Ottawa Film Commissioner Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos was born and raised in Paris, but has a three-decade career in North America's production sector.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Canada’s national capital offers film and television producers such upsides as a mix of city and rural locations, hundreds of workers ready to work in crews, and a film office to help with planning.
But Ottawa’s film commissioner says she’s vexed by a missing piece of the pitch: a purpose-built sound stage complex, common in many other large Canadian cities, that would allow Ottawa to attract major projects.
“It’s a big deal for me,” said Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos, who has been running the film office since 2022, in an interview.
Born and raised in Paris, where she worked in broadcasting, Ms. Pechels de Saint Sardos arrived in Ottawa as the latest stop in a three-decade career in the production sector in North America. She has worked in such areas as sales, co-production and distribution in New York, California, Toronto and Montreal.
Before her current role, she worked in sales and distribution for CBC/Radio-Canada on their kids catalogue. She said she visited Ottawa throughout the past 20 years for the annual animation festival in the city.
“Ottawa was always in my heart, not just because it’s the capital city of Canada, but because what I love about the job is the potential. And Ottawa has a lot of potential,” she said.
Ms. Pechels de Saint Sardos sees the sound stage as key to her to-do list as chief executive officer and commissioner of the Ottawa Film Office, whose responsibilities include attracting productions to Ontario’s second most populous city after Toronto.
The current universe of film and TV production in Ottawa includes movies, a few series and a modest number of feature films, as well as animation work.
Ms. Pechels de Saint Sardos estimates that there could be 400 to 600 Ottawa residents available to work in production crews on any given day.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
This year’s production roster included episodes for the latest season of the iconic Murdoch Mysteries series. It’s also routine to see Christmas movies being shot over the summer on the Sparks Street Mall and other downtown locations, with fake snow made of cotton rolled out on the sidewalks for the occasion.
Last year, the industry yielded $52-million in local economic activity in live-action projects. Ms. Pechels de Saint Sardos said her office is conducting a study of the Ottawa production-sector work force, but she estimates that on any given day there would be 400 to 600 residents available to work in production crews.
Producers in Ottawa have no shortage of outdoor locations in the city, but tend to work in a handful of converted warehouse and industrial spaces across the capital region when they need space to build interior sets for their projects.
But there’s a view in the Ottawa production community that a purpose-built complex with vast, empty spaces available over tens of thousands of square feet would be a better idea, and appealing to producers. To pull it off, the city needs to find a private-sector operator, willing to develop and operate such a facility.
Back in 2019, a deal seemed close. There were plans for Toronto company TriBro Studios to be involved in a $40-million project to build a purpose-built sound stage in the Nepean area of Ottawa, but they were shelved after COVID-19.
A statement issued on behalf of TriBro president Peter Apostolopoulos pointed to other factors working against the project, including the passing of the family patriarch.
“That said, Mr. Apostolopoulos believes that Ottawa remains a viable location for a soundstage. While it is a smaller market, he sees strong potential,” said Marie Tremblay, his executive assistant.
Now, there are hopes of a better outcome. Bolstering production is important to Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who says film and TV production are an important and growing part of the local economy.
“We will continue to ensure that Ottawa remains competitive and continues to attract productions of all sizes,” he said in a statement.
On the sound stage piece of the issue, Ms. Pechels de Saint Sardos said she has been talking to stakeholders, including streaming services and producers about their needs, concluding that a modestly sized 20,000-square-foot facility would be a good start for Ottawa.
She also said she has been talking to possible private-sector investors, though she declined to provide any further details.
Heather Ryall, dean of the faculty of arts, media and design at Algonquin College in Ottawa, says a studio would be helpful as it trains students in its film and media production program and a TV and streaming video program.
“The opportunity to take that training and apply it in a film studio here in Ottawa would be terrific for our graduates,” Ms. Ryall said in a statement.
“I am hopeful that all factors contributing to the studio project come together. I see this as a great opportunity to increase the range of production we are able to undertake in the region.”
Carleton University has a film studies program, but no film production program. However, department professor Aubrey Anable says many graduates look for production experience that can be tough to find in Ottawa.
“For those who are really passionate about working in the industry, it has been my advice to them to go to the cities in Canada where there is a more consistent and larger film and television production industry,” she said.
Although local producer Shane Boucher is on the film-office committee working on the sound stage project, he has mixed views on the subject.
Mr. Boucher, the owner and chief executive producer of 1Department Entertainment Services, said the city would have been better off to encourage the development of one or two converted warehouse spaces in Ottawa akin to those in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal.
Since last July, Mr. Boucher said, he has been operating his own 45,000-square-foot sound stage facility, existing as two stages, in a renovated space in Ottawa.
He said there are more than dozen such spaces available in Ottawa. In response, Ms. Pechels de Saint Sardos said they fall short of the needs of the feature-film industry.
Mr. Boucher’s company’s recent projects have included feature film Adulthood, starring Josh Gad, which is set to have its world premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival.
He was also an executive producer on the film, Vicious, with Dakota Fanning, making the case to Paramount to bring it to Ottawa, and then working to help execute the film at a budget the company wanted.
Vicious, a horror film, was supposed to appear in theatres, but is now scheduled to appear on streaming via Paramount+ and other digital formats this October.
Nonetheless, Mr. Boucher said Ottawa would benefit from a purpose-built sound stage, especially one with massive video-screen installations that can be used to create backdrops for filming sequences.
“I don’t think there’s a downside to it. I just think it’s going to take time for it to be kind of a viable investment for who invests. That’s why it has taken so long to build it,” he said.