The Hollywood of the north is the nickname Vancouver earned as it has strongly impacted the film industry, particularly in the past few years. Its impact is so strong that you have probably seen some of the movies made by one of its biggest studios, Lionsgate Films. Twilight, The Hunger Games and John Wick are just some of the few titles produced by this local giant!
And, of course, this impact does not go unnoticed on a day-to-day basis here in Vancouver. Here's why.
Academic Life | Film & Art schools
Vancouver is home to some of the world's most important film and art schools! Vancouver Film School, LaSalle College, and Emily Carr University, just to name a few. Students from all over the world come to this city to study in these prestigious schools.
Some of the programs you could apply for include:
Film Direction
Acting
Animation
3D Modeling
Writing
Sculpting
Employment & Gigs
With so many schools in Vancouver, plenty of studios are looking for people in the industry. This includes studios that continue to work on-set, you know, like with cameras and live actors, filming directly on the spot. And it also includes animation and post-production studios, those in charge of visual effects, etc. Some of the biggest studios in Vancity of this category include Walt Disney Animation Studios, Sony Pictures and Weta studios (the guys who made The Lord of the Rings).
As for the gigs, a lot of people have on their bucket list the idea of “working in a movie set” or “appearing on the big screen”. Well, in Vancity you can do this! There are a lot of platforms or Facebook groups in which you can apply for working as an extra in a movie or to work on set from time to time, for example as a production assistant. So this is something many people in this city aspire to. 😉
Day-to-day
Picture this… you’re walking through downtown Vancouver, a coffee in your hand, minding your own business and suddenly, you stumble upon a film production! You see tons of trucks and film equipment here and there, and you can even see some celebrities from where you stand! Well, that’s something normal in this city, although with the recent pandemic, the number of productions decreased, we do hope they come back to the usual soon enough.
Celebrities spotted by some Thrivvers include The Rock, and Jason Ackels from Supernatural, and we have even heard reports of someone who spotted Ryan Reynolds when filming Deadpool! Well, not all of Ryan Reynolds, but they did spot his butt from afar!! #Truestory
Tours
Last on our list is the film tours you can book for amusement. They are basically tours showing you around different spots in Vancouver and in areas around the city, where some of the most famous movies and series have been filmed. These tours start at around 40 bucks per person and last approximately 1 hour and a half. For sure worth your time if you are a big movie fan!
So what do you think about Hollywood of the north? Would you like to be part of it? Maybe study something related to this industry, or perhaps you would just like to be the next person to spot Deadpool’s butt? Let us know in the comments
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