Fraser Valley – There is yet another push to get Chilliwack a larger share of the Motion Picture Industry pie in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
While there have been the occasional TV series shot here (usually MOW’s, Movies of the Week, from Hallmark Channel) or the now defunct series Eureka, Chilliwack’s film industry has been spotty at best.
Yes the sci-fi film Monster Trucks was here, and plenty of A&W commercials, but that is not the point. Crews will come…and then leave…and no one stays.
A collaboration by Translucent Publicity and the Facebook groups – Fraser Valley Independent Film Makers Group and Hope and Lower Fraser Canyon Film Co-Operative are looking for investors and local and regional government to seriously consider facilities including a small soundstage, to be placed in Chilliwack. Creative Chilliwack does a great job in promoting local talent, but organizers say, the potential for more shows and revenue to be generated in the area, is immense.
Financially the industry buys local. Everything from groceries to hardware to industrial supplies. Let alone film permits.
Debbie Walker with Translucent Publicity notes that Chefe Daniel, owner of CHEFE DANIEL: AUTHENTIC FLAVOURS OF PORTUGAL, a specialty restaurant in Surrey, has recently completed a build out of two new food trucks to provide meal service to the film crews shooting locally and throughout the lower mainland.
Along with the 2017 opening of Martini Film Studios and Soundstage in Langley, the push continues to explore more Valley options for the film and television industry.
There was an idea to use the now demolished Paramount Theatre as such a facility, but the city really didn’t have much of a choice there, as no one would insure the derelict structure.
It’s a grassroots movement but Walker is confident that this will snowball into something bigger and profitable, and the spinoffs would be felt in the Valley, in particular Chilliwack. It’s no secret that Abbotsford, Langley and Mission are receiving far more industry interest that lil’ ol’ Chilliwack.
