BRANT – The County of Brant has become a location for filming television and motion pictures since the early 1990’s and interest continues to grow.
“In the past three years, 21 movie and television projects have been filmed in the County of Brant,” said Russell Press, Director of Economic Development and Tourism for the County of Brant. “In 2019, Brant had 14 filming projects including HBO, HGTV, Disney and Netflix.”
In 2019, major projects included a series of national Wal-Mart commercials launching their new fall fashion line during their own “Paris Fashion Week”, continued Handmaids Tale filming in St. George, and the HGTV series ‘Farmhouse Facelift’ filming throughout the County.
Brant was also a location for the motion picture “The Cuban”. Crew and cast from the production, including Academy Award Winner Louis Gossett Jr., not only filmed on location in downtown Paris but also made the Arlington Hotel home for nearly a month while shooting in the County and area. ‘The Cuban’ made its successful debut at the Whistler Film Festival winning the Best Cinematographer Award and will be released in later 2020.
“Filming not only grows the profile of the community, it also provides an economic boost to the area,” said Press. “A project with a 50-person crew, filming for one day, can have an economic impact close to $3000 and this increases to almost $9000 if they spend the night.”
Filming supports local industries and professionals including make-up and hair artists, catering services, craft services, drivers, set construction and cast extras.
“We attribute some of Brant’s success to our regional partners Cambridge and Brantford who are also becoming filming destinations,” said Press. “Very few locations can offer a rural landscape, a city scape, river valley scenes, period architecture, access to an airport, a boat launch, lake access, authentic indigenous destinations, real working farms and multiple quintessential ‘small town America’ backdrops all within 30 minutes of each other and all within an hour of the greater Toronto area.”
With Brant’s continued growth in the film industry, the County will be contracting a filming consultant to develop a formalized strategy and action plan. “The strategy will support Brant to continue to develop film and digital media production as a viable and thriving industry within community,” said Press. “The upcoming strategy will be an essential piece in helping Brant realize its full potential while providing economic and social benefit to the community.”