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Film Commission Overview

The Thompson-Nicola Film Commission is funded by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the Province of British Columbia Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, represented by the B.C. Film Commission. Thompson-Nicola Film Commission represents and promotes all municipalities and electoral areas in the TNRD to the film industry. It is our goal to provide the best locations and services for film, TV and commercial productions. We can give them ‘A World of Looks’.

Key Activities and Accomplishments

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The Thompson-Nicola Film Commission successfully met its goals set in 2009. Plus, a successful rebranding took place while enormous strides in production fresh and innovative marketing products were made. In 2009 and 2010, the TNFC’s primary goal was to be an excellent full-time full-service film commission, and our client surveys tell us we’re on target. Also, our goal was to expand our reach so the TNFC established a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and through a TNFC blog. But the TNFC did more than reach goals.

The TNFC rebranded by redesigning its logo and web site, and by creating and distributing a new brochure Wildhorse Town & Westerns. The TNFC also redesigned and published its Directory of Services IV, which promotes TNRD community services and amenities to key production decision makers. Plus, for the first time, the directory was also published as a searchable, on-line database on the TNFC’s web site. Likewise, the TNFC Crew Database was published in an on-line, searchable format. The TNFC re-photographed the region’s communities, landscapes and attractions and established the TNRD Digital Library which comprises print quality images available to all TNRD-based government, non-profits, tourism and economic development agencies, and Indian Bands, for free. Subscribers access the images through the TNRD’s web site.

Thompson-Nicola communities and landscapes were featured on the big and small screen throughout 2010. The majestic mountains surrounding Blue River were highlighted in the spectacular 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony vignette of an extreme snowboarder soaring down the mountain peaks and into BC Place. Whitewater rafting in Clearwater and golfing at Tobiano Golf Course were featured in BC’s You Gotta Be Here campaign. Also, motion picture projects shot in 2008 and 2009 were released worldwide. The US blockbuster The A-Team, filmed in the desert areas around Ashcroft, Cache Creek and on the Tranquille Property outside Kamloops was theatrically released. DVDs of Flicka 2, which filmed at the Tk’emlúps Indian Band’s Spiyu7ullucw Ranch, and the disaster epic 2012, which filmed in and around Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Savona, Kamloops and along Lac Du Bois Road, were made available in video and department stores. On television the Space Channel aired Lost Treasures of the Grand Canyon, filmed in the deserts surrounding Afton Mine, Kamloops, Ashcroft and Cache Creek areas and at Wildhorse Town - a western town set near Savona - and in a barn as a studio in Cherry Creek.

In the summer of 2010 the TNRD doubled as Afghanistan in the Canadian motion picture Afghan Luke, filmed almost entirely in the region. This comedy/drama was directed by Nova Scotian Mike Clattenburg, the creator and director of the renowned TV series and movies The Trailer Park Boys. This was the third project where the TNRD has doubled for Afghanistan. The TNRD also hosted several commercials: look to your television to see BMWs and Harley Davidson motorcycles cruising along the region’s picturesque roads. Locally, the internationally successful Internet series Race to a Million, aimed at best practices in entrepreneurial endeavors, established Kamloops as an emerging production hub, and demonstrated the evolving links between business, the Internet, technology, and the film and entertainment industries.

2011 Objectives

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• Establish and maintain filmmaking and technology driven relationships
• Support local filmmaking endeavours
• Continue to provide excellent professional film commission services to clients worldwide
• Create a new TNRD tourism brochure targeting visiting cast and crew to expand expenditures in the TNRD
• Support and assist TNRD communities in attracting programs that help build destination awareness.