Downtown Peterborough is transformed for the filming of Jumper in 2007
In the past decade or so, Peterborough has attracted some pretty big films including Jumper, Urban Legends 2, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, the Music Man, A History of Violence and, the latest feature film yet to be released, Foxfire by Director Laurent Cantet. Inquiries about filming have traditionally come in with little consistency and we’ve dealt with them in a reactive manner.
But things appear to be changing. Incentives from the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) stricter rules for filming in larger centres and our proximity to them, and the low cost of filming in our community have all helped to bring more inquiries about television and movies our way. We’ve noticed and we’re working to turn these calls into investment in our community.
The empty Peterborough County Jail is a popular location with location scouts
A few specific locations are also responsible for drawing location scouts to our area. These include the Peterborough County JailHouse, the Peterborough Armouries, many of our lakes, the Hunter Street Café District, and the areas that have been preserved and easily adapt to represent an olderera (specifically the 1950’s).
I’ve been working alongside some very talented staff at the City of Peterborough (Sharron Hayton, Becky Rogers, Janet Sheward and JohnKennedy) to streamline and clarify the filming permit process. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for a film to get a permit in the city with little or no disruption to residents and businesses. We are also working on a filming “guide’ which will include a list of local accommodation, caterers, services and products which will hopefully create some spin-off business for our community.
The County of Peterborough has a pretty solid existing process in place and Sheridan Graham is a wealth of knowledge in this department.
Our region has a lot of unique features and neighbourhoods that appeal to filmmakers and location scouts. The benefit of our smaller towns and villages paired with a City increases the number of films that we can attract. Our communities are working as a team to make sure that we let the film industry know that they’re welcome to come and check us out. As always, we’re happy to show off our region.
Katie Young
Submitted by: Kate Young, Communications Officer
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