It was beginning to look as if our springtime film and television production lull might extend into summer 鈥� until we were reminded that production schedules can be as changeable as our West Coast weather.
As it turns out, there will be moviemaking on the menu here this summer, after all, with Front Street Pictures starting things off with another Gourmet Detective instalment for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
The Vancouver-based company鈥檚 vice-president of production, Allen Lewis, has confirmed that Gourmet Detective 4: Eat, Drink and Be Buried will start rolling in and around Victoria on July 10.
He had originally hoped the Hallmark movie would have been shooting by now, with crews getting the rest of the summer off before filming continues on two more Hallmark franchise pictures back-to-back.
Lewis, who wanted to avoid Victoria鈥檚 busy summer season, cited 鈥渁ctor availability鈥� as the main reason for the delayed return of the series scripted by and starring Dylan Neal as the intrepid culinary sleuth of its title.
Neal鈥檚 co-star, Brooke Burns, took some time out to give birth and nurture her newborn, giving the mother-of-two more real-world experience to play multi-tasking San Francisco detective and single mom Maggie Price.
鈥淪o this happened last weekend,鈥� Burns, whose husband is director Gavin O鈥機onnor, tweeted Jan. 22 when their daughter Declan Welles was born.
Gourmet Detective 4 will be followed by more instalments of two other Hallmark hits hatched here 鈥� another Fixer Upper Mystery starring Jewel, and the second entry in its An Emma Fielding Mystery series.
Jewel, a self-described Murder, She Wrote junkie, is set to return to Victoria in late August to reprise her role as Shannon Hughes, the mystery-solving Victorian home restoration expert.
She鈥檒l continue her adventures in a glossy follow-up to her first two Fixer Upper franchise entries filmed here 鈥� Framed For Murder and Concrete Evidence.
Shortly after that wraps, Lewis鈥檚 crews will ramp up production on the follow-up to Site Unseen, the first of at least three planned Emma Fielding mysteries starring Courtney Thorne-Smith (Melrose Place) as the brilliant archeologist and detective of the title, and James Tupper (Big Little Lies) as FBI agent Tim Conner.
It鈥檚 not the first time Tupper has filmed on these shores, incidentally.
He played the earthy foster father of Jodelle Ferland鈥檚 sullen orphan in Pictures of Hollis Woods, the big-budget Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation starring Sissy Spacek that shot here 10 years ago.
Much of Gourmet Detective 4 will be filmed away from downtown, at local high schools, private homes in Oak Bay and Fairfield, and in the sa国际传媒 building, doubling as San Francisco Police Department.
鈥淚 know what it鈥檚 like downtown here, and I don鈥檛 want to be taking any more parking spots away from the locals and tourists,鈥� Lewis said. 鈥淓ven Ogden Point is too busy with all the cruise ship visitors.鈥�
Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert said our summer production season might have been even busier were it not for a current shortage of local crews available to work on their home turf.
One producer who has filmed here before had hoped to return but pulled out because of the crew crunch, said Gilbert, noting it鈥檚 the second picture that 鈥渨ent away鈥� since the beginning of the year.
Still, Vancouver Island South Film and Media Commission staff have been busy fielding inquiries for potential shoots, including footage for a Hollywood blockbuster.
Despite the crew problem, there has also been talk of a return visit by the producers of聽Pup Star for the third movie in聽Air Bud Entertainment鈥檚 family-friendly movie series that聽originated here.
鈥淎s much as we鈥檙e excited and welcoming to Chesapeake Shores [the Hallmark mini-series filming in Oceanside], they鈥檝e taken a lot of the Victoria crew up to Parksville,鈥� Gilbert said.
After production wraps in late July on that hit series starring Meghan Ory, Jesse Metcalfe, Treat Williams and Diane Ladd, Gilbert hopes the local crew comeback will spark a resurgence of shoots here this fall.
鈥淲e鈥檙e concentrating on trying to rebuild our crew,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e need a full two or three crews now, because everyone whose bread-and-butter is TV movies wants to shoot at the same time.鈥�
The problem is most TV movies have similar delivery dates, and it鈥檚 challenging for producers with limited budgets to put up dozens of workers from elsewhere in hotels for a month and pay per diem, Gilbert said.
The good news is that dependable film industry talent such as production designers Michael Goodwin and Eric Norlin (Psych) and props master Neil Fairall (Godzilla) have relocated to Victoria.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what鈥檚 great about these recurring series now,鈥� said Lewis, who hired Goodwin, who has extensive experience on commercials, as production designer for the Fixer Upper films.
鈥淪ome folks don鈥檛 necessarily work year-round, but they stay available for us,鈥� Lewis said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 mind taking some time off because they know they鈥檒l have more work coming.鈥�