Growing Hamilton's film industry from within

With a 10 per cent regional bonus providing an extra incentive, Hamilton seemed to be the filming location of choice for many Toronto and Hollywood productions, including The Incredible Hulk, Casino Jack and Defendor.

But while some productions are still motivated to film in Hamilton, an expanded production tax credit at the provincial level is providing an alternative to the incentive of the regional bonus, causing some to film elsewhere, explains Jacqueline Norton of the Hamilton Film and Television Office.

“A lot of the production companies who aren’t interested in driving to Hamilton or don’t have to drive to Hamilton for location purposes are taking advantage of the other program, and so they’re not coming in the same numbers as they used to. So we’ve seen a drop in productions, location filming anyway, in Hamilton over the last two years,” she says.

Although some outside productions seem to be looking elsewhere, Norton explains that the shift has given the city a bit more breathing space to work with the burgeoning local independent film industry – a group that is proud of showcasing Hamilton and intent on growing the film community in their own city.

Nathan Fleet, a local filmmaker and director of the Hamilton Film Festival, which aims to earn the “Hamilton” in its title with 50 per cent local content, says the independent film scene in the city is thriving.

“Obviously there’s a lot of films and filmmakers around that want venues to show their work, so I know that it exists, not just from me getting submissions, but by seeing the growth of all these other film festivals around and a lot of them, local content,” he adds.

The festival – held at The Staircase theatre every November – was branded the Hamilton Film Festival six years ago. Since then, the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s World Film Festival, Hamilton24 and the Hamilton Music and Film Festival have all followed suit.

Martinus Geleynse, director of the Hamilton24 festival says the bar was raised dramatically on the quality of films at his festival this year. While part of this is due to cheaper technology becoming more easily accessible to independent filmmakers, Geleynse says another reason is audience awareness of the festival and of Hamilton itself.

For Fleet, Hamilton’s festivals serve to educate local filmmakers on film distribution and festival strategy through workshops, and help them find a new audience for their work – essential tools for growing the industry locally.

“I think if someone’s going to create an industry within Hamilton, they have to reach out to either distributors or broadcasters or mobile content providers in order to take that final step for a movie. You make it and now you get it out there, you generate some income, then you can do your second film and then you can hire more people, more talent,” he says.

Fleet says one of the complaints he hears often is that when a big motion picture or television show comes to film in Hamilton, they bring their own cast and crew.He contends that it is the indie filmmakers who stand to be the source of job creation for the film industry in Hamilton.

“I think with all the indie filmmakers kind of starting off grassroots in Hamilton and opening up their own companies and little production companies, those are the kinds of films that are actually going to be the ones to bring or create an industry here, rather than bring an industry from outside, and it will start small,” he says.

Filmmaker and scriptwriter Stephen Hayes is one of those grassroots players.

Just over two years ago, Hayes set out to film Lucky 7, a movie styled on a 1940’s film noir, set entirely in Hamilton, and for which he tried to employ as much local talent as possible, including all of the music and a number of cast and crew. He is currently finishing post-production on the movie, with an eye to submitting it to festivals in the next few weeks.

While there were many advantages to filming in the city in 2009, including the setting and the fact that many people stepped up to help with equipment, Hamilton also proved to be a challenging location at the time for a film on a low budget, and when it came to finding a skilled crew.

“It was hard to find a lot of crew here with any experience, and there wasn’t really a network to try and link up with them,” he says. “It seems like maybe things are happening a bit now, but like when I was prepping this or came up with the idea, it just didn’t seem like there was anything really happening that way,” he adds.

In the last few years, several tools and groups to help filmmakers have emerged in Hamilton, including the Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre, a not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre on James Street North, the Creative Exchange networking event, and even indieoption.com, a networking tool developed locally, allowing filmmakers to connect with others in the industry.

As an independent filmmaker and crew member, Hayes’ vision for the industry is to see Hamilton evolve further in the direction of what is happening in Winnipeg, where the artist-run Winnipeg Film Group can support those making art video, but can also service low budget features with gear and funding.

“Rather than the big step which has failed in the past, where someone has come in and bought a giant block of land to turn it into a film studio and then it just kind of failed, I think you really have to start with the smaller community, you know – get a bunch of filmmakers and technical crew and cast and start that way and build the industry kind of from within, rather than from the outside,” says Fleet.