The title of a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie filming here reflects more than just the seasonal sentiment viewers expect. Just in Time for Christmas also describes its shooting schedule. There’s a reason holiday movies are often filmed in spring or summer.
To meet broadcasters’ delivery dates, it pays to shoot Christmas in July or sooner. “They’re smart. They’re doing Christmas in Seattle,” quipped Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert, noting Just in Time for Christmas doesn’t require snow.
“It’s unfortunate that nobody has snow in July, unless they want to go to Australia. Hey, wait, wasn’t there snow in northern Alberta last week?”
Hallmark’s holiday highlight is shooting in Fernwood, on Herald Street and in Bastion Square, but fans hoping for a glimpse of stars William Shatner and Christopher Lloyd are out of luck.
The screen veterans featured in the movie starring Eloise Mumford (Fifty Shades of Grey) and Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) wrapped their scenes in Vancouver.
The logistical challenges of replicating Christmas off-season abound. Hanging baskets had to go, for example, when Monkey Up’s Christmas scenes were recently shot in the Victoria Conference Centre’s courtyard.
After-effects of a “snowstorm” were also evident here in September of 2009, when Fernwood Square doubled as Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Freshman Father.
Special-effects co-ordinator Darcy Davis’s crew filled cube vans with “Zamboni snow” from local rec centres to offset “snow wool,” granules of biodegradable paper snow and other effects.
Strategically placed foam and snow blankets made from thick, white polyester fabric, along with frozen milk cubes that mimic hailstones, can also create the illusion, but it’s costly and labour-intensive.
The most elaborate wintry dressup here was in the spring of 1994, when Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale shot Little Women. Two homes in Cobble Hill were outfitted with period facades to masquerade as the March family’s modest clapboard home, and the Laurence clan’s upscale mansion.
Special-effects supervisor Billy Orr’s crew sprayed trees and shrubs with cellulose flakes, augmented with snow sheets, tons of shaved ice, snow blankets and acrylic icicles.
Royal Roads was also winterized for the BBC series The Magician’s House, and a fake ice rink was installed one summer for an X-Men movie.
“They brought in snow from a mountain and dumped it all around the house and two neighbouring houses,” said actor Jessica McLeod, recalling how Christmas came early for her three years ago during filming of The Christmas Consultant in Pitt Meadows. The Claremont Secondary School grad played a sassy, cynical teenager in the 2012 Lifetime movie headlined by former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff.
“You get to have another Christmas,” said McLeod, who got to sing Christmas carols and have snowball fights with the Hoff. “You’re all wearing sweaters and seeing hot toddies everywhere, and wreaths and presents and then you go home to the real world.”
McLeod also played the loyal eldest daughter of the Texas farmer played by Billy Ray Cyrus in Hallmark’s 2009 hit Christmas in Canaan.
“It’s like filming anything. It’s always make-believe,” says Mount Doug grad Carrie Anne Fleming, who also got to play with Hasselhoff, who she notes with amusement is “the most summery guy possible” in The Christmas Consultant.
“Americans seem to love these movies, and it gives us lots of work, so we don’t mind wearing a parka in summer.”
Indeed, holiday movie production is something of a niche industry. According to Creative B.C., nine Christmas-themed productions were shot in B.C. last year, up from seven the year before.
“B.C. is a popular location for making Christmas movies for all the same reasons as to why we are a popular locations for making movies in general,” said Creative B.C. spokeswoman Val Rosenthal.
Recent entries included Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, Santa Hunters, Jingle All the Way 2, Nine Lives of Christmas and Hats Off to Christmas!
Cynde Harmon, the Vancouver-based producer whose husband Allan Harmon recently directed Stranger in the House here, plans to buck the Christmas-in-July trend here soon.
“I’d like to do it when everybody’s feeling the Christmas season,” says Harmon, explaining why their Really Real Films plans to shoot a Christmas movie here in December or early January.
Harmon, who produced Anything But Christmas starring Christopher Lloyd in Kelowna two summers ago, said you also avoid the problem of having truckloads of snow melting too quickly.
“We can economize,” said Harmon, noting it’s less expensive to shoot Christmas decorations while they’re still up. Her film, which like Stranger will be made using almost all B.C. crews and talent, is being made for Global TV, and a U.S. distributor is being sought.