London film office calls on property owners in bid to coax film, TV productions to city

Television and film production contributed roughly $3.15 billion to Ontario's economy in 2022, and officials with London's film office are looking to grow the city's share of that production pie moving forward.

To do that, they're turning to local property owners with one simple request: let production companies rent your property for filming.

"Our municipal government and some stakeholders saw that this is something we want to get ahead of," said Andrew Dodd, manager of Film London, a production concierge launched by the London Economic Development Corporation in 2021 with the help of funding from city hall.

"One of the ways we can do that... is to make sure that if a film production is coming to London, that we have the resources they're going to be looking for readily at hand."

More than 400 productions were made in Ontario in 2022, creating nearly 46,000 full-time equivalent direct and spin-off jobs, according to the provincial agency Ontario Creates. Several were partially filmed in London, including The Changeling for Apple TV+ and the film Blackberry.

London Morning7:22Could your house be famous?

Have you ever wondered how movie and film productions select a home to film in? Film London is hosting a seminar series, including a talk all about renting your property for productions. Producer and location owner Sarah Cleveland and Film London manager Andrew Dodd gave London Morning a primer on the topic.

The hope is that by offering up a large and diverse buffet of potential filming locations, production companies would be able to turn to London more often to meet their creative needs.

"Sometimes it'll be like out (of) left field. Like, 'we need a gas station that looks like it existed in Chicago in the 1930s.' Okay, we'll see what we can do," Dodd said, adding local houses and apartments are always needed – airports as well, it would seem. "We had three or four productions… there last year alone."

The local economic boost aside, it can also be financially lucrative for the owners of the property chosen for filming, said Sarah Cleveland, a local producer, filmmaker, actor, and previous home-renter-outer.

"You make arrangements for the timeframe that they're going to be in there... so if you need to move out for a little bit, some people have taken the money and gone on vacation while filming has been done in their home," she said. 

If the money isn't enough, there's always bragging rights. "Having a film in their home and being able to tell their friends and family is usually a pretty big feature for a lot of people."

According to Dodd, the productions London is currently attracting most have lower to mid-tier budgets, meaning real locations are more cost-effective than constructing sets on a sound stage in Toronto. 

Londoners looking to advertise their properties as film-ready can have theirs added to an online database maintained by Film London.

"We can help you if you want to list your property, we can help get some photos, help create the listing... As productions come to me and say, 'Hey, we really want a Victorian home,' I can go to the database and say 'here you go,' and access those photos right away," he said.