
This is unfortunate, because New Brunswick has one valuable resource that could help make a name for itself in film: its scenery.
With lots of wooded and rural areas, yet historic streets like those in Saint John that could pass for a street in New York City, Goguen says New Brunswick can be a place where outside film studios can film affordably.
“Our scenery is a natural resource that could be developed without destroying anything,” Goguen says.
Goguen envisions a system where large outside studios could film in New Brunswick affordably and where they’d be offered things like tax credits for hiring local workers.
It would be a win for everyone, but it can’t be done without government help and industry demand for it.
“That is a resource that can be developed. It could be somewhere our province could shine if there was an infrastructure put in place in order to do that.”
“There’s richness in the talent and the drive of people to make films in New Brunswick. It’s definitely one of those hidden gems that people may not be aware of,” Goguen says.