Questions have abounded after news late last week that the new LED Volume Wall at the John Hopkins Soundstage will soon be leaving Regina.
The LED wall itself is a private investment on the part of Volume Global to the tune of $12.5 million. They brought the wall to the soundstage in partnership with Saskatchewan-based Karma Films, who employed the technology for two productions it recently shot in Regina: Hostile Takeover and #Vanlife.
But after just nine months comes word the wall will pull out, after Karma Films completes its next two productions with the technology. Where the technology will be located next is still not known.
Armen Ramayya, producer and president of Karma Films, confirmed they plan to use the LED Volume Wall for two more projects — one being the figure-skating themed Broken Loop, and the other being the long-talked-about King of Killers prequel.
But afterwards his company is planning to move forward with a major TV series that will be spread out of the course of a year. The size of that project is too large for what the Saskatchewan grant program can handle, and so they will move on to a jurisdiction that can accommodate a bigger budget.
“The reality is that the projects that we have coming up on our slate are larger than what the current government budget for film and TV production can accommodate,” said Ramayya.
“We have to make decisions now based on what is coming down the pipe eight or 10 months from now. In this moment we have a project that’s too large for the program here. But my hope is we can grow the commitment and the budget for film and TV in the province in future years so that we can accommodate larger projects like this.”
It is a stunning turn of events compared to March of this year, when the LED Volume Wall was unveiled at a red-carpet grand opening event attended by numerous government officials including Premier Scott Moe.
The LED volume wall was touted at that time as a game changer for the Saskatchewan movie industry. The wall, which consists of LED light panels, serves as a backdrop so that a movie can appear to be situated anywhere in the world, or beyond this world for that matter. The wall itself is the second largest in size in North America, behind Atlanta, and the largest in Canada.
Creative Saskatchewan CEO Erin Dean noted that the volume wall was privately owned, with no government money invested in it.
“It is privately-owned technology, and it sounds like the projects they’re lining up in the future might exceed available resources here, so they are considering other jurisdictions for future projects,” Dean said. “But our door is open if they want to talk to us about something that could work for Saskatchewan down the road, that relationship is ongoing and the door is still open.
Dean added that for producers lining things up, they look at “what’s available and what projects have specific needs. I don’t know the details of their future projects, we are focusing on the next two that are going to happen in Saskatchewan… they filmed two here and then there are two more coming that they will film here. And it’ll keep the Wall here through the summer is our understanding, and then we’ll take it project by project from there.”
The Saskatchewan Media Production Industry Association issued a statement last week confirming Volume Global is leaving.
“SMPIA is aware of Volume Global’s decision to leave Saskatchewan after they finish filming their two remaining productions. This is a business decision they’ve made and we respect that.
“We’re sorry to see them go, but with change comes opportunity. We’d like to explain why,” their statement read.
SMPIA emphasized that volume walls are “one tool in the toolbox we use to make movies. But it’s just one way of making movies, and it doesn’t reflect the totality of our vibrant, diverse industry.”
They noted that with Volume Global leaving, “this makes room for the many other productions interested in booking the John Hopkins Regina Soundstage to make movies and television series here. The departure of a single company once they have completed their slate does not negatively impact the entire film industry. Saskatchewan continues to attract both modest and big-budget productions, with record levels of activity last year and even more expected this year.”
SMPIA acknowledged that the wall has had an impact. “Since they arrived in 2022, Volume Global has produced two films, which employed 323 people and generated $32.5 million in economic impact. We look forward to their next two projects happening in Saskatchewan as well.”
SMPIA also pointed to statements made about Volume Global’s departure — ones which seemed to lay blame with the province for a slow approvals process and a lack of crew availability.
“Some public statements on social media seem to have been made trying to blame Saskatchewan’s grant system, crews and acting talent for their problems. But we know that’s not the case. The many movies and television series made here since 2022 tell the truth. Saskatchewan’s film incentive is the envy of North America. Our crew base is talented and growing. And our actors are equally talented and strong.”
When asked about some of the concerns raised about the approvals process at Creative Saskatchewan, Dean had this to say: “Every project is a little different, so we try to have a really quick turnaround time, but it also depends on how the application comes back. And I think what most producers are saying is that we’re easy to work with and we aim to give them responses quickly. If somebody’s requesting something outside of our available resources, the turnaround time would be longer.”
Ramayya said he didn’t have any issues with the Creative Saskatchewan program, saying that it works just fine and that it is a “pretty attractive program in itself.” He said he doesn’t feel it is “out of sync with any other jurisdiction.”
“The real challenge is always the amount of money that’s available,” Ramayya said, referring to the program’s current grant allocation of $12 million annually.
“I think if we could start the conversations with government to increase that to a level where we can facilitate big budget productions or more big budget production, that would be great. That’s the thing that we need to be focusing on… there’s always room for improvement, but we’re pretty lucky.”
He said the industry in the province has “come a long way and we’ve seen growth… we’ve gone from $2 million to $12 million in the last two years. That’s a step in the right direction and I’m hoping we can grow it even larger.”
