Upcoming free workshops look to fill job vacancies in the northern Ontario film industry

A series of workshops in northern Ontario aim to offer job opportunities in film production amid the region's booming film industry.

REEL Canada and Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION) have partnered to offer free three-week workshops in Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and North Bay, beginning January 30.

The workshops will offer entry-level training in three different areas: production assistants, grips and art development.

REEL Canada will also be offering these workshops in big cities across the country.

“There’s such an explosion of production activity and such a desperate need to reach out to young people and get them into the industry,” said Jack Blum, the executive director for Reel Canada.

Blum said one of the organizations’ goals is to attract more young people to the industry to address an aging workforce and offer more diversity.

“We want to diversify and open our doors and reflect more of the communities that make up the storytelling of this country,” Blum said.

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He said there’s an increase in job opportunities for a number of reasons, such as an information gap.

“Canadians still don’t really know how much production happens here,” Blum said.

“Halifax, Winnipeg, Sudbury. It doesn’t matter. There’s a real opportunity here.”

Devin Mahesh, film sector development officer at CION told CTV News the training will allow people to comfortably break into the industry.

“The goal is to get people comfortable enough that they can walk on to a film set and feel confident in doing some of the roles that are needed to create a film or television show,” said Mahesh.

“So if you’ve never seen anything before, this would be enough training to see what needs to be done.”

Mahesh said that the hands-on experience will take place after the person lands a job on set, where they have a chance to work closely with someone in the industry and CION will be taking on projects this year that will allow the company to put the participants in touch with the right people.

These areas were chosen based off industry needs, officials said.

“Certain positions allow you to move up in the industry more easily,” Mahesh said.

“So, from our end of things, we thought it’d be nice to have a pool of people that have introductory experience and then build on that to have a career in the film industry later with bigger roles and bigger responsibility.”

Officials with CION said so far, it has filled half of its 200 slots for the workshops.

For more information on the workshops or to sign up, visit CION’s website.