Alberta sells itself, says location manager for new Ghostbusters movie

The spotlight is on Alberta this week as Ghostbusters: Afterlife hits theaters.

Much of the movie was filmed here and the film’s supervising location manager says the production crew looked at Oklahoma and New Mexico but someone suggested Alberta.

“When somebody says where should we make this movie if it fits, I say, ‘You really should go to Alberta,'” said Bruce Brownstein.

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Brownstein is not a stranger to the province, having worked on other major productions here including The Revenant and Interstellar.

“There’s a quality to the landscape and the change of the landscape from prairie to rolling hills to mountains. I mean everybody talks about it but it really is spectacular.”

Another thing Brownstein says Alberta has going for it is its small towns, especially in the southern part of the province.

“You don’t have to drive very far before there’s another one. Whether it’s a full town or just a piece, just a few stores, and a gas station. It has so many fantastic-looking elements,” said Brownstein.

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The other thing that makes Alberta an attractive place for TV and movie productions according to Brownstein is the tax incentives.

“I know that for the longest time what held Alberta back from having a much larger industry was the tax incentive,” he said, noting that B.C. has always had a good incentive.

“Recently with the change in the incentive, it has made a huge difference. Now people are saying, ‘Yeah I will look at Alberta for this project.’ Now it’s about it’s so busy can I get crew or am I going to have to bring all of my crew from elsewhere?”

He says the crew looked at places like Oklahoma and New Mexico but Alberta had everything they were looking for.

“I believe it was Ivan Reitman who suggested to his son Jason ‘you know you should look at Alberta.’ The initial images they got were enough that they went ‘you know what you’re right we’ve got to go.’

After that, they came up to scout some of the key locations.

“The Turner Valley Gas Plant, Drumheller, Fort Macleod, we looked at farms, we looked at all kinds of stuff in a week and at the end of that week it was obvious that the movie was there and the locations would be there.”

He says every time he comes here, Alberta sells itself.

“Whether it was Ghostbusters, or Interstellar, or Revenant, you know it sells itself because it’s so spectacular and it shows. And the quality of the lights, there’s a quality of the light in Alberta that you don’t get anywhere else.”