The great escape

CORNER BROOK City resident Don Downer believes people should be up in arms over the fact the mobile sound stage announced here more than three and a half years ago continues to be stored in St. John's.

The nearly $1.3 million stage, announced at a press conference at the Pepsi Studio annex in September 2003, was heralded as the birth of a new industry for the Corner Brook area.

The deal saw Atlantic Studios Co-operative receive $868,700 from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and $410,000 from Canadian Heritage for the purchase of mobile film production equipment and the establishment of a motion picture sound studio.

According to the ACOA news release of the day, "the mobile facility will be housed at Corner Brook when not in use and the new sound stage will be located in the annex."

Since the announcement, one season of the television show Life with Derek was shot at the Pepsi Studio in the fall of 2004 and the equipment was used to help film the motion picture Outlander in Lark Harbour in October 2006. The equipment, which also saw use on productions in Trinity, Petty Harbour and Gander, has otherwise been in storage in a St. John's warehouse.

"To me, something doesn't smell very good about all this," said Downer. "That was money which came to this region with an understanding, or so I thought, that it would stay here until it was needed elsewhere. If that equipment is not being used, I have great difficulty with it sitting anywhere but Corner Brook."

Paul Pope, spokesperson for Atlantic Studios Co-operative, said Corner Brook's sound stage and western Newfoundland's scenery are being marketed to the film industry. Unfortunately, the last 14 months have been uncharacteristically slow in the industry.

"The only thing shot in Newfoundland and Labrador in the last 12 months was Outlander in Lark Harbour," said Pope. "If you want to look at it one way, Corner Brook (area) has had 100 per cent of the work in the last year.

"People have to be clear, this is not a situation where Corner Brook is being left out. It's still being promoted as part of the province."

Pope said the mobile equipment is doing what it was intended to do, including allowing many of the people who worked on Life with Derek to get work on the bigger Outlander production. While he's optimistic the film industry will rebound, Pope said the only production that looks to be definitely going ahead in the province in the coming year is a work about hospitality shown to stranded travellers during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which would be shot in Gander.

Downer also noted Sir Wilfred Grenfell College has broached the idea of possibly establishing a film studies program in Corner Brook. Premier Danny Williams, in his comments about Budget 2005, said the province's investment in the film industry that year enhanced the possibility of developing a film school in Corner Brook.