Greater Sudbury's status as a  player in the lucrative film and television industry vision of being an avante garde city of the arts got a boost today as francophone comedy television series, Météo+, started filming in the Rainbow Centre.
"We are filming exclusively in Greater Sudbury from the
downtown streets out to Chelmsford and beyond. This is the
biggest French Canadian production outside of Quebec," said
Robert Charbonneau, executive producer.
Meteo+ tells the story of a man from Sherbrooke, Que. who,
after an ugly divorce, exiles himself to Sudbury. He begins
life again by accepting a job as the head of a local news
station full of oddball characters.
The series, with a budget of $17 million, will debut on TFO,
the french-language public education network, in 2008, said
Charbonneau. Northern Ontario Heritage Fund contributed $2
million to TFO for the purpose of producing the series.
Charbonneau said the production will be based in Greater
Sudbury for two or more years and has already hired many local
residents. Of 36 in the production crew, half are local said
Charbonneau. In addition, Stephane Paquette, one of the 11
leading or principal actors, is local, and all 15 secondary
actors are from the city, said Tracy Michelle Legault,
assistant producer.
Paquette, local funny man and musician, received special praise
from Charbonneau.
"Stephane is really, really funny, the funniest guy I have ever
seen. He should have his own variety or talk show. Maybe we can
do something about that. Meanwhile he is going to be great in
his role as Mario Czhwaenski in the cast," said
Charbonneau.
Besides using locals for the production crew and actors there
are other economic spin-offs.
"We had to hire tradespeople - carpenters, electricians - for
the construction of the set, and our out-of-town people have to
be lodged and fed. Being housed here at the Rainbow Centre is
handy for them as they can stay at the Radisson Hotel, mere
minutes away from work," he said.
Charbonneau said he recently moved his production team from
eastern Ontario where he had been for five years.
"I do not like this idea of 'shoot-and-run' where a production
crew from Toronto comes north for a few weeks and disappears
back to the city. I like to come and stay for awhile. In
eastern Ontario I found that when we finally left, we had
helped build up the local arts scene because many of our people
stayed on to start their own theatre productions or other
ventures. We expect the same will happen here."
Charbonneau praised Music and Film in Motion (MFM), a
non-profit film and music promotion organization, for helping
him get established in Greater Sudbury.
"We brought Robert here before Cinefest last year at his
request, prior to a familiarization tour we had arranged with
the City of Greater Sudbury," said Dennis Landry, executive
director of MFM.
MFM talked to the producer about locations and funding
possibilities, allowed him to use their boardroom for meetings,
held three casting calls and provided extensive lists of
production crew people and actors, said Landry.
"We appreciate the fact that he will be in our city
continuously for two and possibly three years. That is going to
help build the critical infrastructure MFM has been working
towards for years. It is really a coup d'etat for our
community," said Landry.
