Road closures expected as film production ramps up in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As film production ramps up in Vancouver, there will be a few more road closures over the next few months, but this summer is not expected to be any busier than last year.

The city’s Branch Manager for Filming and Special Events says early indications suggest numbers will be on par with 2018.

Geoff Teoli is in charge of coordinating filming in the city.

“No indications right now that we’re expecting to see any kind of large increase in activity this year,” he says. “It does feel like the industry’s kind of stabilized.”

Teoli says traffic disruptions this summer shouldn’t be as bad as when the viaducts had to be shut down to accommodate filming for Deadpool, which starred Vancouver’s own Ryan Reynolds.

“There’s a lot of effort that’s made by our team of liaisons when they’re reviewing the film applications to try and manage where filming activity is taking place and kind of balance it out. There’s a lot of coordination that goes into trying to make sure that the impact is mitigated when there is a lot of overlap.”

He adds Gastown is one of the busiest locations, as is the area around the Vancouver Art Gallery due to its unique architecture.

“It does get filmed fairly frequently, but the downtown core and the business district in general is always a popular place for filming, always has been,” he says. “The Downtown Eastside, Chinatown and the business district, the library district are all very popular film areas.”

After working as a location manager for 18 years, he admits not everyone loves having film crews in their neighbourhood, but most people understand how important this industry is to the local economy.

“We mostly see very supportive communities and organizations who understand that filming is an important part of the city,” he says. “It’s part of the fabric of the city now. It’s part of our global brand and profile and it’s also a huge economic driver.”