The Mountain View Regional Film Office (MVRFO) is a collaborative partnership between Mountain View County, Town of Sundre and Town of Didsbury. It. This inter-municipal collaboration is the first rural Alberta film office of its kind, adding to economic diversification and increase of economic capacity. Our communities are complementing each other in form of film settings: unique natural settings; mountains to prairies; unique buildings and facilities, street – and landscapes, towns easily transform into Western, 80ties, many other decades. The partnership developed a brand, a website with an image library and various videos www.mountainviewfilm.ca
MVRFO, led by the three Economic Development Officers provides a customized concierge to the film industry. It’s a one-stop-shop to help i.e. scouts with their initial research for filming locations and local resources, services and talent. It is also a tool for local companies that provide value added services. The initiative also acts as a Foreign Direct Investment mechanism to attract tech firms that serve the film industry; plus attract production companies and talent from all over the world. Growing our film and tech industry is a critical step to establish ourselves on the international stage.
Our website is translated into 5 languages (Punjabi, French, Spanish, German and Korean) to help interested parties from other countries to navigate through the process to work here, take advantage of the Canada and Alberta film incentives and programs, or to relocate The languages and target countries have been chosen according to the collaboration agreements that are in place between Canada, Alberta and other Countries.
Benefits include:
As a Result of our MVRFO collaborative, the media exposure & interest spiked and assisted with the dramatic increase of:
Challenges included a short turnaround time for the federal grant reporting getting website components to work, plus capturing most seasons for our video and image library. An unexpected, overwhelming media interest and had to think on our feet to positioning and communicate purpose of MVRFO. Together, partners navigated through this perfect storm.