Oak Bay resident Millar Montgomery is pretty keen on the short commute this week and the reason behind it as ReBoot Guardian Code films at Oak Bay High.
“There’s stuff that comes through here, but I go to Vancouver a lot and travel internationally as well. It’s nice to be at home. When we’re filming at Oak Bay it’s a three minute drive,” said Montgomery, a sound-mixer for the show. “This is a Vancouver-scale show, which we don’t get a lot of. They’re spending a lot of money here which is great.”
While the production company is keeping mum, and didn’t return Oak Bay News’ requests for interview, the original ReBoot was a Canadian computer generated and animated action-adventure television series that aired from 1994 to 2001. The clean and modern look of Oak Bay High seems a good fit for the reboot of ReBoot, said Montgomery.
“The boom operator that’s working for me is also local. These are fantastic jobs. They support families, it’s nice to have them here,” said Montgomery, who also worked the recognizable local title Pup Stars.
One hindrance to local production is a lack of crew, says Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert.
“One of the impediments we identified last year to film productions coming here was we just didn’t have the crew based to service all the ones that were interested,” Gilbert said. “This year we have a concerted effort to build that.”
The film commission held a career fair early this year that Montgomery saw as successful.
“There was a lot of interest that came out of that of people wanting to start,” he said.
About 1,800 went through the fair held at Esquimalt’s Fleet Club. Gilbert says the Greater Victoria crew list is at about 300.
“A lot of them are entry level trained people. What we need to do is figure out a way to get people in a step above entry level,” Gilbert said.
Television movie filming isn’t an uncommon sight in Oak Bay and the Victoria region.
“Front Street (Pictures) is here and set up with no intention of leaving,” Gilbert said. “We expect they’ll be doing shows right through the year. They are giving their crew a break for the summer.”
Gracepoint filmed here in 2014 but wasn’t picked up for a second season.
“We’re hoping ReBoot gets picked up and they stay for a second season, but you just never know,” Gilbert said.
So far this year filming in the region includes a handful of television moves, series and an A&W commercial Gilbert expects to air soon.
“I don’t know that it’s going to be the year that 2015 was, but it’s going to be pretty good,” she said. “It’s started out well.”